Reviews and Comments

David Bremner Locked account

bremner@book.dansmonorage.blue

Joined 3 years, 8 months ago

computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver

Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.

FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz

bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.

This link opens in a pop-up window

The Likeness (2008, Viking Adult) 5 stars

Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying …

A strong followup to "Into the woods".

5 stars

Cassie Maddox is sucked back into undercover work by the freakish coincidence of a murder victim that looks just like her. Most of the book is Cassie impersonating the victim to her housemates. There is lots of interesting characterization of Cassie, the housemates, and the victim.

While "Into the woods" kindof sucker-punched me with the ending, this was less traumatic. The ending of this book is a bit more conventional (even using some police procedural trope, slightly twisted).

You should definitely read "Into the woods first", this book references it quite often. It does switch points of view a bit startlingly compared to the previous book.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (Paperback, 2018, Orbit) 4 stars

Furious and fun, the first book in this bold, new science fiction adventure series follows …

Still thinking about magic as a plot device in space opera. It does allow characters to act directly on other humans in fairly arbitrary ways without some technobabble back story like "she hacked my implants". It also seems to provide a crude kind of character shorthand (like character class in a role playing game). I guess the success of stories like Star Wars has proven that there is an audience for sword and sorcery novels set in the future.

Light From Uncommon Stars (Hardcover, 2021, Tor Books) 4 stars

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful …

a fun mess, with some touching moments

4 stars

Content warning mild spoiler about ending