Tag: sci-fi

books, reviews

Book Review: Howling Dark – Christopher Ruocchio*

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Howling Dark (Sun Eater) by [Ruocchio, Christopher]

Following on from the first volume of the Sun Eater Sequence (Empire of Silence – I suggest reading it first so this one makes more sense), Howling Dark finds Hadrian Marlowe travelling through space with his ragtag band of fake mercenaries, the Crimson Company, having entangled himself with the Sollan Empire again.

He is on a quest for the lost planet of Vorgossos, a place of myth, hoping it holds the keys to resolving the conflict with the Ceilcin – an alien race determined to destroy anyone who stands in their way.

Hadrian, being Hadrian, doesn’t exactly go about this in a calm and rational manner, all sorts of chaos and carnage ensue, as Hadrian and his friends ricochet around the far reaches of the galaxy following leads, both useful and not, trying to be a diplomat and not always succeeding.

I loved Empire of Silence and couldn’t wait to get stuck into this chunky boi. Hadrian is a brilliant protagonist, eminently flawed and prone to acting like an idiot, despite his previous experiences. There were fewer new locations than book one, as he bounces around following leads, but the world building (or galaxy building) is strong and while I can’t quite picture the creepy Ceilcin, I see them as a bit like the alien in Alien, but creepier.

The ending twists and turns, and I am not remotely sure what will happen next!

 

*This book was kindly gifted to me by the publisher with no requirement to review but as I enjoyed it, I thought I’d share!

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Ancestral Night – Elizabeth Bear

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I seem to have a slight thing for AIs with a bit of sass, from AIDAN (The Illuminae Files series), Lovelace/Lovey/Sidra (the Wayfarer series) and now Singer in Ancestral Night.

There are also cats, I also love cats. It reminded me of the Redemption Falls series, space ships with cats, all the feels.

Basically I love this book. It starts out with Singer, his two man crew and the cats (Mephistopheles, always hungry, and her sister Bushyasta, always sleeping) on a routine salvage mission.

The crew is comprised of pilot Connla and engineer Haimey, who grew up in a collective before leaving to explore the universe. She’s had augmentation that turned her feet into another pair of hands (aft-hands) which took me ages to get my hand around fyi.

The routine mission goes sideways and space pirates get involved. There’s also a giant praying mantis cop, explosions, black holes, kidnap, giant floating space creatures that are older than most civilisations, and this is only the first book!

Can you guess that I loved this book?

Seriously, a black female protagonist in a STEM role in freaking space is fantastic plus a smart-ass AI and cats, cats who have space suits and very clever names (Google them). This book legit has everything.

I cannot wait to read the second book once the author (who is a member of my new cool last name club, although she doesn’t know me at all). So go read this book! Book sales = the rest of the series definitely getting published.

Check out the rest of the blog tour too.

books, reviews

Review: Illuminae – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

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First, survive. Then tell the truth. 

I’m not the biggest fan of science fiction/speculative fiction but as I really enjoy Kristoff’s other books (Godsgrave may be my book of the year) I was intrigued by this.

I took part in the #Ninjabookswap organised by the team behind Ninja Book Box recently and my lovely box of goodies contained this book. Which was fantastic. 

Taking place mostly in cyber space, in the comms system of two spaceships trying to outrun their deaths, Illuminae charts the corporation war that destroys an illegal mining operation and murders hundreds of people. 

Following that come other disasters including an infectious disease that turns people into murderous zombies and a rogue AI system that may or may not have gone insane. 

I really enjoyed this “found documents” style novel. Pieced together by the mysterious Illuminae from hacked data and downloaded reports, this is cleverly printed up to resemble the documents and “thoughts” of AIDAN, the AI system during the Kerenza evacuation and what followed. 
I have book two ready to go and book three on order – it’s that good.