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Caliban's War

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 23:41 on 11 February 2016

Well, that didn't take me long to read book two of The Expanse series, which is really unsurprising, given how much I enjoyed the first one.

Reading the second book of a series is often risky literary-wise. In trilogies, book two is usually the boring one. In a longer series, the author (or, in this case, the singular-pen-named authors) usually starts out strong with the first book, stumbles with the second book (*cough* *cough* Dobby, *cough* *cough* loup-garou), and hits a stride with the third (unless you're Jordan, then, well, book 8 is where you fall completely flat on your face).

This particular book two was just as exciting as the first. Without losing any continuity, we are immediately back with Holden and Naomi and Alex and Amos in the Rocinante, off on another "o. m. g. you have the most incredible, and highly plausible, luck imaginable" adventure.

"Adventure"

This is a space opera.

The time frames of the book are similar to those of the Saga of the Seven Suns, but the telling in the time frames isn't as jarring or as boorrrrrrrrrrinnnnnnggggg as that series. You still have days of travel, you still have death from and serious health consequences of high G forces, you still have the fear of immediate death beyond that thin shell of a hull.

This book is much faster paced, much more interesting and much more entertaining. I absolutely f---ing adore Chrisjen Avasaralad and hope we see her again in later books. I was also hoping Bobbie Draper might join the crew of the Rocinante (such a great ship name). We'll see if she shows up in a later book or two.

Zipped through this book as fast as I could. Started the next one, Abaddon's Gate, immediately.

Leviathan Wakes

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 22:40 on 5 February 2016

I picked up this book because I had watched the first few episodes of The Expanse on the Syfy channel, and had enjoyed them. What I was not expecting was to so completely and thoroughly enjoy the book, too. I mean, yes, I know that only very rarely is a movie or television adaptation better than the book version: books can convey nuances that are difficult to translate to any visual medium. At best, you can hope for a good movie with the same two sentence description of the book, so much being lost in the change of medium.

And yet, even with that knowledge, I was still surprised at just how much I really enjoyed this book.

We have space. We have plausible science fiction. We have yet another genre that I really like, but saying so in a review would give it away. At dinner with Luke and Jonathan, Luke let slip a small part of the ending that might have been a disappointment to learn, had the television series not already given it away, so there's the twist at the end. We have annoying politics. We have intrigue.

And we have a lost girl, an idealist, and a whole lot of adventure.

I really really really liked this book. Recommended. I've already started reading book two, Caliban's War.

The Folded Earth

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 14:13 on 27 January 2016

Another book selected by my mom. I believe her selections are hit-and-miss. I really liked the Hole books (after the first one I read), and, well, am really meh about this one. As evidenced by the length of time between this book and the previous book I read, I found this one slow going (which is to say, if 10 days is a long time to finish a book, that's still 36 books read this year).

More to the book.

While the country is significantly different, the feel of this is similar to White Teeth: a long rambling story about people, with the climax coming right at the end, with no explanation of the "ever after" part.

The Folded Earth is a tale of a caste-adjusted young Indian widow who escapes the tragedy of her equally young husband by moving to a small town and taking a job as a teacher. She adjusts to the small-town life, and becomes a part of its landscape. We hear the tales of the illiterate cow girl who falls in love, the crazy animal whisperer, the drunk general, and the remaining story members, as the widow adjusts to life alone, and perhaps a resolution to her husband's mysterious death.

If this style of rambling story appeals, it could be an interesting book for you. It's not my style, so I struggled to finish it, though finish it I did.

It's going in the little lending library, it's not a keeper.

The Snowman

Book Notes kitt decided around 17:33 on 9 January 2016 to publish this:

That's right, the seventh Harry Hole book, and, because I read these out of order, the last one in the series for me to read. This one is the first one optioned to be turned into a movie (optioned I think in 2014, though you can probably search and figure that out quickly). Of all the books, I have to say I agree that this one would make the best movie, though all of them would be good.

Having read the previous six and the subsequent three, I knew what was going on around this book. I knew how it was going to end, and I STILL didn't see all the twists. I knew a couple were false, but didn't really know that others were twists except for the fact I wasn't near the end of the book. That said, I was still deeply engrossed, reading fast, and agitated during the climax of the book.

All the expected characters were in the book. If you are reading them in order, then this book is an OH. MY. GOD. in its conclusion.

Having not particularly liked the first Harry Hole I read, I am somewhat delighted at now being a fan. Lots of gruesome, ahhhhh-cannot-unthink scenes, but Nesbø's twists and puzzles and misdirects are just way worth it. The broken hero story makes it more appealing.

This book is readable stand alone, but for maximum impact and oh shit revelations, read them in order.

The Martian

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 21:13 on 4 January 2016, kitt created this:

"I failed to appreciate just how closely Weir's humour matches yours."

Okay, I really don't know how, after a number of really good friends all tell me "You would really enjoy this book," I hadn't read the book yet. Maybe because it was near the bottom of the stack? Maybe because the recommendations came during a really sad, really emotional time of my life? Maybe because I had another fourteen books already in progress?

I don't know. Let's just go with girls are dumb and chalk it up to experience.

This book is fantastic.

I laughed out loud. I didn't roll my eyes at any of the science, though, to be honest, I was predisposed not to roll my eyes after reading many reports about how Weir researched everything to make sure what he wrote was plausible. I read the book slowly because I wanted to savour just how much I was enjoying it. And I was enjoying it. I very rarely read books as slowly as I did with this one.

Did I mention the laughing part? Weir's humour is so close to my humour as to be indistinguishable, I'd say. I can't believe this was a first novel.

Loved it. Highly recommend it. Will be reading it again. Worth all the hype is it getting. Glad I have it in hardback (will have to buy another copy to loan out, this one is staying with me).

The Redeemer

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 15:55 on 3 January 2016

Okay, the sixth book in the Harry Hole series, and the ninth one I read, since I read them out of order.

And despite reading them out of order, I didn't recall one particular aspect of the books that I probably should have, about a couple characters in the series. I kept thinking, oh, this is fine, it'll all work out. Except this is a Harry Hole series, so OF COURSE it doesn't work out.

This particular book had enough twists and turns and vague language when reading that wow, I'm pretty sure I guessed wrong at least 12 times on "who did it." While part of that is the joy of allowing the author to reveal the plot and characters and motivations and mysteries at his own pace, which means deliberately not thinking things through too hard, I have to say that even if I had thought about it through, I likely would have still guessed wrong.

This might be one of my favorite Harry Hole books, if only for that reason. Which is saying something, as Nesbø is pretty good at twists and turns in all his books.

Yeah, again, if you can stand the gore and horrible things people might do to each other, the series is recommended.

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