vocal?

Battle of the Linguist Mages

Scotto Moore

This is a fun book full of invention written by an author that shows real promise.
is a huge fan of a particular video game that uses nonsense vocal commands to cast ‘spells’.
Her work as a PR consultant brings her into contact with the firm that produces the game and she finds herself brought into the inner circle where she learns that he vocal commands can have actual real world effects.

As I say it’s a lot of fun and I really enjoyed a lot of the invention on display here.
Unfortunately where the book falls down is in the area of plot because as the story draws to a conclusion it becomes messy and confusing.

I’m looking forward to future books where hopefully all the promise shown in this one bears fruit.

Rating: B

system?

Ancillary Mercy

Ann Leckie

A well written and enjoyable novel.
For all that it was a tiny bit of a disappointing end.
I was listening to the (excellent) audiobooks of this series and got so drawn in that that I needed the speed of reading it myself.
I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes science fiction. The first book in particular is of the highest calibre and the other two still very good.

Rating: A-

phyle?

The Truth of the Divine

Lindsay Ellis

This is the sequel to Axiom’s End.
It’s an even better book than the first but by god is this one bleak.
I’m interested to see where the series goes from here. I hope there’s some uplift at some point though.

Rating: A-

prophecy?

The Consuming Fire

John Scalzi

Second part of the Interdependence Trilogy. New Emperox Greyland II is scrambling to save humanity from the forthcoming collapse of the Flow.
This trilogy is a great deal of fun, especially the foul mouthed Kiva Lagos.

Rating: B+

cuddles?

Axiom’s End

Lindsay Ellis

A first contact sci-fi novel by the insightful video essayist. This is set during Bush 2’s presidency and is full of paranoid conspiracy both among humans and aliens. I enjoyed this a lot and I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Rating: A-

synthetic?

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour

Hank Green

The follow up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing expands the tale to include more narrators as the consequences of the events in the previous book hurtle toward a species level confrontation.
This is a very good book. A real page turner with great characters and deeply considered ideas. It succeeds in giving a satisfying conclusion to the similarly excellent first book of the series

Rating: A

taprobane?

The Fountains of Paradise

Arthur C. Clarke

I first read this book a long, long time ago as a library book. A few years ago, with fond memories, I bought a second hand paperback copy of the book to revisit at some point.
Having a desperate need to spend more time away from screens now that I’m working from home during the lockdown I picked a physical book from my shelves to give me that diversion.
The plot is that superstar engineer Vannevar Morgan has decided that his next project should be a space elevator. He has a special low-g developed wonder material that will allow it but he needs to build it on a mountain somewhere on the equator. The best spot just happens to be on the site of an ancient monastery.
This book is solid entertaining Science Fiction but honestly nothing outstanding – definitely not as good as I had remembered.
Worth a read but not worth going out of your way to get a copy.

Rating: B