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Abstract Reader

abs@books.ihatebeinga.live

Joined 2 years, 4 months ago

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Woken furies (2005, Del Rey/Ballantine Books) 4 stars

Richard K. Morgan has received widespread praise for his astounding twenty-fifth-century novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs, …

Exactly what I was looking for

4 stars

I was somewhat disappointed with the second book in this series because it didn't really deliver on what I wanted out of this. This is not at all a problem here; you are getting exactly what you expect: Lots of violence in interesting settings, involving interesting characters. If you liked the first one, you will also enjoy this one (you could actually skip the second one without much harm, I think).

Moneyball (2011, W.W. Norton) 3 stars

Fun. Probably more fun if you know how baseball works

3 stars

I have enjoyed some of the author's past books and this is more of the same: A fairly complex political/economic system being explained in some detail, highlighting the clever ideas and tricks come up with by some clever people to circumvent it/get an edge. The only problem this time is that it focused on baseball, which I know only the very basics of (certainly not all of the lingo they seem to have). Still very fun, but I'd recommend going to the more purely economic titles, like "Flash Boys" or "The big short" first.

Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments (2016, Gollancz) 3 stars

Solid fantasy

3 stars

I picked up this book because I wanted to read something slightly outside my comfort zone. This certainly was. Overall, it was an enjoyable story, centered around a fun cast of characters (as Fanatsy usually is, I suppose). The world building was also a little outside of the cliche, most of the action scenes being focused around magical guns rather than swords and shields. In the end, it was fun but I am not planning on picking up the sequel.

FOUNDATION- PB (2016, HARPER COLLINS) 4 stars

One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are …

Enjoyable prose, unfortunate content

2 stars

I really enjoyed the book's "prose" or rather lack thereof. The writing is very straightforward, reading at times more like a play, including many grand monologues, rather than a novel.

However, the book's subject matter is not fun at all: It basically describes various ways in which political operatives acquire more power, always justified by "the survival of civilization". All in all, it reads as a praise of imperialistic tactics, which is pretty gross.

Broken angels 3 stars

Broken Angels (2003) is a military science fiction novel by British writer Richard Morgan. It …

Pretty good, not what I wanted

3 stars

I read this expecting it to be very similar to its prequel: a cyberpunk noire novel with lots of violence. The latter part still features prominently but the plot revolves around an alien artifact excavation this time. It's still fun and all but not really what I was looking for.

Neverness (1988, D.I. Fine) 4 stars

Very cool worldbuilding. Looking forward to more!

4 stars

This book shines with its very interesting world. The coolest aspect to me was the mathematics-based space travelling (with sometimes somewhat wonky pseudo-mathematics, admittedly). This book only scratched the surface of what there is to know about the world of Neverness. It seems there are 3 more sequels to this book but they've been out of print for a long time so it may be tricky to get my hands on them. I'll still try, though.

Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while …

It's OK

3 stars

The best aspect of this book is that it is often very funny. However, I've seen the plot of jumping through different time periods a bunch of times done better. It is especially sad that only one, maybe two, of the future time periods is explored in any detail. Also, the book is often weirdly horny?

Satisfying conclusion to the trilogy

4 stars

In my experience, the third part of trilogies usually sort of tapers off. This is also true here but not as bad as in many other series. Overall, this was still a pleasant read.

Without spoiling too much, this book delves deeper into the faction the previous two volumes sort of left unexplored. That means that the series closes without leaving you with any burning questions about the world building, which is quite nice.

Absynthe (2022, Head of Zeus) 3 stars

Pretty average

3 stars

When I started reading this book, I really did not like it at first. Many aspects of the story and characters initially felt quite cliched and forced. As the book went on, I found myself enjoying the characters and central mystery more. Especially the latter turned out to be a bit more exciting than initially expected. Still, this book isn't anything out of the ordinary. There's probably something better out there for you to read instead of this.

Reamde (2011, William Morrow) 4 stars

Reamde is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2011. The story, set …

Fun albeit sometimes a bit obnoxious

4 stars

It's a fun adventure/thriller involving techbros, terrorists, mafia, three-letter-agencies and gun-nuts. It takes some pretty crazy twists and turns but eventually culminates in a really satisfying manner. It was kind of different from what I usually read/listen to but definitely worth it.

As pointed out in the title, the writing can sometimes be a little obnoxious. This is because the book was clearly written by a techbro-y kind of guy: Computer stuff, MMORPG culture, commercial and military organization principles and gun usage are all described and explained in minute detail. Some of this is quite interesting (I learned a bunch of stuff about firearm safety) but it can get somewhat draining at some points.

Another thing that I found somewhat off-putting is all of the cartoonish characters. Nearly everyone is an excentric genius, super hardcore operator or very principled anti-Trump conservative. With some fantastical stories, Dune prime among, this sort …

Piranesi (2020, Bloomsbury Publishing) 5 stars

From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an …

Most likely the best book I'll read this year

5 stars

As the title says, this will likely be the best book I'll read all year. It certainly was better than every book I read last year. I started the book yesterday evening and have basically spent my every waking moment since then reading it. I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys reading to pick this one up. It will be worth it.

I will not say anything on what it is actually about. The less you know, the more you will enjoy the book. Not really because of twists and turns but rather because you will see an astounding world laid out from the perspective of a very interesting main character.

The main thing this book reminded me of was the books I read in German class in my two last years at school. This is a very good thing (German was my favorite class). The book is fairly short and …

The Anubis gates (1997, Ace Books) 5 stars

An ancient Egyptian sorcerer, a modern millionaire, a body-switching werewolf, a hideously deformed clown, a …

My surprise of 2021

5 stars

I picked this one up at a used book store for 40 SEK and it probably was the most fun I had reading a book. The characters and the plot are absolutely wild and it was not at all what I expected it to be. There's also tons of nice twists and reveals. Highly recommended.