Antonis reads reviewed Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.
It led to …
Nice semi-followup to Phlebas
4 stars
Excellent narration, really supported the interesting plot.
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Antonis reads reviewed Diaspora by Greg Egan
It is the end of the thirtieth century and humanity has divided into three. The …
SciFi can't get harder than this
No rating
I've seen it described as "diamond-hard SciFi", it might even be an understatement. It starts off being confusingly abstract. After ~15% it gets more coherent, slightly more corporeal, though never entirely so.
Even through its abstract and detached universe, it revolves around modern issues of reality, subjectivity of perception and even memetic reality bubbles.
There's a lot to get from this, provided you can keep your mind clear enough to absorb the weirdness of it all.
Antonis reads reviewed The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The story of an engineer who creates a device to raise a girl capable of …
Plotty
2 stars
Quite a thick plot, lots of characters, many plot twists and more world-building in a single book than you can shake your nanobots at. Also, if you're interested in a fictionalized primer (ha!) on Turing machines, this is the book you're looking for.
Antonis reads reviewed Inversions by Iain M. Banks
In the winter palace, the King’s new physician has more enemies than she at first …
The series outlier
3 stars
Possibly the single book from the series (from the ones I've read up to now) that relies in the reader having read the ones before it.
Antonis reads reviewed Piranesi
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an …
Multilayered, mysterious & delightful
4 stars
I'm a big sucker for mysterious spaces and Piranesi delivers in spades. Characters are very interesting too, the story's theme resonates as well.
Antonis reads reviewed Excession by Iain M. Banks
Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, …
Didn't mesh with the audio narrator
3 stars
I know it's not fair to the book itself, but I struggled to finish this one because the narrator's voice did not agree with my ears. It's quite interesting overall, a bit complex but I think necessarily so given the topic.
Antonis reads reviewed The KLF by John Higgs
They were the bestselling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success …
What a great whirlwind this was
4 stars
I'd never expected to enjoy this book so much.