Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
The Left Hand of Darkness
{5/5} “He brings from his people offers of communication, trade, treaty, and alliance, nothing else. He came alone, without arms or defense, with nothing but a communicating device, and his ship, which he allowed us to examine completely. He is not to be feared, I think. Yet he brings the end of Kingdom and Commensalities […]
ST: Lower Decks — Warp Your Own Way
{4.5/5} “It’s like — what are the odds we’re the only ship in the quadrant, right? Surely there’s someone else nearby who can help and get here quickly — thanks to their standard-issue engines that let them travel at thousands of times the speed of light???” Star Trek: Lower Decks — Warp Your Own Way […]
Automatic Noodle
{5/5} “Now they were ‘free,’ according to the reporter, who also explained that bots would of course never be allowed to join a union, nor open a bank account, nor vote. Bots had the right to sell their labor, which was the important thing. It seemed normal at the time, to be free and not […]
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — The Long Night
{4.5/5} “If anyone else identified it, they would have a riot on their hands. So Dax decided to create one of her own. ‘Drinks on the house!’ she shouted. ‘Rom will take orders.’ A huge cheer went up and extended to the farthest reaches of the bar.” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — The Long […]
Uprooted
{5/5} “A haze of smoke was drifting across my eyes, the sudden crackle of fire. I turned towards the trunk, and Sarkan was there, too, caught in the tree with silver bark trying to devour him, saying, ‘Now, Agnieszka,’” while fire-heart glowed red between his fingers. Instinctively, I half-reached my hand towards him, remembering dread […]
Star Trek: Voyager — The Nanotech War
{4.5/5} “It dawned on Tom that whenever the Chiar underwent an emotional shift, their scent changed as well… Nylo… had also felt something when Zedrel had announced that Tom was going to be Zedrel’s attendant. Was it anger? Jealousy? Relief? Tom didn’t know. But ability to smell his captors’ emotions had to be an advantage. […]
Shroud
{5/5} “I suspected that ‘appropriate attitudes’ included extreme expendability. The dregs of the Garveneer’s slumbering human cargo, not woken yet because nobody had any use for them. People desperate enough to earn some basic wage-worth that they’d volunteer for something as mad as going down to Shroud. A monstrous project which, I can only stress, […]
Not Till We Are Lost
{4.5/5} “We’d deciphered the texts from the administrative station, which were essentially identical to internet RFCs. A quick test netted us local star maps. Now we would be able to converse via SCUT when we needed to. I did another test, asking the station if there were any biological entities on-site we could talk to. […]
Last Chance to Save the World
{5/5} “‘Ada,’ he says again, sharper now. ‘I’m not going to sleep with someone who kidnaps me.’ ‘Oh my god, are you still on that? It was one time.’ ‘It was literally this week! I am currently still in the process of being kidnapped!‘” Last Chance to Save the World by Beth Revis, published in […]
How to Steal a Galaxy
{4.5/5} “‘If you want to know what’s in my purse, just ask.’ I pull on the strings, showing him inside. ‘What trouble could I get in with nothing more than a data recorder and some lip gloss?’ He flinches, then he glowers at the way I laugh. ‘You and a data recorder? Dangerous.’” How to […]