Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
Still Forms on Foxfield
{4.5/5} “Communication is the first right. Life is communication. What is death but the irrevocable absence of communication? … Freedom, too, is communication. How can anyone be a prisoner when she can contact any person in the world at any time? ” Still Forms on Foxfield by Joan Slonczewski, published in 1980 It’s not often […]
A Scientific Romance
{4.5/5} “One suspects that the future isn’t what it used to be; that I’m more likely to land in Bognor than in Bora Bora. We’ve been living a long time on nature’s savings, and there are signs her bank account is overdrawn. It seems to me that if I go ahead a few decades, or […]
The Neverending Story
{4/5} “Of course, I’ve worked up a few theories over the years. At first I thought the sphinxes’ judgment might be guided by certain physical characteristics… Then I toyed with numerical patterns… Since then I’ve come to the conclusion that the sphinxes’ decision is based on pure chance and that no principle whatever is involved. […]
One Million A. D.
{5/5} “With the passing of every reunion it seemed impossible that the wilder fringes of humanity could become any stranger, any less recognizable. Yet they always contrived to do so; oozing into every cosmic niche like molten lava, and then carving out new niches that no one had dared dreamed of before.” One Million A. […]
Neverwhere
{4.5/5} “‘Young man,’ he said, ‘understand this: there are two Londons. There’s London Above — that’s where you lived — and then there’s London Below — the Underside — inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you’re one of them. Good night.’” Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, published in 1996 What […]
The worst book I ever read
{0.5/5} The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield is not just a bestseller but a megabestseller. That is absolutely mind boggling to me, as it’s the worst book I ever read. If I were to read it now for the first time there’s no way I would finish it. The quality of the writing is shockingly […]
Project Pope
{4.5/5} “They came here because they had been denied religious experience elsewhere, had been read out of that part of human life that had a strong appeal to them. You have to know a robot well to understand his instinctive drive toward religious experience.” Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak, published in 1981 The planet […]
Ape House
{4.5/5} “He’d had a two-way conversation with great apes. He’d spoken to them in English, and they’d responded using American Sign Language… He’d looked into their eyes and recognized without a shadow of a doubt that sentient, intelligent beings were looking back.” Ape House by Sara Gruen, published in 2010 This novel tells the story […]
Redwall
I started reading Redwall by Brian Jacques because it was on the list. But I’m not going to finish it — it’s not doing it for me, so I’m moving on. There are a number of books marketed to younger readers on the fantasy list. Some of them, like The Golden Compass and Artemis Fowl, […]
The Aliens Among Us
{4.5/5} “Stephens had an idea fixed in his mind that the Earth was about to be invaded, and it was the kind of exciting idea that a young man of Stephens’ temperament would not give up easily.” The Aliens Among Us by James White, published in 1969 Robert J. Sawyer mentioned in his blog that […]