Tag: Books: Science Fiction

Review: The Passage

Posted 27 August, 2018 by Lianne in Books / 0 Comments

The Passage (The Passage #1)
By: Justin Cronin
Format/Source: Mass market paperback; my purchase

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

I’ve seen this book around since it was first released, thought to pick it up at some point but of course other books came first to my hands. Anyway, what finally prompted me to pick up the book was seeing the trailer to the television adaptation and a number of friends all reading it around the same time 😛

Review: Dark Matter

Posted 13 July, 2018 by Lianne in Books / 0 Comments

Dark Matter
By: Blake Crouch
Format/Source: Mass market paperback; my purchase

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Since hitting mass market paperback format, this book has sort of been following me around whenever I’m at the bookstore, lol. I had heard of it since it was first released but it was only more recently that it was finding its way further up the wishlist. As I was looking for a book to read when I went on holiday a few months ago I decided this would make for a good read. Unfortunately I didn’t get much reading doing during my vacation (opting to either be writing or sleeping when I wasn’t taking photos and wandering about) so I only got around to really reading this book when I got back.

Review: All Systems Red

Posted 7 May, 2018 by Lianne in Books / 0 Comments

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)
By: Martha Wells
Format/Source: eBook; from Tor.com book club

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this novella for the last few months even as I was pretty busy with schoolwork and whatnot. Tor.com’s book club thankfully featured this book for the month of April so I got a copy of the book that way 🙂 The length was perfect to start off with post-school so here we are 🙂

Review: Chapterhouse: Dune

Posted 25 January, 2018 by Lianne in Books / 0 Comments

Chapterhouse: Dune (Dune #6)
By: Frank Herbert
Format/Source: Mass market paperback; my purchase

The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now, the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune’s power, have colonized a green world — and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile. Here is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death. A stunning climax to the epic Dune legend that will live on forever…

And here we are, at the last of the original Dune novels. It’s been quite a journey, finally getting around to reading the rest of the volumes in the original series. Took me a while to finish this last volume as I was busy with school and work at the time (was reading this during my commute and during my breaks).

Review: Heretics of Dune

Posted 27 November, 2017 by Lianne in Books / 0 Comments

Heretics of Dune (Dune #5)
By: Frank Herbert
Format/Source: Mass market paperback; my purchase

In this, the fifth and most spectacular Dune book of all, the planet Arrakis–now called Rakis–is becoming desert again. The Lost Ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying. And the children of Dune’s children awaken from empire as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love…

Of course, I’ve been meaning to finish the series as I mentioned in my last review of the Dune books, but given things that had been going on offline and my schedule, I didn’t think I would’ve been able to get close to finishing most of the books in time for Sci-Fi Month. But! I managed to squeeze in the fifth Dune book, so here we are, surprise review that was not originally scheduled for this month’s events. Yay! 😛