Just sneaking in a few more reads for the end of October and, actually as it happens, all of these were indeed read in October!
Weaponized by Neal Asher
I found this one disappointing: possibly my most disappointing Asher book yet. It has all the usual Asher high octane action along with his usual fascination with bizarre biology and evolution. But in this case, I feel he has taken the latter too far. I’m not convinced that biological systems or even biochemistry could possibly achieve all the stuff in this book and certainly not at the speeds he describes. For example, a creature (once human) evolving the mechanisms to make explosives in its body in a matter of minutes and producing said explosives almost on demand. Sadly, I just couldn’t raise my suspension of disbelief that far. 3.5 stars
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds
It’s virtually impossible to say anything about Eversion without spoilers. Suffice to say, I thought it was brilliant and had me guessing right up to the end. Yes, the reader will progressively build an understanding of what is happening, so the final reveal is not a complete face slap, but I certainly didn’t get all the way before that reveal. I love that in a book, when the reader slowly becomes aware of the subtext but there’s always a bit more to reveal. I do have some slight criticisms, in particular Reynolds should check out the mechanics of how a sailing ship sails! 5/5 stars
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
I loved this book, but fully accept that it depends on whether you happen to like the style of humour; I did! The book consists of two threads presented as mostly alternating chapters; one is the story of what happens to Karl after stepping out of the window, an amusing sequence of mishaps and blunders, the other is the story of the life of Karl, being a somewhat Forrest Gump sort of life in which he gets involved with and (fictionally) influences many of the great events and people of the twentieth century. This is, I’m sure, a marmite book; most people will either love or hate it. There is a sequel which I am assured is really little more than the author cashing in on the success of this one. 4/5 stars
Seasons of Plenty by Colin Greenland
This is the sequel to Take Back Plenty, which I enjoyed even if I found it, in many ways, quite flawed. This one seems to have kept all the flaws and dropped all the good features. The main character went from being moderately likeable, if rather stupid, to being obnoxious. It rapidly became tedious, and I quit a third of the way through. 1/5 stars
The Thousand Earths by Stephen Baxter
An interesting book looking into the far future, as far as the ultimate cooling of the universe. However, to my mind, it was let down by some bizarre decisions. So, humankind has built its first starship, a kind of ram scoop that collects dark energy allowing 5g acceleration even in inter galactic space. So, what would you do? Maybe go explore Proxima Centauri or some other nearby star in our own galaxy, but no, with no real explanation of why, they decide to go to the Andromeda galaxy; a few decades subjective time and five million years objective. Really? Obviously just a plot device to allow the protagonist to go massively forward in time but for me just implausible. Then, when he returns to the solar system five million years later, as far as I could tell, humankind still hasn’t bothered to explore elsewhere in the universe, though there are some hints towards the end that some limited exploration has been done. Further such journeys follow. So, an interesting story based on a very wobbly premise. There is a parallel, almost fantasy, story set in the very far future that is…strange but probably more plausible than the other. By the end it was a moderately satisfying story but the future travelling parts seemed like a poorly constructed mechanism to put forward Baxter’s visions of the far future and the semi-fantasy parts to push his views on subjugation and forced migration. 3/5 stars
I think the world building with a variety of settings and races, including humans in a walk on role, are excellent. Entirely plausible plot. Just didn't quite warm enough to the main character. Good book even if it didn't quite hit the spot, am going to try the sequel and see if I like the series better once it is really into its stride.
