Elysium Fire is a solid, interesting mystery with Reynold’s typical fantastic worldbuilding and strong characters. However, several issues made this book a bit of a disappointment for me.
Category Archives: Regular Guy Book Reviews
Review: Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
I’m a huge fan of Alastair Reynolds and his smart, exciting space operas. So I was surprised to find that his book Terminal World was a surreal steampunk adventure.
Review: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is ridiculously fun. If a nerd got three wishes from a genie, experiencing what happens in this book would be one of them.
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Review: Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
As a straight white middle-aged male, I’ve often felt like science fiction’s target demographic. Most SF feels like it’s aimed right at me.
Midnight Robber is definitely not aimed at me. Which, honestly, made it a lot more interesting. Being extremely well written helped a lot, too.
Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
This YA book has a great premise: on a distant planet, in a town with only men, everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. Todd, the youngest person in town and a month away from manhood, slowly learns that everyone is keeping a horrible secret from him. He is forced to flee with his only friend, a talking dog. They discover the most surprising thing Todd’s ever seen: a living girl.
Review: Devolution by Max Brooks
Max Brooks wrote my two favorite zombie books: The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. He did an amazing job of really thinking through what an actual zombie attack would look like, and how to defend against it. Neither of his books has a central narrative or protagonist, but they were still fascinating.
Review: Recursion by Blake Couch
Recursion is a fun page-turner, but it’s a little too similar to the author’s previous (and excellent) book, Dark Matter. (My review here) Author Blake Couch seems particularly interested in the problem of experiencing alternate lives.
Review: Steel Beach by John Varley
A lot of people love John Varley’s books, and he’s a Hugo- and Nebula-award winner, so I decided to give him another try (I didn’t particularly like one of his other books, Titan).
Review: Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Childhood’s End is considered Arthur C. Clarke’s greatest work. Better than 2001, better than Rendezvous With Rama, better then The Songs of Distant Earth.
Review: The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld
The Risen Empire has some interesting ideas about the far future. Humanity has split into several factions, one of the largest is the Risen Empire, ruled by a single, immortal emperor for sixteen hundred years. This emperor has the sole power to bestow immortality on any of his subjects. When the emperor’s home planet is attacked and his sister held hostage, military and political gears start turning.