killa_bunnies's reviews
22 reviews

Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

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adventurous informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Delany’s Babel-17 is a great book if you like big ideas stemming from original theories and presented in an entertaining way. In this case, Delany – a big fan of an influential Sapir-Whorf linguistic theory – is exploring the idea of how language is shaping our perception of the world and how it could determine our worldviews. Among the raging intergalactic war between Alliance of mankind and the mysterious Invades, Rydra Wong, famous poet, is entrusted with a task to crack the code, Babel-17. Very soon we find out it is actually a language that could serve as a weapon. Similar ideas could be later found in Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, or very prominently in Stephenson’s Snow Crash (I highly recommend both!). The book is full of snippets of linguistic theory, with passages introducing trivia from various languages, both organic and artificial, like early computer languages ALGOL, or Fortran contemporary to the release of the book.

Babel-17 is full of original ideas, basically every few pages bring something new and quirky

(the Rydra’s spaceship crew is a lovable assortment of misfits and races, including beastly pilot, polyamorous navigators, trio of ghosts, or a platoon of kids keeping the ship running)

. This all plays well in terms of great world-building: many things are said just by the way, as the most mundane, common things, no questions asked, nothing explained in detail, but it all just works. And I sure would love to know more about the ghosts and people coming back to life, the invasion and intergalactic war, other species in space or the omnipresent wild body modifications, including animal transformations (it’s overall very cyberpunky, with one part of the book strongly reminding The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells). And my favorite quirky little thing: using Basque language to speak with ghosts. The influence of Delany is huge and could be found in the most unexpected ways. I mentioned few, but I would not be surprised that this had impact also on Rick Priestly and Warhammer:

for example the TW-55 plot

seems like a direct inspiration for the Eversor Assassins in Warhammer 40 000 (the original ruleset is full of allusions, as Priestly often mentioned, he was influenced by many authors, including Frank Herbert and his Dune. I would not be surprised if Delany was on the list as well.)

All in all a great book full of charming ideas that are sometimes so bizarre and quirky, yet functional and working supporting the overall world-building.

Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

An epic tale of medieval horror. At least that’s what the cover promises. Does it deliver?

I stumbled upon Buehlman’s Between Two Fires by accident: I have been looking for books emulating at least closely the atmosphere of Dark Souls games. This is not exactly it (although the crestfallen, melancholic overall mood and desperation is present here strongly), it delivers something much more interesting: a on-the-road novel about a band of outcasts brought together by fate (or God or higher purpose or whatever). Is it epic? In a way, yes. Is it epic high fantasy? No way (and that’s good in my books!). I love books that feature outcast characters, outsiders, people who are not some spoiled brats who will change the fate of the whole world, but more like dirt & blood type of characters dragged by the events, rather than creating the events. And there is plenty of that.

The whole setting of medieval France plagued (pun intended) by war with Englishmen and suffering under the Black Death, is refreshing for a fantasy setting. Actually for some time the book looks more like a story set in historical France, rather than fantasy about the war between good and evil. This niveau of realism is supported also by the vocabulary and level of details Buehlman is using to populate his book. So all in all this was one of my most enjoyable literary moments this year. Highly recommend it!

Letnice by Miroslav Hlaučo

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funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A fast-action story set in deep space on a “derelict” spaceship with cargo that might save mankind. Not exactly a pure horror story, but it has nice moments. Few fresh and amusing ideas, as well as some character backgrounds that bring wider diversity to the genre and cool pop culture references.

I was looking for a good space horror, with Dead Space in mind. Although this one has some “horrific” moments and some locations bear some resemblance to the aforementioned game, it stands on its own. A fast, action-moving space story of dying mankind, even more dead-er Earth, and one last chance for salvation in the shape of an old generation spaceship. It is also marketed sometimes as young adult, but I would not say that is the selling point here (the main characters, boy and girl are in their late teens, there are some teen-like issues, but the book does not put emphasis on it).

In a universe, where mankind’s last chance to survive is a soil bacteria responsible for anything to grow, we follow characters, Tuck and Laura, both separated by the 400 years difference. The books blend nicely the themes of ecoterrorism, climate crisis, terraforming of Mars and space exploration, with fresh look at space archeology (ship raiding), survival of mankind and horror action. The main characters are lovable and servest the story well, although Tuck is a bit of a jock, in my opinion. A bit one-layered, but that is compensated by Laura, main female lead here, hacker and “ship raider”, aspiring archeologist with a name making allusion to another tomb raider, Lara Croft.

If you are looking for a great action-packed book set in space, which is more confined, a story not spanning several books and involving many fractions, Pitch Dark is your thing.

Zpověď masky by Yukio Mishima

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced