Graham

This book is infuriatingly unnecessary. I loved Ready Player One. Its clever geek references and easter eggs with a joyously silly plot made it a really fun read. The whole thing was beautifully self contained. One thing it did not need was a sequel, and certainly not this mess of a sequel.

There is nothing new or different in Ready Player Two. The whole plot is basically a rehash of Ready Player One, but sillier. We have new nonsense tech that makes even less sense than the previous story, we have another silly challenge, but this one has less of a feeling of peril associated with it as only the original winners can take part and we have our main character turning into a bit of whiny brat. Don't get me started about the random space ship stuff which just seems to be a weak homage to Elon Musk. Basically it takes everything in Ready Player One and makes it worse.

The book does pick up a bit into its second half where there is some danger forcefully inserted (albeit in a faintly ridiculous way - AI causing plane crashes?). The geek references are still there although particularly at the start are used in a ridiculous way again (the car collection?). The fall off in quality from the first book to the second is abysmal.

After talking so much smack about this why am I giving it 2 stars? Simply because I have still read worse. A lot of the disappointment here is from how badly this compares to it predecessor. If you take that away there is still some fun to be had with the silly adventure in cyberspace. The inner geek in me loves some of the references. Is this a book I am going to recommend to any one? Hell no. If you want this kind of geek adventure read the first book - there is no need to read this second one. Ultimately this whole thing is entirely unnecessary.

Vampires are one of those tropes that refuse to go out of fashion. Fortunately, they find ways of reinventing themselves to create that evolution of the monster itself. Kristoff's vampires are evil, violent, pitiless and much more in the classical mold than some of the recent iterations (this is most definitely not twilight). These are blood thirsty monsters who treat humans as chattel. They are very much at the top of the food chain.

There has been a trend in recent vampire stories to take a more urban fantasy approach. This necessitates a hiding in the shadows - the vampires of recent years have been somewhat pathetic creatures who cannot stand up to humanity. Transferring the story into a fantastical setting is a smart move in that sense - it allows the vampires to be omnipresent, visible and helps brings their monstrosity to the fore. The world we are in has been recently cursed into a kind of semidarkness allowing the vampires to roam 24 hours a day (although their power grows in the true night). The vampires are on the rise and apparently unstoppable. The one thing standing in their way is an order of half-breed vampires determined to stop them. Their vampire half allows them to counter the vampires with their own abilities. Their one vice - they need to smoke the blood of vampires to manage their own hunger for blood.

Empire of the Vampire is dark, cynical and bitter. The darkness is pervasive - the atmosphere, the sense of despair, the imbalance of power. This is not a happy read. Some of Kristoff's idioms do get a little abrasive at times - I am all for appropriate levels of swearing, but the use here is extremely gratuitous. I do love his dark humour though. The cynicism that pervades this is delicious

Yes! This is how you do a near future sci-fi!

The story follows the tale of an early set of space explorers conducting one of the first manned extra-solar missions to planets where life can be found. The sense of wonder and the possible is palpable throughout the story, with a constant challenge of what forms life could take, recognizing the nature of common ancestors has perhaps limited the variety on earth. The imagination is wild and the scenes produced believable.

The technology used by the astronauts has a root very much in current technology lending it an air of believability. The communication with earth takes years because with electromagnetic based communication like we currently have that is what it would take. The sense of detachment this generates is ultimately central to the plot.

I loved this book, it was extremely well written, offering just the right amount of hope whilst recognizing the frequent failings of our current civilization

One thing this book certainly isn't is silent! The first book in what looks to be an epic sci-fi space opera. I have been seeing this book likened to Patrick Rothfuss ‘The Name of The Wind' and I can definitely see that vibe here, in both the story telling style and structure, and it is hard not to make comparisons between the two. It uses the ‘older main character as narrator' style, chronicling his life to date. The ‘Sun Eater' part of the chronicle is definitely not dealt with in this first book (much like there has yet to be any king killing in Rothfuss' books).

For such a sprawling scope, the novel stays relatively small scale and personal. The action is confined to just 2 planets in a vast galaxy. You get introduced to a myriad of different cultures and plenty of other worlds are referenced, so there is a lot of world building involved here.This is not a short book, and some of the world building is a bit slow at times, but the pay off is worth while with a vast and extremely detailed universe. The quasi-religious anti-technology Luddites that seem to control the empire in which the book is set have a faint echoes of some of the more extreme religious sects of today, but it seems an agenda strangely at odds with the star-faring society. It creates an almost medieval/ancient culture with gladiatorial combat to the death and near serfdom for most of the population. The distinct class stratification is brutal and a strong focus in the story.

Ultimately this is an engaging story, both broad and narrow in its viewpoint. A sprawling space opera that focuses in on the intimate details. A study in contrasts and a very promising start to a book series