Josh

“If such a thing had happened once, it must surely have happened many times in this galaxy of a hundred billion suns.”

Very enjoyable Novel and a unique take on ‘First Contact' with aliens. I enjoyed Arthur C. Clarke's writing style and will definitely read more by him in the future, the attention to scientific detail really helped set the scene and level of unknown.

The split POV was done well although I would have liked some of the smaller characters to have been more fleshed out, doesn't affect the story just personal preference.

If you've read Rendezvous with Rama and you enjoyed it I would highly recommend the Anomaly by Michael Rutger, I'll leave a link to my review below (I have it 5 stars).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2507734857

4.5 ⭐ to Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.

Firstly let me say this was a really great buddy read with Meg from Tome Infinity (check her channel out).
Onto the book, I love it! Very much like the film but with just enough to make it different and unpredictable, the characters are ones we know well and so is the plot so I won't go over tgam but I will say I loved the relationship between Dr Grant, Tim and Lex.
Chrichton has a very detailed and analytical writing style that not everyone will enjoy, because of this in parts this book was slow, luckily I like getting plenty of detail so I enjoyed those parts to!

If your a fan of them film you need to read this book, even if your not this is a great science fiction read!

Okay, so let me say first of all I in a rookie move I read End of Watch (The end of the series) before reading Mr Mercedes (the first in the series) so I know how this series ends before starting it.
That said, I enjoyed the end of the series, so I knew I would enjoy the first two books, Mr Mercedes in my opinion is one of Kings most underrated books/series! This is thrilling, intense, full of twists and over all very well written.
First plus, the main character in Bill Hodges is brilliant and a really enjoyable protagonist, he's a retired detective struggling to find his way since retiring (dreaming of the cases he didn't solve) I won't go into the plot in this review but safe to say Bill doesn't stay retired for long. Outside of Bill we have some great supporting characters who complement each other well, my personal favourite being Holly who comes in late.
Second plus, what a bad guy! Nothing is more important in a good thriller than a bad guy that keeps you on your toes, the Mercedes killer as he is nicknamed is crazy but in such a controlled way that he is inventive and seriously dangerous. The cat and mouse chase between Bill & the Mercedes killer had me on my toes from the start even though I know how the series ends and that to me tells you just how good kings writing is in this book.
Plot, again no spoilers, we follow the Mercedes killer who has so far managed to successfully avoid the police following a murder spree at a major jobs market, the Mercedes killer isn't happy with stopping there and wants to go down in history.
Our protagonist Bill takes it upon himself to stop the Mercedes killer before he can hurt anyone else.

8/10 BRILLIANT!