Grațian

TL;DR

I really enjoyed this book, definitely recommend to read it if you want a horror/thriller scifi story. There wasn't anything that annoyed or bothered me about it. Story was great, characters were interesting, the alien object was amazing. I have nothing bad to say about this book, go read it!

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: I liked the idea of this mysterious space object that we encounter, almost the entire story is inside this thing so that's great because it's the best part of the book.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): A little bit of backstory with out main protagonist but nothing to bothersome. Not super interesing either.

✓ - Characters: Great characters all around, enjoyed all of them. There wasn't anyone who I found annoying or rolled my eyes when they were talking.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The tension and feeling of being inside the object was amazing and terrifying. I really liked the ambiance and it's a very strong point of the book.

✓ - Ending: Good ending as well to round up the entire book, I'm glad it didn't flop it.

Extensive Review

Okay here is where I usually start to talk about things that annoyed me or didn't make sense. For this book this section is going to be very short because I haven't found anything to put here. Maybe that at some points of the book it was hard to understand who was talking because it jumps from one character to another abruptly and I had to go back a few lines and read it again a bit more slowly to understand who's inner mind are we listening to now.

I liked all the characters in this story, I'm surprised because there is always one that is just annoying or one that you hate for various reasons. In this story I thought they were great. Even when they do some extreme things, since you hear their thoughts you understand why they did it and it can be understandable.

The science to me seemed well researched, I was looking up things that I didn't understand and it was on point to what the characters were saying or explaining. Maybe some one who more of an expert can detect some mistakes but to what little knowledge I have it made sense.

I'm not talking about the alien object because I think it's better to know nothing about it and just experience it while reading, it was my favorite part of the book and I'd say is pretty much 80% of where the story happens which is good. The other 20% is the backstory of our main protagonist and the travel to get to the alien object.

This was my first "first contact" type of story and I will be reading more of them now. The score might go down as I will compare it to other works but as of right now I will give it five stars because I really enjoyed it and I will recommend it to anyone who wants to read a scifi story.

TL;DR

I think I was going into the book thinking it would be something else. This is a girl who has a very advanced suit that can do a lot of things climbing inside a cave talking to another person who gives her information and suggestions. Doesn't really feel like a science fiction book but it wasn't a bad read. If you like climbing then you will appreciate it more.

If what you want is the atmosphere of being trapped in darkness like the cave part of this book but with way more science fiction I would highly recommend The Last Astronaut. I thought this book would be similar but it wasn't.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: I like the idea but not much the execution, as I said I thought this was going to be a different book. Not a bad story just didn't have much to do with science fiction to be honest.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): Eeh, the side stuff with both our characters is pretty uninteresting, thankfully it's not the major part of the book.

✓ - Characters: There are only two and thankfully I liked both of them, their banter was the best part of the book.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The idea of being trapped inside a cave is a nice idea, also not knowing if there is someone or something else down there is scary.

✓ - Ending: Regular ending, nothing too surprising happened but it wasn't terrible.

Extensive Review

The strong point and my favorite part was the interaction between our main protagonist (Gyre) and her handler (Emogene) I really liked that and thankfully it's the majority of the book. I enjoyed reading every time they talked.

The worst part for me is the climbing. I never did this sport but to me it was very boring just reading pages and pages on how she put her leg here, the arm there. Put a bolt in the rock here a rope there... I really disliked that. Even just traversing down from a slope, since this is a science fiction book I was expecting her suit to have some nano technology that let's her just adhere to the stone, or some advance suspensions on her legs to witstand high falls, or maybe some kind of device that leaves a pad that you can safely fall on. No, instead we get to read about how she went into her backpack and took out the rope and some bolts to hold it. Used the drill to place the bolt, run the rope inside, check the stability to see if it's secure, use the rope to slowly descend onto the rock. Leave it there and move on to the next obstacle. I'm sorry but in my opinion this is very boring.

The story and the idea of being trapped in the darkness of a cave was okay. Too bad that her suit has the ability to kind of simulate very clearly how the cave looks without needing light or anything so she's not in the darkness unless she turns that off, both our protagonist and her handler have different reasons for going into the cave and don't trust eachother. The ending was serviceable, nothing unexpected happened or some crazy twist, but it wasn't terrible.

TL;DR

I really liked this book, in my opinion it's way better than the first one. I still miss the old characters but ART made up for it, him and Murderbot's interactions, working together solving problems was the best part of the book. The story is a bit more interesting as well. Highly enjoyable read.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: I like this one better than the previous one, more infiltration and action. Enjoyable story.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying. ART was the best part of the book by far. The new humans are also interesting.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The space station they spend the mayority of the time is pretty standard in my opinion. Much more interesting than a bland planet.

✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.

Extensive Review

Murderbot's interactions with ART were the hightlights of the book. The other group of characters were nice but I really like the cooperation of Murderbot with ART, these two are an unstopable force. Don't have much to say, I really liked this book and I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

TL;DR

Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.

X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.

✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.

Extensive Review

By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.

TL;DR

I really liked Cold Welcome so I bought this one because I liked Elizabeth Moon's writting and the characters. The first half of the book is really good where Ky tries to save the survivors. But just like the last book where the only bad thing I could find was how abrupt and anticlimactic the ending was it happens here as well when the survivors situation gets solved. It simply ends and then we get to a pretty boring last half of the book where Ky is back in the military.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Great first half, boring second half.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: For the first half they're great, really liked Stella in this one. She's a badass. Second half of the book they're all gone.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Nothing interesting it's just the Vatta's house most of the time.

X - Ending: I didn't care about it that much since I lost interest in the second half of the book.

Extensive Review

Before Ky gets in a higher position of power the book is great, I loved everything about it. It has planning, a rescue mission, banter between all the favorite characters (Rafe, Teague, Stella, Grace...) also some new ones wich were really cool. After the main thing happens then it's just Ky and the military which frankly I don't care at all. Every page is a new colonel introduced that Ky interacts with and again I don't care about them, I want to see more of my favorite characters. You will see how good the book is during the survivors situation and when it ends you will see a steep decline after that. I think the entire book should have been saving the survivors, it would have been way better in my opinion.

TL;DR

Another great addition, this is the one I like the most out of the three. I like the story and the claustrophobic ambiance in the dark space station where it takes place. Miki was okay, not on ARTs level but he was enjoyable to read every time he interacted with Murderbot. The new set of characters were also good. I had a great time reading this book.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: I really liked this story, mainly because it has a bit of horror in it. It's more scary than the rest which I like.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying. ART is gone which is sad but the new humans are really nice and the new AI was interesting to see how he interacted with Murderbot.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The new forgotten station was nice and scary. I like how murderbot had to use the shadows and dark places to sneak around.

✓ - Ending: Best ending of the series so far.

Extensive Review

The place where it takes place and the actions scenes were the highlights of this book, I enjoyed the actions scenes and Muerderbot's planning. His interactions with the rest of the crew were also great. Don't have much to say the series is getting better and better. Can't wait to read the next entry.

TL;DR

Average, I really liked the setting, a small city on the moon was very interesting. While reading it really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. Story was not as interesting, it's a simple plot that resolves around messing with the wrong people and when there's money involved it always leads to drastic measures. Thankfully the side characters were likeable, unfortunately our main protagonist is not.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: It was kind of bland if I'm honest, apart from the location there wasn't anything super interesting. Same goes with the main plot, all about money as always.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: Every character except our main protagonist is great, I really liked all of them.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: This small city on the moon really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. I liked it, I liked how every bubble had it's own people and main purpose and how different they are from eachother.

✓ - Ending: Best part of the book, the final action sequence was really thrilling and I really enjoyed it.

Extensive Review

Great setting, not so interesting main story, good side characters all of that is nice but let's talk about the biggest problem of this book in my opinion. The main protagonist.

My eyes really hurt at the amount of times I rolled them while reading this book. I've read the reviews and saw people say how much she talks about sex but my god this is something else. The amount of sexual inuendos from our main protagonist's inner monologue is very annoying. Every single thought she has always ends with a "get your mind out of the gutter/don't get excited/it's not what you think..." at the end. She constantly gets mentioned on how she could do anything she wanted and how smart she is, while having the maturity level of a sixteen year old horny teenager. I don't believe it. She's literally risking her life doing something very dangerous like having to blow up two machines at the same time and she says "Don't take that out of context" it's so jarring and and frustrating, all you can do is roll your eyes and hope it doesn't happen again, unfotutunately, it does, a lot...

This is a personal thing but I hate unnecessary cursing, I hate how much our main protagonist curses, it's not like I just broke my leg and I yell "Fuck", she's in the middle of a conversation where the person asks her "Why not?" and her response is "Because fuck you" it's that kind of cursing where is really stupid and if you try to defend it saying that's just her personality then her personality is garbage and should be written better. Also it's very ironic considering she's muslim. This made me really dislike her and it's very frustrating because when she's focused on doing something dangerous or planning she's really smart and focused but the second her life is not in danger anymore it's back to her horny teenager personality where everthing is sexual and she curses at everything and everyone.

She's constantly making stupid decisions followed up by "it probably wasn't a good idea but we've established that I make poor life decisions". Consciously knowing you're making bad decision but not changing just because that's who you are doesn't make you funny, endearing or quirky. It makes you very stupid. Again not believeble since she's really smart and comes up with good plans on the fly when she's in danger.

It's very sad that the main problem with the book is the main protagonist but that's how I felt. Decent story with great setting, good side characters and an awful main protagonist with some sprinkles of how good she can be in certain situations before she's back to her usual self.

TL;DR

I liked this book, my only problem is that is too short. I would have liked a bit more to the story. Everything happens fairly quickly and by the time you keep turning the pages it's over (I guess that's a good thing?). I bought all the rest in the series because I want to know more.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Pretty short but it was enjoyable, I liked the interaction between Murderbot and the humans.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.

X - Setting/Ambiance: The planet they're on is pretty standard, nothing over the top. Just a bland planet.

✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.

Extensive Review

Didn't like the inner monologue of Murderbot in the beginning because I thought he was an AI. With that in mind when he talked like a human I was like "uhh why is he thinking that?", but he's like half AI half human so the way he thinks makes sense then. I really like the characters and the interactions between them. Even if we don't get to know them on a deeper level I still enjoyed the time we had with them. I'm going to read the entire series and see what's in store next.

TL;DR

I really enjoyed this book, a great science fiction horror in my opinion. I was constantly saying to myself, just another chapter, just one more...until I had to force myself to put it down in order to get some rest for work. Great atmosphere, great story (for the most part) and good characters.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Great story up until the end where things are revealed, it's not a bad reveal but after that it isn't scary anymore.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): The side stuff with our main protagonist and what's going through her mind isn't as interesting as the current mission. It's not too much filler and it's just sprinkled in every now and then but still, not that interesting.

✓ - Characters: I like all characters except one, Kate. The rest of the crew were really interesting and I liked their personalities.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The best part of the book, the ambience of being in a old forgotten that housed five hundred passengers ship that supposedly exploded. It's scary and the book makes sure you feel it.

X - Ending: Weakest part of the book in my opinion, mainly because it's spoiled in the first few paragraphs of chapter one. You see that our main protagonist made it out alive. Did not like that approach.

Extensive Review

I find the premise of this book amazing, a crew of five people are on the edge of the communication hub, as far and remote as you can be when the navigator suddenly sees that an S.O.S signal is being broadcasted from further out of their location, on a very old frequency. After debating on what action to take, they decide to check it out. They come across a very old luxury cruiser that supposedly dissapeared twenty years ago in an explosion...or so the news said.

That alone has potential and I'm happy to say it didn't let me down. The beginning of the book is strong, once they board the ship and try to find out what is going on and what happened to it and it's passengers is filled with tension and atmosphere, I really liked the first few days on the ship and seeing the characters go through that experience.

The characters were really good and enjoyable I like all of them except one. Kane is the most boring thing ever put to paper, he's just perfect, always doing the right thing, always caring for everyone. Keeping the peace and making sure everyone is okay...get him the hell out of my ship. Compare him to Voller who's the complete opposite and that's what makes him great, he's openly confrontational and disrespectful to the main protagonist who is his captain. Doesn't like her and he let's her know it but at the end of the day he will do what the captain says which is why I respect him. The other are also great, each with their own personality and complementing eachother. The whole crew just felt natural and I enjoyed their banter.

Things I did not like:

- Once you learn about what truly happened to the ship the mystery is gone. It's not a bad reveal and it makes sense it's just that it isn't scary anymore and at that point the book becomes a thriller.

- There is a romantic relationship going on between the main protagonist and a crew member, I didn't care for it at all, thankfully it's not very intrusive and I didn't bother me that much.

- Probably the biggest one, (Spoiler? but it's literally the first thing your eyes read on the first chapter) the book starts with an interview of the main character being acused of killing her crewmates and making it out alive of the mysterious ship. That just spoils the fact that she made it out okay and her crew didn't. I hate this trope of starting from the present, telling the story of the past.

TL;DR

I really liked this book, it's a great science fiction survival adventure with a rich world, great characters and good writting. I definitely recommend this book I had a blast reading through it. The only thing I didn't like was the ending but everything else is great.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: I didn't think it would be a stranded survival story but I was not dissapointed with it, it was a great story even if the main question isn't answered by the end.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stories, where we jump from Ky's cousin, to her aunt, to her lover. All great and interesting parallel stories that are all trying to save Ky.

✓ - Characters: Every character except Ky's second in command (Jen) was great. I loved all the different crew members, Ky's family and her lover were all a joy to read through. There are a lot of characters and only one to be annoying and not likeable is impresive. My favorite were Rafe, Grace and Teague.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting setting, a barren land that's supposedly not suitable for terraforming yet there is this mysterious base weirdly well equipped for everything. I liked it.

X - Ending: This is the worst part of the book, very anticlimactic. It just ends which was very weird to me. A bit dissapointed but the all the other aspects of the books are strong.

Extensive Review

I wasn't expecting this to be a stranded survival story but was pleasently surprised at how good it turned out to be. I really liked how there is already a world created and built up. You constantly hear about Ky's past and how she's a hero and saved a lot of people. I would have liked if there was more of that though.

It's great that our main protagonist is smart and makes good decisions I really liked her. The rest of the crew were also interesting and enjoyable to read when they interacted with one another. Another great part of the book are the side stories going on, Ky's lover, her aunt and cousin trying to find out if she's still alive and saving her. I don't have anything bad to say about them, great writting with interesting personalities. I didn't mind at all going from Ky's survival story to Rafe and Grace trying to figure out how to get to Ky and save her.

The ending was a let down at how abruptly it ends without answering much of that happened. The ending is very important to me which is why I can't give this book a perfect score. I will be reading the next book and see how that one goes but I have high hopes seeing how good this one was.

Edit: Okay so I said that this feels like a world already well established, I just realized there's a whole series called Vatta's War that I think pretty much goes into how she turned out to be a hero and got to this place. I will have to read those as well.

TL;DR

I haven't read Death's End but I've seen many reviews saying that this is the best book in the series. Now after reading it I can confidently say that all of those people are delusional and shouldn't be taken seriously. The only good part about this book is the ending, the last 40/50 pages is where everything important happens. I will explain more in the extensive review but I hope the last entry is better than this.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: The actual story in this book is good when I get to read about it that is.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): Absolute trash and a complete waste of time, none are interesing and don't lead anywhere, please take my suggestion and skip everything in this book that doesn't have to do with the main story.

X - Characters: The only good character is Da Shi, out of the 20 characters we meet and interact with this is not good.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Seeing the world change from normal day to the future wasn't as interesting as I thought. Didn't like where people live in the future either.

✓ - Ending: Easily best part of the book the only saving grace. The last 40/50 pages were really interesing, the idea and implications proposed are amazing.

Extensive Review

Okay I'm not going to be gently about it, The Three-Body Problem has it's problems as well but at least the 500 pages of that book is about 400 pages the main story and 100 pages of side stuff. Here I'm not joking out of the 500 pages I would say that the important stuff having to do with the Trisolarians, their coming and what is humanity doing to prepare for it is about 200 pages if I'm being generous. Almost everything in this book is about inconsequential stuff that doesn't lead anywhere or isn't important to the main story and it's very frustrating.

To put this into perspective there are literal aliens invaders on their way to earth right now at full speed. Meanwhile all I'm reading about is:

- Three old neighbors talking about current events going on in the world and one of them getting scammed..."what?"

- One of our "main" protagonists remembering a memory about him trying to write a book and falling in love with his fictional character..."what?". This one goes a bit further because he actually thinks that's real deep love and breaks up with his current girlfriend over it. Deranged behaviour and absolute degeneracy by our so called "scientist", goes to a psychiatrist and he tell him that's normal and nothing to worry about. "What is this world?".

- One of our "main" protagonists is given a huge ammount of power to solve this crisis and since he didn't want that power he just uses it for his own gain to live comfortably..."what?". On top of being one of the most annoying tropes out there it's not even interesing, he just lives in a house watching TVs and buying random stuff that he sees.

Then we have the biggest side story than has more written about it that the actual main story so I'm not even sure it's a side story anymore, enter Zhang Beihai. EASILY top three biggest dumbass in all the books I've read. When his story concluded I could not believe it, I'm not going to spoil anything but just know that when you're reading about him know that you're wasting your time because it will not pay off in the end.

My sugestion is every time you see any mention of the three old guys, the memories of the fictional girlfriend or Zhang Beihai is to just skim over the pages but don't waste any time on them, skim through them to see if it's finally back to the main problem and read that.

Impossible challenge to complete, every time you read the word "Defeatism" or "Escapism" take a shot. You will die before reaching the end. I can't tell you how boring it is to constantly be reading the exact same thing over and over and over without anything new added in. Every single character in this book talks about those two things and it's always the same.

The main problems from the first book are still here, when you read interactions between characters you know it's just two fictional characters saying words to eachother, it's not two people having a conversation. But I gave my opinion on my The Three-Body Problem review. The writting did not improve at all, and Cixin Lui's ability to streth basic descriptions for over four pages is quite outstanding. Important stuff like a space elevator gets a one paragraph explanation while the building for the UN gets like four pages, talking about how the contour of the statues on the front are and forms that the building has..."who cares? it's just a building where corrupt politicians gather stop wasting time on that."

As I said the only good thing about this book is Da Shi and the ending. When you're reading about the actual Trisolarians and what is being done to prepare for them the book is quite interesting. Too bad those are just sprinkled in between the massive garbage side stories that lead nowhere. Yes, the ending of this book and the idea of our "main" protagonist is very terrifying and amazing at the same time. Endings are important to me but it cannot save it this time.

If this book were 300 pages long, cut all the side stuff and just be about this lunatic scientist who's in love with his fictional girlfriend and Da Shi protecting him from ETO while they're trying to prepare for the Trisolarians then I would believe those people saying this is the best book in the series.

TL;DR

I did not like this book, main protagonist is an idiot and the story is boring. The only good things about this book are the ideas, Schrödinger's box and the little time we spend with Amanda. Everything else is not worth the read.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: I disliked it a lot, creating such a great idea of a machine capable to move between all the infinite realities currently going on and wasting it on just trying to find you wife is so boring it's not even funny. Thankfully the book is short.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): The other universes we visit was pretty cool, I liked some of them and they were interesting but mainly because of Amanda if we were just following the main protagonist I'm sure it would be much boring.

X - Characters: Main protagonist is an idiot and his focus on getting back to his wife is not interesting. The only good character is Amanda for the short time she was with us I like it and was sad to see her go away but she made the right decision to abandon our protagonist, which is why I liked her. She's definitely smart for doing that.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Schrödinger's box is the highlight of the book, the rest is just Chicago so nothing interesting there, but the different worlds they travelled to were good and interesting. Which only makes me more sad that we weren't focusing on those intead of the boring one we got.

X - Ending: Terrible ending, but was glad it happen so I can put this book to rest.

Extensive Review

This story is about a guy who invented the posibility to move between all other realities just to be with his wife. It's just as boring as it sounds, with all the cool and interesting things we can do with this and we're just focusing on this insignificant thing when you think about the implications of what can be achieved with such a discovery. The only good part I like is when we meet Amanda and they're both trying to figure things out. I was expecting for him to just get over his wife and go on some cool adventures with Amanda but no he keeps trying to find his universe in a sea of billions of them. When Amanda left the story my interest went with her, hope she found herself a nice good universe to live in. Wish we could have followed her instead of the story we got.

The amount of dumb decision our super smart main protagonist makes is infuriating. When Amanda leaves him just proves my assumptions that she was smart and dodged a bullet by getting as far away from our protagonist as possible. Good for her and hope she went on to go on some nice adventure, she has after all, the ability to visit any world she can imagine out of the infinite possibilites there are. She probably didn't go back to boring ass Chicago to her mundane life trying to get back to her lover. Like out main guy did.

Great idea and the possibilities it could have been just makes me sad when we're just focusing on these mundane things of two peoples love life. You're telling me you have the possibility to switch between realities and go to any number of them from the infinite pool and you just want to get back to your mundane life being a teacher? Just because you love your family so much? Yes that makes sense but it does not make for an interesing story at all.

TL;DR

I didn't enjoy this book. Slow start, it started to get good and interesting towards the end but then it's ending is horrendous. Garbage main character, story with zero answers by the end and atrocious ending.

If you want a similar premise of a group of people boarding a mysterious ship to find out what's going on that are actually a good read The Last Astronaut or Dead Silence.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: Sounds interesting and it gets you hooked but if you knew from the beginning that none of your questions will be answered it would be a different experience.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): I don't remember if there were any side stories, I don't think so but even if they were if I can't remember them it means they weren't good to begin with.

X - Characters: Horrible main protagonist, there are a few minor characters that were enjoyable but the mayority are terrible.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The main ship is interesting I liked the different parts of it and the mysterious ship they board is also interesting. The ambience was good.

X - Ending: Atrocious ending, zero questions answered and that decision by own main protagonist...wow.

Extensive Review

Our main character is a piece of shit, without spoiling stuff he's pretty much the reason why everything bad happens and at the end he's like "sorry, peace out homies!". I couldn't believe when he made that decision at the end, what a garbage human being with zero honor and principles.

There are a few good characters that I liked but it doesn't matter in the end, again I don't want to spoil stuff but trust me, they didn't deserve what got handed to them.

For a brief few pages the story got really interesting and I was getting excited because we were maybe starting to get some answers. But no, nothing gets answered. From the moment you learn there is a mysterious alien ship found to the end of the book you learn NOTHING at all. Origin, what is is, why it's there, is it alone?... you get nothing at all. So if you plan on reading this book I want you to know what you're getting yourself into:

- Very slow start with weird things shown to us that never gets talked about again...

- A dozen of characters given their full name and a few lines of what our main character thinks about them that we don't care at all because they just vote on stuff when there's a meeting. They literally don't do anything else. There are maybe six charaters that do stuff but we get introduced to at least twelve for no reason...

- Our main character has zero chemistry with anyone, there are characters that expresses their heart and feelings in a few paragraphs and then he chimes in with "Yeah...", "No I don't...". You can say that's just how he is but then I would say why is he the main character? There are three people I can think of in this story that would be better if they were the main character. No excuses, terrible protagonist.

- Nothing happens in the story, you only get questions and more questions nothing gets answered.

- The ending is really bad.

After all those points if I made you curious and you wanna check it out, don't. There are other "boarding mysterious ship" kind of stories out there that are good and worth the read, like the two I've mentioned in my TL;DR.

TL;DR

Average in my opinion, the last part of the book is definitely the star of the show, when you learn some pretty big things about the universe and if we are alone or not in it. Up until then it was very boring, I don't think that our main protagonist is very interesting to follow him for most of the story. The science is pretty heavy on this one, I'm not a smart guy but I do like to check out and research a bit on every new thing that I've never heard or understand and I was googling constantly in this book. Some people may not like it but I like when it makes sense and it's not some magic thing invented by the author.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Boring until the second half of the book.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): Boring stuff with the cultural revolution, not interested in it at all. The part with the Trisolarians is interesing and their story and plan is amazing. The VR game part is trash, didn't like that at all.

X - Characters: The only good one is Da Shi and out of the 10 people we meet and interact with that's not good.

X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just normal day China, boring.

✓ - Ending: I liked it, was really enjoyable to read and I like where this is going.

Extensive Review

This has to be a cultural thing but I've read a few Asian authors so far and they all have a distinct way or writing dialogue that always seems off to me. I don't know how to explain it but if you give me a book without telling me anything about it I can tell if it was written by an Asian author. I don't like it at all. It has to be cultural becasue the same happens when I watch an Asian movie. The dialogue to me always seems like they're never genuine and they're always putting up a facade. It doesn't help that the characters are pretty bland to be honest.

So poor dialogue and a lot of infodumps, Cixin Lui is not very interested in showing you stuff, he's way more into telling you about it and in very exact detail stretch over whole pages to just talking about inconsequential stuff that isn't important.

The only good character is Da Shi, I liked every scene where he was involved in. Unfortunately he doens't show much in the story, towards the final part he gets more involved though.

There are some very cool scenes with some nanofiber our main protagonist invented that was amazing to read.

TL;DR

Very short story of Murderbot before meeting his crew. I liked it, it's also free so there's that.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Murderbot helping out humans as he always does.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: Not much explanation about the characters, just a few names.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Not much explanation about our suroundings, just that we're in a mine.

✓ - Ending: Just another day for Murderbot.

Extensive Review

You can read the story here for free:

https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/

TL;DR

I didn't enjoy this book very much because it doesn't have a main story. It feels like it's a normal workday in the life of the people on this spaceship. You see them work on the ship, go to a planet to get supplies, eat, argue with each other... I prefer when there's a main story clearly defined.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: Almost non existent, it's a mission to create a tunnel from place A to place B. Nothing more so it's no interesting and it's definitely no the focus of the book.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): They weren't that interesting and most of them lead to nothing. Like Rosemary, her backstory doesn't mean anything because it's brushed off and never had an impact on her crew or the main story.

✓ - Characters: They were all nice, every one felt like their own distinct individual. Can't say anything bad about them because they written in a way where you don't dislike them at all.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I liked the ship, and all the different planets and stations they visit. They were all descriptive and cool to imagine.

X - Ending: Like I said since there's no main story there isn't an ending per se, the mission ends and there's that.

Extensive Review

There is a "main story" but it's so insignificant that it's not even worth mentioning. They have to create a tunnel from point A to point B. And by the end of the book nothing changed, the mission is over but the galaxy is the same. It felt like everything they did was a waste of time. I can understand people who like this book because of the characters and that cozy feeling it can create. The book is not bad it's just that I prefer story focused ones better I think.

TL;DR

This is one of the classics science fiction stories and I can see how it inspired other books. I liked a lot about this book. The only negative I have is that at the end you're left with a lot of questions. I felt a bit unsatisfied with it but I do believe that if this were to happen in real life it would go down like this and we would all have the same feeling.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: You don't need to know much because it's better to go in blindly. Know that while the story is good and it's well written, I think it will leave you unsatisfied because we don't get much answers.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I liked every crew member of the ship, they were all how I expect a crew of astronauts on a special mission to be. Methodical, calculating, calm under pressure, not doing dumb mistakes that probably cost them the life of other. Great job on the writing for them to the author.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The inside of Rama was amazing, I can't wait for Denis Villeneuve's vision of how Rama will look because the way I imagined it was breath taking. The author did a phenomenal job at describing it. Don't want to talk specifics so that you go into it blindly but know that it will be great.

✓ - Ending: At first I didn't like it but after a few days have passed and I kept thinking about it I think I like it more and more. I don't want to talk more about it to not spoil it but I think that if we had a first encounter with extraterrestrial beings it would probably go down like this ending. We're not the center of the universe as much as we humans like to think so.

Extensive Review

Even though it ticked all the boxes I can't give it a 5 star rating because...I don't want to spoil it but we're left with a lot of questions and I think that's exactly what the author wanted. I believe it's exactly how it would go down in real life if it happened. But this is not real life, it's a book and I like to feel some sort of fulfillment at the end of a story. It is frustrating because you constantly keep discovering new things about this object, more and more and you're thinking soon you will get the reveal but it doesn't happen. It did answer one of the biggest questions of humanity though, we're not alone in the universe.

One of my favorite books "The Last Astronaut" is literally this story but with a bit more answers, I didn't know it at the time but I'm thankful for this book to have inspired that one and probably many more that I haven't read yet. Great book if you into it knowing you probably won't get your questions answered, many people don't like that myself included but it was still a good story.