Remy Sharp

The two stars are for: fairly decent writing, it wasn't a rabib page turner, but it was relatively easy going for the most part.

The second star is for such an interesting idea: a cure for death - or more specifically, a genetic cure for the aging of cells.

The story leaps right into this concept and the mental struggle the protagonist, John, faces with the prospect of living forever (or until something else kills him).

The possibilities of this concept are endless...but it felt like this book struggled to grapple with these ideas and, for me, just failed to follow through.

For instance, there's a key character (you'd be lead to think) that appears right at the start, that captures John's intrigue (and frankly I thought they were related to “thriller”, but apparently not). This character then isn't mentioned at all for the majority of the book, and then around 85% of the way through when they suddenly reappear and John suddenly declares his undying love.

> She sighed. “I told you. I'm tired of men falling in love with me.” “I don't give a shit.” I moved to her and began kissing her.

Oh for heaven's sake. She just suddenly does a 180 on her own feelings and goes for a full shag before leaping off to a nuclear winter.

The story spends a solid half of the book on John and his family and surrounding and the (local) effect of the cure. No thriller in sight, and certainly no End Specialists. I can't tell if this was more of a drama or just a lot of character building, but it really didn't feel like I got into the meat of the book until much, much further along.

This book comes with an alternative title of “Postmortals” (I read The End Specialist), which would frankly makes a lot more sense. As for being a thriller - I don't think so.

Also with this kind of massive change in humanity, the worldwide ramifications would be huge, and though John does try to portray these in his documentary-like updates (a blog?), it really feels quite local to Amuricka.

Sadly the book deals with an excellent concept, but fails to deliver.

Goodness me, this was a good book! Right from the start, Rutherford states that the book won't be littered with references to research papers throughout and the book reads very much like Rutherford is quite literally telling me a story (I should add that references are added in the appendix of the book if you want to validate and have further reading on the subject of DNA).

I always feel like when I read non-fiction I'm supposed to be a little smarter once I've finished, and somehow retain my newly acquired knowledge so I can wax lyrical later on in the pub in years to come...

The subject of this book is (as the title suggest) genes, DNA and how it all works. The book is fascinating, and although I'm certain that I'm zero percent smarter now (sadly my own failing!), Rutherford's book was littered with fascinating stories from both recent and distant history - which have so far stuck in my head.

I got wind of this book via my own genealogy research, and being able to find every step in my ancestry to William The Conqueror, I posted a tweet and eventually saw a reply from Adam Rutherford explaining “that's cool that you can demonstrate it with genealogy, but it's literally true for all British people too. Edward 3 is the direct ancestor of every British person”.

That snippet reply alone piqued my interest in reading this book, and damn glad I did - I think I highlighted nearly two pages worth of kindle notes, partly to help me remember and partly because there was some superb stuff in there, including:

> borborygmus, which is a technical word for a rumbly tummy.

Rutherford's writing and storytelling is entertaining, informative and even regularly funny.

Kept me guessing and an easy read.

The subject matter is pretty dark and has similarities to Room by Emma Donoghue (which the story also acknowledges). However, it's an “easy read” as I'd imagine a “holiday read” would be.

The characters are drawn pretty well, perhaps a bit obvious/stereotypical, but that's what makes it easy. I've also read No Way Out by Cara Hunter and I didn't realise, but No Way Out was DI Fawley book 3 (Fawley being the “main” detective) and this was book 2 - and somehow I thought I was reading book 27, thus not realising that I was reading the series in reverse!

Although I've now read book 3 and 2 in reverse order, I don't think it matters too much, and the links between the books aren't necessary to the enjoy the story.

On the story, Hunter does a great job to draw a storyline that seems immediately obvious but then I found myself only half way and thought “there's no way this could be all wrapped up already” and lo there's more twists and turns. Good stuff. I enjoyed it.

I had a hard time reading this book, took me a long time as I found Mole and the surrounding characters extremely...sad or pathetic or selfish. It continued on like this until about 80% where I started to enjoy the book a little more and the characters finally start to bloom and become more complex, and endearing.

It ends on a hopeful note, and after realising this was the last Mole story that Sue Townsend wrote before passing away, leaves me a little sad that this life sort of vanishes with her. I had read The Secret Diary when I was a teenager back in the 80s so Mole has always existed for me, almost like a character from a reality show.

So even though I struggled with this book, I'm glad to have read Mole's final chapters, and hope that he's happy somewhere in his literary universe.

I read this to my son, who turned 7 just after we started. We did end up doing some epic bedtime reading sessions to complete whole chapters. And as with books I've read to him, I shall let his own words dictate this review :)

—

I liked the bit where Harry goes underground and in the house, because I wish I had a scary house under the whomping willow.

When Black came into the room, I thought it was scary, and I thought it was going to happen in my bedroom!

The sad bit was when Buckbeak died (but oh yeah, they rescued him).

It's good, and a little bit scary.

—

In general, the concepts and ideas are pretty solid. A lot of common sense that revolves around using sunlight to help with sleep patterns. Somehow I personally experienced a similar sleeping pattern (sticking to a regular alarm, getting up quickly, getting sunlight) and it worked incredibly well for me for 2 years (until I broke the pattern).

The body of the book though is littered with how the author works with top sports teams, Manchester United, Man City, Arsenal, etc - top cyclists etc. I was happily convinced of his authority by chapter 1, but I didn't need repeated on every chapter. It felt like random name dropping (since most of the sports celebrities named were unknown to me).

All in all, there are some useful tips throughout the book, but probably didn't need so much of the constant reminders of who the author worked with.

Enjoyed this book. Definitely a modern look at the possibilities of the future ahead of us. I have to admin I was expecting more robots and augmentations and sci-fi, but this leant more towards a political statement in particular about free access to healthcare (which is something I care a lot about being in the UK and having the NHS).

An enjoyable story and some strong characters.

I wanted to love this book but I kinda fell short right at the end. However, the two protagonists: Patricia and Lawrence are beautifully written.

The book is split over 3 era's of our characters' lives. Firstly when they're young children where the world is huge and wonderous. Patricia in particular has her first adventure very early in the book, and in part I wondered if this was entirely in a child's imagination rather than happening to her.

The next era in the book Patricia and Lawrence are at (what I'd consider ‘middle school'), and frankly it's horrible. They're bullied and targeted across the board. I found this part of the book the hardest hitting, and probably closer to the reality I know and it made me sad for the characters. I also felt like there was no real growth from this period of the book and they were simply tortured for being different and that wasn't addressed (or I missed it).

Then the last era of the book the characters are young adults, Patricia a witch with more control over her powers (and yes, it seems that it wasn't her imagination back when she was a child), and Lawrence a full super nerd building a machine to save humanity.

The story feels like it accelerates in momentum, complexity and consequence as it progresses. It reads really well, and the sci-fi aspects are fun, complex and draw some interesting moral questions.

Except for me, the end just...kinda happened. I was following the story along, the world in the book was going to hell, level 10 dystopia stuff, and then all of a sudden the protagonists left alone, Patricia is following a pigeon to a tree, they have a weird conversation, she vaguely answers a question and then Patricia and Lawrence walk off together into the sunset (sort of) with a sense of hope and everything will be okay for them.

Yet the world is still collapsing (mother nature trying to course correct), witches (and wizards?) are blasting people into unknown realms, and intend to unleash The Unravelling (which we meet once and it's a horror show), and the scientists are pissed and building mega machines to blow away the witches. So that's all still happening and yet Patricia and Lawrence seem to be okay.

I was left feeling like I missed something crucial at the end of the book, because I felt like the characters were doom, but didn't realise it, and the world was going to die even though both Patricia and Lawrence intended to save it. So...yeah, I'm not sure.

I loved the characters, and the writing was great and really original, and quite biting at times. But the more I thought about the end of the story, the more confused I felt.

Great page turner, and I loved the concept of how an individual exits whilst always forgotten in the world.This is the second book I've read of Claire North's and unwittingly had already earmarked [b:84K 35511975 84K Claire North https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508570699s/35511975.jpg 56923809] (also by North). North's writing style is pretty unique with half completed sentences and almost a stream of thought put down on the pages. It wouldn't seem to work, but it reads brilliantly.Hope Arden has a unique condition that she is forgotten. I loved that the book looked at the effect of being forgotten and the loneliness that goes hand in hand. There's also the practical impact of being forgotten such as medical treatment or anything requiring long term attention.The opening chapters explain Hope's early life and though the story is told from Hope being (I think) mid/late-30s, the times that she's forgotten by her family is truly heartbreaking - and that's just the beginning!The first half of the book is pretty evenly paced, by which point I couldn't quite see how the story would end (it sort of has a half-ending in the middle), but then the story goes up several gears and races forward, twisting around questions of sanity and reality (if you're always forgotten, do you exist? Did they exist? What don't you know?).Definitely recommend.

Beautifully illustrated and communicated. Some particular pages rang more than true for me and it's useful and helps to see the way others articulate their own depression.

With such a simple read, I'll be passing this on to my family members to read so that they have a little more insight into what goes on inside my own head.

Certainly a page turner and an easy read. Interesting concepts on near-future issues, but I was left feeling a bit...unchallenged.

The story, sort of, revolves around Libby who is a juror on a panel that decides who is responsible in autonomous car collisions. These inquests have always been closed-doors and utterly opaque, and nearly always lays the fault on the human, so Libby gives us an inside view of what's going on.

There's a “Hacker” who takes control of a number of cars and states that each Passenger will die in two hours time. It's then put to the jurors in the inquest to decide (along with a vote from the public - ala dystopian x-factor) as to which single individual will survive.

Jack Larsson is an MP on the panel of jurors. He's horrid. I got the impression he was a Farage type character, disgustingly sexist, racist, self centred, the works. The author does a great job of keeping Larsson on character - as much as it was hard to read this character.

What I had trouble with was how the Hacker had unprecedented control over not only every single car in the UK, but also what seemed like hundred of cameras inside the inquest. The hacker could turn off the audio from the passengers and somehow also kill their network reception on their phones (okay, maybe...) but why the passengers didn't resort to writing on a bit of paper to communicate...it seemed like (to me at least) an obvious tool to use.

The hijacking story ends around 80% in the book which left me kind of confused as to what was coming next. The last of the book is split in half between 3 months later where Libby is the voice for an activist group and the 2 years later when (another) inquest into Jack Larsson's involvement.

The end felt pretty jarring whilst also trying to clean up all the loose ends and (almost) quickly making sure all the baddies have their comeuppance (though in “reality” the real baddies get away scott free...).

I think it makes a good holiday read, but not so well suited to my desire to read a clever dystopian view on near-future technology.

There's a clever story in here, with some decent humour but for me, personally, the undertone of sexism and 1980s machismo was a turn off.

I almost want to put two ratings for this book. One for the story and one for how I enjoyed the story. Amazingly I've actually read everything that Pearson (the author) has published. I really enjoyed the early works and the Clement series is pretty strong - though the last Clement book had similar tones that this book had. I can't quite articulate it, but it feels like Jim Davidson...

The actual story, once it gets around 30% and we meet Mungo Thunk, is pretty entertaining. The protagonist is (unrealistically, but works for the story) transformed from a completely unreliable and irresponsible idiot - into a thoughtful, caring, responsible and somehow a successful entrepreneur.

Amazingly the core of the story makes sense and there's a decent twist.

But, for me personally, I don't enjoy books that a so riddled with that slimy Jim Davidson feeling.

Didn't so much smash the patriarchy than slit it's throat and stand over it whilst it bled out!

I couldn't put this down and chomped it down in a matter of days. Great engaging and graphic writing.

The book description of a cross between Pacific Rim and Handmaid's Tale is fairly close, though in some ways I can see how this system came to be (women being treated as objects) based on our reality moreso. I suspect this is helped by the author using real Chinese history to inform characters and features of the story.

There's some pretty bleak stuff in there, and some refreshing views on relationships and status quo.

Really good stuff. Definitely reads like it would relate to the YA audience, but still very engaging for old dudes like me!

Really enjoyed this thriller. An easy read and natural page turner (with nice short chapters). I was also drawn to this book because I know Brighton (UK) very very well, and I love reading stories located in places that are familiar to me.

The story is a solid thriller and paced really well, and a great read for a holiday (I powered through it over 2 days).

I really loved how (somehow, I'm not sure quite how), the author, Koomson managed to take the character Macy and make me firstly dislike her and get annoyed with the character, then whilst getting frustrated with her, start to understand her and feel compassion towards her, and by the end see strength in her that was always there, just revealed perfectly at the pace the story needed. Surprising stuff 👍

I didn't quite expect the book (read on my Kindle) to be quite that short.

It's more of a scene than a book - which is fine, but exceptional short!

As the synopsis says, it's a story of a couple that want to share Christmas gifts but it comes at the cost of the possessions that are most valued to them.

In that, it's a tale of kindness and sacrifice. Except that the possessions they sell for the funds are spent on the one thing that complements the other's valuable possession, ie. Beautiful brushes for beautiful hair (that was sold to raise funds).

And in that this is a warning that possessions and gifts do not make one happy. Love does that, and it can't be bought.

The story also smacks of “older” times from New York (though I can't remember whether it was based there or not), and as such, even though both the man and woman make the same mistake, it seems that the woman is somehow left to blame and the man gets away with lounging back on the sofa.

Sure, those are words from the time, but I've really no idea how people are reading this book today and leaving reviews saying they're left with a year in their eye, etc. Left me feeling sorry for the poor sods.

A sweet tale of kindness. I asked for recommendations for Christmas–feelings books, and this is one that came up, and it does indeed do a good job of getting those feel–good vibes going.

The story is a little sickly sweet, but that's okay. I particularly liked the first 1/4 of the story that follows Louise, an unexpected adopted mother to Hope. This part is particularly tender and gentle.

The book definitely left me with the desire to follow the Christmas traditions that's created in the story, which as the book ends, it's followed by real life stories of individuals who did just that.

I have the kindle version that, unbeknownst to me, included some twenty-odd true stories at the end, making up around 20% of the kindle edition. I read a few of these, but they did follow the same pattern, and eventually skipped over a few feeling it was similar to reading an appendix of a book (and yes, this makes me a little bit of a terrible person!!!).

Overall: does the job I had hoped it would do: get me in the mood for Christmas by reminding me of the “gift of giving (love)”.

Well paced, well written and engaging crime thriller. Not my typical cup of tea, but really enjoyed it.

I was a little wary of picking this book up (from recommendations) as it was book 3 in DI Adam Fawley books, but it turns out there was nothing to worry about.

Although the story does include characters whom I can only assume had their backstories explained in previous books, it only adds depth to the characters rather than feeling like I was missing something.

The story itself begins with a house fire and (effectively) an entire family being consumed in the blaze. DI Fawley and team then set about digging out leads and trying to understand what had happened.

It's what I'd expect from a crime novel (whilst I half imagine an Inspector Morse episode). The story is extreme thorough in taking me through the approach to the investigation, each following up on leads, some dead ends, some theories requiring proof. There seems to be just the right amount of supporting characters that I can follow them as each chapter changes perspective.

There's also a fairly significant plot points around infant death - something that is in my personal life and I'm wary of reading or watching in stories - but the author, Cara Hunter, doesn't include this in a grotesque way and it's handled carefully (or carefully enough for me).

Otherwise a really well paced thriller - where I found I seemed to gobble down the last 1/4 of the book in a few short sittings and couldn't put the book down right at the end. Great stuff. Definitely introduced me to a genre I've typically not been interested in.

Stressful, but solid, reading.

My rating is based on how much I personally enjoyed the story. It was pretty heavy reading, and perhaps more so as I knew there was an underlying bullying aspect that ran through the story - and bullying always puts me on edge.

The book itself is brilliantly written and the climax of the story is masterfully executed. Golding does an excellent job of slowly building up the tension throughout the story until it's crashing so hard at the end of the story it seems like there's no way out.

Ralph's (one of the protagonists) feeling of peril at the end of the book is visceral. Reminding me of my typical nightmares and stress dreams where I'm unable to escape the terror no matter what choice I make.

I loved it; gripping, heart warming, shameful, despairing, brilliant and quite beautiful.

I'd seen the film some years ago and knew it was based on the book but had heard it diverged from the book a lot in the end. But wow, the book was a different beast.

The story centres around Robert Neville, the last man alive in a world of vampires and undead.

He's surviving, but for what he doesn't know. The story doesn't hold back to expose his awful constant sexual frustration and how, somehow, rape is normalised to him.

His survival is bleak and he knows it. He's constantly asking why he continues and fights for his sanity whilst every single night he barricades himself in his home whilst the undead come calling at his door.

Brilliantly written, brilliant story and I only wish it was longer.

When I read the last line of the book, I broke into a smile. Such a good story that holds up so well after being written in 1954.

A tough/hard science start, but gets picks up and good gosh, the ideas in this book are...wow, expansive!

The Three Body Problem ends in a way that left me feeling like I had to read the second book in the trilogy, and Ye Wenjie passes on the story to Luo Ji, though as the read we're not sure how or why at this early point.

I found the first chunk of the book (around 20%) pretty tough to read and very “hard science”, but then it feels like the groundwork has been laid and the story kicks into gear.

One thing I found myself thinking over and over as I read through the book are how amazing Liu Cixin's mind is to be able to create these broad, world impacting ideas founded in (what I seemed to think was) real science. The variety and twist of ideas are quite amazing - particularly as the author tells of different ways that the entirety of humanity could be obliterated!

The last 1/4 of the book sped up for me and the story galloped towards a finale that tapered off fairly nicely at the end. Certainly I feel like this ending is enough to stop at (though I'll definitely read the last in the trilogy, Death's End).

Great stuff, if a little heavy at first.

My first “hard science” read, but had me immediately inspired to learn more about physics.

I really enjoyed this book - and I loved the science it discussed. It got me watching youtube videos on physics and asking questions about how things work and made me want to learn more.

The story itself spanned a full lifetime, starting around the 1960s (in fact earlier) and follows through to (what I presume) is modern day. The book is full of historical references (and my Chinese knowledge is practically nil, so this was great) and chock full of amazing, believable physics questions that had me pondering over between reading sessions.

Great stuff.

Unexpected scary bits!

It was a tiny bit scary and it had really good descriptions. It was kinda fun and creepy scary. It was about Harry Potter doing the Triwizard Tournament.

(I read this book aloud to my son - aged 7 - this year, so the review and rating is entirely his - personally I would have rated this as 3 star, it was super repetitive and I'm worried about the 5th book being even bigger and recovering all the stuff we already know about the characters and the world!)

A bit obvious, uneventful and a miss for me.

As always this review is based on my experience of reading this book and not reflective of the actual content or story for a broader audience (I say because I'm not particularly glowing in my rating!).

If I had this on holiday then I may have warmed to it a little more. It definitely feels like the kind of book that doesn't require much thinking.

I found the twist “baddie” very obvious but at the same time lots of the story moved forwards without any real reason.

I came away from reading the book like it had been 100 pages or so. Maybe it's because I felt like the characters didn't have any depth - the sister Victoria is cruel and unkind to the protagonist Letty, but it seems for no reason other than to make a bad character (in the living world).

Then there's Walter, living in the afterlife (or the interim, or maybe even purgatory...), it's unclear why he's been there for so long - what was special about his name. He wrote a book of poem, god knows how many hundreds of years prior to the current day, so I'm not entirely sure why he doesn't pass on.

Later we meet Hector. I'm not sure how he's part of Walters “life”. Maybe it was explained and I skimmed idly past it, or perhaps it's just some rando that has a larger part to play - and even then, when Hector plays his hand, he kind of just falls off the pages.

All in all, a bit of a miss for me.

If this were a technical rating, the book would get 5 stars. For me however, the book felt like a bit of a slog. It took me 2 months to read it and the story line, good gosh, feels like it is stretched across time.

I felt like there were large sections of the story that didn't really apply to anything in the overall arch that we were following - or maybe it was so long that I lost the thread of the story!

It also felt like the main protagonist, Cheng Xin, was being constantly punished by the author - although she does admit her own uphill climb in one of the later chapters entitled “The Stairs of Responsibility”.

The ending of the book (last 15%) also describes in detail the end of the Solar System. It's pretty visual and pretty bleak, and one heck of an idea to wrap my head around.

In fact, the book is full of ideas that are hard to wrap my head around - and that's what Liu Cixin does amazingly well.

For me though, as someone who is reasonably new to hard sci-fi, I found this book to tip me over the edge into “whoa, this is a bit much”. I've also read that apparently there's a fourth book in the works (or even finished) and I've no idea how that story would even continue!!!

As for the contents of the story, I'm not sure I can even explain - certainly epic and thought provoking!

Decent sci-fi read, not terribly challenging, perhaps a bit overly grim towards the end, but entertaining all round.

After reading The Three Body Problem, I feel like sci-fi might be spoilt for me if it's not rooted deeply in hard science! Though Recursion does stem from a real world MIT experiment (amazingly) it's more akin to the romantic notion of sci-fi (if that's even a thing!).

The book splits pretty cleanly into three phases: 1. setup and drama, 2. sci-fi, time travel, action, 3. world ending disaster and reconciliation.

I felt like the first part was a little underwhelming, wondering where the story was going and what these two characters had to do with each other: Helena and Barry.

Thankfully this is cleanly answered in the second part where some interesting ideas are at play: specifically being able to travel back to a memory and “fork” reality off into a new timeline. Though it's only mentioned briefly, it feels like this a nod to four dimensions.

The last part when the characters decide they have to save the world - though apparently it's just down to one person not only being responsible for the end of the world but also be responsible for stopping it.

The book does its best to tell some fairly horrific tales of how the world would end - though this is very American-centric, but as the characters are based in the states, I'd imagine this is because it's their point of view. The descriptions of skin melting off and sores and blisters and radiation burning and all of that is fairly graphic. I can't decide if it made this part of the story more harrowing or if it just felt grotesque.

There's also large chunks of scenes where the protagonists are such incredible pain (the skin from a handprint peeling off and sticking to the walls) that I wondered how they were supposed to actually perform anything, instead of passing out from internal failure. But still, it's just a story!

Overall, a decent read, not super challenging and explored some “fun” ideas with time travel and the concepts of what reality might be.