Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 to 4 stars, rounded to 4, for a start in a new series.
Could have been more suspenseful.
World-building excellent, buta bit much, with all the different sexes and species.
So it took me a few books in between to get through this, but I still recommend it.

Tragedy and forced actions happens later in the book which change everything, and after that the captain has to answer to a committee of the GC (Galactic Coalition?) of non-human species, where he chose to speak freely, starting a chain reaction with political consequences. It will be interesting to see how the conflict develops in the next book(s).

Diverse, good ideas and conflict, romance in strange ways. Exploring themes which may be relevant to us soon (AI, interspecies sex, gender), all in a way which I consider very well written, better even than in Not Your Sidekick. So I have to say, THIS book deserves the 4 star even more, which I also rated the "Not your sidekick".
Will certainly read the next book sometime, not sure what I am in the mood for now.

View all my reviews

Review: Heist Society

Heist Society by Ally Carter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Bought this on a whim, price was ok (ebook).
Wanted to read about a heist, so basically should have been what I wanted.
Not enough suspense or action. A lot twists, but not everything was solved (or I did not get it).
Took me a little too long to read, would have expected to read something fast, but while it did not drag, it did not really manage to keep me turning-pages either.
No sex, no death, a little romance which did not really interest me, a little bit of love-triangle, but not solved. Not sure to call the open threads cliffhanger, more like a reason to buy the next book, but it is all not enough for me to invest in this series.

Ok read for rainy day, but will most probably not read the other books in the series.
Still have a few other things from this author (free preview, short story etc.), will try to read them to make sure wether this is an author for me - I think, maybe not. Not recommended.

View all my reviews

Review: The Restless Dead:

The Restless Dead: by Simon Beckett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My sister mentioned she just bought the 6th David Hunter book, so I thought it was time to read this ...

As she mentioned, it was ok, but not too great, way too much infodump, even in the end to bring all together, while well written, it was not too suspenseful. A lot of twists, most I did not see coming, so for some this might be enough for a higher rating, but think, all in all there where too many twists and too many intertwined stories, could have cut 20-30% to make for a more suspenseful book.
For that it is for me 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the infodumps and being too long.

As I have been burned recently by reading 2 or more of one author back2back, I will wait for the price to sink for #06 and read it later this year or next.

Still recommended, if you do not know the author yet, the crimes and descriptions are grissly and very real. The author has (like a few others) visited the (first) Body Farm, in Tennessee in Knoxville, USA. There are a few (older) standalone novels he wrote, which I thought where really bad, the writing style for the David Hunter series is much better.

If you like this I suggest Jefferson Bass a duo of Jon Jefferson, an author and journalist, and anthropologist Dr. William Bass, who invented and built the original, first Body Farm.

View all my reviews

Review: Not Your Sidekick

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars rounded up to 4, may read the next books.
Light, fluffy YA, dystopian setting, a lot of romance (LGBTQIA+), no sex, no blood, no killing, no triggers. Clean, as far as I remember no swearing (or in languages I do not speak).
Worldbuilding is well done, with the MC learning about the past.
Nice idea for a change with superheroes and villains.
Reasonably read, just the right length, could have been a bit more suspenseful, or have sex or whatever. Nice twists with the big ones in Chapter 9, more than 50% in the story. The first twist I saw coming, the second not, so thats good. Others I did not think about too much, so I was surprised.
Good well rounded show of friendship, trust and values vs. false information. With a good dose of changing history and paranoia thrown in.
Would love to this filmed 1:1, but fear too much might be changed.
Recommended. Will certainly read the next books sometime.

View all my reviews

Review: Jagdbeute: Ein Ostsee-Krimi

Jagdbeute: Ein Ostsee-Krimi by Frank Bao Carter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

German book, no translation. Not recommended.
Abandoned.
DNF during 1. Chapter.
Blurp and lesen.net email promised a good book, but that did not happen.
Thrown into action without explanation and prologue or introduction, it read like the beginning of some cheap would-be erotic. Not sure wether this at some point in time was really sold, I got an email from lesen.net that it is free, and grabbed it, after reading the blurb from lesen.net, which is imho way off.
Do not pay for it, if it is free or can be lent, and might be for you, grab it, else, I cannot describe it more, as the style did not appeal to me, and I DNFed it very early, so cannot say more about it.
As my choice of cheap/free ebooks is sometimes really bad, trusting the blurb for each book too much, I will probably try to DNF a lot of books early, so as to read better stuff.

View all my reviews

Review: Never Somewhere Else

Never Somewhere Else by Alex Gray
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Recommended by Paul here on Goodreads, stumbled over the author again in the Bookperk daily email with cheap and free ebooks (although that was for another book in the series).

From the notes at night in bed from iPhone:
Should be a Crime to write so boring! Unlikeable characters and no suspense so far. Did not gripp me. DNF (did-not-finish), abandoned at 13%, will try to remember to not read this author again.

This was supposed to play in Glasgow, not that I felt it.
For some reason after reading the blurb I thought one of the main characters was a woman (prefer crimes with a female MC), but it was not, and the two men where as bland as could be. Also for some reason this book felt older, more like 70ies/80ies with the remarks and phrases.
Not for me, and cannot honestly bore someone else with it, do not buy, wasted money.

View all my reviews

Review: The Acid Suite

The Acid Suite by Craig Lea Gordon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received an ARC from Booksprout for review
Chose this under the wrong impression what this would be.
What it is is 4 very short stories, 8-10 pages each, giving less than 40 pages
to read.
World-Building was good in most, but while it is all SF, most are also
Horror, which I read in the past, but do not really need nowadays.
The titles:
- Bad Hands, was ok, Rebellion, would like something longer from that world. 3-3.5 stars for this alone.
- The Machine, pure Horror, and first of two twists I saw coming from a certain point in the story, another one (the last one) not, but that did not save. Also, due to content I only read this in FF, skipping passages. Bloody and boring. 1.5-2 star, with 2 only for the final twist.
- Theatre of Death, more Horror than SF, with a bit of fantasy thrown in, although I must admit, I did not understand all of the story, felt like it was cut from a bigger one, which was needed to understand it. 1 star. Nothing to write home about.
- Transmit this one is real SF, but again too short for me. 2.5-3 stars.
All together 2 stars. Will not bother with this author again and I think this should be added for free to a longer book rather than sold separately or put together with other short stories in a bigger collection.
Reading a lot of SF and the ongoing "The Expanse"-Series, there I enjoyed the short novellas and even paid for them (thinking too much, though), but that where all longer than this short number - ok, they where mostly novellas, not short stories, but still this felt like not enough meat for me.

View all my reviews