Review: Star Wars: Thrawn

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Chapter-Start-Musings remind me of The Art of War (which I consider greatly overhyped).

Great book for Star Wars fans. Will certainly read the sequels, the second Thrawn: Alliances bought after it was under my usual price barrier (flexible, but most times Eur 10, which is currently nearly exact Us$ 11). The third book is on my daily watchlist.
Although most of the action is viewed from the POV of the empire, knowing all movies and/or some of the other books helps.
Very well integrated in the Star Wars Universe. And the characters are just to die for, complex, well written, and they learn constantly and grow during the path they take in the book.

Recommend it, Space-Opera at its best, although for non-Star-Wars-fans it will be not as good. Reasonably fast read, with an interesting ending, which is not really a cliff-hanger, but rather a twist (or really two!), which will make the sequel and the path the main characters take rather interesting.

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Review: Catfishing on CatNet

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bought with an Amazon XMas Gift certificate from my Sister Katja and her Husband Andreas.
Also bought the Audible version (as often was rather cheap when bought with an ebook for Kindle).

Wow! Longer review in the next few days when I am not using the app on my phone at 11:30 pm in bed.

Trigger Warning: animal death, megalomaniac, dictator, abuse, bullying.

This is a nice, clean YA about diversity and growing up, no sex, and a bit much for the diversity of genders, would have liked a section at the end of the book with an overview and short explanations. Some I knew, but 1-2 pronouns where new to me. Did not look them up yet.
Could have done with a bit of sex, but that is maybe just me.

Some things are little SF, so this has a feeling of being like Max Headroom "15 minutes into the future", for those of you who still remember that show - it was on German TV when I grew up in the 80ies.
Hacking feels real, and the mentioning of safe surfing, VPN, Proxy is good, but could have been more detailed or a section in the back with explainations would be nice to have.

Just when I thought this would get only 3-4 stars (maybe 3.5 rounded up depending my mood to 4), at abuot 50% or maybe 2/3 in the book the story took a few very interesting turns. Without revealing some main points of the story I will just describe the main broad themes. You have to think about education, ethics regarding how to act and what to allow when you teach someone like your child. The Sex-Ed Robot is one of these introductions of this theme.
Also makes you think about privacy and post-privacy.
As the numbers of teenage/underage pregnancies are rather high, imho something is definitely wrong in our world with sex-education, even without Robots teaching it.

All situations, even if some are SF, are rather realistic and well thought out - in contrast to my worst unrealistic read scene in Numbers (the review - today it would be 1-2 *), where the couple on the run would have frozen to death.

As a sequel is promised at the end of the book, I will certainly pre-order this as soon as possible and read it.

Highly recommended YA with a little SF thrown in and themes to think about.

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Review: Two Can Keep a Secret

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really looking forward to the TV-series - if it happens. And have already pre-ordered her second book in the "One of us is lying"-series.
Standalone. Recommended, but not as good as One of Us Is Lying, sorry to say.
Was in the mood for this after the long winded The Likeness, so I bought it and began reading it the same day.
A little good use of social media and tech ( Skype, facetime, instagram ), but not as much as in "One of us is lying", sadly.

Lots of twists, up to the last sentence.
Why only 4 stars? The police had information which was crucial to solving the case. At least a team effort, but not enough for me for 5 stars, sorry to say. And no love-interest for Ezra and only a hint of one for Mia and it was not entirely clear to me if she was out of the closet or not.
Still recommended, fast read with short, interchanging POV-chapters, clearly dated and marked who was narrating. Page-turner.

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Review: Two Can Keep a Secret

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really looking forward to the TV-series - if it happens. And have already pre-ordered her second book in the "One of us is lying"-series.
Standalone. Recommended, but not as good as One of Us Is Lying, sorry to say.
Was in the mood for this after the long winded The Likeness, so I bought it and began reading it the same day.

Lots of twists, up to the last sentence.
Why only 4 stars? The police had information which was crucial to solving the case. At least a team effort, but not enough for me for 5 stars, sorry to say. And no love-interest for Ezra and only a hint of one for Mia and it was not entirely clear to me if she was out of the closet or not.
Still recommended, fast read with short, interchanging POV-chapters, clearly dated and marked who was narrating. Page-turner.

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Review: The Likeness

The Likeness by Tana French
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Low price, bought this as the first book in the series and this one are filmed as a limited event series for TV according to this article . Already own the first book.

Like the first book not very suspenseful. Interesting idea, but the hype about Tana French fails to convince me. Took me too long to read, and while I own #05 and #06 (due to their low price or a promo), I am reluctant to read more.
Recommended for fans of Ireland. No page-turner. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3, as this is no debut nor a first in a series, rather more of the same and while interesting not really a crime but more a slow burning mystery.
If the other books also get filmed - the limited TV-Series with 8 episodes is based on the first two books in the Dublin Murder Squad series -, I might change my mind and buy and read more, but for now I shelf that under "ok, but not my cup-a-tea".

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Review: The Likeness

The Likeness by Tana French
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Low price, bought this as the first book in the series and this one are filmed as a limited event series for TV according to this article . Already own the first book.

Like the first book not very suspenseful. Interesting idea, but the hype about Tana French fails to convince me. Took me too long to read, and while I own #05 and #06 (due to their low price or a promo), I am reluctant to read more.
Recommended for fans of Ireland. No page-turner. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3, as this is ni debut nor a first in a series, rather more of the same and while interesting not really a crime but more a slow burning mystery.
If the other books also get filmed - the limited TV-Series with 8 episodes is based on the first two books in the Dublin Murder Squad series -, I might change my mind and buy and read more, but for now I shelf that under "ok, but not my cup-a-tea".

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Review: And She Was

And She Was by Alison Gaylin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trigger warning: vanished children and teenagers, but no abuse, no torture.
Some killing and violence against adults, a little over the top.
Female MC, currently single, really like her. Story takes place in the USA.

If you watched the "Unforgettable" TV-Show, then you know about the affliction. To call it an illness may be wrong, but it is certainly not really wantable: a different wired brain, where a person does recall every memory in great detail.
In the book the MC Brenna Spector is a PI who can remember everything. Up to a certain point this is interesting and well integrated, but the story gets brocken with memories which do nothing for the cases nor the story nor for me. While it is not too distracting, at least 10% could have been left out without changing the story - boring!

The main case is a cold case about a missing little girl, which may be related to another, older case about the MC's sister going missing.

Quite a few twists, and I guessed none. The case is complicated, and what I really liked was no vigilantism, while the "going places without telling someone" did happen, it was not totally obvious that it would be dangerous. And most of time the MC told someone where she was going. The "no cell phone service"-problem was logical in that context and well explained.

Bought this one and the next one for a low price (less than 3 Eur each for the ebooks, but not sure, wether is the normal price or I was just lucky).

Recommended 3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 for first book in the series, may get better with next one, here is hoping!



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