Review: Babylon's Ashes

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This is one of the ebooks, where I wanted to wait for price to sink under 10 or 9 Eur (Us$ 12-11), and now it did, so I bought it, although today (October 24th, 2017) 3 pre-ordered ebooks where published and my Kindle greeted me with "not enough memory ...". Time to delete some more issues "Der Spiegel" (weekly German news-journal) and "The Economist" (weekly news-journal).
Deus Ex Machina ! Not to spoil anything. But well done.
As usual alternating POV-chapterwise.
... weird, dead alien technology with effects we don’t understand ...
Still going strong for me, while this could work as a standalone, I do not advise to read it without the other books before, you miss out on too much.

Recommended series, as is the book. The next book will be published in a week, but I might wait again for the price to sink lower.

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Review: Punk 57

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

YA? NA? Whatever.
One of the best books I read this year (2017).
believable, convincing teens growing up, complicated, but interesting romance, a few NSFW sex scenes. Abuse and bullying, veering into rape. A little social media used expertly - could have been more for my taste, but maybe it was more realistic this way, with RL playing a more important part, but the threat of Facebook and Youtube always showing clips forever playing a dark role of exposure and making the bullying last also forever, when in the past it would have been over and forgotten by some in weeks or months.

Not sure wether this counts as a standalone, as there are books about some of the minor characters, but I guess that is only in the same world, so not considered a series.

A strong, important book I recommend highly, worth way more than the 5stars I can give, one of the best books I read this year, both with a message and entertaining. Would really like to see this filmed.


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Review: A Deep Thing

A Deep Thing by A.K. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Got this rather cheap, the blurb read interesting. Also at the end with the notes about the author I discovered it was a female author, which is always a plus for me. Except for the romance.
Solid 4* for a debut. Contains too much romance for my taste. Some scenes where way too long and not to spoil the end, while I thought it would take a turn into SF, it was more fantasy. And this way also more like James Rollins, what with the trust-no-one vibe and the conspiracy theories. Felt also a bit too long for me, as I took altogether too long to finish it, a sure sign it was not as suspenseful as I hoped.
As I read Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau in my youth and despite my disability I swam then (Baltic Sea sometimes or when the family went to a swimming pool), the diving was what interested me most in this book and the short passages where rather interesting and felt real, like the author had experienced this kind of cave-diving herself.

With a debut or when other pieces fall into place I tend to overlook some things, so others might consider this a 3star book. But I saw no mistakes, not in the logic of the story, nor in the writing (grammar etc.) - sometimes in speech it felt like I would have said it with a word or two more, but maybe I am just more used to some UK expressions, from a different English-speaking-country (I am a foreigner, German born&breed, still living here).
Standalone.

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Review: The Ice Twins

The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Finally resolved to FF this, too much inner thoughts, not enough action.
The setting could not save it, together with some strange pictures these where the only good things about the book.
At times it reminded me of a Gothic Ghost Story, a little Horror here and there, veering into supernatural, some twists, nicely done the one in the end (with the 6 months later), but basically boring. Not my kind of book, have The Fire Child bought as this and The Fire Child where both recommended to me, and the reviews I read where 4 or 5 stars. Well, will look fast into that one to abandon it.
In the last years I fell for such bad drivel as Gone Girl, have yet to DNF Girl on a train, and maybe others (or I might not even start them). Looks to me like the whole genre "psychological thriller - unreliable narrator - drunk/drugs/mad" is not for me. Whatever, time is too short for such bad books.

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Review: Origin

Origin by Dan Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Guilty pleasure, 5star recommended page-turner of a book!

It follows the same formula or blueprint as the other books about Robert Langdon: namely someone gets killed, or something awful happens and Langdon has to discover who what when or whatever together with an always good looking female, but no sex, little or no romance usually, this time there is a little romance. Most times the couple is under time pressure and has to act so fast, they skip sleeping, eating and a lot of times bathrooms breaks - except then something significant happens in a bathroom (I seem to remember that from the Da Vinci Code). Ok, maybe I exaggerate, but basically that is the plot-structure in these books. Sounds boring? It is anything but, as with Inferno, #04 in the series, this book has themes which concern us all, and it delivers a lot of food for thought, also, staying mostly in one big area in Spain, not as much background noise of historical descriptions as in the last books, or maybe because it was more interesting to me, in the other books I skimmed these passages, as I think they where rather boring and most times did nothing for the story for me.
Hope this gets filmed, as the other books about Robert Langdon.

Not wanting to spoil anything, I cannot really say more, except that again, this book has a deep view of Religion and shows some of the things which went wrong. Also shows all sites of the trouble some have with Religion and its believes, juxtaposed with Science and what is troubling there.
What little there is of love, there is also Gay love, nicely integrated.

Two of the main twists (the main baddy, later named the Regent) I guessed early on, both where confirmed pretty late in the book.

Would have been a fast read, but some things made me think, so I took more time and I might look up some more info about places, art, architecture, which will also take time. As with the last book, I would like a link section so I could look at everything online (a virtual gallery might even exist, but I have to search for it).

Highly recommended, a fast page-turner and guilty pleasure standing high above others with the brain fodder it delivers.

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Review: To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Started this on the same day as Warcross, so I could read what fancies my mood. The last few days it was like rainy Sunday, so great time for reading. Only, it is Monday now, and the rain is still drizzeling. Typical autumn in Hamburg, Germany... Feels a bit like London, UK. Sometime it is even foggy in the morning.
This book is just the right kind of mood for that, but not really my type of book, just drama and romance, no crime, not enough twists (one near the end, although I did not guess it, it was also not totally a surprise) and little to no sex.
Recommended 3star and I will surly watch the movie which is supposed to be made. Had this on my wantlist for quite some time, and the news about the movie tipped me into buying it.

But, this the first part of a trilogy, and while it has short chapters (I think) and was a reasonable fast read, it did not gripp me and I would have liked a more nerdy / geek kind of girl as the MC. So I am not anticipating the next books, and last I checked, they cost me too much (9 Eur for an ebook, srsly?).

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Review: Warcross

Warcross by Marie Lu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pre-ordered Kindle Edition (eBook), this is supposed to be published October 3d, 2017. This is in Germany a national Holiday, celebrating the Fall of the Berlin Wall (was seperating East-from-West-Berlin) in 1989. Instead I received this early, on September 12, 2017 (the day of the Apple Keynote for iPhone X).
Read the review from "Reading after Midnight" - the drawing of Emika Chen, the MC, is great, really beautiful!
Cannot totally agree with the analysis of the romance, though, I thought it was a mixture of fandom, Stockholm-Syndrome, and real love, until near the twist near the end. And I think it is totally believable and was very well written.

The world-building (inside Warcross) was great, with learning how it works not forced in one big massive boulder on the reader, then also the MC learning what she doe not know. With the review from "Reading after midnight" I agree, there could have been more hacking, but at least it was shown that there is some team-spirit, others helping and also near the end, the MC asking for help, which is always a good thing and well explained with the example of helping other but not daring to ask for help. As someone who spent his whole, short work-life helping others as a former Helpdesk-Slave, I can totally relate to that, but I am used to asking for help, also as I am sitting in wheelchair and some things I just cannot do on my own.
That was also a part I really liked, that it was subtly introduced that one of the other warcross players was part of the Paralympics-Team, (disqualified for getting into a fight with a teammate) and then switched to Warcross.
And then one of the main players, the Captain of Emika's Team is sitting in a big, expensive wheel-chair. Even that we do not get much details about that was very good, felt naturally integrated, as if it is not a big deal - which it should not be, but would be nowadays.

Not a lot of twists, until near the end, and I guessed the real name of Zero quite early, felt obvious to me. No sex, just kisses and a little romance, felt a bit juvenile to me, as they are all at least 18, most older, I am not convinced, there should have been sex, even if happening off-page.

Regret mostly that I have to wait for the next book, but will definitely read her other Trilogy (Legend), which I have already marked as "reading" some time ago, but have not really started. Also my "currently reading" list is way too long, I will try to FastForward/DNF a few books to make this list shorter and more realistic.

As far as I have gathered from comments, the next book will offer the POV from ZERO.
Highly recommended, but as it is supposed to be a Trilogy, the whole will decide for me wether it was worthwhile. Like the style of writing though, chapter-lenth is good, so I hope book #02 and #03 do not disappoint. Ah, the long wait for not-yet-published-book...

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