Chuckles Mini Review Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with reviews from through last year.

1) Christopher Brookmeyer-Bedlam  
Heaven is a prison. Hell is a playground. Would it be your ultimate fantasy to enter the world of a video game? A realm where you don’t have to go to work or worry about your health; where you can look like a hero or a goddess; where you can fly space-ships, slay dragons, yet all of it feels completely real. A realm where there are no consequences and no responsibilities.

Or would it be your worst nightmare? Stuck in an endless state of war and chaos where the pain and fear feels real and from which not even death can offer an escape.

Prison or playground. Heaven or hell. This is where you find out. This is white-knuckle action, sprawling adventure, merciless satire and outrageous humour like you’ve never experienced.

This is Bedlam.  

I'm not really a gamer though I sometimes watch my dad playing his games. I was more into Pac Man, Space Invaders, Chuckie Egg, Crash Bandicoot and the rally games but I was hopeless at shooter games and don't really play any more. I've read and enjoyed things like Ready Player One so the gamer aspect that others didn't like about the book wasn't really an issue for me. In fact parts of the game play were interesting. I didn't get some of the gamer terms but I just ignored that and maybe I missed the point of some of the gamer related humour if there was any but that wasn't my issue with the book. I'm also Scottish so I had no problem with the language used in the book.

I didn't like the humour in the book. I felt it was trying too hard to be funny and kept falling flat for me. I spent more time rolling my eyes at it than being amused by it. I did find it a bit of a struggle. I found the MC to be a bit whiny and annoying as he moaned about the state his life was in before the real trouble began for him. I just didn't take to him at all which made it harder to really care what was happening to him. I guess I just didn't anything about the book and I don't see much point in reading any more by the author if I don't get his writing style.

Read Nov 2018
DNF-1 star. 

2) Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff-Illuminae

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again. 

I had worries before I started this book as I have previously DNFed books where the format is reports, emails, interviews etc. I don't enjoy that or diary formats and this had both but I liked the sound of the story and I was trying to branch out into reading more SF which is why I decided to read it. To be honest it wasn't the format that ended up being the problem for me. I actually found it interesting to see the illustrations of the starships as that gave me an exact picture in my mind as to what the fleet looked like. Starcharts and things like that were also fun to look at. Unipedia was a clever way to introduce the info dump background information without having an actual info dump although it did distract from the flow of the story to stop and read every bit.

It was the characters and content that I had more of an issue with. I didn't really care for either of the main characters one way or the other. I didn't hate them but I could live without discovering what happened to them. Kady I didn't find that likeable overall. I just felt she had a bit of an attitude and maybe thought she was a bit superior. Her email interactions with Ezra I found pretty dull and boring, like a script more than a real conversation between teenagers. I failed to see the point of her keeping a diary where she moaned and whined about things that had nothing to do with the main plot. I found those bits pointless and wanted to skip them. The messaging between Ezra and his friends seemed to focus on hot girls which bored and irritated me and Kady's chats with her contact were equally dull. The only bits that interested me were the attack on the planet and the first AI induced attack on the ships. That was what I had wanted to read about, not the dull interactions of bored teenagers. I also found parts of it too technical and started skimming bits which is never a good sign.

For me this book was style over substance and the teen romance stuff was overshadowing the interesting story buried beneath. It felt like too much hard to plough through all the pointless stuff to get to the good snippets of story that occasionally popped up and I wasn't prepared to do it.

Read Dec 2018
DNF-2 star 

3) Rajan Khanna-Falling Sky 
Ben Gold lives in dangerous times. Two generations ago, a virulent disease turned the population of most of North America into little more than beasts called Ferals. Some of those who survived took to the air, scratching out a living on airships and dirigibles soaring over the dangerous ground. Ben, a lone wolf, has reluctantly agreed to use his skills and his airship to help an idealist scientist, Miranda, on her search for a cure. Protecting her from Ferals is dangerous enough but when power-mad raiders run rampant, Ben finds himself in the most dangerous place of all—the ground.  

Ben’s journey leads him to Gastown, a city in the air recently conquered by belligerent and expansionist pirates. Old friends and new enemies are drawn into a struggle that quickly becomes a fight for the fate of the world. Ben must decide to focus on his own survival or risk it all on a desperate chance for a better future. 

I like the idea of a world where people live in the air and airship cities fascinate me, even though I'm not a fan of the steampunk genre. This one being set in the future rather than Victorian times suited me better. Scientists work in fortified buildings on the ground to try and find a cure for the disease that causes the ferals while airships ferry people and supplies between the base and trade cities in the sky. I liked the worldbuilding with the raiders and the zombie creatures ready to attack. There were decent bits of action including air battles between airships, and attacks on the cities and base by raiders and ferals. The overall story was quite interesting.

Ben was ok as an MC but he could be really irritating. He is continually persuading other people to put their lives in danger because of his obsession with his airship. He is interested in one woman  but sleeps with an old flame for the sake of it, annoying both women. He takes too many risks and gets everyone else into trouble. I do find him to be a bit selfish. thinking his needs come before everyone else, even when he is their guest and abusing their hospitality. I liked Miranda but her obsession with catching ferals in her search for the cure also puts everyone in danger and there were times that I wanted to shake her to wake her up to reality. I did like some of the side characters like Sergei who makes the fuel they need, and Diego and Rosie from another colony. I especially liked Viktor, who Ben meets on his travels but I wasn't greatly happy with the plot surrounding him, which was somewhat un-satisfying. Clay's continual bitching at Ben also got on my nerves.

I liked the book enough to finish it but I can't see me reading on with the series. There was nothing wrong with the book and it was entertaining but it just lacked that little something to grab me and make me want to read on with the series.  

Read Aug 2018
3 stars.