Blame!, Vol. 6 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love how complicated and wild this is. How it forces us to decipher the future. It's alien, sure, but its rules are fathomable with a little patience and interest.

It doesn't hand-hold anyone. I really miss this kind of literature.

Plus, it's freaking insane. I'm sure an acid trip would be less nuts. :)

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Blame!, Vol. 5 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Damn, this is one mindfuq of a series. Just when I think it can't get stranger, we're heading into deep net territory the way I imagine 2077 would be in the nightmare net mixed with true Tron territory that ignores the real world mixed with human cyborg viruses infecting the entire lovecraftian universe.

In short, it's wild. Truly wild.



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Blame! Vol. 4 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating world-mystery going on here. Little details keep popping up that make it super rich. Like silicon life forms and AIs now, as well as unlocked features in his own body. But the real treat isn't in the new things, but just how obvious and normal the truly strange is.

I'm loving this. Truly weird and original and out there. Cyberpunk on hard SF steroids as imagined as an Escher painting and H.R. Geiger. :)




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Rule of Evidence by John G. Hemry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This wasn't better or worse, in particular, from the first two, but it certainly WAS a bit more sensational and bigger across the board.

Where the previous ones were mild and realistic operations of justice and being stubborn about seeing it through, this one felt like a direct jab at nearly refrigerating his loved one for the sake of pathos and drama.

Ahem. Well, I guess that is what it was. Like a season finale on a courtroom drama tv show.

Well, at least it was still entertaining enough. Not particularly brilliant, and I could see the resolution from kilometers away and it was just a matter of time before our plucky hero finally got around to thinking about it, but it was a nicely formulaic ending.


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Blame!, Vol. 3 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel like it's a true rarity now to find works of the imagination that go way out of their way to shine like this.

I'm not saying it's an EASY work to get into, but it's absolutely wonderful. Dark, nightmarish, massive SF cyberpunk vibes that pre-date and out-shine the most futuristic aspects of the Matrix, much darker than Aliens, and absolutely crazy in scope. Perspective is limited, but each volume hints and greater and greater reality-horrors.

I'm utterly delighted. It absolutely invites the reader to figure everything out and it enriches everything.

This particular volume is wild.

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Burden of Proof by John G. Hemry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There's very little I can say about this except it's a decently formulaic procedure-centric MilSF following the life of a junior officer who must confront the death of a friend and the dereliction of duty by another junior officer--leading to a court martial.

What this is: competent and mildly interesting and the pacing is steady as they come. Like a polished made-for-tv movie.

What this isn't: amazing or brilliant or surprising in the least.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have value. It was entertaining. And that's all I expected from it.

How much SF was in it? Ahem. Just do a word replace for Naval with Space and that'll cover it.

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Blame!, Vol. 2 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where the first mostly just had atmosphere, this one is giving us some real plot guts and I'm vibing it.

Super high-tech cyberpunk far future SF more strange than anything we usually get now. Its imagination is wild.

Let's go beyond uploads and downloads of minds and just hit full layered Geiger realities, gravitational guns, networked genes, wooooo!

I miss this unhinged stuff. Truly.

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