The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I really wanted to like this more than I actually did. It's a slow moving corporate/samurai kind of novel, quite cyberpunk in some aspects, but kinda lacking in the hacking.

By all rights, I should have fallen in love with it. I didn't even mind the older swordswoman trope doing the lethal weapon gambit while trying to solve the mystery of her boss's corporate suicide and the fate of her old protege.

For the most part, I even liked the future-corporate vibes. It's ugly and backstabby, but that's the old cyberpunk trope, too.

So what happened? The setup was okay, the characters, such as Isako herself, were fairly decent. But honestly? The story was kinda bland. The reveals were low-key. The surprises weren't very surprising. I kept waiting and wanting for more.

I probably wouldn't have had a problem with this had I felt more in tune with the characters, or felt more kinship with Isako. Hell, if she had had more noir cliches attached to her, I probably would have just treated this like a fun cyberpunk romp that uncovered and recovered from some nastiness. Or not. As long as the vibe was there, it would have been fine.

As it was, it just felt a bit off to me. Not bad, just not ... there. Alas.

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Korean Webtoon [전지적 독자 시점] Vol. 18 by Sleepy-C
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Welcome to paradise. And Paradise Lost.

The subversion of story tropes are still going strong. And beautifully.

There's something about being a constellation... or a transcendent character.

This series is getting almost mythical. Or rather, beyond mythical. And it's become one of my favorites already. :)

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전지적 독자 시점 17 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 17] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have seriously not had quite THIS much fun with any manga, manhwa, Isekai, fantasy, or SF in quite a long time. Not and it being NEW to me at the same time.

And again, I found myself laughing out loud. Chortling hard, sometimes startling neighbors and definitely my family. Disturbing dogs in the street.

That's the kind of story this is. Fun, clever as hell, fun, smart, fun, crazy as shit, and did I mention fun?

And now I finally get other people's comments about blurry faces and the ugly. Good thing he and I are both readers. We don't care about such things. We just want good stories.

And we're getting a GREAT story.

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전지적 독자 시점 16 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 16] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Daaaaaaaaammmnnnnn.

I mean, sure, the writing is fantastically strong. Strong enough to point to all the ways it will work out in the end, but that doesn't change the fact that it was one HELL of an end. Of this scenario. And other things.

Damn. What a blow-out! The strongest has to die or half the population. And the strong are very, very strong.

This is the kind of story that really sticks with you, even when there are very OP people. But even better than that, the characters are all so... GOOD. Fantastic even. Well developed, changing, growing, doubting, getting stronger. Everything. And it's not just a handful, either, but everyone has stories they can be proud of.

Especially when it's time to break that fourth wall. Muahahahahahahaha

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전지적 독자 시점 15 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 15] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Things just have to get THAT much worse for every scenario, right? They're really pulling out all the stops.

But at least we finally get to see the third way to survive and apocalypse.

Old clichéd story, but still a great one. And damn, here we go with all three in one place, fighting it out like truly crazy people or three-way love stories.

Ahem.

What a delicious turn this is taking. And not only is the artwork still gorgeous, the story still blows it out of the water. Amazing.

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전지적 독자 시점 14 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 14] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Always be surprising the reader, right??? Damn.

And here I thought it was only going to be Isekai twisting, not a bit of AOT, too! Or rather, a lot. And all the while, incorporating DCC, time-loops shenanigans, fable-resonance, AND fourth-wall breaking.

I'm a bit flabbergasted. And yet, it all still works beautifully, smoothly, and best of all, gloriously. :)


This has officially become one of my all-time-favorite series. I like others for different reasons, of course, but this one is supplanting most just for one little fact:

It is awesomely self-aware and critiques all literature while being great literature, itself.

Bravo!

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전지적 독자 시점 13 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 13] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Big character reveal for Dokja, but honestly, it's so in line with so many Isekai that it's almost EXPECTED at this point. And to make things all the more obvious, the new story scenario BECOMES an Isekai. Which is just too precious, considering how well this series takes on all the clichés and subverts them so excellently.

And this one is no different. Set the pins up, knock them down unexpectedly. :)



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전지적 독자 시점 12 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 12] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who doesn't love a little Orpheus action in a tale about a baby mythos asking for help from a real mommy of mythos? Muahahahaha

Oh yeah, the promises we make must be fulfilled. No matter how much pain and suffering and death might come from it. Or in this case, just death. Hello, Persephone. :)



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전지적 독자 시점 11 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 11] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Damn. It just gets better and better. This scenario's catastrophe has a fantastic backstory, but what's even better is her interactions and all the surprises she has in store for her.

It's moving. Seriously moving. And just when I think the story has peaked, it gets twisted yet again into something tragic and even possibly transcendental.

I'm honestly shocked. I've read a lot of great manga and manhwa, but this just goes ten steps beyond most. And it does it smart.

The constellations (us) are pleased. :)


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Children of the Lens by E.E. "Doc" Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Magical SF supermen have children, too? *shocked*

And instead of going the path of Lost in Space, alas, we go for a whole family of chosen ones? *shocked*

1947. Vast breeding program creating super-supermen? Okay, that's slightly creepy. But it's the good guys, so that's okay. Right?

LENSMEN (and women), go find the true baddies and GO TO WAR!


Okay, so. Even tho most of this sounds pretty cringe, and it really is, the story and the next generation's characters are pretty cool. It's obvious that this is the TRUE classic Golden Age of SF from the grandmaster of the Golden Age. Pure adventure, through and through, and inspiring countless crappy SF tv series for decades to come.

But this IS the true classic. So kudos where it deserves it. :)

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 10 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love how dark and ultimately hopeful this really is.

As a reader who just wants a GREAT story, who already knows what SHOULD have happened, who is trying to give JUSTICE to other's sacrifices, while making sure that characters all get a chance to really shine, no matter whether they're meant to be a great evil or a catastrophe or a potential friend, it speaks to me deeply.

And as a reader, I'm just like the Reader.

I'm not only deeply invested in THIS story, I'm deeply invested in all the ways it is making me feel, making me think, and making me appreciate not just stories, but all stories.

That's freaking impressive. For any work of art.

I am amazed.

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 9 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Catastrophe after catastrophe. It's time to bring out all the main characters to the party.

It's a shame there aren't any.

Oh, well, I guess it's time for the reader to get to work. :)

So delicious. Massive battles here, fantastic twists. And better yet, we don't just have time-loop specialists, but actual Isekai returners! Woooo!

Are they always such assholes? Oh, wait. Yeah. They are. Muahahahahahaha.

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 8 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

SIDE STORY TIME. Or so we're meant to believe.

Of course, after the Reader's last stunt, the scenario creators are PISSED. They need to get their stories straightened out. Poor guys.

Of course, this just makes things even more interesting when our Reader works through some of his own shit and even makes an ally out of a previous enemy. Which is, of course, a trope--and this particular kind of story, as a whole, LOVES to twist tropes. Muahahahahaha

Have I mentioned that this manhwa is killing it? It is. I'm a huge fan. It doesn't treat us readers like idiots. *wipes a tear from his eye*

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 7 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. I am very pleased by this volume. Not only do we have multiple layers of fourth-wall acknowledgement and high-level story comprehension, but we have direct criticism of storytelling in general and a sincere desire to create an original story despite starting out as a critique and a joyful example of LitRPG in the first place.

Did I say I'm very pleased by this work?

I should say I'm extremely thrilled by it.



This is absolutely killing it. :)

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Apotheosis: The Beginning After the End, Book 12 by TurtleMe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not entirely sure about this one.

On the one hand, it did pull off some world-shattering action and other high stakes. On the other, there was a lot of side characters I just didn't care about. That's a problem for this series in particular. It's not that they aren't important in their ways. It's that I just couldn't care about them when Arthur begged continued center stage.

That being said, it wasn't the worst, and it wasn't the best end to any LitRPG or fantasy series. I guess I wanted a little more focus. Or perhaps there was something else bothering me. Lack of heart, maybe. It's amorphous. Perhaps I just felt like it had run out of steam.

Alas.

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 6 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wild. Yes, the mid-level organizers are damn cheaters, but then, I think everyone is at this point. Damn author. Loving it, though.

The art is great, but the story is fantastic. Very Dungeon Crawler Carl but with even smarter scenarios and twists, if possible.

I'm totally hooked.

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 5 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The third scenario was great. I loved how it ended. But I'm really looking forward to how the fourth is heading. I'm chortling.

The art is, as always, great. I absolutely love the premise of this manhwa. It really puts the power in the reader. So to speak. Or actually. :)



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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 4 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit, this is a sight more clever than most action series I come across. In fact, I think I'm in love. There are hints of an OP nature, but the balance is JUST right. Teamwork and special skills and just having a bit of foreknowledge about the scenario makes it rather SATISFYING, in fact. Like watching someone play a great game for the second time while you, yourself, don't know anything.

You get right to the point. It's really fun. And then, there are all the scenarios and changes to the story that don't fit, creating a great sense of mystery at the same time.

I'm impressed. Very.



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The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-Read 5/25/26:

Still a fantastic read. And what a FRESH and GOOD read after his immediately prior publication. :)

I DO want to take a moment to mention something, however: With all the AI talk we've had for years now and with the standard of Mike fully realized in actual reality, sans lobbing rocks, it's all pretty amazing.

And with the whole lobbing rocks thing in the novel, and with the current standard of the oligarchs and technofeudalists, technofascists, taking all the WORST ideas from the BEST SF books and building their own Torment Nexuses at their first opportunities, I'm kinda surprised they aren't just skipping the whole Mars thing to set up colonies on the Moon to create a wonderful catapult system to sit next to and laugh like the Bond villains they are as they threaten all of Earth.

I mean, seriously, I totally expect it of them now.

Beautiful book, other than the fact it would give all the wrong people even worse ideas.
Sigh.



Original Review:

What do you want us to do? Throw rocks at them?

Nah, but we could have a tea party.

Wow. I'm still amazed at how good this Revolution novel has held up over the years. I had read it twice before this latest re-read, but it hasn't lost any of its charm.

Of course, I love Heinlein's heavy reliance on self-reliance, libertarianism, and TANSTAAFL. I'm lucky to have read him early so as to be fully indoctrinated in this gung-ho politicism of Rational Anarchy and I can laugh and whoop and grin foolishly all the while.

But I'm weird.

Still. When it comes to the story, the most amazing thing about this novel is not that it's set on the moon or that it has been populated with all of Earth's undesirables, or that they're economic slaves to the Earth. Nope. It's amazing that this book is actually a How-To-Guide on how to stage a successful revolution against a technologically and militarily superior foe, from initial planning, leverage, sleeper cells, and of course, political preparation, communication, diplomacy, and economics. And, of course, the resulting MASS DEATH of so many innocents. Can't forget that.

But I suppose the one thing that sticks in my mind most strongly is the planetary computer, Mycroft. What a guy/gal. He/she always gets me in the feels. That's leverage.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I keep on seeing tons of good revolution books or modern SF still stealing from this classic, either knowingly or unknowingly. Perhaps all AIs that show up in SF are a reply to Mycroft in one way or another. Who knows? This is the one that stands out supreme in my mind and perhaps always shall.

Call me a Lunatic. I dare you. ;)

This one won the Hugo in '66, but I also place it firmly in one of my top 100 novels of all time. :) Great stuff. :)

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 3 by singNsong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm really getting some great Dungeon Crawler Carl vibes off of this one. The art is still fantastic, but the unexpected humor goes really well with the truly dark themes. You know, like DCC. But unlike DCC, there's a pretty excellent balance of craftiness, gore, and forethought in this one.

Really shaping up to be something excellent.

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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 2 by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm hooked immediately. Not only is it a reverse Isekai done smart, but it's also directly addressing the ethics of murder and culpability right away.

This isn't an easy-going fantasy manhwa at all.

I'm very impressed. Let's goooo.

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전지적 독자 시점 1 [Jeonjijeog Dogja Sijeom 1] by Umi .
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Omniscient Reader webtoon.

Honestly, I just read it on a recommendation without much in the way of expectation, but DAMN, that artwork was beautiful. And the setup, while fairly standard for Isekai, just flipped the script to have all the fictional webtoon become OUR reality.

Ding, ding, ding. The dinner bell has rung. Fun characters so far, but the artwork? The best part. From what I hear, it'll have some similarities to Solo Leveling, at least for gore. I really like the hook of this guy being a 10-year fan of the webtoon, knowing all that will happen before it actually happens for real.

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Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As always, Tchaikovsky delivers. All kinds of genres get represented, and this one is no different. Noir. But with a downright dark take on SolarPunk, where animals are uplifted with the aid of drugs and employed to take care of the menial labors of human cities. Rule number one is to stay out of eyeshot of the humans.

But the dark, seedy underbelly of the city is just as dark as any crime novel. And Tchaikovsky's penchant for intelligent animals and insects really shine.

And who DOESN'T like a Racoon sob story, his drug addiction, his being played as a pawn, a patsy, a throwaway soldier? Beautiful. And the SF's worldbuilding is great.

Definitely a fun time here.

Not for the animals, of course. But the reader? Hell yeah.

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Field of Dishonor by David Weber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit I kinda avoided these for various reasons, and when I finally got around to reading them a few years ago, I got really annoyed with book 3 and decided to take a break. Since then, I've read a bunch of other female-SF-Military Officer novels and for other various reasons liked them well enough.

And yet, Weber was always considered some of the best. So, I came back.

Strangely enough, it didn't go in any of the directions I thought it was going to go and I enjoyed it. Joining the peerage, Honor went through a great number of changes and most of them had nothing to do with being on a spaceship. In particular, the amount of time spent in duels and reasons for duels was actually a breath of fresh air.

I guess I'm going to have to continue on, no?

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Heretical Fishing 5 by Haylock Jobson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Everything is great and all people love the god king, and what's more, he loves them back. With scritches, coffee, and croissants.

There's so many people he loves and who loves him that we even had to bring in another god-queen with serious mental issues to show him a little challenge or die a horrible death trying it or there would be practically no point to this series anymore.

He got too OP. And I think the story ideas ran out.

That's not to say OP can't get interesting again, but in this case, the total-cozy feel is starting to wear itself out. I'll probably read the next, but unless it does a 180 and get more clever, it'll be the last.

This is despite the fact that I love the cozy. But everything is just going TOO right.

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Exodus: The Helium Sea by Peter F Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I may be exactly the right person for these two books. Far future space opera with extensively-developed worldbuilding, many characters, wild transhumanism, interesting quasi-immortality, and scope and scale to choke a horse.

It's taking Peter Hamilton's previous scales and scopes and making them look paltry in comparison.

And me? I read this and feel immense sadness that I can hardly find any new SF these days that GO THERE. Maybe a few here and there, but in general, it's all pretty tame. This one has ties to the near future but sends us as far into the future as anything Stephen Baxter did.

I can't help but be immensely impressed.

Manage your expectations. If you want war and the very spirit of humanity represented in the far future, and don't want Warhammer, then this is definitely worth your time.

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Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good conceptual SF, in that it goes down a strange path and explores all the instances that might come from it.

Or rather, a specific kind of instance. And I use that term intentionally, for that's what happens to some people who cross borders in this alternate Earth. They split, become two people living lives, one on each side of that border.

The consequences are fascinating. But don't expect a thriller or a geopolitical SF out of this. It's very much an interpersonal novel. One that delves into national identity, cultural identity, and while that isn't set up to explore politics or nationalism, it is perfectly situated for the massive consequences of simple life choices and the vast differences you'll find between staying and leaving loved ones.

I can't help but focus on anyone who is and isn't native born, no matter where they wind up, and how it really messes with you.

The SF portion goes one step further, however. What happens when you repatriate your two selves? Two lives, as one? Fun stuff.

Definitely worth your time.

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Archmage's Ire by Pirateaba
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was growing up, I was a little annoyed that the Neverending Story wasn't TRULY neverending.

Fortunately, I have The Wandering Inn, which truly IS (apparently) neverending. Vast number of characters, all of them fun as hell, emotional, funny, tragic, and not all at the same time.

This series is truly something else. I've never read anything quite like this. No matter how long each and every book in it is, or how fast it comes out, it always captures me 100% and I seriously look forward to every new one and feel heartbroken I can't just keep going with the one that just ended.

And never mind some minor editing and continuity issues. It's nothing in the grand scheme of the happenings of two vast continents and wonderful characters that I root for no matter that they OUGHT to be the baddies. Except for a certain weaver. But even she has her good points.

And the rest? I just can't get over how much I love this.

I'm tempted to RE-READ the entire ginormous series JUST to get my fill again. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking and comforting and edge-of-the-seat. It's everything. :)

And the times it makes me laugh out loud for real? Priceless.

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When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the most genuine post-Matrix novels I've read. You know, like post-Cyberpunk, but leaning whole-hog into the ho-hum fact of living in a simulation.

Not that we have to worry about that, right? Unless you really think we're already living in the worst of all possible simulations already, and then it can only get better from here.

It's better to just take a roadtrip. Or greyhound across universes. What-Ifs if we didn't want to get sued by Disney for Marvel infringement.

But it's better still, because the novel focuses on heart. Having heart. Because isn't that all we really have when anything else is possible?

Good novel.

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Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't recommend this enough. In fact, I think it should be required reading for anyone sick and tired of the general enshittification we've all been experiencing.

And while it's a word we all use now, or at least I have been, I should point out that Cory Doctorow, wonderful novelist and even better non-fiction writer, was the one to COIN the word.

That's no small feat. And this is no cash-grab of a book, either. It's an extremely coherent and exhaustive analysis of where we are through the lens of how the technological feudalism began and how it transformed from a value-laden service into the nasty bullshit factory it has become.

Google, Meta/Facebook, Twitter, HP, Microsoft, and we can't forget Elon. It's all part and parcel of a great enshittification that begins with undercutting and driving everyone else out of business by subsidies, graduating to squeezing the end users in favor of the suppliers, then squeezing the suppliers as well because you're officially too big to lose or give a shit about anyone but your shareholders.

Sound familiar?

And because it's becoming such a standard business model, we now have subscription services for our car seats, printer ink that will brick your printer unless you pay a monthly rent, and much darker features across the board, including but not limited to medical devices, fresh drinking water, any DRM enshittified software or books you buy which can go poof at any time, or the fact that the prices you pay for anything can change on the fly to reflect how your software's spy algorithms have determined that it can SQUEEZE you just that little bit more.

Sound familiar?

Well, Cory Doctorow doesn't just give us rage bait in this book. He goes into detail about history, anti-trust laws, regulation, unions, and how each and every one of us can fight back realistically. And I'm not saying we have to get our pitchforks from the pitchfork emporium, either. I'm saying that we've SEEN the changes in a lot of our own lifetimes. And while those changes DID enshittify, there were always brief periods where it DID get better. The point is to codify safeguards DURING those transformative periods to prevent monopolies from taking over.

As they very much have.

So take the early days of the internet with hope, people. Ma Bell seemed monolithic. And then we had a brief spell of freedom. The point is not to go the unregulated path again. Insist on healthy business practices. The current businesses are imploding. We have the know-how, the will to create good things. It is entirely possible--assuming we don't let the predators and the IP litigators (all on the side of the businesses) set such a pace that they will start making us rent the very air we breathe.

Feudalism, indeed. Land owners. Allowing us to produce our own lives on the land THEY own. Sound familiar? All the tech we keep buying. All the smart features. They're preventing us from OWNING anything we buy. It's ALL rented. One way or another.

Public outcry against enshittification WILL happen, whether or not we call it that officially. Too many people are already at the ends of their ropes.

Will change come peacefully? It can. People just need to build something that far outperforms the middlemen who have us all by the balls and then prevent it from being sold out to the enshittifiers.

Doctorow's enthusiasm and optimism is truly a marvel to read.

Again, don't sleep on this.

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None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I wanted to like this more than I did. Unfortunately, social media types don't really float my boat and it only got a bit worse when pedos are being defended, however twistily, in a tale. Sure, blame everyone involved, right? Make sure it's VERY clear that the girl got herself in on it with open eyes, yada, yada. But let's not think this is a retelling of Lolita.

The twisty plot was okay, otherwise, but the rest kinda put a damper on my enjoyment. Alas.

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William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This made me so ticklish.

Lines right from Shakespeare appropriated to Star wars, and the rest, twisted lightly to heightened language. :)

A real joy to read. Especially about that right knave, R2D2, also known as Hal. :)

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Blame!, Vol. 10 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wild, mythical, strange, and hauntingly beautiful.

And let's not forget--unutterably sad.


This manga flies in the face of most manga. It's unapologetically dense and forces you to speculate just to keep up with the action, but more than that, it's transcendental. Lovecraftian, H.R. Geigerish, totally cyberpunk in every sense of the term, but also a pure Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came feel. Only, unlike King's version, this is a true dark tower for the whole series and it does just about all those feelings JUSTICE.

To be fair, it's also extremely minimalistic. Nobody will ever explain much of anything. But out of the hints and the things we do get, it's powerful.

I think I might consider this one of my favorites. Not because it's universally accessible (it isn't) but because it's awesomely brave.

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Blame!, Vol. 9 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And now I'm getting the DISTINCT feeling I got in the later parts of Nier Automata. It's a very unique feeling. And now that I'm reading Blame! this way, I'm really respecting it a lot more because it came out first. Or perhaps I respect Nier more for how it really ran with aspects of Blame!?

I don't know. Blame! goes rather hard and a lot farther in some ways. It's very impressive, either way.

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Blame!, Vol. 8 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't say I understand what's going on--still--but damn it's interesting. And Cibo? Not just three or four times am I going WTF, but it's definitely intensifying now.

Head scientist my ass.

Hackers nightmare. Or dream.

Weirdly, I'm reading all this and getting massive Hellsing vibes now. That's a good thing. An amazing thing.

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Blame!, Vol. 7 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

New character, new wrinkle, but it only deepens the story.

Those damn human genes are a real nasty piece of work. Everyone seems to want them. :)

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Out Law by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Classic Harry. Being a good sort. Being himself.

Helping low-lifes who're getting scared straight, paying back Marcone, defeating whole crime syndicates and ancient demons--almost by accident.

Yep. Classic Harry.

And this is just an encore's encore.

Very fun. Top form.

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Against All Enemies by John G. Hemry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perfectly in line with the other books in this series. Bad things happen, some people get pinned for the deed, and we're indulged with the procedure to sus it out and resolve it.

And yet, it's pretty much always entertaining.

Now, is it just me, or wasn't there enough of an audience to continue this particular series? I find myself wanting to know what happens on Mars, or if Paul joins the JAGs, or if he joins the crew of the ballbuster. There ARE open questions here. And while this just barely qualifies for SF, I can't deny I'm invested in our little idealist junior officer.



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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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Blame!, Vol. 1 by Tsutomu Nihei
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hardcore cyberpunk. As in, cyborgs, endless strange city one must climb, hardly any dialogue, and nothing but the mystery of:

What the hell is happening here?

That being said, it's strange and wonderful in a grotesque way, making me think it's a deep technological sink hole with most of humanity dead or changed to varying degrees.

Indeed, I get a very lovecraftian feel out of this. The atmosphere is pretty divine. Or rather... hellish.

The architecture is Geigerish as hell.

Pretty fun and bloody. I'm hooked enough to want to know WHY and WHAT the hell is going on. And that's a big ask.

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A Just Determination by John G. Hemry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very comfortable read. It bills itself as JAG in space and delivers with just that. It's not law heavy, despite the billing, but just follows a junior command through his first days on a ship. The SF portions are very, very light, but that's not really the point.

It's competence porn with quite a bit of focus on little mistakes and bad leadership and the snags and help you'll find all around you, with the end being a focus on standing up for what you believe is right.

That's actually a bit more important than it seems when you're looking at a military ship, of course, and the whole thing is just--comfortable. Like a well-worn tv show.

No complaints. I enjoy the change of pace.

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Scales: FINALIST FOR THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD 2026 by Christopher Hinz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Manage your expectations. This isn't a SF horror or a true thriller in any sense of the word. So, no Jurassic Park for the new age.

It is, however, a light-toned and fairly charming look at man-made lizard people being groomed for the military and an adventure that's not so much military-minded as a reaction to the whole "we made dino-men" in general.

And there's a romance.

Hell, if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought this was written by Scalzi.

That being said, it was still a fun read. I wouldn't call it groundbreaking, but it was entertaining, and that's a good thing.

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Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been a pretty big fan of Suzanne Palmer's Finder series but it should be noted that she also wrote a Hugo nommed story about robots in space.

And this novel is definitely in that universe, although fixed right on Earth after the robot apocalypse.

A lot of people will see a connection with the Murderbot series (I don't think so, too much) or with Becky Chambers (only a bit), but for me, I see all kinds of shades of Cargill's Sea of Rust and Roderick and Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model here.

Sure, robots, definitely more along the line of hate and healing, revenge and true justice--all while taking the guise of an old warrior wanting nothing but peace and finding it with a found family--while not ending it there.

I rather enjoyed it. No less because it had something a bit deeper to say, too. Something pertinent today. I won't spoil it. But this is definitely a good read.

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SUBMERGED: A hacker thriller by John Wilander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Most books I read about hackers rather skim over the ways and means, assuming the reader either doesn't care or has a twitter attention span. I'm glad this one doesn't. It has that in common with the first book in the series.

And in case I'm not clear on this, I LOVE the fact that it geeks out on real hacking with all the ways and means. It's very informative, even if I can't confirm or deny that it's real. It FEELS real, and that's kinda the point.

But that isn't the real point of this particular novel. This is a true technological thriller. A crack team doing a more realistic mission impossible, complete with real consequences, massively researched Russian locales, and a quite plausible--and indeed likely--look at the real scope of cyber-warfare between nations.

Updated to today. Which is, as you know, messed up. As in, totally out of control. Misinformation central. But hey, being lied to has now become normal.

My only slight immersion break was the whole submarine part, but despite the cover, it's only a small portion of the goodies. No matter how it might bill itself as a mission impossible, it felt just a bit too mission impossible when dealing with the nitty gritty realism that the book does so well everywhere else.

But then, that may be just me. I really enjoyed the book, otherwise.

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