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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated On the Steel Breeze in Books
Nov 21, 2019
On The Steel Breeze is the second in Reynold's Poseidon's Children trilogy and deals with the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.
Taking up the story several years after Blue Remembered Earth the main (human) protagonist is Chiku Akinya, daughter of Sunday Akinya from the first book. She has cloned herself and the three Chikus pursue different fates but their stories inevitably interact with each other.even across light years of space.
One is lost in space, presumed dead. Another is on a colony ship heading to a planet that images have shown has a clearly alien structure on the surface. The third remains on Earth, presumably in safety.
As the colony ships near the destination planet they are riven by internal strife and politics just as Chiku finds that things are not as they seem. There are secrets both within the colony ship and with the planet itself, secrets that are bound to cause conflict when they are brought to light. On earth it is clear that some important information has been hidden and Chiku must risk her safe existence to uncover the truth, but at a high cost.
The book starts slowly, maybe a little too keen to establish who Chiku is and reinforce how the world she inhabits is different from ours. However once the story moves to the colony ships it moves along at a good pace with enough twists and surprises to keep the reader's interest. There is plenty of intrigue and it really is hard to tell where the story is going next.
We have the usual 'hard physics' at work as should be expected in a Reynolds book. Except for the hand wavium 'Chibesa physics' that powers the ships, the laws of physics are rigidly adhered to. Again we see how a battle across millions of miles of space could be achieved.
I found the ending to be satisfying (I have read reviews criticising it). It ties up the story of the earth based Chiku. The story for the colonists is clearly only beginning and the third book in the series is set up neatly in the epilogue, while at the same time providing closure on the fate of the colonists.
My only real criticism of the book (and it in no way detracted from it) was the cloning-and-memory-merging gimmick used for the Chiku clones. Although this neatly allowed the story to move between the colony ships and the solar system, I felt that this had been explored better (and with more justification) in Reynold's novel House Of Suns. Here it just seems to be a 'sci-fieqsue' way of allowing the main protagonists to communicate and empathise across the vast tracts of space and otherwise seemed superfluous given the complex set up.
Overall another excellent book from Reynolds, definitely up there with the best 'space opera' novels. I am looking forward to the third book immensely.
Taking up the story several years after Blue Remembered Earth the main (human) protagonist is Chiku Akinya, daughter of Sunday Akinya from the first book. She has cloned herself and the three Chikus pursue different fates but their stories inevitably interact with each other.even across light years of space.
One is lost in space, presumed dead. Another is on a colony ship heading to a planet that images have shown has a clearly alien structure on the surface. The third remains on Earth, presumably in safety.
As the colony ships near the destination planet they are riven by internal strife and politics just as Chiku finds that things are not as they seem. There are secrets both within the colony ship and with the planet itself, secrets that are bound to cause conflict when they are brought to light. On earth it is clear that some important information has been hidden and Chiku must risk her safe existence to uncover the truth, but at a high cost.
The book starts slowly, maybe a little too keen to establish who Chiku is and reinforce how the world she inhabits is different from ours. However once the story moves to the colony ships it moves along at a good pace with enough twists and surprises to keep the reader's interest. There is plenty of intrigue and it really is hard to tell where the story is going next.
We have the usual 'hard physics' at work as should be expected in a Reynolds book. Except for the hand wavium 'Chibesa physics' that powers the ships, the laws of physics are rigidly adhered to. Again we see how a battle across millions of miles of space could be achieved.
I found the ending to be satisfying (I have read reviews criticising it). It ties up the story of the earth based Chiku. The story for the colonists is clearly only beginning and the third book in the series is set up neatly in the epilogue, while at the same time providing closure on the fate of the colonists.
My only real criticism of the book (and it in no way detracted from it) was the cloning-and-memory-merging gimmick used for the Chiku clones. Although this neatly allowed the story to move between the colony ships and the solar system, I felt that this had been explored better (and with more justification) in Reynold's novel House Of Suns. Here it just seems to be a 'sci-fieqsue' way of allowing the main protagonists to communicate and empathise across the vast tracts of space and otherwise seemed superfluous given the complex set up.
Overall another excellent book from Reynolds, definitely up there with the best 'space opera' novels. I am looking forward to the third book immensely.
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Eona: The Last Dragoneye (Eon, #2) in Books
Jan 23, 2020
Apparently when Eona and Co. are on the run, things get mighty interesting and there's almost never a dull moment. There's the ten dead Dragoneyes, an entire army of Sethon's supposed minions (who knows if they're actually loyal to the dude, anyways?), and a supposed-to-be emperor by the name of Kygo who's also on the run from being brutally murdered as well.
Goodman starts out the whopping 600-paged book with a "primary" source from Teacher Prahn, quickly summarizing the events at the imperial palace in the ending of Eon, and it's helpful for those who haven't the first book in a long while (unless you have a fantastic memory, which I sometimes have. Epiphany!). The second and last book to the duology starts out shortly after those events, with Eona and her friends on the run from Sethon and the hunt for Kygo. Goodman brings us outside of the imperial palace and into other parts of the Empire of Celestial Dragons, places that were briefly mentioned in book one and now play a bigger role in book two.
I personally disliked Eona back when she was Eon, and I don't like her any better as a girl either. Back as Eon, Eona just seemed to desperate to fit in and trying to prove herself worthy – those sun drug scenes? The worst of Eon. I even vowed to DNF this book if Eona decided to run around with the sun drug again; it was that bad.
In a way, I do like Eona: she's not desperate, she's <s>Taylor Swift</s> fearless (all those odds stacked against her!) – she's a lot better when compared to Eon, when she trying to fully disguise herself as a guy and being a slinky. Eona just argues a lot with Kygo when she finally finds him, and I mean a huge emphasis on "argues a lot." I'm pretty sure if I get a dollar for every time they argued, I could actually pay my rent. Though compared to the <s>lovely</s> love triangle with Ido (thank you, so-called prophecy), I fully ship Kygo and Eona, even though Eona seems very mopey when it comes to whether or not Kygo truly loves her.
<blockquote>"What if I said you could have either me or my power? Which one would you choose?"</blockquote>
Eona certainly makes up for the many dull moments in pacing from its predecessor, where the beginning is a little interesting, the middle is extremely draggy and the decent ending is very fast and rapid. The pacing in the final book of Goodman's Eon duology is much better and engrossing, bringing us a fantastic end to two very long books.
-----------------
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review originally posted at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-eona-by-alison-goodman.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
<a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cG5gfBqJVzk/VA5BIojjZ9I/AAAAAAAAD1g/7srLUfpAGEU/s1600/banner.png"; /></a>
Goodman starts out the whopping 600-paged book with a "primary" source from Teacher Prahn, quickly summarizing the events at the imperial palace in the ending of Eon, and it's helpful for those who haven't the first book in a long while (unless you have a fantastic memory, which I sometimes have. Epiphany!). The second and last book to the duology starts out shortly after those events, with Eona and her friends on the run from Sethon and the hunt for Kygo. Goodman brings us outside of the imperial palace and into other parts of the Empire of Celestial Dragons, places that were briefly mentioned in book one and now play a bigger role in book two.
I personally disliked Eona back when she was Eon, and I don't like her any better as a girl either. Back as Eon, Eona just seemed to desperate to fit in and trying to prove herself worthy – those sun drug scenes? The worst of Eon. I even vowed to DNF this book if Eona decided to run around with the sun drug again; it was that bad.
In a way, I do like Eona: she's not desperate, she's <s>Taylor Swift</s> fearless (all those odds stacked against her!) – she's a lot better when compared to Eon, when she trying to fully disguise herself as a guy and being a slinky. Eona just argues a lot with Kygo when she finally finds him, and I mean a huge emphasis on "argues a lot." I'm pretty sure if I get a dollar for every time they argued, I could actually pay my rent. Though compared to the <s>lovely</s> love triangle with Ido (thank you, so-called prophecy), I fully ship Kygo and Eona, even though Eona seems very mopey when it comes to whether or not Kygo truly loves her.
<blockquote>"What if I said you could have either me or my power? Which one would you choose?"</blockquote>
Eona certainly makes up for the many dull moments in pacing from its predecessor, where the beginning is a little interesting, the middle is extremely draggy and the decent ending is very fast and rapid. The pacing in the final book of Goodman's Eon duology is much better and engrossing, bringing us a fantastic end to two very long books.
-----------------
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review originally posted at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-eona-by-alison-goodman.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
<a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cG5gfBqJVzk/VA5BIojjZ9I/AAAAAAAAD1g/7srLUfpAGEU/s1600/banner.png"; /></a>
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Senshi (Katana, #2) in Books
Jan 23, 2020
Original Review posted on <a title="Senshi by Cole Gibsen" href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/11/review-senshi-by-cole-gibsen.html">http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/11/review-senshi-by-cole-gibsen.html</a>;
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Owls
<i><b>Note:</b> Formatting may be lost due to copy and paste</i>
Well, I'll admit Katana felt like a stand alone with the "oh, hey, they lived happily ever after! There's no more!" And I actually did think Katana was a stand alone.
But then Goodreads spoiled everything. -_- I can't believe you would do that to me, Goodreads.
Well, not exactly. I really wouldn't have known Katana had a sequel without Goodreads, but with the announcements every single day (Katana was a book club read in October) at school about preordering Senshi, I'm bound to know eventually.
Or the county library would have said, "hey, there's a sequel!" right after I returned Katana in Ebooks Library Lend101. Go figure.
Moving on.
In Senshi, it's been a few months since the events left off in Katana. Going down memory lane in terms of nutshell spoilers, Rileigh's finally come to terms with her inner warrior self (go Rileigh!).
I must say, despite the fact Katana felt like a stand alone, Senshi had some nice surprises waiting for me when reading, and it was almost as good as the first novel. Okay, I almost always love the first novel before the sequels because it's not the end where you have to wave good bye to characters.
But I just love it when authors lead you down one road but then all of a sudden, they toss in a thing or two (or more) that throws the reader off balance. It makes everything less predictable. ^_^
The characters are just as amazingly written as ever, particularly Quentin, who I must admit has already landed on my favorite characters from the series next to Rileigh (of course, Rileigh. It's not like I can read Quentin's mind from Rileigh's view, even though I would love to, but I'm just one little opinion out of... hundreds). Then there's Sumi and also Dr. Wendell. I hope I'm not the only when I say the interaction between Rileigh and Dr. Wendell is pretty classic in the way Rileigh pushes Dr. Wendell's buttons all the time. Sumi, on the other hand, is a nuisance and a pain in the butt. Unfortunately, she's likely back in the next book: Shinobi. Fantabulous. A great way to make a Tuesday better. Good thing it's not a Friday. I think I'll survive.
My Two Cents of Randomness: Aliens didn't abduct Rileigh and change her up did they? I still find the cover really weird. O_o (But only the story matters in my humble opinion, so says the girl who can't even draw a pair of eyes that aren't lopsided.)
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Owls
<i><b>Note:</b> Formatting may be lost due to copy and paste</i>
Well, I'll admit Katana felt like a stand alone with the "oh, hey, they lived happily ever after! There's no more!" And I actually did think Katana was a stand alone.
But then Goodreads spoiled everything. -_- I can't believe you would do that to me, Goodreads.
Well, not exactly. I really wouldn't have known Katana had a sequel without Goodreads, but with the announcements every single day (Katana was a book club read in October) at school about preordering Senshi, I'm bound to know eventually.
Or the county library would have said, "hey, there's a sequel!" right after I returned Katana in Ebooks Library Lend101. Go figure.
Moving on.
In Senshi, it's been a few months since the events left off in Katana. Going down memory lane in terms of nutshell spoilers, Rileigh's finally come to terms with her inner warrior self (go Rileigh!).
I must say, despite the fact Katana felt like a stand alone, Senshi had some nice surprises waiting for me when reading, and it was almost as good as the first novel. Okay, I almost always love the first novel before the sequels because it's not the end where you have to wave good bye to characters.
But I just love it when authors lead you down one road but then all of a sudden, they toss in a thing or two (or more) that throws the reader off balance. It makes everything less predictable. ^_^
The characters are just as amazingly written as ever, particularly Quentin, who I must admit has already landed on my favorite characters from the series next to Rileigh (of course, Rileigh. It's not like I can read Quentin's mind from Rileigh's view, even though I would love to, but I'm just one little opinion out of... hundreds). Then there's Sumi and also Dr. Wendell. I hope I'm not the only when I say the interaction between Rileigh and Dr. Wendell is pretty classic in the way Rileigh pushes Dr. Wendell's buttons all the time. Sumi, on the other hand, is a nuisance and a pain in the butt. Unfortunately, she's likely back in the next book: Shinobi. Fantabulous. A great way to make a Tuesday better. Good thing it's not a Friday. I think I'll survive.
My Two Cents of Randomness: Aliens didn't abduct Rileigh and change her up did they? I still find the cover really weird. O_o (But only the story matters in my humble opinion, so says the girl who can't even draw a pair of eyes that aren't lopsided.)
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