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Warped on a Moon Trek
Warped on a Moon Trek
Diane Vallere | 2024 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sylvia Races Through Time to Save the Day
Sylvia Stryker and her mentor, Neptune, are on a shake down cruise for the latest Moon Trek ship when a computer chip malfunctions. The best way to fix it is to talk to the original scientist who created it, so Neptune takes off. However, when Sylvia figured out the who and the when of Neptune’s mission, she takes off after him. Will she be able to fix the chip without destroying her life?

You’ll notice I didn’t say much about the mystery. That’s because, honestly, it was a little lost in everything else going on in this book. But that’s okay because I was having a grand time. The science fiction element of the plot did fall into a couple of the plot holes these type of stories often have (or I just missed something), but I didn’t mind too much. The story gives Sylvia several chances for some major growth, and those scenes are top notch. And there were plenty of laughs and fun along the way. If you are a fan of these books, you owe it to yourself to pick it up today.
  
Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace
Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace
Jennifer Chiaverini | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
7
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Enchantress of Numbers has been making the rounds lately - it seems there's been an interest in books about women in STEM, which is a good thing. Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first computer programmer, though "computers" as we know them didn't really exist at the time. What she wrote was an algorithm for making a machine spit out a specific result - a machine that was never actually built. Still, her contributions to the very early science of computing were invaluable and she is (rightly) revered for them. Sadly, she died in her 30s from ovarian cancer - a loss that undoubtedly slowed down the advancement of early computing.

The early parts of the book are told in third person, about her mother's marriage to Lord Byron, and Ada's own birth. From there, Ada tells the story in first person, as she grows up with her strict mother in English Aristocratic Society.

It is historical fiction, so the author has taken some liberties, though I was a bit confused that in the book she meets Mr. Babbage some time before meeting Mrs. Somerville; Wikipedia says Lady Lovelace was introduced to Mr. Babbage by her mentor, Mrs. Somerville. Odd that the author chose to change that up.

I've definitely read better historical fiction - Philippa Gregory is a personal favorite - but this wasn't bad. It was a little slow, and a little dry in spots, but it was overall good. If you weren't interested in Ada Lovelace or early computing and mathematics I don't think the book would be very enjoyable at all. But if you do like those things, and are willing to put up with a little bit of boredom, it's a decent book.

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
  
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ClareR (5789 KP) rated Beneath the World, a Sea in Books

Jul 26, 2019 (Updated Jul 28, 2019)  
Beneath the World, a Sea
Beneath the World, a Sea
Chris Beckett | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
My first, but certainly not my last Chris Beckett book
I really enjoyed this strange, singular work of science fiction. Inspector Ben Ronson arrives in a mysterious forest in South America: the Submundo Delta. It’s a place unlike any other: purple flora and unrecognisable fauna, and a humanoid race called Duendes. They can’t hear or speak, live in the waters of the Delta, and their mere presence causes people to expose their innermost thoughts and fears. Which is why the people who live there, the Mundinos, kill any that they find near their villages, as they don’t see them as equal to humans - and this is why Ben is there. He and the human rights people in Geneva want to stop the killings.

The writing style and the language used in this book really appealed to me - it’s poetic, descriptive and the story meanders along as we learn about the characters and the Submundo Delta. This is no action packed story, and that’s just fine with me. Instead it looks at how these characters deal with knowing their innermost thoughts, desires and fears. It also briefly looks at the morals of bringing science and technology to a shut off part of the world.

What really appealed to me, is how our memories construct our views of ourselves, and how we portray ourselves to others. It also looks at those parts that we keep hidden from others, and what happens when they are laid open to everyone. Rather scary, to be honest! We don’t always like those parts of ourselves.
This was my first Chris Beckett book, and I don’t think it will be my last.

Many thanks to Readers First for my copy of this book.