Ugh, this was bad. So, so, so, so bad. I can’t believe I never knew how bad this was when I read it fourteen years ago. The first one wasn’t this bad! What’s going on? I mean, this is just BAD WRITING 101. If I was teaching a How to Write Fiction class, I would use this book as the perfect example of what NOT to do. This is going to be a bit different than my normal reviewing style; I’m going to do one with […]
I’m too old for this shit.
First off, I haven’t completely abandoned my presidential reading list. Sometimes, you just need a break. Mine started with Armada and has continued for four books (counting these two). Secondly, there are minor spoilers ahead. The universe of Old Man’s War and Ghost Brigades is familiar to science fiction fans. Humans have technology advanced enough to allow for interstellar travel and the colonization of other worlds. The races they’ve encountered are largely bent on humanity’s destruction, and a team of plucky individuals are probably going […]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are on a Galaxy Quest
Thematic spoilers follow. The failure of Armada, for me, was the recursive and self-referential style of Ernest Cline, which ended up feeling like a crutch rather than an addition to the fairly straightforward plot. Unbeknownst to me, this book is in a similar vein to my previous read. Redshirts is about the “red shirts” from the original Star Trek series. They were characters used to create dramatic tension by dying early in episodes (typically on away missions). These were characters with no backstory, and the […]
A great sci-fi series at peak greatness
The Expanse series has captured lightning in a bottle, and Nemesis Games is my favorite installation yet. The entire series is assertively skilled at balancing comedy, drama, suspense, and pure sci-fi adventure, all while grounding the story in character development and the interactions between them, as part of a larger picture that addresses societal concerns that are relevant to us today. Just by existing, the series critiques its contemporaries that are at a loss as to how to include and respect women and minorities. In […]