The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz (Millennium #5)

The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz (Millennium #5)

Lisbeth finds herself in prison but for doing something right! She then starts to stand up to the prison bullies and ends up defending a young woman from being murdered in prison. She is also desperate to get internet access as she is not allowed any in prison as she has uncovered something about herself and her twin sister. Why and how they were separated at an early age but the story actually follows two brothers who were separated at birth.

I think this is probably the poorest of the Millennium books and although I would certainly read another if it were to be written, I think Lagercrantz has taken the story of Lisbeth as far as he can. This is at times very slow and laboured with a meandering storyline that felt far too forced. I can understand why the author and publishers want to keep this going, the original books were a sensation! It now feels like they are cashing in and not really taking the reader too seriously.

It is a must read for completists (like me) but you would have to have read all the others before you open this one.

Secret Harmonies by Paul McAuley (400 Billion Stars #2)

Secret Harmonies by Paul McAuley (400 Billion Stars #2)

This can be read independently of the first book in the series but they do share a similar background theme.

Elysium has been colonised by humans, most of the first colonists where from Australia so the wilderness beyond the human inhabited areas is the Outback. The indigenous population of near human looking creatures are called Aborigines and going out on your own into the Outback is called ‘going dingo’.

Port of Plenty, the first city to be built by the colonists has strict laws about where new colonists can go, build and even what they can and cannot do. All the towns around Port of Plenty are mainly there to supply food, labour and anything else the citizens of Port of Plenty might need. Of course there has been rumblings among these outer communities about the way the authorities run everything. Underpinning the authorities is an AI called Constat that monitors every detail of human life on the planet.

Every few years a colony ship arrives from earth with new colonists. Everyone is gathering to celebrate the expect arrival of the latest colony ship but it does not arrive as expected. A civil war breaks out after no news is heard from Earth about the lost colony ship.

The story follows Miguel who has ‘gone dingo’ who survives in the Outback by scavenging food where he can and Richard who is a university DR. Their lives seem very separate. Miguel has been taken over and controlled by something he calls the blue brother. It guides him to do his bidding. Richard finds himself enrolled in the city volunteer defence force, a position he really does not like.

Secret Harmonies is another cracking read by McAuley. All the SF you could want without being overwhelming. A strong storyline with well rounded characters. A civil war that seems unfathomable to comprehend until the final 50 or so pages when a lot becomes clearer yet you do not feel as if you missed out by not knowing earlier.

A very good read.

My review of 400 Billion Stars (400 Billion Stars #1)

Building Harlequin’s Moon By Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper

Building Harlequin’s Moon By Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper

After a mass exodus from Earth after AI’s had taken over, one group find themselves marooned light years from their destination because of mechanical failure (so I simplified a bit). They have to build a new planet from surrounding moons which takes thousands of years, this is not a real problem as they can be ‘iced’ for millenia and ‘warmed’ as necessary.

They eventually have a planet that would suit their needs while they build a collider that will in turn get them the anti-matter they so desperately need to continue their journey. They also need labour so once they have terraformed the planet to sustain life, they seed it with their own children who they then plan to leave behind once they have the anti-matter.

This is a great story about morals as well as exciting SciFi. The children end up becoming slaves and start to fight back after one of them becomes educated by the on-ship AI and a couple of sympathisers.

A good read. I recommend it.

Acadie by Dave Hutchinson

Acadie by Dave Hutchinson

‘Duke’ is the president of a utopian colony that has escaped from the tyranny of the rest of humanity. The ‘habs’ they live in are the perfect dream. Illness and even death is overcome. No-one needs to

work and life is great. The only thing they have to worry about is being discovered by the rest of humanity.

After three hundred years their security misses a probe but it is captured and disarmed by a pilot of a mining ship. ‘Duke’s security team cannot understand why the probe was missed and they make plans to move their society on to a new location.

Considering this is a measly 112 pages long, this story could easily cover a trilogy yet it is complete. The characters are likeable, the world is one we would all hope to live in and I think we would all want to defend that life in a similar way.

I love a good short story and Acadie is certainly that. Well written, well thought out and perfectly executed. Fantastic read!

Thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for the free digital version to review. I always give an honest and unbiased review

Austral by Paul McAuley

Austral by Paul McAuley

Anticipated Publication Date, October 15, 2017

Before I go any further I want to say that I really enjoyed this. I read it in four chunks of time over the course of five days. I could have probably read it over a shorter timespan but there is so much within this that makes you sit back and think that I had to do just that!

Austral is a genetically modified human living in the not too distant future. A future where climate change is slowly wrecking our planet (recognise anything?). The ice caps are melting at tremendous rates and Antarctica is now inhabitable. She is the child of environmentalists that are attempting to make Antarctica inhabitable and a place where wildlife can flourish.

There is no mention of the Northern Hemisphere whatsoever but even countries like Australia, Argentina and Chile are much smaller because of the rise in sea levels.

After all the ecological good Austral’s family and those like her have tried to do, money, greed, capitalism and the desire to have goods, the Antarctic government decide that these environmentalists are outlaws. They get hunted down and sent to an island where they can barely sustain life, but they do.

The story is Austral’s attempt to tell her daughter her story. We see things through Austral’s eyes, her emotions and motivations. At times it is meandering stream of conscious thoughts, at other times it is almost a thriller as life continues.

Much of the internal story is quite relevant and is one possibility of where humans and the planet could go if something on a planetary scale is not done to try and slow down, maybe even reverse the ecological disaster that looms in this future. It is not a very happy story either, the ending has hope but little more.

This is going to be hard to categorise but it is sort of an eco-scifi-dystopia, not one or the other but all three.

Definitely gets my recommendation!

I would like to thank Gollancz and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital galley version for review

The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

As the title implies, this is an almost complete collection of Asimov’s robot short stories. 31 shorts that cover just about everything that Asimov covered in his robot stories.

I have read a majority of these before but they are so worth reading again! Stories like Sally, a car with a positronic brain, Robot AL-76 Goes Astray, Segregationist, Robbie, Liar and the simply beautiful Bicentennial Man make this collection worth your money alone.

If you have yet to read any of Asimov’s robot stories, this is definitely the place to start.

Asimov is surely the master of the robot!

A list of the shorts inculded:

A Boy's Best Friend

Sally

Someday

Point of View

Think!

True Love

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray

Victory Unintentional

Stranger in Paradise

Light Verse

Segregationist

Robbie

Let's Get Together

Mirror Image

The Tercentenary Incident

First Law

Runaround

Reason

Catch That Rabbit

Liar!

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Lenny

Galley Slave

Little Lost Robot

Risk

Escape!

Evidence

The Evitable Conflict

Feminine Intuition

…That Thou Art Mindful of Him

The Bicentennial Man

Broadcast by Liam Brown

Broadcast by Liam Brown.

Publication date estimated 15 September 2017

David is a rather shallow person but has become something of a personality because of his continuous vlogging. He shares just about every experience of everyday with his followers and he is doing very nicely from his inane posts.

Along comes a tech guru that offers him the opportunity to broadcast to his fans, live by direct feed, all he has to do is accept the terms and conditions, have a small implant and he is within days vlogging 24/7.

The journey David then goes on is one that starts off as curiosity, going through realisation that he can hide no thought from anyone to downright despair. Things like credit and debits cards are no longer things he can use because he would instantly tell the world his PIN. Anything needing a password cannot be accessed, again because his password would be broadcast to the world. Obviously there are good things too, like when he is hungry, all he has to do is think about that food and within an hour or so it arrives.

Eventually this all becomes too much for David and he attempts to escape from what has turned into a nightmare.

I really enjoyed this pre-distopia type story. Although it is relatively short it is full of insights into modern society, things like celebrity, fame, Reality TV and so on. The desire to be rich and famous outweighing almost every other desire.

If you like your Science Fiction relevant and with not much tech-talk I think you will really enjoy this one.

Thanks to Legend Press and Netgalley for a free digital prepublication copy