Blurb Book Review: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

A ship named Demeter. Passengers include Dracula, a werewolf, a mummy, and Frankenstein. I loved this book from start to finish.

Demeter just wants to do her job; fly back and forth from Earth to Alpha Centauri while keeping the human passengers alive, but her passengers keep dying. Before long, she’s known as a ‘ghost ship’, something she finds insulting.

At first, her medical AI, Steward, tries to convince her that equipment failure is the reason for all the deaths, but soon they both realize there are supernatural beings on board each journey.

This book was absolutely delightful. I didn’t read the back blurb until the end, so every step in the journey was refreshing. The author does a fantastic job in keeping the pov consistent with what I’d expect of AIs with personality. Even the human-presenting characters were well rounded and vivid, mostly seen through Demeter’s pov.

The author wrapped up the story beautifully with no lingering threads to worry about, while also keeping the story concept open to a sequel.

I’d love to see this book developed into a movie or miniseries.

Blurb Book Review: The Compound by Aisling Rawle (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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The Compound is a sprawling house in the middle of the desert, where contestants compete to be the last one living there. Each contestant has a small screen that assigns them Personal Tasks, which offer tailored rewards if the task is completed. There’s also a big screen for Communal Tasks, which everyone on the compound must complete in order for the reward to be granted.

Sometimes the producers make sure the contestants complete the communal tasks by withholding resources.

Lily knows she’s not very smart, but she’s beautiful. She has a dead-end job and lives with her mom, but as much as she wants a better job she knows she doesn’t have the skills or qualifications to get one. Living on her own is something else she’d like, but isn’t motivated to move out, plus, her job doesn’t pay all that much. So getting selected to be a contestant is her dream come true, her way out of her dreary life. She’s watched the show and knows all the ins and outs, all she has to do is be the last one there.

Often, Lily wonders why she’s still there. The Communal Tasks seem more and more like the producers are trying to be rid of her, yet she doesn’t get banished and she manages to out-smart other contestants just enough to remain.

While she’s there, she notices that all her Personal Task rewards are clothes, makeup, hair products, and other items to make her look and feel pretty. She knows this is a reflection of herself; that she has no substance other than being beautiful, but doesn’t have any notion on how, or even if she should, try to correct this.

The story felt like an allegory to our lives right now; we are told to buy things to make us happy but the foundation of things that would make us truly happy (job security, employment in general, a livable wage, food security, healthcare in America) are out of reach for many. Given the opportunity to ask for anything we want, many would choose material items that wouldn’t actually improve our day-to-day living.

The novel is thoughtful and a great in-depth look at a character who has little ambition, knows this, but doesn’t have any help in figuring out how to acquire some.

Blurb Book Review: The Merge by Grace Walker (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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Amelia is in her early 20s and staunchly anti-Merge until her mother, Laurie, is told that merging would cure her advancing Alzheimer’s. They participate in the Preparation Period of three months, where they undergo rigorous exercises to help with the Merge; where Laurie’s consciousness will join Amelia’s in Amelia’s body. They both question whether this is truly what they want to do, but it’s not until they’re in the Village – a luxurious rehabilitation centre for Merged people – that the questions start really piling up.

The Merge is a process to help those in poverty. Lush accommodations are reserved for those who have Merged, as well as better job offers, higher pay, and even access to post-secondary education. Never mind that the people are in poverty because the government started levying high taxes to everything, including childbirth. These taxes could be so high that Merging was the only option to get out of debt.

The author did quite well with ramping up tension in the novel. The reader finds out early on that Amelia has participated in protests and finds Merging abhorrent, but yet continues to attend the Preparation exercises. Laurie, who was told her husband died in an anti-Merge riot, is also against Merging yet continues to attend the exercises to appease her daughter.

Once they Merge, Amelia has difficulty adapting to the new reality. A Support Worker helps her to see what’s really going on, just as she starts understanding what the Merge is really about.

The plot is well executed, the characters wonderfully believable, and the worldbuilding felt complete enough that I didn’t question why a billionaire would fund something like the Merge.

Blurb Book Review: Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Fern, a rattkin, is dissatisfied with her life so she moves to Thule to be closer to her friend Viv. Viv helps her set up a bookshop right next to her coffee shop Legends & Lattes and Fern is successful, yet still feels discontent. In a drunken moment, she decides to hide under a tarp in an elf’s cart rather than talk to Viv about her dissatisfaction. The trundling cart wakens Fern and begins an adventure, alongside an elf and goblin, that she never dreamed could happen.

I admit, I was expecting this novel to feature Viv even though the cover art and inside flap description told me something different. As usual, I opened the novel without reading the flap (to see if I could sus out the plot and characters) so I was disappointed to find this story about a rattkin instead.

Once I let go of my expectations, I enjoyed the journey of the novel. Fern is sensible and delightful and her adventures are realistic, fun, and just enough tension to keep me turning the pages. The ending is neatly tied up with a delightful twist about the bounty on the goblin, but still left things open for a sequel involving the same characters.

While the author’s first novel felt too sparse on description, and the second novel just the perfect amount of description, I felt this novel inserted description in a way that took away from the story instead of adding to it. This novel felt wordier, somehow, without being as rich as the previous one. The plot in this one felt a bit too stretched out as well, with a lot of dithering from Fern in between stops on the journey. Having said that, I did enjoy it enough to hope the author continues the series.

Blurb Book Review: Too Old For This by Samantha Downing (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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Lottie has retired from her job and her hobby, when someone shows up at her door threatening to expose her hobby for all to see. The only option, as Lottie sees it, is to come out of retirement and kill the would-be docuseries producer. This murder causes ripples, though, and killing someone in your own home has risks.

Delightfully told, the author builds a relatable character before her murderous tendencies are fully realized by the reader. Lottie is well rounded as a character and her age is a nice barrier to remembering all the details that go along with being a serial killer.

The narrative style is easy to read and engaging, making me want to pick the book up at every opportunity. I was fully invested and wanted to know how Lottie could continue murdering people without getting caught.

There was some hand-waving I had to do, as I don’t think an elderly woman would have the strength to hit someone hard enough to kill them with one blow to the head, nor do I think a body could be effectively burned in a fireplace, even cut into pieces. But I also know that it would be silly to put actual methods of body disposal in a novel for anyone to use as a reference document.

Blurb Book Review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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A deactivated military robot, Staybehind, comes online to find himself in a restaurant that’s flooding. He reactivates his coworkers, Hands, Sweetie, and Cayenne, and while cleaning up they decide to open the restaurant again. It takes some doing, robots are allowed to earn coin but not have a bank account. Hands learns how to make biang biang noodles and they start serving humans.

This novel is delightfully cozy. In the background, a war has ended recently and California separated from America. Robots, specifically HEEI (human equivalent embodied intelligence), have been freed but have limited rights. They are citizens but cannot vote, can work but must pay off their old contracts, and aren’t allowed to own property.

Staybehind makes it work by “defying categorization, hiding neatly in the fit between what humans could see and what they couldn’t”. They register their business online, work out supply chain, and learn about how to bring business in.

I enjoyed the novel, but did notice it was heavy with LGBTQ+. Not a bad thing, but these are robots and so I didn’t expect to read about affectionate behaviour from them. The one that has top surgery made sense, as did Hands, who didn’t want legs. But relationships that feel like love or infatuation felt a bit out of place.

Blurb Book Review: UnWorld by Jayson Greene (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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In the near future, people could have an upload: a digital entity composed of the same memories as the human tether. These uploads are able to intensify memories, make them more solid should the human choose to revisit them. Some of the uploads request emancipation from their tethers as well.

Anna is grieving the sudden death of her teenage son, Alex, when she releases her upload. Cathy is teaching personhood at a local university and allows this upload to attach to her. Sam was Alex’s friend and saw him die. Aviva is the upload struggling to make sense of the world.

At its core, this novel is about grief with a science fiction environment. There are hints to dystopia – like retirement homes not having any human staff – but the focus is on Anna’s upload and how it evolved to be what it was.

While I enjoyed the book immensely, the narrative style was wonderful and the characters properly rounded out, I was disappointed with the science fiction element. I ended up with more questions than answers like, was Alex’s neurospiciness caused by the upload somehow? Why did Anna allow her upload to develop a relationship with her son? Why didn’t Cathy just get her own upload instead of going to extremes to attract one? It’s possible some of these questions were answered in the novel and I somehow missed them, which is frustrating. Also, why would an upload want emancipation? If the upload is simply an AI, why would it have feelings and desires?

Interesting concept, but the execution could use some work.

Blurb Book Review: The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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Gabe is the love of Pippa’s life; he’s charming, successful, and loving but can also be unpredictable and manic. They buy a cottage near The Drop, a cliff face, and Gabe stops several people from jumping off. That is, until one woman takes her own life in front of him. Pippa, watching from the window, misses the event but sees Gabe with his arms out after the woman went over. Suspicions grow when Pippa finds out Gabe knew the woman.

This novel reminds me more of a romance, the way Pippa keeps reminding the reader how much she loves Gabe and how he’s the centre of her life. Pippa rationalizes a lot of Gabe’s behaviour even though his actions are erratic and sometimes extreme. A diagnosis of ADHD seems to fit, but Gabe continues his manic behaviour even while medicated. Later, the true mental illness is revealed.

Pippa’s character arc is a good one. She loves her husband and her children, but has been cleaning up his messes for so long that she’s not really living, just reacting to his behaviour.

Overall the novel was a good depiction of what it’s like to live with someone, and love them, with mental illness.

Blurb Book Review: When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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Seven years ago, the Simulators announced that the world was a simulation. To make sure people never forget this fact, there are weekly reminders that appear, in completely different fonts, over people’s heads and the Impossibles; physics-defying anomalies like an upside-down frozen tornado, a tunnel where time passes as normal inside but once you emerge you find only a second has passed, and even a Hollow Flock of fluffy animals with no mouths or eyes.

In this world, a group of people board a tour bus to see some of these Impossibles over the course of a week. Included are an Influencer who’s very pregnant, two nuns and a Rabbi, a cancer survivor and his friend, four octogenarians, an old woman in a wheelchair and her nurse daughter, and a person who spends most of their time reading. After the first stop, a woman joins them, a woman who wants to be reunited with her daughter but knows she’ll die before she gets there. This woman has written code to create a simulation, which the government acquires, and people are out to kill her.

There’s a lot of characters to keep track of, but the author does a good job in making sure the reader doesn’t get too lost. The narrative style is casual, even when infodumping scientific information. While there’s no way I could bend my brain to understand a simulation, I never felt out of the loop.

As the characters go from one Impossible to the next, the Influencer pivots her platform to gain views, the coder frantically tries to figure out how to create a back door into the simulation she created, and the senior nun tries to write a novel about God and simulations.

The novel is told from the Simulators’ pov, which is interesting and not too alien. This pov gives the opportunity to highlight humanity and our quirks in a way that’s amusing and poignant.

There’s a reveal at the end that was beautifully done by the author, but I won’t spoil it here. I will absolutely seek out other work by this author.

Blurb Book Review: Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

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Vi is out drinking one night when she finds a blob in the alley behind the club. At first this is just a blob, but when she goes to check on it the next day she sees it’s moved to get cover from the rain. Vi scoops the blob up and takes it home where it begins to evolve.

Vi’s life is aimless; she’s had a bad breakup and hasn’t let go even though it’s been eight months, she works at the front desk of a hotel but doesn’t really care about her job or coworkers, she dropped out of college because she was failing, and she lied to her parents about signing up for the Peace Corps.

One thing that stood out for me was how Vi treated the people around her. She often thought she knew what her ex-boyfriend was thinking and feeling (she was routinely wrong) and wants people to behave in a way she prefers. So when she found this blob, later named Bob, I thought this book would take a dark turn, but it didn’t. Instead, Bob continues to evolve into a person, including wanting his own experiences (Vi wanted to keep him in her apartment like a prisoner). Vi sees that controlling him is wrong, yet still does it.

By the end, Vi has had a small character arc where she learns that her life is up to her so she enrols in college again, this time taking courses she likes. She’s had to let Bob go as well, since he decided to be with someone who doesn’t lock him in an apartment.

Overall, the story of Bob is short, but the author dives into backstory quite a lot to show what kind of person Vi is. Yes, she’s Taiwanese / white mix and has had to face microaggressions but otherwise, she comes from a loving family, so her snarkiness feels unfounded.

The novel felt more like the author wanted to give a lot of backstory to a somewhat unlikable character instead of a story about a blob that evolves into a person. Still, well enough written that I read it quickly and found the imagery vivid.