Platform Decay

Martha Wells

Book 8 in the Murderbot Series. My biggest complaint here is that this is a novella. I want more. This is another rescue mission, another unintended consequence from System Collapse with other parts of Dr. Mensah's family. Murderbot must infiltrate a hostile space station, get to the hostages, is thrown an unseen variable that completely changes the mission plan, and adjusts to accomplish it while encountering the benefits and detriments of his humanity. In many ways, this is retread material. But Wells is also extending the rogue secunit world by expanding the family of rogues. This version just sets up the storyline, but I look forward to exploring the ethics and implications of mass emancipation in future stories. For now, I am happy to see Murderbot maturing and developing new skills. 

Still 4 stars (out of 4)

The Warrior's Apprentice

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 3 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is of age and planning to join the military academy. Since the emperor is also of age and inhabiting the throne, his dad is no longer the regent, but is named the Prime Minister. When Miles fails his test (his bones just can't hack it), he and Ellen (Sgt Bothari's girl and fellow Escobar War baby raised like Miles in a uterine replicator) travel to Beta Colony to visit Miles' grandmother. A series of chance meetings put Miles and Ellen on a ship to Tau Colony and their local war. Miles military logician mind get shown off as he "accidentally" creates a mercenary army and stops the planetary war. Of course there are repercussions when he gets home, but boy was that fun...

3 stars (out of 4)

Barrayar

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 2 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan is named the Regent for the new Emperor (4 years old) and Naismith is his new bride. As near as I can tell, Barrayar is some version of a Tsar led Russia, with the Emperor holding together a tenuous cease of violence by the local oligarch/counts. Of course everyone assumes that Vorkosigan will seek to hold the throne when the Emperor comes of age, and therefore the next 16 years will be one assassination attempt after the other. When everything kicks off, it is Naismith who discovers and quells the rebellion with daring commando excursions behind enemy lines. For a space opera, this episode takes place entirely on planet...

What is strange about the Saga is the availability. I actually had to buy a paper version of this book since it was not available in my library. Strange, and likely to mean I won't be reading the entire series. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Shards of Honor

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 1 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Commander Cordelia Naismith is a survey leader on a planet that is at the terminus of a "new" wormhole. She and her team are surveying the flora and fauna, the geology and preparing a report to the Beta Colony administrators so the planet is registered. They are attacked, and while most of her team gets away in the shuttle, she and one team member are injured and then rescued? by a Commander Vorkosigan, who seems to have also been left on the planet for dead by his Barrayaran buddies. Vorkosigan and Naismith turn out to be birds of a feather in terms of how they view the human condition, meaning they are fighting the same war, even though their political affiliations have put them on opposite sides. Maybe this is soft sci-fi, with the plasma reflectors and wormholes and arc guns and nerve disruptors just showing up where convenient.  But it is a fast read and sets the stage for an epic space opera series.

3 stars (out of 4)

Artemis

Andy Weir

This book was written between The Martian and Project Hail Mary. It is a departure for Weir, since it includes more than one character, but is still all about innovation and creativity and problem solving. Here we follow Jazz, a teenaged resident of the Artemis, the only permanent colony on the Moon. In the afro-sci-fi tradition, the colony was created and is managed by Kenyan Space Corp, which is a global space power. But really, earth is only a side character here. Jazz has lived nearly her whole life in Artemis and, like all teens, pushes against the hopes and expectations of her family and those in authority. Jazz's most hated comment to receive is "you have so much potential". She is forging her own path, wanting to get EVA certified, and has her side gig of smuggling contraband into Artemis. And then she gets pulled into a massive scheme to alter everything. Of course, it goes FUBAR and Jazz utilizes her engineering brain and her friends to save the day. Pretty fun, but for some reason not "page turner" like the other Weir novels. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Falling Free

Lois McMaster Bujold

The start of a space opera known as The Vorkosigan Saga, this book is the first chronologically, but stands alone from the series as having taken place 200 years before anything else. The world allows for wormhole travel, so the setting is a remote system with a planet that is purely a resource mine for, in this case, Galactech Corporation. Engineer Leo Graf arrives to a new job posting on an orbiting habitat in this system, and finds that the habitat is a genetic engineering home for "Quaddies", people who have been "manufactured" with four arms for appendages (instead of 2 arms, 2 legs). They are Galactech's foward thinking solution to space construction and there are now 1000 quaddies on the habitat (all 15 years or younger). Just before they are about to take on their first paying job, political and economic winds shift turning this into a story of independence and revolution. Bujold does a pretty good job with the hard science part of the sci-fi, and keeps the engagement high with the storyline. I'll be giving the rest of the series a try. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Murderbot (series)

Martha Wells

Having watched the season 1 series, I have re-read all the murdebot novellas over the past 3 months. See the original reviews here

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Network Effect

Fugitive Telemetry

System Collapse

In short, there are lots of details I don't remember so I am having fun reading these anew. I also am happy to report that my initial enthusiasm for Martha Wells and this series is warranted. This is a really fun exploration of humanity.

Still 4 stars (out of 4)

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir

A recent offering from the author of The Martian. This time there is a strange lifeform?? that is siphoning off the energy of the sun, which will lead to sure collapse of life on earth. Junior High school teacher nee pre-eminent astrobiologist Dr. Ryland Grace is pulled into the project that will, on a short timescale, create an interstellar travel plan to go to the origin star and find out what is up. The story is told half in real time (on the Project Hail Mary ship) and half in flashback (the origin story of the project). Definitely consistent with my memory of the Martian, with lots of engineering and science that is pretty well researched and possible. For example, solving the energy problem of interstellar travel with the energy thief itself. Clever. Absolutely worth the read.

4 stars (out of 4) 

Fallen Empire Series (8-books)

Lindsay Buroker

The Fallen Empire series includes 8 books

Book 1 - Star Nomad

Book 2 - Honor's Flight

Book 3 - Starseers

Book 4 - Relic of Sorrows

Book 5 - Cleon Moon

Book 6 - Arkadian Skies

Book 7 - Perilous Hunt

Book 8 - End Game

plus a bunch of later published interstitials. These are fast reads and this review is for the entire series (1-8) but not the x.5's. 

Sort of a Star Wars-esque space opera, but I appreciate at least a little bit of "scientific reality". The setting is a single solar system (albeit with 3 suns) that was colonized by humans on generational ships long before. The system has 51 planets and moons that are inhabited and communication and travel time between the different planets is realistic. No magic teleporting hyperdrives. In the the world, the Alliance has recently "won" over the Empire - but in effect absolutely controls maybe 3 planets, with most of the system moving toward chaos or local control. In this world, Alliance fighter pilot Alisa Marchenko finds herself stranded on a remote planet and basically forgotten. She and fellow stranded Alliance soldier Mica (primarily a mechanic) go to the junkyard to recover Marchenko's family freighter spaceship, fix it up, and return home to her daughter. At the ship, the two encounter Leonidas, an Imperial cyborg who had the same designs. To get off planet, these "enemies" team up and eventually "team up". 

The series uses Marchenko's kidnapped daughter as the main plot driver throughout, and explores post-war politics, religious freedom, the slippery slope of "practical morality", elitist class systems and personal loyalty. Everything I like in a good space opera. Definitely recommend this for diversionary reading.

4 stars (out of 4)

The Ships of Air

Martha Wells

Book 2 in the The Fall of Ile-Rien

This volume takes place mostly in Cineth, and Tremaine and her crew are using the parallel world as an escape hatch of epic size. And along the way, they are actually able to travel to the Guardier homeworld, which comes with its own surprises. Like the first volume, there is plenty of depthening as we, the readers, are continually let into more of the secret at the same time as Tremaine. I feel like I am discovering at the same rate that she is, and the confusion about what is really going on is part of the puzzle and fun of the reading. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Wizard Hunters

Martha Wells

Book 1 in the The Fall of Ile-Rien

You know I love Martha Wells. Can't believe I hadn't read this series. On the surface, Tremaine is a fragile young protagonist without much self confidence. She lives in a world where a magical, invading force (The Guardier) is invading her country Ile-Rien. There seems to be no hope. But Tremaine is also full of mystery and strength beyond her own knowledge. We follow Tremaine as she discovers that the Guardier are actually invading by using a parallel universe as a staging grounds for the invasion. And that in this parallel world, there are both potential allies and enemies. I love the slow development of this plot, revealing the magic and the reality, the differences between the worlds as a way to tell the story of what Ile-Rien actually is. It is going to be a fun ride. 

4 stars (out of 4)

System Collapse

Martha Wells

Book 7 in The Murderbot Diaries

SecUnit is on the surface of a planet, doing his SecUnit thing protecting his humans. On this planet, his humans are trying to negotiate with colonists to help them with planet ownership, trying to remove infected alien technology and not kill humans from the corporation trying to kidnap colonists and press them into slavery. All of this while trying to hold off a mental breakdown in his "squishy bits". This continues to be one of my favorite series of all time. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Lotus and Thorn

Sara Wilson Etienne

Set on an expeditionary planet undergoing the woes of colonization, we are introduced to two populations. Those who live in the dome, protected from the elements and controlling all technology, and those living outside the dome, exposed to the elements. Sometime in the past a disease called Red Death decimated the population of the colony and now the outsiders scavenge old civilization for technology so they can trade the domers for food. Classic colonization power dynamics. And classic uprising/hero story. Etienne develops the characters well and gets buy in on the story. She has created a mystery (what is actually going on in the dome) that sustains the plot. While somewhat typical in the dystopian YA world, I found myself attached and read through pretty quickly. 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Invisible Man

H.G. Wells

A man has made himself invisible, thinking of all the benefits this would entail in his personal wealth and power. The story begins with the man experiencing all the detriments that were overlooked in his quest. Sort of a tragicomedy, I can imagine these themes being a modern telling of a Shakespeare story. As the story progresses, the protagonist becomes more and more convinced of his "right to power" which only makes things worse for him. Great short read - I'm surprised it took me this long...

3 stars (out of 4)

Karen Memory

Elizabeth Bear

Set in the NW in the 1800's where lawman Bass Reeves is a legend, but with a subtle steampunk thread including mechanical surgical machines, airships and tesla coils. The protagonist is Karen Memory, a young woman working in a brothel. She meets Reeves and helps solve a series of murders while protecting other young women and learning her own loves and passions in life. Pretty fun, easy read. 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Brass Giant

A Chroniker City Story - Book 1

Brooke Johnson

A cyberpunk feel set in an early 20th century London where mechanism is king. The engineering college is the highest caste and Petra Ward is going to find a way in. Unfortunately, she is battling history since women are not allowed to be engineers. But when a self driven automaton walks by with a bunch of engineering students, she puts herself in the middle of the pack, knowing they will mock her and knowing that she sees a better way to build the thing. Fast forward and she gets involved with a project to do exactly that, but as with everything mechanical and political (and we see this coming a mile away) machines always end up being made for war. Petra, like many scientists and engineers, struggles with the love of discovery and knowledge and the ethical implications of her work. Sort of a lightweight, YA writing style. Not sure if it is engaging enough to continue the series. 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Future

Naomi Alderman

More near future than is comfortable. The names have been changed to feign innocence, but basically Meta, Google, Amazon, etc. rule the world. They have their algorithms tuned for addiction and consumption. The owners all have their bolt holes for when the apocalypse happens. What they don't know is that there are still people who care. So there is a secret cabal working against the corp's with a master subterfuge plan. One of the best plot devices is the part of the plan when the algorithms are slightly modified to encourage collaboration instead of division. If only... 

In the near future, apocalyptic, tech dystopia genre, this is pretty good. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Gideon the Ninth

Tamsyn Muir

Book 1 of the Locked Tomb series

This is really a strange genre bender. In most ways, it is pure, high fantasy. Necromancers doing magic, nine houses under the rule of the emperor, adepts and cavaliers doing battle. But it also hints at a far future, sci-fi. The houses are each from different planets. Life and technology seems to be in a post-apocalyptic phase. Cool. 

Gideon Nav is a member of the Ninth house, has a brutal history of abuse at the hand of the house princess Harrow. She is constantly trying to escape, but never successful. When the emperor calls for representatives from each house, Gideon is drafted to be the cavalier (personal bodyguard) for Harrow and they skooch off to the first planet. The goal is to learn how to transcend into a Lyctor, the immortal servant of the emperor. The payoff being new wealth and security for the diminishing Ninth house. Duels, bone constructs,  ghosts, murder, and political intrigue. Quite fun. And while the plot pretty much unfolded as you expect while you read, this is OK and largely satisfying. The twists and surprises were surprising to the characters, not to the reader. Looking forward to the next installment. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Burn-In

P.W. Singer and August Cole

FBI Agent Keegan from the Washington DC field office is a former special ops marine and all around bad-ass. Part of her expertise in the marines was bot-wrangler. As we are all increasingly aware, the wrong prompt into your AI will result in gibberish. And when the prompts to your war-bot have life or death consequences, you get good at it. So as an agent, Keegan is assigned a Tactical Autonomous Mobility System (TAMS), a new generation bi-pedal bot with sensors galore and a still learning neural architecture. Her assignment is to train it. In the real world she is also in the midst of an investigation of several anomalous computer events, and a political climate of basically "us vs them" in terms of humans/bots. What could possibly go wrong. An engaging story that gets the pacing right and has a few cut-outs where Keegan gets to geek out with the TAMS handler about the philosophy of sentience and human/bot interactions. Short answer: Human/bot interactions are complex.

4 stars (out of 4)

Machinehood

S.B. Divya

Set in the mid-century future where machine technology has advanced to the point where most things are operated by Weak AI (WAI), indicating intelligence but not self-awareness. Individual privacy is nearly non-existent, individuals all carry their own "swarm" of video transmitting bots/drones, everyone has an electronic tip-jar where their public feeds can earn micropayments from viewers. Think 'likes' with cash attached. Since everything is public and recorded, murder and crime is almost non-existent. Nano-meds are prevalent and people (in order to keep up with the bot workforce) regularly take flow (to enhance neural function) or zips (to enhance muscle function). Our protagonist (Welga Ramirez) is a former special forces, now private security lives on these zips (has a genetic allergy to flow) and is outstanding at her job. But when a terrorist organization calling itself "The Machinehood" actually murders several biotech billionaires, calling for equitable treatment of all AI, Welga finds herself in the middle of the investigation. Great story/plot line and a strong treatment of the questions related to machine/human interaction that will necessarily be rising in our world in the next 20 years. Well done and worth the read.

4 stars (out of 4)