A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had started this book once before, and just stopped as I found reading it at night wasn’t working. It’s quite a complicated beginning, with lots of new names and concepts that you need to be properly concentrating for, and reading a couple of pages at night just wasn’t working for me.

Vernor Vinge thought up a whole new way of thinking about space, with different areas being capable of more or less advanced technology, and you can advance through these areas at increasing speeds (space ship dependant), or go in to the slowness, which is where the Old Earth is in.

The aliens were all different, and I thought he had really original ideas, but I don’t want to spoil anything!

I read this for Sword and Laser book group, and I do love doing this, because I read books that I would never normally pick up!

If you enjoy science fiction with a tinge of space opera, you’ll probably enjoy this!

California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very different book of wizards and magic, and I really enjoyed it! I don’t want to spoil anything for you, though!

It’s funny – I used to enjoy knowing what was going to happen in a book or a film, and these days I just try to enjoy the experience, and after I’ve read for a bit, I’ll have a read of the back cover, and find out if it matches what’s happened!

I did the same with films! John Wick surprised me, as did the latest Thor! Just need to go and watch the latest Star Wars film before I have any spoilers!