My review:????

Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson is about life after death, except with computers!

This is the second book with Richard ‘Dodge’ from Reamde, which is about phishing scams.  You don’t need to have read that in order to enjoy this one, you just need to know that Richard is rich and does unconventional things.  

Richard dies very early on in this book, but he has left instructions on what he wants done with his body, which is to store his body cryogenically, so that in the future he can be revived.  There are a lot of ethical implications with all of this, and Neal Stephenson explores these.

Neal Stephenson does not write small, simple books, but I find the journey he takes me on interesting and entertaining, so I’m happy to see where it goes! 

Fall or, Dodge in Hell was published on 11th June 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Neal Stephenson on Twitter and his website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins UK.

My review:????

A Desolation Called Peace is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, and it’s a duology.  I haven’t heard of that before for books, but it makes sense.

This starts 3 months after the previous book, and Mahit has returned to the Isel station, and is feeling homesick for Teixcala, and the whirlwind week she had there, and for Three Seagrass.  

Three Seagrass is still on Teixcala, feeling out of sorts, and hasn’t written poetry for the last 3 months.

Teixcala has a new Emperor, Nineteen Adze, who is already in the middle of a war with the aliens that Mahit pointed out just before the death of the previous Emperor.  

The aliens are rampaging through Teixcalaan space, and they’ve just got a recording of the noise they make – is that a language?  Three Seagrass wants to investigate and help, and knows who she can take with her to help with barbarian languages – another barbarian.

This is a sci-fi book, full of court intrigue, with characters uncertain who they can trust, or what their real motives are.  Eight Antidote, the heir to the Emperor, and the ninety percent clone of the previous Emperor is 11 years old, and running around being a spy, which gives you insight into a lot more places than you would get with an adult.  I very much enjoyed my time in Teixcala, and enjoyed the conclusion to the story.

A Desolation Called Peace was published on 4th March, and is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Arkady Martine on Twitter, Instagram and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, to Arkady Martine and Pan MacMillan.

My review:????

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is a science fiction book, set in the Teixcalaanli Empire, where Ambassador Mahit Dzmare has the memories of the previous Ambassador from when he visited their independent mining station, (called Station) last, implanted in her memory.  She arrives at the center of the Empire, ready to take up her post.  After all, with the help of the previous ambassador, even years out of date, how hard can her job be?

Turns out, hard.  The previous Ambassador might have been murdered. The implanted memories have issues, and there’s something odd happening at court.  Oh, and no one can know about the implanted memories!

This was an enjoyable story, with lots of political machinations, not knowing who can be trusted, and hoping that Mahit can keep Station independent.

This is the first book in the Teixcalaan series, and the second book is out on 2 March 2021.

A Memory Called Empire was published in March 2019, and is available on Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Arkady Martine on Twitter, Instagram and her website.

My review:?????

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 4) is the last book in the Wayfarers series, and whilst we don’t go back to the Wayfarer ship, we do have a character from that first book!  This time it’s Pei, who is the Ashby’s lover.

This book is set on Five-Hop One-Stop, on the planet Gora, which is at a nexus of wormholes, and so is a popular stopping point for many travellers. 

Pei is on leave, and heading for Ashby on the Wayfarer, Speaker is an Akarak, travelling with her twin, and Roveg is a Quelin, heading for an appointment.  They all stop at the Five-Hop One-Stop, and so are the guests of Ouloo, and her child, Tupo.

They all have to stay on the planet for longer than they had planned, and so have to rub along together, which means, as in the other books in this series, we learn more about the people, their motivations, and their fears.  

One of the things I’ve enjoyed about this series is that unless you know the person, you don’t assume their pronouns, and in fact there are some people who use the gender neutral pronouns for various reasons.  Instead xe and xyr is used.  In this book, Tupo has not chosen a gender yet (and might not), and so is referred to as xe and xyr.

This was a lovely end to the series of books, which the description of quiet was really made for.  Yes, they’re in space, yes, there are aliens, but this is about characters rather than space battles, and it was very good.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 4) was published on 18th February 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones (signed edition!) and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Becky Chambers on her website and Facebook.

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.

You can read my review for previous books in the Wayfarer’s series:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet  (Wayfarers 1)

A Closed and Common Budget (Wayfarers 2)

Record of a Space Born Few (Wayfarers 3)

My review:????

Record of A Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 3) is set on the generation ships called the Exodus Fleet, that humans left Earth on. 

We see the lives of a number of people – Sawyer, who wants to try new things, and looking for a place to belong.  Tessa, sister of Ashby from the Wayfarer, and her family, who is thinking about her place in the Fleet.  Kip, who is a young student, who has a friend who leads him into all sorts of trouble.  We also see the Fleet through the eyes of an alien who has come to visit.

I really enjoyed this book which feels like a quiet series of books.  Things happen, but what you’re mostly seeing is the day to day of a number of people.  

Record of A Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 3) was published on 24th July 2018 and is available on Amazon, Waterstones, Bookshop.org.

You can follow Becky Chambers on her website and Facebook.

You can read my review for previous books in the Wayfarer’s series:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet  (Wayfarers 1)

A Closed and Common Budget (Wayfarers 2)

My review:????

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 2) is the aftermath of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, with Lovelace, the former Wayfarer’s AI, now in a body, and away from the Wayfarer, with Pepper there to help her.

Lovelace is going to try to find a new place for herself in the world, with Pepper’s help.  We also have flashbacks to Pepper’s life from when she was young, and on a world where she had been made to fit a purpose.  

I was expecting to be on the Wayfarer for this entire series, but I’m assuming it’s part of the series as it’s to do with a former shipmate!  I enjoyed being on a planet for a book, and seeing how Lovelace adapts, by doing things like changing her name to Sidra.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers was published on 20th October 2016 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Becky Chambers on her website and Facebook.

You can read my review for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet  (Wayfarers 1) here.

My review:????

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley is set in the distant future, where the military uses a form of transport that changes you into light, and sends troops into battle on Mars.  Dietz is our protagonist, who has recently joined the infantry, and begins to experience battles that don’t match with those of the others he was sent with.

This is a sci-fi book, but one where you’re trying to work out if Dietz is confused, having memory issues, or if there’s something else going on!  I enjoyed the story, and trying to puzzle out what was going on.  It made me think of Edge of Tomorrow a little.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley was published on 19th March 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Karmeron Hurley on Twitter and her website.

No photo for this post as it was a library book that I forgot to take a photo of before I returned it!

My review:?????

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 1) is a book that I read *checks GoodReads* in January 2018, and I really enjoyed it, so when I got the opportunity to read the fourth book in this series, I was excited!  So yes, I’ll be reading and reviewing books 2 and 3 this month!

We’re introduced to the crew of the Wayfarer, and taken on a journey across the galaxy.  There are aliens, tech implants, AI, and a way of punching through the galaxy to make short cuts!  The crew of the Wayfarer can do this, and have been hired to journey for a year for a punch, and they have a new member of the crew, Rosemary, which means we get to understand more about the crew.  I liked the AI, Lovey, on the ship, along with her relationship with the rest of the crew.

There’s so much that I enjoyed about this book, and I’m excited to read the next one!  I feel the universe of this series is big enough that it’s going to be entertaining!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 1) was published on 29th July 2014, and is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Becky Chambers on her website and Facebook.