One Sentence Media Reviews
Third book in this sci-fi apocalypse series is even bleaker and awful-er than the last to the point that it fully tips over into way too much territory, also it has an unsatisfying ending and desperately needed to be cut down to half its size.
Watts’s second entry in the Rifters series doesn’t quite have the same unique magnetic characters of the first (and maybe it has slightly too many characters in general) but what it lacks in story it makes up for in prediction and world - read this to wallow in a truly terrible future dystopia that feels extremely likely.
This kind of old school engineer nerdiness was a lot more common 50s-80s then it is now, but I do recommend this quick read from 50 years ago for a funny and ironic look at why LLMs are not going to save the world.
I’m sad to say that this series is starting to feel a little stale for me; the characters more static, the situations more contrived - this novel was still fun and exciting in the second half, but mostly annoying and stressful in the first.
A worthy entrant in the Vorkosigan saga (even tho there’s hardly a Vorkosigan in it) with plenty of relatable good guys, hate-able bad ones, and interesting genetic hijinks to boot.
As I continue through the interminable Vorkosigan saga I’m still struck by how the tone has been changing, from the original intense and dark tone of the opening books towards something like a James Bond book - fun, a bit silly, full of intrigue, but ultimately not reaching for greatness.
Super fun to see good ole Miles Vorkosigan go on further adventures, further enraging his elders, but I am sad to mention that the darkness and sadness that made the earlier books in this series so special has basically disappeared, by now, which is a real shame.
I dunno why I watched this, the first one was bad, but hey sometimes a little pain is good for the soul, which is definitely what happened here.
exceedingly dumb movie that i think i watched once before but it was so forgettable i’m not even sure
For some reason Bujold had a story in mind she wanted to tell that required a very kooky setup, is the only way to describe it, in a big break from the last two books of her's that I just finished, so although I spent the first two thirds of this book shaking my head at how downright silly some of the events were, the payoff was fantastic and I couldn't put it down.
Bujold has the rare ability of writing easy, fun, exciting stories about some truly dark themes (this book’s being child disfigurement, among others), and the combo works much better than you’d think.
Watts has this way of threading 3-4 different core themes through an exciting narrative, and unlike a more conventional novel, he doesn’t really try to make them all relate explicitly; the result in Starfish is dense and difficult, but leavened with exciting plot and compelling, tragic characters, and absolutely mesmerizing.
This weird classic is great for being weird, great for being family-friendly but interesting, great for weirdly enough having a plot about an anti-tram pro-freeway conspiracy, and it’s funny it took me this long to see it for the first time.
So difficult, like frequently rereading paragraphs to try to glean some meaning from the dense, razor-sharp descriptions - but i reread and reread because i really wanted to, because it was so good!
Adler has a wit so dry, so subtle, it comes back around and seems accidental or naive (although it’s definitely deliberate) - if that sounds fun, i highly recommend this quick serving of vignettes, ideas, observations.
Honestly this old thriller really pulled me in from the moment it started, then in the middle I thought it was getting a bit too dramatic, but it turned out I should have had more faith because by the end it made perfect sense and i loved it.