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daxxh
Posted 2016-10-16 1:29 PM (#14436 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016		Quote Reply



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I finished my 10 books for this challenge! I used this challenge for books that didn't fit in any other challenge, so I only planned on reading 10. Here are my mini reviews for the books I haven't mentioned yet.

The Fold - Peter Clines. This book started out great. A reluctant genius gets involved in a DARPA-like lab that is involved in folding space. Pretty cool until the end. It was almost like the author finished a different plot.

Making Wolf - Tade Thompson. I liked this one. It's a crime novel set in a fictional African nation. I am not sure why it's considered speculative as there was no magic or advanced tech in it. It is violent, but so are many African nations. It's dark and gritty and seemed realistic (as much as someone who has never been to Africa can believe based on what is read in the news). I would recommend this one.

Beacon 23 - Hugh Howie. This was a very thought provoking book that explores PTSD and how the human mind deals with it. I would recommend this one, too.

Gypsy Plus - Carter Scholz. This is actually a collection of short stories, essays and the novella Gypsy. Gypsy is excellent. It's probably one of the more realistic depictions of a long space voyage that I've read. It's rather dark - no happy endings here, but I thought it was well done. The other short stories and essays weren't very good. Skip them and just read Gypsy.

Deep Navigation - Alastair Reynolds. Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite authors, so I was bound to like this one. I don't really like short fiction that much, but most of the stories in this collection were good. My favorite was 'Stroboscopic" - about a life or death virtual reality game.

Europe in Autumn - Dave Hutchinson. This was good. Europe has fractured into many small countries and travelling can be quite challenging. Rudi is a cook who gets recruited by an underground organization to smuggle messages and sometimes things between countries. But not all of the countries are in this universe. Excellent book - highly recommended.

Europe at Midnight - Dave Hutchinson. This was better than Europe in Autumn. Although it's book 2 in the series, the characters are new. This book takes place primarily in England. This is my favorite book of the year, so far (but I haven't read Alastair Reynolds' Revenger yet) I can't wait for the last book of the trilogy.

The other 10 entries for this challenge were all short fiction. Most were nominated for the Hugo or Nebula, which is why I read them. I really didn't like them and was rather disappointed. I did like the one story that wasn't nominated for anything - The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild by Catherynne Valente. The imagery in this story is fantastic.

Edited by daxxh 2016-10-16 1:40 PM

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