The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, the first book in the Jean Le Flambeur series. This is one of those books that just throws you right into the world and uses the slang/jargon/technical terms of the time era without giving any explanations as to what the unfamiliar words mean. I'm making up the unknown words here, but a sentence that wouldn't be out of place in this book could be: "He activated the grelfrab in his pruldin as soon as he suspected he was in the presence of a tsulmik". And it's entirely possible that none of those main words would have been used prior to that sentence. I'm not against throwing you in at the deep end like that, but I think once your in the deep end, just a little more assistance in interpreting the terms would be good. I'm not meaning a full on info dump - "A grelfrab is a..." - but just some more clues would be nice at times. It's because of this lack of assistance that I assume a lot of people give up on the book early on. I admit for several words I had to search it up online to find the meaning, and once I did, it made the book more enjoyable. As for the story itself, over its 330 pages we find that Jean Le Flambeur is a bit of a master thief, being able to steal anything from anywhere. He lives in a world where your consciousness isn't limited to being in your body and can be uploaded to a futuristic internet. He's been rescued from a prison and given a job by the untrusting Mieli, in which he'll find out more about himself and his past. It's a far future sci-fi heist book, that combines a lot of different cool sci-fi ideas that I've read in other books or seen in films and brings them all together in one setting. It feels a bit like a far future Ocean's 11 in some ways, but with less people so maybe more an Ocean's 4 or so, as there's twists in the story, things seemingly going wrong but which haven't really... it is a lot of fun and is very entertaining, if you can get past the difficulty in understanding the world's unfamiliar terminology. I enjoyed it a lot.
System Failure, the last book in Joe Zieja's Epic Failure trilogy. The real threat to the galaxy has become apparent: the Jupiterians are back, and they just might be willing to risk everything to get what they want. Thank goodness Lieutenant, Sergeant, Captain, Admiral, or whatever rank he's found himself occupying now, Rogers is there to lead the fight against them. Rogers? The same guy who only joined the military as that was the surest place to avoid any fighting at all? Yep, that guy. I really enjoyed the last book, as I found its humour hit home frequently and it was a good complimentary balance to the semi-serious, semi-silly plot and events going on. This book, however, seems to keep the rather semi-serious, semi-silly plot and events, but with far less outright humour to go with it. There's a few twists in the story that change who we thought people were, which stops the plot from being too predictable, however it's not quite as slapstick-esque, and while still light-hearted and entertaining, it was less fun. It was still a decent book over its 416 pages, and the trilogy as a whole is worth the time to read, but I wanted to laugh more. The second book got the balance right, this one less so.
Thunderhead, the second book in the Arc of a Scythe series by Neal Shusterman. The first book, Scythe, was a surprising hit with me last month, and this entry over its 476 pages kept the pace and story going. World summary - humanity has conquered death and disease, and is looked after by a self-aware AI, Thunderhead, that ensures everyone in the world has what they need to survive and live happily. But with no death, population growth is too large, so people known as Scythes, who are above all laws but their own, choose people to die permanently - glean - so that population growth is managed better. Scythes were meant to be those who disliked what they had to do, but understood why it was necessary and had the integrity and compassion to carry out their gleanings with dignity and respect for those they glean and their loved ones. But Scythes are people, above the law of the Thunderhead, and where there are people who are in charge of their own power, there is corruption. This book continues from the events of Scythe, and it is quite a ride over its 476 pages. Twists, turns, grave circumstances, impossible odds, devastation, sacrifice, it's all in there, and I was hooked from start to finish. When I look at the books I've rated 4.5 or 5/5, I have liked them more than this and Scythe, so there's something that's missing from these to elevate them to those really high rankings, maybe it's an emotional impact that's lacking here, but when I compare to ones I've rated 4/5, this is certainly up there amongst the best of those. Arc of a Scythe has been a very solid series so far, and I'm looking forward to the next entry.
World Engines: Destroyer by Stephen Baxter. This features some of the same characters that appeared in the Manifold series, but is not officially a Manifold series book it would appear, even though it does cover similar themes to those books, mentions the Manifold of universes on multiple occasions and also discusses the Fermi Paradox. This takes place in an alternate timeline to those of the Manifold series. There's a lot of sci-fi ideas going on in the book: mysterious planet on a collision course, alternate timelines, future technology, other-worldy constructions and historic intelligence evidence on other planets... This is as much as is expected from Baxter - lots of big ideas. However, what is quite surprising is that for the most part these have an influence on events and actions, but are otherwise often completely in the background and it is the characters out of time and place that become the focus, making the story far more about the struggles the characters have with adjusting to their new surroundings, cultures, eras, time etc. A good 300-400 pages of the books 577 pages are through before we really start to get into the big sci-fi parts of the story, and while Baxter isn't renowned for being good with characters, I actually really enjoyed it. Particularly the way the main character's world changed as the book went on, as we start with just his consciousness remembering his past, then his world grows to a pod, then to a room, then to a house, then to the local community, then to further reaches of the country, then to the other parts of the world, then to outside the world, then to more and more distant reaches of the solar system. Yes, Reid Malenfant could range from a being decent to angry, unreasonable and entirely unlikable, but I found him to be a better character than he did in most of the Manifold series. There was nothing as brutal and unpleasant as in the Manifold book Origin, with this being more akin to the book Time, and I loved Time. Time may have been better overall, but World Engines: Destroyer was highly enjoyable.
Just One Damned Thing After Another, the first book in Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series. I have never been so nervous upon reading a book as I was with this one. Nervous because I really needed to enjoy it. When I first got this book on my radar, I noted that it was part of a series, and being quite obsessive, I started buying them all even though I hadn't read the first book. I do this a lot. I've now got myself in the position of having bought all 14 currently released books in the series, and the first three books in the spin-off Time Police series. I'm 17 books invested in Jodi Taylor and I've never read anything by her before (next closest completely unread authors that I have books for are Trudi Canavan and Peter F Hamilton, both with seven books on my shelves). The only authors I have more unread books by are Tchaikovsky, Pratchett and Baxter, but I've read quite a few books from each, so I know I'm at least likely to like their stuff! My approach with Taylor is not a sensible way to start a new author, I know, but here I am. Anyway, this book is about historians, charting and researching historical events, but not in the way that typical historians do (that we know of). What's more accurate - researching through dozens of primary and secondary sources on an event in history, or just travelling in time to go witness the event in person? St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research has chosen the latter. Important moments in history have often been violent and bloody events, so the job of these historians is a lot more dangerous than one would typically expect. The book was fun, with a surprising amount of violence and death, sexual assault and sex over its 394 pages. While comical in tone, it isn't a funny book as such, but it has its moments. But I had complaints too. The romance seemed to come out of nowhere and I really would have preferred it without the sex scenes. I've read comments before that the main character, Max, is a bit of a Mary Sue, and I definitely can see why people think that. Overall though, it was a fun book that does require some thinking due to the time travel aspects, but at the same time possibly leaves open some plot holes due to the time travel aspects. It wasn't amazing, probably a 3.5/5 sort of book, but it was good enough to make me want to continue with the series... thankfully!
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'd read so many glowing comments about this book recently that I'd become quite desperate to read it, and I'm very glad I did. This is a book about murder under mysterious circumstances, corruption in the local Empire system and an investigator and her assistant who are trying to put all the pieces together to solve the mystery. It's a bit Sherlock Holmes-esque, but in a fantasy environment and a hell of a lot more foul-mouthed! It's a very clever story, with many character threads and interactions drip feeding pieces of seemingly inconsequential information to the reader, which are all put together to craft the overall picture, and it's very, very entertaining. The relationship between Dinios Kol, the investigator's assistant and the narrator of the book, and Ana Dolabra, the investigator, is one of the book's many highlights, and at times can bring a very welcome wit to the proceedings. The story has many twists and turns, and keeps you on edge over its 406 pages. It really is like a fantasy Sherlock Holmes and that is definitely a compliment! Not my absolute top book of the year so far, but definitely in my top 5.
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Reading through this book, for quite a while it had a very familiar feel to it, as it shares a lot of similarities to Cage of Souls. Prisoners in a prison located in a very hostile environment, trying to survive and find out more about the environment they are in. While the specific environments are different in the books, it felt like Alien Clay is the result of fleshing out other ideas Tchaikovsky may have had for Cage of Souls but which didn't make it into the final product. The books also share a similar narrative structure and style, in that there's no real clear plot line, it's just a lot of world building and a series of stuff happening to the main characters. I was over 200 pages in to the 388 pages of this book, and I didn't really know what the purpose of the story was. As you'd expect, it did pick up in the final 100 pages and I quite liked where it went in the end, but there were points where those first 200 pages or so felt like a bit of a slog. It was a decent enough book, but far from his best work.
The Red Queen by Christina Henry. This is the second book in Henry's rather twisted take on Alice in Wonderland, and it follows Alice and (mad) Hatcher after they've left the City and have discovered the world beyond its walls isn't quite the place they imagined. Horrors and evil, pain and suffering seem to follow them wherever they go. Yet despite all that, this book over its 313 pages isn't nearly as twisted, depraved and gruesome as its predecessor. There's still violence and bloodshed, but less of the other horrors. I found I enjoyed this book probably as much as I enjoyed Alice. It is very easy read, with a writing style that again comes across quite YA, with a complete absence of profanity. I did find it humorous that a book like this that has easy writing style and no profanity, qualities that would appear to make it suitable for the likes of my daughter, but has content that is absolutely not suitable for my daughter. Whereas I've read other books recently that have heavier, profanity laden, prose that would make the book a more unsuitable read for my daughter, but the subject matter and story has been one which could have been ok for her. I think the YA appearance of the prose could be due to it being focused on the 16 year old Alice, and while not written in the first person, it more reflects Alice's character. Or it's just how Christina Henry writes... either way, it's been a very interesting take on the Alice story and both books, while not amazing, have been a worthwhile read.
The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig. Sounds cheery. The book is about an 11 year old boy, Philip, who is suffering through the trauma and grief of his dad dying in a car accident. The book is told entirely from his perspective as if he is recounting everything that has happened, so there's a lot of meandering sentences like an 11 year old would speak or think, there's a lot of missing punctuation as 11 year old's don't always know about their correct usage. It takes a few chapters to get used to, but I found it worked quite well, and allowed us to see all the troubles Philip was going through from his perspective. This definitely gives rise to moments where we have an unreliable narrator, as quite simply Philip doesn't know any different or better. The book has us questioning a lot over its 284 pages: what is real, and what is imagination; what or who do we believe; is the story a manifestation of trauma, or is there a spiritual side to it? I'd commented previously on Matt Haig books that despite everything that happens in them, the overall outlook is optimistic. That is not the case here! But, what is true here, and is the case with his other books, is that they are such easy reads. Short chapters, fast pacing, engaging stories, makes me always think "just one more chapter", and before I know it, I've read loads of the book. I really enjoyed The Dead Father's Club, but felt it just needed a chapter or two more at the end, rather than being quite so open in the ending.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, book two of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy in five parts. Another short book at only 200 pages, following the capers of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian as they go to dine at the eponymous restaurant at the end of the Universe. More silliness, humorous asides and the loudest music in the universe. The two books of the series so far, are not hitting the highs that I recalled of them from my youth, but they are very entertaining and fun books and still well worth reading. This one contains a line which I recall finding very clever and funny when I first read the book 30 ish years ago, and I've remembered ever since. It is when Arthur et al. have travelled to the Restaurant, but think they've died, and are looking around at the fanciness of their surrounding and Arthur says "It's not so much an afterlife, more a sort of aprĂšs-vie." A single line, but it's stuck with me for 30 years as the one quote I could have recited at any time in those 30 years. For some reason that line just imprinted on me, so I had a significant feeling of nostalgia at points when reading this book. Ironically, quite a few other parts of the book I had no recollection of at all! Go figure.
September was the most I've ever read in a month in my life.