Science Fiction Books > C Science Fiction Books

Stunning, a really great book

Advantages: Everything about it
Disadvantages: none

...about an exploration into the Congo Rain Forest in Zaire. The company sending in the operation, ERTS, are in search of valuable blue diamonds, which are believed to be located in the lost city of Zinj, untouched and unexplored for five hundred years. Their rivals the Euro-Japanese seem to be winning and when they reach Zinj the end is far ahead and, at times, out of sight. ERTS on Peter Elliot and Amy to aid their party in the field, Amy is a gorilla! ...

mintboy 27.07.2000 · Read Full Review
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Review of Congo - Michael Crichton

SiFi gets personal with Chasm City

Advantages: Fast paced, action packed, complicated
Disadvantages: Sometimes too complicated. Lacking some periferal character detail.

...the often rancid, often sterile Chasm City. Indeed it is a marriage of both Good and Evil, sanity and insanity, the dirty and the clean which septate with dramatic distinction the sometimes confusing shifts in plot, location and time. Much like some sort of cart running away from any form of user screeching around corners to the point, but not over it, of a spillage. In some ways it is the charm of this that there is little time for stability or ...
...Any criticisms can come in the form of the lack of peripheral character development, as many of them seem just hollow in comparison to Tanner and the other main individuals. And the oddly rigid form of first person narrative which is not wholly successful. A great and enjoyable read, complicated and fast paced. Much fun will be had for SiFi/Fantasy lovers and those who just want a good Adventure with twists and turns galore! ...

Karath 02.12.2007 · Read Full Review
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Review of Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds

The Geek shall inherit the earth

Advantages: Nothing else out there comes close
Disadvantages: Nothing else out there comes close

This is Stephenson's masterwork. Forget Snow Crash and Zodiac (both good but not in this league - and, for my money, pass by The Diamond Age), this book sprawls across continents, drips nerd humour, history, cryptography and conspiracy theory from its every pore. Others have seen the book as a marriage between Pynchon and Gibson but that doesn't do the book justice - you'd need to chuck in some Coragasson-Boyle (for the humour of the characterisation) ...

oedipus 16.01.2001 · Read Full Review
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Review of Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

Captains Glory - William Shatner

Advantages: Not that bad
Disadvantages: Not that good

Captains Glory. I do enjoy some Star Trek and to be honest this was actually a better than average read. This is the 3rd in a trilogy but you would not know it, the story makes a few references but only a few and it makes no difference. This could be a stand alone book in its own right. Kirk is looking for answers to the death of Spock. He knows that the hidden and secretive society called the Totality are directly responsible but ...
...son Joseph is also under their control and he decides to take direct action against them. He manages to borrow a starship, as you do, and sets off to find and confront them. But circumstances are already moving the totality in his direction and soon the whole federation will be drawn into a frightening war. Kirk will finally get the answers he is after but perhaps not the answers he wants. It all culminates on Spocks home world of Vulcan and what ...

MaldivesHoliday 10.02.2009 · Read Full Review
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Review of Captain's Glory (Star Trek: The Original) - William Shatner

Another Time

Advantages: Engrossing, atmospheric
Disadvantages: x

...Prague, which on early 21st century Earth resembles post-war Paris much more than anything any further west. Theirs is a Paris of checkpoints and rain. Dark, barely lit streets. Jazz clubs. Musicians masquerading as detectives, or maybe the other way about. A Paris where being either a musician or a detective is a very romantic thing to be…but, obviously, not romantic enough to keep the girl by your side. Especially if she is a singer with more ...
...the 1950s. A 24th century archaeologist on a field trip to Earth. But this is not a time-travel story. This is a tale in which time struggles to retain any sense of identity, and the nature of reality itself becomes confused. And yet - somehow - it all makes perfect sense. Floyd's story & Auger's run along those parallel lines which, as they must, cross at the point of infinity… and that's where the science kicks in. How real is it? I only wish ...

hiker 30.09.2006 · Read Full Review
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Review of Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds