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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

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

The sparrow has landed...

Advantages: Continuation of great plot and characters
Disadvantages: -

The book ‘Children of God is the sequel to Mary Doria Russell's award winning first novel, ‘The Sparrow’. In this we take up once again with Father Emilio Sandoz, the only survivor of a doomed expedition to a nearby planet, set in the not-to-distant future. In that first novel, a team of Jesuits and others set sail to the nearby star system of Alpha Centauri to discover the source of unexplained radio transmissions which sounded quite a lot like ...
...disastrously for the expedition team, and the only survivor of that group was Sandoz, brought back to earth. Most of the characters from the first novel have died (in this novel we discover how a few of the missing people from the first expedition met their fates), and due to the effects of near-light-speed travel, many decades have passed on earth while Father Emilio is still relatively young. There are political crises on earth, including a crisis ...

frkurt 04.11.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Children of God - Mary Doria Russell

Mike Saves Earth, as Usual

Advantages: Hey.. It's Cals!
Disadvantages: Disadv... You kidding me?

Callahan's Place. If there was a place on earth like it, a REAL Callahan's, I'd pack my bags and move in. Callahan's Place is a pub where everyone, and everything, is welcome. From talking dogs to alcoholic vampires, to a doc and a musician. Shared joy is increased here, shared pain deminished, and the man who writes these books, Spider Robinson, thought up a place where evryone can be comfy. I'm not a sci-fi fan. Other than Startrek, I don't watch ...

Misha13 29.06.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Callahan Chronicles - Spider Robinson

It is not just about football!

Advantages: It's very funny, and oh so true!
Disadvantages: None

The Disc, for those who don't know, continues to float in space, supported by the elephants who ride the back of the great swimming turtle A'tuin. The Hub about which the planet spins is a centre of great magic, and best avoided if you want to live a happy and contented life. At the outer perimeter is the great circle sea which unendingly streams over the rim into the void, which is best avoided if you want to continue to live at all. Most Discians ...
...Smeems, for instance, is the Candle Nave at the Unseen University. He has to worry about keeping the candles not just alight, but properly melted, artistically, gothicly, dribbled, as it were. Of course, there's Trevor to help. And there's Nutt. With two t's. Trevor Likely has a tendency to skive off work whenever possible, and to kick a tin can around. His dad was a legend. Nutt is… well, no-one's quite sure what Nutt is, even him. Goblin isn't ...

hiker 07.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett