Review: The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine

The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine by Akiyuki Nosaka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So beautifully written. And incredibly sad.

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Review: The Freeze-Frame Revolution

The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was waiting for this book, but perhaps without the proper enthusiasm. So I didn't read any reviews, blurbs, opinions.... and was completely unaware of any secret messages in the book. And then I opened the book and found a red letter on the very first page. And then another, on the second page. So over the next few minutes, perplexed librarians watched me going through the book with a pen and a piece of paper; then googling "mitochondrial introns just downstream from COX-five" (and coming up empty-handed :( ). At least I have the link for Hitchhiker, right?

I was really expecting a full novel, for some reason, and 186 tiny pages feel more like a novella. I was also expecting that staging "a mutiny when you are only awake one day in a million" would be more complicated. It turned out disappointingly easy (maybe that's why they failed :) ). Nevertheless, I like the book, I like the science in it, I like the questions in it. It's not as dark as some of the other books by Peter Watts, but it's still dark enough for me and a very hard science fiction.

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Review: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 96

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 96 by Neil Clarke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The only thing I read in this collection is Giants by Peter Watts; and it's the only thing I'm rating. I have no idea about the rest of the stories in the magazine, but this particular one is brilliant.

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Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the book! And generally, I like Salvador Dali's paintings. But I must say I'm not too fond of his illustrations for this book :D They are very... Dali. And therefore very hard to explain to a kid you try to read the book to.

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Review: The Touch: A Supernatural Story

The Touch: A Supernatural Story by Robert Flynn III
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. I can't recall why I requested it; maybe I went with the crowd (again) and went for the book many people wanted to read. From the literary point of view, it's quite a disaster. Do you think in complete sentences? I don't. But the characters in this book do. More than that, all the characters in this book think and talk in an absolutely unnatural, pretentious, and what's more, identical way. There's no way to distinguish between characters or thoughts from talk. There is also very little to go by when you try to decide if this book is fanatically religious or strongly anti-religious. Who would have thought that's even possible? It's certainly styled like a religious text, but the (hint of) ideas tells otherwise.

In any case, the blurb is very misleading. It's not a book about some struggling boy. It's more like a regular pandemic-themed book. A parasite spreads through the world; it's transmitted by touch; some people are more resistant than others, but it won't make a difference in the end. To better imagine this parasite think about ants and ant-controlling fungi that make them climb up to spread the spores. Just as those fungi, the parasite in question changes the behavior of its victims and creates multitudes of zombies. Pandemia, yay.

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