Sci-fi reviews mostly

“Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not - and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.” I have to review the book side by side with the movie in this case. Only the first film though as the others answer the question - can you make a good film with bad acting, crap cgi and terrible dialogue. The answer is no. The classic sci-fi novel from Heinlein is kind of crap. Harsh statement, but it's militaristic, boring sci-fi at it's best - there are dozens of pages dedicated to showing off gear and how to clean it. I mean if you have a fetish about cleaning gear and drilling this is definitely the book for you! Also a tonne of training and quite a bit of propaganda about how only people who serve in the army are fit to lead. Now if you've watched the movie you'll say that it's tongue-in-cheek but actually no, that's only the...

 “We've already established whoever is writing us is an asshole.” A novel written by John Scalzi, Redshirts is very different from any novel you've probably read in the last year or so. It won the Hugo for best sci-fi novel in 2016 and I can definitely see why. It has popular appeal and it resonates with anyone that's watched Star Trek before. You don't even have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy the book and since the Hugo nominations are voted on by fans it makes sense that the book's large popular appeal would be an asset. The audio book is narrated by Wil Wheaton(lt Crusher from Star Trek) so that's a plus for listening instead of reading. You can also check out Geek and Sundry where Will Wheaton plays table top games with celebrity guests or just friends. “You’ll notice that the Intrepid’s inertial dampeners don’t work as well in crisis situations, Dahl remembered Jenkins telling them. The ship could do hairpin turns and loop-de-loops any other time and yo...

“We gotta talk” The second book of the Expanse series, which by the way has been adapted into a well made tv sci-fi show(The Expanse) is pretty different from the first. Originally meant to be a mmorpg game developed by a chinese video game producer, it never got the greenlight so the authors decided to publish what they had written as books. Originally the game was meant to have three factions which you can guess if you’ve read the first book. It was an overly ambitious game that could not be made in 2004. Ty Frank is the video game geek, while Daniel Abraham is the more traditional writer. Thus the Universe encompassing Earth, Mars and the belt got it’s unlikely start. Read more only if you've read the first book.

The sequel to “The Three Body Problem”, “The Dark Forest” is the second book of the trilogy written by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. You thought the first book was weird? Well get ready for another big slice of weird pie. More

The first novel by Ernest Cline it is described as dystopian sci-fi. I’m not sure it fits that description but more about this later. An interesting bit of trivia is that the audiobook version is narrated by Will Wheaton who actually makes a cameo in the book. I did not have expectations from this book. I have seen the movie “Battleship” and I heard they were making one based on “Tic Tac Toe” so my faith in entertainment(and humanity) is already low. I believed this to be an attempt at a book in that spirit. I was surprised as I saw some friends which I knew read a lot of sci-fi give good grades to the book on Goodreads so I eventually grabbed a copy for my kindle and decided to try it. I was pleasantly surprised. The book is very well researched, either that or the author is incredibly passionate about 80’s pop culture. Way too passionate, like creepy stalking waiting all night outside your apartment levels of passionate. The world is gripped by an energy crisis made worse by glob...

By the way, that’s a shitty cover. I mean the book deserves better, this makes it look like a soap opera. I mean look at that shitty sword, no way the badass sword(Nightblood) you'll read about looks like that polished piece of crap in the cover. A fantasy book written by Brandon Sanderson “Warbreaker” it is the first of a series. Well kind of, there is no sequel yet but the author has repeatedly mentioned that he wants to write one. “It was strange, how easily and quickly protection could cause destruction. Sometimes, Vasher wondered if the two weren't really the same thing. Protect a flower, destroy pests who wanted to feed on it. Protect a building, destroy the plants that could have grown in the soil. Protect a man. Live with the destruction he creates.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker I read the ebook version and the author had an incredibly original idea. He added at the end of each chapter an explanation of what he was trying to achieve and of how he views the cha...

“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.” ― Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest What do you get when you combine hard sci-fi written by someone as smart as Asimov with the cultural revolution and the chinese culture? Yes, you guessed it correctly it’s this book. At places this reminded me of Asimov, but a more pes...