Neal Asher, Dark Intelligence (2015)

On By Ola GIn books, fiction, Ola, reviews26 Comments

Author: Neal Asher

Title: Dark Intelligence

Format: hardcover

Pages: 402

Series: Transformation #1

As weird as that may sound, Asher’s Polity books are my go-to comfort SF. Yes, they are filled to the brim with gore, lethal action, and body horror, and brazenly discussed issues such as free will, determinism, identity, and the origin of emotions, but they are also written (especially the newer ones) in a very accessible, quick and unobtrusive style, non-stop action, incredibly imaginative space battles and a general cinematic feel to the vast vistas of the void. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s the real deal.

Plus, let’s be honest here, this series boasts my favourite black AI Penny Royal as its protagonist. I just couldn’t pass this!

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The war goes on…

On By piotrekIn Piotrek, politics7 Comments

This is was not going to be another post about the war, I just wanted to start a regular review with a few thoughts on that topic. It turned out long enough for a separate piece 😉

First and foremost, remember that the war goes on. Civilians still need help, many volunteer units still lack protective equipment and things like infra-vision. Please help, however you can. It’s best to support local Ukrainian organizations, as they know best what’s needed. One NGO with long history and thus credibility, and wide range of activities is Prytula Foundation. If you want to buy something to show your support (t-shirts, mugs, flags etc.), Saint Javelin has a great selection and can be trusted to use their profits wisely. I own their HIMARS t-shirt and it’s very cool 🙂

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (2022)

On By Ola GIn books, fiction, NetGalley, Ola, reviews16 Comments

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Title: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Format: e-book

Pages: 306

Series: –

I’ll be brief, and frank. Yes, ouch.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is not a long book, and yet reading through it felt like eternity. I have been reading the first half of the book for over a week; every time I picked it up I felt that I was forcing myself to do it. Nothing was happening, and the reveals were totally unsurprising for a book that is to a large extent a retelling of The Island of Doctor Moreau. The second half picked up the pace, and offered some entertainment, but never on par with my previous encounters with Moreno-Garcia’s books. In short, this is not a bad book, and yet it’s far from good, too. It’s mediocre, and I’m actually sad to say it, because all Moreno-Garcia’s novels that I have read before were pretty enjoyable – and quite remarkable, too. I had so much fun with the fungal creepiness of Mexican Gothic, and with the darker realistic vibes of Velvet Was the Night, and even the early fantastic unevenness of Certain Dark Things was entertaining. 

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Journey into the unknown 2022, or on the perils of international travelling ;)

On By Ola GIn miscellaneous, Ola45 Comments

Well, actually, it was a journey into what we thought was very well known, after all we’ve lived in Poland for a long time ;). But in our post-COVID19 times nothing is as it used to be and the perils are very real ;). 

But first things first.

Our flights (various legs of it) had been cancelled several times, and in a couple of situations we were informed blithely that no alternative flights are available till late September. The last cancellation happened 5 days before departure, and I’m quite surprised I don’t have any white hair from this experience. The worst thing is that there wasn’t really a choice of airlines offering tickets! The ones that we used last time didn’t operate the route anymore (they returning to it in September, so at least there’s hope for the future). Lufthansa seemed a safe bet, all things considered, so I wonder how other people travelling from this part of the world went through with other airlines. That said, the hours spent on the phone with Lufthansa were many, and I really don’t want to count them because I might still develop a rash just from thinking about it. But, in the end, we did manage to get to Poland. The journey took only 72 hours, with a 16-hour layover in Hong Kong and two days (yes, 2 days!) in Frankfurt. 

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Marlon James, Moon Witch, Spider King (2022)

On By Ola GIn books, fiction, NetGalley, Ola, reviews25 Comments

Author: Marlon James

Title: Moon Witch, Spider King

Format: e-book

Pages: 626

Series: The Dark Star Trilogy #2

First things first – I’M BAACK! 😉 My vacation in Poland proved to be more adventurous than expected, what with flights cancelled barely days before departure and getting covid right after we finally arrived in Poland after 72 hours of travel… But that might be a topic for a separate post, because today I’m going to write about James’s long-awaited sequel to Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf was a singular book: dark with horrifying, intimate violence, propulsively emotional, full of fantastical monsters (some of which were still wearing human skin), crass and whimsically poetic, and, ultimately, abrasively addictive. The protagonist, Tracker, was bare against the world: his emotions were naked, extreme, and absolutely understandable for everyone who ever met a boy on a cusp of manhood.

But why do I write about the prequel in the review of the second installment? Well, because Moon Witch, Spider King is not similar to Black Leopard, Red Wolf in any recognizable manner – and yet it serves as a satisfactory juxtaposition of perspective to the first book. Moon Witch… tells the tale of Sogolon, the old witch we already know from Tracker’s tale, the witch we all rather despise even though we know of Tracker’s misogyny and his total lack of empathy to anyone so vastly different from him.

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