Tag archives for John Scalzi
Redshirts by John Scalzi [Book Review]
Redshirts by John Scalzi My rating: 3 of 5 stars Redshirts is a pastiche on the original Star Trek. As a premise it's interesting, and Scalzi executes it well. However it's not really enough for a full length book. I can see it working very well as a 90 minute movie though. Redshirts - Review All through Redshirts there are little chuckles and wry smiles. The plot is an observation of the sort of tricks series writers use to keep audience attention. So it is a meta story more than it is its own story. Redshirts is full of Scalzi's trademark snarkiness and cleverness, which I happen to like. Scalzi said in a recent blog post that he wrote Redshirts in five weeks. That makes Redshirts the fastest book he's written, and it sort of shows. I did like it, but only just.…
New Books of 2015 pt.2
Here is the second batch of books that I have so far acquired this year, another seven titles to add to the previous seven. So far that makes 14, and my paper book resolution target is still at 20 (but only just, I said I'd try and read five more than I acquired). Like the previous batch there are a couple of late 2014 acquisitions in this group, but some of these are genuine new books of 2015 for me. Here are some of the reasons that I have chosen these titles (where I did choose them, one was an unexpected present). Up Against It by Locke I saw this recommended on Charlie Stross's blog by the man himself. It was cited as being a very good view of the harshness of life in space, especially if you were trying to…
Reader Perspectives
Following on from my review of Rayne Hall's book about ways to increase your book sales I thought I might spend a few minutes reflecting on how I, as a reader, find new books to read. What do I read? You can see the details over on my Goodreads shelf, my 2014 Challenge was to read 50 books this year (numerically slightly down on last year, but 12 parts of John Scalzi's Human Division counted as 12 on goodreads when it was really just a single serialised novel (and I really enjoyed it). So my reading is divided into three broad categories, I read easy fiction for escape and enjoyment, histories for a better understanding of why and how we got here, and course related material for the Open University degree that I am doing. Typically the heavier the degree module…