Reviews and Comments

Funny as always, interesting to read, fast paced spy plot a la James Bond, actually, and especially. The antagonist hopes to secure his machinations by running a super hero geas, which works until it doesn't, of course. I especially liked the afterword about James Bond novels, which explains why this book feels so much like a Bond / Fleming spy novel. I will definitely read on in this series, but I liked the first book more, actually.

Dan Simmons writes the best SciFi ever (Hyperion, Endymion, Ilium etc.), also best historical fiction ever (Terror!!!) and fantastically good horror (Summer of Night). He writes in all genres, and is good in all genres.

Well, this one here is brutal crime, and I read it in two days. So it was fun and the plot kept me going. Yet it wasn't the usual Simmons, but then I got to know him in different genres. This here is maybe a genre that needs a certain structure?

In any case, our protagonist, I feel, is a mix of Philip Marlowe and Jack Reacher. And he gets involved with a fun pack of crime professionals and wannabes and leaves a trail of dead bodies in his wake.

Yet again: the plot kept going, the pace was great, the action decisive. Except from the cover, I liked it.

I read the first book recently and it was fun as hell. So I took no long time to start the 2nd and it was the same. I just love the intelligent solutions Carl and Princess Donut find to go ahead. And yes, if someone doesn't just love Princess Donut: I can't help you. No one can.

Of course there is sometimes some repetition in the action. Yet do not forget what you are reading here: a book about a Dungeon Crawl RPG. And those games have that same repititiveness as part of their nature, so here we go.

I'M going to start book three soon. It's already here, waiting for me. For I just need to know how the story goes on.

I don't know the reasons anymore why I chose this book. We bought it when my son was painting Warhammer alot. He is reading a quite alot and recommended one of his Warhammer books. Yet he moved out so I never figured which one he meant (and this one actually looked unread, I have to admit).

This book contains four short stories about Space Marines defending a certain planet that the Tau (Xenos) want to conquer even if they supposedly want to free it. So the books cover the entire campaign.

But Space Marines books are, of course, about Space Marines battles and fights, so these books are full of that: descriptions of weapons use and fighting and lots of gore.

I personally found this not always amusing, actually, and favored two of these stories:

Black Leviathan by Ben Counter: because it is a deep espionage and counterintelligence story and it also shows that the Tau are not as good as they claim to be.

Hunter's Snare by Josch Reynolds: which then tells us of a hunt to bring the Tau leader of the operationale theatre to dead. In the end, it turns out, the entire universe is about war, which will never end, I think.

But in any case, the two other short stories were not bad. I just favored those ones, but anyone else might favor others.

So if you like Space Marines or the entire Warhammer setting, go ahead. In these short stories you also get to see the world from the eyes of the Tau, which I have heard is unheard of in Warhammer books?

I forgot where I stumbled upon this book, but I gave it away as a present and the guy read it recently and was full of praise. So I read it, too, and can tell you: wow! Easy to read, funny, and page-turning by itself.

Aliens come to Earth and, reminding us of the Volorians from Douglas Adams, present legal claim to all of Earth, which we humans could have avoided by making or own claim before a court we never existed.

Very shortly after most humans are dead and all the rest is offered to fight through a dungeon. Whoever makes it to level 18 can reclaim Earth.

And so we go down with Carl and his cat into the dungeon. Turns out, Carl is the first to bring a pet cat into the dungeon, so they get a buff and thus, Princess Donut is a Dungeon Crawler just like Carl himself. A former show cat, she is now bent on becoming famous, for the dungeon crawl is watched on universal TV around the, well, the universe.

Sure. The story is a bit repetitive, but has anyone of you ever played Elden Ring or the like? Of course they are repetitive! Yet the story is fun as hell, it is interesting to see how Carl and Donut do, and the game messages are fun as well.

I went ahead and ordered book 2 and 3 of this series, because at the end of the first book, Carl and Princess Donut made it to the 3rd level (race and profession can be choosen) and did I mention it's 18 levels overall?

This book is indeed funny. Yet overall, it's terrifying, because it shows we're just a little away from total destruction of our society in the name of technology. This book does not bother with climate change, for it focusses on our insistence on technology to basically surveil and observe us individuals in the name of bettering us and our choices, which means, in the name of making us consume more and dumbing us down. It's funny how we make ourselves transparent, but the providers of these technologies of course never make their own lifestyle, mistakes etc. transparent. In this story, they do this in the name of national security.

There is an antagonist by the name of Guy Matthias, who is an amalgam of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, I think. It's fun to see him go down, yet of course the billionaires never go down, and so Guy stays where he is.

The overall tone of explaining in this book reminds me of Jarett Kobek's novel "I hate the internet".

I thinjk Joanna Kavenna is a name I should remember henceforth.

... and everything else with words, like alliteration. This really reads exceptionally good, because Mou observes so much of us, of our interactions, of our mimics and else.

The story is about a young female who moves to London. She gets to know her friend Ruth, who moves away after a while, and a man, a pilot. Is she in love, or is she not? Will she marry, or not? What does she want from life, who could give it to her, and similar questions get pondered. In the end, things get even more complicated and the protagonist stands before a very important decision. And deciding she must, and she weighes all angles, points of view, consequences, and all with respect to her, her future and her life.

I'm absolutely pro that choice, and even more so after these consequent deliberations leading to it. Still, the end shocked me for I felt she would decide differently.

This is a book full of very modern ideas. It is thus very nicely suited not only for young persons (who will find themselves in here), but also for older, more conservative readers, who will find new points of view and angles to think about. Great book, great language, great topic. Go and read.

So steht das auf'm Klappentext und so ist es auch wirklich. Es sieht ehrlich so aus, als ob sich Aldoux Huxley und George Orwell haben inspirieren lassen, nur bleibt die Frage, ob sie diesen Text von Samjatin überhaupt kannten.

Ich finde den Konflikt von D-503 konsequenter als den des Protagonisten bei Huxley und Orwell. Ganz sicher aber ist D-503 aber der Erbauer eines Raumschiffs, also ist das hier wirklich SciFi, aber auch ansonsten nicht besonders helle.

Denn meistens schnallt er wirklich wenig, was um ihn herum in anderen Menschen vorgeht. Dies mag aber auch ein Zeichen seiner Zeit sein, genau dieses Verhalten. Denn um das Individuum aufzugeben und in der Masse aufzugehen, erfordert keinerlei privates Interesse an irgendwas oder irgendjemand, denn dass wäre ja individuell!

Ich weiß nicht mehr, wie ich über dieses Buch gestolpert bin, aber es gehört in den Kreis von Brave New World, 1984 und Arthur Koestlers Sonnenfinsternis. Distopisch und desillusioniert ist es.