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chloefrizzle's Reviews (993)
A fantastic end to the trilogy, gave me everything I ever wanted from it.
This is one of the best entries to the Murderbot Diaries series. If you liked Network Effect, you're going to love System Collapse. This novel starts where Network Effect left off. Murderbot and the team are dealing with the fallout of their previous adventure, and discovering a new adventure (and many many problems) along the way.
It has everything that you've loved about Murderbot books in the past: pessimism and sarcasm, our bot trying to deal with its anxiety and trauma, deadly fights, a love of media pervading the plot, and musings on what it means to be human.
The strength of this book is in how it shows Murderbot dealing with its emotional issues. For many books of this series, Murderbot has been avoiding doing just that. In this episode, we start to get some real forward momentum.
It also avoided the common pitfall of this series by narrowing down the cast somewhat. For most of the novel, we only had 3 sidekicks.
Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
It has everything that you've loved about Murderbot books in the past: pessimism and sarcasm, our bot trying to deal with its anxiety and trauma, deadly fights, a love of media pervading the plot, and musings on what it means to be human.
The strength of this book is in how it shows Murderbot dealing with its emotional issues. For many books of this series, Murderbot has been avoiding doing just that. In this episode, we start to get some real forward momentum.
It also avoided the common pitfall of this series by narrowing down the cast somewhat. For most of the novel, we only had 3 sidekicks.
Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
Here is the premise of this book:
Sherlock Holmes (real historical figure) decided to freeze himself for over a hundred years in order to solve the crimes of the future (he got bored with the crimes of his own time). Doctor Amy Winslow finds Holmes — recently thawed in 2022 — and decides to take this (insane?) man in. Holmes quickly finds himself a case to solve: a person murdered with an attack tiger, and goes in search of a new nemesis to entertain himself with.
The writing style of this book is highly reminiscent of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories. It is narrated by Dr. Winslow with all of the Victorian flair.
How goofy! How amusing! Yes, it is those things. However, this book is so much more. It is also a story about characters.
This is a story where Holmes has gone from being the smartest man in the room to the most ignorant one. This is a story where Holmes is now obsolete due to modern CSI. This is a story with him coming to terms with his Grand Plan of travelling to the future to save the world failing miserably, as he realizes that the world doesn't need him.
I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the writing style. The classing Sherlock Holmes stories didn't work for me (too dry), but this novel certainly did.
Booktone = Celadon Green (intellectual, character/atmosphere focus). https://youtube.com/watch?v=AD4WKlAB0Jw
A video review including this book will premiere on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, at https://www.youtube.com/ChloeFrizzle
Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
Sherlock Holmes (real historical figure) decided to freeze himself for over a hundred years in order to solve the crimes of the future (he got bored with the crimes of his own time). Doctor Amy Winslow finds Holmes — recently thawed in 2022 — and decides to take this (insane?) man in. Holmes quickly finds himself a case to solve: a person murdered with an attack tiger, and goes in search of a new nemesis to entertain himself with.
The writing style of this book is highly reminiscent of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories. It is narrated by Dr. Winslow with all of the Victorian flair.
How goofy! How amusing! Yes, it is those things. However, this book is so much more. It is also a story about characters.
This is a story where Holmes has gone from being the smartest man in the room to the most ignorant one. This is a story where Holmes is now obsolete due to modern CSI. This is a story with him coming to terms with his Grand Plan of travelling to the future to save the world failing miserably, as he realizes that the world doesn't need him.
I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the writing style. The classing Sherlock Holmes stories didn't work for me (too dry), but this novel certainly did.
Booktone = Celadon Green (intellectual, character/atmosphere focus). https://youtube.com/watch?v=AD4WKlAB0Jw
A video review including this book will premiere on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, at https://www.youtube.com/ChloeFrizzle
Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
It's all the Benedict POV that I was craving in the first book. An excellent contained adventure.
This is one of those books that I HAVE to stay up until 1am to finish. It's entirely addicting, because it's so well plotted and the characters are given so much to do, in tasks and emotional battles.
A common pitfall of middle books in a series is that there's nothing happening, it all just becomes set-up for the grand finale or clean-up from the first book. With this book2, it avoids all that. It feels necessary and entertaining in every page.
The balance of our POV characters really impressed me. We're following three characters, and I was invested in all of their stories.
A common pitfall of middle books in a series is that there's nothing happening, it all just becomes set-up for the grand finale or clean-up from the first book. With this book2, it avoids all that. It feels necessary and entertaining in every page.
The balance of our POV characters really impressed me. We're following three characters, and I was invested in all of their stories.
Nice plot. Nice exploration of moving on. Good pacing. Makes me even more excited for the next book.
My thoughts in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_TaKp6HH0
What I enjoy most in this book is seeing how far Harry has come from the beginning of the series. In many ways, he has fundamentally changed the way he interacts with people and Cases. This story shows off a lot of those differences by giving Harry a simple Case to solve that intersects with several of his old frenemies.
My thoughts in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_TaKp6HH0
What I enjoy most in this book is seeing how far Harry has come from the beginning of the series. In many ways, he has fundamentally changed the way he interacts with people and Cases. This story shows off a lot of those differences by giving Harry a simple Case to solve that intersects with several of his old frenemies.
This is the story of 1910's monster hunters. The hunters are a sibling duo with a perfectly entertaining dynamic. There's also larger politics at play with the secretive monster hunter organization.
Though this book has great bones -- intriguing monster, dynamic characters, I feel like this book fell short of that potential. The characters are flawed, but don't face any consequences for those weaknesses here. The hunt is intriguing, until it spends way too long in the same place spinning its wheels. There is a vague threat from their bosses, and yet it doesn't really pan out.
Despite not having read the next books in the series yet, this feels like a case of middle-book-syndrome: a book that is there to set the characters up for a finale, but doesn't actually justify its existence.
It was fine, and I still recommend the series. I just hope that the next book has more going on, both in terms of plot and character development.
Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Saga Press for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
Though this book has great bones -- intriguing monster, dynamic characters, I feel like this book fell short of that potential. The characters are flawed, but don't face any consequences for those weaknesses here. The hunt is intriguing, until it spends way too long in the same place spinning its wheels. There is a vague threat from their bosses, and yet it doesn't really pan out.
Despite not having read the next books in the series yet, this feels like a case of middle-book-syndrome: a book that is there to set the characters up for a finale, but doesn't actually justify its existence.
It was fine, and I still recommend the series. I just hope that the next book has more going on, both in terms of plot and character development.
Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Saga Press for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
