I went into this book on the recommendation that I don't read anything about it beforehand and I'm glad that's the approach I took.

I've read Andy Weir's other 2 Novels, (The Martian & Artemis) and can tell you that although they are all space sci-fi, they are impressively entirely different. This book got me hooked from the start and kept me guessing the entire way through.

Although I liked this book, I will say that I get the impression that Weir can only write one type of character personality and that character seems to be most likely himself, with his humour. So the main character here, to me, felt like a PG Mark Watney (The Martian). This is not necessarily a bad thing - I liked Mark Watney's character - but it's just something I picked up on.

I'd recommend this book, especially to those that get spooked by lengthy, wordy, dense, sci-fi. This is easy to read and a trip the whole way through. I'd also recommend you go into it knowing nothing more about it 

I started off really loving this book but as it went on, I fell out of love with it...

I really enjoy historical fiction and I was very excited to read this book as historical queer fiction is rare indeed and there is of course now a void to be filled with some magical world building...

That being said, the concept for this story is excellent and it starts out very strong with excellent writing but at around the half way mark you're confronted with, the first of 3 graphic sex scenes, the likes of which you'd find in fan fiction, and that just wasn't what I was looking for with this book.

Excluding the smut and mushy-gushiness, I did enjoy this book but I wish it had more of the world building and developing the interesting magical system/background rather than there being large chunks of detailed sex scenes which don't really add anything to the story that couldn't easily have been done in other ways.

I'm not vibing with the writing style of this one.

And I feel like for a colony built up of several cultures and languages, the language structure shown thus far has been lazy, uninspired and under-developed. The author has attempted to use French in a formal context despite clearly not having a strong grasp on the French language and so it has become reduced to several cases of short pieces of French at the end of English sentences, mostly consisting of "Est-ce compris?" 

The character introductions have not made me remotely care about them and I know that if I continued to read, I would only find the language/world building irksome and lacking. Although I would like to say that I did find the idea of the Architects and the peeling back of earth's crust and mantel compelling... But the world building just hadn't done it for me unfortunately.

Non, ce n'est pas compris. Je pense que je n'aime pas ce livre. Merci, allez va-t-en.

Hello Tyrannosaurus meet Tyrannicide the rest of our prehistoric ancestors 

A really great insight into the days before and after the K-Pg event that challenged and changed life on earth.

I don't read a whole lot of non-fiction work as I struggle to get absorbed but in parts, this incredibly descriptive book read like fiction.
 
Riley Black uses science supported findings to paint a vivid picture of what life might have been like for individual creatures (not just the dinosaurs) before a giant lump of celestial rock slammed into our inherited planet. Black eloquently explains what likely happened in the days and years after The Event that caused a sequence of events to unfold putting life on earth through the ultimate stress test.

If oatmeal were a book.

I read this for a reading challenge and it was perfectly 'nice' sure but oh my god it was so bland...

And what's with the random ghost?? It's almost like it was added in there to make something about this novel exciting and it just couldn't. And the ending was just like they got bored writing and left it there.

Can't imagine why this was made into a film, sorry, Penelope.

Minus half a ⭐ for the 43 uses of the word Underpants.

This book took me by surprise a little bit. It was raw and dark which I find is something I don't often come across in Queer fiction. I think that Queer fiction commonly gravitates to displaying Queer joy since our joy is often something that is stolen from us in real life. Fiction naturally seeks to remedy that and provide an escape from these hardships which I do love and appreciate, however it was a certain type of refreshing to read such an unfiltered work of fiction.

The Whale Tattoo dove deep into the experience of Love, Loss and mental health. It has strong themes of homophobia, depression and death but was beautifully written with stunning imagery. This book is not remotely light hearted in nature but Ransom has made it a work of art.