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patlo's Reviews (1.32k)

Thus Spoke the Plant: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

I like woo woo discussions of plant conversation, but this one's a little too much. Orynggum in chapter 0, the plant naming itself as part of the authors trip, isn't a great place to start for me.

Dark Matter

Blake Crouch

2.5

adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

So, the premise is interesting. But the characters... dear God, they're horrible

The protagonist is the only character anywhere nearly fleshed out. All the women are cardboard cutouts, and the wife is not only a caricature but has no actual agency - the final saga is laughable in her responses and her agency. I rolled my eyes in the last chapters. Did an incel write this?!

The teen boy is shockingly agreeable and compliant.

Good potential, and it's entertaining in phases, but this is a 2.5 star novel. Until the ending, maybe it was a 3 or 3.5 stars.

Pierce Brown's Red Rising: Sons of Ares, Vol. 1

Rik Hoskin, Pierce Brown

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The Last Animal

Ramona Ausubel

4.25

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The Future of Another Timeline

Annalee Newitz

4.25

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Fun and progressive, if heavy handed, alternate history based on time travel edits. The audiobook is voiced by a wonderful young actor with a good punk energy.

Content Warnings

Morning Star

Pierce Brown

4.25

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel

3.5

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Somehow a foggy-dark, meandering post-apocalyptic exploration that breathes well and isn't rushed. It's no The Road, and has faint echoes of Cloud Atlas and other crossing-timelines themes, but it's mislabeled as sci-fi. It's fic, or lit-fic, and character focused. Pace is slow as in meandering, not as in plodding.

The audiobook version is well narrated, and paced well.