pineconek's Reviews (816)

I'd like to open this review by disclosing that, while not afraid of spiders, I have a moderate phobia of swarms.

Mild to medium spoilers to follow, getting more-spoily with each sentence. 

Children of Time features a human race that is nearly extinct, lost in space, and looking for a new planet to come home. There is such a planet, artificially designed to promote prosperous earthly conditions. The reasons behind it are absurd (think trying to model an evolutionary speed-run between ape and man), but it is nevertheless coveted territory. But evolutionarily-savvy spiders reside there, and don't know what to make of the arrival of the earthlings.

I really enjoyed the evolution of the spiders; we had hunting spiders building better traps, long distnace communication, a violent matriarchal society, great wars and natural disasters, the development of a spider-religion, and those scenes of first contact that kept me up at night. The book reached a sort of plateau near the middle, and alternating between "here's another chapter of spider evolution" and "here's another chapter of unrest aboard the spaceship" started to feel like a chore. I do commend the book to adhering to it's own within-world rules. 

While it did drag a little bit, I'm glad to have read it and may continue the series. Especially since I hear that there are octopi-like creatures in space, and those don't tend to come in swarms. 3.5 stars rounded down. 

Possibly the scariest book that I've ever read. 

I love good investigative journalism, and especially the type where the journalist becomes blacklisted in the database of the company that she's investigating. The "secretive startup" alluded to in the subtitle is Clearview AI, a system that generates "face-prints" of all individuals in the training database. And this information is then available for easy linkage to social media, legal names, and unwanted video appearances (to put things mildly). 

It definitely made me think a lot about the whole Youtube thing. 

Highly recommend, especially if you'd like to be horrified by the face recognition tech and surveillance state we currently have. It's great on audio. 4.25 stars. 

I felt just a tad bit betrayed. 

I had really high expectations, given that this was my first foray into Icelandic Thrillers. 
The main character is profoundly unlikeable, but not in an anti-hero way. The writing style did not resonate with me.

I remember some plot points that I thought had the potential to become interesting, only to feel like the potential of the moment was deflated. That said, I liked the original concept and wanted to like the book very much. Do the others get better? 

(1.5 stars rounded down.)

This graphic novel gave an unflinching vision of what the occupation of Okinawa by the American troops looked like for the habitants of the island. While I learned a lot of history from the setting of the graphic novel and the accompanying photos, the storytelling didn't land for me. I felt neither connected to nor invested in the fates of the characters. 1.75 stars rounded up.

This review features a suggested reading list for someone who, like me, have a fascination with the lengths human beings go to to survive, and how arduous survival conditions can be.

I knew very little about the Donner Party until recently. Like, I remember hearing the phrase a few weeks about and, in context, assumed it referred to Jeffrey Dahmer's biggest killing spree (i.e. "Dahmer's Party). That's how little I knew. I also don't typically read about the history of American settlement, so there were many aspects that I hadn't considered.

The narration was extremely respectful and factual. The author introduced the members of the migration party and their family members thoroughly, and relied on historical sources as much as possible. Speculations were clearly demarcated, and alternate or conflicting explanations thoroughly explored. There were also fascinating details about how the human body and psyche react to the conditions described, including scientifically- grounded speculation as to why some survived but others didn't. While slow in pace, I was hooked. 

This book paired perfectly with a few others that I read this year. These include (from most to least grounded in reality):
- Cannibalism: a Natural History by Bill Schutt
- The Terror by Dan Simmons
- Doomsday Book by Conniee Willis
- World War Z by Max Brooks

Recommended if you're fascinated by human resilience, the fragility of surviving in the wild without an adequate skillset, and want to learn more about the brutalities of both winter and starvation. 4.75 stars.