roadtripreader's Reviews (357)

I was this close to my first 5 Star 2024! - Can't complain though, this was a blast.

Normally, I steer clear of Mafia Romances, they're just not to my taste at all and as per ush I did not read the blurb. The cover got me real good this time. So, if I had even an inclination that this had "families" and territories and all the hallmarks of Mafia except (earth style) drugs - I'd have passed on it so fast. Thank Mandalore The Great that I am in essence just a scifi ghost within a human shell - I dove right in and had an amazing time.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Normally for romances I force myself to suspend disbelief, namely because well let's face it, it's way more believable that Chutlhu will enter this world in a lovecraftian apocalypse or that a single father is gifted the power of the Grim Reaper but still has to raise his daughter or heck anything is more believable than some FMC and MMC pairings.

But this one, oh boy. This one was so easy to fall into, from the galaxybuilding, the introduction of the universe's "royal/mafia system" to planets with mineral values that could shape the next thousand years, The whole story was as good as a dark saber in hand. I refused to give up reading it without a good toussle (me vs exhaustion ).

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Temper has a fire in her belly, a chip on her shoulder and a lifetime of a negative voice in her head in the form of her mother telling her to be less. She jumps the gun when she's not brandishing it and she self-sabotages when she's not being brilliant. I love her

My only wish is that I would have loved to experience Arcadio from the horses mouth so to speak. But I accept the fact that dual pov is not always necessary and more often than not, first person POV often sounds like the same person. So we see him through Temper and we see everything and everyone through her POV and that's okay. Still, an Arcadio POV book would tickle me pink. Temper judges him too quickly, too harshly and even she knows it.

Supporting Characters Caro, Micah, Itzel - if I had to hope, I'd hope that the rest of the seriea focuses on each one because Fay really brought out such nuanced characters and said "here...just a little taste."

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Arcadio and Temper underground cenote then right up to Cult-Town.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “People are the worst. It’s always easier without people. This must be the cult/religious group.” (Temper on, well ... People)
🖤 ““Names are lies we use to distance ourselves. Not just here, everywhere” (Arcadio on self preservation)
🖤 “No one starts out intending to be evil. They think they’re doing right until it calcifies into something else” (Temper if the "Families")
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Plankat Nibarat Flowers
■Banishment Tattoos
■ Phydium
■ Pierce Family Algae
■Blastclast Machine
■Itzel and Caro's Artwork2

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025 

Lazy Researcher Review - Listen Albert Einstein Vs Neil Bohr, Schroedinger vs that student who basically inspired him to go on a ski trip and theorize on that cat, Einstein Vs Schroedinger, etc etc. Quantum Theory and Quantum Mechanics is so dramatic I'd pay to watch theorists go mad and enter the ring. Wave vs Duality.

"Einstein could not accept the outrageous randomness and unknowability of quantum mechanics, so he attacked the theory by devising a series of ingenious thought experiments". (Daniel Brühl can play Neil Bohr in the film)

Information Accessibility scale :
Let's talk level of effort here: Passive vs Active. (1 being the easiest it could be, just vibing taking it all in and 5 meaning you need to dust out that diploma, maybe a degree to make sense of it)
■1.Bob Ross- don't overthink it, paint it and just enjoy vibe.
■2. Crash Course TV: Phil Plait and team bite-size digestible chunks
■3.Bill Nye, Neil de Grasse Tyson glossy tv style appeal, a touch data bulky but very edutaining ******
■4.Feynman, Hawking, Einstein, Kaku, Curie data, concept, theory heavy
■5.Christopher Nolan gloriously mind-bending, time-bending, sanity-bending
LEVEL: We are nesting at 3

Rabbithole Worthy or Nah? :
It's Quantumn Theory. "Most theories are built on a solid foundation of first principles – not so quantum theory" and doesn't that just pique your curiosity?

If you're even a teenie tiny bit scifi inclined, maybe you trued to build a faraday cage as a kid or you're into Discworld or you watched the movie about the atom bomb with Cillian Murphy in it (don't make me say it) or whatever - this is the rabbithole you'll gladly fall into. Red shoes on, no Kansas in sight.

Spotlight on Theorists : 
Legends of this field emerged from the Solvay Conference in Brussels where 17 attendees would go on to become Nobel Peace Prize Winners.
□"Quantum theory has never failed an experimental test. [...] Even today, we know of no natural law that prevents quantum mechanics from being true at the level of the universe.". (Vindication! )

Significant Concept :
■Faraday's Magic vs Einsteins complaint of "Spooky Magic" vs Schroedinger's Cat
■ Dueling over Duality: Wave vs Particle, Philosophers Vs Physicists.
■ Hilbert Space
■Quantum Revolution

Snore inducing or Willing All-nighter :
Well I read it in one sitting and it didn't sit like indigestion so you could easily add on more resources to the topic or veer off in another direction. Or watch a movie and think about it later.

OVERALL: So many theories, so little time (but time is a daydream) so here are the basics.
🖤Einsteins paper on photoelectric effect is a major propeller for QM
🖤Schroedinger's cat exposed the absurdity of QM.
🖤Planck aka Grandpa QM noted quanta - energy in discrete packets,
🖤Durac took Heisenberg, Schroedinger's, Einstein theories and married them leading to antiparticles
🖤Wolfgang Pauli and his principle of exclusion leading to our understanding of matter.
🖤Arthur Compton - yeah he was missing from the Oppenheimer movie despite playing a key role in the Manhattan Project
🖤De Broglie among other things is a founding father of CERN.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Non-Fiction (Sciences) books by 2025

I didn't even have to suspend disbelief - humans would definitely install racetrack circuits connecting to otherplanets and moons if (when) we manage to take off from earth without a hitch

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Sixty hours driving?! I can't even deal with a 40 minute drive. And that (besides lack of racing talent) is why I am no schoemaker or Raikkonen. Zimmet and Catling on the other hand, talk about insane, courageous, ludicrous and entertaining.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Felt like I was in the crowd, snacks in hand, cool beverage splashing out the bottle. Cheering as Shogi made it past the geyser, exclaiming in horror as Mittendorfer was blown out the sky, sighing in relief as his ejection pod activated and standing ovation when the winner eventually got onto the pidium.

It was thrilling.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Zimmer the "Almost-Machine" pleading with Cat Catlin in the middle of a crater in the heart of Detonation Boulevard.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “winning on Io mattered more than anywhere else in the system. It might not be the race that decided a tournament, but it was the one that forged legends.” (Catling on Jupiter's moon)
🖤 “The future only existed as far as the next corner, the next breaking zone.” (Rufus on time)
🖤 “The sponsors liked an underdog. They liked a winner even more.A Good Samaritan? Not so much.” (Catlin on bravery)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■Space Sponsors and Advertising
■ Ejection Cockpit pods.
■Consciousness-management neural mods. I need one yesterday.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

Oh, what's this? Heather Lee is alive! .I swear this is more than de ja vu, Heather and her ship sound familiar because The Clarke has mentioned the Tubingen before. Or maybe the dimensions are just merging and I'm picking up on the storyline where The Tubingen ambush was literally the opening to this series and the reason the B-Team now has special "ignore them but use them" status.

Just when I was getting used to having Schmidt, Wilson and the rest of The Clarke back - a curveball.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I swear John Scalzi can write a compelling story about paint drying and turn it into a rivetting, daring espionage saga with high stakes. Case in point, a room in a hole somewhere and a CDF soldier in it, naked, no weapons and strapped to a chair...

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Heather Lee is the type of person who would do well in a kidnapping situation. As in, resourcesful and bound to escape.
Removing your combat uniform was a defensive procedure, nothing more.”
“I’d believe you more if you hadn’t slapped me awake,” Lee said.

And guess what?! BrainPal!

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Heather's mind thrpugh process of wlimination and analysis figuring out exactly where she's being held. What a boss!
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Even naked and blind, a Colonial Defense Forces soldier is a formidable opponent” (Two, being a very well mannered but shrewd kidnapper)
🖤 “If you were fuzzy on who you were, there were going to be other critical gaps in your knowledge base and you wouldn’t know what they were.” (Big facts - and not just in a kidnapping scenario)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ Here me out, the BrainPal is soo melded to the brain nueral passages and nervous syatem that it just can't be removed. And that is AWESOME!
■ CDF uniform is apparently badass
■ CDF soldier in or out the uniform is deadly.
■SmartBlood

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

Alright folks pack it up. They brought a dog to the mediation. End the war, the greatest mediator has arrived. - Tuffy the dog on an alien planet hanging out in royal gardens.

"They had all been formally introduced to their Icheloe counterparts, with the exception of Wilson, who was clearly an adjunct to the dog."

All system go, The Clarke is back in business and The B-Team is on a mission.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A missing king, a civil war, negotiations and who you calling in a crunch? The B-Team that's who. Easy to blame if things go wrong and be pleasantly surprised when things go right. Man the Colonial Union just sleeps on B-Team potential.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Hey now! Hart Schmidt is back. Oh I missed the banter between Wilson and Schmidt.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
Wilson, Schmidt and the Icheloe Groundskeeper discussing the "extraction" of Tuffy from the Kingsflower. Once again, the dialogue in this series is chef's kiss all the way through.
" “Remember that the plant wants to eat you,” the groundskeeper said. “It’s not going to let you get away. Don’t fight it. Let yourself be eaten.”

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “It’s a bad sign when a shuttle has animal nests in it,” Schmidt said.” (Schmidt being prophetic)
🖤 “Tuffy was the only dog on the planet. That was a lot of territory to mark.” (Wilson on Tuffy's bladder situation)
🖤 “I’ll let you know if I get stuck, you’ll be able to tell by the screaming panic in my voice” (Wilson on rescuing Tuffy)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Tuffy! Who's a good doggie?!
■The Icheloe aliens. Really? A bear and a tick - just ew.
■Fleur du roi - heinous act committed against beloved Tuffy.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

War is hell but with wizards in the army it's... well, what's worse than hell? That's what it is, the thing worse than hell. - traitors every where. String them up and do the wizard thing. Vengeance!

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A ragtag platoon holding out as one of the last few functioning units standing up to "The Enemy". I don't know why but I'm hardwired to root for the underdogs. You got the odds stacked against you? I'll be your cheerleader. Weird antihero? Let me get my pom poms out. Oh, you might be the antagonist but you're all broken inside? Here, I have some chocolate and a puppy let's talk childhood trauma.

*Sigh It's my thing. So naturally I was rooting for Teado (and his platoon) from the start.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
I forgot Benny was inanimate and not human. I was really pissed when they put her, I mean it, dammit, the plane in danger.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
Teado, in the valley at the base of a mountain, exhausted, back in human form and surrounded by Changers.
"I am the man too tired to care whether he lives or dies, and it is not a hard act to accomplish."

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “she has been flirting with me.
She wouldn’t flirt with someone she might have to kill.” (Teado on treasonous flirtation)
🖤 “I wonder sometimes why the enemy bothers trying to conquer us, when we live in such a shitty place.” (On territorial bull)
🖤 “If we allow ourselves no happiness, and we win the war tomorrow, then what have we fought for? We will be a bleak generation on a broken world, and we will never know joy again.” (Depressing because its true)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Smiling Toms
■Changers - Specifically Teado the Reptilian, snake-eating talon having horned ...devil? What did he change into?

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction Books by 2025

Nebuchadnezzar or "Free Guy" is that you? - kidding, kidding. Weapons down please. Hhmm, less Free Guy but definitely "Neo you are the one" vibes times a billion Liveborns. Maybe The Matrix would have been even better (if that's even possible - just forget all the sequels) if we added God-Emporers and Fantasy Staties to the code?

Ah, the nostalgia. When scifi conspiracy made it mainstream and it was epuc unstead if hmmm weirdo tragic. For that dose of involuntary nostalgia a 3.5⭐

Plot/Storyline/Themes:

I🖤it and I have many many questions.
So, what do they do with the Liveborn bodies if what we're watching is a story unfolding in brains suspended in a rich nutrient bath in a jar? Do they use the body as fuel? Is the body moving in a room experiencing the world like a VR game? Feels like a lot to get humans to procreate just to pyll the brain. And by the way - WHY?? Do the brains charge a ship? Is the simulation effective because it keeps the brain distracted from being fuel?

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Kairominas "woke" Mehli up and she became a self aware "nemesis". I firmly believe Mehli was going along with the sim until Kai turned his back on her in that inbetween state.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
“So you’re him?” the woman asked, reaching the table. She stood there for a moment. “You realize it’s good manners to rise in the presence of a lady.”
“It’s also good manners to curtsy to the God-Emperor,” I said, covering the spilled wine with my napkin.
“Oh great,” she said, sitting. “You’re one of those.”

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “what did a man possibly do with his time after conquering the world?In my case, I’d developed a nemesis.” (Kai The God-Emporer)
🖤 “the most essential morality of mankind is to create the greatest amount of happiness among the greatest number of people while using the least amount of resources.” (XinWey’s Doctrine)
🖤 “They built a perfect world for me, so I had to burn it down.Destruction isn’t difficult.” (Sophie on Self Awareness)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Simulation States
■Xinwey's Doctrine and Wode Scroll
■LiveBorns and Machineborns

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025 

Do not go gently into that goodnight, rage rage with all tentacle might - seriously though, humans ruin everything. Traipsing through space, landing on "people's planets" and just being very grabby-grabby about things that don't belong to them.

It's okay, I'm human. I can say these things.

Here is a species of "people" that are short-lived but had no clue that there's this thing called mortality and some fuddy duddy human just had to open their big mouth and make a poor little alien fear death.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
What happens when a species becomes self aware, and focuses on the mortality part of it's life cycle and then figures out the very human concepts of : I scratch your back and you scratch mine / what's in it for me? / the long game / lies by omission/The big bully on the playground.etc etc

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Booooh! Leeyay! That human threw an existential grenade into the narrator's lap and just sashayed away without a care in the world.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
Success! Explosion! Boom! - Okay there was none of that. But Narr finding his way back home and speaking Leeyay was a great scene.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “I mean, once you decide to find out why people die and how to stop it— really truly seriously decide—you can’t let little things like some pain stop you. Otherwise you might just as well have stayed home and died.” (Narr on breaking and entering and being brave )

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ What in the hell is this species. Slug alien? OctoSlugAlien?
■radiole

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

 "Human's like containers" - Not this human. I think I would like to disappear into the endlessness of the void. Never have I wanted unending darkness as I have reading this.

I would have liked to binge-watch all 52 episodes of Frontier Justice
Beam me up Ace.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Whodunnit in space but not a "Space Whodunnit". There is a difference. Ace meeting Magnessun had that hint of oncoming event, like a crash, just something shattering. I love that just the simple clinking of glasses between the two of them was, as foreboding as someone flashing a silver knife with serrated edges in my peripheral vision for a millisecond. Their brief conversation sat like fake brandy in the throat - curious.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Is it weird that I can see Ace and Polaris exploring Sol System on the "Redundancy" together? I do like them both.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
■Ace talking to Birdie. Sometimes words do save lives.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Some people came to the Redundancy to escape the great tragedies of their lives, and some people came because they hated humanity” (On travel through the void)
🖤 “Joy is the thief of time, and time is the thief of joy’?”.” (Jovian saying)
🖤 “Keep your promises between your teeth, so you can bite them back as needed.” (Harry Magnessun being untrue to his word)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Swimming in the void
■ The Redundancy, its Arboretum, Aquarium and ability to move through galaxies like a cruise ship.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories Books by 2025L 

 My book cover VS book blurb pistols at dawn is going to get me one of these days - yes I bothered to read the Author's note and knew I was getting into Porn-plus-plot kind of smut as opposed to spicy romance and that was fine. But it is so badly written - not grammar or structure or any of that.

It is written like an annoying rude gremlin who happens to have an Only Fans and gets paid to swear every second word for a Cussing-Kink customer. And honestly, each to their own. But I wanted to cry the cover was so CUTE!

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I mean it's space kidnapping and finding love with an alien. By all accounts it should have been a blast and there were some really good moments. Those good moments are the only reason I finished this book with a smile on my face.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Opal is not "Sassy but sexy with a cheeky mouth but loveable" like say, Cinnamon or one of the others from the That Time I got Drunk series. NO. Opal is "My God STFU already and live happily ever after" so I don't have to read another word coming outta your mouth kind of sassy.

The Alien dude, Ke'ain ping-ponged between sounding like Opal and sounding like a separate character. But he was sweet and really likeable. His attachè, Gra' eth was decent too.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::

Aaaw, one of the only Awww moments I had.
"My mouth drops open, and the bile rises in my throat.
“I can’t eat those, they’re alive!”
He looks at me strangely. “They’re no good when they’re dead.”
“I don’t think this is my people’s food,” I say politely, not wanting to insult his culture—not after he’s been so protective of me."

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤“I think of Opal. She doesnt seem like a world killer” (Ke'ain on the diseases of humans, jokes on him she's a killer of patience)
🖤 “The betrayer between my thighs screams yes, even as my brain says to wait, but sometimes your crotch yells louder than your mind” (Bahahaha - That was funny)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ The Pqnic Room
■Sontraful 6 sounds pretty cool
■ Humans as an invasive virus carrying galactic species.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025