I was surprised by how good this book was. The diary extract/interview/newspaper clipping structure was very well done, and I felt personally invested in the project and the lives of the characters. Can't wait to see what else the author has written. The only negative I have is

the end is quite sad, which I don't mind as a rule but I just wish fred would have left Mary and found a better partner with some more emotional love after his journey of self discovery.

This was my first Discworld novel and I enjoyed it a lot. Fantasy is a genre I haven't really read much of, and some my wife is currently re-reading the series I thought it a good time to dive in. I love light humour in my books and this has out in spades, the characters are loveable and the pacing is quite fast so you're never bored. It serves as a good introduction to the universe. I struggled to get to invested into the book though when I think of others I've read, however I've seen many people say this isn't the best example of the series so I'm looking forward to the rest. 

Very short review of each story. The average across them all for the rating comes to 3.8, so rounded to 4.

Goodnight Melancholy: Fictionalised history of Alan Turing juxtaposed with a modern look at living with AI. Not bad but not amazing, 3 stars. 

Moonlight: phone calls from the future to save the world. Huge fun to read and entertainingly depressing. 5 stars

Broken Stars: Had no idea where this sashimi and was a little disappointed whilst reading it but the reveal at the end really made up for it. 4.5 stars

Submarines: It was a nice read but I couldn't grasp the hidden meaning and so it just felt like the story didn't go anywhere. 2 stars

Sallinger and the Koreans: Short, bizarre, but thought provoking. 3.5 stars

Under a Dangling Sky: A bit strange and to much fantasy for me. 2.5 Stars

What happened in kinder light appears: Longer than the others, very enjoyable read especially since I'm a fan of the alternative history genre,and this was it done well. 4.5 stars

The new year train: Very sorry, but itself not really a story but a very good premise to a novel I would read in a second. 4 stars

The robot who liked to tell tall tales: Found this one a little dull unfortunately. 2.5 stars

The snow of Jinyang: Time travel a la cosmonaut in king Arthur's court / Evil dead 3 is always fun and it's done very well here. 5 stars

The resruarant at the end of the universe: quite good but not really my style: 3.5 stars

The first emporrers game: Lots of fun references but not really much plot in my opinoin.  3 stats

Reflection: Strong premise, decent story telling. 4 stars

The brain box: A commentary on the mind vs soul vs body well done. 4.5 stars

Coming of the light: Future tech meats Buddhism and Fantasy, fun and easy to read. 4 Stars

History of future illnesses: A lot of fun and very insightful. 5 stars

Having read a few of the more recent books of the series it was nice to go back to the start. I think the side characters have a bit more depth in the later books, but this serves as a very good introduction to the main character. Decent plot lines which all come together in the end. As always with this series, an easy enjoyable read. 

There are essentially 3 stories going on throughout this book. Prins journey through hell is very well done and deserves a 5 star rating by itself. The main plotline of Ledeje is strong, as its always the case with the culture series, and I'd give a solid 4. The story set in the virtual war however I found a little dull and would probably only rate 3 stars. Overall its a great sci-fi book and probably in the top half of the culture series. 

I guess I'm missing something when it comes to this book as it just wasn't for me. I struggled to engage with any of the characters, and to really find what was supposed to be the overall plot. The book isn't bad, but having read it I honestly couldn't tell you much about it beyond what you would read in the sleeve. 

 

Finding a truly great space opera isn't easy, but this is one of them. Both the alien being, and human protagonist show great character development, and the scale of the story is epic. I had the odd chuckle throughout as well, so it's not all doom and gloom. I got emotionally invested in all the characters. This was my first Frederick Pohl novel and halfway through I ordered 4 more. A great book for fans of Sci fi epics. 

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I wanted to see if this stood up to a second read, especially given how much more I’ve read over the last couple of years, and happily I can still say I enjoyed it. I’m not sure about the 4.5 rating I had previously given though, it feels like a 4 would be more appropriate now. Whilst I still loved it, I can see the points raised by some other reviewers, to an extent. Viktor is not a particularly loveable character and the author’s somewhat dated ideas do come though, but one has to forgive that a little in the context. The main reason for the shift in rating though is the ending, I’m not sure why it wasn’t an issue for me on the last read, but now I find the very open ending to be a little annoying. This is such an epic story, over such a long time-period, a more concrete ending would be great. 

This was really a lot of fun to read. An old school style spy novel, with occult plotlines, and a loveable main character. I was surprised throughout the book and found I had a smile on my face most of the time. It's not life changing literature but well written and highly entertaining. I'll find some more in the series to read, as I haven't read the first. 

I went into this with no knowledge of the story and was surprised at how good it was. The fact that this is a true story, a biography in fact, is mind blowing. The journey Harkness went on, from trying to gather pandas for zoos to conservation in China is truely inspiring. The back drop of the war between Japan and China makes the whole thing even more dramatic. The sad end to her story and the mix of elation and grief throughout makes this one of the first biographies I struggled to put down. 

I had no idea what to expect going into this book, and I was pleasantly surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed the style of wilting and knowing nothing of tribal culture in the middle east I found it very fascinating. Knowing the author is well versed in the topic was a big plus as well. I would recommend this to someone who wants to expand their horizons with authors from around the world