Some short reviews of books that I recently read

Slow Gods (Claire North)

Quite good and entertaining. A space opera that follows a being that cannot be killed from a society of libertarian hyper-capitalism through other societies. The corporate-run society is shown quite imaginatively, with the protagonist trapped in its value system.

Some Desperate Glory

I really disliked the protagonist, so props to the author for writing some really unlikeable, trapped protagonist. Content-wise, the story follows the protagonist from a fascist rebel cell through several timelines until they find a timeline that they are happy with.

The book is actually very good, I finished it despite disliking the protagonist on every page in the first act.

The afterword lists interesting (non-fiction) book references the author used. Very interesting, ranging from how Fascism works, over how Scientology works, to the North Korean internal structure.

Steel Beach (John Varley)

John Varley died this year and I read some recommendations of his books. The most memorable quote about John Varley is by Isaac Asimov:

Long, long ago, when I was yet unpublished, I found myself talking with Isaac Asimov at I forget which convention, when John Varley cruised by, trailed by enthusiastic fans. Asimov gazed sadly after him and said, "Look at him. A decade ago, everybody was asking, 'Who is John Varley?' A decade from now, everybody will be asking, 'Who is Isaac Asimov?'" And that was John Varley's moment.

Steel Beach is set on a colonized moon after the destruction of the earth. It follows a reporter that is tasked by the de-facto ruling moon AI with finding out why the AI and the reporter are suicidal.

The book is quite entertaining and wittily written.

Press Enter (John Varley)

A quite interesting throwback to 1984 and the computers back then. The novella is about an investigation into a mysterious killing of what turns out to be a computer hacker.

The names of the persons are names of (then current) home computers. Otherwise, the novella isn't all that remarkable in retrospect but for 1984, it was quite prophetic.

Hawksbilll Station (???)

On the flip side of the "Press Enter" book, there was another short story of a prison set back in the Cambrian where political dissidents (and mostly, economists) get exiled to. Not really remarkable.

Starter Villain (John Scalzi)

Not as much science fiction. The novella revolves around a substitute teacher suddenly becoming head of a shadowy worldwide enterprise that provides services to governments that would otherwise be featured in James Bond movies. He and his intelligent cats need to outmaneuver rockets, dolphin unions and hired killers.

Entertaining as most of the John Scalzi books are.