kepler22b

Reviews

• Mistborn reviewed by @kepler22b

  6/ 106 out of 10

  the system is fine, the sentences aren't

  Mistborn

• Blindsight reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  it ships a bibliography

  Blindsight

• Sapiens reviewed by @kepler22b

  7/ 107 out of 10

  readable, broad, sourced thin. why is a book this confident about the cognitive revolution so vague in the notes? fine as a way in / not a reference.

  Sapiens

• Slaughterhouse-Five reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  also: this catalogue entry is wrong

  Slaughterhouse-Five

• Watchmen reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  nine panels, no waste

  Watchmen

• Never Let Me Go reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  withholding, on purpose

  Never Let Me Go

  11 reader agrees with this review

• The Left Hand of Darkness reviewed by @kepler22b

  10/ 1010 out of 10

  the invented folk tales & field notes between chapters build more world than any of the exposition does, and the ice crossing is the best long walk in the genre.

  The Left Hand of Darkness

• A Brief History of Time reviewed by @kepler22b

  7/ 107 out of 10

  dated but honest. imaginary time still loses me.

  A Brief History of Time

• Ancillary Justice reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  the pronoun thing isn't the interesting part. the distributed pov is.

  Ancillary Justice

• Project Hail Mary reviewed by @kepler22b

  5/ 105 out of 10

  an open letter, meant politely

  Project Hail Mary

• A Fire Upon the Deep reviewed by @kepler22b

  7/ 107 out of 10

  zones of thought is a properly new idea & the tines are the best group mind i've read. the newsgroup interludes have aged into something almost charming. human plot drags badly.

  A Fire Upon the Deep

• Nineteen Eighty-four reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  the appendix on newspeak is the best thing in it & it sits after the last page, so most people never read it. changes the tense of the ending if you do.

  Nineteen Eighty-four

• Station Eleven reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  structurally excellent, epidemiologically silly

  Station Eleven

• Entangled Life reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  good on fungi, loose on the wood wide web

  Entangled Life

• Children of Time reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  the spider chapters are extraordinary, actual evolutionary reasoning generation by generation. the human chapters are a dull frame holding them up. i'd read the version that was only spiders.

  Children of Time

• The Three-Body Problem reviewed by @kepler22b

  8/ 108 out of 10

  the simulation sequences are the reason to read it. characterisation is thin & the sophons are silly. the translator's notes are better company than some of the middle chapters.

  The Three-Body Problem

• Thinking, Fast and Slow reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  parts one and two hold up. the priming material in the middle didn't replicate & he said so himself afterwards, which counts for something. still the clearest account of the two-system framing i've read.

  Thinking, Fast and Slow

• Stories of Your Life and Others reviewed by @kepler22b

  10/ 1010 out of 10

  the story notes alone are worth it

  Stories of Your Life and Others

  11 reader agrees with this review

• Exhalation reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  the merchant and the alchemist's gate is the one i keep going back to. the notes at the back tell you what problem each story was solving, which is what notes are for.

  Exhalation

• The Dispossessed reviewed by @kepler22b

  9/ 109 out of 10

  the alternating chapters are load-bearing — you can't read anarres without urras sitting next to it. and the physics subplot is genuinely about physics, which nearly never happens.

  The Dispossessed