Goodreads page My rating: 3 out of 5 My review: This has been a fairly short but fun read and a new take on aliens coming to earth. What if they truly are benevolent and our main character is a game designer and retro-gamer-reviewer. The game reviews actually have a part to play in the story (but not too much). There is a little bit of adventuring, but this is mostly (to me) an interesting thought about how would/could society deal with a drastic change of knowing there there are many other intelligent life forms in the universe and what the impact would be on culture (for better or worse). …

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: There’s not enough good things I can write about this book. It feel sincere. It feels true. Yes, it’s sort of a cancer book. But it’s not a book about dying. It’s a book about living. About feeling. About being a decent person regardless if you are a great person that is going to be remembered for ages. It is a book about being a grenade. …

Goodreads page My rating: 3 out of 5 My review: It is quite obvious from the beginning that Foundation was conceived as several short stories and later turned into a book. However there is a common theme in all of those stories: Averting impeding catastrophe for a newly formed colony of Galactic Empire - Foundation. A colony whose creator, Hari Seldon is a psychohistorian - a statistician that can predict changes in societies of large scale. …

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: A worthy continuation of Ender’s journey. In a way it actually makes Ender’s Game better in that it creates proper reason for him to continue living. A powerful thought to speak the lives of the dead, as they lived them. The books keeps you guessing in some ways and in others it is crystal clear and the characters in the book are the only ones guessing. …

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: Sadly, I’ve seen the movie first. But even then, knowing the ending I enjoyed the book. It was a bit hard to follow it, just like the movie. The main characters are saying the ugly things we all want to say from time to time but we are afraid to admit it to ourselves. There are so many memorable parts that I am hard-pressed to pick a quote, but for some reason I liked this: …

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: While reading Scanner Darkly I was wondering how much P.K.Dick knew about drugs. It wasn’t until I reached the afterword that I realized book was semi-autobiographic in nature. I could see before my eyes how Bob Arctor the drug addict started mixing with Fred the undercover cop. And it was not a pretty sight. As destructive as Substance-D was, Fred risked his life taking it, to try and track down its local source. …

Goodreads page My rating: 5 out of 5 My review: Great finish of the trilogy from the grandmaster of what-will-be. Gibson continues painting the world where, unknowingly to most participants, something big is unfolding. I can’t say the ultimate finish surprised me much, but the storyline kept me on the edge wanting more page after page. I have seen the nodal points, I have seen the connections…I just needed to comprehend what I was seeing in front of me. …

Goodreads page My rating: 5 out of 5 My review: How Neil Gaiman does what he does is beyond me. American Gods is as unreal as it’s full of reality we deal with every day. War is coming to America. War that can only be won with sacrifices and belief. Characters in Neverwhere seemed peculiar to me, but American Gods is certainly trying to surpass it. Shadow, an ex-criminal with knack for coin tricks is flying home, to get back to his wife. …

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: Sci-fi classic short stories. Great narrative and real connection between present and future make this collection really worth reading for every fan of Sci-fi. Too bad I had a bit shabby translation version only, original is probably much better. Favorites were Winter Market, Dogfight and Burning Chrome. All perfectly pessimistic, yet felt so real…

Goodreads page My rating: 4 out of 5 My review: My favourite from Dan Brown’s work. Perhaps because of my focus on computers and security :) I liked that he got more-less all things right without being too technical.