Short Story Review: Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin, narrated by Jason Issacs

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliantly narrated by Jason Isaacs, this is just the best speculative short I've read in ages! It is witty, political, fully of social commentary, speculative yet highly relevant today. The voice of the AI inside the head of the bodyless soldier sent back to Earth to get cell cultures necassary for the survival of the elitist regime is the voice of the brainwashed, the fooled by dogma and false news and rewitten histories, the voice of oppression, the voice of enslavement. 

ashramblings verdict 5* Quite simply a brilliant way to spend an hour. Highly recommended

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Booke Review: Semiosis by Sue Burke

Semiosis by Sue Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An ingenious and intriguing first novel having plant based alien society called The Glassmakers with a chemical language being encountered by distant descendants of humans settled on a planet they have called Pax, named for the peace they had been seeking.

ashramblings verdict 3* The novel is uneven in its pace, slightly too long for my liking, telling the Pacifists story over several generations before they actually encounter the Glassmakers. Once they do the novel matures into what it should be holding out hope for Book 2 Interference continuing in this vein.

Review: The Expanse Series by James S Corey, narrrated by Jefferson Mays, Book 4 Cibola Burn

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mid point books in a series often seem to go slow. This one should have been much shorter so may be my 3* is being a tad generous, but it struggled through to the end when it returned to course setting up the overall storyline for humanity’s expansion beyond the gate in the next book in this series Nemesis Games. It was like most of it wasn’t written by the same writer. Yes, I know there is more than one person writing this series but it just didn’t read as smooth in the others. Shame.

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Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An intriguing story about a part organic, part android Securty Bot attached to an exploratory misson to an unnamed planet in a vague distant capitalist universe dominated by The Company. But this is no ordinary SecBot. It has hacked its own governor module and is addicted to watching soaps, especially one call Sanctuary Moon. Much as it dislikes interacting with humans, circumstances mean it has to if it is going to protect its clients, the survey team, from whoever is trying to kill them and to figure out why? As the thriller concludes ****SPOILER ALERT*** SecBot with the help of its thankful and sympathetic human team it becomes 'ex-inventory' and so begins its journey into freedom and self awareness.

ashramblings review 3* This is a short book, only 144 pages; its human characters could be more fully developed, and more details about what they were doing on the planet and where it was could be added. But I found myself surprisingly liking this SecBot, who called itself MurderBot after a malfunctioning cheaply bought component had caused it to committ mass murder on a previous Company job. Its resultant cynicism for the Company, and its addiction to sitcom entertainment gave it a blend of childlike niavety and adult distance which get it and its human compatriots through the nightmare. It was a compelling read. With more in the series, this reader feels interested enought to see how this Bot matures as it faces life in the human world.

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