killa_bunnies's reviews
41 reviews

Mur Lafferty and her tour-de-force of space take on whodunnit genre. One colony ship full of rich people in cryogenic sleep and a motley crew of seven troubled individuals put together seemingly by random. Basically every page is full of surprisingly fresh ideas. Different concepts meet here, like yadokari, the multiple personality implants and hackable brains (reminded me of Peter Watts and his Blindsight), cloning working as “saving” mechanisms in games, or ethics of cloning and human rights of clones. Each character is introduced by their backstories and no matter how different/crazy the whole plot sounds, Lafferty ties it all together very skillfully, creating believable plots and characters with real motivations. It’s a book full of fresh ideas, but the neat part is it all works well together as a classical crime story. Highly recommended.

Yokohama Station SF by Yuba Isukari

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I did not have much of an idea what I was about to start while reading Yuba Isukari’s Yokohama Station SF. I vaguely knew it was a book that might interest me (Japanese sci-fi with post-apo traits) and the cover illustrations by Tatsuyuki Tanaka definitely got my attention. However, what I got was unexpected. A surrealistic premise of ever-expanding sentient Yokohama station with inhabitants made of those who owned a Suica card (a fare card for public transportation). You have a Suica card, you are taken care of; you don’t and you scavenge on the scraps outside of the station. The problem is, the station with its endless lines of escalators is covering the majority of mainland Japan (including Mt. Fuji!). The story of an outsider getting in the station and trying to find out some meaning in it was so refreshing in terms of ideas and imagination. All together with great storytelling and gripping story. The second book (with subtitle National) expands on the first one with short stories, some even connected to certain characters from the first book (but not exactly background stories). It is providing a bit of a context to the world and Yokohama Station phenomena. All in all both books are great and I would love to read more stories from this universe.

So if you are looking for interesting, original sci-fi works stemming from different contexts then the majority of works out there, or just interested in Japanese literature, I highly recommend these two books (oh yeah, and there is also a manga series of the same name).

Vybledlá krajina s kopci by Alena Dvořáková, Kazuo Ishiguro

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced