[ARC] Zaya by Jean-David Morvan & Huang-Jia Wei

Zaya mi ha attirato da subito per la copertina, e in effetti dal punto di vista grafico niente da eccepire, le tavole sono veramente fighissime, con ambientazioni cyberpunk affollate, astronavi e dettagli curati nei minimi particolari.

Purtroppo però quando andiamo sulla storia in sè non posso essere altrettanto favorevole: onestamente mi aspettavo qualcosa sullo stile Ghost in the Shell, e invece mi sono trovata immersa in una storia estremamente confusa, in cui tutto ruota attorno all’anomalia che ha portato Zaya a essere come “cancellata” dalla realtà di appartenenza.

La trama è molto dispersiva e per nulla lineare, e la conclusione – piuttosto affrettata – non aiuta per nulla il lettore nel comprendere l’intera storia.

Ringrazio l’editore per avermi fornito la copia necessaria per stendere questa recensione.

_______

I was at first attracted by the cover of Zaya, and graphically it is in fact a very good book, the images are cool, with cyberpunk sets and places and space ships drawn in the tiniest detail.

Unfortunately the plot and its development did not gather my enthusiasm: honestly I expected something similar to Ghost in the Shell, instead I found myself in a confused story, where everything in the end is about the anomaly that deleted Zaya from her reality.

The plot is dispersive and not linear, and the ending – quite hurried – does not help at all in understanding the whole story.

 

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

_______

Zaya by Jean-David Morvan & Huang-Jia Wei ★★★☆☆

[ARC] Solaris Rising 3 by Ian Whates

Leggi questo articolo in Italiano

Solaris Rising 3 is a collection of science fiction stories; they are not related under a specific theme. The stories in fact goes from military science fiction to weird with various sets.

Overall I liked only some of the stories: Double Blind by Tony Ballantyne for the distressing atmosphere, Red Lights, and Rain by Gareth L. Powell for the fast action, They Swim Through Sunset Seas by Laura Lam for the story and the narration and Endless by Rachel Swirsky for the idea and the general atmosphere of the story.

Also The Goblin Hunter by Chris Beckett,  Popular Images from the First Manned Mission to Enceladus by Alex Dally MacFarlane and Faith Without Teeth by Ian Watson are likeable stories.

The remaining ones are absolutely forgettable, among them Homo Floresiensis by Ken Liu is nice but the ending is quite weak (I was disappointed, usually Ken Liu’s stories are very nice).

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

_______

* Solaris Rising 3 by Ian Whates ★★☆☆☆½

*I read this book in English

At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories by Kij Johnson

Leggi questo articolo in Italiano

The collection contains various stories by Kij Johnson, from the short story to the novelette. On sf-signal it’s possible to read the table of contents with the links to the stories available on line.

The stories covers the various themes, some have in commons the love for the animals (At the Mouth of the River of Bees, 26 Monkeys. Also The Abyss, The horse raiders, Wolf trapping, The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles, The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change), others the passion for oriental cultures (Fox Magic, Chenting, in the Land of the Dead, The Empress Jingu Fishes, The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles).

I’m certain that it is not possible to like completely a stories collection: there will always be something we do not like or we are not interested in enough, this collection instead is almost perfect, the stories are them all intense and rich of peculiar elements, the one I like the most (but they are all beautiful, so difficult to chose):

• Fox Magic
• My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire
• Chenting, in the Land of the Dead
• The Empress Jingu Fishes
• The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change

and Ponies that is the perfect short story, read it .

_______

* At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories by Kij Johnson – ★★★☆☆

*I read this book in English

A scanner darkly by Philip K. Dick

Read this post in English

Attualmente leggo molti ya (young adult), ma non per questo è giusto dimenticare il mio grande amore per la fantascienza. E non si può parlare di fantascienza se non si parla dell’autore più visionario che sia esistito: Philip K. Dick, maestro nel confondere il reale e l’irreale.

Riporto la recensione di un suo romanzo letto recentemente, forse il più visionario tra tutti quelli che ho letto dell’autore.

A scanner darkly by Philip K. Dick

Leggi questo articolo in Italiano

Recently I’m reading a lot of YA, but this is not a reason to forget my great love for science fiction. And it’s impossible to talk about SF without talking about the most visionary author of all times: Philip K. Dick, master in overlapping reality and non.

In the following the review of one of his novel I read some months ago, maybe the most visionary of all them.

Roadside Picnic by Arkadij e Boris Strugackij

Leggi questo articolo in Italiano

I love science fiction, but I left only a little space for it here until now. Since I regret this, here the review of a book read some months ago: Roadside Picnic by Arkadij and Boris Strugackij.

The movie Stalker took inspiration from this novel.

[Series] Asimov e il ciclo dei Robot

Read this post in English

Nell’attesa di terminare i romanzi e racconti che sto leggendo al momento – e quindi di produrre opinioni fresche fresche – rispolvero quelle già scritte e pubblicate su Goodreads e Librarything.
Questa volta tocca alla fantascienza classica e a uno dei suoi più grandi esponenti: Isaac Asimov.
Di Asimov ho letto molto, dal ciclo delle fondazioni ai racconti, ma il ciclo che più amo rileggere è quello dei robot, con protagonisti Elijah Baley e R. Daneel Olivav. Ognuno dei tre romanzi è un misto di giallo e fantascienza, amo anche l’idea di futuro per la Terra immaginata dallo scrittore e la contrapposizione con gli altri mondi colonizzati.

[Series] Asimov and the Robot Cycle

Leggi questo articolo in Italiano

While waiting to finish the novels I’m currently reading – and to write my reviews – I would like to share my old reviews already published on Goodreads and Librarything.
This time is about classic science fiction and one of its Big: Isaac Asimov.
I read a lot from this author, from the foundation cycle to the short stories, but the series I like the most to re-read is the Robot cycle with Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivav. Each of the three books is a mix of science fiction and crime, I also like the ideas about the Earth future with respect to the one of the other colonized worlds.