"Artificial Condition" by Martha Wells

Our favourite neurodivergeant construct is back, and is heading to the mining colony where this run-of-the-mill Security Unit became Murderbot. This is a fitting sequel to All Systems Red, exploring a little more of the back-story of Murderbot. There is also the introduction of ART, as an all-powerful sidekick.

For me, some of the changes introduced in this story diluted the essential Murderbotness that we were introduced to in the first book. Murderbot’s attitude to, and integration with, the humans in the story softens, which is a departure from the extreme awkwardness shown in the first book. Also, the introduction of ART as an all-powerful sidekick is a slightly over-convenient way to get through situations that would otherwise be exceptionally tricky for Murderbot alone - and it does give it a bit of a Deus ex Machina vibe.

Giving Murderbot a companion in ART also makes it a bit more of a buddy story, again softening the isolation of Murderbot that we saw in the first book. But I guess all of these things are necessary in order to provide room for more complex plot and character development to occur, which isn’t a bad thing.

So these two powerful buddies engage set out to uncover some of Murderbot’s back story, and grumpily right some wrongs along the way, deftly covering their tracks lest their true nature be discovered. It’s fun, the plot is fast and snappy, and I did really enjoy Murderbot’s development and the interactions with ART. And I’m looking forward to the rest of the books in the series.

My rating: ★★★★☆

"No One Noticed the Cat" by Anne McCaffrey

A cute little fairy tale featuring a cat, which Anne McCaffrey apparently wrote for her granddaughter. It’s a fairy tale. With a cat. And it’s cute. I’m a sucker for a story with a cat. It has an evil stepmother, and royalty and nobility, and they all get into a bit of trouble, but it works out in the end, and nothing particularly surprising happens. Oh, and it’s very short, so I read it while I was waiting for a delayed flight - and I’m glad that I did. It’s a fairy tale. Did I mention that it has a cat?

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett

An amiable and, at times, quite rich story of average people doing the best that they can. But with dragons. Captain Vimes of the Night Watch leads a very small rag-tag team of men, who do their best to keep out of trouble while pretending to keep the residents of Ankh-Morpork safe during the night.

Into this mix comes Carrot - an earnest new recruit brought up by dwarves - and the summoning of a dragon by someone in the city who would rather have more power for themselves.

The result is a very well constructed and engaging plot, with Pratchett’s trademark irreverent humour, and not an insubstantial set popular culture references. There’s plenty of peril (fire breathing dragons will do that), some extension of Discworld lore, and a few new characters entering the mix. I particularly like the extra depth given to the Patrician, even with the very small part he plays in this story - and the librarian (a firm favourite of mine anyway) shows a surprising command of multi-dimensional travel.

Vimes is world-weary but seems to want to do a good job - and he is one of the more real characters in the story. The rest of the members of the Night Watch are largely interchangeable (I genuinely couldn’t really remember who was who, and it didn’t seem to matter). The introduction of Lady Ramkin is very welcome as one of the old moneyed establishment figures of Ankh-Morpork, albeit in a somewhat clichéd down-to-earth “old money” homey way.

The story is fun, but ultimately doesn’t have much to say (there’s a slightly heavy handed attempt to compare the brutality of dragons towards people to the worse brutality that people show to each other), and the resolution of the dragon-related plot is quite weak. I am, however, quite interested in the ongoing story of the Night Watch in future books, and will welcome any development of the Patrician (although I wonder whether, much like the character of Death in the Discworld books, that less may be more).

Competent but unremarkable.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

This was brilliant. Half machine and half human (at least, cloned human parts), this particular ‘security unit’ has a chequered past, has hacked its own governor module, and has privately dubbed itself “Murderbot”. Now on contract to a research team assessing a planet, Murderbot has a well defined job to do, but unexpectedly gets attached to the team and goes beyond the job at hand to help them.

It’s a short novella, so there’s not a lot to say that wouldn’t spoil some part or other of it, but I loved the character of Murderbot - the combination of competence and dedication for the job at hand, self knowledge of limitations, and the deep desire to just be left alone to secretly watch as many episodes of the soap opera Sanctuary Moon as possible.

I’m so happy that there are 6 more books…

My rating: ★★★★★

"The Devil You Know" by Gwen Adshead

A powerful book and a difficult one to read. I can’t do better than the blurb for summarising it:

"Dr Gwen Adshead is one of Britain's leading forensic psychologists. She has spent over thirty years providing therapy inside secure hospitals and prisons for violent offenders. Whatever her patient's crime - serial homicide, stalking, arson - she helps them to better know their minds. Case by case, she takes the reader into the treatment room and reveals the complex and vulnerable humans behind these acts of terrible violence. These are stories of cruelty and despair, but also change and hope. The Devil You Know speaks to our shared humanity and makes the case for compassion over condemnation, empathy over fear."

And it does exactly that. There is no attempt to lessen the awfulness of the things that these people have done, nor provide excuses or justifications, or attempt to explain away or diminish any of the crimes. It is easy to cast people as monsters who are guilty of these things, but there is a rich vein of humanity running through these stories that provide an additional perspective.

There is also a lot of background about the criminal justice system, and the role that mental health issues, and mental health support and treatment play in it - including the irony that it is often only in prison that many of these people have access to the mental health support that would have benefited them prior to committing their crime.

The author’s accounts of the interviews and discussions with each offender provide a fascinating insight into the depth of training that a forensic psychologist brings to this work. Each story has glimpses of the author’s adept skills at navigating a narrow pathway that will encourage the offender to talk openly about often troubling and emotional times in their lives, from their childhood to the time of the offence itself. The stories are also personal and candid, as the author recounts times when she has misstepped or made decisions or drawn conclusions that in retrospect could have been better.

The awakening of insight and self-knowledge in people who have committed the most heinous of crimes is movingly told. And this has had an emotional impact on me as I examine my own reactions to these stories. By far the most difficult to read was of a man who had sexually abused his two sons - and the fact that the broad mix of emotions of horror and disgust that I had when reading that story also included some compassion for the perpetrator is difficult for me to process. This will stay with me for a long time.

My rating: ★★★★★

"Eversion" by Alastair Reynolds

I can count on the fingers of one finger the number of nautical themed gothic sci-fi novels that have made me cry at the end. (clue: this one).

Ultimately, this becomes a moving story about friendship and humanity, but it’s wrapped in an intriguing mystery in a nautical setting. The characters are distinct and real; the plot is engaging and well place; the mystery is very satisfying.

I’m not going to say any more. Ideally, read this book blind. Read the blurb if you must, but read other reviews with caution - there’s far too much danger that someone will inadvertently give something away. As it happens, a throw-away remark in a review I read gave me a hint of something I would rather have found out on my own.

My rating: ★★★★★

"We Called Them Giants" by Kieron Gillen

This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about disconnection, communication, power, trust, and found family.

Lori has spent a life moving from one foster family to another. Her take-away lesson from all of this is that, ultimately, people will leave you. And then they did. All of them. She wakes up one day to find streets and houses deserted - except for a school friend, Annette. They scavenge and try to survive as best they can, and avoid the gang who call themselves the Dogs.

Then one day, inexplicably, two alien craft land. The intent of their giant occupants, or their reasons for being there, remaining mysterious. Lori, Annette and Beatrice form an uneasy acquaintance with one of the giants. The giant seems benevolent, but his purpose remains unknown, and communication seems impossible, despite effort on both sides.

Then there is the inevitable conflict - which, of course, resolves by the end of the story. But there is much that remains unexplained. What caused the disappearance of a majority of the population? Where did the giants come from, and were they somehow responsible for the disappearance, or have they arrived because of it?

The story appears to be a metaphor for some of the feelings and life experience that Lori has had in the hands of a care system that has hardened her against love and attachment - and it also seems to signal this in quite a heavy-handed way towards the end of the story. But for me this made the story neither one thing nor another: there is too little detail for the story around the appearance of the giants, and I didn’t really feel the emotional connection with Lori.

So while the visuals were gorgeous, the story really wasn’t for me.

Thank you #NetGalley and Image Comics for the free review copy of #WeCalledThemGiants in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

NetGalley Review

"Freeze-Frame Revolution" by Peter Watt

A brilliant concept, masterfully executed. I thoroughly enjoyed this. A summary from the blurb:

"How do you stage a mutiny when you're only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each job shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears"

Where the ‘enemy’ in question is Chimp, the resident AI on a ship that is travelling sedately around the galaxy, building interconnected interstellar gates - portals through which the remnants of humanity that they left behind may ultimately emerge. Small subsets, ‘tribes’, of the thirty-thousand strong crew are woken from suspended animation for a short while every few millennia every time there is a problem that the resident AI can’t handle on its own.

An AI that is wired into everything, and everyone, on the ship.

An AI that not everybody completely trusts.

For me there was an excellent balance of character and plot - with the mystery of Chimp’s actions and motivations being perfectly set against the pace of the action, and the intrigue of the brewing unrest.

The story is told from the first person perspective of the main character, Sunday Ahzmundin. This worked really well for me, as we only find out piecemeal what is going on with the rest of the crew - and at times it’s even ambiguous whether Sunday is a reliable narrator.

There is also a sense of unseen things that runs through the story - from the partially explained pseudo-religious behaviours of some of the various ‘tribes’ aboard the ship, to the disturbing things, ‘gremlins’, that sometimes emerge from the interstellar gates once the have been built and activated. The combination of first-person perspective, piecemeal information, and the sense of unseen things, gave the story a slight sense of claustrophobia, which I really enjoyed.

I also loved the writing style - not only were the characters well drawn, and the plot nicely paced, but the writing was lyrical and poetic in places. This is a story of people whose lifetimes have lasted for millennia, and whose mission spans the galaxy - and the writing gives it a sense of wonder and grandeur that that deserves.

So… wonder, grandeur, claustrophobia, and an AI called Chimp. What’s not to like?

My rating: ★★★★★