Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

  • Started on: 2011-05-23
  • Finished on: 2011-05-24
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

After many book of ‘real’ fiction I finally picked up some science fiction again, by one of my favorite writers, Iain M. Banks. This book is not part of the Culture universe. I would actually qualify this as an anti-Culture book. There are civilizations like the culture, there is AI, there is influence on other races, but the clue is, that now this is all (explicitly) evil.
The story follows a Seer, a human who interacts with Dwellers on a gas giant. Apparently, on one of his expeditions, he has discovered something important. Something that many other people want bad enough to attack his planetary system for, only he doesn’t quite know what it is.
It took me a bit to get in this book, before I ‘got’ the world that Banks created. There were a few story lines, a few flashbacks and many races. But like he always does, in the end Banks brought it all together in a great finish. Four out of five stars.

  • Started on: 2011-05-23
  • Finished on: 2011-05-24
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

After many book of ‘real’ fiction I finally picked up some science fiction again, by one of my favorite writers, Iain M. Banks. This book is not part of the Culture universe. I would actually qualify this as an anti-Culture book. There are civilizations like the culture, there is AI, there is influence on other races, but the clue is, that now this is all (explicitly) evil.
The story follows a Seer, a human who interacts with Dwellers on a gas giant. Apparently, on one of his expeditions, he has discovered something important. Something that many other people want bad enough to attack his planetary system for, only he doesn’t quite know what it is.
It took me a bit to get in this book, before I ‘got’ the world that Banks created. There were a few story lines, a few flashbacks and many races. But like he always does, in the end Banks brought it all together in a great finish. Four out of five stars.