Books 2024

I’m not the most prolific reader, but I was fairly satisfied with the books I read last year. The highlight was definitely Blindsight, fantastic read. The lowlight goes straight to Ice Into Ashes… Perhaps I’ll do a quick review of that at some point.

Book covers 24
Blindsight cover

Blindsight Quick Review

Siri Keeton. A man with half a brain – the rest is tech – is sent on a mission with a vampire (!?), a soldier, a linguist and a biologist to make first contact. His job is simple. Observe.

What transpires is a fantastic trip into a truly alien encounter. I’m fairly certain that nothing has come this close to really giving the reader something that is so utterly different from our own expectations of what that encounter may be like. The atmosphere & confusion the book creates is loosely akin to Event Horizon & Alien, while also scratching on themes of consciousness and sentience.

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: You hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the speech from the screams.

The addition of a vampire in this novel kept me from picking it up for a long time. My mistake as it doesn’t detract from what is a truly excellent book. 4 1/2 out 5 stars in space.

(Read 3/2/24)

The Last House on Needless Street Quick Review

A book about abuse, denial, suffering and mental disorder. Is it enterainment? Not really. Is it a worthy read? Absolutely. Despite the subject matter it is never too overwhelming, nor is it ever handled lightly. Stepping into the minds of broken individuals, one of which is a bible reading cat (!), is increasingly interesting as the story progresses.

Let down in the last few short chapters and perhaps a bit too similar to other stories that have similar setups (Split / Primal Fear / Identity). Without rewatching these movies I’d almost go so far as to say that The Last House On Needless Street feels a bit like a mash-up of them. Perhaps this is more to do with the disorder involved in the book, and even if it were a direct “homage” it doesn’t detract from the fact that the book is very well written. Each of the characters are presented well and believable.

An easy 4 out 5 broken personalities and easily a recommended read IF you are prepared for a grounded, bleak, disturbing insight into a maladjusted mind.

Project Hail Mary Quick Review

Possibly the worst criticism I could give to Project Hail Mary is it is just a little tedious in places and certainly not nearly as convincing as Andy Weirs “The Martian”. The latter of which remains one of my favourite books and left me truly feeling like humanity had actually already visited Mars (say it ain’t so). The setup here is a fairly typical end-of-world-final-chance affair but is presented believably and makes for a worthwhile read and one I wholeheartedly recommend. I do tend to prefer more personal struggles than end-of-everything yarns and this book thankfully focuses on the main characters situation and struggles rather than dwelling on the reasons for it. I genuinely felt for the comradery between the two main characters by the end – which was entirely satisfactory even if I’d have liked to know more about the struggles that humanity faced back on Earth.

An excellent read from beginning to end (4 out 5 Supernovas).

“How did you do it? What killed it?”
“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.”
“You poked it with a stick?”
“No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”

Counters In Flames

A while ago I finally caved and purchased a copy of the Deluxe edition of World In Flames. I’ve been contemplating it for some time but the high price had always been enough to deter me. So, while setting up and playing a bit of OCS Tunisia over the last Christmas with my son we came to the conclusion that he very much prefers a strategic level. And while I have Axis and Allies (Risk is not a wargame worth mentioning) I find that far too simplistic and unsatisfying. So I placed my order at the end of the year and waited patiently (refreshing the Aus Post tracking page only twice daily) until it arrived it all its HUGE glory.

So began the process of punching out and sorting the thousands of counters included. This is where I stumbled upon a rather major disappointment. One of the counter sheets came with a large misalignment on its reverse, about a 5cm shift, so the counters are essentially unusable (I wouldn’t have minded a bit of art “bleeding” off the side as I’m used to wargames not always having the best components or quality control. Fortunately (I suppose) they are from the Ships In Flames expansion so I can continue to play just without that option. Plus, I’ll still be able to use what I have to learn the game as long as Japan isn’t used (the unfortunately effected country).

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