Review 693: The Memory Hunters

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars



I got hooked into this story and had a hard time putting the book down. I kept grabbing for it whenever I could, so despite its page length I read it fairly quickly. However, the last part of the book spoiled some of the story line for me.

The world building was very interesting, loved the concept of people being able to dive into the past and see things that happened before just by using some mushrooms. Our main character, Key, was particularly gifted and had perfect memory.

Kiana Strade, known as Key, came from a famous and rich family. Her grandmother was form head curator and founder of the Institute of Human Memory. Her mother was head resifix (like a priest) for the city of Asheburg and her father a ctiy councillor. Her mother hoped Key would follow her and not her mother. But Key wanted to work for the museum, do field work, and get away from all the demanding public in the city.

All hunters had guardians, and hers was Vale, a fierce stout woman that was quick to anger. Vale came from the south, where the storms were frequent and lived with losing ones home to the waters happened too often. She was poor, her family depended on her to send money home.

The story begins with Key finding something very interesting about the deep past, and perhaps the beginning of the rituals. The memory was also very strong and wouldn’t leave Key’s mind. This could happen to memory hunters, being haunted by a dive. Yet this find of Key’s seemed so important.

This is a start of a series, but I may just leave it there. In any case, I have to wait until the next book, and I'm not too big on series in general.

Review 639: The Definitions

The Definitions by Matt Greene
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

I finished this book a week ago and took some time thinking about it, because it’s not your typical short novel. It is reminiscent of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. I started my review of Harpman’s book with “A dystopian book, without a lot of answers.” And that line fits well with this book as well: short and left with ambiguity and more questions in the end. Seems also to be not really my kind of book.

A virus has rendered people amnesiacs. They don’t remember anything, so are at this facility to learn how to behave in society, maybe regain their memories of who they were before. They take new names. The narrator, however is unnamed. They are unsure about the virus, there appears to be a new version that may reinfect or not.

There is a lot of focus on words. The narrator and a friend are focused on the meaning of a few, such as chair and bench. How to define exactly these words and what they represent.

It felt like the students at the center aren’t being told the full truth. Things are going on in the outside world they don’t know about, at least anymore, and are sheltered or given a new story. It’s hard to tell since we as readers never get the full story either.

This will likely work better for some people, while others who don’t like vagueness and obscurity, this may be a pass.



Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 618: Where the Axe Is Buried

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I zipped through this book, hard a hard time putting it down. It’s a science-fiction, political, dystopian, techno book, taking place in the future (far?). A bit confusing through the first part of the book, different POVs and different technologies. At first I just wanted to get beyond the confusing part. Then I was sucked in.

This is a future where everything and everyone is watched constantly. In the free west it is for advertising purposes, in the totalitarian states it is to ensure the people are controlled. Many countries are run by A.I. Prime Ministers, and The Federation is run by a president whose consciousness gets transferred to new bodies one the old ones deteriorate. Then there are the dissidents. The book is mostly about the dissidents.

The book is a commentary on totalitarianism and artificial intelligence. Starts out with a very gloomy outlook but ends with hope and possibility.

Review 615: I Who Have Never Known Men

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.75 is a better rating than 4.

A dystopian book, without a lot of answers. The narrator doesn't have a name, only called The Child, as she was young when her and 39 other women were put into the bunker. The men guard them closely. She knows nothing other than this bunker, can only learn what the women tell her. As she becomes a teenager she wants to know more.

Interesting and simple book, and yet it isn't.

Review 525: Rise & Shine

Rise & Shine by Patrick Allington
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

A dystopian world thirty years after the catastrophe. A few people found a new way to live and started a new community, two cities one named Rise and the other Shine. They are perpetually at war and this footage feeds their people. Growing plants is now a crime. It's an odd book for sure. Not sure I really liked it, but it was short.

Review 474: Land of Milk and Honey

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A dystopian near future book, where a smog covers everything, blocking out light crops fail worldwide. A new mung-bean flour, a gray food, that replaces so much as sustenance that can be grown. Our narrator, the main character is a chef. She wants the fresh food no longer attainable, except in this mountain land that is advertising for a chef, where the ultra-rich have retreated. She lies on her application in the hopes of getting the job, which of course she gets in for a trail period, being the chef for the Sunday dinners with the residents.

The book is somewhat elusive, at least at first. It is very food-centered. I’m not considered a foodie or anything like that so much of this is lost on me. The lists and descriptions of food, don’t do much for me.

The story is so wrapped-up within the food, but it also is speaks about climate change, greed of the ultra-rich, racism, manipulation and much more, yet not deeply. There are topics brought up but mostly dismissed in order to list more foods. The narrator’s feelings of complicity, guilt, and yet desire is all wrapped up with food, even when she doesn’t eat.

And yet despite everything, the novel ends with hope.

Review 421: Feed

Feed by M.T. Anderson
My rating: 3.25 of 5 stars


A dystopian world of a possible future, where the internet is embedded into people's brains, the younger the better. The feed provides direct communication chats, news, and even better shopping ideas, sales and more! The feed even runs while they sleep. Of course it's all run by corporations, which have taken over the schools(trademarked!) as well. Sounds horrid!

The main characters are teenagers, and their slang is oriented to computers, and at first is very jarring, hard to follow. But after a while, either it makes sense or it settled down, but I could get what they were saying. Oh, but their English skills have degenerated so much!

Titus and his friends go to the moon for Easter break, and he meets a girl Violet who becomes his girlfriend. That night almost everyone in their group gets hacked and their feed is offline for a few days while the doctors and technicians make sure everything is okay.

I was hoping this would lead to them liking it being off, but the book didn’t go that way. Instead it went a different direction, which was perhaps more realistic.

Violet’s father is a professor and studies languages not used anymore, home-school’s Violet. She sees things in a vastly different way than Titus, and opens his eyes to something else that may be going on in the world than their antics and shopping. He doesn’t seem to want to learn about that stuff, like many teenagers.

In the background we see the world, nature is nothing but artificial. There’s even housing pods with their own sun, let alone how tall these housing units go, one would expect that’s to accommodate the exploding population.

This is a dark book, sad, and grim look at a future. Yet there is humor in what these teenagers do and how they talk.

Review 346: The Revivalists

The Revivalists by Christopher M. Hood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With a name like “The Revivalists” you’d expect this cult to be the center of the book, but that is not the case. Instead, we have two parents attempting a cross-country rescue attempt of their daughter. But since this is a post-apocalyptic world, where a devasting virus wiped out nearly everyone this is not an easy task.

There is a long set-up with the main characters, Bill is our narrator who was, or is a psychologist. His wife Penelope went into deep hibernation, barely doing anything other than sleeping and eating for many months, maybe close to a year? Until they heard from their daughter who was caught in California when the virus hit, while they are in New York.

As one may expect in a post-apocalyptic world going cross country they meet a variety of characters, and quickly have to deal with an entirely new world.

The writing was good, and it kept up the momentum where you want to keep reading, finding out what happens next. Although there are parts that bog down, with backstory and occasional social commentary. I had wanted more about the cult, was it formed before or after the devastating virus? How did their daughter get there?

Many questions remain, and the book ended a bit abruptly. Perhaps leaving and opening for a part two. If you’ve read a lot of cross-country travel in a post-apocalyptic world this book may not bring much new to that genre. I’ve not read a lot, but it felt familiar enough. There was enough here to say I’m glad I read it.

Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 330: How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book surprised me. It’s almost a series of short stories, as every chapter begins with new characters, yet it is all the same world and time advances. It begins around 2030 with a father going to the artic where his daughter recently died, and an ancient girl was discovered. Unfortunately, the remains had a virus that ends up creating a pandemic.

Here is where I wondered if I should stop reading. Did I really want to read about a fictional pandemic while in the (hopefully) tail end of a real one? Well, the writing pulled me in, quickly connecting strongly with the characters.

Later as the years pass, decades, there may be a connection to previous characters, such as the father’s granddaughter is a main person in a later chapter. These recurrences and calls to previous chapters help knit the book together in an interesting way.

I will definitely look for and read what Sequoia Nagamatsu writes next. Maybe even read this one again.

Read June 27-28, 2022

Review 324: The Past Is Red

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading (listening) to this book I have since found this contains a short story and a novella.

The audiobook did not indicate this, and it should be announced so the reader/listener doesn’t have the confusion like I did.

The first part of this book we are introduced to our main character, mostly as a child, and where she lives in Garbage Town. We find out about how there is a community of several area on this huge pile of trash that’s floating about a world of water. There is a teasing and lead up to what she, Tetley, does that makes her shunned and alone by everyone.

Part Two now begins anew. It’s the same world but there’s retelling of what was just given before, but much more of the story as well.

As far as the overall story, I enjoyed Part two more than the first, it seemed like all the swearing was toned down, or less of it anyway, and the story arc was more appealing. There was quite a lot of things contained in these stories that was unbelievable, you really had to pretend this is plausible, which I generally don’t like in books. The world seems different, and yet not entirely new. It’s a mash-up of other science fiction that is out there. Yet despite all that I will say this story will stay with me for a while.

The best part of this story is the main character Tetley. She is one of the strongest characters out there.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an audiobook review copy of this book.

First thoughts: a bit odd, Part 1 and Part 2 of the book seem like separate novellas.

more thoughts on this soon.

Review 295: The Annual Migration of Clouds

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short book, novella that took nearly a third for me to feel grounded in this world; a post-climate change at some unknown point in the future, generations later.

We begin with teenage protagonist Reid who receives an acceptance letter to Howse University, a place in a dome. Everyone is elated for her, except her mother who says this is a fantasy, the place doesn’t exist. What is right? She would have to go out alone to get there, perhaps it is a ruse.

Reid, her mother, and many others are sick with a fungus. The semi-sapient fungus, Cad lives inside, sometimes controls the muscles, forces the infected to stay safe when needed, it appears with tree-link branches on your skin, passed on generation to generation.

This group of survivors live in an old university campus, taking classrooms or offices as living quarters. The community must all work together with some projects to make it work. It's a hard life. If Reid leaves it may harm the overall community, but if she went her life, their lives, could be improved. What does Reid choose, she only has two short weeks to get there, to decide.

I can see this being a start for another book extending out this world. The writing is decent, although as mentioned the setting took some time for me to feel settled into this world, a bit long for such a short book, which makes me hope there is more to this story.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

Review 264: Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A dystopian world where a twisted solution to outlawing abortion, which would mean that between the ages of 13-18 the parents, or guardians, could elected to unwind the child. This means that teens become, not killed, but used for parts for other people, and all parts of their bodies. Someone has an issue with their eyes, well new eyes would come from an unwound. This has the solution of people being in good health, and the kids that don’t quite cut it, with behavior problems or whatever, then get parted out. The kids going to be unwound are told they are not dying, but living on in pieces with other people, so not to look at this as an end of life. Only those people growing up as a tithe to the church, who grow up knowing that at 13 they would become unwound as part of a spiritual offering look forward to this parted up way of being.

Naturally the story focuses on several kids that are told they are to be unwound. We follow their refusal, running away when given a small chance, and they take a tithe with them, who is not happy at this turn of events. There is an underground railroad that moves these kids who rebel to a place of safety, until it falls apart. 

It’s a fairly fast paced book, and I found it hard to put down, so read the book quickly. This is a gruesome premise and world, and this is the first in a series. This book sets up what would happen next fairly well. I listened to the audiobook which was well done narration.

Review 214: Oval

Oval by Elvia Wilk
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

Part of the book was interesting, mostly in the beginning, then it seemed to go off the rails for me. This is a fictional book taking place in the near future in Berlin. A big part of the book is the house where Anja and Louis live, a new type of eco-community that is completely sustainable. Yet there are cameras everywhere and the company involved is where Anja works, who just got fired but then hired as a consultant. Anyway, when it ended I just had to ask -- what did I just read? I know much of it is satire, but still trying to make sense of it.

Brief Review 184: Ready Player Two

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The first book was much better (Ready Player One). That book was original and surprising, and for a sequel it just can't be unique. Felt like this one was more focused on a few key "referenced works" and not as broad as the first book. Overall it was a good adventure, just not spectacular. Definitely enjoyed Wil Wheaton as the narrator.

Previous book:

• Ready Player One - 5 stars  
• Print book read December 15- 17, 2011
• Audio book read July 6-16, 2015

Review 156: Road Out of Winter

Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My reading interests sometimes gravitate towards the post-apocalyptic or dystopian types of books. Unfortunately, this one didn’t grab me as a good entry in the genre. The beginning of the book seemed solid enough. But as the story progressed it weakened for me.

The book is slow paced. When the characters are on the road although they seemed to be driving forever they didn’t get far. They story really bogged down here and took up nearly the rest of the book. The writing felt misleading. How fast were they going, or how often did they stop for gas? Maybe the small details aren’t needed but at times it felt like weeks and other days, it was very unclear, but certainly they should be going somewhere, unless it was in circles.

This was one of the areas that pulled me out of the story. The story wasn’t linear, it would look back to her friend or her mom and boyfriend, how thing used to be. Some of that expanded as we moved through the story but then other situations started to appear that felt like they were convenient for this novel, but not true to what the character development. I don’t want to give spoilers, but it didn’t ring fully true for me.

It got to the point where I did want the book to end and stopped caring what happened to our main characters. Yet I feel like it wasn’t a horribly written book, just not as good as it could have been. There’s a lot of potential that didn’t quite work out well.

One the bright side, if you read this during the heat it may help you feel cooler as this world is frozen over.

Book rating 2.5 stars, rounded up for the strong beginning and atmosphere.


Thanks to Harlequin/MIRA and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 63: The Warehouse

The Warehouse by Rob Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A dystopian tale that seems all too plausible, well mostly. As society crumbles with climate change and governments failure to do much, one company steps in and solves all of our shopping needs. After a deadly Black Friday massacre people just don't want to go into stores anymore. So now there is Cloud and nearly the only place to work. It reminded me a little of the movie Idiocracy, with the huge warehouse that everyone shops. As a worker you also must live there. It's a self-contained company store, with entertainment and everything. It's a bit creepy. The watch that tracks your movements and tells you were to go next when to wake up for your next shift.

We have two main characters, one a woman, Zinnia, who is undercover with a mission: find out their power source, it can't all be solar. The other is a discouraged inventor, Paxton, with prison guard work in his resume who ends up on security. We also get the founder's Gibson Wells voice in his blogs that he writes as he nears the end of his life.

The pacing of the book was great. I do like how we see the "other" side with Gibson's blog postings. He sounds like a down-to-earth guy, not a creep who has taken over just about everything.

There are a few aspects to the story-line that was kinda weird, seemed unnecessary. Some parts maybe not explored well or overdone, otherwise a decent book. It looks like the book has Ron Howard interested in the movie rights, so we may see it on the big-screen sometime. I'll definitely see it if that happens.


Preview of the book: https://youtu.be/lh4jJk4rBJc
Like a movie trailer! Wow, looks exciting!
The book was exciting...and may become a movie. So the trailer makes sense.


Thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 62: Vox

Vox by Christina Dalcher
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

I listened to this book on audio and it propelled me forward with such strength that I could not stop the book. Now that it is all over, looking back well, the book was not so fantastic.

The first problem is that the basic plot has been done before. Sure there are some twists to it, but it is not anything new. I normally do not compare to other books, but this one lends to that too easily. First you take The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Then add a bit of All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis for limiting speech, but just women. Then you throw in (nearly any) medical thriller, say Next by Michael Crichton.

This book is a dystopian future where the Christian right goes way overboard on their "Purity" movement and wants women at home and not speaking. The main character was a neuro-linguistic scientist that happens to have a "cure" for aphasia, which the President's brother gets from a ski accident.

Part of the problem with the book is way too many people seem to be getting aphasia from various reasons. Lacks believably. The thriller part, the action, was overdone. The main problem really is that the story line just doesn't hold up well enough. Not really. The romance? That was incongruous and didn't belong.

Best to stick with Atwood's book, it was done much better. This book is too similar in idea that no need to branch out further. Unless you just must have more.


Book rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up because yes, I was hooked in.

Review 46: The Wall

The Wall by John Lanchester
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

I read this book about a month ago, in mid-June, finally had some time to add some thoughts on the reading.

First off, I started this book despite already a few going, because it looked like a simple and easy read. My life outside of reading was a bit stressful and the other books weren't relaxing enough, needing more concentration than I had the energy at the time. So did this book live up to the ease it promised? Yes, and then some. The language was very simple, too simple.

The story itself started out very slow. There is this wall, and the young adults, the first generation to do so, much go serve two years of their life on the wall. It's cold on the wall. The wall was built after the change to keep the outsiders on the other side of the wall.

The wasn't much to the book overall. I wondered often if it is a young adult book, perhaps. The generation that had to serve on the wall, feels like there is no future. They generally, do not become "breeders." They also have a huge disconnect with their parents, since they are responsible for ruining the world. The overtones are so distinct it is easy to see what the author is meaning.

The book grew on me as I read, although it turned out fairly predictable in nearly every way. Perhaps a surprise or two, but mostly not. The ending was somewhat abrupt, when it really could have continued just a little longer.

Oh, one last thought: I did not believe that even with rising oceans, that all beaches were completely wiped out over the entire world. The level of the seas would rise, but new beaches would occur, the ocean, with wave action, creates them. So how many years later after the ocean rising and the wall built? I bet there would be some beaches somewhere in the world.

Book rating: 2.5 stars



P.S. Left this book at the airBnB I was staying at when I finished reading it. I was visiting Washington, D.C. and it felt appropriate to leave a book with this title that is focused on keeping out the others, with the president that was currently occupying the White House. I realize the book is about England not the United States, yet politics.