kgbooklog

Tobias S. Buckell, Sly Mongoose
Tor (2008) ISBN: 0-7653-1920-9
Score: 1

Third book of an unnamed series (I'm calling it Caribbeans in Space) and set in a poverty-stricken floating city on a Venus-like planet. There's a teenage boy to provide a naive POV, but most of the book is spent watching Pepper (from the previous books) run around killing aliens and space zombies. Yes, space zombies.

Next Book: Steven Erikson, Toll the Hounds

Tobias S. Buckell, Ragamuffin
Tor (2007) ISBN: 0-7653-1507-6
Score: 1

Second book of an unnamed series. While Crystal Rain had an almost epic fantasy feel with ancient heroes saving civilization from the bloodthirsty savages, this one is a space opera about plucky humans fighting off their evil alien overlords. It's mostly focussed on a new character and we don't even get to the world and characters of CR until halfway through the book. Fast and exciting, but had several problems with suspension of disbelief: having characters talk about using gold and silver to buy anti-matter, and replacing computers with a room full of brain-washed humans with abacuses to guide a spaceship.

Next Book: Sarah Monette, Melusine

Tobias S. Buckell, Crystal Rain
Tor (2006) ISBN: 0-765-31227-1
Score: 2

Start of a science fiction series where two groups of aliens manipulate humans on a colony world to fight their war. The hero has amnesia and the high tech doesn't show up (much) until the end because most of it was destroyed when the wormholes were closed to prevent more aliens from arriving. Good but not remarkable plot and characters, but the dialect used by nearly every character was annoying (instead of altering spelling, the author altered grammar, but it's still non-trivial to figure out what is being said). And I can't help thinking that the bad aliens could have found an Earth culture more useful for their empire than the Aztecs.

Next Book: Joshua Palmatier, Cracked Throne