Tag Archives: Martha Wells

Blogversary #6

16 Sunday Jan 2022

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Today is the sixth anniversary of Whiskey With My Book.  Over its short lifespan, the types of posts have changed but the basic premise remains the same.  I started blogging because I love to read great books and I want to share them with like-minded people like you.

Today, 98% of my posts are book reviews.  While I do take requests for book reviews, mostly I review books that I choose.  Lately, I have become even more picky about what I choose to read and review.  Taking the time to read a book and then write a meaningful review takes valuable time.  I want don’t want to squander it on something that I cannot recommend.  That is why 4 and 5 stars are the norm for this blog. 

Last year I had a total of 68 posts.  It was kind of a slow year for posting reviews.  But it was a big year for reading.  172 books all together.  35 of those were children’s picture books that I must read as a librarian.  I listened to 38 audiobooks.  The rest fall into various and overlapping categories that include mystery, romance, scifi, historical and paranormal.  If you would like to know the titles, I read, here is my Goodreads Year in Books 2021.       

Today, I will share some highlight of what I read in 2021. If anything interests you, click on the book covers to take you to Amazon.

Highlights of 2021

The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley – I absolutely loved The Winter Sea and The Firebird by this author.  The Vanished Days is a prequel to this Scottish/Slains series.  The author employs her typical epic storytelling combined with her keen ability to drop clues and reveal truths in a way Kearsley historical fiction fans have come to appreciate.

A Song of Flight by Juliet Marillier – This book was a beautiful wrap -up for Marillier’s Warrior Bards fantasy series.  I was crying at the beginning (sadness) and at the end (happiness). I am such a fan of her beautiful storytelling.

Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor – Every book in this series both breaks my heart and gives me hope.  But this one was so, so, so!  If you read the series you understand. If you don’t read the series – you should! Definitely one of the best of the time-travel series out there.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – A lot of science gobbledygook wrapped up in a drama of world-ending crisis, friendship, heartbreak and triumph.  My first Andy Weir book – I’d read him again.

New books in series I love to follow…

These are the series I keep reading.  Mind you, not all series keep me interested past 3 books.  A fact, I think, that some authors have figured out because they end series with book 3.  But these are stories that I have not grown tired of, in fact I look forward to more of them. I will continue to read them as long as the authors continue to write them:

King of Pain (Interstellar Rescue) by Donna S. Frelick – Scifi Romance

Cosmic Boom (Project Enterprise) by Pauline Baird Jones – Scifi Romance

Books 1-6 in Celine Jeanjean’s Razor’s Edge series – Urban Fantasy

Books 3 and 4 in The Fae Files by Cecilia Dominic – Paranormal Romance

A Wicked Conceit (Lady Darby) by Anna Lee Huber – Historical Mystery

Queer fiction…

I normally gravitate to books about strong-willed heterosexual women and the men they love.  Occasionally I read outside my box and this year I found two I really liked. 

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite is a historical romance about two women who really prefer to have control over their own lives.  Winter’s Orbit by new author Everina Maxwell is scifi romance and one of my favorite books of the year. It features two men from different worlds who find out how much they want each other while solving a techno-political mystery.

Palette Cleanser

Cozy mysteries are like the sherbet course between other courses.  They cleanse the palette.  Vampire Knitting Club series by Nancy Warren is a funny, fun series that combines mystery, paranormal and fine needlework – a combination that can’t be beat!

What’s wrong with this world?

Over the last two years, much has happened that has made me consider writing blogs that reflect more personal socio-political views.  But this blog is about enjoying great books, so you will not see those types of posts here.  However, I am not against recommending books that either reflect a personal view or give you cause the think about what is wrong with this world. 

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemison – Brilliant Scifi short story!  When the elite humans need to return to the Earth they abandoned for a better life, they might find out they are not so elite after all.

A Wolf After My Own Heart by MaryJanice Davidson – this paranormal romance has so many hilarious and sobering comments about characters and events in the story that reflect what is going on in the real world.  I will definitely continue to read this author.

Axiom’s End and Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis – I enjoyed both of these scifi stories about first contact.  One of the major premises is that a little leads to a lot.  That is a very simplified statement, but if you consider that this can apply to limiting individual rights or censorship, it says a lot.

Rediscovered Authors

I read 3 books in the Dragonfury series from Coreen Callahan.  She does a fine job telling the story of heroic male dragon shifters finding their high energy females.  Easy to read, fast moving plots.   Fun!   I’ve read all of Patricia Briggs Alpha and Omega series, but before 2021, had never read any of the related Mercy Thompson series.  Books 1-5 on audiobook sped by and I hope to catch up the rest of the series in 2022.  I really like coyote walker Mercy Thompson and werewolf Adam Hauptman.  The ties to Alpha and Omega is just an added benefit.

Over-rated

Some books just don’t live up their hype.  Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells is the 6th book in the series.  It was waning with book 5, but I read one more.  Murderbot is a fascinating, much-loved character, but has lost its charm by this point.  End of series for me.  In 2021, I read The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk which releases 1/25/22.  As a librarian, I was eager to read the mystery.  The book has gotten some hype, but just didn’t do much for me. Good enough to finish. I may go ahead and review and then you can decide.  

A good one to look forward to:

Under the Golden Sun by Jenny Ashcroft – this was my first and last review for Library Journal.  The unique voice had me mesmerized. I really enjoyed this one!  Look for this Pacific theatre WWII historical novel to be released in March this year. 

Thanks for being with me through the last 6 years. I’m sure there will be a lot of great new books to talk about in 2022. I look forward to sharing some of them with you!

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6) by Martha Wells – Review

25 Tuesday May 2021

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About Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

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Review of Fugitive Telemetry

SecUnit is still anti-social and full of snark,  And smarter than everyone else.  That doesn’t mean SecUnit has all the answers.  If that was true, there would be no story.

Is this book scifi?  A little.   Fugitive Telemetry is actually murder mystery.  Sure, SecUnit has superior technology and logical thinking abilities.  But a murder mystery is a murder mystery.  A space setting does not change that.

I enjoyed the first installments of SecUnit’s story (1-5). In previous books, the I felt SecUnit’s emphasis was on protecting humans. In Fugitive Telemetry it’s emphasis was on solving a crime, which made SecUnit seem self-absorbed.  Or maybe SecUnit is just more comfortable being itself – becoming more of an individual.  Time will tell.

I missed ART, the AI from previous books. ART is a friend and that is what our favorite SecUnit needs.

I’m pretty sure that Murderbot fans are going to love this book even if I did not.  Fugitive Telemetry is entertaining, but is my least favorite of the series.

Thanks to the publisher who provided a copy through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) by Martha Wells – Review

18 Monday May 2020

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About Network Effect by Martha Wells

Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

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I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

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Review of Network Effect

Murderbot fans – this is the full length novel you have been waiting for. You might expect your favorite anti-social SecUnit to make plenty of snarky humorous comments about humans and about itself. You might expect SecUnit/Murderbot to get itself into one or more predicaments. You might also expect humans, that Murderbot feels compelled to protect, to get into one or more predicaments. You might expect SecUnit’s amazing processing capacity to multi-task like crazy while also enjoying one of its favorite media episodes. If you read Network Effect, you will get all of this and more!

ART (from Artificial Condition) is back and plotting with SecUnit. ART and SecUnit have an argumentative team-work method. When the two AI’s first re-meet in Network Effect, it is mostly argumentative, so you can imagine lots of humor as well as ongoing character development. Throw in several humans from various crews, human-like beings affected by alien remnants, the Corporation Rim and the Preservation Society and you have a nicely convoluted plot that combines tech that I cannot possibly understand with humanity in humans and AIs. The recounting of a desperate rescue mission had me racing through the pages.

Despite the fact that I read all of the previous novellas, references to past Murderbot escapades were a bit blurry to me. They were mentioned, but little detail was given, with the exception of one specific memory. I did not remember all the details. While I felt I was glazing over these references, it did not detract from the current story. If you have not read books 1-4, you can still enjoy this book.

The SecUnit with a sense of humor is such a great character! Network Effect makes me love it even more. Murderbot series fans will want to read this one. Scifi fans that like strong robot/AI characters will like this book too.

Thanks to the publisher who provided a copy through Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

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