I have read a few books recently that I decided I wanted to talk about:
Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles by Michael Moorcock
I got this from the library because I wanted a book that was easy to read and I thought a Doctor Who book would be that. Any other one the library had might have done, but sadly this one didn't. I did finish it, but only because I was determined to. It was written in a slightly whimsical style, which took a bit of getting used to. But once I did I was quite happy to read all the other characters in it, aside from the Doctor and Amy, who were really boring in comparison (and in Amy's case she didn't do anything). I can't talk about the plot because I have no idea what was going on. There was a set up of a far-future society being lovers of Earth culture, but getting it a bit wrong. It led to some interesting sports, but sadly that whole storyline went by the wayside a bit when the main plot asserted itself. And that was just bizarre and inexplicable and at no time did I understand what was going on.
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
This is a sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine, which I have read, but it was a while ago. Despite not doing well with the last Stephen Baxter book I tried, I gave this one a go. And I was glad I did because I really enjoyed it - despite it being 600-odd pages I read it in two days because I just kept reading it every chance I got. It was written in the same style as the original, which I liked, and Stephen Baxter used his knowledge of what is our past, but the Time Traveller's future to good effect. He also this time managed to come up with some good characters on his own, which was a vast improvement over the last Stephen Baxter book I read, so I was pleasantly surprised. In this book the Time Traveller goes to various different times and it was interesting to see them all.
The Vatta series by Elizabeth Moon
Handily, my local library had the first four books of this series, although two other people were reading them ahead of me, so it took me a little while to get through the whole series. I enjoyed it and it reminded me like I do like stories with spaceships in them. I really liked the characters and the technology and the way the space battles were described didn't bore me, which is a nice change. However, I much preferred the first book. It was more of a standalone and I was less keen on how the rest followed on. Which was nothing like how I expected. I also really dislike one major event in the second book, which I won't spell out, in case anyone hasn't read it and doesn't want to be spoiled.
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
I read this straight after the fifth Vatta book, so it took me a while to realise it wasn't set in space 🙂 I thought this would be interesting from the description and the acknowledgements. Although I was disappointed the fencing was more historical stuff and not proper fencing. It's mostly from the point of view of an autistic man in the near future and it was really interesting to see the world from his perspective (I'm really jealous of his ability to memorise phone numbers). The ending was so sad though. It was happy for him and he was happy, it just felt really sad. For reasons that I can't say for spoilers.
