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Very helpful, which one is your favourite?

Loved this book!

Awesome and detailed video, thank you! I'm looking for more HH after being impressed by Deathworld 1. Just ordered Planet Story, it looks rad 😎

Hi Malcolm and Sabrina. Great review. I'm now thinking this book would be a good Christmas present for my nephew! Lovely to see you Sabrina. 😊

Alastair Reynolds has long been one of my favorite authors. I admire his creativity. He will toss out an idea in support of his storyline that a lesser author would be happy to use as the central theme of a novel. While _Revelation Space_ came out in 2000, he had written stories in the RS universe since about 1990. See the excellent collection _Galactic North_. One of my favorite "short" works by Reynolds is "Weather", which is in that collection. Probably my favorite Reynolds novel from outside the RS universe is _Pushing Ice_. I enjoy SF at all lengths, short story, novelette, novella, novel, & series. Reynolds is good at all of them except maybe the "short short".😊

Congrats on a review that captures well the essence of the book & is easy to watch. I'm glad that I had already read the book. I don't like spoilers! I've also read "The Expanse" series, _one_ of my favorite SF series. I agree that this new trilogy (?) should be considered on its own merits. As someone who has read SF for 50+ years & as a fan of hard SF, I appreciate first contact with a truly alien species. Too often, the "aliens" are essentially humans in silly costumes. Much more challenging & more fun when the aliens have a different culture & a different way of thinking about things. The authors did a good job of setting things up, but leaving plenty of questions unanswered. I have no idea where they are going to take these ideas / characters. For me, thats a _good_ thing.😊

This is a great review, I haven't read any James SA Corey is there anywhere you would recommend starting?

15 books is some going. Some people don't read that in a life time. Best wishes.

I wasn't going to read it until I found out a fave character was included. It's bleak and depressing and visceral. After I figured out the common trope was going to happen, I skipped ahead to confirm my fears. I came very close to not bothering to finish it. I plowed through nonetheless, and bawled like a cow stuck in a fence for the last half of the book. This is the third Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy book I've read. I'm going to read Rocket and Groot Steal the Galaxy (again) because I desperately need to cheer myself up.

Hi Malcolm. I hope you, Sabrina and the boys had a lovely holiday. 32 books is quite an achievement. Well done. I read 0 books and have read 0 books all summer. Nevermind! 😊

😂 You couldn't read your own writing!! ❤

Oh those Dinosaur graphic books look fun!

I'm actually reading a Star Wars novel (probably in December) called Splinter Of The Mind's Eye. I don't read Star Wars books, but this is an alternate to Empire Strikes Back, and that really interests me. I hear it's good, so I'm excited to find out for myself!

Some interesting books mentioned. Food for thought. The ever expanding tbr! Happy reading to you.

Just finished it, have not seen the show. I actually did like the beginning, but overall? If you think about anything too deeply, none of it makes sense. SPOILERS. They’re using the game to foster love and loyalty to the Trisolarans? How? It’s a game where you go to a barren wasteland and the world keeps ending. At the game meetup the writer was like, “omg YAS life would be so much more interesting if the Trisolarans were here!” Really? How? They’re strips of leather that live on a dead planet. I don’t get it. They use the nanowire to prevent damage to the data…at first I went with it. But the scene plays out and the boat crashes and catches on fire. And realistically most of it would have sank. HOW was this the best option to get a data drive? 😂 The sophons are almost omnipotent. And we need to kill the humans. So we’re going to use the sophons to kill the humans right? No, we are just going to enact a complicated plan of psychological warfare. Oh and also when scientists encounter things they can’t explain, they just kill themselves, everyone knows that. Parts of it were compelling to me. But if you think about any of it at all, I feel like the entire plot falls apart. But it’s clear that the author wants you to think about these things. I don’t know what to do about it. I have the whole series, I heard the second book is better but…It’s hard for me to look past how ridiculous much of this plot was.

Best wishes with what you choose to read. I hope you get some great stories. Happy reading!

YES! I love John Wyndham! ❤ Also didn't they turn that Sweet Tooth story into a movie? I feel like I've seen a movie trailer for that 🤔.

I feel so much better now about getting half way through, and lost in the unfathomable distances between worlds, having given up! Chronological relation of events seems an odd choice given the character of those events - and how it leaves, almost the whole of the second book without any event occurring relevant to the principle plot. I wondered if it's a cultural thing; within the overall structure of the work, if the second - seemingly superfluous book is not akin to how Chinese art makes use of blank space? Or because it's the three body problem - there had to be three books? Might go back to it. It's not uninteresting or difficult to read, just sparse.

I was debating getting the book, because this sort of thing fascinates me. But after your review I’m not so sure. I have issues keeping my attention focused reading nonfiction books. Maybe I’ll try the show first. 🤔

This book feel like Chinese knockoff SF. Hype was so unreal, cos it was unreal.

I thought the first book was pretty good, but the 2nd and 3rd books are amazing

I actually like it a lot (though I breezed through the first book and never felt a desire to go back and reread it like the second or third), but can attest to the fact that nothing is lost in translation. If anything Ken's translation enhances it. Ironically, the Chinese very much reads as if translated from English.

The book is indeed pretty bad. The thing I don't like the most is that it likes to pretend that it's "hard science fiction" when in fact it is not that at all. It's very psychdelic science fantasy in the vein of the most wacky illogical, implausible Dr Who nonsense wrapped in endless pretentious technobabble bunk and lacking any of the Dr Who charm. The show is actually not that bad.It's a pretty well produced fun show with a talented cast. It never tries to explain the nonscience and just creates a spectacle.

I've had this on my kindle for literally years. I've started it a few times, Never been able to get past a few chapters. The writing/translation just put me off.

I haven’t read the book but was thinking spending a credit on the audible version. I might give it miss if it doesn’t tell the story better than the show. I did see the tv show and while I enjoyed it, the ending was flat and they did a poor job explaining the whole wall-facer thing, it felt tacked on at the end. Also, the whole idea of putting a brain in a box and shooting it across space to speak to aliens was stolen from Lovecraft. Have a read of/listen to Lovecraft’s ‘The Whisperer in Darkness.’ It’s the same idea, but executed in a way that is truly horrifying. No one in their right mind would wish that fate on a friend. That’s the bit I truly disliked about this story. *shudders*

interesting point of view. I loved the book and read it in three/four days, and loved expecially the creation of the sophons part

the books' weaknesses are that it takes the author's awesome ideas and then tries to cram it in half-assed characters. the scope and imagination in the second book is my favorite of the whole series--but it only gets that good in the second half, which says something about the skill of Cixin Liu as a writer. but his ideas are absolute gems

TBP’s ideas are cool, but the 2D characters who speak only in expository paragraphs made it hard to finish. The show handles the narrative, characters, and dialogue much better - though there was still too little juice for the squeeze.

The show is definitely better than the book. The book was published almost 20 years ago and it reads like it.

I didn't hate it but don't know if I'll bother reading the next one, The Dark Forest. It needed editing to make the pacing better, so I agree with your comment about the chapter on the folding interdimenstional thingee being unnecessary. There was a really bad chapter where it describes the point of view of an alien communication worker that really ruined the whole manipulative 'fake' aliens in the game that humans players can't take at face value. Anyway, I read it before watching the Netflix show, which I didn't like much at all. The show was confusing and clunky.

I only read it after seeing the show so that might have affected how I felt about it. I did found it interesting and really liked those long explanations as well. The characters I did struggle with but I think that was aided by the show. The tech side really isn't what the series is about. The more original concepts come with the "cosmic sociology" - what's life like in the universe and how does it interact. The second book to me is far superior to this one as it gets much deeper into that. Might not be the same for you, but it's one of the best pieces out there for me. With the setup here, it's easy to pick up later. Da Shi is the only main returning character so there's a bonus? The third one drags a bit and by the end really gets in deep with the dimensions mentioned here so it might not be your cup of tea. Although if the second one hits hard then there's enough stuff to keep entertained throughout it as well.

You might like the Netflix show much better. They really fix the boring characters thing in an ingenious way, and keep the plot moving.

Oh dear. I finally got around to buying this book a few weeks ago. I've been on the fence about reading it. You have pretty good reading tastes, so I'm feeling pretty convinced I'm not going to like it either! 🙈 (well... except for that whole not liking Frankenstein thing! 😂❤)

Pretty interesting, thank you for the video!

Hello and best wishes. Everyone has to prepare for the zombie apocolypse! Here's to a great reading summer. Happy reading!

The rage war trilogy is a good scifi opera too bad fox couldn't capitalize on this work a space opera based on the aliens vs predetor universe would be a bit knowing this franchise has a lot of fans from both older and younger demographics

Did you know he wrote a part two, wayward?

That is so cute, I once had a boyfriend that would read books to me over the phone when we were apart ( obviously otherwise it would have been really weird)

Enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this one. I liked this book. I really liked the concept of multiples. It was a really fun read. Looking forward to reading the next in the series ☺

Brilliant! I found this really useful. I bought The Prefect years ago but never fancied reading it. I’d actually put the book in a box to go to the charity shop. For some reason I started to read it and became hooked. Fast paced and a lot of fun. Didn’t know about the trilogy so I’ll be picking them up soon. Cheers.

I have a couple Alistair Reynolds books, but I haven't read them yet. Hopefully I'll get to him this year!

Spent most of February reading Dune. Currently on page 805 of the Count of Monte Cristo. Still some way to go! Best wishes with your reading choices. Happy reading.

Just finished it , I enjoyed it , can't wait to dive in book 3

The British version of the comic book guy

Thats a heck of a lot of books. I spent most of February reading one, Dune. Had a couple of other thinner books but I currently reading the Count of Monte Cristo. I maybe some time!

I love the lil christmas yoda on the shelf :) btw love the video

I'm you have the Gaul to show Asterix! Best joke I could do, sorry. Hope you are reading something good and best wishes to your channel. New subscriber here.

I didn't know you wrote! Groovy! I'll check it out!

I recently picked up The Kaiju Preservation Society because you said you liked it so much, so if I don't like it... I'm holding you responsible 😂❤.

😂 Your disdain for Frankenstein is hilarious! It's one of my all time favorite books, but I enjoyed hearing you trash it! ❤