Hi! Welcome to my bookshelf! This is my current collection of books, the covers are accurate to which one I own!
Newest → Oldest
This was my first Ballard (and his second novel). I found this book in a coffeeshop that has a tiny hidden bookstore in the back. They have a pretty impressive shelf of old SF paperbacks. I need to go back soon. The copy I have is quite literally falling apart and its condition only worsened as I tore through this book. They are not lying when they say J.G Ballard could WRITE. This is so well written. I think it could have been about anything and I would have still enjoyed reading it. The atmosphere! It is almost totally about setting. It feels like immersing yourself in the post-apocalyptic version of Jungle Cruise. Stowing away with the crew of Atlantis, Tarzan or some anthropological expedition to the horn of Africa or undiscovered South America... Set 100 years after a series of solar flares obliterated the Earth's atmosphere and left the planet overheated, oceans turned to sand, cities drowned by glacial silt, the surviving population of humanity exists in the now temperate north and south poles. We follow a biologist, Dr. Robert Kerans on a journey through dreams and waking nightmares, through the flooded ruins of London, devolved into a playground for overgrown iguanas, bats, and crocodiles- a feverish portrait of the Triassic. It's fantastically vivid. I do wish this book had more of a set purpose. It mainly presents a concept, and struggles to find a way to tell a proper "story." There's parts that feel groundbreaking and ethereal and yet a good chunk of the middle slogs itself with a comically written pirate king and his posse of dervish looters. I think the sense of timelessness would have worked better if some of the wording wasn't poorly set in the past. I still enjoyed the dreamy waltz backwards in time. I felt like I needed to read this with a cold glass of water. The part where he goes into the planetarium and contemplates the universe was stellar. A quick read worthy of a hot summers day, if you can find it for a good price!
7/21/2025
I kinda hated this book with every fiber of my being. THIS is what gets the 'best of sf' sticker for the rest of time? As if. The most overhyped brain dead misogynistic book I've read in a minute. It's funny because I thought this about Mote in Gods Eye, only less so. Larry Niven I think I might just hate you. Get a GRIP. This book is so total in its hatred of women. Insufferable. The two women that are in this story are treated SO poorly. The first being Teela Brown whose entire character is being "a good luck charm" and the fuck-buddy to the main character. She is the major plot device. Her entire personality is to be young, dumb, and naïve. Every bad or good situation they get in isn't because of random circumstance, it's written to be because of HER. ANNOYING. The way every interaction is written is so JAJDKDKKFKGKF. Louis (the 200 year old main guy whose better than thou) knows he is being cruel to her. She even knows she's being mistreated, and the writer knows damn well about it all too. He doesn't care. She is LITERALLY written so that Louis can do whatever he pleases to her and she would forgive him, every time. Every other page is something along the lines of "oooo you're so young, stupid, and smooth, so smooth- let's have sex." Instead of anything of actual substance, we get sex. They have sex so much I know more about that than the actual Ringworld. Teela gets a new "primitive" man at the end of the story and she has to be sold to him so that he's convinced Louis doesn't own her. Eye roll. The second woman, Phrill, who is introduced much later in the story is quite literally a whore. Her entire character is that she was "a ship whore." She's really good at sex, and she's again sooooo unintelligent- but hey we need her help to get off this stupid ring! A major part of the ending of the story that she is conditioned to being subservient by this brain pleasure device. Mind numbing shit. It all reads like an incel loser who never felt the touch of a woman wrote it. I think I hate you Larry Niven. Keep your goddamn man power fantasies out of my science fiction. Don't get me wrong I don't mind horny books, it's a major part of the genre, this just was all sex and no Sci-Fi, and where there was Sci-Fi it was STUPID. Women can be written as sexy, but when it is all they are? DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also I know that the 70s were just like this, and it's definitely not the first time this has happened lol. It is just so annoying having THIS be shoved in your face as one of the pinnacles of the genre- A MUST READ. Finally reading it- and it's this asinine. THIS???? won the Nebula and Hugo! Sure, whatever. I stay under the impression that all those dudes did back then was hype each other up because no body else would talk to them. Typical. It's not even good, that's the worst part. IGNORING 85% of it (sexism), it's still really bad. (3 years later, Arthur C Clarke steals this same idea, and actually makes it intelligent, interesting and digestible. Thank god for that. I found myself wishing I was rereading Rendezvous with Rama). This book has literally ONE good concept, a world that is a ring, and it is so poorly thought out I can't believe this keeps getting any praise- FOR 55 YEARS? The pacing is all over the place, the plot is barely there, and all the dialogue is for literal idiots. The actual history of the Ringworld is also poorly put together. We barely interact with its current inhabitants beyond a like 2 scenes, because they are "primitive" and too dumb to think of the crew as anything but gods. That's the main theme of this book (besides sex), playing god- which would have been interesting if it was written well. Annoying, hated it, don't bother- if anything read a summary, look at a drawing of the ring, then move on. I have one more book from Larry Niven on my Wishlist. I will give you one more try sir, but holy shit go to therapy or hell!
7/13/2025
Not too sure what to say about this besides that it is a very solid read. And I think you should read it if biology, body horror and esoteric scifi is your sorta thing. It is for me! Somehow I was made to thread the line of squeamish and hyper focused. I also think I can say that I have never read something so specific to its time. 1985. A very hot Cold War, rapid advances in all fields of technology... a very prominent World Trade Center. Pretty scathing in its commentary towards Russia and an interesting choice to make North America the sole subject of experimentation. I enjoyed it. Suzy and Virgil I think were the most interesting characters. Bernard and his doctor buddies just felt bland and maybe misogynistic to me, in the "it's ingrained into society" way. (If that makes any sense). I think where it goes in the end is so unexpected I should have expected it. I wish there was more. I would say Blood Music, to put it simple, is about what makes up the human soul and the existential horror of being conscious in such an unfathomable universe. I do not even wanna tell you what exactly it's about detail wise, that would ruin some of the discovery. This book is among the first to get into the concept it purposes. One of those weird reads so strange you can't explain half of it. As expected, it was a very good. I can feel the ideas singing in my veins.
7/5/2025
I'm a big ol sucker for this kinda thing so biases be warned. I kinda loved this book. The first half? INCREDIBLE. On the edge of my seat. Saying out loud "oh my god." The second half? Admittedly did lose me a bit, but was still good enough to speed read through. I have never felt so stressed anticipating something I knew was coming in a book before. Just really great. There is a play by play, hour by hour, till it happens. It just builds and builds and when it's here... boy it comes out of no where. And when it hits it HITS. He doesn't hold back. It just spitballs. These people are dumb, ignorant, and grossly underprepared for survival. It's really horrific and annoying to read, I loved it. Up to about Chapter 7? every section ended with an even bigger mic drop moment. What a great time. I will say that while totally lacking by todays standards this had at least something to say about race and the south for 1959. (I would hope so). It doesn't do it in a way I think is very compelling or honest but I suppose it's something? (There's a black family vital to the survival of literally everyone, friendships formed and racial boundaries broken... sure. Moments are very clearly intended to bring up the tensions of segregation and the very obvious idea how none of that shit matters or makes any fucking sense especially at the end of the world. But even so, I thought that it continued to keep them in a weird stereotype, and still placed them below the white people in the story. Like the perspective of someone not fully understanding what makes racism... racism. I don't have the brain cap on rn to explain this better... ugh imagine I typed something genius ok thanks). I would say the later half of this book lost me when survival and hardship sortaaa took the back seat. Things start to just magically falling out of the sky and everything seems to work out (which doesn't tonally match the first part so I'm wondering if there was some executive publisher fuckery). It is all VERY 1950s. Down to marriages, housewives, and god bless the USA. Eye roll. I will give that a pass, the first half is really spectacular. If you ignore it and squint, into perhaps unindented messaging, there iss a lot here. The part that follows the banker during the first day, CHEFS KISS!! This book was one of the first to ever depict nuclear war and the aftermath of it. For that I have it to thank. (There is a part in this that involves a band of highwaymen and it took every fiber of my being not to imagine it was gonna turn into Mad Max). ((It was dangerously close to doing so and then they added any other coat of 1959. UGH!!!)). Tbh it was kinda therapeutic to read about Florida getting destroyed... considering the news. Ron De Santis would have been obliterated!!!! Basically Utopia!!!
Anywho- Alas, Babylon follows the Florida river town of Fort Repose before and after nuclear warfare. I would read it if you like military business, nuclear destruction descriptions and chronologies of survival. Be warned of extremely dated depictions of gender, race, death and all that jazz. (PS. The cover of this that I have is soooo frickin sick).
7/1/2025
After the brain food that was my last read I needed something unserious and possibly deeply stupid. This book marked all those boxes. I am probably the only person on the earth to have read this, and that is totally understandable. All around really dumb, it is exactly what I expected and it did nothing more than poorly tell a very outrageous story. An evil scientist who calls himself Satan has created a planet full of evil robotic creatures. His son, Vlad M. Paler (dead serious) is a vampire robot who takes the reign of thing once Satan is killed. Vlad wants everyone to be a real vampire, so he creates a vampire virus and gets to work. There is a jabberwocky, a homunculus named Hampton and a bunch of other weird creatures who serve him in this mission. Our main guy, normal lad 5000, Oliver Dolan is on a mission to stop all of this- or is he? Literally nothing happens, it is rather sexist (1981 babyyyy) and terrible jokes are made on every other page. It was easy to read if anything. I also have a first edition copy of this terrible book, laugh out loud.
6/22/2025
Where do I even begin with The Left Hand of Darkness? This is one of those books you absolutely need to experience for yourself. I am gobsmacked at how skilled a writer Ursula is. She made me feel like an alien!!!!!!! That is the best way to put it into words. An all around total alienation of being, it was phenomenal. I loved how this story builds. I loved the scale of everything. I loved how detailed and warm everything felt while also filling me with utter despair and chilling my insides. (seriously I need a hug) It made me feel essentially all stages of grief (IT IS GENIUS!!!!!!!). Light, darkness and shadows layered so wonderfully with culture, mythology, and metaphors I think she had to have been a little insane to come up with it all. There is so much here, I feel like I just skimmed the surface. I love love love how this breaks down gender and builds it into something completely unique (ESP for 1969). A planet full of androgynous beings who only determine gender during a monthly hormone cycle for reproduction. And our main character is an extremely misogynistic man (which is never truly acknowledged flat out) from another planet. We read an account of his mission to bring the planet (Winter) into an established greater union of other planets. What could happen? Whose to say? Life, death and everything in between. Phenomenal. You should read it. I should read it again. 6/17/2025
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