Maryse's Book Blog

Following my heart, one book at a time...

science fiction

Book Review – The One by John Marrs

By 4 Comments

The One
How could I POSSIBLY resist this one?!!! Don’t let that sinister cover fool you (although of course… that alone pulled me in). This IS a story of love, falling in love, and the dream come true. Well… except for the ones that are NOT “the one”.

It sounds too good to be true, and for many, it proves exactly so. In theory, this should be the answer to the perfect life. No more divorce (or painful breakups), deep love through and through from start to end, your perfect partner. Your proven soulmate backed by science. read more

Guest Review (my sister!!) – Invader by C.J. Cherryh

By Leave a Comment

Invader: Book Two of Foreigner (Foreigner series 2) by C.J. Cherryh
Review by Johanne Pearl Couturier
4 stars
Looks like Bren Cameron’s life is a problem… a big problem for everyone it seems, even people from his own government. Stuck between his job dictating what he should do and say as a diplomat, and his own respect for the people he is living with, the choice is not going to be easy.
In the sequel to Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh continues the saga of “the man stuck in the middle”, in a world where he has to judge who is with him and who is against him… while the leader he is associated with makes him look like a pawn on a chessboard. Atevi are divided now and more than one group want his life to end while other are not sure yet… seeing him as a very dangerous disturbance with his wild ideas. His life and work are already complicated enough but other players decide to reappear from the past… a past Bren knows less about than he thinks and, suddenly, he wishes that some of these people could be with him, making is loneliness as a human being more bearable, if only by teaching a new guest what the Atevi want him to learn.
Bren is not the only one who wants to be informing the new group of the intricacies of this world and the scales could be tipped in a way that could create another war. He has to use all his talents and knowledge to make sure no one has clear advantage over the other, but what does he really want? Who is he really? Can he develop feelings for an Ateva on whom he does not know much, beside the fact she is a member of the assassins’ Guild? She clearly expressed her curiosity about intimacy but can a relationship develop between two species who do not understand each other at a core level?
So many things are happening in this book, it is insane! You’re wracking your brain with “what ifs”? Trying to find who is loyal and who is not? Being surprised by twists and turns? Go ahead! Give yourself this pleasure and be immerged in a world that you get to understand more and more as you follow Bren’s train of thoughts. If you think your life is not easy, try to walk a mile in this human’s shoes… or ride on the back of a Macheiti for that matter. Did I tell you I love those beasts? Oooops, yes I did already! Lol
Well, time for me to go on reading book 3 so I can find out how the new “guests” will adapt to all this madness! And if his 9 feet black alien beauty’s curiosity, making him so uneasy around her, will be satisfied or shift to that new someone…
read more

C. J. Cherryh – Foreigner Series Reading Order

By Leave a Comment

OMG this series is HUGE!!! 15 books, and my sister is going crazy for it! She’s review the first two books right here on the blog, but quickly… she describes it this way:

Johanne: It is sci-fi and very political (it’s about two species – humans that arrive on a planet that’s already colonized) and so interesting, but there is romance and I can’t wait for it to happppppeeennnn!!!!

About book #1:

The groundbreaking novel that launched Cherryh’s eponymous space opera series of first contact and its consequences…
It had been nearly five centuries since the starship Phoenix, lost in space and desperately searching for the nearest G5 star, had encountered the planet of the atevi. On this alien world, law was kept by the use of registered assassination, alliances were defined by individual loyalties not geographical borders, and war became inevitable once humans and one faction of atevi established a working relationship. It was a war that humans had no chance of winning on this planet so many light-years from home.
Now, nearly two hundred years after that conflict, humanity has traded its advanced technology for peace and an island refuge that no atevi will ever visit. Then the sole human the treaty allows into atevi society is marked for an assassin’s bullet. THe work of an isolated lunatic? The interests of a particular faction? Or the consequence of one human’s fondness for a species which has fourteen words for betrayal and not a single word for love? read more

Guest Review (my sister!!) – Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh

By 2 Comments

Foreigner: 10th Anniversary Edition (Foreigner series) by C.J. Cherryh

Review by Johanne Pearl Couturier

4.5 stars

Science fiction at its best! Imagine humans lost in space. A LOT of humans. The planet they are close to is already inhabited by a race of humanoids that seem to have developed technology in a way that looks like humans when they were using steam trains. Some humans decide to colonize and others will just go on in their supersized spaceship to find a better place.

They land and establish the laboratory in an area where they think there are no people living close by, but they are wrong and first contact… well, it rapidly leads to war, both parties not understanding each other… written many many years ago, this is so realistic! read more

I devoured this thriller! My Book Review – Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

By 9 Comments

Dark Matter: A Novel
Whoa! Now that was a crazy, intense, convoluted, yet strangely understandable read! LOL! It’s not normally what I’d gravitate to, but I’m truly enjoying these disturbing looks into “survival mode” (The Martian is what set me off) and this book came highly recommended!

Perry: Maryse, you have to read Dark Matter. Trust me on this one. It’s a Sci Fi Thriller. You are going to love it. I’m 99.99% sure. DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch. Favorite book of the year so far for me… you have to read it. read more