STG's

Steel World , by B. V. Larson , is a military SF book and the first on the Undying Mercenaries series. Steel World use some common themes in military SF - aliens came, and for some reason or other humans are now fighting, using a mix of human tech and tech that was reverse engineered/bought/stolen - usually for the fate of mankind. In this particular case, aliens got the humans to enroll in a galactic empire, and the only thing we could contribute with were mercenaries. The undying part is also not uncommon but fairly well employed - they can clone both your body and the content of your mind right to the point you die. The story comes from the perspective of James McGill, born in 2099 and who discovered that his only real option after being kicked out of the university is joining the mercenaries. On his first mission, he ends up in a routine campaign in the Steel World - which contains various species of dinosaur like sentient beings of various levels of intelligence which are co...

This is not a game - by Walter Jon Williams - is a nice little thriller about alternate reality games. It was nice to see how the elements of the game and real life were weaved, and there is a mild touch of AI in the plot (quite frankly I thought it would turn out very differently). Overall, quite enjoyable, and I'm reading the sequel (Deep State) right now.

When I heard about The Abyss Beyond Dreams - by Peter F. Hamilton - I knew I'd had to get it. I'm huge fan of the author, and I specially like the CommonWealth novels. Granted, I usually don't enjoy the Void parts as much as the high-tech ones. Thankfully, there is less to complain here, as a big part of the plot involves Nigel Sheldon's clone entering the void, with the help of the Raiel to try and destroy it from within - obviously for those who read it, this takes place before the end of the original Void trilogy. Overall, very good and strongly recommended for all fans of the Void trilogy. I can't wait for the sequel!

Dreamships - by Melissa Scott - is an SF cyberpunk book. In the book's universe, humankind spread through other worlds using the Drive, a kind of hyperspace that requires pilots to have implants and AIs that helps them (very cyberpunk, of course). Now people are starting to believe that one of those AIs is alive, but they are willing to fight for its rights... while other humans have no rights at all. Overall, the book was OK, but in some parts you really feel its age (1992) - for example, no wireless connections. Funnily enough, I already read the sequel back in the 90s but I didn't realize it. I only got this book as part of a StoryBundle cyberpunk bundle.

Exo: A Novel (Jumper) - by Steven Gould - is the latest book in the Jumper series - where a group of people can teleport (Jump) at will using their minds. This time around, Cent has her sights much higher - into space. There was very little hard SF in the previous Jumper books, but I just loved the way the ideas and tech for the jumper space program were developed throughout the book. Very good, this is the one I liked the most in the series so far.

The Expandabros is pure marketing genius - a special version of Broforce tailored to have special characters based on The Expendables 3 as well as vague references on the actual levels. Broforce (which is early access which is mostly why I didn't review it) is an interesting 2D platform retro title where you play as one of many action heroes (bros). As you go on, you can release other bros, which changes which character you play as well as unlocks new ones. Actual play is in the form a shooter, with pretty cool explosions and destructible terrain. The Expandabros is just like that, except with just with the characters of Expendables 3, and also free. My main peeve with both games is that the weapons of each bro are different, and sometimes you will get into annoying situations (such as facing an enemy with a long shot while only having a sword). Overall, though, this game is very much worth trying, specially since it is free.

OTTTD is a Tower Defense (TD) game. I played the demo only. The main twist between OTTTD and generic TD is that you have heroes, which you have to command around the battlefield. It starts with an engineer (who can fix towers) and continues with a soldier, sniper, etc. You can not only get them general upgrades from a large skill tower, but also buy armor and weapons upgrades. Towers are more or less the usual types - cannons, rockets, precision, stunners, etc. Overall, I think the towers upgrade should be clearer in-game, and sometimes I felt the interface to be clumsy (possibly from its mobile game origins?). Gameplay was almost good enough to make it great, but in the end it was just midly entertaining for me.