STG's

 Stormblood, by Jeremy Szal, is a SF thriller, and first in a series. I actually got it because Neal Asher recommended it in a tweet. There are some very interesting ideas, which do remind me of Asher's book - the lead guy has alien "tech" inside him, humanity has spread to many planets and is in contact with many alien races. It was just ok for me, however. Feels like more could have been done with the alien tech (which mostly just heals, makes people stronger and faster, and pretty much crazy). Not sure exactly how it gets used as a drug (might have forgotten, was it supposed to feel good? the main character doesn't seem to think so). Also he gets captured by the bad guys several times, and escape every time - felt very repetitive. Several typos and grammar errors, too... Overall, ok, but I will not be following the series.

 Mickey7, by Edward Ashton, is a SF novel. The premise is based on non-FTL galaxy colonization, with a lot of emphasis on printing people and downloading their memories. Thus creating the Expendables - people who are sent on dangerous missions, as they can just get a new copy later, a big deal on a colony with limited resources and population. Having multiples is a big no-no and only acceptable in the most dire conditions. There is also a big faction that thinks these are soulless and unacceptable in any circumstances. Mickey7  is an expendable. He is left for dead, but comes back... After his duplicate was made. And thus the story begins. Overall, quite enjoyable, even if the obvious alien detail is carefully ignored till convenient for the plot. Perfectly pleasant ending.

Valuable Humans in Transit, by qntm, is a collection of quite clever short stories. Overall, excellent, possibly one of my favorite short story collection over the years. Mostly stories are very short, but use different concepts or narration forms. The ending of the last story strongly reminded me of  The Turing Exception , for reasons that should be obvious.

Ed, by qntm, is an SF novel that looks like a themed short story collection till the end. I thought it was a short story collection focused on the one guy, Ed, the genius. It was nice how so much got integrated in the last few chapters, which were particularly good. Lots of interesting concepts. It is pretty short, so it was very much worth the time.

 I read Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman because William Gibson mentioned it on Twitter (on a thread asking for cyberpunk recommendations). When starting, it seemed a bit boring, but it quickly improved, and was cyberpunk in a way, while being completely different from the typical Cyberpunk book. It mostly concerns an executive taking care of the extinction industry as it applies to the mining company he works on, and a research that certifies species intelligence level (as it costs more if you cause an intelligent species to get extinct). Not a whole lot of new tech overall, although there are a lot of drones and autonomous factories. I have seen some reviews that complains about the long bits about a couple of (made up? looks like it) species - I agree that it was longer than necessary, but was still interesting. I really liked both epilogues, which are great on their own way (The first for the little twist from the formulaic end, and the second for changing the story quit...

 I read Delta-V, by Daniel Suarez (which I liked from other books, specially Daemon) last month and forgot to review it (seems common lately). This is a common theme for SF books - near future, add some mild advances, go mine asteroids, which is obviously a big step for humankind. Higher Education and The Billion Dollar Boy come to mind, although I seem to recall both had way more SF tech (I believe the second is mostly outside the solar system). Delta-V uses more realistic, currently available tech, and it does it in a very believable manner, with nice amounts of action and betrayal (technically a spoiler). It was quite enjoyable, and I happened to get it when I heard about the sequel, so when I finished (at about 2 a.m., I believe), I happily went to buy the sequel. Which was when I realized it was only on pre-sale, 2 months away. :-( Oh, well, it should be available next month, at least...

 A Desolation called peace, by Arkady Martine, is the sequel to "A Memory called Empire" (which I read, and liked, but forgot to review). Here we have the consequences of the last book - the empire is fighting the big bad aliens. Three Seagrass and Mahit, the main characters from the first book, manage to get themselves inserted in the action as negotiators. A good part of this one moved quite slowly. There are a few parallels with Ender's Game, ********SPOILERS******* since both have aliens with "magic" communication, although I don't recall if the ants had a sense of self. They also fight because they didn't think their enemies had any importance (only queens mattered in Ender's game, on Desolation conscience is apparently distributed and anyone not connected was not considered a person. /********SPOILERS******* Overall, this one was OK but I liked A Memory called Empire a lot more.

 Eversion, by Alastair Reynolds, was one of the rare books I bought on pre-order. There are just a few authors that I trust enough to do that. I did not regret it. The story begins in a sailship in the 1700s. The narrator is Dr. Silas Coade, and the ship is searching for a mysterious structure. Soon the doctor is killed... And next he wakes in a steam ship, with just fragments of the memory of what happened. Everyone else is the same as in the last ship. Next time it happens, it is an airship going to the hollow earth, searching for a structure... It was interesting setup, that I feel as well developed, and much cleverer than similar tropes. It pays very well in the end, and comes to a quite satisfying conclusion. Overall, very much recommended.

 I decided to read  The Time Traveler's Wife , by Audrey Niffenegger, after I heard that the series was cancelled. I really liked the series (and the movie, but the series was better - much easier with all the extra time), and it felt like a logical time, while it was still fresh in my mind. The book was pretty good, but the series was better in a number of small ways, specially the dinner scene - which is just a plain dinner in the book, but very memorable in the series. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** I think I see some of the reasons the series was cancelled. There isn't all that much to get an extra 6 episodes. And most of what there is, is pretty dark. The nice part, of course, is their daughter Alba (which is also a time traveler and maybe, some day, will have her book - apparently the author is pulling a GRRM and have been writing it for 8 years now). Henry's big plot points are losing his feet and dying. "At least" Clare can still meet Henry sometimes, but that seem...

Uplift War, by David Brin, is part of his first Uplift trilogy. I have already reviewed Sundiver and Startide Rising, which I didn't think were as good as this one. In this book, aliens are still mad about the big discovered humans/dolphins made in Startide Rising. One of them decides to keep a human colony hostage. Naturally, guerrilla (and gorilla) warfare follows. This was my favorite from the trilogy by far. There is a nice view into the uplifted chimpanzees, some other aliens, and a few of the galactic customs.

 Startide Rising, by David Brin, is: - a SF novel - The second book in the Uplift Saga (I just read and reviewed Sundiver) In this book, a starship with uplifted dolphins (mostly), humans and an uplifted chimp made a huge discovery, and now a lot of alien enemies are after them. They go to a quite interesting water planet to hide for repairs.  This book is from the early 80s, and sometimes it feels like it. Thankfully, the big ideas are more important and shine through the rest. Middle felt a little slow, but the conclusion was satisfying enough. There is a very mild connection with book 1, Sundiver. No need to read it first, nor would I recommend reading it - it was just ok.

A Psalm for the wild-built, by Becky Chambers  Pretty much amazing. Frankly, when I read the description I wasn't very interested, but there was so much praise for the book I read it anyway. The story is mostly about a non-binary tea monk, which goes around cities providing tea and conversation for distraught people in an eco-friendly world. Robots disappeared a while ago - they went sentient, asked people to go away, and they just said fine (probably the least believable element here, but quite refreshing). The monk meets a wild robot, that is trying to understand how humans are now. A very pleasant road trip  (well, at least for the reader) ensues. Can't wait for the next book!

 The Ophiuchi Hotline is a 1977 novel by John Varley. I happened to get this one because of a book discount newsletter. Most days I just ignore it, but when I saw John Varley, I immediately went and bought it. The story is interesting enough - it mostly covers a geneticist who is condemned to death, and then saved. She lives on the Moon - one of the 8 planets that have most of the remaining human race, after invaders took over the Earth.  The geneticist is rescued by Tweed, who is dedicated to fighting the invaders and regaining Earth, and apparently have very soft ethical boundaries. She proceeds to get killed and cloned several times (I imagine no one will be impressed in SF by cloning by at this time, and they also have memory recordings). Part of this tech was given to humans by the Ophiuchi Hotline, which is a signal that comes from 17 years away with lots of tech humans can use. There are a lot of tech novelties like advanced surgery, nullfields and use of quantum black ...

 Memory's Legion, by James S.A. Corey, is a collection of novellas in The Expanse universe. I read it just after I finished all the books, and it was very interesting, specially as it features some of the minor and major characters from the regular series. Well worth reading.

 Tiamat's Ashes, by James S.A. Corey, is the 8th book in the series. It has now been a while since I actually read it, so I might mix it up with the other books in the series. So Duarte goes and decides to tease the aliens beyond the gates. It doesn't go well. At all. And now they are trying to kill everyone... Overall, great battles and ideas, well worth the read, like every book in the series.

 Leviathan Falls, by James S.A. Corey, is the final (9) book in the Expanse series. In the previous book, the human/alien hybrid god emperor got his groove back, so to say, and decided to go fight the aliens beyond our universe. Now everything is coming to an end, and the aliens are experimenting with changing our reality, to murder us all. Again, the Rocinante crew has to go and save everyone, together with Dr. Okeye and the Falcon.  Overall, excellent, and a great, hopeful ending, with a surprise survivor.

 Made to Order is an anthology book, with several short stories on a topic - robot revolution. It came up on my book offers, and when I read Peter F. Hamilton, I just said oh, OK and bought it. It was pretty much awesome. Some stories were nice, but many were just great and pretty memorable. I had given up on doing that, but I can't help but mention some: (watch for spoilers!) A Guide for Working Breeds - Vina Jie-min Prasad The story of a new robot and his mentor. It has a nice model I've seen before - robots are sentient, and they have to work to pay for their hardware, at which point they are free. The new robot really likes dogs, which is pretty cute (and I imagine would make a great Love, Death  + Robots episode), and the other is a little more violent. I like that the tradition of robot names based on serial/model numbers is still going. Test 4 Echo - Peter Watts Very famous author, nice, I particularly the way the sentience (and robot architecture) was approached, and h...

Babylon's Ashes is book number 6 in The Expanse series. This one takes place in our solar system. The free navy is still being a major problem, and the Rocinante is helping, as usual. A lot of battles ensue, ending with the retaking of Medina Station. No direct alien/alien tech appearance (seems a little forced that the alien station wouldn't mind what happens there), except for the portals acting up, as they already have. Overall, pretty good. I also liked the Filip evolution. I expect there will be a surprising reunion (for Naomi), which would have good symmetry with Filip's surprise (obviously avoid spoilers here). 

 Run program, by Scott Meyer, is a SF/comedy novel. The topic is now a classic - people create AI, it goes sentient (at least this time it is on purpose), something bad happens. There is a slight twist, though, they decided to create the AI as a brain simulation (not really new - Charles Stross did a couple of books on this, which were pretty good), which is child like when it escapes. As other Scott Meyer books (like the Magic 2.0), comedy is a big part, and there were a lot of funny bits. Overall, good, but not great.

 Grand Theft Astra, by Scott Meyer, is mostly a multiple heist SF novel, with plenty of comedy. It still has the strong comic tone of the Magic 2.0 series, but with most of the entertaining in the way the techie thief goes around the jobs, as well as the ongoing plot. The only thing that bothered me is that I don't recall seeing any mention of a FTL comm system, but the main character goes around the solar system talking to everyone in real time.