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I.E.Demon by Dan Wells

This was one of the weirdest short stories I read in terms of the ideas used. This is an alternate earth where the military has secret departments which manufacture military vehicle armor that protect them from Improvised Explosive Devices(I.E.D) used by terrorists. This 'armor' which disables the IEDs is actually a technology-hating gremlin, a demon. Wtf, hahaha. What! But it was fun!

A Fire in the Heavens by Mary Robinette Kowal
Rating: 4/5

A gripping story about a holy woman who travels across the sea to a mythical land that her religion says is real, but where she comes from, her religion is a minority. Also, the land she comes from has no moon and the land she tries to reach across the ocean has one - a tidally locked moon i.e. It's always at the same position relative to the planet.

"Footprints?"

"Yes"

"A man's or a woman's?"

"Mr. Holmes, they were footprints of a gigantic hound!"

# # #

This remains one of my favorite scenes in the whole book, and I have many favorite scenes from this one. The gentle pronouncement that Dr. Mortimer makes always gives me goosebumps! It sets up the tone for the whole book excellently, eerie, sinister, thrilling, fantastical.

God, I love this book!

I've been listening to Writing Excuses podcast by Brandon Sanderson, Mary, Dan and Howard. They provide insightful tips and guides about the craft of writing, especially in fantasy and sci-fi genres.

This is an anthology written by these writers based on an idea they brainstormed and workshopped together. They contain both the first and final drafts of each short story, useful for apprehensive new writers.

I read this 4 times last year. :D I love this one, it will remain close to my heart forever because this was essentially the book that captured my imagination and made me fall in love with fiction. My favorite Sherlock Holmes story without a doubt. And Stephen Fry's audiobook is just awesome.

Short story: True Love

Milton Davis is a programmer, he creates a software named Joe, it's sort of like an AI assistant and this software is connected to Multivac, a supercomputer that's present in many of Asimov's short stories. One day Milton decides he would, with the help of Joe, find his True Love from the database of the human population. He gives elimination criteria and stuff. It doesn't end well.

Loved it!

I don't know if my mind is easy to be blown or what, but every story is just making me drop my jaw in awe.

Inner dialogue: Get a hold of yourself. If you are going to post a status every time your mind gets blown away by something Asimov has written, your probably going to spam everyone's feed. Stop being such a fanboy!

A robot, called Bard, that creates and tells stories. This story was written in 1950s. He might himself have had inspiration from some breakthrough technologies of his times.

I think everyone should read this guy's short stories. Incredibly imaginative and if you add the question "What if this tech becomes real?", every story becomes disturbingly unsettling.

Okay, I've read his I, Robot collection already, I absolutely loved them, the short stories just blew my mind.

Now this book is a bigger collection of Asimov's short stories, I think they include I, Robot stories too. I've read 3 new stories so far, just incredible. I can't praise Isaac Asimov enough, just the idea. Damn!

All is well and good, but Peter Grant, the main character, isn't just as shocked and surprised as a normal person would be after seeing a ghost and being told that magic was real. He just takes everything in his stride straight away, that's not realistic. That's my only gripe so far, the story has been very interesting.

Am I tripping balls, or what? Isn't this book called "Rivers of London"??? After adding it, it shows up as "Midnight London"! Does this book have 2 name? What is happening?

I was thinking how dumb the whole Maze task was. GoF has the weakest plot in terms of the number of glaring holes in it. Why is no one overseeing what's happening in the maze? They put deadly magic inside it but are like, "meh, it's not like we have flying broomsticks to hover above and see that our champions are safe. We'll just see who comes out alive. If they don't, tough luck."

Still entertaining, and I love it.

My yearly reader's block has arrived. DNFing all currently reading books because I can't stand any of them right now, not even Harry Potter, goddammit.

This chapter that calls itself the Prologue was boring!

I think WoT is not my cup of tea. Too many inconsequential detail, why does it matter how everyone in the room is dressed like? I don't care, do it for a couple of characters and move on!

I'd be so pissed if the man who calls himself Bors doesn't know the names of the 3 people to be Rand, Perrin and Mat, from it looks like, he doesn't. Which is so stupid!

This book is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 and 2 are rather short, they are more like two prologues to the actual story. These two prologues set 150 years apart were tantalizing, they offered a story that would have immense conflicts and action. But we skip all that, we are hundreds of years into the future and the actual plot plays like a political intrigue??!!! Noooo!!!

The world-building is captivating though.

Interesting premise! A spaceship named Phoenix gets lost in space, ends up in a binary star system, the radiation starts killing people on board, so they search for a different destination, a hospitable planet. They find one, some want to call it Earth, others argue it shouldn't be called Earth because it'd confuse the later generations. Then we get a POV of the alien species already living on the planet. Excited!!

It's suspenseful AF right now!!!

“It’s not even human,” he insists. Before he can escape, just as he’s turning away, he catches her signed reply and it feels as if those signs brand themselves into his back, right through his jacket, his muscle, his bone, deep enough that the words ache like a fresh wound, where they begin their itchy conversion into scars that he’ll be forced to read for the rest of his life: “NEITHER Are WE.”

Most recently, a proposal to expose US servicemen to a new herbicidal dioxin called Agent Orange. Each test result he ferreted to the Soviet agent was itself a virus that putrefied the guts of his otherwise pleasant life.


Agent Orange helping Russia? I wonder where del Toro got the idea.

Each time she slits packing tape, it’s like knifing open the belly of a doe. Inside these boxes are seventeen months of a different life. One that had knocked her off the well-trod path she’d been on since she was a little girl: dating, marriage, children, homemaking. Pulling items from those boxes—it’s like ripping organs from that other version of herself, that woman of ambition and energy and promise.

...... and rose Deus Brânquia, the Gill-god. There are illustrations in the book, pretty awesome.

Deus Brânquia, at last, rises from the shoal, the ancient eye of eclipse, the ocean scalping open the new world, the single-cell seethe, the species spit, the rivers the vessels to a heart, the mountain’s hard erection, the sunflower’s swaying thighs, the gray-fur mortification, the pink-flesh fester, the umbilical vine cording us back to the origin. It is all this and more.

I.. I.. What did I just read??!

I've not seen the movie, it won Oscars for the Best Picture and the Best Director categories. The director, Guillermo del Toro, is also the author of the book, I believe the book and the movie were developed simultaneously, the movie going public first and the book later.

Also, the cover is hauntingly beautiful!!! This book started off with quick, short chapters and I like it so far, exciting!