Kernos' Korner

The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge My rating: 3 of 5 stars The best thing about this novel are the Tine, a fascinating alien species, telepathic and with an individual existing as groups of individuals with a sense of immortality. Vinge explores the possibilities of such group minds quite well. Humans provide a [...]

Children of Tantalus: Niobe and Pelops by Victoria Grossack My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a pleasant surprise! Though originally published in Greek by a major publisher, this 1st book of a trilogy has been self-published in the US. Do not let that put you off. The novel is the best written, edited and [...]

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a delightful, charming and funny book. It reads like a children’s fairy tale while engaging the reader in layer upon layer of humanity. I would have given it 5 stars, but for American Gods which is a Great Book with a capital G. [...]

The Stand by Stephen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the 1st Stephen King novel I’ve read. I tend to avoid hyper-popular authors for a variety reasons. I was quite surprised I enjoyed this novel so much. I have seen the miniseries which is good. The book is better. King is an [...]

Neverwhere Ltd by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was an entertaining novel, but not a great novel, I think—not in the way American Gods is a great novel. That is perhaps due to its TV roots as others have indicated. It is structured somewhat like a screen play, and though it [...]

Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story by Ruth Sims My rating: 5 of 5 stars 1st draft: Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story is a beautiful novel which I enjoyed in every manner, from cover to cover. Superficially, a highly individualist teen lusts for his history teacher in a boys school in England, they eventually meet in Paris and become a [...]

Reefs of Space by Frederik Pohl My rating: 4 of 5 stars An interesting collaboration between 2 greats of Classic Science Fiction, The Reefs of Space combines hard science fiction, according to Hoyle, with fantasy-like world building in the depths of space. The theories of Fred Hoyle, father of nucleosynthesis in stars and advocate of [...]

Fools’ Experiments by Edward M. Lerner My rating: 3 of 5 stars A cyberpunk horror story about how stupid humans can be when it come’s to acquiring power. It gets 6.5 of 10 on my scale, a fun read, but purely escapist. View all my reviews >>