Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

 The Thief  (The Queen's Thief #1) By Megan Whalen Turner  It was a runner-up for the 1997  Newbery Medal  and a Newbery Honor Book. Published Year: 1996 Page Count: 187 pages  Medium Used : Kindle PW  Genre : High Fantasy, Magic, Ancient Gods, Mythology, 2025-read.  Rating : 4.5/5  There are three kingdoms adjacent to each other - Sounis, Eddies and Attolia. Sounis has it eyes on Attolia to conquer and seeks to engage with its neighbor and middle kingdom, Eddies, for assistance in the task. There is a mythological lore and belief in Eddies about a stone that is gifted by the Gods - that whoever holds the gift will also hold control/kingship/queenship of the land. So the Magus of  Sounis learns of the place it is being hidden from centuries and makes an attempt, with the help of a boisterous,braggadocious and imprisoned thief, Eugenides, to retrieve it. This gift has been sought by many before and as it is guarded by the Gods (this knowl...

 Machinehood  By S.B. Divya  Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist  Debut Novel  Published Year : 2021 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite  Genre : Space Opera, Science Fiction, Hugo Award Finalist, Nebula Award Finalist, Action, Robots, Singularity, 2025-read.  Rating : 3.85/5  The year is 2095. Robots have passed the Turing test a few centuries ago. They are now co-existing with humans but without sentience. They don't have a notion of self determination or will to demand their freedom/equality with humans. They are mostly worker bots which are supervised by humans and discarded after they become dysfunctional. They are also in the form of personal agents integrated in the form of chips for individuals in special professions. Most humans don't have stable, full time jobs and work multiple gigs to earn their dime. In order to compete with the AI bots that are way superior in physical and mental strength, humans rely on pills and d...

 IT By Stephen King  Named one of the best Horror books of all time. Perhaps, ranking first among all. Published Year : 1986 Page Count, : 1375 pages Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Horror, Science Fiction, Aliens, Thriller, Friendships, Young Adult, 2025-read.  Rating : 4.55/5 🥳 I took more than 20 days to wrap up this book. I sailed through and finished the last 300 pages in two days time. They were gripping as hell. The author, Mr.King, could stick to the course and content of the story when he is really in the groove. He has immortalized Derry,Maine in my head. I will come to associate the town with IT and horror everytime I hear of it. The story..especially the last 300 pages of it.. is relentless dose of unimaginable horror and madness. Dead bodies walking, alien creatures gestating, vengeful homicidal inmates of asylums escaping, whole towns being under hypnotic seize, hurricanes that blow over towns and destroy them fully, magical and psychic powers in ...

 The Terror  By Dan Simmons (American Author) Published Year: 2007 Page Count: 759 pages  Medium Used: Mobile Phone, Samsung Galaxy S10 Genre : Psychological Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Horror, Twists, Ancient Gods,Shamans, Esquimaux, 2025-read.  Rating : 4.85/5  Brilliant! Mind Blowing!! The last 200-250 pages are so so so gripping and filled with horror that I couldn't put the book down. I was reading a couple of other big books along side this one, but as the story progressed - this is the only one I could focus on! The character development is thorough. The world building is exquisite. The pacing was medium for the first half of the book and very fast in the second half. The author, in the first half,  acquaints us with the different aspects of North/Arctic Pole and the sea travel, the effects of severe cold and nutrient deprivation on the sea men during these prolonged travels. In the second part,as  the deaths escalate, we see the true nature of...

 The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps  By Kai Ashante Wilson [American Author] Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 132 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, Horror, LGBT, 2025-read. Rating: 2/5  Verdict: not very impressed. Just okay read.  This is the debut novel of Kai Ashante Wilson but it feels masterfully crafted. It doesn't read like the work of an amateur. There are places where in my habit of fast reading, I missed to understand what she was implying. And at those times, I had to read the text again for better continuity of the story. I felt some pieces of the puzzle are left open ended. I felt that the sorcerer's full magical powers were not displayed. Instead a lot of time was lost in fighting off infiltrators or insurgents from outside .. this didn't allow for the fuller, healthy development of the character of Demane,the sorcerer. We know next to nothing about the main characters. The character development should have bee...

 Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth  (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4) By Rick Riordan  Published Year: 2008 Page Count: 341 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Action, Adventure, Fantasy. , Science Fiction, Greek Mythology, Ancient Greece,2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 😋😋😋😋😋 This book is so very good. After back to back disappointments in books 2 and 3, this is a refreshing hit, for me.  It is gripping and immersive. It left me feeling good, satisfied and yearning for more. The character and world development is simply superb. I need not add any more accolades to the brilliant, master story teller Rick Riordan. He is simply awesome.  The Labyrinth - which was created by Daedalus and maneuvered by Theseus with the help of Ariadne's string is at the center of the plot here. Daedalus is still alive .. escaping death and cheating the Hades for the past two millenia. He has been hopping his soul from one automated body to another and l...