Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

Martian Time-Slip  By Philip K Dick Published Year: 1999 Page Count: 246 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Mental Illness, Schizophrenia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mars, Space Opera, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 I have enjoyed reading this story .. it is tense and heart pounding. It involves time travel, some ancient God magic, memory altering reality and some amazing silly robotic tutoring!  Reading Philip K Dick's books gives me a warm, smug feeling. He tells a lot while seemingly telling little. Like his other books, this one doesn't disappoint. He transported me into his reality of planet Mars with its strange native, aboriginal inhabitants, migrants from Earth and children (mostly normal,some anomalous) born on the planet. Seeing the world through his eyes and reading what it means is an absolutely amazing experience.  How powerful and strong is the characterization of Arnie Kott, the man who plays the negative shaded villain. His stream of consciousness has hel

 Three Daughters of Eve By Elif Shafak  Published Year : 2016 Page Count: 368 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Spirituality, God, Romance, Young Adult, Oxford, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Some spoilers ahead !!   When I finished the book and set it aside, I thought I will go with a maximum 4 star rating. Then I sat down to think and reason out what Elif Shafak is trying to convey through her work and it just blew my mind. She is a gifted writer with a propensity to convey so much more than what's visible on the surface. Her character development is impeccable and story pacing is flawless. The worlds she has built are very immersive and sucked me total into their spheres.  She ponders on bigger concepts of what is God's intent when bad things happen to good,innocent people and why doesn't he/she interfere in the act to stop it from happening. She brings an unique voice into the world of literature. I consider myself a deeply spiritual person and I got so addict

Kairos  By Jenny Erpenbeck  Published Year : 2023  Page Count: 267 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Romance, War, 2024-read  Rating : 1.5/5  Winner of Booker International Prize 2024  DNF at 78%  I am going to be very, very wary about Booker prize winning books from now on. Thankfully I didn't waste any money on buying a paperback,while I had the chance. I couldn't make heads or tails of this story. On the one hand, its a drawling, endless story of a romance between a teenager and an older man - 34 years her senior - that has gone fetid. On the other, there is lot of information about the war or some political situation in Germany and Russia during the years of World War 2 and during the time spanning the love affair. I couldn't piece together all the different characters that were mentioned for the very simple reason that they are all alien to me. The war and the conditions during the 1940s or the 1980s of Germany/Russia are alien to me. This book seems to be written

Children of Ruin  (Children of Time #2)  By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Published Year: 2019 Page Count : 434 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite  Genre : Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Adventure, Good Prose, 2024-read.  Rating: 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 These are the best evolution of species books ever!!  Adrian has turned into such a novel, brilliant author for my scifi taste buds. He is churning out the right material to quench my hunger and yearning for proper science fiction books. I usually take time between books of a series but after I put down Children of Time, I had to start this. I am amazed at the creative capacity of the author's mind. He not only gave us planets populated with human - spider species, sentient and highly evolved octopi, but also an alien infested planet that is deadly and highly fatal to all it comes in contact with! Absolutely loved this book.  The interweave of past and present is mind blowing. What happened when earth went mute and killed off all its space s

 Red Queen  By Victoria Aveyard  Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 383 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Action, Young Adult, Book Review, Booktok, Fantasy, Magic, Political Intrigue, 2024-read.  Rating : 3/5  I, somehow, couldn't build enough interest in this story to make me move it faster. I took well over four days to finish .. dozing off intermittently and picking up when awake. I am surprised that this book has so many ratings on goodreads and majorly positive ones at that. I am a bit disappointed with the world building and the character development. The characters are not what they seem to be. Few of them switch their alliances and true colors in the story.  Reds are red blooded people who have been living an oppressed life as servants, workers and slaves for centuries. Silvers are silver blooded people who have been their oppressors and extractors of their loyalties with a steel hand. Silvers have special talents with magic like they can manipulate or fight with water,

 New Moon  (The Twilight Saga #2) By Stephenie Meyer  Published Year : 2006 Page Count : 500 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Romance, Young Adult, Vampires, Werewolves, Coming of Age, Fiction, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5  Disclaimer : Few Spoilers in the review!! This is the second time I am reading this book. I haven't watched the movies even though they are very, very popular. I guess I saw some scenes and can say with high confidence that the makers made a lot of justice to the book description. At times I felt like I could feel Bella's pain and at times it felt utterly silly and superfluous. But overall I am excited to pick the next book in the series. Yes. The problems that are awaiting to be tackled by the conglomerate of vampire lovers and werewolf lovers of Bella are serious. Like all the characters which are not trying to kill Bella, we too fall in love with her character and want to protect her. It doesn't feel like we are making a huge fuss for nothing .. li

 Children of Time  (Children of Time #1) By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Winner of Arthur C Clarke Award 2016 Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 600 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Science Fiction, Space Opera, Evolution, Spiders, Sentient Creatures, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 💝💝💝💝💝 This story is just superb. The ending floored me and brought a sheen of happy moisture to my eyes. I loved this book so so much. I couldn't put it down at all. I followed every scene with utter rapture and this makes for one of the best space operas I ever read! It lead to a reconfiguration of my brain and thinking in that I saw small, sentient creatures like spiders and ants in a new light. I began appreciating them for their qualities and features they could bring to the table. They have outdone humans not only in their technological evolution but also in their look at the big picture with kindness attitude.  Doctor Avarna Kern is the last remaining human of the Old Empire human race that perished itse