Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 Storm Front  (The Dresden Files #1) By Jim Butcher  Published Year: 2000 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre : Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magic and Wizards, Action, Detectives, 2026-read.  Rating : 4/5 😀😀😀😀 I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the character of Harry Dresden, a wizard detective that helped the cops on the side. Dresden's character was introduced in this book and I felt that there is so much more to know about him, which was not laid out in this book yet. There were many sequels in the series and I would definitely like to check them out. I thought the pacing is fast and the narrative really hooked me. It was a typical detective story - with magic involved. Someone had been murdering people through black magic - blowing their chest cavities and ripping their hearts out. There was a White Council which oversees the practitioners of magic and ensured that a set of rules be adhered to. The cops with whom ...

 The Book Of Doors  By Gareth Brown  Published Year: 2024 Page Count: 436 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Magic, Magical Books, Action, Suspense, Thriller, Science Fiction,Time Travel, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 I couldn't put this down. I started it as a means to break my boredom and sleeplessness by reading one or two chapters in a well received work of science and speculative fiction. This book hooked me right away. It kept me up way longer than I expected. The first chapters I read on my phone but then i had to switch to a bigger screen. I couldn't leave out the time I was charging my phone. That good this book was. Definitely try it if you happen to like all the magic books could deliver.  The first thing that came to mind as I kept devouring this book was how thorough the author was while writing it. He was very careful and thoughtful about not having any loopholes, flaws and weaknesses in his plot. Had a qu...

Snow Crash  By Neal Stephenson  Published Year: 1992 Page Count: 574 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Classics, Science Fiction, Mythology, History, WWII,Fantasy, Hard Science, Mafia, Action, Drugs, Thriller, Metaverse, 2026-read.  Rating: 4.5/5 😃😃😃😃🥳 I enjoyed it very much. Atleast for the major part. But I also felt restless and dissociated when Hiro Protagonist, our main character, is talking to the librarian in the Metaverse about religion and drawing parallels with virus propagation in humans. I didn't know if I had to laugh or take them seriously. How can they compare believers of a certain faith having cult prostitution or breast feeding, spreading viruses through their bodily fluids to those doing it in the computer world? Felt outrageous to me. What is this listening on radio waves from other planets for metavirus and spreading it to the humans over? These weird comparisons and analogies, I just couldn't stomach. The last 50 pages are solid mi...

 Walking to Aldebaran  By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Published Year: 2019  Page Count: 100 pages [ Novella ] Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Alien Contact, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Loneliness, 2026-read.  Rating: 4/5  The narrator is an European astronaut, who having aspired to become an Astronaut that gets to navigate space and meet aliens, since childhood has his dream come true. Then what remains for him is nothing but pure regret. Because he gets lost in a maze like Crypt, an alien artefact, separated from his crew members and wandering/walking forever and sustaining/snacking on the meat of bugs and squishy, mushy alien creatures stuck in the labyrinth like him.  The narrative plays in two timelines - one is recounting his experiences with different alien creatures and how indefinite walking in the labyrinthe has altered him psychically and physically. The other tells the series of events that took pl...

 Pig Island  By Mo Hayder  Published Year: 2006 Page Count: 340 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Thriller, Suspense, Horror,Crime,Murder Mystery,  Religious Cults, Twists, Shocking Elements, Science Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😅 Wow. What did I just read?! Beautiful beautiful book!!  I was a bit wary going into this. I was craving for a good horror book when a friend suggested me the title. Then I read a few discouraging, low rating reviews on goodreads which said this is not a horror book and the characters are not likeable. I still went ahead with the book and now I am like, yes the reviews are correct on both fronts but what they failed to highlight is that this is one solid hell of an evocative story. I was hooked from the first page. The writing is so gorgeous and riveting. There are some shocking elements and suspense driven plot line that doesn't let up. I didn't see the end coming and I got a huge adrenaline rush w...

 Hyperion  (Hyperion Cantos #1) By Dan Simmons  Hugo Award Winner  Published Year: 1989 Page Count: 500 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Time Tombs, Shrike, SFF, Historical Fiction, Anthology, 2026-read.  Rating : 4.65/5 😀😀😀😀🤑 The story runs at present time ( of the narrative ) where seven individuals from different walks of life are called to go on a pilgrimage to an isolated planet Hyperion. They have very little in common excepting that they are all acquainted with Shrike ( the immortal being of the planet Hyperion which is called the Lord of pain and God of redemption like a hindu Kalki avatar) and Hyperion in some way. Some have direct experience with it while others knew of someone who did. Through their stories we get to know of the various aspects of the planet and also the setup of the universe they inhabit in the 28th century. I felt that this is a very unique way of not only getting to kno...

 The Talisman  (The Talisman #1) By Stephen King, Peter Straub  Published Year: 1984 Page Count: 765 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Multiverse, Science Fiction,  Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Young Adult, Coming-of-age, Adventure,  Action, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😃😃😃😃🥳 I would say what a sensational book! The collaboration between two masters of horror and fantasy worked splendidly. I could easily discern the author by his writing style. The clonky book is broken into four parts - i think the 1st and 4th are written by Straub while the middle two are Mr. King's work. There isn't a book I haven't liked of King yet and this is my introduction to Straub. I liked the nuances and knowledge transfer that was happening from their minds into mine throughout the plot. Purely magical and addictive! I couldn't put down the book. Even if I was only managing to read about a hundred pages a day, the story lingered in my mind. I was churning through the e...

 An Acceptable Time  (Time Quintet #5, Kairos #8) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1989 Page Count: 295 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, SFF, Mythology, Time Travel, Primeval Time, Young Adult, Teenagers, Adventure, Healing, Childrens Fiction, Classics, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😀 😀 😀😀😀 Absolutely thrilling. I always maintained that one doesn't have to study medicine in order to heal and this book dealing in healers from the ancient times proves me right. The world development of the ancient times  is immaculate - having read all the books in this Time Quintet series, i can attest that the author writes past better than the current times. She is also a critic on the past conditions of people and how the current world is not much different even though more civilized and evolved. I agree with her on that. We have come far technology wise but have much to improve spiritually and self analysis, correction. I liked how t...

 Many Waters  (Time Quintet #4, Kairos #4) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1986 Page Count: 300 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Mythical Creatures, Historical Fiction, Noah and the Ark, Classics, Childrens Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Wow. What a book. What world development - very evocative, immersive and totally, totally legit. I have never read a book that took me back to the ancient times before the Noah and Ark setting. It is a beautiful concoction by the author - clubbing together the mythical creatures like dwarf mammoths, manticores, unicorns, griffins. She has also thrown into the mix angels who have volunteered to help humans in the form of Seraphims and those angels who have been tossed out of the heaven in the form of Nephilims. Even in those very early times of human evolution, there was fight between good and evil. Even with God sending the flood and Noah making the Ark and transpo...

 A Swiftly Tilting Planet  (Time Quintet #3, Kairos #3) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1978 Page Count: 236 pages Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Classics, Childrens Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, SFF, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Unicorns, Time Travel,Adventure, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 What a brilliant book! This book is quite unexpected and quite a leap when compared to the two previous books in the series. It didn't read like childrens fiction. Because the plot is quite complex to grasp. And also the main characters are no longer kids. Charles Wallace is fifteen now. Meg Murry O'Keefe is pregnant with her first baby.There are many threads that come together and sew into a comprehensible plot when nearing the end but until then it is quite a jumble of repetitive character names and events. The idea of the book is novel and its execution kept me gripped from page one till the end. The author has masterfully blended themes of mythology, ti...

 A Wind in the Door  (The Time Quintet #2, Kairos #2) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1973 Page Count: 236 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre : Classics, Adventure, Childrens Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Speculative Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 3.5/5  Once again, Meg Murry is on an adventure to save her youngest brother, Charles Wallace. Like in the first book, she shows gumption and resolve, using intuition and some luck to get him out of death's snare. In this book, she fights and defeats Echthroi, masters of War and Destruction, seeking to destroy/annihilate/X the creation by destroying Charles Wallace. Farandolae within Mitochondria are fictitious creation by the author which the Echthroi target for destruction in Charles' body. The theory goes that if the Mitochondria die, our body cannot live, similarly, if the farandolae die, the Mitochondria cannot live. Death of all farandolae will eventually lead to the death of the ...

 A Wrinkle in Time  (The Time Quintet #1, Kairos #1) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1962 Page Count: 152 pages  Medium Used: Ipad air Genre: Classics, Childrens Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, SFF, High Fantasy, Action, Adventure. Aliens, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This is a novella but gave me the satisfaction of reading a wholesome and non drawling book of fiction which superbly blended elements of multiple planets, alien creatures, magic and children becoming heroes. The world(s) building is amazing, the characters are super and not complex because they are either budding children or their loving elders. This story tells us the story of a young girl's efforts and journeys to other planets that are either consumed by Darkness(an evil entity that is subjugating all the minds of the world it infests to its control) or are fighting against its encroachment. She saves her father and then her brother, both of whom fall into the snare of the evil D...

 Caliban's War  (The Expanse #2) By James S.A. Corey  Published Year: 2012 Page Count: 520 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Political Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 4.85/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This is my second time reading this book. This time I have managed to get to the end. The first time I remember Dnf-ing at 65% and writing a 1 point review on my blog. I guess I was too prudish and naive to focus much on the fast paced, engaging narrative. This time around, I didn't pay much heed to Avasarala and her habit of using expletives in every sentence and that made me enjoy the unfolding story.  In book 1, the proto molecule that has consumed the Eros space station is pushed off into Venus and it has been slowly smoldering and cooking in there ever since. This book( book 2) starts with mutual firing between Earth UN armies and Mars armies stationed in the orbit around Ganymede station. A monstrous creature with immense strength ...

 The Last Emperox  (The Interdependency #3) By John Scalzi  Published Year: 2020 [Tor Books] Page Count: 350 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Hard Science, Space Opera, Philosophy, Stored Consciousness, Court Intrigues, Game for Throne, Thriller, 2026-read.  Rating :5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Link to book 2, in the series,review is here:  The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi Book Review Link to book 1 is here:  The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi Book Review I wrapped up this final(as of now, based on what the author has commented) installment in the Interdependency series by John Scalzi and I am filled with mixed emotions. I want the series to have atleast one more book because it is so good. Also I felt all that needs explaining in the story/plot hasn't been satisfactorily done - so needs one more book. I got fully invested in the political, social and economic conditions of the twenty billion inhabitants of the Interdependency ...

 The Consuming Fire  (The Interdependency #2) By John Scalzi  Published Year: 2018 Page Count: 360 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Hard Science fiction, Court Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 My review to book one in the series :  The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi Book Review Carenia - her official title, Grayland - has assumed the powers as emperox of the Interdependency and is now facing an unprecedented problem of the empire on collapse. There is ample, undubious math proof that, within a decade, all the systems of the flow stream connected empire will become isolated, unconnected and taken over by despair, hopelessness and possibly violence. She wants to help cart as many people as she can to the only isolated and functionable habitat on the planet, the End. At the start of the book, she spouts out visions of prophetic nature in order to influence the common folk into believing her/Marce...

 The Collapsing Empire  (The Interdependency #1) By John Scalzi  2018 Locus Award Winner  Published Year: 2017 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Hard Science fiction, Space Opera, Game for Throne, Thriller, Court Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 The Interdependency is the nation of systems where humans are spread out across the universe. There are around 47 habitable systems in all. On some of them, like the Hub, they live underground. On some, they don't have feasibility to inhabit the planet and hence live on scientific habitats or space stations. Only End is the planet where they live on the surface. These human occupied outposts are interconnected by flow streams. Where even if they use their fastest spaceships called Tenners, it would take them anywhere from decades to centuries to plod between these habitats, using and traveling through Flow, they can reduce the time to weeks or months. ...

 Private Rites  By Julia Armfield  Finalist for Arthur C Clarke Award 2025 Published Year: 2024  Page Count: 235 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Dystopian, Horror, Drama,Dysfunctional Families, Science Fiction, Coming of Age, LGBTQ,2026-read.  Rating: 3/5 😀😀😇 I came across this book while browsing the shelves of Arthur Clarke Award nominees for 2025. Immediately taken in by the idea of a story loosely based on King Lear and his three daughters, I picked it, setting aside three other books I was reading at that point. The dominant thought running in my mind all the time I was reading was, where is this story going? I also remember thinking, at multiple points, that the author is not a sensational storyteller. But I was resolute to not give in to the voice in my head prompting me to DnF and see the book through to the end. Having finished, I have ambivalent feelings for this. I liked the character development and appreciate the fact that there a...

 Sea of Tranquility  By Emily St. John Mandel  Published Year: 2022 Page Count: 166 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Colonization of Space, Mystery, Suspense, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 ❤❤❤❤❤ In the year 1912, on a Caiette island, off the shore of British Columbia, a young man experiences a time space anomaly. He stands under a maple tree and in a flash of darkness, hears violin playing, airship taking off before he is brought back to reality. He becomes aware of the presence of a priest nearby whom he hasn't seen before and soon after, the priest vanishes. The young man - a Edwin St. John - brushes away the experience as one where he is hallucinating and probably experienced some derangement of the brain. Similar experience is recorded towards the end of 20th century when a music composer Paul Smith, while playing his orchestra, shows a video footage where the glitch is obvious. Then, in a separate incident in the 22nd centu...

 Blindsight  By Peter Watts  Hugo Award Finalist Published Year: 2006 ( Tor Books ) Page Count: 390 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Aliens, Science Fiction, Horror, First Contact, Space Opera, Philosophy, 2026-read.  Rating: 3.5/5 The narrative didn't make sense all the time. Its not like the author went rambling or anything, its just his sentences failed to drive his point. For the most part though, it felt very engaging and gripping. I had some issues with the overall logic and didn't understand why an evolved species like humans or an intelligent species like the aliens/scramblers do what they do. I have enumerated some of these questions I had while reading down below. The horror angle to the plot .. I felt it initially when humans encounter the ship Rorschach and have an formal dialog with the aliens but later the author has made it mostly about explaining away his theories on consciousness and the nature of these aliens. More than horror, this f...