Recent Activity
Our members regularly comment and rate the books we have been discussing, below is some of the most recent activity on the site..
This week: Sinclair rated The Kindness
This month: Graham rated The Kindness
Nov 2025: Sinclair rated Gateway
Nov 2025: Sinclair rated The Book of Elsewhere
Nov 2025: Sinclair rated The Great When
Nov 2025: Sinclair rated Dakini Atoll
Nov 2025: Sinclair rated Rakesfall
Nov 2025: Sean rated Gateway
Nov 2025: Sean rated The Book of Elsewhere
Nov 2025: Sean rated The Great When
Nov 2025: Graham suggested There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (see details...)
From The Guardian: "There have been stories before about mysterious alien entities existing, hidden, within our world, and secret government departments tasked with protecting humanity. This debut novel by software engineer Sam Hughes writing under the pen name qntm pushes the idea to the most terrifying extreme: the antimeme. Memes are ideas that easily spread; antimemes are literally unthinkable, “self-keeping secrets”, impossible to record or to remember. Some feed on memories and pose an existential threat. But how is it possible to win a war when there’s no identifiable enemy, and every attack is immediately forgotten? Against these odds, the Antimemetics Division somehow exists, part of a secret organisation with bases deep underground in the English countryside, as related in this unforgettable, mind-bendingly brilliant novel."
Oct 2025: Graham rated The Book of Elsewhere
Sep 2025: Graham rated The Great When
Sep 2025: Sean rated Dakini Atoll
Sep 2025: Sean rated Rakesfall
Aug 2025: Sinclair rated Neuromancer
Aug 2025: Sinclair rated Mickey7
Aug 2025: Sinclair rated Asunder
Aug 2025: Sinclair suggested The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling (see details...)
Mysterious saviour turns up in besieged castle with terrifying results.
Jul 2025: Ross commented on Mickey7 (see comment...)
I feel this might be like a more watered-down version (in terms of badness) of Artemis, where the further away I get from it the more shite I think it was. There were aspects of this novel I liked. I liked how it didn't come down hard on the (philosophical) questions of personal it was raising - it was all just whatever the particular character thought. I disliked intently how the universe was set so far in the future that they don't have a clear memory of Earth (long lost) but the language is that of VERY contemporary American sitcoms - this is difficult to do well but you have to at least try. His thoughts on mutually assured destruction and it's accompanying weapons and how the knowledge of that interacts with culture seemed pretty incoherent to me - which was annoying as they partially drove the book. Like some modern authors he seems to have bought into a completely unpoetic approach to how to describe unworldly things/characters, which I personally intensely dislike. However, it does make for novels which you can just blaze through easily. I genuinely think the film is alot better than the book in most ways - go and see it!