Review: Roadside Picnic

Author: Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Started reading: January 20th 2022

Finished the book: February 1st 2022

Pages: 145

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Published: 1972

Source: Digital Copy

Goodreads score: 4.16

My score:

Synopsis

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.

First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years.

Review: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Started reading: June 16h 2021

Finished the book: July 9th 2021

Pages: 298 / 12:17:45

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction, Literature

Published: June 8th 1949

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.19

My score:

Synopsis

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia"—a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.

Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #1)

Author: Douglas Adams

Started reading: April 18th 2021

Finished the book: May 9th 2021

Pages: 193 / 06:12:09

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Classics

Published: October 12th, 1979

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.22

My score:

Synopsis

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of «The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy» who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from «The Hitchhiker's Guide» ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Review: I Am Legend

Author: Richard Matheson

Started reading: December 18th 2020

Finished the book: December 25th 2020

Pages: 162

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Classic

Published: July 1954

Source: E-book

Goodreads score: 4.07

My score:

Synopsis

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has succumbed to the vampire plague, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

Review: Stoner

Author: John Williams
Started reading: November 8th 2019
Finished the book: November 24th 2019
Pages: 320
Genres: Fiction, Classics
Published: 1965
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.30
My score:

Synopsis

William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely.

Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value.

Stoner tells of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history, and reclaims the significance of an individual life. A reading experience like no other, itself a paean to the power of literature, it is a novel to be savoured

Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Author: Ken Kesey
Started reading: October 13th 2019
Finished the book: November 3rd 2019
Pages: 325
Genres: Fiction, Classic
Published: February 1st 1963
Source: Kindle Copy
Goodreads score: 4.19
My score:

Synopsis

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy.
But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy – the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned.
Ken Kesey's extraordinary first novel is an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.

Review: The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia (Publication Order) #7)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: April 26th 2019
Finished the book: May 8th 2019
Pages: 221
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: September 4th 1956
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 4.03
My score:

Synopsis
During the last days of Narnia, the land faces its fiercest challenge—not an invader from without but an enemy from within. Lies and treachery have taken root, and only the king and a small band of loyal followers can prevent the destruction of all they hold dear in this, the magnificent ending to The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Last Battle is the seventh and final book in C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, which has been drawing readers of all ages into a magical land with unforgettable characters for over sixty years. A complete stand-alone read, but if you want to relive the adventures and find out how it began, pick up The Magician's Nephew, the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Review: The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia (Publication Order) #6)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: March 28th 2019
Finished the book: April 8th 2019
Pages: 202
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: May 2nd 1955
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 4.03
My score:

Synopsis
NARNIA...where the woods are thick and cold, where Talking Beasts are called to life...a new world where the adventure begins.

Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to...somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis before they finally return home.

Review: The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #5)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: January 26th 2019
Finished the book: February 7th 2019
Pages: 224
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: September 6th 1954
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 3.91
My score:

Synopsis
The Horse and his Boy is a stirring and dramatic fantasy story that finds a young boy named Shasta on the run from his homeland with the talking horse, Bree. When the pair discover a deadly plot by the Calormen people to conquer the land of Narnia, the race is on to warn the inhabitants of the impending danger and to rescue them all from certain death.

Review: The Silver Chair (The Chronicles of Narnia #4)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: December 16th 2018
Finished the book: December 23rd 2018
Pages: 243
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: September 7th 1953
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 3.96
My score:

Synopsis
NARNIA...where owls are wise, where some of the giants like to snack on humans, where a prince is put under an evil spell...and where the adventure begins.

Eustace and Jill escape from the bullies at school through a strange door in the wall, which, for once, is unlocked. It leads to the open moor...or does it? Once again Aslan has a task for the children, and Narnia needs them. Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, they pursue the quest that brings them face to face with the evil Witch. She must be defeated if Prince Rillian is to be saved.

Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (The Chronicles of Narnia #3)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: November 24th 2018
Finished the book: December 10th 2018
Pages: 248
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: September 15th 1952
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 4.09
My score:

Synopsis
Lucy and Edmund, with their dreadful cousin Eustace, get magically pulled into a painting of a ship at sea. That ship is the Dawn Treader, and on board is Caspian, King of Narnia. He and his companions, including Reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse, are searching for seven lost lords of Narnia, and their voyage will take them to the edge of the world. Their adventures include being captured by slave traders, a much-too-close encounter with a dragon, and visits to many enchanted islands, including the place where dreams come true.

Review: The Haunting of Hill House

Author: Shirley Jackson
Started reading: November 2nd 2018
Finished the book: November 16th 2018
Pages: 182
Genres: Horror, Classics
Published: October 16th 1959
Source: Kindle 
Goodreads score: 3.88
My score:

Synopsis
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Review: Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #2)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: October 22nd 2018
Finished the book: October 31rd 2018
Pages: 240
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: October 15th 1951
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 3.97
My score:

Synopsis
The Pevensie siblings are back to help a prince denied his rightful throne as he gathers an army in a desperate attempt to rid his land of a false king. But in the end, it is a battle of honor between two men alone that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Review: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1)

Author: C.S. Lewis
Started reading: July 8th 2018
Finished the book: July 16th 2018
Pages: 206
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Book, Classics
Published: October 16th 1950
Source: Kindle
Goodreads score: 4.2
My score:

Synopsis
NARNIA...the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy...the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia.
But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.