The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, 2024

Rating: 3/5

WHEN A GOOD IDEA ISN’T ENOUGH!

This book has been widely positioned as a clever blend of science fiction, humour and romance. In practice, I found that it delivers none of these in sufficient measure, and each element feels only partially realised. The science fiction is more conceptual than detailed, the humour is sparse and understated rather than genuinely funny, and the romance, while central, never quite achieves the emotional depth it seems to aim for. The result is a book that feels like it is constantly hinting at something richer and more engaging, but rarely getting there.

At its core, the story follows an unnamed narrator who is recruited into a mysterious government programme and assigned to act as a “bridge” for a historical figure transported into the present day. She is the daughter of a British man and a Cambodian immigrant — this is supposed to be significant, as the historical figures are immigrants in a way, but the comparison does not really land. Much of the narrative unfolds through her perspective as she navigates this unusual role, balancing bureaucratic expectations with the practical and emotional realities of integrating someone from the past into modern life. Without getting into specifics, the setup is intriguing and offers ample room for tension. However, the storytelling makes it difficult to stay fully invested in the characters or their arcs.

There are some enjoyable aspects of the book, such as its attention to everyday detail, particularly around food and domestic routines. These, along with differing gender and moral lenses, are used as markers of adjustment and connection. These moments hint at warmth and intimacy but rarely build into something more memorable.

Ultimately, the novel seems less interested in its premise and more focused on themes of institutional control, moral compromise and the gradual awakening of individual conscience. These are worthwhile ideas, but the execution does not make them compelling. The science fiction framework, in particular, feels both thin and oddly opaque — insufficiently detailed to be convincing, yet convoluted enough to be confusing. By the time the narrative reaches its conclusion, I found myself unclear on the mechanics of the plot, but given that I had become somewhat disengaged from its outcome, I didn’t really care.

Pros: Interesting central premise, thoughtful themes around institutions and control

Cons: Underdeveloped science fiction elements, uneven blend of genres, difficult to stay fully engaged

 

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Lay, 2020

Rating: 4/5

This is a collection of 19 short stories that span genres and centuries – from ancient China to distant, post-human futures. Like The Paper Menagerie, the first thing that strikes you about Ken Liu’s work is the audacity and range of his imagination. But compared to that earlier collection, this one leans more toward science fiction, with many stories exploring uploading, artificial intelligence, and digital consciousness. There are still glimmers of Chinese myth and fantasy, but the speculative here feels more tech-driven than a collection of myths.

Among the standout stories for me was The Reborn, a tightly woven tale of alien colonization, memory manipulation, and rebellion. Another highlight was The Hidden Girl, which blends Tang dynasty history with speculative action. On the more emotional side, Memories of My Mother and The Message were moving stories about the fraught dynamics between parents and children – especially when that relationship is strained.

Not all stories landed equally well for me. Like most short story collections, this one has its weaker links. Some stories feel too abstract, or conceptually interesting but emotionally flat. Thoughts and Prayers, while powerful, was deeply disturbing. The three-part series beginning with The Gods Will Not Be Chained and concluding with The Gods Have Not Died in Vain didn’t resonate with me as much as the others. Though rich in worldbuilding, I found these stories emotionally disengaging.

Overall, this book is worth a read for its highs and its continued testament to Liu’s unique ability to humanize the speculative. It’s always difficult to rank stories in a collection like this, where each piece might resonate differently with each reader. Still, if I had to pick a few that stood out: (1) The Reborn for its imaginative exploration of identity and colonialism, (2) The Hidden Girl for its unique blend of historical fantasy and moral growth, (3) Memories of My Mother for its elegant and affecting time-bending portrait of maternal love, and (4) The Message for its quiet and redemptive take on estrangement and reconciliation.

Pros: Inventive ideas, emotional depth in select stories, and a range of tones – from action to meditation.

Cons: Several stories, particularly in the uploading/digital consciousness arc, felt repetitive or slow.

Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, 2022

Rating: 5/5

What struck me the most after finishing Sea of Tranquility was how much it covered in just 200 pages — spanning centuries, multiple storylines, and several themes — without ever feeling rushed or overly complex. Despite its brevity, the novel takes its time with each of its main characters, immersing the reader in their lives making their journeys feel intimate.

It is difficult to write about the book’s premise without spoiling it for readers. Suffice to say, Sea of Tranquility is a beautifully written novel that blends science fiction with human themes. The book follows multiple characters across different timelines. In 1912, Edwin St. Andrew, a young English aristocrat, is banished to Canada and stumbles upon a mysterious anomaly in the forest. In the 2200s, Olive Llewellyn, a bestselling author from a lunar colony, embarks on an Earth book tour, unaware of the eerie parallels between her novel and reality. In 2401, Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective from the Night City on the Moon, is assigned to investigate a strange pattern in time that links these characters. Mandel moves fluidly between the various narratives, keeping the story brisk yet immersive, allowing readers to absorb its multiple layers without feeling overwhelmed. The novel ends satisfyingly, tying the threads of its intricate plot together — a feat that is often difficult in stories of this genre.

The book’s structure reminded me somewhat of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, another book that I love. Like that book, Sea of Tranquility weaves together multiple timelines and perspectives, exploring the interconnectedness of human lives across centuries. However, Cloud Atlas leans more heavily on stylistic shifts between its narratives, whereas Sea of Tranquility maintains a more uniform tone. Readers who appreciate the philosophical underpinnings of Cloud Atlas but prefer a more straightforward, emotionally resonant narrative with a dash of science fiction will likely find Sea of Tranquility particularly compelling.

Pros: Elegant writing, interesting themes, easily devoured in one sitting

Cons: Light on the sci-fi mechanics

The Last Murder at the End of the World, Stuart Turton, 2024

Rating: 5/5 

Stuart Turton's willingness to reinvent his approach with each book is bold and compelling—one of the reasons I eagerly anticipate his every release. His earlier works, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water, showcased his range: the first a whodunit with a Groundhog Day-like twist, the second a dark tale of superstition and conspiracy aboard a 17th-century ship. Now he ventures into new territory with a sci-fi apocalypse whodunit, as the title aptly suggests.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Last Murder at the End of the World unfolds on a small Greek island where a deadly fog has decimated humanity. The survivors—122 villagers and three scientists—live under strict rules enforced by an AI voice embedded in their consciousness. When a murder occurs, the islanders must solve the crime before their protective systems fail and the fog consumes them all. As time runs out, the story weaves a gripping tale of survival, community, and hidden truths in a world on the brink of oblivion.

The book's greatest strength, as with Turton's previous works, is its seamless blend of genres. He masterfully combines a classic locked-room mystery with a post-apocalyptic setting and speculative science fiction, creating something remarkably fresh. However, the book's ambitious scope, paired with its relatively short length, occasionally leads to superficial treatment of certain elements. This is particularly evident in the whodunit aspect—the numerous subplots make it challenging to remain invested in the murder mystery. Yet Turton's skilled world-building and talent for crafting intricate puzzles make the story captivating from beginning to end.

Pros: Inventive genre-blending, unique world-building, and an engrossing plot.

Cons: An underdeveloped whodunit element

The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, 2008

Rating: 4/5

This is my first experience reading a book after watching its adaptation. I thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix TV series (released in March 2024) and the motivation to read the book was to (hopefully) understand the characters and the nuances of the story better, things that an eight-episode show (that also has some elements from the subsequent books of the trilogy) may not do enough justice to. There were also a few unanswered questions for me at the end of the show — basically some plot elements that did not make much sense — and getting the answers to those would have been a bonus.

The Three-Body Problem is the first installment in a science fiction trilogy set in China, beginning during the Cultural Revolution. One of the key protagonists is Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist who becomes entangled in a covert military project aimed at contacting extraterrestrial life. Her actions are driven by a line from Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring": "To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race." The novel delves into themes of human disillusionment, diverse responses to existential threats, scientific discovery, the potentially profound impact of humanity's first contact with an alien civilization, and ultimately, the resilience of our species.

The book combines a unique plot, fascinating storytelling, and rigorous scientific details with an underlying thought-provoking theme. Despite its scientific complexity, an in-depth understanding of the science isn't necessary to follow the plot—except for the part about sophons, which I think the Netflix show handled more simply and elegantly. However, the translation from the original Chinese didn't work well for me. The translator, Ken Liu (whose short story collection, "The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories", I found excellent) has expressed his view that the best translations into English shouldn't read as if they were originally written in English. He admits to adjusting some narrative techniques to ones more familiar to American readers while retaining the original flavor in other cases. As a result, I found the translation jarring at times.

Indeed, the book provides more depth to the characters and better explains their motivations compared to the TV show. However, I found the latter more accessible and engaging. As a result, I'm likely to prefer watching the adaptation over reading the next two books in the trilogy!

Pros: Inventive plot, thought-provoking theme

Cons: The translation

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, 2021

Rating: 5/5

It is incredibly challenging for an author to successfully blend an intellectually stimulating narrative with detailed discussions on the theories of physics, while also making the book witty, relatable, and a page-turner. However, Andy Weir accomplishes this feat admirably in Project Hail Mary. The story revolves around Ryland Grace, a brilliant scientist and an unlikely hero, who wakes up aboard a spaceship with no recollection of how or why he ended up there or even who he is. As he gradually uncovers the purpose of his mission, the destiny of humanity becomes intricately intertwined with his discoveries and decisions.

The book starts off languidly and humorously, despite the circumstances that Grace finds himself in. Each of the first few chapters ends with an important revelation that helps him piece things together. After that, the narrative swiftly gains momentum, keeping readers engaged with a relentless series of challenges and discoveries, and interspersing these with the protagonist's poignant reflections. Throughout the book, Weir presents a myriad of scientific discussions and explanations that not only drive the plot forward but also explore the worlds of astrophysics, biology, and space exploration. This does create uneven pacing in the middle of the book, but by and large, Weir has succeeded in making complex scientific ideas accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

Above all, it's a testament to Weir's ability to intricately weave together scientific intrigue with the emotional depth of the characters, culminating in a satisfying and poignant conclusion.

Pros: Intellectually stimulating, witty, high emotional content

Cons: Uneven pacing in the middle

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North, 2014

Rating: 5/5

What a book! Right from the opening line of “The second cataclysm began in my eleventh life, in 1996” until the very satisfying final chapter (or as satisfying as a time-loop story can get), “The First Fifteen Lives” is a page-turning ride filled with imagination, great story-telling and wonderful writing.

The book’s essence is a “Groundhog Day” type of story — only that an entire life is lived repeatedly in a loop  rather than just a day. Harry August belongs to a class of men and women known as kalachakra (it’s literal meaning is a wheel of time and is a term in Buddhism that refers to time cycles) or ouroborans (from the serpent swallowing its own tail, an Egyptian-Greek symbol of life-death-rebirth) who, after living their lives, are born again in the exact same way at the exact same time and place but with  complete memories of each of their past lives. Additionally, Harry is a mnemonic, a type of kalachakra, who retains all his memories perfectly. During his eleventh life, he discovers that something is changing the course of human history and possibly leading to its destruction and it’s up to him to prevent it.

A usual problem with such a genre of books is the inevitable repeatability, and that leads to such books dragging somewhat especially in the middle parts. North (a pseudonym for Catherine Webb), however, structures “The First Fifteen Lives” cleverly in a non-sequential fashion that makes each chapter feel fresh. And towards the latter part of the book, which is more traditionally structured, the story transforms into a cat-and-mouse type of thriller that prevents the reader from keeping the book down. This book could easily have been caught up in the science behind the events and while there is some perfunctory discussion on it, it does not distract and the book is as much about history, philosophy and ethics as it is about science.

Books involving time travel or time loops invariably need to adopt the concept of a “multiverse” to explain away the anomalies of the story and even that adoption does not offer a full explanation. “The First Fifteen Lives” is no different and the reader is bound to have lingering doubts about the plot once the book is read. But that’s only to be expected — my approach while reading such books is to take a few things for granted and just simply enjoy the ride.

Pros: Imaginative plot, page-turner, superbly written, satisfying end

Cons: Unanswered questions in the end, as to be expected from this genre

Foundation, Isaac Asimov, 1951

Rating: 5/5

“Foundation” is the first part of a trilogy and comprises five short stories (four of which were published several years before the book) which are interrelated and fit nicely as a single novel. The novel is based approximately 50,000 years in the future when the Galactic Empire presides over twenty-five million planets inhabited by a quintillion human beings. Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian (an imaginary branch of science that predicts future events), foresees the demise of the Empire within five centuries and a period of thirty thousand years to rebuild a second empire, which he hopes to shrink to just a thousand years. The administrators of the empire send him away to a planet called Terminus at the fringes of the galaxy to work on his plans along with a hundred thousand people. He creates the first Foundation there while a second one (which is not discussed much in this book) is set at the other end of the galaxy. The rest of the book covers the next 150 years and is about the efforts of Salvor Hardin - mayor of Terminus, Hober Mallow - a trader, and others to ensure Seldon’s plans are executed, making the Foundation more and more powerful. Quotations from the “Encyclopaedia Galactica” fill the reader in, as the story leaps through time.

“Foundation” has many of the typical elements of science fiction. It is set in a futuristic world and has tropes such as hyperspace travel, ultra-wave beams, televisors and others. But other than that, it is also a commentary on human psychology and behaviour — the secondary role that nature plays to technological advancement (the key city of Trantor has 40 billion people but no greenery), the fall of an empire due to rising bureaucracy and reducing curiosity, the use of religion to control humans and the eventual might of economic power over religion. And this commentary provides the book with a soul and makes it interesting reading. It is light on the action elements that we have got used to in science-fiction movies and it will be interesting to see how AppleTV+ interprets the book when they televise it later this year.

I had read this book when I was much younger (and remembered very little) and was pleased to see that the book still feels modern despite the seventy years of significant technology advancement and the umpteen dazzling sci-fi movies that I have seen in the past few years. One glaring feature, however, is the absence of women in any pivotal role in this book, possibly a reflection of the times in which it was written (the trailer of the TV show seems to be correcting that though). I look forward to reading the next two books of the original trilogy (more books have been written since then) and watching the AppleTV+ show!

Pros: A grand landscape, interesting plot, human psychology at the centre, contemporary feel

Cons: A complete absence of women in the plot

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, 2020

Rating: 4/5

How many times have we wondered with regret, as we grew older, on how life could have been otherwise — what if we had chosen a different career, what if we had loved differently, what if we had held on to some of our broken relationships, or what if we had handled our finances better? This, despite understanding that such regrets can only diminish the quality of our current lives. The Midnight Library cautions us to think more carefully about what we wish for, and gently nudges us to be more comfortable in with what we have.  

This book is a combination of science fiction and human relationships pertaining to the little things that matter. It is not completely new though. I’m aware of at least two movies (Click and the Bollywood movie Baar Baar Dekho) that had similar premises. The main protagonist is the extremely talented 35 year old Nora Seed, who lives in her childhood town of Bedford. She could have been an Olympic swimmer, part of a Coldplay-like band, an academic high-achiever or an oceanographer and a happy wife and mother at the same time. But a combination of misfortune and a “life fright”, as one of the other characters in the story puts it, causes her to disintegrate wanting her nothing more than the absence of pain. And that brings her to The Midnight Library where there are seemingly endless books on how her life would be if she had made some other decision at some point in her life. The starting point is The Book of Regrets which details all that she would have liked to change. And she can choose to change any of that and then step in to live the life that would have ensued.

Haig has had his own issues with depression and nearly killed himself once. In that light, the book is one of the struggles of a depressed person and redemption. The book begins with a lot of promise. The setup is  interesting and provokes thought. However, despite a short length of under 300 pages, the book starts feeling repetitive fairly soon, feels episodic and seems a tad too glib.  It’s almost as if Haig came up with a brilliant idea but didn’t really know how to stretch it to a decent-sized novel. This book was somewhere between a 3-star and a 4-star for me. What swung it towards the latter is that it can help readers minimise the regrets that they have and leaves them with an important message, as voiced by Mrs. Elm, The Librarian: “Never underestimate the big importance of small things”.

Pros: Interesting plot, helps readers minimise the regrets that they have

Cons: Becomes repetitive

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932

Rating: 4/5

The title of the book is taken from a line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest – “O brave new world, that has such people in it!” – uttered by the character Miranda who has grown up in an isolated society and sees a large number of people for the first time. Huxley’s Brave New World is about the clash between the Miranda-like protagonist, John (who incidentally has read only Shakespeare while growing up), who lives in an isolated settlement, and a world where humans are engineered in labs to lead a perfectly contented life.

The first third of the book describes the dystopian World State where everything, ranging from procreation to employment to recreation, is created and controlled artificially in line with its motto of “Community, Identity, Stability”. Humans are artificially produced in batches and divided into a caste system ranging from Alpha Plus to Epsilon Minus, conditioned from the embryo stage. They (including the lower castes) lead a happy life driven by technology, promiscuity and a drug called “soma” – overall a “civilized infantility” as Huxley puts it. Henry Ford seems to be the presiding god of this world, possibly in line with his famous assembly line system of manufacturing.

The second part deals with the exploration of a “savage” settlement, where people live the old-fashioned way, by Bernard Marx (an Alpha Plus but one who does not wish to conform to the ideal world, like his friend Helmholtz Watson) and his date of the moment, Lenina Crowne. They meet John, a naturally created offspring of a senior functionary of the World State, but one who has grown up oblivious to it. The final part is about John, like Miranda, trying to blend in the World State and the inherent conflicts that it creates. The highlights of this part, in my view, are the discussions between John and Mustapha Mond, the controller. It’s about the eventual salvation of Bernard and Helmholtz and the only possible conclusion of John’s story.

Brave New World, like 1984 published 17 years later, discusses a dystopian world and the perils therein. But the books’ approaches to this end are significantly different – the latter explores control through fear while the former sees pleasure as a tool for control. Brave New World is an interesting and short read about the clash between those who want to “get rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it” and others who would like to “claim the right to be unhappy”, while simultaneously discussing issues such as racism and casteism.

It's easy to see that it would have been a radical book in 1932. It obviously is significantly less so today which makes this book seem obsolete at times. But if one can get past it or if possible, read this book through the lens of a 1930s reader, the book is an extremely interesting and rewarding read.

Pros: Fascinating setting, using Shakespeare as an interesting metaphor, easy read

Cons: May seem a bit outdated now

The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories, Ken Liu, 2011

Rating: 5/5

This is a collection of 15 short stories, many of them which won awards or were at least nominated, covering a gamut of subjects. The thing that strikes one the most about this collection is the staggering scope of Liu's imagination, and set in different time periods — the stories one about different methods of writing books by different species in the universe, a world in which a person's soul resides in external objects, Chinese legends and magic, a typical serial-killer-detective story, space travel, engineering marvels, atrocities during WWII, and even about a Google-like company. The second thing that strikes the reader is the fact that Liu does not allow his imagination to take precedence over everything else — ultimately, his stories are about sacrifice, awareness, optimism, love, respect for different cultures, and undoing injustices — the magic and the science fiction are just props for the story.

It's extremely difficult to rank the stories in a collection like this, and this ranking would differ from one reader to another. If I had to choose four stories (in the order in which they appear in this collection), the first would be State Change, where everyone has her soul in an object and die when that object ceases to exist. It is a metaphor on how humans never live to their fullest in fear of death, and only when that fear is overcome can they maximise their potential. The second is Literomancy where a young American girl in Taiwan, Lily, meets a young Chinese boy and his kind grandfather who teaches her the art of literomancy (seeking messages from symbols). Lily inadvertently brings bad luck to them but hopes to keep the art alive. The Paper Menagerie explores the relationship between a mother and a son, who have nothing in common, and who are finally bound together by a menagerie of paper animals that magically come to life. And The Litigation Master and the Monkey King is a story of an ordinary man, Tian Haoli, who turns into a hero after protecting a fugitive and preserving a secret that eventually overthrows the Manchu empire. The Monkey King is his imaginary guide and symbolises his conscience all along.

Collections like these usually have some stories that were probably not worth being included. The amazing part of this collection, however, was the fact that I enjoyed 14 of the 15 stories. The only exception for me was The Perfect Match, about a Google-like company called Centillion that started off as a search engine but now controls all aspects of life through AI and data mining. This story discusses the perils of having AI control our lives, a topic that has been done to death in other books and media.

A bonus: don't miss out the episode of the Netflix show, Love, Death & Robots based on the story, Good Hunting. This is a story incorporating Chinese legends and magic, about hulijings who could change their shape from a fox to a bewitching woman and about their hunters. It’s also a story about the transformation of old customs and practices to modern ones. But the story ends on an optimistic note where modernity is used to keep the old traditions alive.

Pros: The wide heterogenity in the stories, the focus on human emotions first and foremost

Cons: One of the stories is jaded (but that's just one of fifteen)

Exhalation, Ted Chiang, 2019

Rating: 4/5

Exhalation is a collection of nine short stories with varying lengths, from 3 pages to over 100 pages. Each of them combines science fiction with human emotions such as longing, love, greed, regret and redemption, and that combination makes many of these stories incredible reads.

Most of these short stories had been published previously, but nevertheless, the range of ideas that these stories explore and the imagination behind them is extremely impressive. These nine stories cover a gamut of ideas that include a doorway that allows one to travel 20 years, intelligent digital objects, a robotic nanny, the ability to recall any memory instantly, and a device to communicate with oneself in other branches of the universe.

My favourite stories include The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, written like an Arabian Nights story, that uses time travel to explore lessons learnt by the protagonists from their experiences. In The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling, Chiang explores the delicate balance between mimi (what one considers right) and vough (a precise fact) through two sub-stories involving colonised tribesmen's struggles with written words replacing oral memories and a modern world where humans can recall any memory instantly. Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom explores greed, regret and redemption using the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which humans can communicate and collaborate with versions of their self in other branches of the universe.  

The problem with anthologies, as to be expected, is one of mixed quality of the stories. For example, and the reason for only a 4-star rating, The Lifecycle Of Software Objects takes up a third of the book and fails to grip. It talks about the gradual maturing of AI objects (called digients) and their ability to experience love, independence and even sexual attractions. But overall, Chiang's imagination, the variety in the stories, and the underlying messages in them make Exhalation a satisfying read.

Pros: Very imaginative, wide range of ideas, couples science fiction with human nature, well-written

Cons: Disparate quality with a less interesting story taking a third of the book 

Recursion, Blake Crouch, 2019

Rating: 4/5

I love good mind-bending, time-turning stories, movies such as Inception and Interstellar for example. And for the most part, Recursion does not disappoint.

The book begins with great promise -- NYPD detective Barry Sutton is called to prevent a possible suicide by a woman suffering from FMS or False Memory Syndrome, an affliction in which the person suddenly wakes up one day with extremely detailed memories of an alternate life that she has led. The extreme vividness of those memories and the conflict with memories of the current life can often drive a person insane. The second chapter, set about 11 years earlier, features Stanford neuroscientist Helena Smith, whose sole mission in life is to find a possible cure for Alzeimer's that he mother suffers from. And there is billionaire visionary entrepreneur Marcus Slade, who employs Helena with the promise of changing the world.

As the plot unfolds, we learn about the demons plaguing the minds of Barry and Helena -- Barry struggles with coming to terms with his daughter's death (an event that he blames himself for) and the subsequent break-up of his marriage while Helena is consumed with making her mother's life better. Barry can't get the FMS suicide off his mind and sets to explore that. Meanwhile, Marcus Slade appears to have his own motivations for hiring Helena and it becomes clear that he will go to any length to achieve them.

The book moves along at breakneck speed with key elements of the plot being revealed within the first 100 pages. But, after that, as the book stretches to its 300+ page length, parts of it seem repetitive and new plot elements make the book somewhat bewildering. I give 5/5 for the first half of the book and 3/5 for the second. The other issue is that time manipulation is always a tricky subject. At one point in the book, Barry is told that "time is an illusion, a construct made of human memory ... there's no such thing as the past, present, or the future". Barry finds it difficult to process it and so did I at the end of the book. But with books or movie of this genre, one needs to accept this inherent issue and enjoy the ride!

Pros: Unique and fascinating plot, page-turner

Cons: Repetitive at times, unresolved plot points inherent in this genre