Books are like Marmite. You either love them or hate them. I donât think there is an in-between. The time you invest in a single book is significant. It often surpasses most activities in your life. If you are not interested, you probably wonât finish the first book.
We have all read good books and bad books but the fact that I read through the bad books even to the end says a lot about me. For sure, I am the same with movies. Iâve seen some atrocious celluloid disasters and sat through them to the end â not just in the cinema but even at home. I guess itâs my brain hoping, no wishing that they will get better before the ultimate climax of the story.
So recently Iâve been paying for Kindle Unlimited. If you donât know what this is and love books you are missing out. Itâs like a library and for a small fee you can download and read as much as you want. Sure thereâs an annoying thing where you have to âreturnâ the books and a limit as to how many you can have at once but I guess this is Amazon trying to replicate the library experience that some of us grew up with. I canât see a need for this function. It seems superfluous.
That said I have read many books but it seems I have a favourite genre and style. This is English authors and apocalyptic tales to be more specific. Recently I have enjoyed RR Haywoodâs Code Series a lot. Thereâs so much to take in. Thereâs retro elements, sci-fi, humanity on the brink of extinction and bad people. Whatâs not to love. Iâm not going to spoil any of it for you but the main protagonist is a lovable rogue who gets drawn into political turmoil that can turn the fate of humanity. Itâs set in space in the (relatively) near future where technology advancements are believable and so is what is left of humanity from the good (who want life to just be better), to the bad (who are the worst people you could imagine that have no respect for people other than themselves).
The comedy elements remind me of Simon Pegg at his finest. Iâm not talking about the Cornetto Trilogy. I mean Spaced. There are modern cultural references that any nerd is going to enjoy and the crescendo at the end of the story is perfectly escalated. This is not the one of those books that you can sit amongst the sort of people that analyse Jane Austenâs novels but itâs a series I really enjoyed. I wish there was more.
I am going to give this series a good 8/10. I wish there was more but itâs still a really fun journey whilst it lasts.
