Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Rachel Khong GENRE: Speculative Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: April 7, 2026 RATING: 3.45 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of (mostly) speculative fiction stories. Excellent in creativity. Diverse in humans yet unified in emotions. Good writing and pacing. A bit too much of back-and-forth in a few stories. Recommended to SFF lovers. This collection contains ten stories, mostly from the speculative fiction genre. There is no introductory note or foreword, but the publisher’s note called this a set of stories "about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it's so easy to be someone else." It sounds almost abstract, but oddly, it fits the stories well. The stories cover a wide range of emotions and timelines. Each story feels innovative, with no repetition of themes. The blurb says that they are stories about love, and it is right. But they aren’t about romance, which makes all the difference. The writing and the character development ar...

AUTHOR: Annalee Newitz GENRE: Dystopian Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A sci-fi dystopian novella set in the near future. Quirky robot characters. A whimsical storyline that is dark and cosy in turn. Goes overboard on the preachy themes and agenda. Lopsided in its allegory. Contains a subtle equivalence between robots and immigrants/enslaved people – weird. Suspension of disbelief and doubts necessary to enjoy the book better. Plot Preview: 2064. San Francisco, Independent California. A group of food service robots find themselves abandoned in a ghost kitchen. With no human around and with a desperate need to keep things going, they decide to take over their delivery app account, rebrand their food service, and serve the best authentic hand-pulled noodles in town. Just when it seems like they will be successful in their endeavour, someone starts review-bombing them, and worse, not all the one-star reviews are exactly false. Can the robots s...

AUTHOR: Andy Weir NARRATOR: Ray Porter GENRE: Science Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 4, 2021 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A space drama about an astronaut trying to save Earth. Way more comical than I expected. Just as much of “Yay, USA” as I had anticipated.” Offers quite a geek fest with plenty of STEM topics. Racist and stereotypical at times. Somewhat dragged in between. Portrayal of woman characters annoying. Quite an entertaining read. Plot Preview: Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up in a strange location, only to learn that he is in a space ship light years away from earth, that he is the only human alive on the ship, and that he is on a mission to save his home planet. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember all the details from his mission, thanks to the induced coma he had been put in for the journey. Can he actually succeed when he can't even recollect the exact nature of his assignment? The story comes to us in Ryland’s perspective from two timelines: present and past. PSA: Go in...