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As an exploration of what it means to be a person, from the point of view of a 7ft bioengineered dog, this novel is absolutely brilliant. The main character, Rex, is a good dog, and in this novel Adrian Tchaikovsky really does manage to effectively portray this dogs-eye view of the world.

Dogs of War is a very readable novel and one with much to say about sentience, slavery, artificial intelligence, and what happens when all these threads come together.

It really is superb.

This third entry in Tepper's Arbai sort-of-trilogy is the weakest of the three, but this is possibly a reflection of the incredibly high bar she set for herself with Grass.

Sideshow returns to may of the themes of the previous two books, but it all feels a bit more didactic, with less engaging characters and a weaker, more plodding, story.

If you have read Grass and Raising the Stones, then Sideshow wraps things up reasonably well. Otherwise... Tepper has written better books than this.

The premise of this novel is comically brilliant and the early chapters have several laugh-out-loud moments.

It all slows down a bit once the plot gets going, but The Kaiju Preservation Society remains a fun romp throughout.

While there are plenty of moments of comic brilliance, Most Harmless does have a bit of a disjointed feel overall.

I did feel, with Life, the Universe and Everything, that the series was starting to lose it's way somewhat. With this book, though, Adams gets solidly back on track.

It's very different to what has gone before, and this is very much to the book's advantage. Arthur is more of a character this time around and there's visible plot.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is still very much a Hitchhiker's book, but it also demonstrates the value in a series taking the occasional left turn.

I do have a strong sense of the series starting to lose its way with this novel. It certainly has its moments, but really doesn't come close to the standard set by the first two books.

This is a lot funnier than I remembered and, if anything, even better that The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

It feels that Adams really hit his stride with this book and the absurdities that make his writing such a joy to read feel a lot more pointed and, consequently, a great deal more effective.

Given the age of this story, it's surprising just how relevant E.M. Forster's dystopia remains.

42 years later and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is still as absurdly funny, insanely perceptive and shockingly relevant as ever.

I still love the babel fish!

Surprisingly slow to get started but once it does, The Devil's Nebula makes for a reasonably engaging read.

If someone is completely disassembled, and then perfectly reassembled with all (or most) of the same memories, are they the same person?

Mickey7 isn't the first book to try these sorts of questions, but it does handle them in an entertaining and very accesible manner. I would have liked a bit more depth but for what it is, this book is an enjoyable thriller with several nods to some interesting concepts.