Tag: cyborgs

The As*trobiologists series by Olga Gromyko, which started off with a bang, gradually began to grow dull over time. The last novel, in which the main characters of the series didn’t participate at all, was a particularly tough read for me. However, I generally enjoy Olga’s books, so I decided not to give up on the series, even though, to be honest, I was afraid that this eighth book would be a real slog. But the novel See You on Cassandra! turned out to be livelier and more fun than the previous one. With this book, Olga has taken a few experimental steps.

First of all, the book was released only in digital format and hasn’t been printed on paper yet.

Secondly, in this novel, she seems to have decided to bring together practically all the characters previously mentioned in the series—both from the novels and the short stories.

The main focus, however, is not on the primary heroes, the crew of The Space Brain-Eater, but on the organization protecting cyborgs, which was gifted an entire planet—Cassandra—in one of the earlier books. The plot revolves around this very gift, as many are eager to share in such a fortune. So, at the center of the story are the guardians of the sentient cyborgs and their intelligent (and not-so-intelligent) wards, who find themselves embroiled in legal and other shenanigans to defend their property and good name. All the other characters either lend a hand or drop by for a visit.

Olga Gromyko continues to write about the beloved world of the near future, where seemingly kind humans have learned to create cyborgs, but ultimately treat them worse than furniture. They look like humans, but they can be casually used to clear minefields.

The main difference in the new book “The Cyborg and His Forester” is that it’s the first novel without the characters from the main series. The setting is the same, the location has appeared before, and the main characters were introduced in a previous short story. However, the beloved team from “The Space Brain-Eater” is absent from this book.

This is both good and bad, in my opinion. It’s good because Olga took a step sideways and tried to develop the universe without relying on the endless adventures of the team. She partially did this in the previous book when she shifted focus from road adventures to the fate of intelligent cyborgs finally making their voices heard.

But it’s bad because the book turned out to be less interesting and colorful. There are fewer main characters, and only two protagonists. Their color is also different. This is the first book in the series where I caught myself losing interest while reading. The main story is a light detective plot. But it didn’t captivate me like the previous books. The detective aspect is very “light,” because the relationship between the characters clearly takes precedence over the detective line. But even the main characters sometimes became tiresome with their behavior. At times, it felt like a circus, with the protagonists acting like clowns. And they seemed exhausted by it, performing this number for the ten-thousandth time, but unable to stop—because it’s their job.

The book “As*troheads: Nearby” by Olga Gromyko is the sixth in the “As*troheads” series. Like the previous book in the cycle, “As*troheads: Before, Between, After“, this two-volume set is another collection of novellas and short stories.

However, I’ve noticed some clear differences. The works in the previous book were loosely connected: two novellas were tied by events, but the rest were simply sketches about beloved characters, some of which didn’t even qualify as full-fledged stories—just brief jokes on the theme.

In “As*troheads: Nearby”, there is a clear chronology of events, and many of the novellas and stories continue from previous ones in the same book. But the most important difference is that this collection introduces a new overarching theme.

“As*troheads” (earlier versions known as “As*trobiologists”) is the second long-running series by Belarusian writer Olga Gromyko. Her first series, about a witch, brought Olga recognition and a dedicated fanbase. Since then, she has written standalone books and smaller series, but “As*troheads” has been around for over six years, and the adventures of the characters are far from over (in fact, a new two-volume edition was just released).

The book “As*troheads: Before, Between, After” is the fifth in the series, but chronologically, it spans across various points in time, as the title suggests. It’s not a single narrative but rather a collection of novellas and short stories that cover events from before the first book to after the fourth.