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Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Dining Out Around the Solar System Book 1 by Clare O'Beara Review

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Dining Out Around the Solar System Book 1 by Clare O'Beara Review

Introduction: There are four books in this series and I enjoyed them so much I read them all in quick succession. The topics include prejudice, climate change, relocating for employment, problems getting work after college, women's rights, immigration, and poverty. They are set in the future with people from other planets in our solar system now living on Earth. Many of the modern problems of society are interwoven in the texts. There are two protagonists who are book nerds — one is from Ireland (and hypersensitive) and one is multiracial. They are modest heroes. Clare O'Beara has also written many mysteries. The books are somewhat informational, and I would say they are multi-genre nonfiction and science fiction. 

Dining Out Around The Solar System Part One 


Clare O'Beara

Kindle Edition


Book 1

  • ASIN: B00E4N30XS


This book has it all as far as I am concerned! I like science and science fiction. 
Please see also the reviews for book 2book 3, and book 4.

The protagonists, Donal and Myron, are modest observant heroes who live in London and write reviews for the zine news and later London’s Eye. Donal is Irish, hypersensitive, and a food critic. Myron, with Jamaican grandparents, reviews adult entertainment which is referenced mostly in passing throughout the books. What they wear and what they notice about fashion is mentioned throughout the story. How they take care to protect their reputations as reporters and personal identity is explained. They have new editors and other reporters to deal with, as well as sci-fi computers built into glass desks. The office building has an antigrav lift. The cutting-edge electronics are well described.

Many of the restaurants Donal reviews are run by people from elsewhere in our solar system, such as Mercury or Venus. Each review enlightens us a little more about life and culture in London in this future setting. "Food of Love,” for instance, is a review about a Venusian place with all the tables set for couples. The restaurant has trouble arranging seating a few more people for a small office party.

I like the descriptions such as these few lines from this particular review:

“The staff keep hovering gently in the background here, but never intruding, allowing one to focus on one’s company. Pricey location for an office party, but the bright young things at the other tables certainly appeared to find it romantic.”

Another food review is of "Pluto’s Mr. Frosty Van." Donal realizes the Plutonians didn’t know about ice-cream when they landed but have now mastered the art. Ice cream becomes important in a later book for people from a different planet.

Workers who take six-month jobs in space may arrive home with shuttle flu, which is also contagious to those living on earth. The workers also have physical ailments from living in space that last about six months. Weil’s disease is new and colds are not usually mild anymore. Futuristic illnesses impact the lives of the characters.

Donal figures out a way to earn college credits which gives him more credibility as a reporter. That he figures out a clever way to do this without having much money shows he is ingenious. 

I love it that all through all four books, Donal and Myron are “book nerds” and refer to other books by title, fitting the situations at hand. They make humorous statements which are enjoyable. They solve parts of mysteries with hacking but only for good intentions, always carefully covering their tracks.


Dining Out Around the Solar System Book 1 by Clare O'Beara Review

Clare reads extensively and reviews books for Fresh Fiction.com, and has a website at:

Clare blogs and answers questions on her Goodreads page. 



I will be writing reviews of the other three books in this series this summer. 


Thank you for reading, 

Carolyn Wilhelm

   Dining Out Around the Solar System Book 1 by Clare O'Beara Review