Vainglory by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely a different kind of LitRPG from the others. It may still have a much milder skill system even if it's still very much there, but the FEEL is very much a western. Cop in our modern world just about to retire get's isekai'd, a demon riding him as he's thrown into another world. And if that isn't bad enough, it's all just choices, worse choices, and gaslighting, throwing him into more darkness.

Of course, it FEELS like a buddy-buddy novel. It FEELS like the good guys are winning. But yeah... yeah.

In that respect, it's VERY much a western.

View all my reviews

Your name. 1 by Ranmaru Kotone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Such a shockingly good romance. This light novel is, like the movie I saw first, alas, is simple, beautifully complex, and heartbreakingly tense and sweet all the same time.

It's deceptively relaxed. Girl finds boy, boy loses girl, both wish... but it IS fantasy and fate and memory loss and tragedy wrapped all in one, like all the best stories are.

It's beautiful. Nuff said. :)

View all my reviews

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one is wonderfully atmospheric, consistently strange, and rather heart-felt. Above all, it's the details that really got to me. The action figures, the sleepwalking, the traditional dance, even the headbands. All things that could have gone the way of stereotypes but didn't.

A truly good horror novella that plumbs the depths of selfishness and what lies within a person. :)

View all my reviews

The Unincorporated War by Dani Kollin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I went through several evolutions as I read this.

At first, I was rather... put upon... when I realized this wasn't a solid continuation of a Heinlein-like societal discourse with an enormous dose of courtroom drama but a straight-out LONG mil-SF that reminded me tons of the second book in the Red Rising series but without quite as many memorable characters, I honestly thought about quitting.

Hell, if it wasn't for the solid first book, I probably would have. And that didn't address the fact that I felt bait-and-switched. This is, despite the fact that the title SAYS war. I should have known, right? But I honestly believed it would have been more of a BUILD up to war, not just a slap and tickle saying that time passed after the hero ran to space and HERE WE GO with a fleet and did you know he's the leader?

*sigh*

Okay. That's on me. I still continued and finished it, however. And... it's fairly solid and for all ya'll who love a good civil war spaceship yarn across the solar system, there's much worse out there. This might be perfect for you.

I had my own issues, however. I WANTED my Heinlein-like story.

View all my reviews

Void Forged by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very enjoyable. But it's important to realize that not much in the way of plot progresses in this particular book. Sure, we're poised to take over a whole world through duels and perhaps an all-out war, but very little page space is devoted to that. Instead, it's training montages and other kinds of progressions.

Which is, in itself, very enjoyable. :)

Plus, we get a ton of overall power jumps that make Victor truly beast after suffering a particularly nasty curse. Pure payoff.

View all my reviews

Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sad, heart-wrenching, magical. And I also thought the anime was pretty special. But then, I probably wouldn't have picked up the light novel if I hadn't loved it first. :)

Poor runaway. So much longing. Yep. Good stuff.

View all my reviews

The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The one thing that really struck me from the beginning was the echoes of other recent big award winners--specifically the focus on translations and language in general. But even more than that, was how this setting (aboard a generation ship) really revolved around the divisions made by language and how embodied this novel felt.

Not easy, mind you, but definitely lived-in. I think I liked that the most.

But I should say I didn't truly vibe with it until much later, when the revolution really got underway--but that's a double edged sword right there, too.

I might be getting rather annoyed with this particular subgenre of generation ships + AI always defaulting with destroying the AIs either immediately or almost right away (across so many authors) and seeing a totally hapless and idiotic crew try to deal with an untenable life afterward.

It just feels like yet another example people always electing to make a horrible situation worse for all of the stupidest reasons and then doubling down when things get so much worse.

Sometimes I just want escapism. Not yet another mirror showing the same thing I see every day. But alas. That's a me problem.

This book is still pretty fascinating and interesting both culturally and thematically. Well worth a read.

View all my reviews