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.

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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.

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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.

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The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a surprisingly good SF built upon some even better what-ifs, and presented as a near-homage to Heinlein.

Specifically, I rather focused on the whole near-Stranger in a Strange Land feel at the beginning. A rich industrialist freezes himself, only to wake up hundreds of years later and needs to get acclimated to a strange new world--that happens to be one of an insidious slavery. Insidious because everyone is happy. All needs are met, but everyone is incorporated as a business model. Sell off shares of yourself for opportunities or wealth, buy them back to be less beholden to other shareholders. The government and your family begin with a standard tithe.

It actually sounded like a pretty horrific setup, but the SF comes to the rescue with advanced tech (nanotech) and automated systems.

Fast forward through a number of ideological conflicts and more than just a few courtroom dramas, assassination attempts, full cultural upheavals, and by the end, I'm hooked on this rip-roaring yarn.

It's not for nothing that we can compare it favorably to Heinlein at his best. Social commentary is second only to a fun tale. You know, the proper order of things.

But I *will* say that it still manages to be a proper horror/dystopia even in the face of so many social ills resolved. :)

Definitely worth reading.

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Masters of the Vortex by E.E. "Doc" Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is both a mix of the classic Lensman space-opera stuff and a better side-story that gets rid of the super-standard superman stage 4 Lensman to lets us reboot it with a singular, highly-specialized super-man who can nuke wild self-sustaining nukes.

Of course, this man levels up in power through the novel, learning that he is so much more capable of being a hero than just a nuke nuker, to gaining a crew that reminded me a TON of TOS Star Trek it's not funny, to mental gymnastics that put most power-creep stories to shame.

That is to say--it's classic space opera. :)

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Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one is an interesting bag. I think I wanted to have a harder-hitting horror retelling of bluebeard, one that straddles the line between extravagance and the delicious reveal, but while this does have some pretty great emotion and resonance -- look at what you made me do -- it eventually rubbed me in rather the wrong way.

Not horribly so, mind you, but in an ugly, disturbed way that isn't gleeful the way good horror can often be.

My real problem?

The erasure of innocence. Not the obvious opening of a door erasure, either, but the complicity and romanticism of JOINING in the horror, of ignoring the tragedy, of being one with it.

Maybe that's the real horror? The acceptance, the reveling in the rot?

Well, it's even worse when you read this novel not as a romantic and evil tale of discovery, but as a tale of complicity with the rot.

I think I disliked it precisely because I couldn't agree with the premise. Either I fight or die... not embrace.

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The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Okay. So. I suppose I'm just not the right audience for this SF. If, indeed, we can call it SF.

I mean, sure, there is the whole, ostensible first-contact scenario starting back in the 70's and we follow the slow communication cycle for the next 50 years, but I need to be honest. This is pretty much just a family drama novel. Mothers and daughters. Generational abuse, mental health, family stuff.

It's another general fiction novel with a handful of SF trappings. And let me be clear: the first third of the novel is just about a new mom with post-partum depression hating her life and missed chances and latching onto the big announcements while she grows bitter and destroys her relationships.

Yay.

Later on, it feels like a very drawn-out and worse version of Sagan's Contact. But longer. With less happening. But what I can I say? I LOVE my SF. If it wasn't quite pitched for the SF market, I probably would be less critical of it. But this is SF-lite-lite.

But what about the writing? Is it good? I'd say it's fine for the market it's aiming for. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

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