The Compound by Aisling Rawle
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Ah, alas, this is a total bust for me. It has everything I disrespect: voting off the island crap, reality tv crap, desperate-for-fun/survival kids who're too stupid they're being used and discarded for cheap thrills crap.

I mean... crap. I avoided a whole decade and a half of tv because of this shit. Why would I want to READ it, too?

So, yeah, you're in the compound and you have to find and share a bed with a stranger for ratings, but all the time, the sponsors will make you eat grass or pull stupid stunts for food.

What the hell is this? An allegory for work, society? Or just a bargain-bin reality tv show knockoff in text? Prolly both. And honestly, it's annoying as all hell.

Sorry, it's me, not you, Compound. Or maybe it is you. Oh, well.

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King Sorrow by Joe Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was freaking amazing. I was simply unprepared for what this became.

Decades of story, this epic horror revels in an old myth so modernized and psychological and nastily PRESENT that I'm frankly a bit shocked that it COULD be St. George versus the Dragon.

Because, let's face it, that's what this is.

Of course, it's so much more. 80's satanic panic, occultism, friends getting in WAY too deep, and the fact that a single stupid moment can ruin the rest of their lives. But that opening is just the beginning.

But let's take another look at this novel. I should mention that it is a horror that NEEDS to be read on Easter. Trust me. Easter. It's an Easter horror. A dragon Easter horror.

And don't listen to the trolls.

Muahahahahahaha. Great novel. Truly.

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Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly, I have to admit that I almost bounced off this book twice. The first, time, I wanted to read it to simply get to the fourth book which was considered one of the great Golden Age of SF books. I DID bounce the first time. Instead, I just hopped ahead and read what I consider one of the best Buck Rogers books of Buck Rogers books.

Of course, I don't know, even now, whether that's a good thing or not. It's cowboy stuff in space, white hats and black hats and big explosions, derring-do, and swooning maidens. Where real men are real men.

In other words, the perfect stereotype of SF of yesteryear, well into the genre's infancy and teenage years.

Ah, but I kinda wished I had stuck it out. And so I returned to the first book and once I got through some rather heavy-handed exposition, I was able to enjoy some rather cool ancient and modern and then future action. Indeed, this volume is a pretty great INTRODUCTION to the universe. That is, if you can get over the handwaviums and obvious cultural BS of Real Men being Real Men. Then again, maybe that kind of thing will be a bonus in today's climate. Who knows?

My personal take:

I've always been a pretty big fan of the mythos of Green Lantern.
Now, this pre-dates Green Lantern, to be sure, but DAMN, it's like I'm getting a whole mythos and setup FOR the Green Lantern and its Corps. Taking it this way, I'm actually really enthusiastic for the story. Show the heroes in their less-than-powered up states, give us a very solid grounding and showcase their actual heroism, and THEN give them the extra powers to deal with the truly bad baddies.

It's pretty classic storytelling, and it actually works.

Yes, this book is ACTUALLY pretty good. Science fantasy, to be sure, but FUN. And it's a bit more expansive and crossing much time and space than I gave it credit for. It's true space opera.

Color me impressed. I think I will go through the rest. It's very much on the same level as Conan, with the obvious differences. Solid and fun if not particularly sophisticated.



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Red City by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Easily a fun, dark read. This is quite a bit like Jade City, its crime family vibes with a huge splash of full metal alchemist thrown in, was a lot of fun.

Of course, in this particular novel, the R&J vibes are VERY strong, too, and you know what? I'm all for it. Ari and Sam are great characters and I love them both.

I do classify this as Urban Fantasy, but really, it feels more like the Godfather with magic and a star-crossed romance. I can't wait to keep reading more.

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Neverness by David Zindell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-Read 11/25/25:

I said I'd re-read this back when I first read it, and I did, having been thinking about it for years in-between.

Indeed, I've been Remembrancing it.

It is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. It required, and requires careful reading, mindful reading, and careful attention to one's soul. And that's something perhaps a bit unusual to say about a science fiction novel. Or, indeed, a hard SF novel. An epic that spans many star systems and living among primitive people close to home. Or dealing with Warrior-Poets. Or vast machine entities who remember being human. Or best friends. Bitter enemies.

Truly, it's a book about life. The meaning of life. The quest for the secret. The truth of all the exploding stars, the truth of immortality, the truth of memory, information, creation, and destruction.

It's a book as valuable as it is creative as it is epic.

It's hard. And it's gorgeous. It's disgusting. And it's poetry.

It's as messy as all of life. And it made me cry. Many times.

It's a book that should never be forgot. Indeed, it should be known so much more than it is. If there is justice in this world, it will be remembered. Hopefully more than just by Remembrancers.




Original review:

This one kinda came out of nowhere and hit me up the side of my head.

I mean, you'd have thought I would have known all about the grand classics and any book THIS good has GOT to have about a million readers, RIGHT? At least, this is the grand assumption we (and I mean, me, sadly,) tend to make.

And yet, I've BARELY heard of this book and there's no sign of it ever becoming an audiobook and aside from a few brave glowing reviews that compare it favorably to Dune and La Morte Darthur, my skepticism remained high... UNTIL I read it.

And now, even though I've read something like 2.5k SF novels, I have to come right out and say it: I'm putting this book in my top 20 novels of all time. I'm both squeeing and deeply, deeply impressed.

This is a good thousand years in our future and the galaxy is populated with post-humans who have changed themselves into creatures both alien and familiar and often very, very strange. We begin with Pilots, a version of King Arthur's knights only with high esoteric maths, the need for immense courage because, as it is written in stone, "Pilots Die", and a somewhat simple story of a young journeyman pilot who, showing great bravery, explores a machine intelligence spanning a moon -- and more.

This interesting quest only raises a ton of new questions, and while it seems pretty straightforward, it really isn't. This is a story of the meaning of life. The search for immortality. Of friendship, of love, of parentage, of memory, and of everything from the deepest parts of our past as humans (living as cave-men takes up a great deal of the tale) all the way to immensely futuristic worldbuilding that includes folding space, speeding cognition, vast artificial intelligence, seas of godlike aquatic creatures, nanotech worlds, and... immortality.)

It sticks a pin in everything, and the characters are truly wonderful. They are so damn human. Belligerent, idiotic, sometimes wise, violent, lovers of poetry, funny, and lustful. And let's not forget that they are mathematical geniuses, prone to rage, and they're extraordinary skaters. :)

The worldbuilding is all kinds of amazing and it not only holds together as well as Dune, it feels nearly as vast, as creative, and as interesting as Dune. That's not to say it actually FEELS like Dune except in the ways that certain vast build-ups coalesce, but the comparison is still quite good.

I'm all aglow. I'm probably going to re-read this again in a few years, but first I'm going to be flying into the next book. :) Soon.


To sum up: READ THIS BOOK. It needs to be known. It needs to be talked about among all the SF fandom. If you LIKE SF at all, this ought to be a must-read. It's all kinds of amazing.

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The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a special place in my heart for poetical works, ones with beautiful language and comforting pacing -- regardless of subject material.

I mean, murders oughtn't have a pastoral feel, right? But this, and the fae, the appeasement, and the tale of the sisters, is definitely one that feels comforting, even so.

Magical, even.

Recommended.

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The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a pitch-perfect example of a boring dystopia. Its actual SF features literal dream police, making the Minority Report into a coasting middle-management nightmare. Social, credit scores are latched onto your literal dreams. Having issues? Are you cranky?

It can and will be used against you if you don't conform.

The problem with this is that it's OUR reality already. Digital surveillance, AI analysis, and systemic assholery makes us live this NOW.

It's a horrible novel because we're already living it. Or it's a great novel because we're already living it. Either way, it's rage-inducing.

And yes, it's an indictment of capitalism. Creating prisons and prisoners for the profit motive. Creating a rule system that can't be beaten, but can easily be abused to keep people in their place.

Again, we're already here. And it's pitch perfect for how it describes people's reactions, how they just want to get along, carry the burden because it can get so much worse if you don't, and how utterly cowed we are.

Bringing up a strike, and how effectively it is squashed, is also accurate to our lives.

And just as depressing.


Do I like this novel?
No.

Do I think it is true to life?
Yes.

Take from that what you will.

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The Strength of the Few by James Islington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What originally seems to be a unique choice in narration, our MC lives three alternate lives, and we, with him. I honestly thought it might be somewhat disorienting, but instead, I found myself loving every second of it. Growing, finding new friends, abilities, plumbing his own depths, while just barely touching parts of his other selves.

Fascinating. Hell, I'd say it'd make great science fiction, too, but it's still prime fantasy. IMHO.

Islington rocks. No two ways about it.

And while I do miss the scholomancy aspects of the first book, this one is all about growth. And hard decisions. And really nasty ones, those.

I love great worldbuilding, and we've got THREE here. Oh, the riches for us readers. :)



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Death's Master by Tanith Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for a Jack Vance-ish panorama of a fantasy earth filled with demons, lord death, and cruel magicians, look no further. This is full of old-school mythologies, dark hearts, sex, hate, and fantasy of the crueler persuasion.

Well, what else can we expect when you're a pet project of the master demon of the realm? It may take some time to mature into something quite evil, but give it time. Give it time.



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You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well now. That was chaotic and disturbing as all hell.

Ignore normal body-horror fiction for a moment and just settle in for a little pregnancy fiction.

Oh, never mind, settle in for some serious body-horror pregnancy fiction.

Nightmare fuel.

Oh, and it's very much a LGBTQ transitional piece, too, as well as some nice cthuhlu tones. But no matter what you might expect, expect to be bleed from many orifices.





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Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a really fun time with this. Lagos-centric fantasy, a pantheon true to the area, with all the crossovers we've come to expect, building an American Gods-type story, with a nightmare god and a succubus's love story through centuries. With all the power-politics and Spirit Company BS that implies.

I definitely had some cool vibes, thinking of Clive Barker's Abarat. The trials and tribulations of love within immortals.

What can I say? I love pantheons of gods and the down-to-earth ways to write them. The adventure, the whole "one last job" vibe was simply a lot of fun.



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Luminous by Silvia Park
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a lover of SF (duh) and I almost always appreciate it when the writing is as elevated as the concepts, pushing the genre to new heights.

This one attempts to do just that, focusing on beautiful language and complex themes surrounding relationships, death, memory, and obvious moral quandaries. As should be obvious for any novel dealing with robots and people.

However, while there is some mystery in this novel, it's not Asimov. And while there are some fairly big concepts being explored, they aren't precisely the focus of the tale. Indeed, there's quite a bit of circuitous plotting that, while jumping between PoVs, tends to laser in on bad choices and desires that ultimately conflict with happiness--and hell, isn't that just about everything in life?

So, yes, it is, absolutely, a decent Lit-SF entry. It checks all the boxes for a rich piece on perception and expectation and the injustices that come from both.

But did I fall in love with it?

No, unfortunately. Sometimes, less is more. And sometimes, more is more. And the balance in this one just feels off, even under-baked. If we're to come away with something more than, "oh, that's rather depressing," then it failed. Otherwise, well done. And, at least to me, that's not precisely well-done.

It's me, not you, Luminous. You tried hard to be my perfect significant other, but the failing is mine alone.

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Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some hard truths: I expected/wanted some extremely low-stakes feel-good relax-time learning to get along with people and build relationships, all in a fantasy setting that seems suspiciously like our world. You know, like the first Legends and Lattes. That was its selling point and its emotional-satisfaction point.

This one, while continuing with at least one character from the original, the bookseller Fern, winds up being a series of misadventures and outright travel-adventure that is almost entirely a "standard" fantasy adventure. One, I might mention, could have been taken out of any cookie-cutter fantasy novel with a small group of adventurers from the last four decades of fantasy novels. D&D or otherwise.

Its selling point isn't the same as the original, alas. You have to be invested in the original character and have to want to see what running away from your emotions will get you. That's pretty much it.

Of course, that's not to say that the novel was bad. It isn't. But taken on its own merits, I have to say it's just average. Standard. And frankly, because I was wanting the cozy friendship-building mechanics of the first, I found myself sometimes getting downright annoyed by how much action and adventure was in THIS novel.

Isn't that odd? Downright strange?

Well, it is what it is. By losing the cozy edge, it moved into standard light fantasy fare, losing a bit of my trust in the series. I can only hope it comes back to the cozy-core later.

Wandering Inn, this is not.

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The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After this re-read, I have to say that this is one of the best novellas I've ever read. At least, it's within the top ten. It kept a space in my heart and mind for the last 30 years and I'm sure it'll keep a space there for thirty more. Assuming I live that long.

But being memorable is hardly a claim to true excellence. I could say it's an Orphic western featuring post-human aliens appropriating our culture, riding dragons like horses and living above ancient AI labyrinths. But that's just the spice to the tale. The core is very, very human, full of longing, then revenge, and a youthful quest to do the impossible. Or several impossibles.

And all the while, we, the reader, are balanced on a knife's edge between a deeply literal read and a full-blown metaphorical one. Or we could go the full mythological route, and this novella is full to the brim and overflowing with it.

Or we can read it simply as a fantastical adventure full of music, a psychic devil, and another knife's edge of surviving despite being "different".

No matter how one reads it, it's a rich, rich story and engaging on every level.

Should it be required reading in colleges? Yes! Should it have pride of place in your favorites bookcase? Yes!

Some things are just plain brilliant, and some things are emotionally fulfilling. And sometimes, we get both at once.



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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 230, November 2025 by Neil Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The Stone Played at Tengen" by R.H. Wesley -- (4*) Monolithic power and the importance of playing through -- life as Go. Interesting.

"Jade Fighter" by D.A. Xiaolin Spires -- (5*) Honestly delightful friendship in unusual circumstances. I actually rather love this story.

"The Apologists" by Tade Thompson -- (5*) Tade rocks some wonderfully weird tales. Murder mystery gone hard SF. Totally my kind of mystery.

"Trees at Night" by Ramiro Sanchiz -- (4*) I got a very Roadside Picnic vibe from this one. Only for a librarian. :)

"Prerequisites for the Creation of a Possible Predicted World" by Chisom Umeh -- (5*) On-target tale of perception and reality-building. Doubly current for our own amusement park we call life.

"Ratlines" by Brent Baldwin - (3*) While I like the idea of a brain-in-a-box being forced as a starship getaway driver, I think I might have preferred a slower, more detailed story. Alas.

"The Fire Burns Anyway" by Kemi Ashing-Giwa -- (5*) This was a massive gut-punch to me. As a writer, myself, facing the same issues, it feels like death... and yet we all still keep going, if in despair.


Decent collection this month. I prefer Jade Fighter and Apologists the most, but The Fire Burns Anyway hit the hardest.

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A Judgement of Powers by Benedict Jacka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seriously enjoying this UF. It's seriously grounded and not overpowered and full of extremely relatable issues of wealth, wealth disparity, power, and how to survive at the bottom.

The fact that Jacka is pulling this off with flying colors shouldn't come as any surprise, especially with all things magic, but the fact that I'm totally sucked in is an even greater pleasure.

Let's make some sigils and try to survive, shall we? May have to finally make a serious choice, too. Loving it.



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Fate's Reckoning by Plum Parrot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm very impressed. Normally, when a series goes from small-time grounded to a valid and believable progression to all-out war, I tend to roll my eyes a bit.

(Yes, I'm looking at you, Hunger Games.)

But in this case, there's not just valid cause, but the whole cast of characters and OP progression lends great justification AND realistic chances, not to mention the feel-good reasoning. And let's face it, a cyberpunk future REALLY deserves its rebellions. It always has.

And this book makes me feel it. Sure, it may be Cyberpunk 2077 fan-fiction, but it's GOOD. I wish there was a lot more like this.



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Lunar Interlude by Plum Parrot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I honestly didn't want her to get grimdark on us, so I'm happy to say that there's some light moments and friendships being formed in this one that sits very, very well with the whole "I'm a killing machine" vibe.

You know, literally. Now mostly machine, cyborg implants, late-game Cyberpunk 2077 mythos fully intact. Hell, some of the names are the same and rich for evocation. And you know what? I don't mind in the slightest. This is fun shit.



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These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful, panoramic view of an extreme CCP, before, during, and long after it dominated the world. Complete with memories. Memories to record, memories to pass down, memories to control, control, control.

And best of all, this novel illustrates something deeply subversive, hopeful, and rather desperate that should be true in all of us.

When society has taken everything from you, maybe it is time to resit.

Resist.

Resist.

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Jovian Reverie by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What starts as an attempt to relax and train herself to be a pilot quickly devolves into a huge smash-up and nasty turn of events. It's also a chance for her to power up.

And she absolutely does.

It's still very Cyberpunk, but by now, late-game Cyberpunk, or what possibly could have happened had the game more scope. I'm really enjoying it. But by now, it's veered into Starfield territory, complete with the same cyberpunk elements, but also pirate infiltration and piloting. Quite good. Also starting to get rather disturbing when it comes to the psychological effects on our MC.

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Fortune's Envoy by Plum Parrot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm impressed how easily this moves from straight cyberpunk, to corporate espionage, to space adventure. It even feels like a natural progression, hopping from job to job to dire request to following your heart.

And I think that's what I love most about it. It's just plain fun. A what-if Cyberpunk 2077 just opened up to brand new vistas, to the moon, to Saturn. I likey. I likey alot. And all the while, we've got that progression feel, with cybernetic upgrades and spunk.



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Ghost Chrysalis by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just when I thought I was getting a handle on where this story was going to take me, everything goes to shit in a highly interesting way--and it's all undercover cyberpunk corpo shit. :)

Yes, it's just like I'm continuing in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe and it's delicious. I'm having a grand time.

Highly recommended. If you know, you know.

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Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly, while I'm almost always for an expansion to good worldbuilding, I sometimes wonder what the purpose in some might be. In this particular case, it's a subtle exploration of colonialism and the slippery slopes from within the belly of the beast.

And that's just it. Good for what it is, and if you enjoyed this this side character in book 2, she definitely gets a fuller treatment here.

But for me? I was somewhat meh about the story. Win some, lose some. Definitely a tale for the completionist in us.


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The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I enjoyed this nearly as much as the first book. Old people getting snarky and solving mysteries, indeed.

Of course, I can't help but recall Marple, and this is certainly carrying on all that in spirit, but it's also quite modern. And indeed, this book is more like a Bond tale than a Marple--although, to be fair, we might as well have said that Flemming and Christie just had a love-child and named it Osman.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Fun mystery, through and through, with a huge, beating heart in it.

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Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third book is a pretty decent wrap-up for Connie. Go OP on the already OP and ham up the humor that's all wrapped up in the genre-aware milieu, then slam it home with mirror-archetypes and cozy genre-specific tropes.

It's smart, very 007, and has more heart than the second book.

Plus, it has less of the relationship angst and more of the outright universe-destroying plot-funny.

Not a bad UF adventure-SF novel. Works best with the other two, of course, but it's entertaining, nonetheless.

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Constance Verity Saves the World by A. Lee Martinez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solid adventuring/relationship woes while solid adventuring. It's not as pat and snarky as the first book, but that's the nature of the beast when you're just trying to figure it all out. Life, saving all life, and trying to prevent your accountant boyfriend from losing his life thanks to the stupidly insane nature of your own existence.

It's all over the top adventure, and the plot armor is extremely insane but by design. Almost as insane as Doctor Who, even. But that's the nature of the game.

And it's funny. That's the real grace in this trilogy. Fun, funny UF.



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The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What the heck is wrong with me? I set aside this A. Lee Martinez for far, far too long. And I didn't even have a good excuse except that I wanted to get more of the books published so I could read them all together. Silly.

So, I had just as much fun with this one as I did with Emperor Mollusk and all the rest. The humor is always fantastic. So self-and-genre aware. It's tropetastic. And how it plays with and skewers everything is exactly the charm I love to have in anything humorous.

Constance is the ultimate nick-of-time hero who just wanted to give it all up to have a little normalcy. An old trope also played to perfection. Because we know that everything will always go wrong, and it'll take her best friend and frenemies along with her.

I think it's a great SF/Action UF that tickles all the right spots. :)


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The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very amusing, wild ride. Like watching Californication as a ghost story. Or as the decent of a skeptical egoist into insanity. Or as a fine, fucked up horror. Or all of the above.

I won't spoil things, but the things that happen were very, very amusing and sometimes quite creepy. But no matter how I look at it, Jack Sparks' personality is one for the books.

Very, very enjoyable.

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Night's Master by Tanith Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, to my everlasting shame, I've come to admit that I'd never read anything by Tanith Lee until today.

I mean, it's not like she hadn't been recommended to me endlessly by old friends, or that I was told her lyricism would appeal to me, or that her relentless reliance on different kinds of mythologies and classical hardcore mythologizing in her own literature would probably lay me flat.

Ahem. Well, laid flat with spider demons. I thought, um, maybe? And set aside the desire.

Well, I finally returned here and discovered a wonderfully sadistic mythology surrounding the demon's demon of this world. Granting desires, almost always betraying the hapless human or creature in his care, always being wickedly sexy and cruel.

Did this appeal to me in particular? Well, no, not as such, but the writing is undeniably beautiful. So much so, I'm recalled of early Cat Valente and Angela Slatter and even Gaiman's Sandman. Of course, Tanith Lee wrote this in the seventies, so I've got all of my chronology all mixed up.

I can only assume that Tanith Lee inspired generations of authors after her. Weird, that. :)



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The Secret History by Donna Tartt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'll be honest. I only heard about this in discussion about Dark Academia kinds of fiction. And this one certainly fits the bill, or rather, provides a template for those to come.

It's really a kind of American Crime and Punishment vibe, with all the sordid lives of dissolute Greek Language students. Because, as we all know, if you study Greek, you're automatically suspect. ;)

Truly, though, this was a pretty great mystery/thriller, that starts out with a death, then leading up to it, and then, most wonderfully, the wild, weird happenings AFTER. And no, this isn't a paranormal book or fantasy. It is, however, still a fun read. Dark Academia, indeed.



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The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

1950's Zimbabwe. Racial question, and a subtle take for the fiction.

It's interesting to read this through a modern lens, and it might even be considered super tame, but it IS powerful in its own way.

The silence between the words is absolutely everything in this tale.

Why was Mary murdered? The question should really be: was she really alive? Between early sexual abuse, the casual racism of her surroundings and her sensitive nature, she was simply broken. And at least to me, Moses was a bit of a hero. I say only a bit, though. In a certain way.

Still, the fact remains that the real villain in this tale is the society that shaped them. It's all tragedy. Good and bad is almost superfluous to the nature of poverty and its dehumanization.



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The Summer War by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm happy to have read this. By the end, I was whooping for joy.

That's not to say I didn't find it a bit standard and flat for a fantasy at the beginning, because I certainly did. It got much better, and quickly, by the time Roric came into the tale. And getting the full history of the Summer War (with the bordering Summer Lands, the fae, and their grievances) surely filled out the rest of the tale nicely, as a setup for the grand conclusion.

And what a conclusion. This *IS* a wonderful fairy tale retelling. Words, snares, and wonder.

I think I'll always trust Novik with her fairy tales. :)



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Slow Gods by Claire North
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of this author for quite some time (and still love Fifteen Lives) and I just assumed this would be another quality read by someone who is an automatic-buy in my head.

Instead, I was astonished. Not just happy--but astounded by how much I loved this book. Hell, it's been effortlessly catapulted to one of my all-time favorites. And it hasn't even officially been released yet. And I want a hardcover copy. Like--now. For my shelf of favorites. My pride shelf.

I only belatedly checked out the blurbs for it and the ideas behind it just doesn't do it justice. We can bandy the word 'monster' about all we like, but the proper theme of this novel ought to be love. It's a damn healing novel and a very curious one. And more than all the rest, it has a very deep heart. Heartbreaking, even. And heart-healing.

And that's about all I'm going to say without giving spoilers.

But I love this novel. More than words can say, I love its wisdom. Monstrous as this wisdom might be.



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Electric Angel by Plum Parrot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As someone who has put in thousands of hours into Cyberpunk 2077, this book is simply a natural extension of the game. Let's ignore IPs for a moment and just head straight into the sheer fun of it. Some cheat mode is going to flavor the story, of course, but there's all the corpo sec goodness, the bio-mods, the jobs, and all the friendship side-quests.

In other words, this is scratching ALL those itches in the very best way. Of course, if you're looking for something else, then read something else.

For me, I loved every single second of it and feel like I've found my new favorite binge.



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Methuselah's Children by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Re-read.

Lazarus Long! The first time he shows up in a novel, and he has a huge role. All about the Howard Foundation and how the general populous turned against the long-lived people, and their aftermath.

Honestly, the kind of reactionary movement against them seems downright MILD compared to the things we've seen in RL. Perfectly understandable, and I think they got off EASY for just being different.

Fun novel, and fascinating to see not just one, but two alien species, two attempted colonies, and a return to Earth. This is some old-school sci-fi in the most adventuresome of traditions.

It's also a product of its times. You know, early sixties--where men are real men, women are real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri are real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. Not that it matters all that much. The adventure is still adventure and there wasn't much to complain about.

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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This might be my favorite book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I've enjoyed them all, to be sure, but this one did witches well. Not cliche, not sympathetic, but steeped in several traditions. And, of course, done well.

The hopping back and forth happens in several different ways. Time periods, of course, and witching traditions, even within the separate time periods--but beautifully enough, of switching between HORROR sub-genres as well! I suppose it takes a connoisseur to really appreciate it.

But I do.

The whole novel just FELT right. I'm happy.



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