The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound 14: A LitRPG Adventure by Noret Flood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is easily one of the very best books in the series.

Why? Its pacing, its humor, its plot progression were all excellent. I loved everything surrounding the dust storm back at home. I love the farming. I even loved the 42 pages of excel spreadsheet skills and progression. (Not even joking, it should have been annoying as hell, but they way it came out, it was just nerdy as hell. But a lot of this is just mood and quirk.)

The really good stuff is the weight of everything that came before and the re-integration into late-form Randidly. It's not just emotional growth, or the regression, but the balance between the self and the monolithic quest to protect his people and destroy the Nexus.

This novel really shows it. Not telling it. But showing it.

And for that, top props.

And damn this author for ending it right there. UUGGGGHHHH.

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There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs by Jason Pargin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wiiiiiiiild. MindF, nuts, chaotic, funny, batshit cray plotting, and yet, brilliant.

You'd think I'd be prepped for this kind of great mental abuse or the freaking fantastic one-liners that not only infest my tongue but sit rent free in my head, or the kind of plot shenanigans that would make good Doctor Who shit itself, but noooo, not even being used to the previous John Dies at the End novels quite prepared me for THIS JUMBO PANTY TWIST.

The title doesn't even do it justice. Trailer park idiots having plot armor doesn't come even close to justice. It could be read as a novel of one crazy thing happening after another, of course, but the idea set-ups really kinda transcend all that. Hell, I could say There Are NO Jumbo Straw Men Arguments in This Novel with as much honesty as the title gives us, but not even that does it justice, because we ARE dealing with idiots after all. Just smart enough to live, with luck enough for Stitch, and an inverse proportion of self-preservation.

But they care. They have a jumbo amount of care, you might say.

And a jumbo problem, too. Mountains of body parts, mind controlling super intelligences, scourges, time-accelerated colonies, portals, and yes, crabs. And pretty boys that like to set things on fire. Including Best Buy.

Muahahahahaha this novel was crazy fun. Way out there. Wacky. And even, oddly, rather hard-hitting in the feels. I didn't expect that.

Nuts.

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A Divided Duty by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All right, I have to admit this is a LOT better than the previous Daye novel. I don't have to start screaming that Toby is acting like a completely befuddled moron again. Or that she's utterly ignoring the good advice of the people who love her.

This one just happens to be a pretty great tale about saving family. Or if not ACTUAL family, it's close enough as to make no odds. And if it comes with a bunch of baggage from 19 other novels, at least we have a moral compass to follow and some blood magic to keep the truly bad shit from getting that much worse.

But you know what I like most about this novel? We're returning to the land where we need a candle to light our way. And for those of you who still remember the series, that particular book is a true highlight.

Toby, with a ton-more Fae blood in her than before, with the authority of the Fae Court and a more loving position with the Sea Witch, is in a position to do a lot more good than before.

Now, if only the Fae would just stop the whole generational cycle of abuse. Please. Damn.

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Silver and Lead by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The good: Auntie is always a breath of fresh air and claw. The mystery is fairly interesting, at least at first.

The so-so: Toby is... getting a bit annoying. Being pregnant doesn't explain how so very often she gaslights Tybalt. And no, wanting freedom after going stir crazy is not a valid excuse to throw good advice out the window, even IF it is a REALLY REALLY old trope for tv and movies and churned books.

I guess I'm a bit more than annoyed. Characters who have shown brains in the past and who have gone through a TON of crap and supposedly learned from past mistakes should NOT be doing such blatant stupidity not just once, but three times in one novel. Often specifically because her husband JUST wants to protect her and is worried about his wife who is 8 months pregnant. And is getting targeted by political crap. And has long-standing enemies still free and acting suspicious.

Okay. I guess I'm very annoyed. I know we're given Toby's PoV and reasons and they seem very valid and all but she keeps on getting captured and poisoned and threatened and gets her head bashed in but it's all OKAY because a Knight and she's important and the Queen expects her to be above and beyond so that's all the reason she needs to have to be stupid as hell.

Toby. Seriously. It IS okay to slow down for half a second and if you can't, GATHER YOUR TROOPS and STOP GETTING MIND-FUCKED. Again.


But the good? I'm still invested enough in the series that I can get this emotional over the stupid decisions instead of just dropping it.



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Home Sweet Home by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely beautiful. So much happens. I love Mathews' writing.

This concludes this particular series and while I was pretty much enthralled from the start, I was truly amused and thrilled by the utterly bonkers power levels we got to by the end. Sure, we get to god-levels in LitRPGs all the time, and MANY of these substitute for mental health manuals almost automatically, but not ALL of them pull it off.

We went from baby god to beastly in this book, but what was most amusing was the pure enjoyment the character (and I) had with all the different kinds of power-enhancement schools, be it card-making, divinity, cultivation, chaos magic, or even System-like adventuring. And being chased by hard-hitting gods the entire time, getting pissed off that you're screwing up all of history, was just great spice.

But really? The novels are about friendships. Letting people in. Letting go of your preconceptions and the past, or perhaps letting go of the future. Indeed, a lot of it was all about letting the present happen, letting those who love you be there for you.

But written large. Fantastical. Timey-wimey, illusion-heavy, phased reality, gorgeously diverse storytelling. With dimension-hopping spiders.

And the cutest mimic ever.



Truly great stuff. Rich as hell.


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A Trek Through Time by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful. Very light timey-wimey stuff, but perfectly aligned to service a great story.

If the first novel was packed with great plot and progress, this one took a more steady turn to cultivation. It didn't go ALL OUT into the progression/regressor direction, but it had enough of both to keep us on our toes. Especially when it came to killing the gods that kept coming to kill him. :)

Yep. This is a light, easygoing, friendship-building novel that includes killing gods.

And I'm all for it. Stuck in the deep past, surrounded by old, doddering old gods and upstart new gods, and the cultivators that keep all the gods in check... a new power has come to the world. One with cards. :)

Muahahahahahahahaha what a delightful mess. And it's genuinely heartwarming, too. Jake's magical market is thriving.

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Jake's Magical Market by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was extremely impressed with Nova Roma, so picking up Mathews' other series was a no-brainer.

I was immediately impressed with the easygoing and laid-back personality and was amused by the card-based magic system I'd grown to love in All The Skills, but what really sticks with me is the amazing variety of plots, locations, characters, reversals, power-ups, and eventual massive last reversal.

I am used to something on the level of maybe half as much happening in another LitRPG of the same size.

But more than all of that, I have grown to truly love this guy and his overall positive attitude, not to mention his mostly positive choices. Sure, some really questionable actions and choices ARE here, but I'm loving the conflicts.


I DID imagine that this was going to be a truly laid-back LitRPG based on the title, and it has a ton of it, but amazingly enough, it also has the full works. And more, on top of that.

A definite recommend.

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The Second Expedition by Tao Wong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to say this is... decent. It still feels just like a long-running Kung Fu series, with a few enlightenment sequences to give us the true progression feel. The story is simple, with a few side adventures and reversals ending in the sub-arc that was the initial reason for the adventure in the first place.



I want to like this more than I do. It's ... decent. Not that exciting. Just solid. I may return to it sometime, but I keep wondering if it'll get truly interesting soon.

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Defiance of the Fall 17: A LitRPG Adventure by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One caveat before I review this.

I actually enjoy wild, crazy tales that keep trying to one-up the crazy conditions needed to cultivate into ++++++ godhoods among a slew of other gods, while always realizing there's at least three whole grades worth of god civilizations ahead of you to kill as you cultivate.

The fact that this book just happens to be a continuation of a crazy fetch-em ancient dead civilization quest that happens to to suck you into memory-civilizations that you can loot and change to affect the future where you came from is just an added bonus.

Of course, if you're dunked head-first into this and you're unable to quite follow what ever the hell is going on at any moment, this MIGHT seem like a clusterfuck of religious gobbligook mixing Tao and Buddhist and countless void, chaos, life, death IDEA formations harboring massive amounts of iconic and archetypal powers that need to be fixed and fitted into massive soul-formations, then it MIGHT seem a bit... fucked.

BUT some of us like this crazy ass shit. It's pretty fucking creative. BONKERS. But creative. Turning already bonkers cultivation storytelling into OP OP OP bonkers cultivation storytelling.

And mad props to it.

Just consider this a quest for YOU, too.

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The First War by Tao Wong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I do honestly prefer steady progression in novels like this as compared to pure chaos, I can admit when war and chaos can have its place.

Still, I DO prefer training and cultivation and breaking through personal barriers. I can't wait to get back to that.

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The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cory Doctorow is pretty much the undisputed champion when it comes to distilling complex tech issues based on many lifetimes of work (nonprofit forums) and his native intelligence.

So what does this mean when it comes to AI and what comes after, let alone whatever a centaur is in relation to it, or wtf a reverse centaur is?

Ah, it's actually beautiful. Once you know.

A centaur in this context is anyone who uses a tech to improve your capability. Be it glasses or binoculars or anything that multiplies force, be it heavy machinery or artificial limbs or a spellchecker on your word processor.

In more hyper-focused context, a reverse centaur is someone who has given over the agency of use over to the tool. That would be like abrogating all your authority over to your glasses. Or to your artificial limb, asking it to tell you whether you ought to pick up a cup of coffee. Or asking your smart toilet whether or not you feel like peeing at any particular moment.

So what the hell does LIFE AFTER AI mean? Like, after AI has become our overlords? After we've Butlerian Jihaded them? In this case, it's after the AI BUBBLE has burst. AI isn't a bad thing. It's a TOOL. You can murder someone with your kitchen chair, but truly, most people just prefer to SIT on them.

So, let's get back to what this book is really about.

It's not a diatribe against AI. It IS a critique of the whole industry that seems hell bent on pushing AI on all the bosses and efficiency experts and CEOs who LOVE the idea that they can just fire all the work force in favor of AI. Or even more specifically, whether we're all being centaurs who use the positive features of AI to improve our ACTUAL work, whatever it is, keeping responsibility for every stage of its use firmly in our own hands, be it the original idea, the workflow, and the final product, or whether we're being forced into a truly shitty situation where the AI dictates the original idea, forcing us to fix its workflow, and forcing us to sign off on its final product.

You know... making us become the slave to the very tool that should have been here to help us.


Of course, my explanation isn't nearly as good as his. I'm barely scratching the surface and I'm not giving any of the great real-world examples of real CEOs running toward this bubble with horse-blinders on. Or rather, reverse-centaur blinders.

Because, let's face it, this massive influx of AI-everything at the very tops of all the techbro's companies is essentially a power-grab that ignores the real-world harm that will befall everyone. It's almost like they gave up thinking two or three steps down the line. Perhaps they gave up thinking altogether. Or perhaps they just asked an AI to do their thinking for them. Like a reverse-centaur. And now they they might be thinking that if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for all of us.

Because, I guess, there aren't any people on the planet who are able to think anymore.

But then, maybe, that's actually true.

I'm remembering a quote from Robert A. Heinlein right now. "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." But then, if you rule out stupidity, all that's left is malice. And malice actually does fit the bill.

Mind you, this is just my own opinion, and isn't Doctorow's. At least, it isn't within this book.

Both he and I do think that AI can be a very good thing if it is used responsibly. If it is used for the betterment of each and every one of us. It is a massive time saver, a tireless worker, and does certain things SO much better than us. But it should not (and I repeat) should not be the one to actually THINK for us.

Every single one of us should take responsibility for our own thoughts. Period. If you give up that responsibility to your thinking-helper, then you've given up responsibility on your own soul. Again, my opinion. But then, why do all these powerful people want exactly that?


Sigh.

Either way, this is a very thought-provoking book and I can't say I disagree with anything in it at all. It's not a doomer book. It's a personal responsibility book. And a shine-the-light-on-the-bad-actors book. It IS a very worthwhile book.

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The First Stop by Tao Wong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weirdly enough, I was kinda meh about the first book in this series and so I took a long break. And then I saw that he had other series and seems to still be going pretty strong so I thought... why not give it another chance, maybe the writing got better?

After reading the second book, I can't tell if the writing is better, but my tolerance for straight cultivation, Wuxia-style seems to be recharged nicely.

I had a pretty good time with this. School arc. A few expeditions. Relatively good progression. It's comfortable.

I can't say it's brilliant, but it IS comfortable. Like taking a long soak in an old-time kung fu movie, or rather, a full series. So, not bad at all.

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Shades of Forever by Chris Kluwe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a lot of things to say about this book, and most of them are good. It does, however, require a bit of mental adjustment, at least with me, before I get to the core of WHAT this book is and what it's trying to accomplish.

Without that adjustment, I'd mostly be trying to figure out what I just read. For example, it starts out like a post-post-apocalyptic story with lovecraftian under and overtones, firmly SF, but then it feels like I just stepped into a pretty good LitRPG, complete with an understated system to level up various skills and main levels, and THEN it becomes a hard SF complete with spaceflight and fleets complete with existential threats to reality, and THEN it becomes a tight little humorous, adventurous core of a novel circling and encircling health, healing, love, sanctuary, and being decent despite everything.

That's a lot to unpack.

And approaching it AS a story that's wild and genre-hopping and very aware of all the things it borrows while never losing track of its emotional healing core is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

No, this isn't a LitRPG although I was really excited in the direction it took with it. No, it's not a space opera, although I thought it was right on par with Sanderson's SF. No, it's not a YA lovecraftian humor, although I was rocking it when it ran with it.

But it was all of these things. And it was healing, too.

Ambitious? Perhaps perfectly in line with our current world and everything our nerdy sensibilities need? Very self-aware and damn well crafted?

Yes, to all the above.


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The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an amazingly clear, coherent, and even better, a SHORT examination of the problems and solutions revolving big tech in the internet.

What it is: a deeply detailed and reality-based distillation of decades of conferences and forums trying to combat the enshittification of the internet.

What it isn't: a glorified wah-wah bemoaning our state.

That's right. It's intelligent, no-nonsense, and frankly revolutionary. And this should come as no surprise to ANYONE if you know the author. The same author of Enshittification. Or the great novel Little Brother.


So, what's so big in this nonfiction work? What's so important? I'd invite you to read it yourself, but I'll give you a few examples.

How about Interoperability? Any time a company blocks third-parties from innovating a time-and-money feature as an add-on to an existing product, often burying said product, company, or inventor in legal shit for the purpose to said company's fear of losing their bottom line, that's a direct attack on interoperability.

Remember MS Office not working with ANY other kind of computer or software package in the market until Apple reverse engineered the BS just so people could USE it on their own systems? That is an example of fighting back against monopolies. Of course, when Apple outright prevents Android users from getting messages through to Apple's Iphone users, that's ALSO a monopolistic tactic. Preventing interoperability. And why? For profit. Force people to USE THEIR HARDWARE, or software, or ideological setup, or whatever-the-fuck-reason, despite the fact that computers are inherently INTEROPERABLE.

More examples include printer ink cartridge racket. Bricked cars. Worldwide stifled innovation stuck behind the inherent harassment of EULAS.

Who is it protecting? The company. Not the user. Not the repairman. Not anyone except the monopoly. AT&T is a huge example. But so is Intel, MS, Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, and all the usual suspects. They are too big to fail. Why? Because the people regulating them are deeply in bed with the ones who run it. There are no third-party regulators. Impartial judges. And let's be real here. It's not a matter of being a subject that is too complicated to understand for laymen.

If that were really the case, then we'd never have laws to protect food or water sources, chemical safety, munitions safety, or child safety in the internet.

The trick is to actually allow third-party judges, or regulators, be able to perform their jobs of separating the wolves from the sheep pens instead of hiring yet more wolves to wring the last drop of blood from all the sheep.

Make it unlawful to lawsuit good-faith innovators, and if necessary, use a third-party commission to see if it IS a harassment suit.

Allow any kind of equipment or software to be repaired on the open market and not held to ransom by the original dealership/monolith/extortioner.

The argument that a company is too big to fail is just a smokescreen for the fact that it has undergone regulatory capture. It has either bought the lawmakers or it has many people over the barrel with really shitty strong-arm tactics.

Sound familiar?

Change the rules. Fight the monopolies by fighting the connective thread. This isn't a strong-arm approach. It's a change of mindset.

We allow Facebook enshittify our lives precisely because of the network effect. We're forced to stick with an abusive company like Amazon because we don't have any good alternatives. But if we de-fang the anti-regulation rules, making it easier to leave, en-masse, without losing all our friends and family members IN the move, then all of a sudden, we're free to use other services that don't sell off all our information or pen us into algorithmic echo chambers. Right, Meta? It's fairly simple, after all. You just need to throw out harassment lawsuits. Let the monopolies lose. I'm not saying let bad-actors run roughshod, either.

I'm talking about having someone with true impartiality JUDGE the cases. You know, in the idealistic, original-use way that courts were DESIGNED upon.

Ahem. If there's a conflict of interest, then REMOVE the conflict of interest.

Of course, this little problem is QUITE a large problem in our reality. And that also can be fixed by a change of mindset. If we all said ENOUGH OF THIS instead of shrugging yet again, and work toward actually making it better, maybe it won't end in pitchforks. But then, I guess the Pitchfork Emporium also dreams of being a monopoly.


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BuyMort: Bull Market Mayhem: How I Cornered The Multiversal Monopoly (BuyMort - The Shopocalypse Saga by Joseph Phelps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I think the romance part is... um... subpar... the rest of the novel is full of some pretty great fighting and fantasy/SF action as Earth (TM) is being maneuvered by the greater universal capitalistic nightmare into mercenary engagements that should have broken us.

But it didn't break us. We're good at fighting. And there are a lot of people who are pissed at the greater universal capitalistic nightmare and love the idea that the newcomer might maybe want to tear it all down.

I like that part.

Of course, the whole universal capitalistic nightmare is RATHER a bit close to home. I can't quite say whether this is painful to read because it's so recognizable now, or that it's come to us too early, or it's come to us too late.

It's probably painful because it IS painful. I'm getting full DCC vibes here.

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The Thrice-Bound Fool by Christopher Buehlman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm sure there are a lot of Buehlman fans out there. Between Two Fires is one of my favorite books. Blacktongue Thief was pretty great, too, and this is a direct successor to that hapless thief, misheif-maker, fool.

I will mention right here that you shouldn't bother to read this if you're a plot-bound maniac. But if you truly appreciate JOURNEY, then I'm certain you're going to enjoy the hell out of this.

One damn thing after another. That's how I'd describe this. Crazy situations, fantastic dialogues, curses-a-million, and increasingly horrible results.

It's like watching a train wreck. With gods, goblins, slavers, princesses, and a very glib, sometimes fairly intelligent FOOL.

It's an experience. I would ask you, dear reader, to just sit back and enjoy the ride.



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1% Lifesteal, Book Four by Robert Blaise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit I enjoy a great selfish-asshole to selfless-hero story. This one one took a LONG time coming and he obviously had plenty of reasons to stay selfish for as long as he was, but he's finally making and keeping friends who accept him for the cringy edgelord that he is.

It's nice.

It's just a shame that it had to take becoming a ruler of a city doomed to utter destruction, being offered an easy way out at the expense of the entire city, and having his tiny, tiny, malnourished conscience pricked just one time too many to force that change upon him.

And yes, there's a very fine line between order and chaos, sanity and insanity. So the real question is, can someone this batshit insane ever really BE a hero? Yeah. Jury is still out. Unfortunately, so is the judicator. That guy turned out to be rather decent in the end.

Fun shit, all told. Crazy. Utterly cringy. But fun. Should be the favorite book of all twelve-year-old boys in the world. :)


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1% Lifesteal, Book Three by Robert Blaise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If we needed more proof that this is an ultimate edgelord tale, then rest assured, this particular novel will seal that particular pain-coffin.

Honestly, I find it RATHER cringe, but it's still a self-aware novel that leans into it and even addresses the cringiest aspects, going even so far as to try to rectify all that poor mental health. Pain and suffering and just wanting to go all cold-blooded serial murderer on tons of irredeemable ass hats as opposed to white-hatting it by defending yourself or others? Yep. Embracing insanity? Yep. Half-assing redemption? Yep.

Totally cringe.

And yet.

The power fantasy is cranked up to 11. Progression, equally so. Interesting characters and enemies? In abundance. New locations to slink away, hide, only to be forced out of hiding in a spectacular fail? Oh, that's a gimmie. This character has all the subtlety of a dumpster fire. But he tries. And he even got 1.5 haircuts throughout the entire novel. Props. I guess. :)

And am I still having fun? Yep. Hey, all you other brotards out there, you wannabe edgelords. I have a message for you. You can either hold this novel up as a badge of your own mindrot, or treat it like the WARNING that it really is. It's entertaining, but damn. It is not a goal for any sane person to hold as a standard.

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1% Lifesteal, Book Two by Robert Blaise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm really not looking to see anything more than the birth of a true edgelord when it comes to these novels. So far as I can see, everyone is shit, betrayals are all that can be expected, and therefore, the greatest good will come from the salvation of a blood god. Blood for the blood god.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love when these novels have our MC try to get better, find a little peace, try to open up a little after all the torture and pain and MASSIVE trust issues he's developed in his short life.

But like with the horror of Pandora's Box, it's not the chaos that comes forth that's the true horror. The real horror is always the Hope that follows. How does one go on? You survive one nightmare scenario after another and finally seem to take one, then two steps forward, opening up to others, getting a place to stay after being on the run for so long, but then cultists happen. And heroes and soldiers happen. And vigilantes who don't understand shit happen. And all the while, the uber-powerful still get away with anything they want to get away with while the poor and the weak get swept under the rug.

Yeah. I guess it IS time for the blood god.

Enjoyable for exactly what it is. I'm not looking for anything more than this. Catharsis. As LitRPG.

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As We Fall Through Time: The extraordinary tale of time travel, betrayal and a love that echoes through the centuries by Claire North
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I went through several evolutions as I read this, but with one caveat: I've always trusted this author to do right by me, no matter what the subject or genre or weird direction they take me. I just sit back and enjoy the ride.

And this one wasn't my cup of tea for a grand stretch, but I trusted the author and the author didn't lead me astray.

My original complaint? Well, for a time-travel novel, it was truly stuck on the romance bit. This shouldn't be a surprise, going by the title, but it was slow going, eventually evolving into a tragic mystery and then into a more mundane mystery and then into a cataclysmic mystery that eventually resolved into a huge, rather brilliant novel that connected all the pieces together AND rather blew my mind at the climax.

And things that are eventually revealed tickled me seriously. With no spoilers. The PoV changes are what do me in.

I'm still laughing.

And yet, this isn't a comedy. It's about as serious as serious can get and it has the emotional gravity of a very different kind of novel. And I love every moment of it.

Now. After getting through what I thought were the slow parts, the parts I scoffed at, it all comes together, wonderfully, and I even cried.


Ahem. And once again, I'm forced to repeat that I must trust certain authors. Explicitly.


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1% Lifesteal, Book One by Robert Blaise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, this is a rage-inducing setup to create the perfect edge-lord. Poverty, betrayal after betrayal, hardship, torturous body-horror, and many insults after injury on a never-ending cycle, it really sets us up to root for watching our MC plow through everyone and everything.

Yep. It's a blood for a blood god kind of book.

So, of course, it's amusing to see that this 1% lifesteal ability is just an underestimated ability that everybody discounts because it IS so weak. You know, assuming that the wielder isn't punching WAY above his weight class.

And by the end of this book, guess what he's doing? Muahahahahahaha. Of course, he had to go through multiple hells to get there. But every edge lord has their origin story.

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Paris by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel like I've got four novels in one and I love them all equally. And on top of that, they keep intersecting with each other to create a much, much bigger story than any of them on their own. And then we get the great feeling like each character is living life on their own special cheat code that is never so overwhelming that there's always a new challenge that's actually challenging.

Be it assassinating an Egyptian god, or building an empire to supplant the powerful French monarch, live a life in a French Hogwarts, become a monkish underworld kingpin, become a dragon warrior, or preparing for war on four fronts, including Outsiders, Earthly titans, a pirate empire, and the French.

It's kinda funny that the French front is actually the most dangerous. But that's what you get when it comes to Medieval alternate history magic systems. :)

Great stuff here.

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The Rhine by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The story stays fresh and sure as hell doesn't slouch in the plot department. It knows what readers want. Progression novels tend to develop power creep RATHER quickly, so the whole Superman problem tends to make these types instantly boring UNLESS some seriously clever plots liven it up.

In this case, it's the Doppelganger skill. Why take your plot in one direction when you can take it in three or more completely different directions at the same time with the same character literally spread yourself thin for the pure challenge of it? And accidentally expand your empire in the meantime?

And it's still a great alternate history fantasy, so it's amazingly fun on many levels.

Still one of my new favorites.

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Venice by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book says they go to Venice, it's true, but it's even more true that they went to Carthage and vast amounts of land in Northern Africa. Fascinating stuff. And it's really worth noting that the main LitRPG character is given some really interesting reversals that limit his powers quite naturally in the plot. It really grounds him. And we make lots of new friends because of it.

Cute ones, especially. And one that stays REALLY close to him.

Tons of great fantasy tropes and especially power-progression tropes, but they all feel really natural in this book. I call that a big win.

This is an extremely strong LitRPG made even more fascinating for being placed in 11th century alternate Europe. With magic. :)



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Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I wasn't quite enthusiastic about an AI as a MC, it really didn't matter after the intro. He's just as autistic as the rest of the LitRPG characters everywhere else. And therefore just nerdy and obsessive enough to min-max his future.

Or in THIS particular case, his trip to an alternate Earth past that happened to develop monster cores and magic and the system.

And he goes to Constantinople. Nova Roma. Or at least, the decaying remnant of the old seat of Holy Power in its full decline. And that's nearly as fascinating as the fantasy/SF features.

Indeed, I had a fantastic time across the board. This is quickly becoming one of my favs.

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Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one might not be for me. I want to like the premise of being able to learn any extra skill very fast, and have loved it in other series, but the way it's exploited here is uneven and kinda slow.

I suppose that's to be expected with a fool, or at least someone with a fool mark, but it just seems to be bouncing off me at the moment. Alas. I usually like things like this. The twist has a lot of promise, after all.



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Carry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What do you get when you have a non-comedic Weekend at Bernies that isn't American Politics?

At great, atmospheric, vampire novel by Christopher Golden.

It's a DIFFERENT kind of road trip novel. That isn't the comedic wonder that was National Lampoon's Vacation. But similar.

Fun stuff. Very serious.

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Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solid horror. Excellent atmosphere, sliding between body horror and psychological, but the best part is absolutely the atmosphere.

Definitely worth the read if you want that growing unease, like a tumor on your life. One that you can actually release at the end of the book.

I particularly enjoyed the whole alien abduction angle. Fascinating unease.

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The Quantum Dawn by Derek Künsken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One caveat before I give a full review. I thought the opening, or perhaps even the first sixth of the novel was kinda rough. No great hooks and the only eye-catching things was the SF aspects and not the characters. And this is even after a much-appreciated recap of the first three books.

But after? Once it really gets going?

It just doesn't stop. It gets crazy good on the adventure side, trouncing even some of the best big-scope hard-SF out there. Reynolds and Brin on this level. And in some ways, when we get right into the really great imaginative stuff, it's pretty mind blowing. And that's AFTER we've got quantum analyses on the fly, religious AIs, water dog space pilots, quantum tunneling flora, and a huge ass chase through time that doesn't always follow (or even usually follow) causal patterns.

Indeed, this stuff goes non-linear early on, proving that things HAD to go a certain way because they were puzzling over the EFFECTS already accomplished and had to catch up to events after decoding it through racial alien DNA messages sent backward in time to warn of several future catastrophes that had to happen to force the correct effect. And if that isn't confusing enough, I spotted several MORE instances where this had to happen minus the alien DNA and all of a sudden the whole book sounds more like a sly refutation of religious determinism by positing the infallibility of the determinism in this cosmos.

And all the while, we STILL have to treat it like the mystery it so obviously is. And it's still crazy because we're STILL unable to see the whole picture. Right, Tesseract? Muahahahahahaha.

Did I mention this is a wonderfully nerdy book? So, yeah, forgive the front of it. You'll be in for one hell of a ride by the end. Even if there is no Bel. And even if the whole novel is fraught and tense.

It's still much more exciting than it has any right to be.

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Scion by James Islington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've generally had a some really good experience with fantasy authors trying their hands at SF, so this book was pretty much a no-brainer for me.

As it is, I won't say it's a ground-breaking story, but it IS very fast-paced and it has some twisty-twisty paths to keep us on our toes. Lots of tropes, easy to follow, easy to enjoy.

Like assassins? Clones? Shady shit? Old, irascible women and snarky OP dipshits? I'm sure you'll get along well with this novel.

If it's going to be a series, I don't see myself ignoring it. If it's a standalone, I might wind up feeling a bit disappointed. But as it is now? I would consider it a GOOD START. I'd love to have a good long story based on this.

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Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I figured it was about time I read the original light novel that inspired the fantastic anime of Perfect Blue, and I wasn't let down.

This is very much an interior-focused version, and I appreciate how it flenses the whole subgenre of stalker-horror. Half celebrity-abuse (or even just highlighting how all young people are abused for just wanting to be popular), and half an obsession/entitlement indictment, this particular story seems to be all too commonplace in real life. Give or take this skin bits, of course. But damn. Just look at us. Our whole society is sick as hell.

Just look at the fans.

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The Many by Sylvain Neuvel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These days, I tend to expect a hive-mind type of story to be either a horror the way propaganda wants me to hate socialism horror kind of way or something extremely mild the way propaganda wants me to love socialism kind of way.

What? Hive-mind is a METAPHOR? No way. Noooooo waaaayyyyyyy.

But yeah, I didn't mind this one. I mean, let's face it, the world is split between those who are willing to walk a mile in other's shoes and those who would never. Or it put it more succinctly, those who are willing to act on their empathy and those who won't.

This novel is frankly just an enormous almost-apocalyptic novel that moralizes that we should stop trying to trash everything.

Big damn surprise, right? Being nice to others is a GOOD thing? *shock* *awe* And yet, this gold standard seems to be getting further and further away.

I suppose I get why Neuvel wrote this novel. I suppose I even support it.

Just do that one thing to make the world a better place, no matter what it is. Damn right.

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Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I've grown old. Why? Because this book used to hit hard in my consciousness of social irony. Why? Because I grew up in a hardcore religious background that judged, judged, judged, and more than that, it had the context of religious cues that could turn a novel of hardship into a skewering indictment of social norms.

Back in '84, this probably would have ridden the full wave of religious backlash written as mainstream rebellion. Now? It tries to recall the old oppression, shower us with the logical and honestly moral rebellion against it, and tell us just how much idiocy we had been living in.

Which, in all honesty, I agree with.

Which makes this novel a real throwback simply because it sits on the far side of the fence.

Can I say how much I hate the swing of this pendulum? I'm sure I can, but I feel like most people won't really realize just how much religious zealotry can cause so much damn pain.

But then, here we are, Job. If you know, you know.

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Dissolution by Nicholas Binge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An easy, fun read about memory, time travel, and identity, while feeling like a crossed romance for old people.

And also a technothriller. Which is actually kinda funny when I put these two together. But it is what it is.

Honestly, I had a pretty good time with this. Very engaging. It dragged me in.

As I was reading it, I kept thinking about an old underrated time-travel movie called About Time. It doesn't match up 100%, but for great stretches, it kinda does. :)

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Ascension by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Still solid, but with one caveat: it's kinda all over the place and gormless in comparison to the previous four. Those were very solid with plot and direction. All of the books, including this one, has great progression at just the right pacing, but this is the one that seemed to flounder about.

Odd, that. It wasn't bad at all, but I'm comparing like-to-like.

Either way, I love the dead lands and the later battle against the Empire's golds. I can't wait to see where this LitRPG will go from here, or whether it's been written into a corner or not.

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The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was frankly interested in this just for the title and perhaps thought that it might be in line with Starter Villain or many other fairly recent books that dive pretty deep in the lives of side-villainous characters coming into their own, usually turning out to be decent people.

I mean, Unionizing? Hell yeah, get that collective bargaining on against all the super evil people out there. We're definitely not using fantasy as subtext here, no sir!

So imagine my sad face when I read about a cozy fiction with minor stakes as if it's all low-paid jobs for bad bosses, only it's Igor and the Bride of Dracula among other well-worn tropes just feeling ill-used and unappreciated even as they try to develop shy friendships and find a way out of loneliness?

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's low-key and slow paced and cozy and probably up a lot of people's alleys. But for me? Give me Zelazny or Scalzi. The plots are generally a lot more interesting. As are the characters.

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Fold Catastrophes by Peter Watts


Short story collection by one of my favorite authors.


Gut Feelings -- (5*) Laugh-out-loud brilliant. Perfect combination of Google-hate, gut-borne cognition programming, and violence investigation, corporation-style. The way it's set up and executed is pure cotton candy to me.


21 Second God -- (4*) I'm a huge fan of runaway tech and warning stories, but this hits several more sweet spots: technological hive-mind, intelligent catastrophes, and the simple fact that we are all, in the end, a bunch of depressed idiots trying to become something more than depressed idiots. Or, at least, this was my own personal interpretation that's still just one valid one among several in this story. Grief, withering, and possible transcendence are more. :)


Contracting Iris -- (3*) Body snatching via microbes. Pretty decent but ultimately forgettable, having been done before. A lot.


Defective -- (5*) Super nerdy first contact stuff in the same universe as Blindsight and Echopraxia. Black hole goodness, BFG's, sun colonization, and impossible conflict. It's depressing, but damn, it's accurate for all that. Hard SF goodness.


Giants -- (5*) Holy crap that's one hell of an imaginative visual/textual trip. Great characters, too. But it really puts the awe in the some. Don't get much SF like that anymore. Cool stuff. Would make one hell of a movie.


Test 4 Echo -- (4*) It's a clever and short thought experiment illustrating the difference between the survival instinct and how it COULD relate to an AI, and the converse. (What causes the survival instinct? Should we build it in, or is it a consequence of consciousness?) As well as being a cool little story on its own.


ZeroS -- (5*) All kinds of awesome. Not just a zombie-consciousness military story right out of Blindsight, but a killer tribute to David Bowie. And since I've been a huge fan of Bowie, the first thing I thought was that each subsection of this novella was a direct reference to Bowie's songs (and they fit, strangely enough, thematically). And I even played the songs in my head as I read.

It's just that cool.


Critical Mass -- (4*) A VERY Peter Watts kind of story. All subconscious SF, art, internal conflict, and an outright art installation destruction investigation. Wild stuff and very obviously him. :)


The Colonel -- (5*) This has just about everything I love in a story much bigger than itself. A standalone that has massive continuations in the Blindsight universe, a massive thematic continuation of this particular set of stories (hive minds), and a deeply human and visceral gut punch story all on its own. And worse, it makes me want to re-read the entire Firefall series again. With relish.


The Wisdom of Crowds -- (5*) Fantastic what-if exercise. And just as ugly as it would be in reality. So, what if a broad selection of humanity could vote a whole city off the world? What would the wisdom of the crowd vote? Muahahahahahahaha


Game Theory -- (5*) This one is courageous and more than a little disturbing on many levels. Crazy enough to have its MC a damnably guilty priest with Conrad's Syndrome, the entire story is placed in a dying Earth that has given up precisely because science has proven we live in a Simulation, even if it is god-like in scope. But Watts doesn't just give us a great setup. He forces us to really come to terms with what we REALLY believe.

Suffering, indeed.


I'm immensely impressed with all of the stories in this collection. Watts is fantastically motivated to weave and interweave all of these main themes in a hard-hitting tapestry, be it distributed intelligence, subconscious thinking, disassociation, or questioning existential reality. All of this would be brilliant even if it wasn't couched in equally excellent hard-SF that's as nerdy as it is gorgeous, but it is both.

Tons of meat and potatoes and rich, rich gravy.

I just wish so much more SF could be like this. Pushing boundaries, asking real questions, being excellent for excellence-sake.

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Vengeance by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think the series is getting even better. Or perhaps I absolutely love the culmination of a slow-burn setup that knocks it out of the park.

It's probably the latter. Payoff, especially when given this much care, is particularly effective.

It's not just rebellion now. It's not just a far-off quest to remove all the torturous magistrates and evil nobles. The war has begun and it's not just fought by a stream of powerful undead. Woo! Woo!

Very enjoyable. It's headed toward large scale fantasy now and not just a tiny force of powerful undead minions, a scattering of small towns, or the simmering rage of enslaved gold-rankers.

I can't wait to jump into the next.

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Masquerade by RinoZ
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A huge turn from the previous two books, this one focuses on being sneaky and hiding in plain sight while pursuing the dark craft in the big city.

The subtext is delicious, of course, with the ongoing fight against the magistrates and the growing unease against those same magistrates across the realm.

It reminds me of the old joke meme from years ago about Cthulhu and the elections. Why vote for the lesser evil when you could vote for the greater one?

But in this case, truly, it seems like the Old Ones, Vampire Cabals, and the Abyssal legions ARE on the side of the angels here.

Too funny.

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