I count books as "read" if I make it to at least 50%. The release I got from DNFing this book was greater than any our gal Mal got.
ITime of death: 51%
I count books as "read" if I make it to at least 50%. The release I got from DNFing this book was greater than any our gal Mal got.
I had few expectations from this book, but it disappointed them all. If you want a book about ghost sex, without any of the erotic bits, pick this up! Otherwise, it's entirely forgettable, and that's a sin I don't think you can just pray away....more
There was a lot interesting with this book and sadly I still think it focused on the very mundane. This book is about power systems and a loss of faitThere was a lot interesting with this book and sadly I still think it focused on the very mundane. This book is about power systems and a loss of faith. It has a ton of cool set dressing I kept waiting to have become integral to the story, but basically make this a story of a good Christian soldier who realizes they're sent to kill people who look just like their family, but add shiny wings to it. It could be a Vietnam or Afghanistan War vet story otherwise.
It was engaging enough, but I don't think it did what it wanted, and I don't think it used its own framework to its best potential. It was fine.
A little disappointed with this one. A very long introduction that I don't think needed to be this drawn out. And some really upsetting choices.
CONTENA little disappointed with this one. A very long introduction that I don't think needed to be this drawn out. And some really upsetting choices.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ an extreme and graphic abuse of a cat. He lives, but I had to skip multiple pages of it. Loss of a parent, ostracism, classism, child abuse. (hide spoiler)]
Things to love:
-Fun magic system. A little pat, but also nice to see something a bit more "hard magic" feeling.
-Good boy kitty. Love a good sidekick kitty.
-Lots of mystique. Definitely things I want to know more about!
Things I didn't love:
-Characterization. The evil folks are evil because they're evil, and they do really torqued things in great detail. I didn't care for that. I'm used to the cast of the Verus series, which I think are generally more complex and interesting in their own rights. Not so much here.
-A little young. This one reads more like it's aiming for the YA market, which is fine but YIKES on some of the content then.
-Overly drawn out. This one falls into the "but how will they know all about the cool stuff in my notes if I don't tell them every detail!" category. This book should have been a subplot in the next book.
I don't think I'll continue, and the bits that stick out to me do so in a not so positive way, so this is 2.5 rounded down....more
I liked a lot of this book. I thought the interweaving stories from different perspectives was exceedingly clever. The prose I found, to borrow a termI liked a lot of this book. I thought the interweaving stories from different perspectives was exceedingly clever. The prose I found, to borrow a term, workmanlike, but it told a compelling story.
-The setting. Historical fiction that isn't European based is novel enough in an English language book that I found this different in an interesting way.
-The connective tissue. I think this book is very smart in its framing.
-The characters. I dare you not to feel things for them!
Things I did not love:
-Romance. If period shapeshifting fantastastical detective romcom were a genre, this would hit every trope in that made up space. I liked the lovers and I wish them well, but not even they could make me happy that in the end there was kissing.
-Lack of honesty in the writing. What it boils down to is that I didn't believe the trek everyone undertook to get from the story start to its conclusion. It just wasn't sufficient.
Still delightful, and worth a read for the scenery and the different folks we meet, even if the author keeps making departures from the story for loin-centric purposes....more
The first chapter or two of this were delicious, throwing us into a far future world that was not Earth, and not any real city, but that felt like a lThe first chapter or two of this were delicious, throwing us into a far future world that was not Earth, and not any real city, but that felt like a lot of real cities. I think it needed a bit more editing to tidy up the middle, but it was a fun read.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ torture, discussion of rape, political assassination/secret police, ecological collapse. (hide spoiler)]
Things that stood out:
-Personhood discussion. I think this one did a pretty good job of showing how hard it is for us to admit that people who are not like us are still people. I am pretty sure that octopuses, elephants, dolphins and whales are people, which means that I do everything in my power to give them the same treatment as I would a human. I can hear folks saying "how can they be people since..." and I can also hear people telling me "there's no way you actually treat them like people, you capitalist omnivore." This book is basically that discussion without too much moralizing.
-Myths and the use of the narrator. Despits its wackadoo future scifi vibes, it also has a delightfully saturated feeling to it, as it mimics the shape of myths in a way I enjoy.
What detracted for me:
-My own life. I want to take a second to remind future me and anyone else reading this that I didn't dedicate myself to it the way I normally do when I'm reading a book. Because I was reading it at a time when I was very busy and had other things I also had to finish, it's hard for me to say for sure if I dragged my feet because I didn't love it, or if I didn't love it because I kept breaking immersion. Salt grains, etc.
-Monologues and summaries. Two of my all time least favorite forms of exposition are the monologue from a character who COULD have told us things before but did not, and summaries of things in ways that don't tie in to the rest of the story. For example, if they're writing in a journal, I'd expect some things to be a bit cursory and others to be more intricate. If, however, your narrator is a storybot programmed to tell memoirs, I expect a consistent voice and approach. We did not get it here.
-Needs editing. This needed a haircut. It started going off the rails in a way that felt more like not knowing when to kill your darling than it did something inventive and engaging for me.
I really enjoyed this. A deeply angry book about how absolutely wrecked everything gets when crimes against companies and religion are the things thatI really enjoyed this. A deeply angry book about how absolutely wrecked everything gets when crimes against companies and religion are the things that are policed by the military. A few surprising and cinematic twists as well.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, prostitution of children, pedophilia, religion, body horror, genocide, loss of a loved one, torture. (hide spoiler)]
Things that were great:
-Truly unhinged characters. Charismatic cult-like leaders who do terrible things and somehow make those who gravitate to them culpable for their leader's actions. Met and matched with a true genius assassin, and a godly woman who forgives the sins of monsters.
-Terrifying future. Some have said that they didn't like the "worldbuilding" because the actual planets were nothing special, and space travel was not explored. But what was cool was the structures in place, the systems and their ramifications.
-Didn't take the easy road. There's often a cadence to stories that are aiming at revolution. I liked that this didn't have teenage children singlehandedly take anything down, or even lead. I'm underselling it, but I don't want to do spoilers.
What I didn't love:
-Rape as backstory. There's so so many abuses by power that aren't rape, as this book explores. Can we please, for the love of puppies, just not use rape in one gorram story.
-Plot armor. Some things just happened because the author wanted them to, and it was fine, but given how much atrocity there was, the easy wins felt cheap.
I think some of the themes could have been tightened a bit, but overall, this one was a good blend of frenetic pace and confident storytelling that told a story that I don't see as often as I'd like....more
This was odd to read at the same time as Otherland by Tad Williams, because they both overwrite things to an almost pathological level. However, all tThis was odd to read at the same time as Otherland by Tad Williams, because they both overwrite things to an almost pathological level. However, all the details in this story, while not, perhaps, always useful, are always consistent and inform the POV we're experiencing.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[murder, harm to children, cults, misogyny (intentional and casual), cults, inability to consent, medical experimentation, torture, fatphobia/ableism. (hide spoiler)]
Things that were awesome:
-Scope. There are so many places and times in this book! So many POVs!
-Plotting. I think this is one of the most tightly plotted books I've read in quite some time. Every scene was framed to move the story along. Every POV said something different about the society and the experiences, without retreading old territory. We got some very close, personal moments and understanding of system wide machinations. Brilliant.
-Paula and Adam. I liked their story best, I think.
Things that perhaps were not so awesome:
-Hella long. I'm not sure I needed to know the dimensions of every room everyone walked into or their thoughts on skydiving or being 200. It wasn't bad, my editor's pen didn't jump to my hand, but this is a doorstop and maybe we could have achieved the same ends with a few thousand fewer words.
-How we talk about bodies. Funny, for a book this extensive, it really REALLY wanted everyone to think all the time about slimness. Everyone was either beautiful and fit or about to get "rejuvenated" anyway so they could be a little portly. Bleh.
Definitely going to read on, once I catch my breath from holding this bad boy up for so long....more
So, I thought this was pretty fun. High octane, manly, philosophical in the extreme but also...fun. It wasn't trying to be more, it wasn't preaching aSo, I thought this was pretty fun. High octane, manly, philosophical in the extreme but also...fun. It wasn't trying to be more, it wasn't preaching at me, and it didn't quite go so far as to see all women as blow up dolls that pushed back. They did have their own agendas, even if part of that invariably included sex with the MC.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ patricide, slavery, coercion of will, use of someone else's body for sex, gore, religion. (hide spoiler)]
Things to love:
-Mystery heist explosion! Prison breaks! Mystery solving! Serial kleptomania! Cabals! Heists! All in one orgiastic whodunnit!
-Worldbuilding. This is so funky. It reminds me of many things, with groups colonizing different places and imbuing it with the social ideals of the colonizers. Mars has 2 quirks: privacy is paramount, and the cities move at random so that attackers can't predict where the city will be at any given time. There are games-crazy folk who theory craft their physical construction for min-max capabilities. There are cults who worship game devs. Essentially, this universe is built on the theory that all of us are simulations, and then expands that to extremes, and I think that was extremely well done.
-Broken boy. We've got a thief who's literally lost his mind and is also literally dominated by a war priestess. I mean. Am I meant to be immune to that?
-Just the right pace. Super impressed as the author is Finnish and this is in English. There's no fat here. It's fast without intrusive writing gimmicks. Is EVERYTHING spelled out for me? No, I still don't understand many things. But I understood everything I needed to make this particular drama dramatic without cringing at info dumps, rants, or leaps of faith.
Things I didn't love:
-Boys will be boys. This was still for boys. Where the dick went was terribly important in this book, and was only omitted when someone yanked our hound dog's leash. At certain points, to reference Family Guy, le Flambeur did conduct with his penis.
-A lot I don't understand. There are cultures here with orders of magnitude more post-human ability than others. I don't follow the power spike and how it works for this society.
I'm gonna read on, so it's definitely less obnoxious than many I've read with these literary motifs, but I would not encourage to read this with much in the way of expectation other than "a fun ride," double entendre intended.
Really upset at this book. The author has a lot of interesting things to say about AI, neural programming, and the often lopsided game of tug o' war wReally upset at this book. The author has a lot of interesting things to say about AI, neural programming, and the often lopsided game of tug o' war with science as an end to itself on one end, the war machine on the other, and people wanting to maximize pleasure sort of bopping around between the two.
But then he thought "nah, that's not cool enough, some sexual assault should fix that up."
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, graphic descriptions of gang rape, child abuse, cults, serial killers, gangs, torture, soldiers, loss of loved ones, unethical medical experimentation. (hide spoiler)]
Things that were cool:
-The programming parts. Cool to think about how connections work, how hacks work, how programs spread and so on.
The rest:
-Rampant casually terrible things. Video game violence type stuff. It starts with a man conning a woman by using software to get her to sleep with him, and then due to a programming failure he assaults her, and it goes downhill from there. He then also conducts illegal experiments on brains without consent. That's the good guy. Several dudes are given the stories of women's rapes which they then "use" to fuel their own vengeance.
Could it have been good? Yes. But I refuse to be numb to this trope and therefore this was painful for me to read....more
One of the things we who read copious amounts of speculative fiction say is "my god, it's always spaceship captains, kings, and high mages (even if thOne of the things we who read copious amounts of speculative fiction say is "my god, it's always spaceship captains, kings, and high mages (even if they don't know it yet) where are the regular folk?"
This is scifi for the regular folk.
It's "low" scifi in that what happens is totally plausible and relies more on humanitarian sciences like sociology, politics, and medical policy. But I think it's important, because it asks what kind of future we would want. WE, the most of us, the everyman, who isn't an astronaut or a politician or researcher. We, who are raising kids, pursuing careers, teaching the minds of the next generation, and just hoping to make the best out of this life that we can.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ marital rape, domestic abuse, AIDS, queerphobia, loss of a child, dementia, loss of a parent, cancer, misogyny, religion, war including nuclear war. (hide spoiler)]
Things to love:
-The surreality. The cleverest thing about this book for me is how it messed with my own perceptions. Neither of these realities mirror the one I live in, which made it jarring in a way that I imagine was intended to mimic the confusion our main character feels in remembering her "lives."
-Patricia. A complex woman in both her lives, and relatable.
-The choices. While I found the packaging a little trite, honestly both of these worlds and lives sound both terrible and beautiful to me. How perfectly human of it.
-The writing. It's Jo Walton. It's confident, vulnerable, astute.
Why not five stars?:
-Mark. Throw the whole man out. Honestly, what a piece of shit in all worlds.
-The end. I see what Jo was going for, but I think it needed a bit more finessing. One of the things I personally love about books is when I can tell it's achieved its own goal, and I don't think that happened here, quite.
A beautiful literary look at what makes a life, and how we as people experience changes in our society, be they social webs, war, drug advancements or space stations....more
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ child abuse, war, abuse of those with disabilities, desecration of graves (hideI found this plodding and disjointed.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ child abuse, war, abuse of those with disabilities, desecration of graves (hide spoiler)]
Things to enjoy:
-The opening. It felt very "Twilight Zone" at first and I enjoyed that.
-Contemplations. This book touches on a lot of subjects--teleportation, immortality, what it means to be human, whether humanity can overcome its worse instincts, AI/created beings...lots of ideas, some of which are handled better than others.
Everything else:
-Meandering. There's no real structure to it. We sort of just float through musings of someone as they have thoughts. And as anyone who's daydreamed will know, that's not a terribly linear thing and often a bad story to relate to someone else. If only Simak had taken note of that.
-Badly used story devices. Deep deep foreshadowing where none is necessary and zero where a bit of a heads up would have intensified the plot point. For example, we get no heads up about what Mary is or why this would be hard for Enoch, but we get an entire chapter, essentially, on why he's a good shot with a gun.
-What was the point? Everything was resolved for our MC? Everyone did what they had to in order to keep the status quo? What a letdown.
I get that this is a classic, but increasingly I find the classics to be rough drafts that just don't evoke much for me. Not all, of course, but so much of the "Golden Age" seems to have tarnished in the intervening years....more
This was the most inoffensive almost kawaii look at genocide I've ever read. Which is a very uncomfortable thing to feel, but also, I'm not offended? This was the most inoffensive almost kawaii look at genocide I've ever read. Which is a very uncomfortable thing to feel, but also, I'm not offended? I am in a cozy but atrocious recursive cycle.
-The terraforming. The actual "what do we have to do to prepare the planet for more life forms" part was neat.
-Animal buddies! Who DOESN'T want to be friends with a flying moose?!
-Feel good look at feel bad things. You at least won't be sad!
Things that I didn't like:
-How can you feel good about feel bad things? I don't know, man. I'm not sure I'm really interested in cozying up with extreme capitalism and slavery? The dissonance of just being alive in a world that relies on mega corporations is already a pretty precarious part of being a human. More was not really what I wanted.
-Illogical. Sigh. That's not how contracts work. That's not how real estate works, that's not how medical experimentation works etc. etc. etc. I get it, it's fun to make corporate overlords who "own" people, but in a world where real corporate overlords actually do own people, let's make it make sense, you know? Make it add up. Show me the work in worldbuilding that got us here. That actually goes for everything going on in this book, not just the slavery, although that's the yuckiest part.
-Really a collection of novellas. Which is fine, but it did feel like different books rather than episodes in the world. I found it disjointed.
I think perhaps the worst thing I can say about a book about huge social wrongs is that I felt nothing from it. And I think the nicest thing I can say about this book is that I have no ill feelings. So...it's okay....more
This was utterly delightful! Grab some tea and toast, recline, and just go sailing down the book. No it's not perfect. I've used the Lazy River-ride aThis was utterly delightful! Grab some tea and toast, recline, and just go sailing down the book. No it's not perfect. I've used the Lazy River-ride as a metaphor before, and this is another one of those. The best constructed ride in the park? No. The most inventive or exciting? Also no. Enjoyable every damn time? Hell yes.
-Lady scientist! Many of us, myself included, believe that the protagonist is coded as neurodivergent. She's fixated on her work, very good at it, and less good at people.
-Faeries. I'm such a geek for stories that talk to cross cultural phenomena (there are something like faeries/wee folk/good folk/elves in just about every culture I've ever studied and on every continent) AND that see these things as not necessarily cute and friendly. This book does a tremendous job making the faeries inhuman. Scary simply because they do not share our baseline for morality, kindness, or general social behavior.
-Cozy. There's toast and tea and chatting with people and making friends with the locals. There's dresses and heroic rescues and proclamations of love. Even when the stakes are high, you know they're actually not very high because it will be okay.
Things that you just can't think about:
-It makes no sense. She's a renowned field scientist who doesn't know how to start a fire? And who chooses to go to one of the most inhospitable parts of the world at its most inhospitable time? And other people were able to come too????? the questions really are endless. Once you start picking it all unravels.
Don't look too hard. Just assume this is an alternate earth and exclaim about how shiny it is. If you inspect it, you'll lose the beauty, and gosh darnit, I had a good time....more
My favorite thus far by Morena-Garcia. Dark, complex, and brooding without, in my humble opinion, leaving the Gothic in search of the melodramatic.
CONMy favorite thus far by Morena-Garcia. Dark, complex, and brooding without, in my humble opinion, leaving the Gothic in search of the melodramatic.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, coercion of will, incest, induced drugged states, familicide, murder, mental illness, mushrooms and how they interact with humans. (hide spoiler)]
Things to love.
-The atmosphere. Creepy, and maddeningly close to liveliness and love, but removed convincingly.
-The bad guy. Colonialism is the real villain here, with greed a close second.
-Prose. I felt enveloped in the mystery and unable to escape, which is exactly what our protagonist proclaims.
-The macabre. The spoilerfree version? A lot of the horror exists in spaces that I think are understood as upsetting to humans, whether or not you have the phobia.
Things that detracted:
-Blunt weapons. Subtelty is not a friend in this book. Characterization, plot progression, ultimate responsibility...you will not be surprised, lingering instead on the trapped feeling.
-I'm not sure it handles itself responsibly. Bad shit happens. Do we look on the bad shit and internalize it in any way? Not convinced. And I've never met a victim who didn't struggle against what sense of self their victimization meant.
The first by this author that I think actually holds promise. Perhaps I only enjoy her horror.
Written in the compulsive reading style of a thriller, it was easy to finish, just hard to enjoy.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[genocide, religion, sWritten in the compulsive reading style of a thriller, it was easy to finish, just hard to enjoy.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[genocide, religion, self mutilation, bugs, body horror (including eyes), loss of a loved one, coercion of will, claustrophobia, medical experimentation (hide spoiler)]
Things that were fun:
-Very visual. Others have said this felt like an old dungeon crawl video game or an RPG. It felt very tactile and atmospheric.
-Fast-paced. You didn't have to think about consistency, character interaction, or marvel at any prose. It was propulsive, which is nice in such a chonky book.
Things that detracted for me:
-Dialgoue. Sean is not funny. Sean thinks Sean is very funy. Everyone is always yelling at Sean. And when they yell at Sean, they make sure to use his name every time. His name is Sean, and the other characters love reminding you.
-Not how this works. The language translation Sean does really grated on me. And I have a personal and professional hang up around Tuskeegee style medical trials.
-Only the space ship was truly built. The characters and the world made no sense, really. To say you are stateless when only a city is wiped off the map is...well, it's still traumatic, but that's not how statelessness works either. The "twist" at the end fell flat because the entire time we were led to believe that everyone only tolerated each other.
A quick popcorn read that was just stale and flavorless for me....more
Not at all what I anticipated. I generally hate multiverse/time travel stories, but this one was quite smart.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ domesticNot at all what I anticipated. I generally hate multiverse/time travel stories, but this one was quite smart.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ domestic violence, child abuse, rape, sex work, drug use, overdose, murder, war, gang violence, serial killers, queerphobia, racism, classism, child soldiers, religion. (hide spoiler)]
Things to love:
-Multiverse as metaphor. This is, as I read it, mostly a metaphor for healing generational trauma, and how circumstances and perception are so important when you're trying to break out. Sometimes, the spirit is willing but the body is trapped. And sometimes, vice versa.
-Very human. A lot of this felt very compassionate towards those in pain, and hopeful about a future for even the most downtrodden.
-Interesting narrator. Did it make perfect sense, the world and what she was? No. Was I willing to suspend my disbelief for this MC? Yes!
-The balance. A complaint was that this is yet another story about Black pain. And I do see that and don't disagree, but from where I sit, I also admired the love and the triumph in it. So, for me, this worked nicely.
The missing star:
-Bad guy. Very moustache twirly. Compelling evil is, I think, more soul-sucking to write than obvious evil, and despite being obviously capable of writing compelling evil, we did not see that in the actual big bad.
-Plot. I loved it until it got a railroad plot. About half way we go from a character study in an interesting space to a thriller-esque story about stopping secondary murders and it felt very intrusive. Actual spoiler here: (view spoiler)[ I wish it had been something more immediate, or that we'd walked into it more naturally...maybe the reason this Cara was here was because Adam had ordered a hit on her family on her own world or something. Something to make this feel more immediate. (hide spoiler)]
Definitely worth a read, just shields up on this one, friendos!...more
If you're looking for a book that both venerates and despises mothers, that centers and obviates women, look no further!
It's charming and clunky, blunIf you're looking for a book that both venerates and despises mothers, that centers and obviates women, look no further!
It's charming and clunky, blunt like a curb to the face yet shadowy, and, I'm sad to say, largely forgettable.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ misogyny, loss of a child, war, loss of a loved one, rape (off screen but mentioned often), sex-negative, sexual assault, religion, domestic abuse (hide spoiler)]
Things that were cool:
-The setting. I love Viking era Ireland! So much room for cool culture clashes!
-Beloved children. We need more moms in SFF and the kids in this one were all right.
-Mythology. Like I said, love this era for all the interconnecting things we get to see.
Things that were tedious:
-Women hating women. *rubs eyes* don't we all grow out of this by 8th grade? Also for prioritising moms in this book we sure seem to have a low opinion of them. Do better, Lawless.
-Art imitating art. I think most of this book is...absolute nonsense based on nonsense that some dude wrote 50 years ago.
-An unending prequel. This whole freakin' book is just a prelude to the story.
-Boring. A real sin in books.
2.5 rounded up because I think it had some merit on its own, I'm just hard pressed to tell you what it is, exactly. -...more
Loading...
