User Profile

Kadomi

Kadomi@bookrastinating.com

Joined 1 year, 10 months ago

I am Kadomi@dice.camp. Avid book-lover from Germany, focus on #Sci-Fi and #Fantasy, exploring the Fediverse. I also love #truecrime, #mystery, #historicalfiction and just about any genre I can get my hands on. I also read a lot of #ttrpg stuff. Rulebooks, adventures, you name it.

I'm a queer lady, so I read the occasional #lesfic.

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Kadomi's books

Currently Reading (View all 5)

Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Quentin Bates: Trap (Paperback, 2019, Orenda Books) 3 stars

People breaking bad in Iceland

3 stars

The sequel to the high-pace Snare is a direct continuation of the first book, and gives us pretty much more of the same. It's also unfortunately pointing out more weaknesses here, that didn't bother me much in the first book, but annoy me now.

In any case, this is pretty much an Icelandic variation on Breaking Bad. We have regular folks here who have to break bad in order to survive. Mostly, our protagonist Sonja, who was forced to serve as drug mule so she can continue to see her son Tomas, but also Bragi, the customs inspector who wants to make sure his Alzheimer wife can spend her remaining days at home. And it gets wackier for Sonja who needs to deal with crazy Mexican narcos. Mr. José reminded me a lot of Tuco Salamanca in the Breaking Bad universe.

The novel is as fast-paced as the first one. …

Naomi Alderman: The Power (2016, Viking) 4 stars

Gender role reversal, not for the faint of heart

4 stars

Content warning CW: violence, child abuse, sexual assault, rape

Joe Abercrombie: The Heroes (2011, Orbit) 4 stars

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the …

War, what is it good for?

4 stars

It is really hard for me to understand why I goddamn love Abercrombie's writing so much. I recommended the First Law trilogy to my wife, and she kinda despised the hyper-masculine world of the First Law setting.

This book is no different. And yet. Abercrombie's not great with plot, but he's amazing with characters. This book alone brings a plethora of fresh characters we never met, or only in passing, and then the return of many previous characters, including the most tragic character in fantasy, Caul Shivers. All in all we get 6 point of view characters. 3 for the union: Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced King's Guard after the events of Best Served Cold, Finree dan Brock, Lord Marshal Kroy's daughter, pined for by Bremer, but monstrously ambitious for her young husband, and Tunny, a corrupt Corporal of the First. The 3 characters for the North are Curnden Craw, probably …

reviewed Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (Karen Memory, #1)

Elizabeth Bear: Karen Memory (2015) 3 stars

Karen Memory is a steampunk novel by Elizabeth Bear. It was published by Tor Books, …

It isn't you, it's me

2 stars

I usually enjoy Elizabeth Bear's fiction very much, but this was doomed from the beginning. Karen Memory is an AU story, set in the fictional town Rapid City during the gold rush. Only that this is a steampunk western.

The protagonist and first-person storyteller is Karen Memery, a hooker with a heart of gold who ends up investigating a series of murders together with a Marshal, rescuing abused hookers from the main villain. That's about as far as I got until I started skimming to the end of the book. Not even the f/f love story was enough to reel me in. I would have loved to love this story, but I just didn't.

If you enjoy the western genre, and steampunk, and would enjoy a queer cast kicking ass and taking names, you might enjoy this. I just didn't.

David Mitchell: Black Swan Green (2007, Random House Trade Paperbacks) 4 stars

A novel. From hardcover: "Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for …

A tale of adolescence in the British 80s

4 stars

I wasn't initially sure about this novel but it quickly won me over, in this semi-autobiographical story of 13-year old Jason Taylor describing a year of his life in 1982, in 13 stories, one for each month of the year, plus an extra January. Each story is very different, and is teeming with the vibrant life of the 80s, picking up contemporary stuff like the Falkland war, Margaret Thatcher, and much much music.

Jason is a stammerer, which causes him much grief, so it's inevitably a story about school bullies for many chapters. Each story could stand alone and not lose much from it, but of course it's perfect that it weaves together. As usual with Mitchell, it alludes to previous books he wrotes, so there's Madame Crommelynck from Cloud Atlas, one of the more lyrical chapters of the book. It's really like listening to all of David Mitchell's doubts …

Lauren Beukes: The shining girls (Hardcover, 2013, Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company) 4 stars

"A time-traveling serial killer is impossible to trace-- until one of his victims survives. In …

Time-travelling serial murder

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers for the plot

Pierce Brown, Rik Hoskin, Joseph Rybandt, Eli Powell: Red Rising (Paperback, 2014, Del Ray Books) 4 stars

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of …

Sort of addictive sci-fi YA with many problems

3 stars

Content warning Includes spoilers to the story