I'm never not reading, but somehow there's still more to read. I want to break free of Goodreads, so here I am.
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On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown …
Highly recommend. Felt like Le Guin. I loved everything about this--to the point that I don't even know how to say it except thrusting it into your reading hands. It's just wonderful. I'm going to buy it and make a yearly re-read along with The Dispossessed.
I love everything Hicok has written. It just resonates so wonderfully with me. It's weird and funny and serious and deep, and every poem has at least one line that stops me dead. I love his mind.
Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family …
I found this to be powerful, but emotionally manipulative. The only thing missing is a dog. It's very short, but if you know that ahead of time, you'll be good. I did not, so I was very startled when it ended. (that's on me)
Created by historian and futurist sibling authors, A Second Chance for Yesterday is a clever …
This had a lot of potential, but I found the main character to be incredibly dull and awful despite being in a strange and exciting plot. I also hated the idea that she glazed over her family's toxicity to somehow just "get over it" without doing any emotional work. And she was really mean to her boyfriend for no reason I could discern. Like, you can be bisexual and not hate men. I thought maybe there'd be a masterful turn to fix all of that with her personality, but nope. At the 80% mark I skimmed to the end and found myself disappointed that I'd waited until 80% to do that.
The Running Man is a dystopian thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, first published …
This reads very much the way I assume it was written. Fueled, shall we say? It's full of misogyny (pudenda, anyone?) and racism. You can probably skip it, but don't think watching the movie is a substitute as they are nothing alike in plot or characters, imo.
Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. …
If you've been avoiding Joyce because of Ulysses, this book feels like a warm-up both for the reader and the author. There are beautiful phrases buried inside intriguing vignettes. Yes, the political and social commentary is there (and opaque for those of us without knowledge of the time period and history), but the stories are enjoyable independent of those allusions. (Except for Two Gallants. I felt like that one went right over my head, but I also noted the excessive walking similar to Ulysses.) I found a lot of pain in these stories, but I was also struck by the deep sense of community and family. Most of these "stories" don't have an ending as we think of story structure, but are open to interpretation and thought. Reminded me a bit of all those lessons in high school about the Lady and the Tiger by Stockton.
'Thick fog, shifting alliances and clever magic make the perfect backdrop for a sweeping romance …
I really loved this, except for the monster of a cliffhanger ending. I think knowing that ahead of time would have helped. As it was, I felt a bit cheated. Loved the romance, one of the best sex scenes I've read in a while. The villain is a little cartoonish for my tastes, but the rest worked for me.
Benji, un chico trans de dieciséis años, huye de la secta que lo crio, una …
I loved the unique science-fantasy concept explored in this book. I liked the characters. I liked the (eventual) plot. What drove me batty was the rimming--can I say that here?--of the pacing. Each chapter read like there was going to be a pay-off, a release of fury or emotions, and then nada. Nope. Over and over and over for 400 pages. It made me want to tear my hair out. What's that musical thing that sounds like it's increasing constantly without ever reaching climax? Yeah, that. It kinda ruined the end for me, honestly, because by then I just didn't care and wanted it to be over.
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure …
Loved the premise here, even if at times I questioned some of the internal logic of the magic laws at work. I was a little put off at the start by the narrative tone, but I eventually found a rhythm and it stopped bothering me. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place to live. And when you’re …
A tightly plotted dystopian novel that feels a little too real at times. By that I mean that I couldn't just read through this in a day even though the syntax was smooth and the characters were engaging; it was depressing. I do think Hart tries hard to make the characters balance out that realness-fatigue, and it helps. I was particularly satisfied with how he wrote the CEO interludes--they do an excellent job of portraying the cognitive dissonance.
There's a huge amount of emotional imagery packed into these few pages. I loved the tone of the work, as well as the story itself. This is art. I felt like you could read this over and over and see different ideas and depths each time. A bit like when you go to a gallery and walk around a sculpture piece. Really intriguing and evocative.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity …
I'm not a math nerd, but if I were, this would have been more like 4 stars. I am, however, other kinds of nerd and I found the non-math parts of the book to be absolutely bonkers, but not in the joyful way. Weir has given us a protagonist with zero backstory. And I don't mean his amnesia. He ends up remembering how he got on the ship, but apparently those few months were all there was to his life. There's no family, no friends, no flings, no hobbies, no likes or dislikes--and mind you, the book is almost 500 pages in length. When he does finally make a friend, he doesn't even notice that it's the first friend he's ever had. There's no emotional interiority to this guy at all. He's just there to solve puzzles. This is truly science fantasy, not science fiction. There's nothing believable about the …
I'm not a math nerd, but if I were, this would have been more like 4 stars. I am, however, other kinds of nerd and I found the non-math parts of the book to be absolutely bonkers, but not in the joyful way. Weir has given us a protagonist with zero backstory. And I don't mean his amnesia. He ends up remembering how he got on the ship, but apparently those few months were all there was to his life. There's no family, no friends, no flings, no hobbies, no likes or dislikes--and mind you, the book is almost 500 pages in length. When he does finally make a friend, he doesn't even notice that it's the first friend he's ever had. There's no emotional interiority to this guy at all. He's just there to solve puzzles. This is truly science fantasy, not science fiction. There's nothing believable about the majority of science in this, the character isn't believable, and yet I read to the end. Rocky truly saves this book from being impossible, but despite him, I can't recommend this one.
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. …
I really enjoyed this, but I left it feeling like I should read it again because I feel there were a lot of deeper, philosophical things I missed. (that's a bonus: I love a book that's full enough to read over and over and find things you missed.) So, the thing I want to share, I can't because it's a huge spoiler. But, a hint won't hurt? A little past mid-way through the book, I felt like I was missing something. Like something was almost not-quite visible out of the corner of my eye. And then a twist happened, and yep. Also, this is such a brilliant take on something else I can't say because spoilers. Dang it! Okay, this quote I can share, right? "But you have to understand, while we are all unchosen together, I'm not like the rest of you." Or this one: "Fame, she says, is …
I really enjoyed this, but I left it feeling like I should read it again because I feel there were a lot of deeper, philosophical things I missed. (that's a bonus: I love a book that's full enough to read over and over and find things you missed.) So, the thing I want to share, I can't because it's a huge spoiler. But, a hint won't hurt? A little past mid-way through the book, I felt like I was missing something. Like something was almost not-quite visible out of the corner of my eye. And then a twist happened, and yep. Also, this is such a brilliant take on something else I can't say because spoilers. Dang it! Okay, this quote I can share, right? "But you have to understand, while we are all unchosen together, I'm not like the rest of you." Or this one: "Fame, she says, is how a ruling class conditions artists to docility and incorporates their work to lesser ends." See? It's a great book. There's this wry humor and big concepts and sadness and hope. I highly recommend it, but don't rush through it. It's a savoring type of book.
When Commander Rallya of the patrol ship Bhattya hires Rafe as their new Web officer, …
I really needed more clarity in the world-building. I stuck with it until the mystery was solved, but once that was done, I didn't have any connection to anyone or care enough about the plot to keep going. Plus, the coincidences driving the plot made me grind my teeth.
A novella mirroring our own society's Christofascist cult-like influences on young minds and how this narrows their worldview and stunts them, even if the world isn't Earth. This felt like an expanded short story, but the pacing was well done and I never lost interest.
