Other Hobby Stuff

I thought I would continue what I did in 2022, and start reviewing what I’m reading this year.

Recently finished:

• The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman: another excellent entry in the Thursday Murder Club series. Delightful, no notes.
• Death’s End, by Cixin Liu: the final book in the Three-Body Problem trilogy (properly called “Remembrance of Earth’s Past”). This series is just astonishing. Full of twists & turns, and the highest of high-concept sci-fi. I would never recommend this to anyone but a hard-core sci-fi nerd. I have no idea how the TV show could even possibly approach this series.
• Agent Provocateur, by Cassandra Spencer: another gut-punching short story (and winner in the 2025 TFR awards)

Currently reading:

• Stag Dance and Other Stories, by Torrey Peters: for some reason, I didn’t expect the emotional sucker-punches to the gut that frankly seem inevitable from Peters. I’m only halfway through Stag Dance itself, so the punch is yet unforeseen, but the first 2 short stories…woof…
• Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers: a short story collection (Xmas present from my wife), which I will be dipping into at bed time.

Next to read (in some order):

• All the Way, by Alyson Greaves
• Bottle Blondes, by Rhiannon Swanson (a Scribblehub original I pasted into an epub)
• Tress of the Emerald Sea, by Brandon Sanderson (borrowed from my sister)
• Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower, by Tamsyn Muir (soon to be acquired from the library)
• Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel, by Julian K. Jerboe (soon to be acquired from the library)
• Estro Junkies, by Talia Bhatt & Beth Leigh-Ann (to be purchased with a forthcoming paycheck)

• Stag Dance was intense & devastating. Seems to be par for the course with Torrey Peters.
• All The Way, by Alyson Greaves: this consumed the greater part of my week. I slept late. I nearly missed the bus to work once. My only complaint is that I have to wait until 2028(?) to get the conclusion of this series!!!! I 100% did not expect to care about “trans teenage cheerleader in 2004” as a concept. But this is the best thing I’ve read this year so far.
• These Rainy Autumn Nights, by Erin Elkin: a short story I can best sum up as “eldritch force-femme time-loop”. It’s told anachronically, but starts with Day 220,000-odd. 0.o Utterly wild. Intense. Loved it.
• Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower, by Tamsyn Muir: the story consistently maintains a cute fairy-tale register, all the while the princess learns how to do things like skin giant rats. Just what I expected from the Locked Tomb author.

I read Bottle Blondes by Rhiannon Swanson. It’s a Scribblehub original, but as soon as she publishes it (per her author’s note), I’m gonna pay actual money for this. It’s an eggfic romance, so on one level it’s entirely predictable. But the emotional journeys I went on through this book! Very much recommend.

Then I started reading Martha Wells’ first novel, City of Bone. Complex worldbuilding as per usual, ancient artefacts as per usual. Khat feels a bit like a prototype for Moon of the Raksura novels, but this book definitely has it’s own character and I’m enjoying it so far.

• Finished City of Bones. Honestly a stellar first novel. Worldbuilding, ancient artefacts, fun characters. Definitely recommend to any fans of Martha Wells.
• Read a bit of Das Kapital. The first 3% of the ebook is various forewords & afterwords to different translations & editions. The last of which detailed a feud between Marx & some anonymous column-writer about what Gladstone said in an inaugural address. The text of the actual book I’ve read so far is him laying out the concept of abstracting labour & value with excruciating patience–interesting, but definitely slow to a bourgeoise intellectual of the 21st century. I’m gonna get back to this one when I have a long uninterrupted stretch.
• Read Tress of the Emerald Sea, by Brandon Sanderson, on loan from my sister. It’s quite good. Unfortunately, I might have to read more Sanderson, after having avoided him on purpose for a decade lol.

Now I need to figure out what I wanna read next. I’m gonna alternate ebook & physical book–ideally to force my way through my bedside stack. Currently torn between Spook Street (Slough House book 4), The Brute of Greengrave (a collection I bought over a year ago), and maybe a roulette spin I dunno.

I absolutely devoured the next 2 Slough House novels (Spook Street & London Rules). (By Mick Herron.) That’s me caught up to the show as released so far. These books are just so readable. I probably(?) won’t read ahead; the next season (presumably adapting Joe Country) should be out later this year; but I can’t promise (myself) anything in this regard lol.

I’m currently reading Katabasis, by R. F. Kuang. It is excellent so far. Like Babel, it’s (a) centred around a prestigious English university campus, and (b) plays heavily with words & scholarship. It is far less focused on British Imperialism, rather choosing to target academia.

My “Up Next” consists of the following (to be read, hopefully, in this order):

1. The Brute of Greengrave (Jemma Topaz)
2. Here for the Wrong Reasons (Lydia Wang & Annabel Paulsen)–this one snuck in because my library hold came in
3. Queen Demon (Martha Wells)
4. Elantris (Brandon Sanderson)
5. Battle Ground (Jim Butcher)–this is (I think?) the final Dresden Files novel, and it’s been on my stack since my mum got it for me like a couple of years ago. I’ve definitely lost momentum with the series, but if this is the end I wanna get it wrapped up.

I might also read Sword Art Online, having recently seen stuff about it on Tumblr. A friend has the complete deluxe light novels, which I spotted while I was moving him into his new flat last weekend.

Also, if you’re on StoryGraph, I’m @gay_dragon_princess42.

• I finished Katabasis on Monday(?). Excellent ending. The catharsis? Unparalleled. Not too much, not too little, just exactly the right amount all the narration & backstory & character development warrant.
• I started The Brute of Greengrave. The prologue story was intriguing. But the second one had entirely more werewolf bondage erotica than I was in the mood for, so that one’s going back on the shelf until I am.
• I read Here for the Wrong Reasons, by Lydia Wang & Annabel Paulsen. It’s a romance about 2 lesbians (one closeted, one unaware) going on a The Bachelor clone. One’s in it for the clout, the other for the husband she still thinks she wants, and (would you believe it) they fall in love.
  The adherence to the show format in the beginning made it feel a bit rough/slow, but once girls started getting eliminated & there were fewer characters to dwell on, it picked up pace fast!
• I just started Queen Demon, sequel to Witch King, by Martha Wells. I’d forgotten just how dense the world-building in the first one was, and almost wish I’d reread Witch King in preparation. But despite how fast Wells throws details, she never leaves you without the information you need at any given moment.
• Oh, I also read through Playing with Pyramids, the 2002 rulebook of Looney Pyramid games I got in the mail with my new pyramids & accoutrements. (It didn’t take me very long, cos it’s only 128 pages, and I already know half the games contained therein. But it’s still a fascinating glance into a slice of pyramid history.)

Current book count: 13

• Finished Queen Demon. Not as grabby as the first one, and it’s clearly leading up to a third. But hey, it’s Martha Wells, so her average is better than many authors’ peaks.
• Read Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. Dammit, he’s good! Perfectly hinted twists & reveals. Such an economy of plot detail. Sure, the prose was rough (it was his debut after all), but the bones are SO GOOD!
  So much so that once I finish my current book, I’m gonna do Mistborn March. See how much of that series I can get through.
• Blew through Murder by Memory (Olivia Waite) mostly on my way home from work. This murder mystery novella mixes fascinating sci-fi with 1920s elegance, and I heartily recommend it.
• Currently reading: Dream On, Ramona Riley, by Ashley Herring Blake. I read her Make the Season Bright, which was excellent. This one is also technically “small town, exes collide”, but in a wildly different way. She’s good at quickly making a romance be much more than its premise.

Current book count: 16

Aside from listening to the Murderbot Diaries full-cast audiobooks again, this month I attempted “Mistborn March”:

• Once again, Brandon Sanderson is frustratingly good. If you’ve never read Mistborn (Era One: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, & The Hero of Ages), it does fascinating things with the Chosen One, prophecies, a detailed magic system that the protagonists keep learning more about… It’s not game-changing like Le Guin, but it’s a top-tier example of Standard Fantasy.
• There’s an excellent twist that gets foreshadowed way back in book 1, chapter ½? It’s a little thing, and pieces keep getting piled on regularly, until sometime in book 3 you piece it together, a few chapters before the relevant protagonist does. I actually had to stop reading when I saw it coming. Good stuff.
• I’ve also started reading the sequel to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Children of Time, The Children of Ruin. The first book involves uplifted spiders & Old Earth humans meeting. This one involves those two meeting uplifted octopuses. He certainly knows how to pick animals with interesting psychologies, and he knows how to weave fascinating stories around them. Children of Time is probably one of my favourite new SF novels, and Children of Ruin is shaping up to be an admirable follow-up.
• I have had a taste of a wee indie transfem short story collection, but I don’t know if I’ll keep on with it–it’s a bit amateurish.

• I finished Children of Ruin, and read the 3rd book Children of Memory. It’s definitely different to the first two, but wow! It’s like a Star Trek episode in the best way.
• I started Queen of Faces, a YA trans-coded period fantasy, but I don’t know if I’ll finish it. It seems just a bit too YA for me, if you know what I mean.
• So I picked up my other library book, One Of The Boys, by Victoria Zeller on the recommendation of @thetransfemininereview. It is excellent as promised. All the trans feels, and a teen story that doesn’t feel juvenile.

My read count is now 25, so I’m slightly over the goal in my head.

A quarter of the way through the year already! And this has been a big week for reading, apparently… I’m low-key doing a trans readathon.

• One of the Boys was excellent
• Home Ice, a straight trans romance involving hockey (cos that’s popular, I guess?) It was very sweet, and included the main couple adopting a trans teen. I deducted ¾ of a star for just how often the narration mentioned Brant’s hard erection.
• Walking Practice (by Dolki Min): described to me as “Left Hand of Darkness” meets “Squid Game”, it’s a fascinating look at gender through the eyes of a human-eating shapeshifting alien. Equal parts endearing & uncomfortable.
• Fake It (by Lily Seabrooke, who co-authored another transbian romance I loved) is about the owner of a failing restaurant falling for the host of a “save the failing restaurant of the week” TV show. But also so much more than that description gives it credit for.
• I also snuck in 2 short stories by J. G. Ballard: Report on an Unidentified Space Station (excellent mindfuckery in just a few pages) and Thirteen to Centaurus (a fascinating commentary on generation ships).

That brings my count up to 28, and I’m now tackling E. R. Eddison’s weighty classic fantasy, The Worm Ourobouros, which first captured my imagination in The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy. I’ve had a beat-up copy of the Ballantine reprint (leading up to their Adult Fantasy series), which reminded me of it. (I have basically never seen it referenced anywhere.) Seeing that Ursula K. LeGuin gave the prose high praise, I have now read more of it than “prologue + 0.25 chapters) that I did the last time.

The bulk of my reading this week was The Worm Ourobouros, by E. R. Eddison.

• Written in 1922, it’s a pseudo-Jacobean medieval romance slash Norse saga, allegedly set on Mercury. It was an inspiration to Tolkien & Lewis, and LeGuin praised the prose.
• There is a framing device in which an Englishman is taken via his dreams to Mercury by a heraldric bird, who introduces him to Lord Juss of Demonland (whose presence chamber is described in vivid, vivid detail), and largely he gets forgotten about. He pops back up at the start of chapter 2, so the bird can inform us that we’ve time-skipped to the wrastling (sic) match between Lord Brandoch Daha of Demonland and King Gorice XI of Witchland. After that point, the narration mentions him in passing just once.
• The prose is NOT for the faint-hearted. But if you can get through chapter 1, you’ll be fine. A delightful sample, wherein our heroes are climbing a mountain range in search of the greatest mountain in the world, Koshtra Privarcha:
  Framed in the crags of the hillsides, canopied by blue heaven, Koshtra Pivrarcha stood before them. So huge he was that even here at six miles’ distance the eye might not at a glance behold him, but must sweep back and forth as over a broad landscape from the ponderous roots of the mountain where they sprang black and sheer from the glacier, up the vast face, where buttress was piled upon buttress and tower upon tower in a blinding radiance of ice-hung precipice and snow-filled gully, to the lone heights where like spears menacing high heaven the white teeth of the summit-ridge cleft the sky. From right to left he filled nigh a quarter of the heavens, from the graceful peak of Ailinon looking over his western shoulder, to where on the east the snowy slopes of Jalchi shut in the prospect, hiding Koshtra Belorn.
• (Now, that’s a mountain!)
• (They need to climb Koshtra Belorn, where Lord Juss’ brother is imprisoned. But “none shall set foot on that holy peak that has not gazed down upon it”, which can only be done from the even taller Koshtra Privarcha. Also, it turns out that his brother is on a secret third mountain, not called Koshtra anything but rather Zora Rach nam Psarrion.)
• (This book holds a great wealth of names for a D&D campaign.)

Following this, I read the brief The Gods of Pegāna by Lord Dunsany. It’s a series of vignettes in which he invents a pantheon & mythology for fun. Again, inspirational to Tolkien & all fantasy writers to come, and also something I’m totally gonna mine for a D&D campaign.

I tried reading another foundational piece of fantasy (Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique), but am a bit worn out by archaic prose. So instead I’m rereading a teenage favourite, Mister Monday, first of the “Keys to the Kingdom” series by Garth Nix.

In my tags last week, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna read more of The Keys to the Kingdom, or maybe intersperse them… Lol. I read all of them, and another book besides.

The Keys to the Kingdom series, by Garth Nix (consisting of Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday, & Lord Sunday) is a fascinating YA fantasy series. It is about an asthmatic teen from Earth who is selected as the Heir of the Architect by a corrupt Trustee (Mister Monday), who’s doing it as a loophole. But Arthur gets drawn into the House, Epicentre of the Universe, which contains sorcery, raw Nothing, treachery, a fascinating Victorian-ish aesthetic, aliens, legendary characters such as the Pied Piper and the Ancient Mariner (from the Rime thereof)–and it’s really just a rollicking ride. I loved it as a teen, and honestly it still holds up.

After that, I read Magic Kingdom For Sale! Sold!, by Terry Brooks (the guy who wrote the shameless LOTR ripoff Sword of Shannara that somehow got over 30 sequels). It’s about a Chicago lawyer who answers a catalogue ad for a magic kingdom. It goes about how you’d expect, while also taking itself surprisingly seriously given that there’s a guy with a dog’s head & glasses on the cover.

No idea exactly what I’m gonna read next, tbh–will it be one of the Ballantyne Adult Fantasy books, a comfy reread of a trans romance, something weird? Who’s to say?

April seems to be my Month of Rereads. I’m gonna blame being tired & fatigued just generally. After my Keys to the Kingdom binge last week:

• I reread Show Girl by Alyson Greaves, cracking open my paperback copy for the first time. Apart from loving her work generally, I love how this book (a) gets the premise up & running by Page 10, and (b) manages to dive deep through the silly forcefemme premise crust into the messy emotional heart of transition. (Which is basically Greaves’ oeuvre at this point.)
• Not a reread, I followed up The Worm Ourobouros with a Ballantine Adult Fantasy compilation by Lin Carter. It was tedious & stuffed full of racism. But it did have beautiful poems from C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien, so kind of worth it.
• I got a hankering for Terry Pratchett, which was not sated by watching The Hogfather tv movie. So I’m reading the Susan trilogy: Soul Music & Hogfather done, and I’m on Thief of Time.
• Also (having managed to get back into running, after 2 solid weeks of not being up for it), I started listening to an audiobook of The Hobbit. (Which, for some reason, has its chapters broken into mp3 files of roughly 3 minutes apiece.)

As per usual, I’ve got no idea what I’m reading after that. My To-Read Pile continues to grow apace. All I’m definite on is Mistborn May (or else my friend Sarah might poke me with a stick).

• As expected, I finished Thief of Time. All in all, I think I have to rate Hogfather the highest out of the Susan books: it has the UU wizards, whom I adore (though Lu Tze is pretty good). But what it doesn’t have is the random, vague implication on the final page that Susan hooks up with the male protagonist. I just feel that those moments in Soul Music & Thief of Time feel out of place. Unnecessary.
  (Maybe it’s just because I’m a lesbian. Sue me.)
• When I finished that, I read a novella I spent ages trying to get ahold of: Mackenzie Rice’s Slime Time. It’s a fascinating, kink-centric trans/queer cyberpunk piece that gave me a similar feel to Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. If you read it, DO read the content warnings first: it’s not for the faint-of-heart.
• Joe Country, the 6th Slough House book from Mick Herron, is a solid entry into the series. Nothing exciting, but I’m looking forward to seeing it on TV, since Hugo Weaving’s character is coming back.
• Then an Adrian Tchaikovsky novellette, Elder Race. It starts with a princess going to the sorcerer’s tower, to call upon his promise to her great-grandmother to come to the kingdom’s aid. Said sorcerer is actually a survey anthropologist from Earth, hanging out in suspended animation for a call from home. The resulting tensions & mistranslations between genres is AMAZING. Especially the middle chapter, which involves the scientist explaining the waves of colonisation from Earth, lined up paragraph-by-paragraph with how she hears it (full of fantastical metaphor). Can’t wait for the sequel!
• I’m currently in the middle of Iain M. Banks’ Look to Windward, a nominal sequel to his first Culture novel Consider Phlebas. It’s the 5th Culture novel I’ve read, and I think I’d rank it a solid 4th place so far–so it’s in the large gap between Matter (which my high-school Physics teacher loaned me with minimal context) and one of my lowest-rated reads ever Use of Weapons (a book I was disliking so much that I put it down & read the entirety of The Wheel of Time series, a series I have SO many problems with but would still rate over Use of Weapons).

Read count: 46

(My book- and page-count, per Storygraph, has gotten higher every month this year. 0.o)

Despite having the week off, I didn’t read overly much. I was busy doing various other things I can’t do otherwise. But:

• I finished Look to Windward. I think it’s a perfectly average installment in the Culture series. If you want to try some sci-fi that’s like Star Trek’s Federation TO THE MAXX, start with Excession or The Player of Games (which I really ought to reread at some point).
• I followed that up with Witches Loving Werewolves, a novella collection by Ela Bambust. Cute romantasy eggfic fluff.
• Since I found them at the mall’s Take A Book, Leave A Book shelf, I’ve been meaning to reread some of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series. I read Dragonflight this week. I’d forgotten just how quickly they figure out the time travel stuff, I could’ve sworn it was book 2…
• I read a few of those “classic short stories” from the poll that went around: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (Ray Bradbury), The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) & The Masque of the Red Death (Edgar Allen Poe). I’ve got some more open in tabs still.
• Finally, by popular demand (i.e. Sarah’s wants me to), I’m doing Mistborn May! Tackling the Era Two series, which happily has much more hand-friendly book sizes. I’ve made a start on Alloy of Law, and am not quite a quarter of the way through.

I also got a sneak preview of my wife’s detective novella! I’ve been pumped about it ever since they started talking about these OCs like 5? 6? years ago. It’s smashing :D

This week I read Mistborn: Era 2.

• An epic follow-up to the first trilogy. It finally gets into the whole Cosmere sci-fantasy stuff that’s the reason I started reading more of Sanderson’s stuff.
• Sarah’s favourite character is my favourite character: Steris is SO AUTISTIC and I love her. She has some of the most relatable feelings about autistic social isolation that I’ve ever read.
• That ending…
• I’m already lining up what Cosmere books I’m gonna read next. I’ve got other things to read (including the 700-page follow-up to Tchaikovsky’s Children of… cycle), but I’m pretty sure that, if I try, I can also get through Warbreaker, The Stormlight Archive, the other standalones… 100% I expect Sanderson to be my most-read author this year.

This week I read Children of Strife, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

As expected, the series is both profound & wild. Also, the ship captain is an uplifted mantis shrimp. #shrimpcolours were a major part of the climax, which annoyed me at first: shrimps have all those extra rods & cones in their eyes because their brains can’t process colour combinations, so they can’t really see colours humans can’t imagine with our 3 colours. BUT if you give those highly-developed eyes to a mantis shrimp that has enough sapience to play war-games in a space-ship, then probably he could see bizarre colours & wavelengths that a bunch of asshole terraformers who have uploaded themselves into an entire biosphere thanks to a data-collation algorithm in the DNA might (hypothetically) be using to communicate. (Like I said: WILD.)

I also read most of Arcanum Unbounded, Sanderson’s Cosmere short stories & novellas–that is, I’ve read the ones that wouldn’t spoil novels I haven’t read.

For my next book, I’m trying to decide between Sanderson’s Warbreaker, the next Pern novel, or a comic fantasy that Jordon got out of the library & heartily recommended. Next week, I think, Estro Junkies should be coming out, and I’ll probably drop everything to read that one. (I need another transfemme story that’s both well-written and light-hearted. Woodworking is on my list, but it’s going to provoke #emotions for sure.)

Also, in the backgrounds of runs etc, I’m listening to The Hobbit & now Fellowship narrated by Rob Inglis. It’s a 56-CD set, and he sounds like Tolkien himself is reading the books to me.

• Dragonquest, by Anne McCaffrey: this is Book 2 of the Dragonriders of Pern series. I’m kind of just treading old ground here. I read the first 4 books (out of order) at high school, and I’m aiming to actually finish book 5 this time through. (my friend Avron has loaned me some of his books, and a friend from synagogue is threatening to loan me ALL of her Anne McCaffrey collection.)
• Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, by Oliver Darkshire: Jojo got this out of the library and recommended it to me. It’s got a quirky off-the-wall kind of fantasy vibe, and I do enjoy how it all shook out in the end. But MY G-D, this writer needs to lay off the humourous footnotes! There was a 4-page chapter that had six (6) of them!
• Estro Junkies, by Talia Bhatt & Beth Leigh-Ann: this is an intense book. I read it as soon as it dropped. Loved it. Also totally agree with TFR’s review.

• The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friederich Engels: this is exactly what you expect it is. It does feel like a fundamental starting point if you’re getting into this kind of literature. Just like…
• Compendium of Karl Marx’s Capital, by Carlo Cafiero (translated by Paul M. Perrone): this is essentially a Marx-approved summary of Das Kapital, which I think everyone acknowledges is a dry, dense, and difficult work. This is at most 10% of the length, aimed at the layman, and tbh half the bulk of it is quotes directly from Marx where Cafiero isn’t summarising.
• Platform Decay, by Martha Wells (Murderbot #8): I was having a particularly shit Tuesday, so I bought this one my way home from the office (having left early). It had a bit of a slow start compared to the earlier novellas, and something of a sudden end, but otherwise it’s another rock-solid installment in the series. (I think it’s kind of an awkward length, a bit too long to just smash-and-grab the reader’s attention, but not quite long enough to settle in to a narrative comfortably. YMMV)
• Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson: since it was recommended (if I’m gonna read it) to read it prior to The Stormlight Archive, I have done so. As per usual, I found the main characters compelling, the magic system pretentious but not overwrought, and the plot satisfying. If you wanna dip your toe into the Sanderson waters, this is a better-written book than Elantris, though I like them equally.
• Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock: the first of the Elric books, I decided to finally rip through this one because of the magic sword Nightblood in Warbreaker, which is obviously inspired by Stormbringer. I read The Weird of the White Wolf as a teenager, and while the plot seemed largely inconsequential, the sword in particular stayed with me. I lined these books up a year or two ago, for the #pulp #fantasy research for D&D, but I did enjoy this one. It’s not very long, so easy to “justify” (as if I need to justify my reading lol).

This brings my official count up to 64 at the end of May. I am still listening to Fellowship piecemeal (I pushed through the last of the Tom Bombadil nonsense today, happily). Next on my list is the first volume of Sword Art Online, courtesy of a friend who owns all the light novels & more besides. I’ve got books 2 & 3 of Sanderson’s White Sand graphic novel series (still waiting on whoever at the library is hogging book 1), and I just bought Plastic, Prism, Void, by Violet Allen (on the hyping of @horrorbutch).

Book Review: The Tombs of Atuan

—By Ursula K. Le Guin

Jan 11, 2022

So, I’ve decided to set myself a reading goal of 26 books. And to hold myself accountable, and perhaps to try to get a bit more out of what I read, I’ve decided I’m going to review those 26 (hopefully) books.

I finished up A Wizard of Earthsea just before the New Year, and that was wrapped up in my childhood memories: both of the terrible TV mini-series that had led me to read it in the first place, and remembering just how many little things inspired my own writing.

By contrast, The Tombs of Atuan felt like a fresh start. My only memory from the mini-series was Isabella Rossellini as Thar (the mini-series botched this story to make it in service of the wizard Sparrowhawk, but that’s another story).

In summary, Tombs tells the story of a young girl who is raised to be the First Priestess of some dead old gods: an important position, nominally, but one without real power. The first thing that happens is that her name is taken from her, and she is called Arha “Eaten One”. She learns the rituals of devotion, walks the Labyrinth below the Empty Throne, and tries to not be a puppet of the older priestesses. She has no company but for the priestesses, the other girls, and some eunuch guards.

That changes when she finds the wizard Sparrowhawk in her Labyrinth, seeking to fix the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. This triggers a power struggle between Arha & the priestess Kossil, between Sparrowhawk and the Nameless Powers, which results in Arha regaining her name (Tenar) and following Sparrowhawk to a new life.

As a trans woman, I can’t help but relate to Tenar in this way. Near the climax, Sparrowhawk discovers her true name which was taken from her—names are the core of magic in Earthsea—and gives it back to her. The narrative starts calling her by this name immediately. After they escape from the Labyrinth and Tenar is freed from the Nameless Powers, Sparrowhawk says that she is truly reborn. Tenar was taken from her family at age 5, and forced into a life that was never truly her own, no matter how much she tried to lean into it.

Halfway through, there is a point where she learns of “unfaith”: she realises that one of the girls just doesn’t believe in any of the gods they worship. To me, that feels the same as when I realised that people could change from their assigned gender. Her eyes are suddenly opened to a whole new world of possibility. Tenar never truly stops believing (especially when the Nameless Powers try to kill her and Sparrowhawk), but she stops feeling the need to worship them as she has done her whole life.

The Tombs of Atuan is a very contemplative book. There isn’t much action. This is standard for Ursula K Le Guin, but it feels refreshing in a world where swords define the fantasy genre for many. A Wizard of Earthsea feels a little clumsy (it was Le Guin’s first YA story), while this has poise right from the get-go. It also centres women, where Wizard centres men, which is the kind of narrative I needed right now.

Book Review: In the Court of the Nameless Queen

—By Natalie Ironside

Jan 11, 2022

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book for writing this review. I am not affiliated with @natalieironside.

So, this book has a lot of sex in it, explicit sex. It’s erotic fantasy in every sense. The sex starts on page 2, and doesn’t really stop. If that’s not your thing, you probably won’t enjoy this book.

That said, I didn’t really thing that it was my thing either. Maybe I’ll blame that on growing up a good Xtian egg. But erotic fiction always made me uncomfortable. Until I read In the Court of the Nameless Queen. Maybe it’s because it’s fantasy, or because it features queer women of every stripe, and trans women front and centre. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing harsh about any of it, it’s all soft and loving and uplifting. But I found joy in this, instead of the discomfort I was expecting, and I really want to thank Natalie Ironside for that.

Despite the sweeping scope of this book, with its wars and seiges and politics and persecution, the stakes are all very intimate and personal. Our protagonist Freydis is a trans woman, and she gets nothing but love and support from her friends and lovers and those around her—except for Ingrid, but Ingrid can go stick her head in a toilet. The stories are all about finding love and acceptance, centering on queer women, and I think that’s exactly what I needed.

Special shout-out to Steff the Diabolist, whose story is about hatching her egg. Seeing a nerdy guy realise she’s actually a nerdy girl is just the most amazing thing, since that’s what happened to me. When she puts on a dress (or was it a shift?) for the first time… I almost cried.

Book Review: The Farthest Shore

—by Ursula K Le Guin

Jan 17, 2022

I’m back to Earthsea. It was originally just going to be one book; this book was once published as the finale of a trilogy, while my hard copy has 4 volumes. I think it ended up wtih 6 books in the end?

The theme of this story is The Magic Goes Away–and that’s terrible. Not only are wizards forgetting their spells and words of power, but artists forget how to craft, and singers forget their songs. Everything becomes listless, with people just going through the motions. People even start to forget their True Names.

And throughout it all is the endless fear of death. The villain, Cob, wants to live forever, but he can only do that, it seems, by letting life drain out of the world and become like the dry land, the static afterlife. Only Archmage Sparrowhawk, it seems, is unaffected by this deep fear of death, because he has lived a long life and faced this kind of fear before in his youth. He only survives in the end because of the youth and vivacity of his young companion Arren.

This is an extremely melancholy book. For the most part, until the end, nothing goes right. There are slavers and drug-users, people who have forgotten their life’s work, and people who have abandoned civilisation. Dragons turn savage. Even Arren, our viewpoint protagonist, at times succumbs to the fear and listlessness, and he & Sparrowhawk are only saved by luck.

But it’s also about hope, and renewal. As Sparrowhawk reminds us, the point of life is not to live forever. It’s to grow, and teach the younger generation. Endless life means eternal stagnation, and that’s not life at all. In her afterword, Le Guin explicitly links this to capitalism: sucking life out of the world in an attempt to greedily hang on to everything, and it’s not hard to see that (especially now, even though we’re a good 50 years after the writing of this).

This would have been a fitting end to Earthsea, had it been the last. But I’m still excited to continue inhabiting this world.

Book Review: Tehanu

—by Ursula K Le Guin

Jan 25, 2022

This is the 4th Earthsea book, and boy is it different from the others. There’s no teenage protagonist—young Therru doesn’t even get a POV bit until the final chapter, and that’s barely 2 pages, and also she’s 8/9. And instead of having a big timeskip and following along with the adventures of Archmage Sparrowhawk, it overlaps with the end of The Farthest Shore, and Sparrowhawk is a secondary character.

The book deals with very heavy themes: disability, misogyny, loss, xenophobia. When I read this as a 12yo boy, I was definitely not old enough to appreciate the material of this book; in fact, I forgot almost every aspect of the plot. As a woman in her late 20s, it felt really rich. The bits with the dragons almost felt like afterthoughts this time, rather than the only thing that stuck in my mind back then—although the dragons are a crucial part of the theme of this.

At the beginning, the narrative treatment of Therru’s disability (she was assaulted & left in a campfire, so she’s burned & scarred all on one side) made me really uncomfortable. Tenar wonders if it would have been better if the girl had died, just like people keep saying (after all, this is a Bronze Age world, with matching sensibilities). But all the same, she fights to keep Therru alive, away from her abusers, and growing as a person. In the end, it’s Therru who saves Tenar & Sparrowhawk from the villain.

It wasn’t an easy read, but I’m so glad I came back to this one. Every book in this series entertains me more than the last.

Book Review: One Last Stop

—by Casey McQuiston

Jan 28, 2022

This a fluffy romance novel recommended to me by a queer bookshop employee. There were like 3 queer employees running around helping me try to find queer SFF I could buy with my generous voucher (thanks, mom-in-law), and this was the other one they found for me. (The big one is a trilogy, and I’ll be reviewing that in stages later.)

The basic plot: girl meets girl, girl is supernaturally stuck in time on the subway, girl tries to help girl get unstuck. It’s all about the power of love and found family. August & Jane are just SO FUCKING CUTE with each other. I basically could not put this book down. I finished it a lot faster than most books this size.

Besides being adorable (and a bit sexy too), this books weaves together its themes and plot threads like a master tapestry. Everything feels necessary, and has the right impact on everything else. From August’s mother’s unhealthy obsession with finding her 40-years-missing brother, to the whole NY queer scene banding together to save the pancake diner, no single part of this novel feels wasted. The prose is crisp, the adjectives perfect… I really can’t find a single thing about this I don’t love.

10/10, and apparently I really need to read more queer girl romance. I never particularly cared for romance until recently. Apparently it’s better with sapphics.

Book Review: Tales from Earthsea

—by Ursula K Le Guin

Feb 9, 2022

It’s taken me more than a week to get through this book, because at the start it just dragged on. The first few stories just didn’t grab me at all. I’ll go through them in order.

• The Finder: nominally a story about the founding of the Roke School of magic, it focused more on the wizard Otter’s trials & tribulations against a series of related villains. I don’t know what the point of this one was, except to show that women helped found Roke originally.
• Darkrose and Diamond: a little love story about a boy giving up wizardry for love. Involves a lover’s quarrel in which a failure to communicate is the sole problem. It’s also SO straight.
• The Bones of the Earth: this story tells of how Ogion, Sparrowhawk’s tutor, famously stopped the earthquake on Gont. This event is referenced anytime someone talks about Ogion. Except it turns out that he barely did anything? His master told him about it, and did 90% of the work? At least this one had compelling writing. Bonus points for some gender queerness in the corner: Ogion’s master was taught by a women who lived as man so she could learn sorcery.
• On the High Marsh: an amnesiac wizard comes to heal cattle in a farming community. The mystery of who he was, and why he couldn’t remember his name, was compelling, although the payoff was weak. This was where the book as a whole picked up for me.
• Dragonfly: a novella about a girl going to Roke to learn wizardry, and upsetting the balance of power there. This was intended as an interquel between Tehanu (the previous Earthsea novel) and The Other Wind (the next/final one). The characters are great. There’s a sleazy sorcerer who is trying to sleep with Dragonfly, and his machinations (always presented as pathetic) carry us to Roke, where Dragonfly becomes embroiled in the problems of the Nine Masters described in Tehanu. Like Tehanu, it ends abruptly and with dragons, but I’m curious to see where it goes in the next book.
• A Description of Earthsea: not a story, but an encyclopedia entry about the world. If you like the Appendices in The Lord of the Rings (which I assuredly do), then you’ll like this.

Book Review: The Other Wind

—by Ursula K Le Guin

Feb 13, 202

This is it. The big one. The conclusion. I also read the sundry short stories of Earthsea not included in the previous book, but TBH they don’t count for too much, not in the shadow of The Other Wind.

Holy shit, I loved it. I walked away from this one with my mind blown. The conclusion, firstly, just wow, it changes everything I knew about Earthsea. (Spoilers later.) But also, the way that it just tied up all of the plots and themes of the preceding books? *chef’s kiss*

Tehanu got more focus, and the best possible happy ending she never dreamed of. I would have maybe liked a bit more from her, but it wasn’t really her book. The Kargish princess Seserakh: the way she overcomes her fear, learns the language, and just kind of charms the implacable King Lebannen. Truly, my fave character. (Also, the kitten Tug. Truly a powerful force for good.)

(Spoilers now) The wall around the dry land. The revelation, that wizards of old built it, for hubris? The impact that had? It might have seemed like it came out of nowhere, but truly it was the best possible conclusion to this. The themes of fear of death, of insignificance, are key threads through the whole series.

And that scene, where wizards and Kargs and dragons come together to tear down the wall? The wall that represents greed and fear and the violence of the pinned butterfly? Powerful. Like, Le Guin is just such a good writer. No-one can write this stuff like she can. I can’t believe I went so long loving Earthsea but not knowing that this was the conclusion! Because this had to be the conclusion.

“All changed!” said Ogion, with his dying breaths. I feel like I’m changed forever by this book.

Book Review: No Man’s Land

—By AJ Fitzwater

Feb 18, 2022

This book was a Nameday gift from a close friend, and I’m a little embarrassed that it took me 1.5 years to get around to reading it. Especially given that it’s only like 144 pages long, and I read it in less than 24h. But I made sure I read it before the next book in my stack, an omnibus 10× as long.

I’m from rural NZ, and in chapter 1 a farmer says to his dog, “Gittin beyind, ya filthy mongrel!” I have heard my Dad say this so many times it’s not funny. So I immediately felt a little bit at home with this book, which is set in rural NZ during WW2.

I won’t detail much of the plot, because it’s so short that much of anything would be spoilers. But the whole thing is about queerness and magic, culture and ties to the land (most of the main characters are part Māori, I think), and about hiding yourself in public vs. being true to yourself in private. It really captures that whole queer vibe, while mixing it flawlessly with magic. It’s very poetically descriptive rather than prosaic, especially when magic comes to the forefront. It also has 2 lesbians kissing, which you all know means I rate this a little bit higher.

(FYI, Fitzwater also has a book about a lesbian pirate capybara.)

Book Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

—by N K Jemisin

Feb 22, 2022

My copy of this story is part of a 1400-page omnibus, but I’m going to review all the stories separately. By the time I got to the end, I’d have forgotten all about the start!

There’s a lot going on in this novel, and I don’t really know what to say about it. I enjoyed it—I basically devoured it, really, reading much later at night than I usually do. For all that happened plot-wise, it rushed by so quickly.

My main criticisms: first, the book really front-loads the world-building. It’s lucky there was an appendix, because I had that bookmarked for the first 3rd of the book. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion aside, this might be one of the densest starts to a fantasy I’ve read. But it’s worth it, because the world is rich and vivid, and the power dynamics between the imperial power & others is a crucial theme.

Second, the book hinges on a romance I found a bit unconvincing. The protagonist Yeine finds herself irresistibly attracted to a god, and I just don’t understand it. Is it because I’m aro? I dunno, a lot of it seems to be based on sex. There’s also spoilery reasons why they’re attracted to each other, but that’s not all there is to it. I dunno, by the time Yeine says to the reader that she’s horny for him, I didn’t feel like it fit. It does by the end, though.

But this book is otherwise an enjoyable wild ride, full of twists and turns, memorable characters, and vivid imagery. I’m looking forward to the next book.

Book Review: The Broken Kingdoms

—by N K Jemisin

March 3, 2022

This is the sequel to the previous book. It builds admirably on the worldbuilding of that one, to put together a vivid setting. Most of the details are already familiar by now, so it’s as smooth as silk to read.

The POV character & framing are quite different from the last book, starring a blind woman who can see magic. Given that she lives in a city full of godlings, overshadowed my a goddess’s tree, there’s plenty of things that she can see, sometimes. As someone who often has difficulty visualising descriptions in books, it was really interesting having the descriptions limited severely in this narrative.

As usual for Jemisin, the plot is intriguing and also satisfactory. The ending was bittersweet in an inevitable way. Like the last one, I devoured it as fast as I could (given how big my omnibus copy is lol), and enjoyed keeping my wife (who read it first) updated with where I was.

Book 3, here we come!

Book Review: The Kingdom of Gods

—by N. K. Jemisin

March 16, 2022

This is the epic conclusion of the Inheritance trilogy by Jemisin, and boy howdy is it amazing! Every book in this trilogy has gotten a huge step better, and I enjoyed this so much.

The story follows Sieh the Trickster, the oldest godling, who is the embodiment of childhood. He’s bumming around the mortal realm, having a bit of a lark with some kids, when he suddenly finds himself losing his godly powers. What follows is an exciting journey of introspection amid the upheaval of an entire world’s political system.

This book has everything: friendship, love, vengeance, epic magic battles, subtle spying, mysteries… All the threads, those introduced here and those from the previous books, are woven together so neatly into an engaging tapestry. It’s got characters you fall in love with immediately, and characters to hate & fear. If you’ve read the previous books, you cannot miss this conclusion.

(Technically, there’s a short novella that acts as a post-script to the series, which I started the other night, but that I’ll review separately as well. It’s adorable.)

Book Review: The Awakened Kingdom

—by N. K. Jemisin

March 20, 2022

This novella acts as a coda to the epic trilogy, and really there’s not much to say about except that it is adorable, and self-indulgent in the best way. Jemisin is focusing on a culture that is clearly her favourite, and didn’t get as much page time as she wanted in the trilogy (especially after the first book).

On top of that, the protagonist is a godling literally 40 days old, who’s doing her level best to impress her parents and be a good grownup godling! With exclamation marks! I would die for her. This story is just delightful on every page.

Book Review: All Systems Red

—by Martha Wells | Book 1 of The Murderbot Diaries

March 26, 2022

Never has a book upset me more…by being so short! I got this as an epub as part of the Tor.com free ebook club, and it’s an omnibus of 3 books together. But I forgot this as I was reading, and only paid attention to my “percentage read” statistic. So, when I thought I was only 8% of the way through this story, I was actually closer to 40%. It’s a bit disorienting, reading the climax of a book, thinking it’s just the end of Act 1, and then coming abruptly to the end.

I love it. I love Murderbot, who is just an introvert & a dork who’s low-key adopted these humans who treat it like a person. I love the narration: I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but I was honestly hooked by like the 4th or 5th page. Wells is such an engaging writer, who drags you along for the ride, and makes sure you enjoy every second of it.

For those who don’t know, Murderbot is a semi-organic robot assigned as a “Sec(urity)Unit”, who recently hacked its programming so it doesn’t have to follow orders. Instead of turning into a mass murderer, it starts watching TV in its head. It and its clients soon get caught up in a mysterious conspiracy on the planet they’re surveying, and shenanigans ensue.

Not enough shenanigans, because as I said this is a novella. But that’s what the other books are for. I’ve already requested the next 2 from the library, and will be ordering the rest at my earliest convenience.

Read these books, they are so good!

Book Review: The Coffin-Maker’s Garden

—by Stuart McBride

March 28, 2022

This is a murder thriller, which is not my usual fare, but my Mum lent it to me. Also, I read this before All Systems Red, but completely forgot to review it, so taken was I with the aforementioned novella.

So. In this book, an auld Scottish village is slowly being swept away to sea by a storm, house by house. As one man’s yard is disintegrating, skeletons are found buried. Investigating ex-detective Ash Henderson finds a torture chamber in the basement, along with before/after polaroids, right before the house falls into the North Sea. Those pictures are the only forensic evidence they have.

Ash Henderson is, to put it mildly, a pessimistic protagonist & narrator. Every place he goes to in Scotland, but especially the fictitious city of Oldcastle, is peeling or mouldering or grey & depressing. Once, a tea kettle is described as being the colour of earwax. It’s fitting, I guess, for someone trying to catch a serial killer with a 30+ year career, and also a child strangler on the side, but it makes the first half of the book a real chore.

Some of the bright spots are Ash’s wee scottie dog Henry, and his motor-mouth (clearly neurodivergent) sidekick Dr Alice MacDonald. Everyone loves Henry, and I adore Alice as a character. It’s a shame that she splits with Ash after the first act, and doesn’t really make much of an appearance till near the end. She takes Henry with her, as she looks after the dog. Even the young grumpy PC that Ash slowly melts out ends up splitting ways before the third act, leaving Ash mostly to his own devices, along with a vengeful grandma.

The story is compelling, especially as it turns into a violent revenge quest at the end. But good G-d is it bleak! The side-plot with the child-strangler (which is ostensibly the “main case” for Police Scotland, and what drags Alice away) feels a bit superfluous, like it’s a separate book really. Also, I think this is like the last in a series of books featuring Ash & Alice (& Henry), so there’s a lot of interpersonal dynamics taken for granted that left me scrabbling to catch up. If I were to recommend this gritty, violent thriller, I’d say you ought to read the rest of the Oldcastle books first. As for me, I think Mum can keep Stuart McBride to herself. I don’t regret reading this, but it didn’t make me want more.

Book Review: Artificial Condition

—by Martha Wells | Book 2 of The Murderbot Diaries

April 1, 2022

Like the first book, this is so good, and also about 5× too short. At least this time I went into it knowing how short it would be, and could anticipate the pacing.

In this book, Murderbot is going to the site of a previous job, where it went haywire & killed a bunch of clients; this is the reason it hacked its governor module. It wants to find out if it was responsible. On the way, it meets a hyper-intelligent AI transport pilot who it dubs ART (Asshole Research Transport) whom I love, and some naïve 20-somethings entangled with a corporation and in way over their heads.

Murderbot realises here that, despite it not actually having any programmed directives anymore, it still can’t help but protect people who are under its care. Since the kids hired it, the kids become its priority, and with ART’s help it manages to keep them safe. As much as it pretends not to, Murderbot is a kind soft person and I love it.

Another highlight of the book:

“Two [of the clients] were female, and one was tercera, which was a gender signifier used in the group of non-corporate political Entities known as the Divarti Cluster.”

The tercera uses te/ter pronouns. That’s just a neat little thing, in a series that really puts gender at an unimportant remove.

Book Review: Rogue Protocol

—by Martha Wells | Book 3 of The Murderbot Diaries

April 2, 2022

Short version: I stayed up late finishing this book, and I cried.

Long version: Murderbot is trying to gather dirt on the group that caused all the problems in the first book, and once again gets entangled with some humans who it feels bound to protect. These humans have a pet robot, Miki, who is honestly the most cinnamon roll I have ever seen <3

Murderbot has to try to keep its existence secret from all of the humans, and convince Miki not to let anyone know its there. (Miki has decided it is friends with “Security Consultant Rin”, and so trusts Murderbot completely. Bless.) Shenanigans ensue, mostly involving ruthless combat robots (these are very different from Murderbot, who is part biological, and more intuitive, and also cooler) and betrayal.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but UGH! When I was complaining to the friend who convinced me to read these books, I said “No, bad Martha Wells!” It’s a great ending, one that ties up all the themes and plot points of the book, and gives Murderbot emotional fodder going into the next one. But WOW did it hurt.

10/10, would read again.

Book Review: Exit Strategy

—by Martha Wells | Book 4 of The Murderbot Diaries

April 3, 2022

This books wraps up the arc of the previous novellas, and includes the return of Team “Murderbot IS a person!” (the clients from book 1).

This one is really a rollercoaster of action and emotion. First, there’s the heist: get Mensah out of GrayCris clutches, alive. Then there’s the secondary objective: don’t let Murderbot fall into the hands of the Bond Company. Third: will Murderbot succumb to the dreaded Emotions?

The interplay between Murderbot and the gang is really interesting. They don’t necessarily like each other, but to Murderbot they’re all people who it desperately wants to protect and keep safe—not because of programming or orders, but because it chooses to. And to the gang, Murderbot is a strange weirdo that they can’t always get a handle on (especially Gurathin, with whom Murderbot has a mutual dislike thing going on), but they are adamant (especially Ratthi) that Murderbot is a person, with worth, who should be protected not only from the company, but also its own self-destructive impulses.

The things that Murderbot is willing to sacrifice, or put on the line, for Mensah & co, and the lengths that they are willing to go for it in return (but not in exchange) just hit me right in the feels. And then we get to the ending line, and I just melt…

There’s still more Murderbot to go, but these books are 100% ending up in my “reread forever” pile.

Book Review: Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

—by Michael E Shea

April 5, 2022

Dungeons & Dragons is a topic near & dear to my heart, and given that I am disabled and have limited spoons to run the games I love, this guide on “lazy” game prep & running is excellent.

This is actually a revising or 2nd edition of The Lazy Dungeon Master, which I read some years ago. This is by far the better book. The highlights for me are:

• The Lazy Dungeon Master’s checklist: 8 basic things to focus on for session prep. It’s not necessarily the be-all, end-all, but honestly it’s one of the better such lists I’ve seen. It’s broad, but simple.
• Simple rules for Fronts (a la Apocalypse World) and simple guidelines for building a campaign world.
• Just lots of tips & inspiration for in-session practices, with quotes from celebrated game masters.

Book Review: Network Effect

—by Martha Wells | book 5 of The Murderbot Diaries

April 6, 2022

“Martha Wells sold her soul to the crossroads demon for the ability to write loveable characters” (my friend Sarah)

Finally, an in-depth story about Murderbot. Now with more Feelings! So many Feelings! And so much action too. The previous novellas were short, but pretty densely-packed with action. This novel honestly has a similar density (but still paced pretty well for a novel-length story).

As per Murderbot tradition, this book is mostly made up of Action Shenanigans In Space (as is right & proper). But there’s a lot of mysteries woven in here, and every single answer is satisfying. I really can’t say too much without spoiling the many twists & turns the plot takes (Targets? 2.0? Remnant?), but I was gripped tight from start to finish.

Of course, we start of with Murderbot settling into Preservation, after the events of the previous book. Still sorting out What It Wants, still getting personal relationships sorted out. And we end with Murderbot knowing, and having new friends to support it as it keeps growing. Really, what more could you want?

There’s also a whiny teen (affectionate) who calls Murderbot her “third mom” at one point. Which is just adorable.

Book Review: Fugitive Telemetry

—by Martha Wells | book 6 of The Murderbot Diaries

April 7, 2022

First thing to note: this takes place between books 4 & 5, and honestly I think you should read this before Network Effect. Read after, this book is a little underwhelming. But it has no spoilers whatsoever for the novel, and leads into it nicely.

This book is a classic murder mystery, as only Murderbot can tell it. Someone dies on Preservation Station, and MB has to work out whodunnit, while at the same time trying to improve its relationship (or at least not worsen) with Senior Officer Indah.

Along the way, MB meets new friends & recruits old ones. There’s chases, interrogations, fights, all the stuff we love from murder mysteries & Murderbot. I don’t really have a lot to say about this otherwise, except that it’s just as good as all the rest.

Also, props to Wells for using “blorb” as a verb. Twice.

Book Review: Thing Explainer

by Randall Monroe (of XKCD fame)

April 25, 2022

Complicated Things in Simple Words is the byline of this book. It explains the basics of a wide variety of scientific topics using only the thousand most common words in the English language (roughly; he compiled his own list, based on other lists, based on what was funniest).

Simply put, this book is delightful. The second page is “Tiny bags of water that your body is made of”, and really it just keeps getting better. My favourite was the “Big tiny thing hitter” (aka the Large Hadron Collider). I am absolutely going to get my own copy for the coffee table.

A lot of the stuff in this book is stuff I already knew (from reading lots of Wikipedia, mostly), but it really is an insightful book. A bit like an inverse version of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which is incidentally also very worth a read.

Book Review: Small Gods

—by Terry Pratchett

May 30, 2022

This is one of my favourite Discworld books. I picked it off the shelf because my brain just wasn’t engaging with more difficult books during the past week (and even then I struggled a bit).

Small Gods is basically Pratchett’s scathing indictment of The Church™ (the Catholic church? Church of England? Yes.) The whole premise is that the followers of the Omnian faith number 2 million, devout & hard-working, but Om himself only has one True Believer; everyone else only believes in The Church, with torturers & sadists at the top. Is it exaggerated? Of course. Does it contain a grain of truth? Yes.

This is my first time reading this one since converting to Judaism. The first time I read it, when I was still Xtian, it felt vaguely offensive (but only a little). When I was tending atheist, it felt eye-opening. Now, it’s comforting. The philosophers of Ephebe, with all their reverberating discussions of reality (including the Disc’s various gods) resonates with the Jewish experience.

Also, Brutha is easily my favourite of Pratchett’s various autistic-coded characters. Oblivious at times, literal-minded, and eventual unbreaking desire for justice no matter the cost. I relate to him better than Jeremy Clockson & Walter Plinge.

Book Review: Feet of Clay

—by Terry Pratchett

June 5, 2022

This is another of my favourite Discworld novels. It’s got the usual slew of quips & barbs, a constant thesis on justice & the nature of People, and general Discworld-ness. Instead of writing paragraphs about this, here’s a gut-wrenching quote:

‘He said we could get the golem to do anything,’ Carry mumbled.
'Like making poisoned candles?’ said Carrot.
'Yes, but he said it’d just keep Vetinari out of the way,’ said Carry. He seemed to be getting a tenuous grip on himself. 'And he’s not dead, 'cos I’d have heard,’ he said. 'I shouldn’t think making him ill is a crime, so you can't—’
'The candles killed two other people,’ said Carrot.
Carry started to panic again. 'Who?’
'An old lady and a baby in Cockbill Street.’
'Were they important?’ said Carry.
Carrot nodded to himself. 'I was almost feeling sorry for you,’ he said. 'Right up to that point. You’re a lucky man, Mr Carry.’
'You think so?’
'Oh, yes. We got to you before Commander Vimes did…’

”Were they important?” he says. Carry isn’t even one of the conspirators, he’s just a middle-man forced into a position he doesn’t like. Every time I reread this, I remember the line is coming up, and I misremember that it’s the mastermind who says it, and I’m wrong, and it floors me every time. Pratchett has a plethora of quotable quotes about the mindset of people in power etc. This…Carry isn’t an evil man. He’s just stopped caring, and somehow that’s the worst thing.

Also Pratchett says #transrights! (I love Cheri.)

Book Review: Beren and Lúthien

—by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

June 12, 2022

When I first read The Silmarillion, I was captivated by chapter 19, “Of Beren and Lùthien”. It stood out to me in the complex web of the First Age as a beautiful fairy tale of adventure. So, when I found that there was a stand-alone book about these two adventurers, I had to get it. (Thanks, Dad!)

This book is not exactly what I expected (a novelised version of the short historical chapter). It is, instead, in the same vein as Christopher Tolkien’s mammoth 12-volume The History of Middle Earth: a presentation & analysis of JRRT’s various drafts & incarnations of the same story, from the Lost Tales, the Lay of Leithian, and various versions of the Quenta. Some of it is prose, some is verse. That aspect of it, unfortunately, gives me a sense of disconnect from the narrative itself.

That said, the story of these two is so heartfelt & touching. (JRRT actually put the name Lùthien on his wife’s tombstone, with instructions to write Beren on his own when the time came.)  It also stands out to me, not just in the Middle Earth narrative, but contemporary fiction also, because at least half of the major achievements of the story are made by Lùthien, the fair Elven princess. She is on occasion a damsel in distress, but she escapes her father’s imprisonment under her own power, and escapes Nargothrond by dint of being really nice to her captor’s hound (who is a powerful spirit a la the Eagles). She holds Sauron (!) to ransom, and brings down his watchtower. She sings the entire court of Morgoth to sleep so Beren can steal a Silmaril. And she petitions Mandos (Vala of Fate) to let her & Beren be together after he dies. Lùthien is fucking amazing, in every iteration of the story.

(Also, I have nothing but deep admiration for Christopher Tolkien for his undying dedication to his father’s work. There’s 16 of his books just on the subject of Middle Earth; this one was published when the man was 93!!! And that’s not counting the other writings of JRRT that Christopher edited & published.)

Book Review: The Last Girl Scout

—by Natalie Ironside

June 12, 2022

I swear I published this when I finished it, like a month ago, but there’s no sign of it in my tags. So this is gonna be my half-remembered impressions.

The major highlight of this book is the trans lesbians. They are so gay, and very much in love from day 1. It’s great. Also, love is presented as a healing force.

Second: there’s zombies & nazis & vampires (as well as nazi vampires!), and all the nazis get their asses handed to them.

Third: SO MUCH catharsis with regards to abuse (the book starts with a content warning for frank discussions of sexual violence & other things). Jules has suffered a LOT of abuse prior to the start of the novel (some of which is shown, though not vividly) in flashbacks. And (spoilers) both times that she is confronted with an abuser who is helpless, she decides that getting revenge is just not worth her time.

Flaws: the book is self-published, and it kinda shows. The pacing feels a bit off to me: what feels like a major climax happens half-way through, and a few chapters later there’s a chapter that is just communists giving long speeches about what their next steps should be re: nazis. Despite that, though, the author’s passion shines through, and I sincerely could not put this book down.

In conclusion: if you want a story with trans joy & nazis getting beat up, you’ll probably really enjoy this book.

Book Review: She Gets The Girl

—by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

June 19, 2022

I spotted this at the bookstore for a low price, and I thought “This is destiny”. A queer romance, on display, on sale? In the national chain store? Yes please.

This book’s premise is adorable. Alex wants to get back with her estranged girlfriend, and needs to prove that she doesn’t just flirt with any girl within 50 feet. Molly has had a crush on a girl for 4 years of high-school, but hasn’t talked to her once. So Alex decides to play Cyrano de Bergerac for Molly, walking her though her 5-step plan, composing flirty texts, etc.

Obviously, after begrudgingly becoming friends (they are diametric opposites) and coming to terms with their own issues with their mothers (one’s an alcoholic, one’s too clingy), they dramatically come together for a Big Damn Kiss moment. Ah, young love.

The book itself was not great quality: the paper felt a bit like newsprint? And I feel like the ending was rushed: it ended with the BDK, with no denouement to speak of. I was keen to find out what happened with the secondary characters: did Molly stay friends with Cora after abandoning her pre-kiss at the art gallery? Does Alex resolve her issues with her roommate? What happens the next day, after they’ve resolved the electric tension with the kiss? Just an epilogue would be good.

Apart from that, though, this book is amazing. Molly, the socially anxious wreck, is honestly too relatable. Watching her & Alex fall in friends together first is really something. And when Alex first thinks she has romantic feelings for the girl she’s setting up with her high-school crush, it’s devastating. A+ read. I hope I spot more such books at the bookstore.

Book Review: The Lord of the Rings

—by J. R. R. Tolkien

July 17, 2022

I love this book more & more every time I read it. I can still remember the first time, back when my Mum would read to us. We had got as far as the eerie gate on the Barrow-downs, and I was convinced that Frodo had already (finally) reached Mordor. Little did I know how much more of the journey was yet to come.

The ending makes me cry. Not as hard as the films do (cos they’ve got music to back up the emotion), but the Grey Havens hits hard no matter the medium. And it’s hard not to bring the films into a review, because they’ve become such a solid part of the experience of reading the book. Sir Ian McKellen IS Gandalf. Sean Astin IS Samwise. Cate Blanchett IS Galadriel. So many of the iconic lines from the films are straight out of the book, unchanged, and so I hear them in the voice of the actor. I don’t know when else a film adaptation has so completely become entwined with the original book, except perhaps HP.

But conversely, where the films diverge from the book, it’s oddly jarring sometimes. For example, Gimli’s boasting about the royal welcome they’ll receive from Balin in Moria: in the book, Balin & Co haven’t been heard from in like 20 years, and Gimli forlornly hopes that they might find a few of the expedition still lingering in some chamber. Why did they make that change? I could go on & on about little bits from the films that niggle at me…

The pacing of the narrative is wonderful. It has a slow & lazy beginning, mirrored by a slow & reverent finale: the hobbits slowly leave the Shire, facing bigger & bigger dangers, and when they return, they find their world smaller but more & more changed. At the beginning of The Return of the King, the narrative keeps sweeping back away from Minas Tirith, bring new threads sweeping inexorably to the city. And OMG the cliffhangers! No final page will ever be as gutting to me as the end of The Two Towers, wherein Samwise has just found out that Frodo is still alive, and in the hands of the orcs of Cirith Ungol, and now there’s a locked gate between him & his master. And before that, when Pippin looks into the palantír, and is immediately swept away by Gandalf; or at the Black Gate, when Pippin is felled by a troll, sure they’re all about to die, when he hears “The Eagles are coming!” Tolkien sure knew how to build suspense!

It’s hard to imagine that this epic was originally kind of an afterthought. After the commercial success of The Hobbit, Tolkien wanted to see about publishing The Silmarillion, but his publishers wanted a sequel. So he tossed out some ideas about Hobbits, and eventually became engrossed in the narrative that became. One of these days, I need to read through The History of Middle Earth, see all about his thought processes from start to finish. It’s clear, though, that he couldn’t let The Silmarillion go, because The Lord of the Rings contains the first published references to such concepts as the Valar, old Beleriand, Beren & Luthien, etc. In fact, there’s plenty that doesn’t make a lot of sense (although it’s not essential stuff) without having read The Silmarillion. Tolkien probably would have been disappointed that these references were all cut from the films, but I think the film’s crew made the right decisions on those.

What can be said about this book that hasn’t been said before? It defined a genre. It is at turns epic and closely intimate. There’s so much to it. I think I’ll never get sick of it.

Book Review: No Man of Woman Born

—by Ana Mardoll

August 16, 2022

This is a short story collection with the aim of taking those classic prophecy twists from Macbeth and The Return of the King, and making them trans.

I love it! They’re all so charmingly written. The first couple of stories fell a little samey, just because they twist the prophecy the same way. But after that, Mardoll varies the formula a bit more and by the end the stories all have their own unique spirit. There’s all kinds of genders & pronouns, including a gender-fluid character.

Unsurprisingly, the story with the trans girl is my favourite. She pulls her grandmother’s sword from a stone (only possible for a female descendant), and takes it into the castle, like “See Dad? Told you I was a girl.”

Book Review: Dreadnought

—by April Daniels

September 11, 2022

Superheroes aren’t really my preferred genre, and I haven’t read a Young Adult book in a while, so I wasn’t entirely sure if I was gonna like this. But honestly when I heard “trans superhero” I knew that I had to read it.

The first three pages blew me away. Before all the superhero stuff shows up, we just get three pages of what it’s like to be a closeted trans girl. It is vivid, poignant, and honest. It is heart-breaking. It made me feel that if I’d read this a decade ago I might have cracked my egg much earlier, because it resonated so strongly with me. I actually had to put the book down, it was so much.

The story is strong and well-paced, with great action scenes & imaginative supers all over. The climax goes hard, and I couldn’t put it down for like a dozen chapters. But through it all, there’s the constant threads: Danny is dealing with transphobia at home, at school, with the supers. She feels euphoria, freedom. She meets people who see her & respect her.

And reading this, I just viscerally miss that this kind of representation isn’t more widespread. It was the same kind of feeling I had when I read On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis, which has an autistic protagonist, and felt seen for the first time.

This book is amazing, and I need more of it.

Book Review: Gideon the Ninth

—by Tamsyn Muir

September 23, 2022

Gideon my beloved!

I read this & Ht9 last year, and honestly almost decided to review them late when I started this series in January. But I’m rereading them now that Nona is out.

With the (possible) exception of Murderbot, this series is my favourite recent SFF literature. Full stop. Everything is so vividly described. Gideon’s internal narrative is both hilarious & heart-breaking. Everyone we meet at Canaan House is either delightful or awful, and that is great!

I love how the story turns and turns again. At the start, with the Gormenghast-esque setup, you think it’s going to be about the drama of the Ninth House (I didn’t read any summaries for this the first time). Then there’s Harrow’s coverup on the way to Canaan House. Then there’s the Lyctoral challenges. Then murders start happening. And on every step of the way, Muir kept me engaged. It hurts to put this book down at bed time.

All I knew about the second book was that Harrow would be the POV character, and in chapter 1 of Gt9, I was dreading having to spend a whole book with Harrow. Because Gideon hates her at the start, and paints her as an awful person. But as the story goes on, and Gideon (very slowly) learns more about the inner life of Harrow, and falls in love with her, so did I. Enemies To Lovers indeed.

If you don’t mind the occasional gory description of body parts, you need to read this.

Book Review: Harrow the Ninth

—by Tamsyn Muir

September 26, 2022

Reading this book for the first time is like reading a puzzle box. My reread laid bare a whole bunch of things: things that confused me mightily, now made me go “OOOOHHHH!!!!” On every page, I was like: when is someone going to fucking mention Gideon??? This consumed me. Trying to figure out why she wasn’t being mentioned, why Harrow’s memories of Canaan House were different—it only dawned on me a few chapters in advance of the reveal that she edited her own brain. “I cannot conceive of a universe without you” indeed.

Honestly, the things Harrow goes through in this book are upsetting. I’m not sure which I’d rate worse: the assassination attempts by the Saint of Duty, or the flirtations of Ianthe Tridentarius. Maybe it’s having to watch two people make out with God at once.

It is such a trip, meeting The Emperor Undying, Lord of the Nine Houses, the God who became a Man, and the Man who became God: his name is John, and he drinks his tea with a biscuit. Someone said I should imagine him as played by Taika Waititi, and that’s exactly perfect.

People keep asking me what this book is about. I never know what to say. Not only is every inch of the plot a massive spoiler for the ending of Gt9, but none of it makes any sense without reading Gt9. This book is so convoluted, but it needs to be. This book feels like it was written just for me.

Book Review: Nona the Ninth

—by Tamsyn Muir

September 27, 2022

Nona my beloved!

This book has the most disconcerting beginning of the series: a lot has happened in the time skip which isn’t revealed until the 3rd act, and also Nona knows nothing about what’s going on. (She does have the excuse of only being about 6 months old, though.) Most of her concerns involve her relationship with the gang at school (led by the intimidating Hot Sauce), the science teacher’s pet dog Noodle (he has 6 legs), and begging Camilla to take her to the beach.

After the epic scope of the first novels, we open with trips to the fish shop & Nona’s job as a Teacher’s Aide. Her guardians (3 people in 2 bodies) do a lot of things off-screen, and we get references to what actually happened after the end of Ht9. The driving question is: who is Nona? She doesn’t remember more than fragments in her dreams. Her guardians are trying to decide between 2 options, unaware that there’s a rather ominous 3rd.

Interspersed with the main story are “dreams”, of the Emperor Undying slowly revealing what happened leading up to the Resurrection: it starts with him gaining the first necromantic powers, and ends with war crimes (not surprising, tbh).

Nona is the emotional core on which hangs the plot of the novel, which whisps back & forth, only becoming entirely visible near the end. I won’t spoil anything, but (like with Ht9), there are half a dozen doozy revelations ready to go like dominos. Ianthe is on top Bitchy form, Gideon makes ass jokes, and Camilla & Palamedes remain dedicated to each other. The set-up for the final book has me breathless for more.

Book Review: Knit One, Girl Two

—by Shira Glassman

October 19, 2022

This is a short story about Jewish lesbians, and it is adorable. Both of them are artists: one dyes yarn for people, and one paints.

There’s really not a lot to this, since it’s so short (easily the shortest story I’ve reviewed this year). But it’s quite beautiful, the way these two woman find & inspire each other. I definitely plan to read more of Glassman’s works (I have a bunch on my Kindle, but I’ve got a massive 800-page novel to get through, this was just a rest stop through that).

Book Review: Fearless

—by Shira Glassman

October 28, 2022

Another tiny story about lesbians. This time, they’re both middle-aged, and meet over kids playing music.

It’s very cute, full of fluffy feels. Not much else to say for this one.

Book Review: The Explorer

—by James Smythe | Anomaly Quartet 1

November 2, 2022

I read this book years ago, when there were just 2 books in the series out. A new friend recommended it, and I loved it.

I’d forgotten just how fucked up a story this is.

The premise: an astronaut watches his entire crew die, one by one. Then he falls back through time, and watches the entire thing over again, this time from inside the walls. And also being responsible for most of the deaths.

And if you think that sounds fucked up, it’s actually a lot worse than that. Every time you think Cormac Easton has been tortured enough, in the past or in the present, you’re wrong: the author finds more trauma to deliver.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a well-crafted book, and I can’t wait to (a) relive the 2nd book, and (b) devour the 3rd & 4th. But I cannot recommend this to anyone who can’t stomach psychological horror in their SF. (If you love that, then you’ll love this.)

Book Review: The Echo

—by James Smythe | Anomaly Quartet 2

November 6, 2022

This book follows a different set of characters from the first book, because the only survivor of the first one is stuck aging endlessly in a depressing time loop. This time, lots of characters get stuck in depressing time loops!

The protagonist just figures out that he might have reciprocated feelings for someone (for the first time in his life), when she dies & gets stuck in a death loop. Then he rescues her, and not too long after she gets stuck in another (more horrifying) death loop. Both times he has to watch her die hundreds, maybe thousands, of times.

Yeah, it’s dark.

The common theme I’m picking up in this series (apart from depressing time loops) is loneliness. Both protagonists spend chapters & chapters alone, or effectively alone, and ruminating on their lives, their relationships, their flaws as human beings. It could be just flat-out miserable reading, but Smythe somehow makes this gripping & compelling. I don’t know how (I wouldn’t want to even try it), but he does.

Book Review: The Edge

—by James Smythe | Anomaly Quartet 3

November 11, 2022

This book feels like a bit of a departure from the first 2. Not a surprise, since it (and book 4) were written some years after the first 2. This time the protagonist barely spends any time at all alone & swallowed by the anomaly.

The narrative still plays with the theme of loneliness: the isolation of abuse, of a gaslighting husband or friends who just won’t stop lying about something. The protagonist may or may not have schizophrenia, and no-one helps her understand what is going on until the final act.

This is the point where the Anomaly stops being “terrifying thing up in space” and starts being “terrifying thing threatening all of humanity”. That weighs on the protagonist, and the reader. In #1, it just affected one person. In #2, it was a tiny crew, and they were whittled down to one by the end. In #3, there’s nearly a dozen people, most of whom don’t die. (I’ve already started #4, in which the Anomaly has engulfed the Earth for 30 years & counting.)

More than anything, this book reminds me of Moon (2009) starring Sam Rockwell. Except more messed up. TBH, this whole series is messed up. In that delightful way that only dark sci-fi can achieve.

Book Review: Dracula

—by Bram Stoker

November 11, 2022

I hadn’t thought about this counting as “book I’ve read” this year. But I did in fact read the whole thing so it does count.

I did read this when I was younger, maybe 18? But this was by far the better reading experience. Not only am I a more mature reader, but reading it with the Tumblr Book Club was great.

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say. We read this together, and had all of our thoughts over the past 8 months. It’s a great book, and I really want a book-accurate adaptation. Starring:

• Christoph Waltz as Van Helsing. Someone who can pull of just how really weird that man is.
• Channing Tatum as Quincey Adams.
• Keanu Reeves as Dracula. What a reversal!
• Total unknowns as Jonathon & Mina. I want them to seem unassuming at first, and that’s hard with star power.

(Also, I miss my daily emails from blorbo-land.)

Book Review: Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

—by Joy Demorra

December 11, 2022

I follow the author of this book on Tumblr, and naturally I heard a lot about it (including the fanfic she’s writing, for her own novel). Given that it’s written as raunchy erotica, I wasn’t especially keen to go out of my way to read it. But when I realised how little of that was in the “Fluff & Fangs” version (she literally wrote 2 versions of this book, one with & one without lots of sex), I thought I’d give it a try.

I loved it.

It hooked me from page one, with an epic high fantasy prologue that promises some of my favourite things from fantasy. Then it segues into social drama, and romance, and circles back into the high fantasy just perfectly. The characters are delightful, the prose witty. Some parts of it, both small & large, remind me of Terry Pratchett.

It’s no surprise, given that Demorra is herself disabled, but disability features heavily in the story. A main plot-line of the first half revolves around one character finding accommodations for a disability that had largely been overlooked by the medical community. That kind of representation really hits home for me.

I can’t wait for the eventual sequel to come out.

Book Review: Rules for Loving Haunted Girls

—by Jacquelynn Lyon

December 19, 2022

This is an adorable set of 3 short stories about girls falling in love: “The Waitress and the Werewolf”, “The Phantom in the Lavender Field”, and “Paper Girl”.

Each of these stories is delightful. The characters pop off the pages, and the relationships don’t feel forced (which can be tricky in such a short space). I basically read each of these in one sitting: the plots & character dynamics are so compelling (even the longest, “Paper Girl”, which is nearly half the book!).

This collection proves, once again, that romance is a genre for me, if it’s about lesbians* in spec fic. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more by Lyon.

Book Review: The Seep

—by Chana Porter

December 25, 2022

This is a weird story about aliens who came to Earth to make everyone happy, and how that intersects with grief.

It’s hard to know how to talk about this story. The protagonist, Trina, her wife decided to get reborn as a baby. Trina has a pamphlet that talks to her, and might be sentient. Everything is perfect so most people spend their days high on the Seep, and wonder why Trina isn’t happy.

Using a utopia instead of a dystopia is certainly novel. And it isn’t one of those utopias that ends with the aliens trying to eat everyone or anything: the Seep genuinely wants to help; they’re just too alien to know how emotions or linear time works.

This story is such a raw examination of grief, in a way that I haven’t really experienced it. There’s definitely a parallel with what I see in media a lot: people tell Trina not to be sad, cos Deeba isn’t dead she’s just a baby again; compare that with people saying “Don’t be sad, they’re in a better place now.” Neither of those changes the fact that the person isn’t here.

It gets really trippy towards the end: hard to tell if it’s a dream, or a hallucination, or direct communication with the Seep, or all of the above. But Trina moves on, and so do a couple of her friends. It’s a weird story with a happy ending.

Book Review: The Echo Wife

—by Sarah Gailey

December 28, 2022

This is an intense book, about the nature of humanity, about abuse and memory, about becoming your own person.

The premise is that a scientist, who perfected human cloning, finds out that her husband stole her research & made a clone of her, one that has more time for him, one that’s less independent. The clone is pregnant. And now the husband is dead, and they have to work together to figure out what to do next.

The narrative is interwoven with two other threads: in the first act, Evelyn looking back on her marriage and seeing how it fell apart, wondering whose fault it was; in the rest, she remembers her father (abusive, got murdered), and her mother (quiet, did the murdering). The parallels & interplays between these threads & the main narrative are vivid & fascinating.

This is a wonderful book. I could tell you the plot fairly quickly, but there’s so much more to this story than that. The internal world of Evelyn & her memories & guilt & fear are so rich that the book could honestly have no plot at all and still be gripping. The pacing, the twists and turns, are perfect. 10/10 would recommend.

Book Review: Can I Crossdress My Way Out of This Arranged Marriage?

—by Fern V. Bedek

December 30, 2022

Thank you, Tumblr, for recommending this stupendous trans novella to me.

The plot is kinda obvious just from the title (very efficient): a young man has a marriage arranged for him, decides to pretend to be a girl to get out of the marriage, and eventually realises she’s a girl after all. It is told with passionate charm, and is so easy to read. It’s just the right length.

On the surface, it might seem tropey & contrived, but the typical “trans awakening” tropes are mixed in with D&D-style fantasy tropes, which adds an interesting layer of nuance: there’s culture shock, there’s angst about people aging differently (Elves vs. Humans vs. Orcs, etc.), and these all funnel into the ways the protagonist is already isolated & lonely.

After reading some serious & intense books, this was just the exact fluffy read I needed. I have to check out more of Bedek’s books!

Book Reviews: my Did Not Finish list

Books that I tried to read in 2022, but seriously could not get through.

• The Teleportation Accident, by Ned Beauman
  I was attracted to this one by the title, in combination with the art deco/noir style cover. Sci-fi in the 20s? Keen! Unfortunately, the main character gets to a party & tries to hook up with an 18yo who he’d tutored through high-school; he gets extremely self-pitying when someone else “steals” her, starts whining about having to get a prostitute, and that’s where I threw it away.
• The Dictionary of Made-Up Languages, by Stephen D. Rogers
  I thought this one would be a shoe-in for me. I love conlangs, and I have multiple books on them. This book has dozens, maybe a hundred, entries about a wide variety of conlangs, and every single entry is boring as hell. It’s just bland templates the whole way through, separated by meaningless quotes about language. The other information about conlangs in other sections is generic & uninteresting (to an expert like me).
• Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, by Sharon Heller
  I was recommended this book about sensory issues by an autistic friend, and it has a lot of good stuff in it. But it’s also a dry read. I’ll get round to it eventually.
• The Last Human, by Zack Jordan
  I grabbed this one from the library on impulse, drawn by the pretty webcomic I read by the same author on the same theme. The book is fine. It just hasn’t really grabbed me. I put it down in favour of another book, and just didn’t pick it back up.
• Spock’s World, by Diane Duane
  Like the above book, it was fine. It just didn’t grab me. Unfortunate, given that I was really excited to read it.
• Taking Wing, by Andy Mangels
  After not getting into Spock’s World, I was hesitant about reading more Star Trek literature. But the Titan series came highly recommended. But the intros in this novel just keep coming and coming, and it bored me. Maybe I’ll come back to it.
• The Complete Robot, by Isaac Asimov
  I adored Asimov when I was a teenager, and some of his short stories are amazing. If you want some of his best robot stories, just read I, Robot & The Bicentennial Man. Having every single robot story means having to wade through a lot of his garbage (he wrote lots, it wasn’t all going to be good).
• Sovereign, by April Daniels
  I really enjoyed the first one. But superhero stories aren’t my favourite genre, and this started turning into the dark kind: “since I can’t hurt you physically, I’m gonna hurt you emotionally & socially”. And since the protagonist is a trans woman with abusive parents, it was just getting too tough to read.
• The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon
  This is one of those epic fantasy novels with multiple POV characters, separated by oceans & mountains. So there’s minimal interaction between the various threads. Some of those threads are really interesting, some less so. I picked this up sometime when I was just too tired to give it the focus it deserves (it’s huge), and I’ll have to get back to it. (I made it halfway through!)