Ryan

This was a really exciting Cold War alt-history thriller set at the end of the Apollo era. Hadfield has a fairly unique perspective on the details of being in space, which adds a nice degree of reality to those parts of the story. Beyond that, he knows how to spin a good yarn and keeps the story moving at a fast pace.

This was a simply sublime collection of stories. Robson deftly works through multiple genres, filling each story with interesting characters, fascinating environments, and thoughtful prose.

I've always thought that DAX was one of the most interesting characters in Star Trek, and this is an interesting look at the different people they have been.

I love these hippopotamus cowboy stories so much and would happily read 100 more of them.

A bit outside of what I would normally enjoy, but Kelley Armstrong can basically do no wrong.

This was an odd read. I'm glad to see Barclay return to writing political satire! But political satire relies on topicality, and as this came out right before the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like it was from a million years ago. Topics like getting the police to pay for the premier's new van off the books, or staffers commiting nepotism would normally be a big deal, and Barclay had no way of knowing what was coming, but it all seems like small buck-a-beer compared to our current reality.

Full of time travel ridiculousness, but entertainingly so.

The past year has been fraught with the search for meaning. And while the experience of living through a global pandemic don't compare to Frankl's experience surviving a concentration camp, the lessons that he brought out of it are still important and relevant to our modern experience.

The plot was interesting enough, but the narrative choices kept taking me out of the story. For a Generation Z kid growing up in Manhattan, Jamie sounded an awful lot like a baby boomer from Maine.

This is an absolutely fantastic translation of Beowulf. Accessible for new readers, and charming and original for those that have heard it all before. Headly approaches the text in a way that's fun yet respectful - you can tell she truly loves Beowulf and wants others to love it as much as she does.

Beautiful end to a great series. Exactly what I want out of a Star Wars novel.

I was brought here by the recent Netflix series, but I'm kind of surprised I had never read any of Lupin's adventures before that. These stories are charming and engaging, and I'll definitely be back for more.

Andrew Robinson's portrayal of Garak in Deep Space Nine was one of the many excellent parts of that show, and seeing him flesh out the character's backstory was really interesting.

This is a great beginning for a new chapter of Star Wars. The High Republic feels like we're finally seeing the payoff of the Jedi Order that Obi-Wan described in the first Star Wars movie - a legendary order dedicated to spreading peace and justice throughout the galaxy.

The way that Soule presents the Jedi are fascinating, and I was drawn into them immediately. They're an engaging and interesting ensemble, and I'm looking forward to him and the other High Republic authors exploring these characters further.

One of my goals while we wait out COVID has been to read through all of Howard's original Conan stories.

They've been a fun read. I think if I was trying to read them all at once, the outdated opinions of gender would have been overwhelming, but in smaller doses it was manageable. And Howard's central theme of how we define civilization and barbarism still feels deeply relevant in 2021.

An interesting look at a version of the Klingon empire that might have been, but which later stories have unfortunately written out of continuity.

Spooky, gloomy, erotic, and emotionally overwrought - just as any classic vampire tale should be. Zarate's novella ties explicitly to the the history of the genre - set between the pages of Dracula - but stakes out its own territory at the same time.

This was a smart little satire of religious syncretism, recasting characters from Journey to the West as the wise men who visited Bethlehem a little over 2000 years ago. Fun for what it was.

This was a really interesting look at some parts of early internet history that I had been unaware of.

A retelling of Greek myth that deals head-on with a lot of the misogyny inherent to the source material. As a fan of Greek mythology that struggles with that misogyny, this is a very welcome retelling.

I absolutely adored Clark's djinn-infused Cairo.

Qui-Gon was my favourite part of my least-favourite Star Wars movie, so I appreciated getting to read more about him. Beyond that,this was a well-told story but not something that especially impressed me.

This was a lot of fun - I found the characters really likeable, and the central plot/mystery of Elantris was really engaging.

Another fantastic tale of the hippopotamus-riding cowhands of the Mississippi. It picks up right where River of Teeth left off, and Gailey uses the added length of this volume to expand on the characters and their world a lot more. An excellent addition to a wonderful series.

I've never played a tabletop RPG before, so I don't know how it compares to other systems. But it seems pretty great on its own - I'm looking forward to start GMing some sessions with my kids.