Lewis

This is one of my favorite series I've ever read. It's difficult to give a lot of details without risking spoilers, but I will say that this book, the second in the series, opens up the world from the first offers some really satisfying resolution to questions raised in the first, and continues to develop the mystery driving the story. Part of what makes the books so good is the fully developed and realized characters and their relationships. It's hard not to be drawn into caring about Rowan and Bel and the people they spend time with.

very quick read, not very subtle. The ending was underwhelming.

I love this series so much. It is so good. Doing a comfort re-read of the books and they are so easy to sink into.

very grabby writing but there are issues of inconsistent tone that kept me from really getting into it

The volume provides a nice array of stories, with a lot of variety in their interests, despite only having 10 stories.

The stories that stuck with me were Tombstone, which had to do with a deceptive uploading afterlife, PTSD, which was a somewhat contrived but engaging cyberpunk/hacker/mecha story, Pixiu, which was a more somber story about genetic engineering and resource extraction, and The Postman which was a very somber story about isolation and connection across vast distances (and times).

a book that is hard to describe

The story grabbed me almost immediately; the world building was fascinating and curious, the characters were excellently realized.

The book went in many ways as I expected, but I still felt surprised as it went along.

Genuinely not sure how to describe this other than as a wild subversive retelling of sleeping beauty