Sylphrena

This felt like the middle chapters of of a much better book. It's unique in premise, but doesn't have much going in plot.

Amanda Dolan was a great narrator and it was short enough to finish without much ado.

This felt quite slow for me in the middle, and I take this as a sign I should take a break from the series before jumping into the newer books in this universe. The ending is as satisfying as previous books, but something about the setting change and pace put me off (and down half a star).

I understand how this book might not be everyone's cup of tea, for it does waffle a lot on the worldbuilding and the politics of tea in the Radch. I like sci-fi that focuses on the politics of empire, so this continues to be right up my alley.

It also does rely somewhat on the scifi ship sensors in its crew to convey emotions of characters, which i point out as something that might bother others, but not myself. I think the quirks really work for me, I continue to enjoy the single gender language and be enthralled by the characters... this doesn't feel as driven towards the series plot as the first book, but I enjoyed it as much as the the pilot.

I really like this, the first book in a few months to keep me reading past my bedtime. It felt like a more serious murderbot, a rogue ship ai pretending to be human. Really well done, I also liked the default gendered language of the Radch. I didn't mind the flashbacks either, which is rare for me!

I think from the title and cover I expected the sapling cages to be transgender, rather than the very cute YA witchcraft story with a coming of age transgender protagonist. It became pretty clear after a few chapters that this wasn't gonna be quite what I expected, but I'd have loved to have had fantasy like this growing up. I'd probably pick a different book if I could only hand my younger self one book to spoil my gender reveal, but it'd make the list.