Sylphrena

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.

i liked this more than I thought given the kinda boring cover... less revolutionary and more sci-fi politics, but i enjoy that. It's not as masterful as my favorite of that genre (A Memory Called Empire), but a solid read with a few satisfying twists up its sleeve.

Not quite cozy fantasy, but this delivered as a platteable book to eat up quickly. Like my last book by Kingfisher, it was still too YA for me and the romance was decidedly boring. Unfortunately, unlike the last one, it failed to win me over with any unique charm... this felt cookiecutter. Pretty solid, but I'll consult a fan for a better fit before picking up another of her books. I'd also not call this dark fantasy, even for YA, but maybe my standards for such are high?

tbd if I'll get back to this, i'm a sucker for a good cover but was getting bothered by a lot about the book. more thoughts if i ever finish it

gods, i need to stop listening to books i think I'll love, I wish I could have read this for the prose. I loved the slow realization that all the perspectives are the same person and the use of second person narrative was amazingly deployed. I'll get around to (reading) the rest of the series at some point. Great narrator, though that's not a surprise to me, I've been picking audiobooks for my new commute by narrator previews moreso then order in my want to read

All signs said I should love this book, Burning Kingdoms is amazing and a contender for my favorite series of all time, there's lesbians, (kinda) enemies to lovers, the narrator was great... but it failed to get its claws into me. I didn't feel strong emotional attachment to the romance or interest in the magic system and these are the primary factors that I've liked in the author's previous work. It felt like it had all the potential to be a five star read, I can't tell if audiobooks can no longer captivate me like physical/ebooks or if I'm just unable to properly articulate my issues with the book writing my review almost a month after reading (ugh, I've been in a reading slump recently).