The Speculative Shelf

Ed Park spins historical fact into brilliant literary fiction with Same Bed Different Dreams. His gripping prose and flair for unconventional storytelling makes even the most opaque sections completely engrossing. This book will coast onto yearly Best-of lists (including my own) and it should be in contention for major literary awards. I was simply blown away.

It's a mesmerizing fever dream of a novel, with an expansive story that contracts on a whim. It's sprawling, yet intimate. The subtle interconnections between its nested layers are a joy to puzzle out and it begs to be re-read. Starting over with more enlightened eyes (and maybe a character web to track the broad cast of players and their connections) would certainly yield a different, yet still satisfying, experience.

While it's difficult to describe the book in terms of plot, if you're an enjoyer of secret societies, doomsday cults, alternate histories, coded messages, spies, double agents, artificial intelligence, and the history of Korea – give this book a go. If you bristle at the thought of an unconventional narrative structure without much hand-holding, perhaps skip it. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it was certainly mine.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The opening act of Exordia is extraordinary. It's witty, engaging, and sets up a super intriguing first contact alien scenario. What follows that cracking start is a dense, technobabble bonanza that prioritizes impenetrable science abstractions over story and character.

It's frustrating because I'm fairly certain Seth Dickinson is brilliant. But he's so brilliant that most of what he was writing about went well over my head. Or maybe I've just outed myself as an unlearned, poorly-read student of science fiction literature – but that's for me to grapple with.

I wish I had put this down and chalked it up as one of the many books that are “just not for me,” but the promise of that opening section left me hopeful that the story would eventually sink its teeth back into me. I lost the plot and never got it back as Dickinson dove deeper and deeper down a cosmological rabbit hole that I just could not follow (literally, figuratively, metaphysically).

There will be a bloc of readers who love Exordia, and I wish I could count myself among their numbers. But consider me among the lesser mortals who could not connect with the frequency at which Dickinson is operating here.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf and follow @specshelf on Twitter.

What an excellent series capper. I'm glad I pushed through the so-so second book and wasn't deterred by the size of this massive, massive tome. Williams puts on a masterclass in building towards a grand finale here and while brevity and succinctness are nowhere to be found, Williams employs his 520,000 word count to set a captivating tone and mood for this concluding novel. I listened to some of this via audiobook as a change of pace and Andrew Wincott's incredible narration added another layer of gravitas to the story and characters. 

I'm very pleased to know that Williams has continued telling stories in this world and I look forward to diving into those books soon.

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Being a human is awkward. Dating is awkward. Pretending to be a human, whilst dating, whilst satisfying your insatiable alien urge to consume human flesh? Yep, also awkward. Walking Practice takes us inside the mind of such an alien, who cobbles themselves into some simulacrum of a human before seeking out its prey.

I spent an amusing afternoon zipping through this story, as it's written in a breezy, conversational way. It's titillating, graphic, and occasionally grotesque. And while there are some interesting observations about gender politics at play here, I'd imagine this novella would be more effective as a short story, as the alien's constant inner monologuing started to lose its luster and focus after the first section of the book.

I'll be sure to check out the print version of this book when it comes out, though, as the black and white line illustrations are really fantastic looking.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
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★★ out of 5 stars at spikegelato.com/2016/06/25/review-before-the-fall/

A private plane leaving Martha's Vineyard crashes under mysterious circumstances. The backstory of each passenger is chronicled, while also telling the story of the two survivors.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

For a novel generating a lot of summer buzz, this was a bit of a letdown. “THE thriller of the year” the description proclaims. In my eyes, I wouldn't even describe it as a thriller, but more of a plodding mystery novel. Providing such deep backstories on each plane passenger would've been a more compelling tool if hints or red herrings had been dropped about why each person might seek to crash the plane. Without this, the time spent on the backstories seems wasted, especially once you find out the true reason for the plane crash. All of this is sandwiched between Hawley's attempt at telling a deeper story about the pitfalls of the 24-hour news cycle and why wild public speculation can be counterproductive. In a way, it accomplished that, but it did so at the expense of weaving a compelling mystery tale.