theblackdog

This was a fun world-building book. I loved watching the relationship develop between Flora/Florian and Evelyn, while dealing with the background of an empire of colonizers vs the natives and the world itself. I thought learning of why the mermaids are so important to the sea was a clever way to give them more agency than them just existing.

I did take off half a star because I felt there was a plot thread that wasn’t well resolved and that was the story of Xenobia. It felt incomplete. There’s events and stories told that could have led to her regaining some of what she lost. It’s possible we will see more of her in a future book.

I am thrilled to get to see queer representation and love in here, even if the dominant society does not approve. I thought the handling of genderqueer characters was done well for the setting.

For a heads up, there are references to an incident of sexual assault. However, this is definitely worth reading if you’re into queer romance, magic, action, and seeing some later justice in the world.

The Obelisk Gate defies what often happens in trilogies in that all of the characters must have major setbacks that could break them and things must seem very bleak. Essen does have some losses along the way, but she experiences so much growth in her abilities and herself that there’s a much more hopeful tone by the end.

We also finally dive into Nassun and her current situation. It’s better than expected but not without its risks. I do see a very good setup for a clash later because of some of the people from Essun’s past making a connection with Nassun. There’s also going to be a clash over methods, but there’s hopefully going to be a realization that they’re working towards the same goal. There’s so much character growth from Nassun as well, and we see Jija get his deserved fate.

I look forward to reading the next book.

Another great book, and I did not expect the reveal near the end. Jamesin has crafted another rich world much like she did with the Inheritance series. I am drawing parallels with who the Stills, Orogenes, and Guardians represent. I look forward to seeing further development of some of the other named groups in the next books.

Hollywood if it was run by fae, when queerness had to be kept secret, and it was hard as heck to make it if you were not white. It makes for a great story as we watch Luli Wei go from being a kid who loves movies to a teen who is an extra on set before taking her ambitions to the studio. Along the way she makes some friends, plenty of enemies, and she will start to learn a few things about herself.

There’s a lot to take in here, and the setting is rich for other stories in this world. It would not surprise me if Vo intended for this book and The Chosen and the Beautiful to take place in the same time. There are so many things about this version of Hollywood that get treated as normal but are strange that I would have liked more detail. Machines that are alive, similar fey experiences for writers? I want to see more!

I was happy to see positive queer representation, even if this is at a time when Hollywood and the world views queerness in a negative light. Luli has to be careful with her activities, but she’s never depicted as a monster for it.

I got this from my library but I’ll probably buy a copy because I’ll want to read it again.

Plot wise, this was one of King's better books. There was good pacing in building up to the climax and its resolution. It also had very realistic issues that some folks face in their lives and antagonists that reflect actual fears that other folks have.

One issue I did have is one of the antagonists having a name reference that is an ethnic slur. No one else in the True Knot had a similar degrading name and it's not the kind of word that was once considered to be okay but now it's not.

Setting that aside though, it was a good story on just what happened to Dan Torrance and also how trauma and later addiction can affect someone. Abra having a powerful shine was fun and one of the twists was something I did not expect.

Meh.

This is one of the few books where as it turns out, the movie was better. There's some action, and you get a bit of hearing about the neat equipment that gets to be used, but that's really it. The rest of the book is more the internal journey of someone who joined the military because his buddy and the hot girl from his school were joining, to getting through basic, and then deciding to make a career of it during the bug war.

One thing I did notice was as soon as Rico got over his hump, from then on out the government and military could do no wrong. In fact, that's what it seemed the system was set up to be, that if you wanted a right such as voting, you would need to buy into complete and utter loyalty to the government no matter what. The attitudes from the higher-ups to both soldiers and even to civilians seems to be “You're too stupid to understand this so just let us handle all the big thinking for you, okay?” That's where the book loses me, making the assumption that anyone not at a certain level in the system is just stupid.

I don't think I'll be reading this one again anytime soon.

This is one of the best follow up books I have read. As much as I wanted to keep reading as soon as I started, I made myself take it slow and it was needed. Storm of Locusts takes off running and doesn't stop until the end.

Just because Maggie had her showdown at Black Mesa doesn't mean things are over for her. A lot is going to change and not all for the better. I found myself at the first act just wanting Maggie to catch a break because she's going to deal with some terrible events. However, I was cheering for her and for Kai and the others as they finally get some resolution. There is also some real growth from Maggie here as she's brought further out of her past isolation.

There is one thread that seems to be unresolved at the end, and that's what the Cletus Goodacre had been doing in his life. There's a major hint he was into some not so great activities, but I suspect the known truth will come in a future book.

I have found myself wanting to learn more about the Diné gods and their stories because there's a character introduced that I think I would have clued in about his full nature before Maggie and Kai did. However, the journey to get to that realization was still worth taking.

Of course, Ma'ii is back and he's the same as ever. I know he knows more about the long game than he's letting on, but he'll reveal it when he feels like it.

Anyway, this is definitely worth a read especially because unlike some sequel to the first book in other series that I have read, this one did not feel like a slog.

This was kind of a miss for me. I enjoyed the Keep and I enjoy the Repairman Jack series but this one felt off. I think it was some of the pacing that did it. We had a lot of build up going on of events going on with Jim, Carol, and Bill, but then the third act of the book was just one event stacked up on another. It was almost as if Wilson realized he needed to get to the planned ending and had to tie a lot of threads together.

Maybe if I had read this after reading The Tomb and The Touch first I might have liked it better. However it does look like this was planned as a middle of the series book as the ending doesn't have a full resolution so I may try to give Reprisal a shot in the future.

This book is a decent continuation of the Monolith story but it feels incomplete. We learn more about Europa after a forced landing by Galaxy is caused by what appears to be a terrorist act but that gets wrapped up without much talk about potential motivations other than possible greed. Heywood Floyd is back and ends up going to be a part of the rescue as he happens to be on Galaxy's sister ship, the Universe. You get some bits about his life since 2010 and he reconnects with his grandson but that's about it. Not much else that I can really say other than it's a quick read but not a huge progression in the story.

This was always one I enjoyed. We finally get some developments regarding the monolith and why HAL seemed to break down in 2001.

This isn't my first time reading it but I learn something new every time. This time I noticed two of the characters are bisexual. The scene where it comes up is handled well in that it's not a big deal, other than said character being dense that a love triangle is beginning to form so the rest of the crew kind of wants to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem. It would have been cool if it was a little more open, but hey, this was written in 82 when bisexuality just wasn't discussed as much.

Clarke comes up with some fantastic worlds here and the plot moves well, though it begins to drag for a bit when they accomplish one primary task and now want to investigate the floating monolith. Then again, it's reflecting what's going on at the ship, which is waiting and testing but no reaction from the object. Still, it is satisfying how it wraps up.

It's been years since I saw the movies but this was a great read.

This contained some very good lessons for each day of the challenge. I found it worked really well as a group reading as each of us had different ideas and insights from what we read. Food security was something I had not thought about in depth before but this helped bring that and some other issues to the forefront that perhaps can be worked on in my local community.

The Great Gatsby is one of those books that high schools like to make their students read but somehow I dodged that so I finally read it this year.

Frankly I found the characters pretty unlikable, especially Tom Buchanan. I recognize this takes place in the early 1920's but his racism and abusiveness is still jarring to read. I really wish he had gotten some sort of comeuppance at the end but he didn't.

Nick is so generic; we know barely anything about him other than he decided to go to NY to try his hand at selling bonds for an investment firm. He also is engaged and there's a bit about how he's trying to break it but we never get a resolution to that thread. He feels forgettable despite being the narrator.

Gatsby himself, he could have gotten what he wanted if he had been more subtle, but then again he was being almost as brutish as Tom towards Daisy, just in a more charming way.

I just didn't feel satisfied reading this story and if I were a teacher I'd probably refer to this book as “The Great Gatsby, or Terrible People Being Terrible.”

Summerhill was one of those books where once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I got into learning about as much as I could about what Summerhill is and how his mission to “Stick with Katherine” takes him across several fantastic worlds and realities. The pacing is good and you're never left feeling like you need to slog past this part to get to the action again.

Despite the fact that Summerhill himself has an ability to make things work out, he manages to make some blunders along the way. In the end it does work out but it's like he decided in his journey to try to swim across a river fully clothed instead of a proper swimsuit. Maybe as an anthropomorphic canine he won't have as much of a problem as a human would. Still, he figures out a lot and it opens the door to a futher adventure. I would love to see how he takes on the Consortium in the future.

The thing to remember is that while Bladerunner is based on this story, it was used for setting and a few of the characters, but a number of the details and plot are loosely used or discarded. However, it is a very good story and it leaves you considering what is real, what isn't, and whether or not that is okay. Deckard and Rachel are about the same as their characters, same with Pris, though the final battle against Roy is not as climactic. We at least get a little more detail of why the world is the way it is, though you don't get the sense of a crowded place. It feels largely abandoned and there are good reasons for it. You do get more of a settled ending here but it also left open the possibility of further writing in this universe.

Now I understand what people are referring to when they say that this administration is trying to bring about The Handmaid's Tale. I feel for Offred as she now is unable to have her own life and she tries to push the boundaries wherever she can. The ending feels a bit abrupt and a little unsatisfying. She is talking about how she probably got a bit reckless because of some special treatment she was getting but all we know is she either got caught and removed, or was brought underground and maybe she escaped.

What is a bit more disturbing is the description of the events that led to the suspension of the US Constitution and the creation of Gilead. It feels a little too close to home right now as some are clearly itching for this catalyst to occur.

Devin is one of the most interesting characters that I have read in recent memory. He appears to be living the good life as the son of rich and well-connected parents, plus he is about to marry the most famous singer in the galaxy. However, from the beginning there are hints he has a darker past. At first it sounds like he got into the standard teenage rebellion but then it went way beyond anything he could handle. You will be reading to the end to find out just what really happened with him then and how it could have been a way to haunt him but instead he uses it to his advantage. I appreciate that his reveals and our discoveries about him were well-paced throughout the story.

Jane was a little slower to get going for me though there was a lot to establish with her. Yet when I expected a decision she made to turn into a damsel in distress situation later, thankfully that didn't happen.

There are lots of twists and turns throughout but they feel natural and it does keep you engaged, plus no character feels unnecessary here. Of course, with what has been revealed, there is a lot of places where it can go for the next book.

I tried, I really tried to like this book but I found myself struggling to get through it. I loved Catch-22 when I read it a few years ago because of its ridiculousness and that I actually felt interested in Yossarian, the Chaplain, and the rest of the bunch. Now it takes place years later and I just feel like I happen to be watching a TV show about them and it's not as good as the book.

The pacing was where I had the hardest time with this book. We get introduced to newer characters (Sammy, Glenda, Mr. Gaffney, etc.) and we get to hear their entire life story up to modern day, which go on and on and on. These were also characters who were mentioned a little bit in Catch-22 but didn't seem to have an impact there, so I didn't find myself very interested in them. Even so, these chapters came along right after there had been an action so it was like “Okay, time to slog through another pause so we can hear more of someone's life story even though we only encounter them once or twice in the book.” Did I really need to read 50 pages of Sammy's childhood on Coney Island before the war? Eh, no. He has one conversation with Yossarian later on and then goes off to live out a dream he has had before it's too late.

Gaffney felt out of place in this book. He felt like it was a self-insertion of Heller as the one who moves the plot along as he follows Yossarian and knows everything that is going to happen. Mr. Tilyou and his representation on what appears to be Purgatory also felt unnecessary, or maybe that was because we were left with this loose end of what happens to his world. That's most of the ending of this book, lots of loose ends that weren't really tied up. At least we had an excuse at the end of Catch-22 in that the war was still going on, but here it just feels rough and unfinished. It's like Heller just wanted to get it done and over with.

It's easy to say the zombie genre is played out, but Braineater Jones is a fun take on what it's like to be a zombie. In this world, zombies exist but what keeps them from eating brains is booze. That's right, enough booze and you don't need to have cranium for dinner.

Since Jones currently has no idea what he was before he turned (and you don't turn because of a bite) he ends up being a private detective in the part of the city where the zombies live. As he tries to figure out who he was and how to get along as a zombie, he manages to stumble across some bigger fish to fry.

Since this is written to be in the style of pulp and detective noir, the situations that occur are perfectly ridiculous, but I found myself enjoying the scrapes that Jones gets himself into. The author does note that he wrote it in the style of what 1930s noir was like so there is adult language and situations along with casual racism and sexism. Thankfully he was not heavy handed with it and they fit the story.

This is a fun casual read and I hope to see either more of Braineater Jones or similar stories in the future.

Lex has become more fascinating, and we have only moved forward a month since end of Boundary Crossed. A few hanging threads were resolved in the start, including learning what ultimately happened to her sister Sam. Actually I am glad that wasn't dragged out into a whole long drama. There are plenty of other situations to worry about instead. Lex is just trying to get along but she doesn't fit in and the rest of Clan Pellar isn't helping.

Actually I just realized that we don't see as much of Lex's power being used that we saw in the first book. However, we see some other awakenings and perhaps we will see more of her boundary magic in the next book.

My thought is this series has gone more from Lost Girl to Buffy, except the supernatural isn't necessarily trying to take over the world or awaken old demons, at least not yet. I look forward to the next book.

The premise of the book is how the Book of Common Prayer may have influenced Shakespeare's writings, but I found it was more than that. I learned more about the tension surrounding the BCP and revisions that were being made at the time Shakespeare wrote some of his plays. However, I did find that parts of the book were more about the interpretations and history lessons of the BCP and thin on how it could connect with Romeo and Juliet or Much Ado About Nothing.

I did find some things to consider about whether or not there may be influences, whether it is gently mocking marriage or showing us how people thought of funerals back then. It does make for good, if somewhat dry reading.

I originally picked this book up when I was visiting Shore Leave, a sci-fi con in Maryland. I found it was a book that once I started reading it, I found it hard to put down. Asia Burdette is returning home after a needed night out when suddenly she finds herself waking up in her truck and she can't remember what happened to her for the past three hours. From there, she tries to piece together what happened, eventually landing in the office of Dr. Ethan Roberts.

Asia is a fun character. Clearly she is strong and smart, but she clearly has something hiding in her that keeps her wound up. It takes a lot for her to show some vulnerability, and with what we learn about her, it is understandable. Even so, she still has a deep resevoir of inner strength to draw on that she will need. However, if there is one thing that can get her into trouble, it's occasionally being naive.

Ethan has quite few things that he hides from us right off the bat, but as we learn them we find even he has his flaws with relating to people sometimes.

With there being elements of romance in this novel, there are some scenes that are suited for adult readers. They are explicit, but not vulgar, and perfectly realistic. Yeah, you might be blushing after reading some of the chapters.

The rest of the story was well written and the plot itself goes in some fun and unexpected directions. Thankfully it is also consistent and the details are kept tight. Things follow their natural conclusion.

You will end up wanting to know more about the dreams that Asia continues to have and whether or not what she experienced in her memory gap was real, or some rather clever idea from her brain.

I hope to see more good books like this from the author.

This ended up being a fast read and while the setting was interesting, it felt a bit jumbled. Then again, Rhein is supposed to be a character who has moments where he is not all there, which may be why not everything was coherent.

Rhein is a famous artist who is currently suffering from a major block. He decides to go to a place simply known as The Oasis where one can live in complete isolation. He has kept to himself, but now that is all about to change.

The legend of the Remorites is interesting but it doesn't really go anywhere until later on. Even then it feels a bit tacked on. Readers of sci-fi will be familiar with the idea of parallel worlds or timelines that branch off based on the decisions we make, while leaving behind the possibilities that could have been. However, tacking this on to a murder mystery as well may have been a bit too much.

Focusing on the mystery aspect only, there are plenty of twists and turns, and you will be wondering who is responsible for the murders until the end. Once it becomes clear you can appreciate the cunningness of some of the characters.

Admittedly this wasn't one of the stronger books I have read. I think this could have been done as a sci-fi book about the Remorites and an idea of second chances as one story. The murder mystery could have been its own story.

This book offers a slice of life viewpoint of living in rural China in the early 90s. Lu Xiaolu is a man who didn't really apply himself in school so he goes to work in the nearby saccharin factory. We get to hear his stories about the people he works with and his relationship with Bai Lan.

The narrative feels like if you're sitting there listening to someone tell stories about their life. Each chapter felt like it was another evening of stories from Lu Xiaolu. It's not in the perfect order and sometimes it goes off on other tangents before getting back on track.

Without knowing intimate details of factory life in China I cannot say if some of these stories are embellished or not. However, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if the various teams did have inside jokes and nicknames for one another, and rules not always being followed.

I found the book enjoyable and something fun to read, though I felt it got a bit more abrupt at the end. We also don't really get a sense of what happened in the years when Lu decides to leave his town and go to Shanghai. There was so much of a buildup in showing how he was different and factory life didn't really suit him, yet we really don't get to find out how he finally finds his success. At least we did get to see him grow up a bit.

This is a good book to set up a high-level look at the world and introduce us to Kendra. You get some insight into her past and that it appears some sort of apocalypse has happened to her people now. Admittedly you can guess at some of why her past events happened, but there are enough details to explore later to find out why. At 58 pages, this is a very fast read, but you're left ready to jump into the next part as this does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. We now have two new characters that just appeared, but we don't know much about them yet.