I told myself I would post this before Christmas; here I am scooting under the line again. But both parts of my Book exchange made it! I am very excited to have received The Spear that Cuts Through Water—I have been eying that one off for a while. And while I was less familiar with There Will Be Fire, I have to say it looks super promising; Maggie Thatcher and the IRA? Sign me up. Thanks again, I can’t wait!
As Slippery as a Fish
Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan
“Billy Gould could not escape the growing suspicion that he had become entrapped in a book, a character whose future as much as his past was already written, determined, foretold, as unalterable as it was intolerable. What choice did he have but to destroy that book?” I’ve saved the most flummoxing book of the year for the last square on the bingo board: a book which involves metafiction and magical realism in convict-era Tasmania. Thanks, Richard Flanagan. Gould’s Book of Fish has a convoluted […]
Please, Re-read the Previous Book First
Queen Demon by Martha Wells
So, I did mention I had more than one Martha Wells book to attend to today, and this is the tricker one to write about. I read Witch King earlier this year, and while I very much liked it, there were, I thought, some notable flaws. Witch King had a dual narrative, with each of the two branches separated by over fifty years. And within these fifty years, there have been some significant political changes that are sometimes a little hard to grasp because of […]
A Fragment of Murderbot
Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells
OK, I’m going for a Martha Wells two-fer today. And I’m going to start of with the shorter story. I have to give mu thanks to faintingviolet here because if I hadn’t read their review, I would not have known this had been released. And I thought I kept up pretty well with most things related to Murderbot But even though this short story is, well, short, (a fragment of a story even) it made me very happy because it focuses of Peri/ART. Told from […]
Something’s Wrong
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
I’m going to be honest; I picked this one up based on the cover alone. And like they tell you not to do, I did sort of judge this book by its cover. Well, the cover and the first section of the book. And I thought I’d be dealing with a short set of vignettes about pulp horror monsters in space. Turns out that was a bit of a lowball there—there is actually a story arc that we follow throughout the book. Poor Dementer, has […]
“Travelling Through Thick Woods With a Troop of Goblins Is Not Unlike a Nature Hike With a Group of Grumpy Toddlers With Weapons”
Nine Goblins by T Kingfisher
I’ve been reading some pretty heavy books recently, and have been writing some rather hefty reviews to match. So I’ve decided to tackle something a little bit lighter this time, and T Kingfisher has provided. Nine Goblins is basically the story of two people trying to do their very best: Sergeant Nessilka, leader to her goblin cohort, and Sings-to-Trees the elven veterinarian. The goblins have been at war with the humans for quite awhile; pushed out of their own lands with nowhere else to go, […]
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