This book was really, really weird. I’m still not sure whether I liked it. My regular gauge for whether or not I liked a book is if I’d read it again and I’m just not sure about this one. It was an intriguing story and did keep me guessing about where it was going. So there’s that. I also give it a lot of credit for just being really fucking weird. Let your freak flag fly, book. Let it fly. Like. For real. I’m not […]
Buckle. The Fuck. Up.
Like Tyrion Lannister, I used to be a cynic. I thought it possible there were not truly original ideas left in fiction. I used to think, after so many years of reading like it was my job, there weren’t any books left that would knock me on my ass, keep me awake until 4 a.m. when I had to work in the morning, cause me to be so engrossed that I literally did not hear my friends trying to get my attention. I thought I […]
Everything old is new again, and I want to inhale it all
This is the first time since The Passage that my brain has DEMANDED MORE when I’ve gotten to the end of a Book 1. I want, I want, I want. I freaking fracking loved Red Rising, and it was a huge surprise to me, because as per uzh, I had totally forgotten what the book was about by the time it was checked out to me, making it a totally shocking, harsh deep dive into an incredibly complete and consuming future dystopia. There’s a lot […]
In Russia, dragon flies you
(note before I start this review: HALF CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!) At this point, Blood of Tyrants being the eighth book in the Temeraire series, I am still very much on board the Temeraire train, but reading all of them in a row without the benefit of waiting between books (other than brief stints when the library is out of copies of whatever’s next) has meant that a certain fatigue has set in. I think I said in an earlier review that Novik has an incredible way of […]
Paging Neil Gaiman fans!
A View from the Cheap Seats is a career-long compilation of assorted writing, from invited speeches, to introductions to books and albums, to op-eds on history, culture, politics, comics, life, and death. I had no idea Gaiman’s interests ranged so far and wide—but of course they do. His thoughts are witty, intelligent, and well-crafted. I mean, anyone who’s read his work would know that of course, they are. His lives in England and the United States provide an interesting point and counterpoint to anyone who […]
I’ve been fighting Heaven’s battles for so long.
James Stark, Sandman Slim, the monster who kills monsters, is a testosterone fueled, angry, white, cis, het male anti-hero that a feminist can feel good about loving. Stark is a nephilim, half human, half angel, hated by almost everybody. He has been a punk kid magician, a gladiator in Hell, an assassin, Lucifer, and a PI. He hates bullies and the entitled rich. He is fighting an endless battle against human and angelic forces that use up and abuse human lives and souls. But he’s […]