I have never before hit my CBR goal and then just stopped, but 2020 has sapped my motivation and willpower and wordpower. So these aren’t real reviews, but I did want to do a brief round-up of some of the books I’ve finished recently, because one was SO GOOD I needed to add my voice to the chorus of praise, and because one was SO disappointing I needed to growl about it for a sec. So here’s my Cannonball Lightning Round: So You Want […]
Finally, Some Good Sci-Fi Again
Bothari43 mentioned Elizabeth Moon as an author to check out when I was lamenting my inability to enjoy sci-fi, and this novel had been mentioned on a Book Riot discussion about novels “with a female protagonist over 60” (or “sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author”). With those two recommendations, I decided to give it a shot, and: it wasn’t me! I have simply been choosing the wrong sci-fi novels. It turns out that I might get bored with descriptions of the […]
Dependable, reliable, responsible…and all those other words that end in ‘ible’
I know “reliable” doesn’t sound like high praise, but I definitely don’t mean it as an insult. Sometimes you just want to grab something you know will be good and decent, won’t piss you off or make you cry, and won’t waste your reading time, even if you know it won’t stay with you. For me, Elizabeth Moon seems to be shaping up to be my “reliable” pick when I’m at the library. They always have a bunch, and it doesn’t really matter if you […]
Hooray for discovering new authors!
This one was a little confusing, but that’s entirely my own fault. I did not notice when I got it (used bookstore) that this was the sequel to a book that sounded even more interesting. The blurb sounded great, but I missed the “continuing adventures of” piece, so I spent a lot of the book being a little lost. However, I could still follow and enjoy the main plot. Captain Heris runs her ship in service of her employer, the cranky and delightful Lady Cecilia. […]
“Just once, Ofelia would have liked people to see her as she was, not as their ideas painted her.”
Ofelia is a woman in her 70s, living with her tiresome son and his tiresome wife on a planet chosen for colonization by a soulless company. When the company decides the colony isn’t thriving (after 40 years), they decide to pull the plug, put everybody into cryo, and send them to another planet to try again. After 70 years of dancing to other people’s tunes, Ofelia decides enough is enough, and all she wants to do is work in her garden and be in charge […]