Set in an alt-Regency England in which race and sexuality are of no matter. Unfortunately, rumors are quite important--and there are enough surroundinSet in an alt-Regency England in which race and sexuality are of no matter. Unfortunately, rumors are quite important--and there are enough surrounding Catherine that she marries some random gentleman to end them. Luckily for her, he turns out to be a generous landlord and overall good guy. And luckily for him, she's not only rich and attractive, but quietly generous and kind herself. I really admired the way she tried to put everyone at ease when she moved into Andrew's house. The hang up is that Catherine only wants to be with someone she loves, and Andrew is sure he can't love anyone after a tumultuous relationship years before.
I liked the opportunity to read a Regency romance with pictures accompanying & supplementing the story. The characters themselves aren't a huge draw, but I liked the setting and art....more
A collection of short stories that reminded me more and more strongly as the collection progressed of why I don't read Kelly Link short stories. The pA collection of short stories that reminded me more and more strongly as the collection progressed of why I don't read Kelly Link short stories. The premise for each was thin but made to seem weightier by telling it in obscuring ways and then ending most of them before a resolution.
The White Cat's Divorce: the youngest son of a rich man is sent on three quests, each of which he wins after being provided the answer by a white cat. (The white cat works growing, designing, and selling weed, as do the other cats who live with her.) For the third quest, (view spoiler)[the white cat transforms herself into a beautiful woman and marries the son's rich dad. She convinces the dad to cut off her head any time he grows bored, which he does frequently. Eventually he decides he wants to be reborn as she is, and asks her to cut off his head. She does, killing him. Then she transforms back into a white cat and lives with the youngest son as a normal cat for the rest of her days. As for the murder investigation and the rich man's vast estate which was left to his wife/white cat, nothing is said. (hide spoiler)] Also, throughout the youngest son is the dimmest and most tractable bulb in the world, such that it beggars belief. wtf?
Prince Hat Underground: a man goes in search of his husband, who has seemingly left him for his long-lost fiancee. I liked this the best in the collection. I had a feel for the personalities of the characters, the main character didn't just passively let weird shit happen to him (as is the case in most of these stories), and there's actually a resolution.
The White Road: a group of players in a fantasy post-apocalypse is trapped with no way to fight off the monsters who come at night. They hit upon the idea of holding a fake funeral, which only works for a time. I have always liked the original tale this is based on, The Musicians of Bremen, and so had hopes for this one. Alas, it has none of the cleverness of that tale. The only common thread I could think of (and this is me really reaching) is that the players attempt to fool monsters, and in the original the animals fooled a group of robbers.
The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear: a professor's flight is delayed repeatedly. At home, her young daughter has a repeating nightmare of a clogged toilet. At last the professor gets on a plane and discovers in quick succession that her seatmate knew her wife, she's just gotten her period, and that the airplane toilet is clogged. Then the story ends. It feels like something bad is about to happen, caused by the professor who might have some sort of supernatural genetic thing going on? I have no idea, and I have no idea how this is connected to the tale that supposedly inspired it.
The Game of Smash and Recovery: Oscar has raised Anat almost all her life on an otherwise abandoned moon. They spend their time playing and inventorying a vast warehouse. At last, Anat is almost grown up and Oscar tells her that their parents are on their way home. (view spoiler)[ Anat connects to a buried space ship, realizes she is a space ship consciousness that was saved into a human body, and reconnects her consciousness back into the space ship. As for Anat and Oscar, Anat the human apparently has no memories or even intelligence of her own and spends her time working in the ship's botany bay, while the space ship de- and re-constructs Oscar to be useful to it, although he still sometimes calls out for Anat. (hide spoiler)] As before, how is this connected to the Hansel and Gretel, which supposedly inspired it?
The Lady and the Fox: a retelling of Tam Lin which is actually too close to the original to be any fun. I did like (view spoiler)[the main character crafting a dress that would help bind Tam Lin to her and the aging actress godmother challenging the fairy queen. (hide spoiler)]
Skinder's Veil: A man having trouble with his dissertation is offered a house-sitting job and meets a variety of creatures and odd people who enter the house as guests. As with The White Cat's Divorce, the main character is implausibly passive and incurious. (view spoiler)[Also, did Bronwen give Lester her "ghost"? If so, how? Did she do it on purpose? (hide spoiler)]
If you have any thoughts or speculations on my areas of confusion, I'd love to hear them!...more
Valkyr has trained all her life to avenge Earth's destruction. But once she's left the tiny desperate rebel starbase she grew up on, she starts learniValkyr has trained all her life to avenge Earth's destruction. But once she's left the tiny desperate rebel starbase she grew up on, she starts learning all too much.
Things I loved, in no particular order: (view spoiler)[ Kyr and Cleo's enemies-to-friends arc. All the Gaea Station worldbuilding that didn't hold together or felt like stereotypical YA dystopia stuff was on purpose. But that what Kyr was taught wasn't all propaganda: Earth really was destroyed and the aliens did it. Val and Kyr uncomfortably sharing a brain and each judging the other harshly. Every time Kyr is physically absurdly incredible (so many scenes of her running while carrying people, throwing herself down spaceship shafts, or taking out full grown adults, and I loved EVERY SINGLE ONE). The Wisdom tries to keep outsiders out by convincing them they're terribly late and in trouble for it, and Kyr is so sure that she has never been late that she just bulls right into its center. The concept of the Wisdom itself--I love the idea of having to battle a reality-bending utilitarian omniscience. Avi being a vengeful self-righteous, self-hating shit. All the shadowspace weirdness. (hide spoiler)]...more
A collection of short stories, most with a sff or horror tinge. My favorites were the ones set in not-far futures where humans lived in collectives inA collection of short stories, most with a sff or horror tinge. My favorites were the ones set in not-far futures where humans lived in collectives in the woods. Most stories have a main character who is all too aware of how awful humans and human systems can be, but not in a nihilistic way. Despite portraying horrors like eldritch forest gods, satanic cults, and tech-driven panopticons, the stories by and large felt positively energizing because people in them were so determined to live as their true selves making their own choices....more
Maika Halfwolf has just enough magic to be a danger to herself and her enemies. Desperate to discover what led to her mother's death and Constatine's Maika Halfwolf has just enough magic to be a danger to herself and her enemies. Desperate to discover what led to her mother's death and Constatine's destruction, Maika allows herself to be sold into slavery in the heart of enemy territory. She fights her way free, but now even her former allies are in hot pursuit of what she may have discovered.
Beautiful art, with loads of color, shading, and movement to it. Loads of complex female characters, varieties of gender, sexuality, and color go unremarked, and there's a great cat species (I'm a sucker for morally ambiguous cat warriors). I liked what I understood of the worldbuilding and the setting (steampunky fantasy in the midst of a generation-long war), but felt confused for the entirety of the comic. Too little is explained, and there are too many titles, factions, and secrets all thrown at the reader at once. I need to be eased in just a little bit.
Merged review:
Maika Halfwolf has just enough magic to be a danger to herself and her enemies. Desperate to discover what led to her mother's death and Constatine's destruction, Maika allows herself to be sold into slavery in the heart of enemy territory. She fights her way free, but now even her former allies are in hot pursuit of what she may have discovered.
Beautiful art, with loads of color, shading, and movement to it. Loads of complex female characters, varieties of gender, sexuality, and color go unremarked, and there's a great cat species (I'm a sucker for morally ambiguous cat warriors). I liked what I understood of the worldbuilding and the setting (steampunky fantasy in the midst of a generation-long war), but felt confused for the entirety of the comic. Too little is explained, and there are too many titles, factions, and secrets all thrown at the reader at once. I need to be eased in just a little bit....more
Beltur is a bad apprentice to his uncle, a chaos mage. After Beltur is forced to flee their city, he rapidly realizes that he was bad at chaos, very gBeltur is a bad apprentice to his uncle, a chaos mage. After Beltur is forced to flee their city, he rapidly realizes that he was bad at chaos, very good at order, and even better at occasionally weaving them together. He tries various professions and has just settled on helping a blacksmith when war breaks out and Beltur is forced to serve.
550+ pages pass in which Beltur and whatever random character he's talking to ask each other questions and answer in dry factual monologues. I found this book incredibly dull. Once in a while Beltur is mildly sad, worried, or happy, but the majority of the time he's completely dispassionate. Beltur has a very low key romance with a healer, and by low key I mean despite knowing each other for most of the book neither says a single romantic thing to the other. They just meet occasionally and compliment each other on how useful and selfless they are. I enjoy a slow-burn romance, but there was no burn! No romance! The war itself is mostly Beltur telling his commander how far away the enemy is, asking a question about strategy, and then using his shields and concealment to win the skirmish. At no point was I worried about Beltur and at no point did I care about the city he was protecting or who won the war.
Frankly it felt like someone fed the first 18 books in the Recluse series to an AI and it generated this book....more
Abigail Wilder was adopted by the Lord Sorcier of England after a terrifying adventure in Fairy. Her workhouse origins and whiff of magic render her uAbigail Wilder was adopted by the Lord Sorcier of England after a terrifying adventure in Fairy. Her workhouse origins and whiff of magic render her unpalatable to the Ton. Instead of further participating in the social whirl of the upper class, Abigail instead throws herself into investigating the recent and unexpected deaths of three young ladies. For allies she has her younger brother Hugh and Mercy, a beautiful and strange woman who is also investigating the deaths.
I disliked the first two thirds and only plodded through because I like the world and author. I didn't warm to Abigail or Hugh, and I was annoyed that all three of them talk in a lower class accent that's hard to read. Luckily Mercy and her magic are very cool, so once that was in play I raced through the last third.
The book ends with a chapter that just outright tells Abigail and Hugh's futures, which I thought entirely unnecessary....more
Kai is a demon who possesses bodies, is nigh immortal, and casts magic through pain and intention. Sixty years ago he was a leader in the fight againsKai is a demon who possesses bodies, is nigh immortal, and casts magic through pain and intention. Sixty years ago he was a leader in the fight against the Hierarchs. They were defeated and some of the surviving lands banded together to create a long lasting alliance. Slowly societies began to rebuild. But treachery rose during this peace, and the book begins with a poisoned Kai waking up in a tomb meant to imprison him forever. He fights his way across the seas and lands, revisiting old battlefields, while trying to find one of his fellow comrades who is also missing and presumably betrayed.
I like Kai and the other characters so much. Especially Bashasa, who manages in very few pages to really come across as a charismatic genius who could reshape the world. And the world building is so cool--but there is way way too much of it, too constantly. There are too many completely different magic systems. There are too many social rules and taboos. There are too many political factions. The relationships between some of these characters needed far more page time. This was way too much book in too few pages....more
A collection of recent short sff stories by writers of color. There isn't an organizing principle beyond that, so one never knows what style or theme A collection of recent short sff stories by writers of color. There isn't an organizing principle beyond that, so one never knows what style or theme one will get from a story.
I liked: "The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex" by Tobias Buckell. Set in the future, when Earth is a tourist attraction for much-more-advanced alien civilizations. Told from the point of view of a human trying to survive by catering to galactic customers. The world is detailed, the pov character believable, and the use of sf as a tool to look at colonialism feels right rather than clunky.
"The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations" by Minsoo Kang. Centuries after the fact, historians begin to uncover clues that a famous peace treaty between an emperor and a piratical sea king was actually manipulated into place by their translators. I always like historical revision, and the worldbuilding here is rich. Parts of this, especially near the end, felt a little too obvious.
"Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Told from the point of view of a vampire. Creepy and just the right length.
"Harvest" by Rebecca Roanhorse. A chef is lured into serial killing by a deer woman who wants to recreate America before it was colonized. This just felt very well written to me.
Apathetic toward: "Come Home to Atropos," by Steven Barnes. Commercials for a Caribbean "paradise" where tourists can be euthanized. I like the late-capitalism cynicism of the first few pages, but as it gets longer it gets heavier handed and less and less believable as a commercial. Personally I'd have liked this shorter and snappier, or at least with more of the funny&terrible interjections from the marketing team.
"unkind of mercy" by Alex Jennings. An unnamed main character chatters incessantly on about her awful boyfriend before finally revealing that strange empty entities killed him horrifically in front of her. The bits where the narrator talks about the empty entities are super creepy; well done there. But the main character's voice is really uneven, and at the end of the story I felt like there maybe was a connection between humans being apathetic and the entities that I didn't get. If not that, I don't even know what the point of this was.
"The Freedom of the Shifting Sea" by Jaymee Goh. A girl and a mermaid fall in love. Years later her daughter returns to Malaysia and this time, perhaps she will not leave...The way the mermaids work is really cool. I just didn't connect with the characters and was annoyed that Salmah seems to age out of her chance to become a mermaid.
"Kelsey and the Burdened Breath" by Darcie Little Badger. Kelsey and the ghost of her dog Pal herd the final breaths of the dead into the afterlife. She's tasked with tracking down a serial killing breath. I liked the way last breaths had their own specific gravity, and the explanation/reveal of the killer breath. But for whatever reason I didn't feel any particular way about this story.
Did not like: "Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire" by E. Lily Yu, a remake of the Emperor's New Clothes. No part of this worked for me.
"Blood and Bells" by Karin Lowachee. I was too confused and overwhelmed in the first few pages to continue.
"Dumb House" by Andrea Hairston. Cinnamon is an older woman trying to avoid corporate products. 19 pages in it was still getting more confusing and I gave up.
"One Easy Trick" by Hiromi Goto. A woman's belly fat leaves her on a hike to find someone that will appreciate and love it. Too late, the woman realizes she misses it. This is not my kind of sff.
I really liked: "Deer Dancer" by Kathleen Alcala. Set after cataclysmic climate change and the collapse of human civilizations recognizable to us, Tater and her community work closely together to create a space of health and safety. The main character is a plumber and sometimes a prophet, which is a combination I've definitely never seen before. I really like the details here, which don't feel infodumped but do paint the world for the viewer.
"The Fine Print" by Chinelo Onwualu. Nuhu is part of a village where every year a djinn answers one wish per man. Nuhu has recognized the emptiness of his wish for a perfect wife, and tries to convince the Djinn to let him give up his wishes. Again, great worldbuilding; I love the combo of modern Nigeria with folk tales from around the world.
"Burn the Ships" by Alberto Yañez. An alternate history fantasy, where the Aztecs really can do magic through their gods but choose not to...until a group of women have suffered so much that they commit to a profane but powerful ritual. The Tzitzimimeh are terrifying, and I really liked the conversation in here about what the gods want or what they can demand.
"The Shadow We Cast Through Time" by Indrapramit Das. An old woman approaching her death talks about the myths, customs, and actions of her people. They are human colonists on a remote alien planet inhabited by an infectious colony lifeform that manifests as spires and buildings. I am truly fascinated by the worldbuilding here. The alien life and how the humans talk about it are just on the edge of too weird/obfuscatory/purple, which really kept my attention.
"The Robots of Eden" by Anil Menon. At first I didn't like this; the main character didn't make sense to me. As I read further I realized why: he's one of the Enhanced, the elite who everyone views as superior because their implants help them maintain serenity and happiness no matter their difficulties. Actually the main character felt totally fleshed out. As the story went on I realized I was putting together things he didn't remember or understand thanks to his implant, which was a great way to deliver this tale....more
A short story from Dr Mensah's point of view, set after SecUnit has joined them on Preservation for the first time. I love reading her perspective. SeA short story from Dr Mensah's point of view, set after SecUnit has joined them on Preservation for the first time. I love reading her perspective. SecUnit seen from outside is impressive and far less communicative--it's weird to see it without hearing it's sardonic internal narration. Preservation itself is also such a cool society and a great contrast to the Corporate Rim....more
A couple generations from now, young mother Judy goes out with her wife and baby to check anomalous readings in the local water supply. There she findA couple generations from now, young mother Judy goes out with her wife and baby to check anomalous readings in the local water supply. There she finds an alien spaceship and is the very first to meet the Ringers. Ringers gave up their planets millennia ago and are thrilled at the opportunity to "save" humanity from living on a resource limited planet. Meanwhile humans are just at the beginning of repairing Earth's ecosystems and most of them are loathe to give up on that task.
There are a ton of cool concepts and philosophical differences presented here and it was really cool to see them play out. For instance, Judy is part of the dandelion networks, which seem to be community online forums where everyone talks through tasks and issues, with decisions weighted by each person's reputation and expertise, combined with algorithms designed to bias decisions toward the long term core values of their society (for instance, that the complexity of natural systems has value even when they don't know what it's doing yet). Her society tries to prevent power or decision making from pooling in any one person or group, and for them everyone has a right to physically be the gender they know they are. (Two of Judy's co-parents are trans, so this comes up explicitly a few times.) Meanwhile for Ringers power is both gender and action -- mothers are leaders because of what they've done and continued to do (be trustworthy enough to mate with and safeguard children). And for the few corporations trying to use the aliens' arrival to claw back into power, gender is purely performance, chosen based on the aim of the day, signaled through clothes and mannerisms, and has nothing whatever to do with biology.
I loved that we get into the nitty gritty of what life is like in near future Earth. That's the kind of imagination I love to see in sf....more
Main character is a Hunter, one of the rare few who can use magic to fight the supernatural beings that threaten the few remaining clusters of humanitMain character is a Hunter, one of the rare few who can use magic to fight the supernatural beings that threaten the few remaining clusters of humanity. She is the best Hunter ever, is superlatively sensible in every situation, never does anything wrong, is completely unbelievable as a teenager, and is the worst part of this book. Sometimes Mercedes Lackey's super special main characters are great fun (Vanyel!) but sometimes they tip a little too far for me. Personal tastes may vary....more
A homeless violin prodigy, an immortal agent of Hell seeking her last victim, and an alien refugee collide and find fellowship and support. Frankly I A homeless violin prodigy, an immortal agent of Hell seeking her last victim, and an alien refugee collide and find fellowship and support. Frankly I think the aliens using a donut to create a stargate subplot should've been used in a different book. I liked the aliens' unique fears and exploration fo human food, but they didn't actually seem as alien as they should have, not least because their descriptions of Earth food were just like a human's. Separating the aliens from the trans violinist bound from hell storylines would've given each of those narratives the space they actually needed. Shizuki and Katrina have so much to deal with, and it was passed over too quickly....more
I did not believe in any part of this and kept being annoyed at what I thought were clear clues the main character was not picking up on. I think thisI did not believe in any part of this and kept being annoyed at what I thought were clear clues the main character was not picking up on. I think this was aimed at too young of an audience for me....more
Arsalan rents out his body and senses for an older Pakistani woman. While she cooks in his body he reminded of various romantic interludes of his pastArsalan rents out his body and senses for an older Pakistani woman. While she cooks in his body he reminded of various romantic interludes of his past, none of them particularly successful. I thought this was a very thin story. I don't think the "Airbody" (instead of "Airbnb") concept was taken that far, and the only novelty to the story was how rare it is to see Muslim food or culture in Western sf short stories.
Arsalan rents out his body and senses for an older Pakistani woman. While she cooks in his body he reminded of various romantic interludes of his past, none of them particularly successful. I thought this was a very thin story. I don't think the "Airbody" (instead of "Airbnb") concept was taken that far, and the only novelty to the story was how rare it is to see Muslim food or culture in Western sf short stories.
Alex is born and raised in a home perhaps even more repressed and repressive than the 1950s white middle class America millieu in which she lives. WheAlex is born and raised in a home perhaps even more repressed and repressive than the 1950s white middle class America millieu in which she lives. When she's a child this worldview is almost shaken by the startling mass Dragoning of 600,000+ Americans (mostly housewives). But even after her very own aunt turns into a dragon and flies away, the people around Alex treat dragons as so shameful and unspeakable that Alex represses her interest. Years go by in this repressive vein until at last the dragons return and with them comes social change.
This would've been a great short story or even novella. The concept of mostly (but not exclusively) cis women abruptly turning into giant dragons out of joy or rage is so enticing! I love the idea of people who are made to feel small instead taking up as much space as they want, and seeing a big view instead of their narrow human one. The first few chapters worked quite well for me. As a reader I could really feel the stifling atmosphere of Alex's appearance-obsessed home and her confusion and curiosity about the disconnect between what she observed and what she was told happened. As she gets older we see more of the world and this is where the book started failing for me.
The world building just doesn't make sense. Nothing about how dragons work (for instance the very basics of what they eat or how big they are) is ever explained. Dragons can talk to humans without any problem; there's no need for translation, dragons aren't too loud or too toothy or anything. Dragons do stuff like fly to outer space and even though it's the 1960s, human society doesn't seem interested. There's a space race on and you don't care that dragons are already out there looping around Jupiter for fun? Plus once the dragons reintegrate with human society, the only issue seems to be whether dragons get the same rights as humans. But there seems to be no concern that say, dragons are taking all the construction jobs, or are revolutionizing transportation (they can fly real fast and, depending on which paragraph you're reading, are sometimes big enough to carry around aircraft). President Nixon gives all dragons the right to attend public schools just because they demonstrated on his lawn? Plus the more one reads and the older Alex gets, the clearer it is that this book is only concerned with a tiny sliver of society. There are some trans and queer characters (including Alex), but not a single one of color I can recollect, nor is the Black civil rights struggle that should've been going on in this period affected by dragons. The only mention of people of color I can recall is dragons helped a Black women's labor strike midway through. Even after finishing this I have no idea how other countries dealt with their dragons (did they even have dragoning?!) or whether women were the dragons elsewhere. Also, every single dragon does stuff like protect whales from fishing vessels, frighten rapacious CEOs, bake bread for soup kitchens. There isn't a single dragon who gets the power of being a huge terrifying monster from myth and legend and uses it for anything besides being selfless and kind. The worst they do is kill a few cheating husbands and some property damage, and then the book emphasizes that even though dragoning sometimes knocks down buildings no child has ever been harmed. Are people only capable of dragoning if they're basically saints? Or does becoming a dragon change your perspective so much that you no longer act and feel like a human being? No question I had at the beginning of the novel is answered, I just got more and more annoyed at how everything was handwaved.
Basically: cool idea, very poor follow through. ...more
Leo Page has spent the last decade and a half spying and killing across the globe. When his boss directs him to a sleepy little English village, he isLeo Page has spent the last decade and a half spying and killing across the globe. When his boss directs him to a sleepy little English village, he is at first bemused. Then to his surprise he finds that being surrounded by the type of intimate community and every day kindnessness he never had makes him increasingly uncomfortable. His investigation into the recent death of a snooping servant leads him directly into the path of Dr. James Sommers. Kind-hearted and shell-shocked, James would like nothing more than for Leo to leave and take with him all reminders of how cruelly humans can turn other humans into mere meat. Despite this, Leo and James rapidly become allies not just in the murder investigation, but more broadly in protecting each other.
The mystery itself is fine, neither exceptionally good nor frustratingly bad. I liked all the side characters in this village, and I really liked Page and Sommers. I look forward to reading more about them....more
A short middle grade graphic novel that's as sweetly charmingly illustrated as it is written.A short middle grade graphic novel that's as sweetly charmingly illustrated as it is written....more
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