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I'm up to the start of chapter 9. So Ofelia has engaged with the 'aliens' now. But she is the alien, not them, it's their planet! I'm guessing it's part of her character, given she is elderly. Like like calling them children. But it niggles at me a bit.

On the other hand, having an older woman as the main character is a delightful change and it's fun to see her being able to be her and not what others project onto her.

Definitely an interesting story so far.

This book starts from Roman Britain and gets to the early 1980s. It's written in an engaging style that tells a story, but includes footnotes for those who like them.

I feel like it was a lot to take in, but this shouldn't be surprising since it covers c. 2000 years of history. Also, brain fog doesn't help with information retention! I plan on reading it again in a few months.

Highly recommend this book; it's essential reading if you want to learn about #BlackBritishHistory.

November Masto SFFBookclub book

This book has some interesting ideas, but I really struggled with following the storyline, but more, this felt like something from pre-1970s sci-fi, with all the white maleness that contained, and some of the 'slang', such as 'spaz' are just appalling. The book was published in 2006 and there is no excuse for including such offensive and abelist language. These things made it not a great read and I stopped half-way through.

@eldang I've decided to give up. Too many niggles as we've discussed, and I'm really struggling with getting what is going on. I've liked 'hard' sci-fi in the past, but with the storyline not always being clear, and brain fog, it's too much of a struggle. I would like to know what happens, so if you get to the end, let me know!

@eldang This is a good point. The book reminds me of some of the earlier and much more sexist sci-fi books. They often had a colonialist feel to them, and all very straight white male.

@eldang He actually used the word 'spaz', which is horrifying.