Interests: climate, science, sci-fi, fantasy, LGBTQIA+, history, anarchism, anti-racism, labor politics
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Nino Cipri's Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse …
Full disclosure: the author is an old friend of mine.
It was fun and sweet, hilarious at times, believably scary baddies, a nice resolution. The only thing I wish it had was more. More adventures in the multiverse.
Nino Cipri's Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse …
love it!
Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space! Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, …
This book is about love and friendship. It's really sweet that way. Two kickass women luck into finding each other when they both really need it, and then support each other through a series of adventures. One has a girlfriend, the other is married to a man.
Unfortunately, while the emotional states and connections of the characters are resonant and believable, the action and the plot are less so. Both heroine and villain suffer from overly revealing monologue syndrome, and some action-packed sequences contain elements that are simply impossible - for instance, the idea that someone could yell your name, slide you a gun, and you could pick it up and shoot it in less time than it takes for a person with an axe in their hand, already raised, to lower the axe to the ground.
Good fun, but a little incoherent.
Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space! Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, …
It's weird when I feel like the character an author invented would, if she were real, have a clearer moral vision of the world than the author does.
To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, …
I have not read any Adrian Tchaikovsky novels yet.
A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in …
Even MORE wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff! I feel like this is a thing. Well, we're all feeling the effects of weird time dilation due to living through unprecedented times I guess.
As we round the corner of 1918 in the action, it seems like this is an excellent book for those who want to know HOW the Russian Revolution happened, but if you want to understand WHY, you'd better look elsewhere.
Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space! Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, …
I'm already invested in this relationship between Rig and June. Should Rig trust June?? I wonder. I hope so. Sexy librarians are always tricksy though!
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the …
Or maybe he's just a dick, I dunno. Certainly the Harry Dresden character reads like a self-insert character and he's a bit of a dick. Anyway, the ups:
Talking cats! Who save the day. And frankly they were written very well. Obviously Butcher knows and loves cats. Could have used more cat action.
Kickass ladies all over the place.
Great airship battle writing. That was fun.
An intriguing setting.
The downs:
The intriguing setting not well-explored or adequately explained. Humanity has been living in spires for at least 2,000 years, and the surface of the planet is basically uninhabitable. Full of strange, dangerous creatures that become maddened by a slight taste of human blood. OK... but why is one spire "Albion" (blegh, read the Book of Koli for why this is barf-worthy) and one spire "Aurora" and why are the clearly stand-ins for the British Empire and the Spanish Empire? …
Or maybe he's just a dick, I dunno. Certainly the Harry Dresden character reads like a self-insert character and he's a bit of a dick. Anyway, the ups:
Talking cats! Who save the day. And frankly they were written very well. Obviously Butcher knows and loves cats. Could have used more cat action.
Kickass ladies all over the place.
Great airship battle writing. That was fun.
An intriguing setting.
The downs:
The intriguing setting not well-explored or adequately explained. Humanity has been living in spires for at least 2,000 years, and the surface of the planet is basically uninhabitable. Full of strange, dangerous creatures that become maddened by a slight taste of human blood. OK... but why is one spire "Albion" (blegh, read the Book of Koli for why this is barf-worthy) and one spire "Aurora" and why are the clearly stand-ins for the British Empire and the Spanish Empire?
In this vein, the power sources in this book are basically magical crystals that seem to have some kind of consciousness, which means that the airships they power can be thought of as discrete sentient beings, which offers intriguing potential for exploring nonhuman awareness and suchlike things, but all that happens is that a girl learns to talk to a ship and the ship is like "My captain is so cool" and the girl is like "Yeah he is" and that's the extent of it.
A bit too long. Action needs pauses sometimes, and there was rather too much time spent with the antagonists of the story. This could have been OK if there weren't so many overlapping protagonist POV storylines interweaving throughout. Edit! Edit!
I don't FULLY regret the time I spent reading it because it was an audiobook, and the narrator did a great job, and mostly I was doing other things at the same time. But if I'd sat down and read it I'd be annoyed.
I can tell where Butcher is going with the sequels, but I'm not going to follow him there - I don't care enough about the characters.
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the …
Meh.
In a parched southern California of the near future, Luz, once the poster child for …
I had to take a break from "The Aeronaut's Windlass," which is absolutely silly, and indeed, from the first pages, it feels deeply serious. Whether that's something I like or not depends on how the story goes, I suppose.
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the …
Dang this book is LONG. It's action-packed, maybe a bit too much so. Also, "Albion" has negative political overtones to me and it's a bit dismaying that this does not seem to register with Butcher at all. It's giving British Empire and I wish he were a bit more self-aware about that.
The cats are awesome, though, and the airships are cool. Sticking with it!
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the …
I'm on vacation. It's time. So far so good. It's got a fantasy steampunk veneer but it seems that underneath is a long-distant apocalypse. Also, yes, cats can speak, but not in human languages. If you want to converse with a cat, you must learn Cat.
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the …
There's airships AND talking cats?? Yeah I definitely want to read this.
Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager tells the story of her life in Starfleet, for …
Honestly not sure if I WANT to read this but I checked it out of the library and I'm going to try! Uma McCormack is a decent author.