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Necromancy in space? Well, not in space because there's no necromantic energy in space, but there's a sci-fi backdrop to what could otherwise almost entirely have been a fantasy novel. That aspect is not what makes this an unusual and pretty amazing book, but it's the only aspect of "this is an unusual and amazing book" I feel I can do justice in a review without getting spoilery.

At some point in my life as a reader I developed a dislike of parallel worlds sci-fi. Or so I thought, because this is a parallel worlds sci-fi novel with amazing world building and story. It ticks so many boxes I'm not going to start listing any of them, and it does so elegantly and unobtrusively.

Hiaasen rarely disappoints. It's been a while since I've read any of his books, but my impression of this one that it's more jam packed with zaniness and irreverence than ever, while also being super topical.

Just as a minor tease (which you'll probably hear of anyways) some of the action happens in a Palm Beach club owned by an awful US president with the secret service codename Mastodon. The hero though is a wildlife removal specialist who went to jail because she fed a poacher's hand to an alligator ...

If you liked Vacationland, you should read this, or, as I did, listen to Hodgman himself reading it.

And if you haven't read, or listened to, Vacationland you are in for a treat, you get to experience both books for the first time!

The Lathe of Heaven is both very of its time and timeless. It has that psychedelic feel some early seventies speculative fiction has, and the fear of overpopulation and wars, not necessarily unfounded, is very of its time. But it takes a psychedelic "what if?" and runs with it in a very readable way.

Enjoyable. But I'm not sad I only get to tread this one volume.

The slayer universe has so much that doesn't make sense. It's not the only universe with that flaw, and it's a forgivable flaw when something is fun, but this book reveals too much and ruins the illusion for me.

The MurderBot diaries continue to not disappoint. In this installment we get significant additional worldbuilding and additional knowledge of important previous characters, but packed into serous action and suspense.

My only nit to pick is that the "science" part moves more and into the realm of fantasy the more there is of it.

Accelerando is a good book. I think it's fair to say it's part cyberpunk, but it is less oppressively dystopian, it is more deep time, and more fun. Compared, of course, to what I have experienced as cyberpunk.

It touches on a lot of deep questions, but either doesn't delve deeply into them, or sort of does, but doesn't force any answers on you. And, unlike a lot of similarly "grand questions" fiction (I'm looking at you, early Neal Stephenson novels), it has a satisfying ending.

I read this to my wife over the course of two and a half month. Squeezing in a few pages every other day or so while she finished her morning coffee. At some point she said something like "I think Leslie Knope is the only fictional character that I really think of as existing." and I completely agree. It is hard at times, even when this book is describing the more bizarre elements of the town of Pawnee, to remember that despite her being given author credit for this book, and despite me tongue-in-cheek labeling this book "non-fiction", Leslie Knope doesn't exist.

If you loved Parks and Rec, you will most likely love this book, and if you didn't, you might still find a lot of it funny, but you're missing out on the ways it is a way to go back and visit some old friends you can't otherwise hang out with anymore.