A satisfying and thought-provoking second installment.
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Reading for sanity, solace, meaning, meandering.
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outofrange's books
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outofrange reviewed Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota, #2)
outofrange reviewed Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1) by Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota, #1)
So many ideas and a story too
4 stars
The strangest mashup of history and futuristic sci-fi I've read. Chock full of philosophy, ethics, religion, gender, and politics with some supernatural forces thrown in like a potent catalyst. Fascination trumps plausibility, but the historical references insist that we consider what worlds our ideas might conceive.
outofrange finished reading Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1) by Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota, #1)
![Ada Palmer: Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1) (2016, Tor Books)](https://bookwyrm-social.sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com/images/covers/7510490b-062c-4063-9c2e-4103dadf9756.jpeg)
Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1) by Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota, #1)
From the winner of the 2017 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Ada Palmer's 2017 Compton Crook Award-winning …
outofrange reviewed Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
outofrange reviewed The Art of Shralpinism by Jeremy Jones
Makes the title seem less corny
4 stars
I was a little turned off by the title, fearing a book full of "shredder bro" lingo. There is some, but it's written from a more humble place than I expected, and is full of advice that could improve my time in the mountains on a split board. I've never been into snowboarding movies, I know Jeremy Jones mostly through his nonprofit Protect Our Winters. There's only a bit about that, though the importance of climate change is given due weight. The content feels a little jumbled up, but comes across as sincere and reflects a lot of experience that is worth passing on.
outofrange reviewed Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen
outofrange reviewed System Collapse by Martha Wells
outofrange reviewed Adrift by Lisa Brideau
Climate migrants and sailing with amnesia
4 stars
Starts out as an amnesia plot thriller, which can be interesting but won't hold my interest without adding something else. It then gets into the characters and climate theme which it does well and thoughtfully. There's a little sci-fi woven in but it doesn't overreach, and works to provoke thoughts about what climate migration may look like.
outofrange reviewed The botany of desire by Michael Pollan
The dance of plant and human desires
4 stars
The conceit - are plants using us more effectively than we use them? - still works over 20 years later. The stories still feel relevant even if they have since taken some unexpected turns. An interesting contrast to Camille Dungy's "Soil", but as a non-gardener they both have my admiration.
outofrange reviewed The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
outofrange finished reading The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
outofrange reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle Series, #1)
Entertaining and interesting in historical context
4 stars
I enjoyed this story for young adults while also appreciating how Le Guin weaves some deeper themes into something that appears a little formulaic at first. Savoring how one by one the mainstream expectations are broken, especially considering what those expectations would have been in 1968, made it an appealing read.
outofrange reviewed Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling
Interesting climate fiction
3 stars
This was better than I expected from a random impulse read. It's a pretty good mix of characters in a climate-themed story that is consistent, makes some cultural commentary, and tries some unconventional narrative devices that work pretty well. There are scientist characters, but it's not a particularly science-driven story.
outofrange reviewed The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Meditative historical fiction
4 stars
A simple story of survival in the early colonial American wilderness gracefully deepens into poetic meditations on nature, geography, guilt, death, history, and culture.