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G. Deyke

gdeyke@bookwyrm.social

Joined 10 months ago

Initially cross-posting from Goodreads.

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G. Deyke's books

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reviewed The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (The Interdependency, #1)

John Scalzi: The Collapsing Empire (EBook, 2017, Tom Doherty Associates) 4 stars

In the far future, humanity has left Earth to create a glorious empire. Now this …

90% Political Intrigue

3 stars

(Goes for the entire series.)

Do you enjoy reading about super-rich assholes posturing at each other, engaging in dominance displays, threats, murder, and saying one thing but meaning another? If so, this is the book/series for you! (If not, you will probably be bored. There's technically some worldbuilding and characters and whatnot in here, but they're pretty much buried under the scheming and power grabs.)

Katja Krauss: Emotionen bei Hunden sehen lernen (Hardcover, German language) 4 stars

Hunde-Körpersprache einmal anders: Dieser einzigartige, in vielen Jahren des Beobachtens entstandene Bildband konzentriert sich weniger …

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

4 stars

Liest sich immer mal wieder ein bisschen wie Tellington-TTouch-Werbung, und ab und zu kamen auch Vorschläge über andere Quacksalberei wie Akupunktur und Homöopathie: daher ein Stern weniger.

Davon abgesehen ist das Buch bei WEITEM das beste, dass ich je zum Thema gesehen hab (auf Deutsch oder Englisch). Natürlich kommt immer noch nicht 100prozentig jedes Signal darin vor. Es ist aber mindestens um ein 10faches umfangsreicher und ausführlicher wie jedes andere, dass ich kenn. Die vielen großen Farbfotos und detaillierte Beschreibungen helfen enorm, den Blick auch wirklich zu schulen.

Sollte von allen, die mit Hunden zu tun haben, gelesen sein.

Monje, Michael Scott Jr: Mirror Project (Paperback) 5 stars

Lynn Vargas is an artificial intelligence created by the merging of human memories, brain scans, …

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

5 stars

I've kind of a complicated opinion of this book, and while part of me wants to recommend it to absolutely everyone, another part of me wants to preface that recommendation with a whole slew of caveats and content warnings. It is, unquestionably, a good book; but it is not a pleasant one.

The writing is fluid, the narrator easy to empathise with, and the framing device both really nifty and very immersive. It also performs another important function: it makes it clear from the start that whatever else happens in the book, the narrator is going to - somehow, somewhen, in some capacity - make it through. This is the sort of book in which that knowledge is critical, and for some readers might make the difference in being able to finish it.

The narrator - whose only given name and pronouns in fact belong to someone else, for which …

reviewed Der Feuervogel von Istradar by Ria Winter (Feuervogel-Chronk, #1)

Ria Winter: Der Feuervogel von Istradar (Paperback, Deutsch language) 4 stars

Zwei Frauen auf der Suche nach einem gestohlenen Wunder …

Als Firaya beim Einbruch in …

Fesselnd

4 stars

Ganz am Anfang hab ich mir Sorgen gemacht, dass ich das Buch nicht mögen würde. Die zwei Hauptfiguren haben sich sowas von schnell in einander vernarrt, obwohl sie von Anfang an Feindys waren - es sah für mich noch nicht mal so aus, als ob es kippt, sondern dass sie sich halt jetzt verlieben müssen, weil die Geschichte das braucht.

Aber - nachdem sie sich erstmal verliebt haben ging es durchaus etwas komplexer hin. Nicht blos in der Handlung, auch in der Beziehung hatte es einige Twists, die mich immer tiefer in das Buch hinein gezogen haben.

Es war auch sehr, sehr schön auch mal einen guten queeren Fantasyroman auf Deutsch zu lesen. Und es war interessant, dass die von der Handlung aus wichtigste Figur erst als viel unwichtiger erschien. Ich hoffe, auch die restliche Serie zu lesen.

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

Rebecca Roanhorse: Black Sun (Paperback, 2021, Gallery / Saga Press) 4 stars

A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun

In …

First in a trilogy

4 stars

Excellent worldbuilding, likeable characters - it actually pulls off the thing I've seen a few times where characters on opposing sides are all presented as likeable. Often, I end up not caring about any of them; here, I find myself wanting things to go well for all of them.

Selling points: South/meso-American-inspired setting; bi rep; nonbinary rep. (Also blind rep but I'm not sure I can recommend it on that basis - Rebecca Roanhorse obviously made an effort with the disability rep here, but he's also a reincarnated god, and as someone who's not blind on that level myself I don't think I can fairly judge whether or not she hit the balance well.)

Warnings: violence; child abuse; child neglect; ritual injury of a child by a parent; a sex scene, tasteful but fairly explicit; end on quite a sequel-hungry note.

Warnings:

Ada Hoffmann: The Infinite (The Outside #3) (2023) 5 stars

Good conclusion

4 stars

I do not have many words right now, but there were many things to like here: the deeper exploration of the AI Gods, an epic fight scene that worked better than that in "The Fallen", the way the conclusion went. I do feel a bit weird about the extant that Yasira (and Tiv, and the Seven) all blamed Ev for everything - I mean, they're not wrong to, exactly? She certainly fucked up Jai? But also, she didn't really torture or break Yasira, not intentionally anyway; I suspect that a certain amount of blame that really belonged to Akavi ended up pinned on Ev just because he appeared to be out of the picture. Which is a realistic way for blame to go, but it's... weird, in that I find her amoral, sympathetic, and almost reasonable, and yet people seem almost more upset with her than with the Gods and …

Aliette de Bodard: Fireheart Tiger (EBook, 2021, Tom Doherty Associates) 4 stars

Fire burns bright and has a long memory….

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away …

Good worldbuilding, but feels a bit flat

3 stars

It's really nice to see an abusive relationship in fiction in which the abuser is a woman! That sort of thing is seriously underrepresented.

I would have strongly preferred, however, if the other relationship hadn't also turned out romantic - it kind of undercuts the "choosing oneself" thing when it can just as easily be framed as "choosing this other romantic option". Personal preference, maybe, but there it is.

Warning: imperialism, abuse, domestic violence, an authoritarian parent

Kaia Sønderby: Tone of Voice (Paperback, 2019, Kraken Collective, The Kraken Collective) 4 stars

About on par with "Failure to Communicate"

3 stars

A light, fun read, with less awkward diplomatic situations than "Failure to Communicate" had but more awkward romantic situations. Xandri and Diver took turns narrating, and I wasn't much of a fan of Diver's narration - he tended to notice the same things as Xandri and use similar language to describe them (exception: Xandri from the outside), except with a lot of "this narrator is a male man guy, by the way" insertions that felt pretty otherising - but there's some neat worldbuilding, and I appreciate the presence of a "the space whales are not technically whales, though" pedant in a sci-fi story with space whales.

reviewed Undertown by F. Lange (Undertown -- 1)

F. Lange: Undertown (German language, 2017, Books on Demand) 4 stars

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

4 stars

Das Buch hat durchaus ein paar rauhe Stellen - die viele Kampfszenen sind zum Teil recht langgezogen, besonders am Anfang, wo man noch nicht viel Kontext dafür hat, und manche Charaktere sind nicht ganz so dreidimensional wie andere (besonders die Sally ist meiner Meinung nach ein bisschen kurz gekommen) - aber seine Stärken gleichen die lässig aus. Nämlich: der amusante Schreibstil; die Welt, in der ich - obwohl das Buch keineswegs dünn war - auch gerne mehr Zeit verbringen würde; und besonders die Charaktere.

Ein paar Sachen die mir besonders gefielen: - Lichtmagie und Dunkelmagie sind einander entgegengesetzt, aber völlig ohne moralischen Wert; weder noch ist gut oder böse; - kein Romanceplot (und sogar eine Anspielung darauf, dass eine Person, von der es fast so aussah, als könnte sie in einem Romanceplot verwickelt werden, aro ist!!); - Monsterpositivität, ohne, dass ihnen die Zähne genommen werden.

Warnungen: - Golems in einem …

reviewed Götterdämmerung by Tommy Krappweis (Mara und der Feuerbringer, #3)

Tommy Krappweis: Götterdämmerung (Hardcover, Deutsch language, 1672, SchneiderBuch GmbH) 3 stars

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

3 stars

Na... immernoch interessant, spannend, und unterhaltsam geschrieben. Die Darstellung von Loki gefällt mir, und von Sigyn eigentlich auch; bei den anderen Göttern bin ich mir da weniger sicher.

Und... leider hat das Buch einen wirklich groben Denkfehler, praktisch als Grundstein der Handlung.

Die Götter kriegen nämlich Kraft daraus, das man sie verehrt, huldigt, anbetet usw. Auch durch Gebete die nicht wirklich gemeint werden (das Vers, das den Loge stärkt, wird fast ausschließlich aufgesagt von Leuten, die vom Loge eigentlich überhaupt nichts wissen), und in sehr geschwächtem Maße auch von dem Sagen von Wochentagsnamen und so.

Und dazu kommt, dass die nordisch-germanischen Götter kaum noch existieren, weil angeblich niemand mehr an sie denkt - mit zugegebener Ausnahme von gesagten Wochentagsnamen und ein paar andere Sachen, die sich bedeutungslos die Namen der Göttern ausleihen.

Dabei deutet sonst alles darauf hin, dass die Serie in unserer Welt spielt.

Es gibt in der Tat …

reviewed Das Todesmal by Tommy Krappweis (Mara und der Feuerbringer, #2)

Tommy Krappweis: Das Todesmal (Hardcover, Deutsch language) 4 stars

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

4 stars

Die Darstellung der Götter ging mir bei diesem Band deutlich mehr gegen den Strich als beim Ersten - besonders bei der Hel bin ich total verwirrt, warum Tommy Krappweis anscheinend ein Aussehen für sie frei erfunden hat, obwohl es ein vorhandenes Aussehen aus den Überlieferungen gibt. Trotzdem gut, spannend und sehr amusant geschrieben.

reviewed Mara und der Feuerbringer by Tommy Krappweis (Mara und der Feuerbringer, #1)

Tommy Krappweis: Mara und der Feuerbringer (Deutsch language, Egmont Schneiderbuch) 5 stars

"NEIN! Mara schüttelte die Bilder von sich und fasste einen Entschluss: Keine. Tagträume. Mehr. Nie …

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

5 stars

Außerst amusant geschrieben, scheint gut recherchiert zu sein, und die Darstellung der Götter entspricht meiner eigenen Vorstellung mindestens gut genug, um mir nicht gegen den Strich zu gehen. Ein paar kleinere - scheinende - Denkfehler haben noch die Möglichkeit, sich in den weiteren Bänden als geplant und erklärbar zu erweisen.

Alechia Dow: The Sound of Stars (AudiobookFormat, 2020, Harlequin Audio and Blackstone Publishing, Inkyard Press) 3 stars

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

2 stars

All right, I hope I'm being fair here. I'm aware that part of the reason I didn't like this book much was that it just very much wasn't for me - it has a specific target demographic (young teens who are immersed in pop culture) which I neither am, nor ever was, part of, and like much teen fiction with a more-or-less contemporary setting I found it somewhat alienating. The writing style, also, fails in the specific way that is pretty common (but not universal, which is why I keep trying) to writing for young people. Plus the basic plot - super-fast whirlwind romance between a disenfranchised person and a member of an oppressive class who is constantly pushing her sexual and romantic boundaries, but apparently that's fine and romantic and the start of something beautiful that will last forever even though they're teens who barely knew each other for …

Caitlin Starling: The Luminous Dead (2019, Harper Voyager) 4 stars

A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the …

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

4 stars

I went into this book vaguely remembering that it was meant to be super gripping and immersive and tense and whatnot - which turned out to be true, in the end! - but was absolutely not true in the beginning. I had a hard time getting into it at first, and after turning it around in my head for a while I think I know the reason: failure to establish a clear baseline.

We're told from the start that Gyre loves caving and is very excited to get underground. We're also told that caving on Cassandra V is super dangerous - significantly more so than on Earth - and that a significant percentage of cavers die during the two or three trips they need to make to earn enough money to get offworld. Immediately afterwards, we're told that's why Gyre jumped at the chance to do it in only one. …

Dora M. Raymaker: Hoshi and the Red City Circuit (Paperback, 2018, Argawarga Press) 5 stars

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

5 stars

Not sure I have the words to do this book justice right now, but I'll do my best.

It is gripping, immersive, has excellent worldbuilding, says a lot of important things and fills an important representational gap, and above all, it has a really, really excellent voice. Not just because Hoshi is likeable and her narration is immersive, but also because she's optimistic and bouncy: this book goes to some dark places - it is essentially about hate crimes - and doesn't make light of the horrors, but it's still essentially a fun read. I've read books that are fun, and I've read books that are deep, but it's not often I read a book that's both. This book is definitely both.

It also combines computers and neurology and linguistics and spirituality in a really cool way. "Combines" is not a nuanced enough word for what it does with these …