Decided to reread the series again.
Reviews and Comments
cranky and grouchy reader, mostly speculative/science/fantasy fiction
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Saqer (he/they) started reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #1)
Saqer (he/they) finished reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Saqer (he/they) finished reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #4)
Saqer (he/they) finished reading Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders (Unstoppable, #1)
Saqer (he/they) reviewed In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
A handbook of toxic relationship red flags
5 stars
I loved this book and I couldn't read it in a single sitting because it was intense and brought me thoughts of a past relationship that could have gone down that path.
I recommend it because machado so skillfully lists all the red flags without calling them such, but explores them in detail and how each element manifests itself, or creeps up on you and you don't realize until you're in the thick of it.
I recommed it, and will gift this book to friends.
Saqer (he/they) reviewed Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
sweet story, many complex relationships
I'd absolutely recommend this. It's a bit slow paced in the beginning but it picks up closer to the end once the relationship between the people and their world becomes clear. Be prepared for some complex and difficult relationships to form, to break, and to die.
The social world in this story is really well-constructed and thought through: the gender system is very different from what we know as the modern gender system. There's also a "diplomatic incident" that shows how starkly different gender systems can be. I loved it and loved thinking about it.
Saqer (he/they) commented on Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
Content warning On writing about sex
The descriptions of sex in this book are quite intimate and tbh quite lovely. They seemed quite different from what straight writers tend to do when they write about sex.
Saqer (he/they) reviewed Machinehood by S. B. Divya
Phenomenal Worldbuilding
5 stars
The book was quite awesome. The worldbuilding was quite phenomenal in a way that was quite intense, and interesting.
The Machinehood Manifesto itself, and its consequences, were quite interesting to think about too. SB Divya really thought through an alternative (and more complex) take on robots than the 3 Laws of Robotics.
Saqer (he/they) commented on All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse, 3)
I've been enjoying all the scifi references, particularly in the planet naming and city names.
The Bobiverse series feel like quite a different take on space opera, but there's some tendency in the Bobs to be quite "white saviory", and that seems to be addressed in this book (when they get exhausted with all the saving).
Saqer (he/they) commented on Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (The Sixth World, #1)
Saqer (he/they) commented on Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Lovecraft Country, #1)
Saqer (he/they) commented on Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)
I kept forgetting whether the characters of this series are skeletons or not. There's talk about flesh and tongue, but also the main character was called "skull-face" at some point so far. And I kept forgetting whether I'm thinking of skull-as-skull or skull-painted-on-face. All this thinking happened before I realized I could look at the cover and have that problem addressed.