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Definitely a book you need to read twice to even begin to parse the plot happening in the background while Nona is blissfully unaware of pretty much everything. My favorite of this series is still Harrow but they're all wonderful.

“Maybe you think it gives you free will. Maybe you've forgotten that sleepwalkers converse, drive vehicles, commit crimes and clean up afterwards, unconscious the whole time. Maybe nobody's told you that even waking souls are only slaves in denial.”

Yep two books about consciousness in a row. After years of seeing reddit recommendations I finally read this one. Blindsight is at the same time existentially horrifying, made of hauntingly beautiful paragraphs, and structurally a bit of a mess.

I really enjoyed the content of the first person interludes and flashbacks but without a marker between sections on my ebook version the jumps were often very disorienting ...especially reading it on an airplane

Perhaps the biggest suspension of disbelief is how quickly the crew of the Theseus jumps to their conclusions about Rorschach and the Scramblers. There is a bit of Solaris-esque dialogue about how they can't truly know anything about the aliens or themselves, but the central concept of the book seems to hinge on believing that they guessed right.

The pure sass of the afterword where Watts cites relevant current research is incredibly entertaining and worth the read alone. I'm so tempted to write a review paper this colloquially in my own field.

If I had a nickel for every book I've read about finding connection with rather clever octopi, I'd have 3 nickels and still want more.

First the negative, the plot here is mainly an excuse to present musings on consciousness and how qualia shapes how we communicate. To me, the resolution of some narratives was lacking. The Rustem and Sea Wolf B-plot especially feels out of place by the end.

I'm a sucker for epigraphs and this was no disappointment. The quotes from both Ha's and Arnkatla novels are fun and reflect their personalities. Loved the world building itself, gotta love a cyberpunk megacorp.

This was one of the only science fiction novels at the Texas Book Festival last year which is when I picked it up. Overall well written and feels important with the popularization of tools that can pass the Turing test. I don't think it's quite Nebula nomination material but I'm glad I read it!

Yeah.. I read some of these fairy almost-smut books. Obvious criticisms of bully romance aside, my main problem with this is that the fae here are wayy too human. Its off putting how much it's a thinly painted setting that barely even matters. Give me faefolk with incomprehensible blue-orange morality, characters that actually act like they are untethered immortals, and odd rules of narrativium and truth that bend conventional reality. Don't read this even if you got the ebooks for hella cheap. The prose itself is okay I guess?

lol lmao

I can't even with this book. If you read it as a thriller parody it's goddam hilarious tho

The fed up adventures open a warm beverage shop subgenre is definitely one of the strongest new trends. The pacing in this ain't the smoothest after the halfway mark but it's an amusing light read that's exactly what it says on the back.

Wow, I loved this. I've been going through the top lists of r/cozyfantasy for the past few months and this is a clear standout. The meandering & nested monologues of Miss Percy are exactly my kind of dry humor. The entire premise relies on the same bit, but it does it well. I lost track of how many times I laughed to myself while reading. If you liked Swordheart by T.Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, definitely check this out (I think this is even better). More fantasy novels should have middle aged main characters who are just fed-up with everything.

For the negative, I think the plot and resolution really does struggle in the last third. The book doesn't seem to know what to do with itself between the initial premise and the call to adventure to set up the sequel. All in all, this is a rather fun take on the same ideas as the Memoirs of Lady Trent series but leans much more heavily into the absurdity of it all rather than the dragons themselves. I'm looking forward to see where it goes.