The Salt Roads was published in Warner hardcover (0-446-53302-5) in 11/03 and received rave reviews. …
Review of 'The Salt Roads' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Tackling slavery in French Haiti, prostitution in 19th century Paris and slavery and prostitution in late Roman Empire Egypt, as well as other marginalized people, The Salt Roads doesn't do grand Deus Ex Machina, it nudges, just enough to give some hope and closure to these black and colored woman's lives.
I love Bahni Turpin's narration, I'm used to hearing her in zany YA and even middle grade content. It was interesting hearing her tackling dark and adult content.
The story begins with Agnes Nitt leaving Lancre to seek a career at the Opera …
Review of 'Maskerade' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Maskerade is one of the top Discworld witches novels. With Nannie and Grannie going to Ankh-Morpork, Nannie's cook book, the Opera and Agnes's coming of age story.
This reread was of the new Penguin audiobook edition.
Indira Varma's Grannie and Nannie where very good. But yet again I prefer the less subtle performance by Nigel Planer. Walter Plinge, Enriko Basilica and others are stereotypes and are better suited for an overt performance.
Toxic relationships are a significant aspect of Gailey's work. However, the levels of horror and generational trauma in Just Like Home were challenging.
It is a powerful story and I'm glad I made the effort to experience it to its conclusion.
"You must be as sharp as a stilettotore’s dagger and as subtle as a fish …
Review of 'Navola' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a different Paulo Bacigalupi, this is not eco-dystopia.
I appreciate his willingness to take a chance and break into new territory.
This is low magic historical fantasy about an Italian city-state, with its dirty politics.
But while the scheming, plotting and murder are what drive the plot, it is a character driven novel. It is told in first person by Davico, the young heir to a banking family's fortune, and features his talented step sister, a hostage from a fallen noble family that plotted against the bank.
The world building is rich, with a vast trove of myths and legends that inform the characters world view.
Davico is surrounded by a group of his father's best officers that try to teach him how to play the deadly game of politics. But he would rather spend time with the doctor, learning about nature and plants. This is perhaps where …
This is a different Paulo Bacigalupi, this is not eco-dystopia.
I appreciate his willingness to take a chance and break into new territory.
This is low magic historical fantasy about an Italian city-state, with its dirty politics.
But while the scheming, plotting and murder are what drive the plot, it is a character driven novel. It is told in first person by Davico, the young heir to a banking family's fortune, and features his talented step sister, a hostage from a fallen noble family that plotted against the bank.
The world building is rich, with a vast trove of myths and legends that inform the characters world view.
Davico is surrounded by a group of his father's best officers that try to teach him how to play the deadly game of politics. But he would rather spend time with the doctor, learning about nature and plants. This is perhaps where Bachigalupi's ecological leanings shile through, as Davico is closer to nature and the mythic than to capitalism and power politics.
This is ultimately a tragedy, Davico is writing a memoir from a dark and harsh place. But the way we get there and the role of the dragon's eye in it where not what I expected.
Narrated by Marc Vietor, the audiobook is excellent and the Italian names and words still ring in my ears.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I see some parallels to Paul Atreides. There are no Fremen, there is no Spice, but it can be interpreted as the story of a Paul who rejected the call to power.
The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as …
Review of 'Spiderlight' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Adrian Tchaikovsky does Sword & Sorcery.
Spiderlight is both a light hearted and a serious examination of the creatures of the light and of the dark dichotomy of the Tolkienish, Sword & Sorcery genre, and it is not subtle about it.
Sometimes too crude, but has a lot of fun and serious moments.
Tchaikovsky gets to examine the concept of an uplifted spider in a fantasy setting.
Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious …
Review of 'Circumference of the World' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In The Circumference of the World, Tidhar is in his element. Writing about pulp era science fiction, blurring the lines between hallucination and reality.
But the most important strength of the novel is the interesting science-fictional cosmology at its center. Imagining a role for load-stars (black holes), the eaters of all matter, the observers of all light.
Multiple narrators, including Stefan Rudnicki, give the audiobook additional qualities.
Review of 'House of the Galactic Elevator' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is the sequel to: A Beginner's Guide to Invading Earth
A bit of a misleading title, since the focus in on the Galactic Commons, a hub created for the civilized species of the galaxy.
In: House of the Galactic Elevator, the focus is yet again on the decadence of the galactic commons, the frustrations of the unacknowledged experts that built it and keep it going and the corrupted aspects of computer companies.
Marvin the Gray is on the loos again and he has a new partner in his quest to destroy the commons. An intrusive new VR game is sweeping the commons and the thousands of aliens that were stranded on Earth need to be rescued.
Anna Sinjari―refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker―has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. …
Review of 'Exordia' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
First of all WAW… just WAW.
It's as if Exordia was written for men of my generation.
Men who grew up on Tom Clancy, on alien invasion stories like Foot Fall and grew on enjoying movies like Independence Day and novels like Ender's Game.
Yet now at 50 are more realistic about war and colonization.
Exordia is a techno thriller about first contact that isn't gang ho, or jingoistic.
It starts with a Kurdish refugee living with a terrible choice she had to make during Saddam's genocide of the Kurds in the 1980s.
It focuses on the damning decisions that are involved in trolley problem scenarios.
It explores the intersection between physics, mathematics and meta-physics. It dabbles in narrative causality.
I really want to give it 5 stars, for such an intricate plot and such compelling characters. But I must confess that some of it irked me. It is about …
First of all WAW… just WAW.
It's as if Exordia was written for men of my generation.
Men who grew up on Tom Clancy, on alien invasion stories like Foot Fall and grew on enjoying movies like Independence Day and novels like Ender's Game.
Yet now at 50 are more realistic about war and colonization.
Exordia is a techno thriller about first contact that isn't gang ho, or jingoistic.
It starts with a Kurdish refugee living with a terrible choice she had to make during Saddam's genocide of the Kurds in the 1980s.
It focuses on the damning decisions that are involved in trolley problem scenarios.
It explores the intersection between physics, mathematics and meta-physics. It dabbles in narrative causality.
I really want to give it 5 stars, for such an intricate plot and such compelling characters. But I must confess that some of it irked me. It is about 10 hours too long. The middle section is filled with mostly unnecessary detail that doesn't doo much to move the plot or solve the mystery or grow the relationships between the characters.
To many times we are retold information that is already known to us. We spend too much time watching characters walk into disasters who's aftermath we've already seen.
As for the audiobook, Sulin Hasso does a great job, choosing not to do accents, yet doing a very good job, to my ears, of reading out text in different nations native languages.
Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly …
Review of 'White Cat, Black Dog' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
7 modernized fairy tales that differ in tone, some are contemporary and some futuristic.
Some are fantasy and some Sci-Fi. Some are darker than others.
The level of adherence to the fairy tale format also differs but they are all great in their own way and are rooted in compelling characters and relationships.
Each story has a different narrator to suit the main character and tone.
There's even a homage to Iain M. Banks, my second one this month.
The Employees is first and foremost a literary experiment. The story is told through snippets of interviews with mostly anonymous subjects.
Through these snippets, we slowly build a picture of life on a starship that is home to both humans and humanoids that are dealing with the effects of a long space journey, the ongoing development of the humanoid section of the crew, their relationship to their work and to a number of alien objects that were collected by the ship.
While the vignettes we are exposed to are small, sometimes missing and sometimes not a linear order, they tell a coherent story and don't remain frustratingly mysterious. Not everything is explained, but there is a conclusion.
Review of 'Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
”It’s a pleasant thing, to linger in currents clean and clear, where we know nothing will hurt us. Sometimes, though, the fishing is better where the water moves quickly. Sometimes, we must move on.”
This is the story of Nadya, The drowned girl. We get to see her journey to her door and beyond it.
It is considerably cozier than previous wayward children novellas.
It is trying to model acceptance of disabilities. Nadya has to deal with people that are selfish and ignorant about disabilities and finds a place that will accept her as she is, but there is no malicious force that she has to deal with as in many of the other doorway stories.
It is a bit strange that despite the emphasis on respecting Nadya's life choices, she does not really choose her doors.
