Reviews and Comments

Tak!

Tak@reading.taks.garden

Joined 3 years, 4 months ago

I like to read

Non-bookposting: @Tak@glitch.taks.garden

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Silver Nitrate (Paperback, 2023, Random House Large Print) 4 stars

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican …

Silver Nitrate

4 stars

This one takes a while to get going - after several chapters, I was convinced that this was going to be a slice-of-life novel about the glory days of the mexican movie industry as seen from the 90s. (Which it is not (I mean, it is, but there's also more))

It reminds me quite a lot of The Skeleton Key(2005), in a good way.

Good characters; fun, creepy, twisty plot; unique setting.

Daniel Abraham: Blade of Dream (2023, Orbit) 5 stars

Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody …

Blade of Dream

4 stars

Blade of Dream is a very good sequel to Age of Ash. Instead of continuing the events from the previous book, it tells the story of different characters during the same time period. There are only a few points where events overlap, so it doesn't give that "ugh, I'm just reading a different flavor of the same story again" feeling that you can get from this approach.

I found it especially interesting that one of the main characters in Blade of Dream was a very marginal character in Age of Ash that one of the narrative characters had dismissed as a silly girl with no real agency (and thus the reader implicitly seeing her that way as well), and seeing the stark contrast here.

Jared Pechaček: The West Passage (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 3 stars

When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey …

The West Passage

4 stars

This is eldritch horror without the Cthulhu. It is weird and obscure and extremely obsessed with architectural minutiae. It rambles quite a bit in the middle, but that's honestly consistent with the tone of the world.

Malka Older: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Tordotcom) 4 stars

Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to …

Yume Kitasei: The Deep Sky (2023, Flatiron Books) 4 stars

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission …

The Deep Sky

4 stars

A great combination scifi thriller / space whodunit. It's much more Serious than The Stardust Grail, but explores some similar themes, e.g. betrayal and loss.

Emma Mieko Candon: The Archive Undying (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 4 stars

War machines and AI gods run amok in The Archive Undying, national bestseller Emma Mieko …

The Archive Undying

4 stars

The Archive Undying is a kind of postapocalyptic fantasy kaiju novel that (d?)evolves into a philosophical treatise on the nature of the self. It's entertaining and extremely well written, but I got plot twist exhaustion after a while.