Reviews and Comments

Tak!

Tak@reading.taks.garden

Joined 3 years, 2 months ago

I like to read

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

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Seth Dickinson: Exordia (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 5 stars

Anna Sinjari―refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker―has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. …

Exordia

5 stars

Exordia is a wild, weird scifi novel with snappy writing and a surprising level of commentary on genocide, imperialism, and american exceptionalism.

cw: so much violence

Waubgeshig Rice: Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018) 4 stars

"A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. With winter looming, a small …

Moon of the Crusted Snow

4 stars

Content warning plot discussion

Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2024, Bloomsbury Publishing USA) 4 stars

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

3 stars

This is not my usual type of read - in fact, I almost put it down early on, but then I identified so hard with the first Minjun chapter that I stuck with it.

It's very much like a version of Bookshops & Bonedust without the fantasy trappings and the larger plot - characters with a variety of personal issues come together around a bookshop.

It's well written (and well translated! which is not a given!) - what I'm really missing is something actually happening. The characters each go through their different journeys of personal discovery and/or growth, but nothing is materially different at the end of the book. 🤷

Lilith Saintcrow: Steelflower (2008, Samhain Publishing) 4 stars

Thief, assassin, sellsword—Kaia Steelflower is famous. Well, mostly famous, and mostly for the wrong reasons. …

Steelflower

4 stars

Steelflower was kind of a rollercoaster for me.

The world-building was nice, and I like that it avoided both the elves/orcs/humans/hobbits and fantasy-china/fantasy-italy/etc. tropes - I particularly enjoy the habit the author has of reconstructing words from their components (e.g. telescope => farseer).

I got really annoyed with the main character's level of melodrama and self-victimization around halfway in - I get that it was probably intentional, but I still found it aggravating. Overall I do enjoy that the characters are complex and that the protagonist isn't a perfect chosen one.

I don't feel like there was a whole lot of conclusion at the end, it kind of just segues into the next book without anything really being resolved. …so I immediately started the next book. 🙂

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Station Eternity

5 stars

I really liked Six Wakes, and Station Eternity makes it clear that it was not a fluke.

I loved the different alien species, the way the plot continually unfolded new dimensions, and the depth and variety of the characters.

I would unreservedly recommend this book to anybody who has any interest in science fiction, mystery thrillers, or just good storytelling.

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Thanks also to Mary Robinette Kowal, steel goddess of kindhearted patience,

Damn, if someone said something like that about me, I'd make sure it got engraved onto my tombstone