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I get so tired of the narrative that humans are always going to choose the worst and most selfish means of planet stewardship, and this book is tired of it too! It’s one of those novels I put down and immediately begin longing for its vision of the future’s so badly it feels like I’ve lost something tangible. How much time do we have to get the watershed networks and dandelion networks underway and beat back the corporations? I’m ready to meet some aliens. 

I would absolutely love more of these characters 

Ok this was fantastic. Incredibly detailed world building, strange and dark as hell. Lots of wrangling with bodily autonomy and the meaning of self. Definitely feels more Gormenghast than Wuthering Heights to me {complementary}. I would both LOVE to see more works set in this world, and would also be happy if this is the only one. Things were left pleasingly mysterious. 

I’m again thinking and thinking about it and not positive how I feel, but I enjoyed it a great deal more than Rabbit back literary society and feel like it was overall a much stronger book, with pleasingly unresolved mysteries but a more cohesive plot. 

<spoiler> Ultimately I would like to hear how intersex trans folks feel about the representation, though it was incredibly refreshing to see a trans woman character so glowingly described and loved and accepted by a cishet male love interest. </spoiler>

Ahh, hmmm. This was an odd one. It has some charming properties I enjoyed, but at one point a character describes their writing process as “you begin and you keep writing” and that feels like this author’s process too. There’s also a lot of “male author writing female character”… that is to say, you hear constantly about the main character’s nipples and ovaries for some reason. 

<spoiler> There’s also, well, the final twist is that the brilliant child prodigy that everyone stole their ideas from was “actually” autistic and couldn’t write or speak intelligibly. Just a lot of… whew. I just wasn’t ready to be broadsided by the ableism. </spoiler>

It’s too bad this book is all tied up in some weird amazon publishing arm, because it’s one of the best T. Kingfisher books I’ve read (and I’m a big fan, that’s saying something). 

Incredible. The language in this book is a force unto itself. 

Fantastic. I really enjoy Zen Cho’s novels, but if anything her short stories are even better. They’re lyrical and meaty with personality. 

I’m not finding this particularly interesting, which for a book about maps and cartographers and libraries and magic is surprising. In part, it really feels like the author hasn’t done a lot of research? I don’t feel like I’m learning much, it seems very imprecise and vibey, like other than learning the name of the database of maps there’s been nothing specific to cartography or cartographic restoration. My own background includes printmaking, and I feel like even I know more about the field than has been discussed here. <spoiler> Also I simply can’t understand or believe the severity of the “junk box incident”. I can understand why her dad might have ruined her career to push her away from something mystical and dangerous, but not why other professionals in the field would take it seriously without that context or why she would either. </spoiler> I was ambivalent about the book …