I read largely sff, some romance and mystery, very little non-fiction. I'm trying to write at least a little review of everything I'm reading this year, but it's a little bit of an experiment in progress.
Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to …
Was separation necessary for a romance? Were obstacles, real or illusory, a requirement? Was that why I could not feel satisfied when we were easy together (even if I was happier that way than when we were apart)?
Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to …
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles
3 stars
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is the second book in the Mossa & Pleiti series, set on in a future steampunk Jupiter.
It may just be because I have read some great mysteries this year (hi, Tainted Cup!) and so I'm coming in with a high bar, but the mystery of this book feels quite thin. Compared to the last book, this mystery is more telegraphed for the reader to be able to solve it themselves; however, the mystery unspools slowly with little tension, Pleiti solves too many puzzles off page, and the final confrontation is underwhelming.
I think this sounds more negative than I feel about this book. I thought it was fun, I continued to really dig the worldbuilding and the setting, and it was cozy to get back into it; I think my expectations were high and the parts I enjoyed weren't quite enough to satisfy this …
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is the second book in the Mossa & Pleiti series, set on in a future steampunk Jupiter.
It may just be because I have read some great mysteries this year (hi, Tainted Cup!) and so I'm coming in with a high bar, but the mystery of this book feels quite thin. Compared to the last book, this mystery is more telegraphed for the reader to be able to solve it themselves; however, the mystery unspools slowly with little tension, Pleiti solves too many puzzles off page, and the final confrontation is underwhelming.
I think this sounds more negative than I feel about this book. I thought it was fun, I continued to really dig the worldbuilding and the setting, and it was cozy to get back into it; I think my expectations were high and the parts I enjoyed weren't quite enough to satisfy this time around.
It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. "No maids, no …
Siren Queen
5 stars
I suggested this for #SFFBookClub, and so I gave this a reread so I could enjoy it again. I love the way this novel takes Hollywood and its obsession with stars and all of its racism and homophobia, and mixes it with fey magical realism. Overall, it's definitely a book whose strengths are in its setting and its writing, rather than in a tight plot, but I still love the characters.
In particular, probably my favorite part of this book are the constant turns of phrase that bring in fey elements at unexpected times. You're just reading along and then you get hit with a line like "The cameras were better now, I told myself. They had tamed them down, fed them better." Silent movies steal people's voices. Film stars are (ambiguously but also maybe literally) stars in the sky and wield their star power. Names are sacrificed, or …
I suggested this for #SFFBookClub, and so I gave this a reread so I could enjoy it again. I love the way this novel takes Hollywood and its obsession with stars and all of its racism and homophobia, and mixes it with fey magical realism. Overall, it's definitely a book whose strengths are in its setting and its writing, rather than in a tight plot, but I still love the characters.
In particular, probably my favorite part of this book are the constant turns of phrase that bring in fey elements at unexpected times. You're just reading along and then you get hit with a line like "The cameras were better now, I told myself. They had tamed them down, fed them better." Silent movies steal people's voices. Film stars are (ambiguously but also maybe literally) stars in the sky and wield their star power. Names are sacrificed, or hidden for protection. These pieces give the story some extra teeth and a darker edge of danger that always feels present at the margins. The extra ambiguity over what's real in a story about movie magic is delicious.
I have mixed feelings about parts of the end, especially with the trip to San Francisco. I think this is probably the part where the novel loses me a little bit. The pieces work well, but the pacing is a little jarring. It's nice to have a moment to come full circle to Luli's sister, the reveal of art outside of Hollywood that Luli has been too tunnel-visioned to see, and the continuing contrast of the realness of Tara and other places with the fey world of movies. I like the depth that this journey adds, and I'm not sure where else arguably in the novel that it would go.
"What so great about being seen?" Tara demanded. "What's so important about that?"
She might have had the words for it, but I didn't. They locked up in my throat, about being invisible, about being alien and foreign and strange even in the place where I was born, and about the immortality that wove through my parents' lives but ultimately would fail them. Their immortality belonged to other people, and I hated that.
One thing I saw in this reread was how much the book played with "being seen": fey bargains to get seen in pictures; pressure about being seen in "wrong" ways; being mis-seen as Mexican instead of Venezuelan; being asked to make do things to be seen as straight and married; the fear of being seen as crossing class lines or being seen as queer and butch.
Will Darling is all right. His business is doing well, and so is his illicit …
Subtle Blood
4 stars
Subtle Blood is the final book in this KJ Charles romance trilogy, and this one is my favorite of all three.
I appreciate that this book deals more with Will's emotional issues, and how easily understood his inability to do anything but take one day at a time is a wartime coping mechanism. In the previous books, Kim took up a lot of space with his own emotional friction within their relationship, and it's nice to see that once Kim is in a place where he can trust more, that it creates space for Will to grow as well. There's just some excellent conversations in this book.
I said after I finished the first book that I really hoped to get more into the mysteries of Kim's professional and personal life; satisfyingly, I feel like book two got into the details of the former and book three is very involved …
Subtle Blood is the final book in this KJ Charles romance trilogy, and this one is my favorite of all three.
I appreciate that this book deals more with Will's emotional issues, and how easily understood his inability to do anything but take one day at a time is a wartime coping mechanism. In the previous books, Kim took up a lot of space with his own emotional friction within their relationship, and it's nice to see that once Kim is in a place where he can trust more, that it creates space for Will to grow as well. There's just some excellent conversations in this book.
I said after I finished the first book that I really hoped to get more into the mysteries of Kim's professional and personal life; satisfyingly, I feel like book two got into the details of the former and book three is very involved in the latter, and so this final book really added a nice sense of closure.
It’s been two months since bookseller Will Darling saw Kim Secretan and he doesn’t expect …
When people are obliged to keep an eye out for threats, their eyes tend to be sharp. That's what women's intuition means, if you ask me: being unconsciously alert for dangerous men.
It’s been two months since bookseller Will Darling saw Kim Secretan and he doesn’t expect …
The Sugared Game
4 stars
The Sugared Game is the second book in this 1920's queer post-war romance trilogy. It continues the very hot and cold relationship between Will and Kim amidst the background of the investigation of criminal enterprises. My own bias is a reader is that I feel like complicated relationships where people by turns treat each other poorly need sufficient explanation of the glue that keeps them still together. This book does a good job of continuing to develop rationale for why each of them still finds the other appealing and also why the things that don't work really don't work.
Thematically I appreciated that in this book both Will and Kim got what for in their "Kim-ish" behaviors. In particular, there's a number of incidents where Will unconsciously ends up behaving like Kim, using others for his own ends and keeping secrets to protect others, and there's emotional repercussions for these …
The Sugared Game is the second book in this 1920's queer post-war romance trilogy. It continues the very hot and cold relationship between Will and Kim amidst the background of the investigation of criminal enterprises. My own bias is a reader is that I feel like complicated relationships where people by turns treat each other poorly need sufficient explanation of the glue that keeps them still together. This book does a good job of continuing to develop rationale for why each of them still finds the other appealing and also why the things that don't work really don't work.
Thematically I appreciated that in this book both Will and Kim got what for in their "Kim-ish" behaviors. In particular, there's a number of incidents where Will unconsciously ends up behaving like Kim, using others for his own ends and keeping secrets to protect others, and there's emotional repercussions for these choices. In some ways though, I feel like this helped create more understanding of Kim as well, to more directly see him through the parallels of Will's actions and to see the way that Will is indirectly influenced by him.
I appreciated that this book had even more Phoebe and Maisie, who are both delightful characters. I also said after the first book that I was hoping to learn more about Kim's past to understand him better, and this book definitely dug into some of his professional secrets (and the third book looks like it might get into more family things, based on its blurb).
I read this book for #QueerRomanceClub. It's a post-war 1920's queer romance with a bit of a mystery element to it.
This was a fun read, but the relationship between Kim and Will was definitely a little uncomfortable in parts for me, and perhaps not quite my cuppa. I think I was not expecting something so hot and cold and hot and cold with such (understandable)! trust issues. Without the meta-knowledge that this is a trilogy with these two as leads, I as the reader would have trusted Kim even less than I did.
That said, I appreciated the complication of their messy relationship; I feel like the book sold it well both why and what worked (and didn't). Given that these books are from Will's perspective and Kim is the one who keeps secrets and lies, my hope for the future is that we as readers get to …
I read this book for #QueerRomanceClub. It's a post-war 1920's queer romance with a bit of a mystery element to it.
This was a fun read, but the relationship between Kim and Will was definitely a little uncomfortable in parts for me, and perhaps not quite my cuppa. I think I was not expecting something so hot and cold and hot and cold with such (understandable)! trust issues. Without the meta-knowledge that this is a trilogy with these two as leads, I as the reader would have trusted Kim even less than I did.
That said, I appreciated the complication of their messy relationship; I feel like the book sold it well both why and what worked (and didn't). Given that these books are from Will's perspective and Kim is the one who keeps secrets and lies, my hope for the future is that we as readers get to see more into Kim's professional and personal life and understand better the choices he makes.
Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and …
The Mountain in the Sea
5 stars
On the surface, this is a future sf book about discovering sentient octopuses and trying to communicate with them. But, this is no Children of Ruin or even a Feed Them Silence; it hinges less on plot and characters, and feels more about worldbuilding in service to philosophy.
I quite enjoyed this book, and the strongest part was just how tightly the book's themes and ideas intertwined through the book's different point of views and the worldbuilding. It's a not-so-far future book with sentient octopuses, overfished waters, AI boats that drive themselves in search of profit, drones driven by humans in tanks, and the first android (but one reviled by humanity). It's a book about language and communication, memory and forgetting, what it means to be human and exist in community, and about fear of others.
Inheriting your mysterious uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might imagine.
Sure, there …
Starter Villain
4 stars
A classic Scalzi one-shot novel--a fluffy snack with some good twists.
The basic setup is that down-on-his-luck Charlie Fitzer unexpectedly inherits his estranged billionaire uncle's villainous empire and now has to fend with other villains who were pissed at his uncle.
How to Keep House While Drowning felt like a distilled therapy session about cleaning. I saw this recommended on fedi somewhere, and felt like this was useful for me to read right now. It's less "here's my life hack productivity advice for folding shirts" and more "here's some better ways to think about and emotionally approach taking care of yourself and your space". (Honestly, this is probably the more valuable thing.)
A bunch of thoughts I enjoyed that stuck with me:
* cleaning is morally neutral
* your space exists to serve you (do you hang clothes on a chair? if that works for you, then that's awesome)
* interrogating preconceived notions of what cleaning looks like
* prioritizing health > comfort > happiness in care tasks (and cutting out perfectionism saying you have to do all of these things all of the time)
* balance in care tasks between …
How to Keep House While Drowning felt like a distilled therapy session about cleaning. I saw this recommended on fedi somewhere, and felt like this was useful for me to read right now. It's less "here's my life hack productivity advice for folding shirts" and more "here's some better ways to think about and emotionally approach taking care of yourself and your space". (Honestly, this is probably the more valuable thing.)
A bunch of thoughts I enjoyed that stuck with me:
* cleaning is morally neutral
* your space exists to serve you (do you hang clothes on a chair? if that works for you, then that's awesome)
* interrogating preconceived notions of what cleaning looks like
* prioritizing health > comfort > happiness in care tasks (and cutting out perfectionism saying you have to do all of these things all of the time)
* balance in care tasks between people being less "am I contributing enough?" and more "am I taking advantage of someone else?"
Gosford Park meets Groundhog Day by way of Agatha Christie and Black Mirror – the …
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
4 stars
I heard about The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle because Stuart Turton has another mystery coming out this year that is on my book wishlist, and I thought I'd pick up an earlier book by him in the meantime.
The setup to this book is that Evelyn Hardcastle has been (and will be) murdered at 11pm, and the protagonist is living through the perspectives of various people at the manor house where it happens, and is tasked to figure out who is behind the murder. Oh, and there's also somebody trying to kill all of the various hosts he is seeing the world through.
It took me a little bit to get into this, as it's (understandably) a little bit disorienting with a lot of details. There were a number of "how did this weird thing happen" that got answered by "oh that was just ~time loop protagonist shenanigans", …
I heard about The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle because Stuart Turton has another mystery coming out this year that is on my book wishlist, and I thought I'd pick up an earlier book by him in the meantime.
The setup to this book is that Evelyn Hardcastle has been (and will be) murdered at 11pm, and the protagonist is living through the perspectives of various people at the manor house where it happens, and is tasked to figure out who is behind the murder. Oh, and there's also somebody trying to kill all of the various hosts he is seeing the world through.
It took me a little bit to get into this, as it's (understandably) a little bit disorienting with a lot of details. There were a number of "how did this weird thing happen" that got answered by "oh that was just ~time loop protagonist shenanigans", but in the end these felt like red herring decorations around other deeper, layered mysteries.
I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit about the meta plot here. Structurally, having the protagonist jump from person to person is a fascinating way tell a story, particularly a mystery. However, the mechanics behind and around this were not quite as satisfying to me as I wanted them to be. These feelings I don't think ruined the book, but in comparison everything else felt so intricately plotted that this didn't quite fit as neatly as I wanted.
Overall, a quite satisfying mystery with a novel hook.
The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy …
Splinter in the Sky
3 stars
Splinter in the Sky is an sf book about a tea-making political prisoner, caught between multiple factions all wanting to spy on each other. The book pitch here is "sapphically taking down an empire from within".
It's hard for me to not think of A Memory Called Empire while reading this. Mahit in that book felt very conflicted about the Teixcalaanli Empire; she both studied and dreamed about wanting to be a part of it (and knowing she couldn't ever truly be so), but also knew with eyes wide open how that empire consumed and absorbed everything it touched.
Here, it feels like Enitan has no such ambivalence. Her culture isn't appreciated; she's looked down on (at best); she certainly doesn't want to emulate said empire; her people aren't even seen as real people. She's traumatized by trying to find her sister, but I don't understand why she's not more …
Splinter in the Sky is an sf book about a tea-making political prisoner, caught between multiple factions all wanting to spy on each other. The book pitch here is "sapphically taking down an empire from within".
It's hard for me to not think of A Memory Called Empire while reading this. Mahit in that book felt very conflicted about the Teixcalaanli Empire; she both studied and dreamed about wanting to be a part of it (and knowing she couldn't ever truly be so), but also knew with eyes wide open how that empire consumed and absorbed everything it touched.
Here, it feels like Enitan has no such ambivalence. Her culture isn't appreciated; she's looked down on (at best); she certainly doesn't want to emulate said empire; her people aren't even seen as real people. She's traumatized by trying to find her sister, but I don't understand why she's not more angry, and can find forgiveness and trust so easily for her oppressors.
One major plot point is that the new imperator is seen as weak and so Enitan also tries to figure out who actually is in charge. It makes sense from a plot perspective why this is going on, but in practice it takes a lot of teeth away from the empire itself. Shouldn't meeting the god-imperator at the head of the empire be terrifying for a political hostage from a recently conquered planet? Why would said imperator trust Enitan so quickly?
It all just feels a bit thin. The political players are introduced often right before when they are needed for their plot points. People in the empire who have committed atrocities seem to be quickly forgiven because they feel bad about it. Trust feels like it happens far too quickly. The empire is told to be scary, historically and off page, but on page I only get brief glimpses of this, and few feelings.
Sorry for all the negative thoughts. I still thought this book was fun, but I just wish it was a bit deeper and had more of a bite.