Anything Robert Jackson Bennett writes is an auto-buy from me, and even though I know to expect his typically stellar mix of action, characterization, and canny plotting, I’m always delightfully surprised by his ability to innovate within the fantasy genre. Previously in his Founders Trilogy, he managed to make computer and software engineering work in …
A perennial favorite meme in my household—now used as a shorthand in many gift-giving situations—is “I never understood the owls.” Reading The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka is another perfect application of the meme, since who could ever really understand the sudden appearance of thousands of murderous owls? Yep, owls. The ancient symbols of wisdom that …
Oh, Murderbot. Truly you are the avatar of our age, unwilling though you may be to serve as a representative of anything human. Less an antihero than an anti-everything-up-to-and-including-heroes, Murderbot is once again in fine form for this seventh installation of its* anti-corporate adventures. Only this time, in Martha Wells’ System Collapse, the corporate system …
System Collapse, the seventh entry into the Murderbot Diaries series that started with All Systems Red, is almost upon us, which means it’s actually a perfect time to get into the series if you haven’t already. Why? Well, for starters: 1. You just want to binge content: If anyone’s going to support you doing nothing …
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo is, as is usual for any entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, a lot of stories in one story. Usually the interwoven tales are the result of Cleric Chih’s journeys as they collect tales for their abbey, but for this fourth installment, Chih has finally returned home to …
Based purely on growing up in the Disney era of fairy tales, at one point I would have said that Sleeping Beauty is the lamest of heroines. Problematic, of course, but also just boring. Clearly just a tale invented by a parent who really, really wanted to go to bed! But I’m so glad that …
Can the deliberate, repeated, and visceral slaughter of intimate partners be charming? I don’t think I’m allowed to say that, but after reading Walking Practice, I can’t help it. Perhaps better to say I’m charmed, safely in the past tense, by the wacky, brutal, and ultimately highly relatable tale of an alien trying to survive …
There were some pandemic novels about the pandemic itself, produced with a startling alacrity and provided by an industry eager to contend with the trauma if only so it could get back to business as normal. And so we got The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, Joan is Okay by Weike Wang, Companion Piece by Ali …
If you only take one thing from my review, it’s this: I love this book so much. So much. It is so good. It’s going to have a permanent place on my top shelf, only I’m sure it will actually live in a small pile of beloved books much closer to hand, getting its pages …
Martha Wells has been a lowkey legend for more than a decade now, and she just keeps pumping out the hits. Witch King is another solid entry to her canon, a standalone with sequel potential that quietly incorporates current discourse into her classic high fantasy style. This book reminded me of reading 90’s fantasy in …