Critiques et Commentaires

A Drop of Corruption was a great followup to The Tainted Cup.

I love the universe, it's so delightfully weird and mysterious. Additionally, I appreciate that Din, despite being A Watson, actually does the majority of solving things and unraveling the story, instead of just floundering around until his Holmes solves everything.

Nebula best novella 2024

Nebula best novel 2024

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a fresh modern fantasy exploring a world where books are magical, in a literal sense. It's fast-paced, well-written, nuanced, and not too predictable or tropey.

The Tomb of Dragons is another solid Thara Celehar.

When I first read The Witness for the Dead, I was disappointed, because it had such different energy than The Goblin Emperor. After finishing The Tomb of Dragons, I went back to The Goblin Emperor again, but I actually stopped fairly quickly and went forward to Witness for the Dead instead, because this time what I wanted was the Thara Celehar energy. I have really come to enjoy how the pacing is very smooth and gradual, while being ultimately relentless. Celehar is never hurried or frantic - he just applies steady pressure to all his problems until they eventually crumble.

The #SFFBookClub pick for June 2025

Every time I read Ulnemenee, my brain goes "doot doooooot do doo doot"

youtu.be/QTXyXuqfBLA

I really enjoyed The Ministry of Time.

I was frustrated with the protagonist for big chunks of the book for not realizing obvious things. The author repeatedly tried to defend this with "I bet you're thinking 'I would have realized this right away', but" and in a world where I know time travel exists, I absolutely would!

However, the writing is very good, and it kept me engaged. The combination of themes around time travel, colonialism, and refugee life really worked, and I feel like it allowed them to be explored from different angles.

I'm kind of let down by the inconclusiveness of the ending, but on the other hand they avoided most of the cliché time travel tropes, so overall I guess it balances out.

#SFFBookClub

Dual Memory was good, but it didn't fascinate me the way that Semiosis did.

The #SFFBookClub selection for May 2025

A kafkaesque nightmare, a 200-page lsd trip, Fight Club for lit majors

Newman keeps me guessing as usual.

After Atlas follows Dee, an ancillary character from After Atlas, in her quest to figure out what the hell is going on.

This one gets very dark, but it's wonderfully written, and I devoured it.

Short, sharp, clever, and weirdly horny

A psychologist volunteers to join a small research and exploration team on an extraplanetary mission, drama ensues.

Ghost Station reminds me of Before Mars in a number of ways, the most important being that I really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing.

Now I'm off to go find something else by S.A. Barnes