Critiques et Commentaires

The setting is unique and interesting, and I loved the final segment, but I felt like it went off the rails at around 50% and just kind of floundered around for like … half the book.

Philip K. Dick once called Dhalgren “the worst trash I’ve ever read,”

This gave me an immediate and urgent desire to read Dhalgren

The July 2024 #SFFBookClub pick

Today, I learned en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/haecceity

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. 🤷

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. 🙂

It's not that often I find myself actively disliking a book's protagonist

100% human-created. No part of this book or its cover art was created with “AI”.

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.

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

The entire Steelflower Chronicles--my hard-drinking, pickpocketing, assassin-thief sellsword--is on sale this weekend! Book 1, STEELFLOWER, is a whopping $.99USD in ebook through these retailers. books2read.com/steelflower

raggedfeathers.com/@lilithsaintcrow/112502933161785573

The Digital Book Launch Party for The Old Goat and the Alien has been announced!

Hope to see some you there on Sunday 2nd June at 6pm UTC+1!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/veocorva/the-old-goat-and-the-alien/posts/4109428

mastodon.art/@vicorva/112496178557679304

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the Akata series, but for adults - Nigerian setting, making friends and enemies with supernatural entities, Nsibidi script as magic writing, etc. (This is not a criticism of the Akata series, I love them.)

The setting was the best part of this for me - I enjoyed postapocalyptic, god-ravaged Lagos.

I appreciate that David is imperfect and fallible - he makes mistakes, fails, etc., and it has real consequences for him.

The first section (book? sub-book?) was my favorite, followed by the second - as the story progressed, I felt like it kept getting progressively more frantic and less coherent.

Overall, I enjoyed it, though, and I'm looking forward to more.

#SFFBookClub