Critiques et Commentaires

David Bremner Compte verrouillé

bremner@book.dansmonorage.blue

A rejoint ce serveur il y a 3 années, 8 mois

computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver

Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.

FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz

bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.

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a publié une critique de Noor par Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor: Noor (Hardcover, 2021, DAW)

From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful …

Personal Trauma, dystopia, but also optimism and warmth.

At points this book reminded me strongly of certain influential works of speculative fiction, most notably Murderbot (corporate surveillance dystopia, cyborgs are people too) and Neuromancer (cyberspace, hacking as a kind of magical system). On the other hand, Okorafor writes confidently from the point of view of young Nigerian woman in the near future.

For me the warmth comes from the details of daily life in (roughly contemporary) Nigeria. On the other hand I don't have much of a reference point other than other books by the same author.

The book is, and is-not "hard" science fiction. It relies (mainly) on technology for setting and plot devices, but doesn't spend a lot of time on the technical details, and in one or two places might be jarring for the nerdier reader.

Content warnings: occasional violence, some body trauma. The moderate amount of sexual content is thankfully unrelated to the violence.

a publié une critique de Paladin's Grace par T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel, #1)

T. Kingfisher: Paladin's Grace (Hardcover, 2020, T Kingfisher)

Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is …

Adventure and Romance in the world of Clocktaur-war

There is a definite nerd-romance thing going on here. The characters are engaging and the adventure (if not the romance) has a few surprises.

I think young adults would be mortified to know their parents are reading parts of this, but it seems harmless enough to this non-parent.

a publié une critique de The Grief of Stones par Katherine Addison (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #2)

Katherine Addison: The Grief of Stones (Hardcover, Tor Books)

In The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin …

Good, but definitely not standalone.

I read this quickly while somewhat sleep deprived, so I don't have as coherent an impression as I might have hoped.

Like the previous "Witness for the Dead" this is essentially a noir detective novel with fantasy elements. The characters are engaging, although the villains turn out not to have much redeeming qualities.

It's hard not to see the Goblin / Elf dynamic as some kind of comment on race and racism, although it wasn't really clear to me if the book was commenting on contemporary society or just reflecting it.

The book relies on the reader having some recall of the previous two, but especially Witness for the Dead. The reader needs the previous book not only for background on the world, but also on the relationships.

Like in Witness for the Dead, the use of an imagined dialect of English is crucial to both the atmosphere and the …

a publié une critique de Daughter of the Moon Goddess par Sue Lynn Tan (The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #1)

Sue Lynn Tan: Daughter of the Moon Goddess (Hardcover, 2022, Harper Voyager)

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being …

solid romance / fantasy / adventure

This book felt more centered around the romance than the fantasy I usually read,. but I enjoyed the change of focus (I know, I will now do something extremely manly to compensate). The first third of the book feels like a very sweet cinderalla-esque YA romance. Things get more complicated (and more adventure / political) after that. The Chinese (inspired?) setting was nice; the food seemed tempting, and the idea of the immortals as just as petty and vindictive was not exactly new, but their ordinariness felt like an interesting way to connect a fantasy setting with our world.