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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Started: 3/19/20
Finished: 3/26/20

I LOVED this book.  It’s super-weird, but the main character is hilarious (I laughed a LOT and had to force myself to stop reading parts out loud to John), and I LOVED it.  So excited to read the next one when it comes out (THIS SUMMER!!).  Queer necromancers in space.  With swords.  And hilarity.  And death (because necromancers).  Also lots of drama – despite the funny character, it is NOT a comedy. I got this from the library, but I need to own it.  And re-read it.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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Started: 2/29/20
Finished: 3/19/20

First book in a new series, and I nominated it for a Hugo before I finished it.  Big space empire, with an ambassador from a little space station, who has really neat advanced tech and has to navigate a complex imperial language with cool linguistic details.  A lot of stuff was introduced and much of it didn’t get far – I think this is going to be a big series, and I’m super excited.  Not so much about the wait, but I’ll live.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

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Started: 2/26/20
Finished: 3/4/20

Third book in The Raven Cycle (witches, psychics, magic, prep school boys, etc.), and it’s a really good continuation of the story.  We get more forward movement, more characterization, more good storytelling, AND it has teenagers being teenager-y and grown-up and all over the place in what feels real, despite the magic.  I am waiting impatiently for the 4th book to be available from the library.

Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen

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Started: 2/18/20
Finished: 2/26/20

Second book in the Nyxia trilogy, and while I still enjoyed it, I have some major problems with the aliens.  I mean, they’re fine, but they’re written as humans on another planet – hardly any differences, barely even cultural ones.  Doesn’t feel well thought out.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

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Started: 2/14/20
Finished: 2/18/20

Second book in the trilogy with psychics, witches, magic, ghosts, and prep school boys, and it started with a swerve that took me by surprise in a very good way, and I liked this book a LOT.  Also, turns out it’s not a trilogy, it’s a…tetralogy?

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

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Started: 2/2/20
Finished: 2/7/20

I picked this one up from the library after a Tor.com post about science fiction that provides hope for humanity.  It’s the first in a trilogy, and I liked it.  I don’t know if it’s officially YA, but the focus is on a bunch of teenagers, and aside from a few kind parents and parent-figures, the adults are Evil-with-a-capital-E.  So, yeah, it’s YA.

Finder by Suzanne Palmer

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Started: 12/28/19
Finished: 1/4/20

Debut novel of an author I heard speak on a panel at a convention.  I’d read a couple of her short stories and really liked them, and I liked her in person, so I was excited to read this one and…I LIKED IT. It was fun, fast, and a little twisty plotwise (in a good way).  I’m glad it’s the beginning of a series.

The Dollmaker by Nina Allan

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Started: 12/16/19
Finished: 12/28/19

Dolls are scary, right?  So I assumed this book would be creepy.  It’s not, although one or two parts are a little bit weird in a scary way.  It was good, but I don’t think it stuck the ending.  It’s about a man who goes on a cross-country trip to meet the woman he loves, who he has only corresponded with via letter.  Along the way, he reads a book of short stories by an author the woman is interested in, and the stories are part of this book, too.  Those are the parts that get a little creepy, and the main character and his love both think the stories parallel their own lives a little too closely.  Unfortunately, the ending doesn’t do anything with that, and I was left hanging.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

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Started: 12/14/19
Finished: 12/16/19

First in a series a girl who wants to be a knight.  I would have eaten this up if I’d found it when I was 10 (it was published in 1983).  I enjoyed the first book (and I’ll keep reading), but I’m having a little bit of a hard time believing that this 10-year-old girl would talk the way she does, have the power (magical) that she does, know all these things, be able to do all this stuff, etc.  She makes it to age 14 or so by the end of the book, so hopefully her ability to master EVERYTHING will get a little easier to swallow as she gets older.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

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Started: 11/24/19
Finished: 12/1/19

Military SF with some weird circular time travel and a narrator who doesn’t know what’s going on, with a prisoner interrogation going on as a framing device, and really, I liked it.  I’m not sure it got fully explained, or maybe I need to read it again, but it reminded me of Starship Troopers, and I liked it.