Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell
Started: 11/17/21
Finished: 11/17/21
Aw, even haunted houses want to be loved. Cute story. Link: https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-64a-open-house-on-haunted-hill-by-john-wiswell/
Author: Zannah
Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher
Started: 11/17/21
Finished: 11/17/21
A retelling of Hansel and Gretel where the kids are sentient machines in space, and the witch is a larger sentient machine. Fascinatingly weird, like the author (whose Hugo winner speech was about slime molds).
Helicopter Story by Isabel Fall
Started: 11/16/21
Finished: 11/17/21
A really interesting take on the trans experience, using a meme to start with and providing a nuanced view of it. Not my favorite short story, but still a good one. (The internet exploded on the author, and the internet was wrong, from what I can tell.)
Monster by Naomi Kritzer
Started: 11/16/21
Finished: 11/16/21
Cool, calculating, GOOD. She writes GOOD stories. I haven’t read one of hers yet that I didn’t love. Here’s the link: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_20/
The Pill by Meg Elison
Started: 11/15/21
Finished: 11/16/21
This story knocked me down. It was SO good, about a future where there’s a miracle “cure” for obesity, and it’s dark and real and really good.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Started: 11/14/21
Finished: 11/15/21
I like good stories about someone realizing they had underestimated someone, or completely misunderstood who they were in the first place. Particularly when EVERYONE was wrong. Good stuff.
Finna by Nino Cipri
Started: 11/12/21
Finished: 11/14/21
Maybe I just don’t like stories set in Ikea-like stores. I almost put this one down, but it’s a Hugo-nominated novella, so I powered through. And it was interesting – aftermath of a failed relationship, alternate universes – but something about the fake Ikea setting put me off. I gave up on the only other book I’ve read with a similar setting, too.
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Started: 11/8/21
Finished: 11/12/21
Next in the Wayward Children series, nominated for a Hugo like all the others because, well, it’s good. This wasn’t my favorite, but I’m happy to see the series move forward. I like the installments that serve as backstories to characters we’ve met, too, but knowing there’s a big picture arc is satisfying to me.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Started: 10/28/21
Finished: 11/7/21
First in a series, YA, some of it was predictable, and some of it was very not predictable, and I liked it a lot.
The only thing I wasn’t crazy about it a thing that a lot of YA books do: the characters, teenagers all, never act like teenagers. Or, not never, but even kids faced with a ton of responsibility are still going to act like kids sometimes. I don’t think these kids did. So I was occasionally taken out of the story when I remembered that, hey, this character who said he made a super-serious decision “years ago” is only 18 right now, and then it turns out he made this super-serious decision when he was 12. Uh huh.
That aside, I really liked it, and I LOVED where it took the plot.
Why?
The “why” phase of toddler development officially began this week. LOTS of “why?”, sometimes pursued, sometimes abandoned. I’m trying to gauge when he’s actually asking vs when it’s the start of an objection and he doesn’t really care why unless the answer is “okay, you’re right, you can do or have <insert toy or food here>”.
I’m happy to follow him down the why rabbit hole, though. Twice, just this week, with completely different starting points, our journey took us to an explanation of how time is linear. Coincidence? Maybe, but I plan to pay attention and see how often this happens.
I don’t remember the start of the second conversation, but the first one started on our way home from a playground. He had kicked his shoes off. “Mommy, can you get my shoes?” “Not right now, sweetie.” “Why?” “Because I’m driving the car.” “Why?” I wish I had recorded it – I’d really like to remember how we got to time, but it was perfectly logical then.
If it happens again, I might publish.
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Started: 10/13/21
Finished: 10/31/21
I’ve been meaning to read something, anything, by Roger Zelazny, and I just haven’t gotten around to it. An article on Tor.com pointed me to this, which is broken up into one chapter per day of the month of October. The article’s author reads it, one chapter a day, every October, so after playing a little bit of catch-up (since I didn’t start on the 1st), I did, too, and I REALLY enjoyed it. It’s easy, it’s funny, and it’s Halloween-y. I might buy it and do this every year.
The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Started: 10/28/21
Finished: 10/28/21
I read this one several years ago, cried, emailed the author. I read it again, cried, almost emailed the author. Good story, and I love that she was inspired to write the Lady Astronaut series.
A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Started: 10/27/21
Finished: 10/27/21
Ah, laughs, action, love, all in a short story about robots. I should read short stories other than just the Hugo-nominated ones. I like them.
Ring Shout by P. Djèlà Clark
Started: 10/26/21
Gave up: 10/27/21
I really liked the short story I read of his last year set in Cairo with a possessed tram car, and there’s a whole series there I’m excited to read, so I was bummed when I couldn’t get into this one. Mashing up Jim Crow and Klansmen with Lovecraftian monsters is a brilliant idea, but I’m a little leery of Lovecraft-related stories, and this one didn’t land for me.
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Started: 10/25/21
Finished: 10/26/21
Recommended to me as fantasy and manners, in a series called Regency Faerie Tales, and how could I not love it?
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
Started: 10/20/21
Finished: 10/24/21
Slow start, but that’s based more on the formatting than the story/writing. It’s not .mobi, so the formatting isn’t perfect. Annoying!
SO EASY to get past the formatting after just a bit. Really good story, totally sucked me in, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Started: 10/16/21
Finished: 10/20/21
Sarah Gailey LOVED this book, and Tor.com praised it, so I figured I’d try it. It’s a romance that falls into science fiction because there’s a time loop/stuck in time trope involved. The characters are good, the story is good, there’s nothing not to like, and yet I’m a little meh about it. There was a little too much ending.
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
Started: 9/30/21
Finished: 10/16/21
New fantasy series! It took me a little bit to get into it, then I was hooked, then I wasn’t sure I was going to finish it, and then I got hooked again. I can’t say whether this was just about my frame of mind or about slow parts in the book. Could be either, but the vast majority of it had my full attention, and I’m still thinking about it, and I’m excited about the next book, which – ugh – isn’t out yet.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Started: 9/22/21
Finished: 9/30/21
By the time I started this one, I didn’t remember anything about it except that it was highly recommended by Jo Walton, and I’m hit or miss on her recommendations. I was expecting something literary or dense, but I was pleasantly surprised to find somewhat hard SF with beautiful imagery. Totally literary, totally genre, and really good. The core story, which takes a bit to get to, is emotional and riveting. Good stuff.
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
Started: 9/19/21
Finished: 9/22/21
Set near the very end of WWII, with some jumps in time, it’s about a single line of women who are trying to get humanity into space. They don’t remember why, but they have very specific rules they live by. Most of the characters (not the main ones) were real people and most of the events were real (some minor details changed), which makes this totally fictional story completely plausible. Also, someone is hunting these women and trying to stop them. It was really good.