Started: 8/24/20
Finished: 8/28/20
I liked the beginning, and then I got bored, and then I got interested again, and then I was disappointed. The book ends like it’s going to have a sequel, but I don’t think it’s planned to be a series, so it just feels unfinished. It’s supposed to be this feminist-thriller-climate change-body horror variation of Lord of the Flies, and some of that comes through, but then it just ends.
Started: 8/15/20
Finished: 8/22/20
I wanted to love this book because I loved the one before it, but I was SO confused by it. It seemed to be rewriting the first book in flashback, with different characters and different events, and while that does get explained, it was confusing, not gripping. And then at around 70%, it got 1000 times more fun for me, for reasons I will not explain because spoilers, but that wasn’t enough. And then it ended, and what? I don’t know what happened. I don’t understand the world this series is set in. I love the character of Gideon from the first book, and I really feel for Harrow in both books, and I WILL read the third book because I just have to know, but I was disappointed not to love this one as much as the first.
Started: 7/29/20
Finished: 7/31/20
I don’t know exactly how to talk about this book. It’s about black kids with powers, set in the real world, with the backdrop of Rodney King and Watts and police brutality and the prison system, and it’s HARD. And it’s good.
Started: 7/22/20
Finished: 7/22/20
I read this one on Tor.com a few months ago and just re-read it this morning. It’s so good. And it made me cry, too, more sad horrified tears, but better ones than the last story.
Started: 7/20/20
Finished: 7/20/20
She’s writing in the second person POV again, and it’s SO effective. I love how this played out.
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
Sarah Pinsker can do no wrong. This story was a roller coaster, speeding downhill, all fun and great, and then BAM we ran into a wall and fell into pieces and then what? And no. No! Oh god no! It’s fantastic and you should read it. Except not you, Mom. Or Margaret.
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
I don’t think I fully understood this story. I mean, I get the overall plot and everything, I understand what happened and what the characters learned, but the details of the big tech thing and how (or why) things get erased…I spent too much time (for a novelette I finished in less than an hour) puzzling over it. Don’t dazzle me – just tell the story.
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
I liked the style of this story more than the content, I think. It’s about an archaeologist who reads about an astronomical discovery that upends her views on everything. The setting is an alternate reality where the science really does uphold the beliefs of the young-earth creationists, so that’s the accepted view of the world and physics and everything. The story is told from her perspective as she relates her days and thoughts to God, via prayers that feel like letters or diary entries.
Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20
Fascinating near-future story with tech that allows you to communicate with yourself in a parallel universe, which is really cool, but it’s about free will and how people use that tech to make decisions, to justify their actions. The tech is just the next thing (but it’s a very cool next thing to consider).
Started: 7/12/20
Finished: 7/15/20
I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this one, but the one time I tried a Max Gladstone book, I couldn’t get into it. That turned out to apply to this novella, too, even though he had a co-author. The premise is really cool, but I seriously considered just putting it down and walking away. The writing was not working for me. I got involved eventually, and I think I liked it…? Interesting, but not really my speed.
Started: 7/8/20
Finished: 7/12/20
Astronauts doing science! Science fiction, but heavy on the science, and oh so optimistic.
Started: 7/5/20
Gave up: 7/5/20
13-year-old goes to space to rescue her older brother, and I am not in the mood. The writing is good, the premise is good, but the formatting on my Kindle is atrocious (it’s a converted PDF), and the mind of this 13-year-old is not as comfortable to live in as the mind of the 12-year-old wizard was (from my last book). I’d like to come back to this later, but I’m not going to finish it in time for Hugo voting.
Started: 6/10/20
Finished: 6/23/20
The setting here is immediately weird and a little hard to understand, but fascinating, and I really want to know what’s going on and how it works. I still feel that way having finished the book. Good? Yes. Easy? No.
Started: 5/19/20
Finished: 5/23/20
LOVE the author, so excited about this book, and it was good! Young adult, but with realistic teenagers (thank goodness), near-future tech, but not about the tech. It’s a thriller, and a good one.
Started: 4/1/20
Finished: 4/12/20
I thought this was a standalone, and I was excited to recommend it to you all you people who don’t want to start a new series when only the first book is out…but then I found out it’s the first book in a new series, and it’s the only one out. But it’s so good! Fun, funny, magic and sci-fi combined.
Also, new update: there are only supposed to be two books, and the second one is due out in October of this year.
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.
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.
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.
Started: 2/8/20
Finished: 2/13/20
The next book about time-traveling historians! Yay! This is the 6th book in the series, and it has been entirely too long since I read one of these. It was fun, as usual, and I won’t wait as long to read the next one.
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.