Users by Colin Winnette
Started: 8/23/23
Finished: 8/24/23
I did not like this book. I finished it because – I don’t know. It was short? Dangers of tech, evil corporations, blah blah blah.
tech
Lethe by Tricia Sullivan
Started: 12/30/22
Finished: 1/5/23
Recommendation by some author I like (probably Rainbow Rowell?), but I don’t know about this one. It took a LONG time to get into it. Also, the paperback I have has a TERRIBLE cover.
It’s set in the future, people can turn into dolphins swim with dolphins something about dolphins, there’s another planet and maybe a wormhole and maybe a giant conspiracy to keep the little guys down and also a forest with memories? It was odd in a not-fun way, and I don’t think I liked it.
Reset by Sarina Dahlan
Started: 8/6/21
Gave up: 8/8/2021
Interesting premise, bad writing. TERRIBLE METAPHORS. I tried, I gave up.
Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang
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).
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
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.
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
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.
Head On by John Scalzi
Started: 10/12/19
Finished: 10/21/19
Sequel to Lock In, same issues with dialogue, but otherwise a good story and a good book.
Lock In by John Scalzi
Started: 10/2/19
Finished: 10/9/19
I like John Scalzi’s books. I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read most of them, and I’ve really liked the vast majority. They’re not perfect – the problem I run into is that all of the characters sound the same way. The dialogue, while on the one hand can be pretty realistic, is basically the same book to book. It feels like every character is a stand-in for the author – smart, an essentially good person, heavy on the snark. HEAVY on the snark. It’s amusing, and his stories are all good, entertaining, fast-paced. I like that his characters tend to have healthy and happy family relationships (it’s a nice change from all the death and orphans and drama I get in nearly everything else I read), but they all talk the same.
So I get stuck on that sometimes.
We Have Always Died In The Castle by Elizabeth Bear
Started: 8/18/19
Finished: 8/19/19
Short story by an author I like, but I was led astray by the title. I assumed, since with one word changed, it’s the title of a Shirley Jackson book, that it would be similar or related to that book. It’s not, not at all. The title is perfectly appropriate to the story, and a cute nod to Shirley Jackson, but I spent a lot of time (for such a short story) trying to figure out the connection. I might have enjoyed it more without that. It’s about a virtual reality game company employee who has “volunteered” to do some training to avoid being fired for being a jerk, basically. Will she learn? Will she grow? Once I let go of the title, I liked it.
The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
Started: 3/23/19
Finished: 3/23/19
Really good novella set in the near-enough future about a super-messed up citizenship test. Good and disturbing – the good kind of disturbing.
Dreams Before The Start Of Time by Anne Charnock
Started: 1/25/19
Finished: 1/28/19
A series of vignettes following a few families over several generations. It’s SF because of the reproduction processes involved, but it’s mostly about parents and children. Pretty good.
Mother of Invention by Caeli Wolfson Widger
Started: 12/14/18
Finished: 12/17/18
Set in the near future, it’s about a biotech company looking for ways to improve pregnancy and early motherhood. It took a weird turn at the end, had one big block of exposition that I found irritating, and wrapped too neatly and quickly. The ending didn’t make sense for two of the male characters.
The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein
Started: 9/12/18
Gave up: 9/15/18
The premise is interesting, but the explanations were mind-numbing. Most books explain the necessary future tech within the plot of the book, but here, we’re getting some of it that way and some of it in footnotes. Usually, I love footnotes in novels, but that’s because usually, footnotes in novels are amusing. These were dry. So dry. And filled with information that explained stuff characters mentioned but did not appear to be relevant to the actual story. This is bad worldbuilding. Pass. I’m just annoyed it took me three days to give it up.
After On by Rob Reid
Started: 5/29/18
Gave up: 5/29/18
The writing drove me crazy and I gave up within a couple of hours. At 7% in, the narrator had mentioned a dozen times how dude’s wife’s research is critical to his business and his health, but she barely rates her own name (always X’s wife). That and the exclamation points are too much. I quit.
Warcross by Marie Lu
Started: 4/27/18
Finished: 4/29/18
Random girl is chosen to compete in a worldwide video game tournament AND find out what shady dealings are going on behind the scenes. A little meh. I’ve heard good things about the Legend trilogy by the same author, so maybe this one just didn’t grab me.
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden
Started: 1/14/18
Finished: 1/15/18
It was interesting and not at all what I expected and I LIKED it but I didn’t love it. A kid and a teenager and a demigod and some sentient robots in South Africa.