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"A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. With winter looming, a small …
A crack echoed through the boreal landscape, a momentary chaos in the still afternoon air.
"A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. With winter looming, a small …
The July 2024 #SFFBookClub pick
Content warning now with spoilers!
I did feel like some of the plot mechanisms did get repetitive, though. For example, one of his enemies defeating him in battle, then holding him prisoner until he could be rescued. Or thinking somebody he cared about had been killed only to find out they were ok, actually.
Nigerian God-Punk - a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy set in Lagos.
Since the Orisha …
In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the Akata series, but for adults - Nigerian setting, making friends and enemies with supernatural entities, Nsibidi script as magic writing, etc. (This is not a criticism of the Akata series, I love them.)
The setting was the best part of this for me - I enjoyed postapocalyptic, god-ravaged Lagos.
I appreciate that David is imperfect and fallible - he makes mistakes, fails, etc., and it has real consequences for him.
The first section (book? sub-book?) was my favorite, followed by the second - as the story progressed, I felt like it kept getting progressively more frantic and less coherent.
Overall, I enjoyed it, though, and I'm looking forward to more.
Nigerian God-Punk - a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy set in Lagos.
Since the Orisha …
Content warning chapter 21 spoiler
My first thought for "the place where iron lives" was a laundromat
Nigerian God-Punk - a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy set in Lagos.
Since the Orisha …
The #SFFBookClub pick for May 2024
It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. "No maids, no …
This one just wasn't for me. I feel like it was one of those books that's all setting and no plot - and the setting was great, but I just couldn't engage with it.
Shan Frankland forever abandoned the world she knew to come to the rescue of a …
It kept very much to the themes of the original: genocide, greed, betrayal, and the sheer amount of damage a few bad-faith actors can do in a system not designed to account for them
Finished just in time for #SFFBookClub sequels month 😅
It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. "No maids, no …
#SFFBookClub pick for April 2024
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, …
Content warning I don't think I can review this without some vague spoilers
Babel is a story of colonialism, racism, sexism, whiteness, Englishness, loss, betrayal, and despair. It's basically a modern parable grittily illustrating the causes and consequences of colonialism.
I love the translation magic mechanism, and I found the embedded etymology tidbits super interesting.
I also appreciate that the author had the courage to allow Bad Things to happen to major characters - not in a GRRM torture porn kind of way, but just as a kind of natural consequence of the world and the characters' interactions.
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, …
By the time Professor Richard Lovell found his way through Canton’s narrow alleys to the faded address in his diary, the boy was the only one in the house left alive.
— Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work …
A series of bleak, gritty glimpses of what's in store for us over the next few decades.
The tone is lightened a bit here and there with injections of optimism, but I think it works against itself a little when the optimism feels unwarranted.
The way that the characters from the different stories are linked reminds me a bit of Cloud Atlas (although I only saw the movie (sorry)).
Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work …
Wow, the second story is bleak. Do not recommend for people with children in their lives.
Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work …
The #SFFBookClub January pick is How High We Go In The Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Thank you to all who voted and/or suggested books.
Award-winning historical fantasy and literary folktale. Winner of the presigious Etisalat award.
In a tent …
I enjoyed the setting, and some of the substories were compelling, but as a whole it was too rambling and incohesive for me.
I feel like it would have worked better as a series of stories about different people from the same village or whatever instead of repeatedly being like "despite being in the middle of this incredibly urgent life crisis, the main character decides to spend six months teaching an older woman to fold laundry" or "despite having a very bad outcome two chapters ago, the main character decides to engage in exactly the same dangerous behavior with no additional precautions"
