The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The king was pregnant.
An anthropologist-like character lands on a planet with people who exhibit sexually differentiated physical characteristics, male or female depending on the circumstances, for a few days every month.
Genly Ai’s task is to convince them to join the coalition of planets he comes from.
Le Guin uses this framework to explore the various ways in which this physical ambisexuality affects their society and, in doing so, explores how sex and gender affect our own.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin , Mirra Ginsburg
The much more interesting but lesser known dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell’s 1984.
Not as prophetic as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World but it’s more consistently well written and has mostly aged better.
It’s more open to interpretation than I was expecting.
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
In working through my thoughts after reading this trashfire of a novel book, I wrote five first drafts of a review. They’re incomplete but I’m posting them here mostly un-edited (just some typo fixes) for posterity. They’re either too incomplete, too snarky, too snooty or too mean-spirited to post on Goodreads.
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of short stories and novellas set in the Earthsea setting that Ursula wrote to help her find out how to continue the story when prompted to do so by her publisher.
There’s some great stories here but I prefer the Earthsea novels to this generally (don’t get me started on The Farthest Shore).
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky , Boris Strugatsky
I love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games! Especially the third one. It’s a game I always come back to over the years.
Reading through the original inspiration for the games was a real pleasure.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A Memory Called Empire has big “Hugo award winner” energy: an interesting premise, consistent and intriguing world building, a promising start and a propulsive ending.
I loved my time with it and very excited to dig into the next book in the series although I suspect that it won’t be as good.
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
A sequel to both The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore.
Considering how uninteresting The Farthest Shore is, I’m confident saying that you can skip that book and go straight to Tehanu.
Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major
This was the first romance novel I’ve read. Sometimes you have to unleash your inner mom and read a book by a mom for moms.
I’m about as far from a mom as you can get but despite that, Cesca Major pulled me in with her writing in a way that I wasn’t expecting.
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
Stanislaw Lem pops off once again. I’m blown away at how he can integrate all these disparate emotions and ideas into one novel.
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
Everyone in a small and nameless country becomes immortal, hijinks ensue. death, with a small “d”, shows up, does some stuff then falls in love with a bass player.
The End.
The weakest of Jose Saramago’s work by far.
The Child Thief by Brom
An edgy retelling of Peter Pan by Brom, the illustrator who’s work you’ve definitely seen before (Doom II, Diablo II).
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
A fantastic conclusion to the Book of the New Sun. Do not skip this one, it’s cool, it’s funny, it’s wacky, it’s begging to be read multiple times.
If you’ve got the right group, this would make for a great book club book.
Shadow & Claw: The First Half of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Shadow & Claw is an omnibus containing the first half of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun which is a far future sci-fi fantasy epic following the story of Severian the torturer, a self described insane person who has trouble differentiating between reality, his memories and his dreams.
The Iliad by Homer , Emily Wilson
I love Greek mythology which definitely elevated my appreciation of this text.
If you’re not already a big fan of Greek mythology, you’re unlikely to get much out of it though.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
The precursor to N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, this is another fantasy setting fully divorced from Tolkien. For that reason alone, I’m into it.
It features a protagonist who gets entangled with the enslaved gods who are used and abused by the people in power. Hijinks ensue.
All's Well by Mona Awad
I appreciate the depiction of the alienation Miranda feels towards others caused by her chronic pain which is invisible to everyone else but very real to her.
It rings true to me as someone who struggled with chronic pain for a long time.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller, the first and the greatest of the authors writing Greek mythology fan fiction, like the hammer of Hephaestus, strikes again.
Circe rewrites the story of, well, Circe who you may have seen in Homer’s Odyssey. It was fantastic and I’m excited to read her previous novel, the Song of Achilles.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Feels like an Arthurian legend, a mix of fairy tales but grounded in a reality somewhat like our own with some fantastical twists layered into it.
Short and sweet, deserving of all the praise it has received.
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
The first novel in Terry Pratchett’s City/Night Watch series featuring the drunk and depressed Captain Vimes, the human who thinks he’s a dwarf Carrot, the everyman Nobby and the boomer Sergeant Colon. They act like a tight knit four man improv group, bouncing off each other really well and provide a great foundation for the humor, action and hijinks in the novel.
Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The best “second novel in a trilogy” that I’ve read in a while. To no one’s surprise, Adrian Tchaikovsky is responsible.
Eyes of the Void clicked for me when I realized that Adrian Tchaikovsky is an avid tabletop roleplayer and this novel comes alive because he’s basically role-playing (to perfection) all of his characters.
He’s thought about (and nailed) the way each character thinks and speaks based on where they’re from, who they are, their culture, etc. He’s great at this and you can see this in all of his work but The Final Architecture series feels built for him to flex his ability to write great characters.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express is similar to Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (the other Agatha Christie novel I’ve read recently).
Both novels involve Hercule Poirot on vacation traveling (on a train or on a boat respectively), with the soon-to-be murder victim asking Poirot for help, him declining and then after the murder occurs, Poirot proceeds to solve the murder.
But Death on the Nile was SO MUCH MORE of a compelling read for me. Murder on the Orient Express is… Uhhhhh… Express, it’s fast and straightforward. It doesn’t waste any time. As soon as possible you’re jumping straight into the murder followed by a by-the-numbers solving of the mystery.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Part 1: Amazing. Seems like this could have easily been an inspiration for the old school Fallout games I’ve always loved. Following one monk through the post-apocalypse is cool.
Part 2: Gigantic shift in tone. A less personal, more political story takes hold. Kind of hard to get through. The shift was really jarring.
Part 3: I haven’t gotten that far yet.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
It’s short and sweet (and sour) and that’s what makes this novel so special. It’s got one of the most unsettling POVs I’ve read in a while. It starts weird and only gets weirder from there.
It’s a great Halloween read. It’s got an Adams Family aesthetic (weird family in a mansion ostracized from their community) but with a less comedic tone.
Vengeful by V. E. Schwab
There’s no denying that V.E. Schwab is a great writer. She’s able to construct stories that entice you to keep reading despite the underlying story not being all it’s cracked up to be.
Her Villains duology leaves me feeling empty. She knows what the big moments she wants to have in her story are and she constantly steers her characters in the direction of those big moments without it feeling earned.
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Hasn’t aged as well as the first two books in the series IMO.
It’s kind of a retread of the first book with a little bit of the 80s crack epidemic and reganomics commentary spliced into it. It’s not as evergreen as the other books.
Blindness by Jose Saramago
José Saramago refuses to use quotation marks, question marks and exclamation marks in his writing.
José Saramago mostly rejects the idea that paragraphs are a writing tool that exist and can be used to make a text more readable.
José Saramago mostly refuses to name his characters and chooses to refer to them instead by their job, title or some aspect of their appearance (eg. The “doctor’s wife”, the “girl with the dark glasses”).
Why does José Saramago do this?
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
A murder mystery set in a Warhammer 40k-esque far far future universe setting with necromancy at the core of everything. Also it’s horny but not explicitly so.
This novel is trying to do a little too much IMO and fails to tell a cohesive story that works all the way through as a result.
It’s not bad, far from it. It’s just inconsistent and a little long.
The Martian by Andy Weir
An astronaut is abandoned on Mars after a dust storm separates him from his crew. Through journal entries, he tells the story of how he tries to survive.
Cain by Jose Saramago
Old Testament fan fiction written by the militantly atheist Jose Saramago.
Color me intrigued.
Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler
I was blown away by the premise of Dawn (the first novel in the trilogy) and its execution. The remnants of humanity, after a nuclear apocalypse occurs, are “saved” by aliens and forced to choose between mating with their saviors or never being able to have children again. The rest of the novels didn’t hit me as hard but they were interesting nonetheless.
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab writes some great prose and hooks you with a lot of writing gimmicks (past, present and future POVs, extremely convenient circumstances/decisions to set up exciting scenes, etc.) but she struggles to create a believable narrative with likeable characters.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Weird vignettes about humans landing on Mars and colonizing it.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
“The Raven Tower” is one of the worst books I have ever read. I’ve only covered the tip of the iceberg in this review because reading through this book has left me completely drained of energy. Please don’t read this book, it is beyond trash. If you really want to, I can’t stop you but I really wish I could.
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao
Xiran Jay Zhao strikes again. I was blown away by her YA novel Iron Window a few months ago so when I saw her next novel Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor on sale, I snatched it up.
Once again, Xiran has interwoven ancient Chinese history and mythology seamlessly with an anime inspired aesthetic (Yugioh in this case whereas Iron Window was very Darling in the Franxx) serving it all through a genre appropriate lens.
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
A short magical realism novel about a girl, her mother and her step father who’s a human size crane, the bird that is.
Hijinks ensue.
Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins
It’s heartbreaking. I’m tearing up by page 4. This series is advertised as a story for kids but it’s written in such a way that it’s just as interesting reading through it as an adult. A younger reader wouldn’t catch all the subtext (and there’s a lot of it).
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
Felt more like a soap opera than a space opera at times.
There’s a lot of people thinking about, talking about and having sex. There’s a lot of scheming and plotting that sometimes makes sense but often doesn’t.
So I rolled with it, strapped on my suspension of disbelief pants and enjoyed the ride.
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
I’m torn on this one. I enjoyed it but it was missing a bit of polish.
I enjoyed the cast of characters being mostly of Canadian Indigenous ancestry (well, except the villain). It’s not something I’ve seen before (which either speaks to my uncultured-ness or the lack of minority voices in the media I’m exposed to… or both).
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Big robots,
fighting off aliens,
piloted by pairs of young men and women (mostly boys and girls), with the men draining the life force from the women (often killing them in the process).
Wu Zetian, eventually becoming the Iron Widow, is sold to the army by her family to become a concubine-pilot. She has a plan to avenge her sister, burn the system to the ground and build it back up again.
Dayummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm this was good.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
This book is terrible. I read through this whole novel and I don’t have anything to show for it.
I probably should have put the book down and lit it on fire when the gigantic black Rastafarian sumo wrestler in a diaper showed up. I probably should have stopped reading when the profoundly unlikable protagonist turns out to be a pedo. I probably should have stopped reading when I realized that none of the characters were interesting.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
I love nonsense. Yumyum.Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
A post-apocalyptic story following a messiah-like figure who wishes to both: survive the horrific world she lives in with ripped from the 90s headlines / Mad Max roving gangs of murderers and rapists while also founding her own religion.
Uhhhhh very interesting. It’s a shame that Octavia E. Butler wasn’t able to finish the series. Her work is always interesting if a little uneven.
The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
This novel suffers from middle book syndrome. It continues the story set up in the first book and, hopefully, sets up the third and final book.
A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab
An absolute page turner if I’ve ever read one (I couldn’t put this book down). Each time I sat down to read, it only took a few sentences to transport me completely into this world that V.E. Schwab has so carefully built.
A Gathering of Shadows develops the characters introduced in the previous book (along with some fresh faces), portrays the evolution of their relationships with one another and sets everything up for what I’m confident is going to be a riveting conclusion to the trilogy.
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines
This book is a joke and not a very funny one. It fails completely in its stated goal of being funny.
The tonal clash between the comedic intent of the author and the violent story centered around a group of janitors trying to stop a genocide is jarring.
The characters are nothing more than caricatures and this is a trainwreck waiting to happen given the inclusion of a comic relief autistic character.
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A great space opera by the king of writing alien aliens. It’s a fantastic romp where we follow free adventures of a ragtag group of scoundrels doing their best to save the universe.
What could have been just “another one of those” is greatly elevated by the Adrian Tchaikovsky touch.
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Fantastic genre-bending sci-fi.
My mind’s eye has never been very good so I rarely latch on to descriptions of the spaces that characters find themselves in. But, the descriptions of Solaris’s space station and the planet it’s orbiting were so vivid and interesting that it elevated the story for me.
The space station’s color scheme of white combined with stripes of vibrant colors lit by the alternating blue and red hues of the system’s both suns was breathtaking.
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
The Light Brigade is a story about breaking people down and putting them back together again, both mentally and physically, to turn them into perfect soldiers/monsters.
It’s a wild ride that kept me hooked all throughout. It subverts many of the science fiction tropes you’re familiar with to keep you guessing.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is described as the “Queen of Mystery” and the “Queen of Crime”.
After reading through Death on the Nile for the first time, I’d recommend that we add the “Queen of Camp” to that list.
Death on the Nile is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I don’t think that was the intention of the author almost one hundred years ago when it was first published but reading it now I was chuckling nonstop at how campy and absurd it is.
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
In fair puzzles there should always be a way out. But I saw no doorways in the sand, and try as I might I could not make the puzzle fall fair.
Doorways in the Sand tells the story of Fred Cassidy the “Eternal Student”, a man who’s spent 13 years of his life as an undergrad.
He does everything he can to avoid getting a degree so he can continue benefiting from his uncle’s generous will, predicated on him being in school (once he graduates he’ll be cut off).
Fred’s idyllic existence is disrupted by the theft of a priceless alien artifact, the star-stone. He’s a person of interest for reasons outside of his control and so he is pursued by humans and aliens alike who think he can help them find the stone (can he?).
“You are a living example of the absurdity of things.”
Hijinks ensue.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
The shake that passes will echo. The wave that recedes will come back. The mountain that rumbles will roar.
The Fifth Season is a story about suffering and trying to find moments of pleasure and peace in a broken world.
The POV characters are all persecuted and forced to suffer because of circumstances outside of their control.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Gaslight, Manifest, Philosophize.To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Humm…
It was OK.
Unlike The Galaxy and The Ground Within (also written by Becky Chambers), this novella doesn’t have a lot of space (see what I did there?) to develop its characters and have you care about them.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries series so far have been extremely cyberpunk.
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Thud! by Terry Pratchett tells the story of Sam Vimes, head of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, and his fellow coppers trying to solve a dwarf’s murder. The upcoming anniversary of the thousands years old Battle of Koom Valley is keeping tension high between the dwarves and the trolls; making it harder for the constables of the Watch to keep the peace and solve the crime.
Thud! is a Terry Pratchett novel through and through. There’s ample comedy interlaced with impactful action scenes with just a little bit of drama sprinkled in. This time around, it’s a little grittier and darker than usual.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
All Systems Red is a novella written by Martha Wells, the first in her Murderbot Diaries series.
The titular Murderbot is a sentient robot-human hybrid, a slave to a mega corporation, tasked with protecting the humans it’s told to protect.
Unbeknownst to anyone, Murderbot has hacked its governor module, granting it the ability to refuse any orders given by its corporate overlords.
Once again, Murderbot finds itself protecting humans, prospectors surveying a planet, when things start going wrong.
Hijinks ensue.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Uhhhhhh. Heavy sigh.
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Terry is dedicated to the bit. More than anything he is committed to creating absurd worlds that feel real. His work has aged beautifully because the world we live in is as absurd as it’s ever been and it’s only getting more absurd from here on out.
Small Gods is about an autistic savant (pour a drink every time Terry Pratchett includes an autistic character in one of his Discworld books) named Brutha who is a lowly priest/monk in the church of Om. Hijinks ensue.
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
“They think.”
“Not thinking like us, though.”
“Well that’s to be expected.”
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Going Postal is my favorite Terry Pratchett novel. I’m facepalming right now for not writing my thoughts down about this book.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a science fiction novel about a diverse cast of characters from all over the galaxy, stuck at an inter-planetary truck stop for an indeterminate span of time, getting to know one another and helping each other overcome (or make peace with) problems in their personal lives.
As the characters learned about each other and gradually opened up about themselves, I started to see parts of myself reflected in them making me feel invested in the mostly low stakes interactions occurring between the characters.
A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab
It was an enjoyable romp but doesn’t necessarily hit the highs of the previous books in the series. As the third and final(ish) book in the series I was expecting something a little bit more. Or maybe I was expecting a little bit less, a more tightly edited and polished story. Either would have been nice.
Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
Cassandra in Reverse is a novel about a woman in her early 30s with a fascination for Greek mythology who has just been dumped by her boyfriend of 4 months and fired from her job in PR.
In that moment, something snaps and she gains the ability to go back in time. She becomes like her namesake from myth who could see into the future but was cursed to never be believed.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
I really loved it…
I was skeptical at first (I’ve been burned too many times by boring and tropey fantasy novels that so many people love) but V. E. Schwab reeled me in with some gritty and edgy fantasy that felt really “real” to me.
I was so immersed in the world that I was tearing up by the end of the book which doesn’t happen to me very often (one character’s arc really spoke to me)
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Which of us are people and which of us are meat?
Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
“We’re going on an adventure!”
If you liked the previous novel in this series, Children of Time, you’re likely to enjoy this one just as much if not more (I definitely did). If you haven’t read it, I suggest you start with that one (also great) and then read this sequel. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I guess this is what happens when a tremendously successful author with a single published novel to her name spends 16 years writing another one.
I read Susanna Clarke’s first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, as a kid and, now, I’ve forgotten what it was about and if I enjoyed it (or not).
After reading Piranesi, I’m unlikely to forget this one and how I felt reading through it.
To Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu
To Hold Up the Sky is a collection of short stories from Liu Cixin who’s mostly known for his Three Body Problem trilogy.
This collection is a mixed bag. The stories range from very bad, to middling to great. Two (out of eleven) stories really spoke to me and the rest were mostly meh.
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer
After forcing my way through the entire Southern Reach trilogy, I’ve decided to never read another Jeff VanderMeer novel.
Any goodwill I might have had for the author after reading Annihilation was siphoned away by the other two novels in the series.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
This book was OK but the movie is better.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brave New World is a dystopian novel from 1932 about dystopian shit and it has a lot to say about the dystopia we’re currently living in.
Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn by Brian Merchant , Claire L. Evans
A collection of science-fiction short stories that’ll make you go "huh, interesting…" and might encourage you to think about how technology affects your life currently and how it might affect it in the not so distant future.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman , Terry Pratchett
A cool guy devil and a flamboyantly effeminate angel living on Earth try to stop the end times from happening because they’ve come to enjoy all of Earth’s pleasures (mosly driving fast cars and reading, respectively). Also, there’s the anti-christ, a descendant of a prophet who’s predicted everything, some dude, etc. There’s a lot going on here.
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
An incompetent wizard is tasked with protecting a visitor visiting from a faraway land. A fantasy novel for people who don’t like fantasy novels.
Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis
Aliens on Earth in the early/mid 2000s and everything that follows from that. Sequel to Axiom’s End, continues Cora’s story and adds some new fresh characters (alien and otherwise) into the mix.
Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis
Set in 2007, the novel is about a U.S. government coverup of contact with extraterrestrial life. You follow the story of Cora, daughter of an exiled whistleblower, who finds herself in the middle of the whole ‘alien’ situation.
Living Beyond Borders: Growing up Mexican in America by Margarita Longoria
An anthology of short stories, comics, and poems from Mexican American authors.
The Odyssey by Homer , Emily Wilson
The Odyssey is a classic and there’s more stories that have been inspired by it than I can count. After reading it, you’ll be able to see it echoed everywhere you look.
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology is a retelling of a few stories from Norse mythology (which we don’t know very much about). I’m a fan of Neil Gaiman’s work generally but I found this to be quite boring.
Sandcastles by Frederik Peeters , Pierre Oscar Levy
Sandcastles is the french comic book that the recent M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Old was based on. A bunch of different people arrive for a relaxing day at the beach and find themselves aging extremely rapidly, babies become teens and older folk die. Hijinks ensue. I don’t get it.
Remina by Junji Ito
Junji Ito is cool. Uzumaki is great. A lot of his other work is just OK. I think Remina is also just OK.
The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz
The Drifting Classroom is a Japanese horror manga series published from 1972 to 1974 that follows a school (and its students) that is mysteriously transported through time to a post-apocalyptic future.