Story reviews
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Reading Thoughts – November 2024 – Elder Race
After Cage of Souls, I returned to Adrian Tchaikovsky this month with the novella Elder Race. While Elder Race had fewer moments of me white-knuckle gripping the book the way Cage of Souls did, it was still an extremely enjoyable book that delivered several stunning moments. A monster stalks the neighboring kingdom, and Lynesse Fourth…
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Reading Thoughts October 2024 – Short Fiction – Two Summer Issues
I stumbled upon Aôthen Magazine this month, a very interesting classics magazine that publishes work related to the ancient Mediterranean. I am thrilled by this project for several reasons. I think too often some parts of academia try to separate artistic ventures from scholarly ones and this magazine works to marry the two. I also…
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Reading Thoughts – September 2024 – Cage of Souls
To put all my biases out there, I tend to be wary of anything that might be described as a tome. I love short stories and novellas, and enjoy a novel that’s around 300 pages or less. I think a lot of contemporary 600+ page books are unnecessarily bloated. When I’ve ventured into tome territory,…
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Reading Thoughts – August 2024 – Habilis
Habilis by Alyssa Quinn (2022) is a truly brilliant book. The book is written through alternating chapters of museum labels and the main character’s journey through the museum. The labels cover the growth of language in humans, the ability to recognize the other, and the ability to recognize themselves. At the same time, the protagonist…
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Reading Thoughts – July 2024
This month I finished Reading Lars Chitka’s “The Mind of a Bee” (2022). I’ve been reading it since December. The reading time isn’t because the book is a particularity thorny read; I think it’s one of the most accessible pieces of science writing I’ve ever read. I really just had to pause after each chapter,…
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Reading Thoughts – June 2024
Read some books about epic and otherworldly voyages this month; had a great time. A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay (1920) follows a man named Maskull as he journeys with two companions to the planet of Tormance, which orbits the double star of Arcturus. He awakens planetside to find himself abandoned by his companions,…
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Reading Thoughts – May 2024 – The Voice in the Night
I went down a winding road this month of related works. In my last reading post, I read through Delicious in Dungeon by Ryōko Kui. Miscellaneous Monster Tales -1- has a gag about the walking mushrooms in the dungeons, and a man turning into a mushroom creature called a Matango after eating walking mushrooms every…
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Review – Old Moon Quarterly Issues 1 and 2
I was particularly happy to stumble across Old Moon Quarterly recently, as it helps fills a niche that could always use new outlets in the spec-fic magazine landscape. Old Moon Quarterly publishes “weird sword-and-sorcery fiction set in a historical paranormal setting or a secondary-world, with a focus on well-rounded characters driving strange action.” While I…
Gabrielle Bleu 