Book reviews
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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,…
-
Reading Thoughts – March 2024
After a very long break, I am attempting a return to doing monthly book reviews/thoughts on books I’ve read. I initially stopped because I just didn’t have time to write thoughtfully, while also working on my own fiction and my day job. I’m going to try a more pared down approach going forward. That being…
-
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…
-
What I read in October 2021
I had such high hopes for my reading this month, even foolishly tweeting out my book plans for all to see. I read exactly one book in October, and it was absolutely none of the ones pictured above. But not all was lost! While I didn’t quite read as many books as I wanted this…
-
What I read in September 2021
This month I took a break to chill out and read some Star Trek novels. I also read at turns gripping and charming short stories at Lit Up, Starward Shadows Quarterly, and Flash Point Science Fiction. I am switching up my formatting for this post so the short stories come first. I read some great…
-
What I read in August 2021
I read a lot of great genre fiction this month, truly a fantastic August! Dragons, robots, and stellar phenomena abound! Books: The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories by Charles Payseur – I first encountered Payseur’s work with The Death of Paul Bunyan in Lightspeed Magazine. I remember listening to the audio version of the…
Gabrielle Bleu 