#I have read exactly one book of murderbot in one sitting just like I did fhr

[hyper-pixels]

I need someone to take responsibility for my autism and two new fixations that involve a human like robot/human made to be a robot wanting to actually be human in some way

[veliseraptor]

February Reading Recap

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. I didn't find a whole lot new in this book, as far as thinking through questions of how to deal with art made by people who have done things or hold opinions that one finds morally reprehensible, but it was a well-written and thoughtful probing of the subject nonetheless. I really appreciated the fact that Dederer was comfortable (or, if not comfortable then at least accepting) of coming to a place with no easy answers. rea

Stars of Chaos: vol. 1 by Priest. I'm not sucked into this one yet, but I am intrigued by it enough that I'm going to keep reading. I haven't hooked into the main relationship, and it hasn't had the same level of delightful banter (at least, as yet) that I have enjoyed in other Priest novels I've read, but I do have volume 2 sitting on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading it.

System Collapse by Martha Wells. I find that I've liked the early Murderbot books a lot more than the later ones, and this one unfortunately continued that trend. I don't think the series has overstayed its welcome for me yet - I'll probably continue to read it, at least for now - but I find myself losing interest.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. I said I was going to reread it and I did! And it didn't blow me away in quite the same way I remember it doing when I read it the first time around several years ago, but I still really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it enough this time around (and was still compelled enough by the worldbuilding, which I do remember being a big part of what stood out to me), that I plan to reread the rest of the series as well. But while, again, it didn't blow me away the way I remember, I would say that I generally recommend it, particularly as a fantasy that is doing some things different.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Manhua): vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I am only and specifically reading the volumes of the manhua that have Yi City in it, so I'm pretty much exclusively assessing this based on my Yi City feelings. And while overall I feel like the art style isn't working for me in a way that is impacting my ability to really get into it there was at least one panel that really conveyed something and made me Feel Things, so it gets credit for that. I am enjoying the experience of doing Yi City in a whole new format, though, that's enjoyable for the sheer "getting to do Yi City, again, but in a different medium this time" reason.

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinker. I read this book for a book club I'm in and I found it rather too didactic and the ending a little too pat. The family dynamics were strongly written and I sort of feel like Pinker could've written a stronger book that was just about a family without the part about New and Suspect Technology. I wouldn't even say that I necessarily disagree with the points I think she's making in this book, but I would say that it went a little too hard and a little too obviously on making those points.

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. I liked this one and particularly as of the last...idk, five pages or so, I'm so on board for what comes next. I am promised that it gets even weirder and given that it was already fairly weird...I'm fascinated by the worldbuilding here, and the conceit of the Enlightenment-style contrasted with the future setting is a fun one. I'm looking forward to more.

Ring by Koji Suzuki. I was neither scared by this book (though perhaps I was ruined by knowing the whole thing more or less beat for beat) and did not particularly enjoy the experience of reading it, and then the part where Sadako was revealed to be...genderweird? somehow? unclear to me what the author was going for exactly, sort of tanked it for me. I probably will not be reading the rest of the series unless I get truly desperate for horror to read.

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler. I don't know that I'd say this was the highest quality fantasy I've read recently but it might be the new-to-me one I've liked the best in a while. It was a lot of fun, very fast-moving, and I was intrigued enough by the entire set-up that I pretty much immediately put the second book on hold at the library after finishing this one. Maybe it's just been too long since I read a new-to-me fantasy book that really grabbed me, but I liked this one rather a lot and even if it was maybe more "fun" than "good" I'm still calling that enough to give this one a loose recommendation.

[eyrieofsynapses]

FINALLY got to sit down and listen all the way through System Collapse and aaaaaAAAH (positive). Murderbot absolutely never fails to be a delight. I am always a little nervous starting into the next book of a series, because we all know how easy it is for things to go haywire and suddenly your favorite series just went down the drain. but nope, this one is EXACTLY AS GOOD AND BETTER than all that came before! gods I love these books.

(and is it just me, or do they just get more and more quotable the further along they go?)

anyway I have Very Many Thoughts which I may or may not share, idk yet. I purchased the audiobook, but I also have the ebook off my e-library (because the audiobook is genuinely fantastic, but also my audio processing can be shit sometimes so having that to refer to is useful) and I have highlighted certain little quotes and I shall probably toss those up with my reactions in particular, we'll see.

...although I did make the mistake of leaving my music app on shuffle and it jumped to Chapter 5 after Chapter 1 and I did not notice somehow and accidentally spoiled myself a little for [redacted]. which was unfortunate. I am sad that I did not get to experience the tension of not knowing. but oh well, it was brilliant anyway, and that wasn't too far along so eh, it's not like it was a major spoiler. I didn't pick up on anything else plot-relevant either, so once again, not a problem.

(which is worth noting, actually, because this is another reason why these books are good: I can and have listened to them over and over, and whether or not you know what's going to happen it absolutely does not matter, it is still good every time. good writing, y'all, good writing.)

anyway! I imagine the fandom is in the position where everyone who can get their hands on the book and the time to read/listen to it has already done so or is in the progress of doing so/waiting on copies/etc., but if you're hesitant or haven't yet, I highly encourage you to do so. <3

[chayscribbles]

chayscribbles’ monthly writing update ☆ february 2023

☆ STATISTICS.

words written: 11 606

projects worked on: Andromeda Rogue; The Gemini Heist; and a Third, Secret WIP

proudest accomplishment: i'm about halfway through with AR1 draft 2! and i finished like, a bunch of drawings

books read: Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne; All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells;

☆ GENERAL COMMENTS.

why do i feel like i wrote a lot less than i actually did. like i looked at my total and thought "now that can't be right... there's no way i wrote that much."

things are going better for some wips (AR) than they are for others (GH) so maybe my head is cancelling it out lol.

reading comments: Architects of Memory was basically "a corporate war over alien weapons featuring messy sapphics in space" and i liked it but it wasn't quite a coup de coeur, 4/5 stars. All Systems Red was an absolute delight, 5/5 stars, will be reading the rest of the series once my holds on Libby come through.

(also i started reading Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo this past weekend, and i blame it + it's precursor Ninth House for putting me in the mood to work on Third Secret WIP lately, as Ninth House is partially responsible for the genre shift in Third Secret WIP.)

more specific wip-related comments + featured excerpt below.

☆ COMMENTS: ANDROMEDA ROGUE (draft 2)

i'm about halfway through this draft! i've passed 40k this month!

things are going super well. when i have the magical combo of time and energy and motivation to write i can get through scenes pretty easily, now that i don't have to worry about overall plot as much. plus i get to add little things here and there to beef it up.

i've mostly worked on the second act this month, which is where the team really starts going through things together.

there's one particular Azami chapter right before the midpoint that's a monster of lore-dropping. i had to rework it several times as i had an entire page of editing notes to make sure everything is coherent... and i'm still not entirely sure i've gotten it right 😭

☆ COMMENTS: THE GEMINI HEIST (outlining / draft 0.5)

not much to say about this one. didn't work on it as much. the plot for this wip continues to frustrate me. i'll find myself coming up with little ideas for the characters and the world... but when i try to sit down and come up with actual scenes and plot, my brain turns to soup.

☆ COMMENTS: THIRD, SECRET WIP

this wip is consuming me. devouring me with its teeth. i'm surprised to find i may actually have a plot. turns out letting it hibernate for 3 years and tweaking with the genre has done some good.

i might cave and post an intro in the next month. stay tuned...

☆ FEATURED EXCERPT.

this is from the like, one scene i wrote for gemini heist this month. i just think it's funny. for context, Leo and Gabi are trying to get access to some archives in a university library, and are posing as students.

As [Leo and the archivist] talked, Gabi slipped her hand into the pocket of her ridiculous jacket. Her fingers closed around a small round device. She glanced around. While Leo was doing a great job at keeping the archivist distracted, the commotion had caught the attention of nearly everyone in the room.

Just be normal, she told herself. She inched her hand out of her pocket.

“Which archives exactly do you need access to?” [the archivist] asked.

“Art of the early Viheldan Empiric era,” Leo said. “My paper is on the Gemini statuettes.”

“Ah, that might be why. You need a special authorization form from a professor or another faculty member to access those.”

Leo pouted. “But my professor said he got access for me!”

“Perhaps you can message him—”

“Ugh— can’t you just call him right now and ask? I don’t have time for this.”

“Alright. I’ll give him a call.”

Shit. Gabi wasn’t ready. She fumbled to take out the device, concealing it as best as she could in the palm of her hand. All she needed was to place it on the archivist’s computer terminal without him seeing a thing before he made that call.

The archivist’s fingers hovered over the screen for a second before pressing an icon at the bottom. With a starburst motion of his hand, he expanded a search window and began typing in the name of the professor. Panicking, Gabi slammed the device in her hand onto the side of the terminal.

The already quiet room went completely silent. All eyes turned towards her. The archivist’s were wide and stunned. Leo’s were sharp and furious.

“I, uh,” Gabi sputtered, awkwardly keeping her hand glued to the terminal. The device whirred to life, vibrating softly under her palm. “I-I thought I saw a bug.”

☆ TAGLISTS. let me know if you want to be added/removed to any of them.

general taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @quilloftheclouds @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @avi-why @lefttigerobservation @chazzawrites @bardolatrycore @innocentlymacabre

andromeda trilogy taglist:

@bebewrites @nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @akindofmagictoo @quilloftheclouds @nora-theteawriter @ashen-crest @corpsepng @writeblrfantasy @toboldlywrite @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @cheerfulmelancholies @extra-magichours @writeouswriter @cilly-the-writer @lefttigerobservation @rose-bookblood @drowsy-quill @chazzawrites @cynic-and-chief @enchanted-lightning-aes @aesa

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @retrogayyde

[planet4546b]

Book asks: 3, 16, 20

3. What were your top five books of the year?

(in no particular order!!)

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell. instlantly entered maybe my top 10 books of all time. absolutely phenomenal book. i dont even know what to say about it

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin. this series ABSOLUTELY lives up to the fucking hype, i adore it. obelisk gate was also phenomenal, im just counting it as part of the series (still have stone sky on my shelf but havent gotten to it yet)

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski. a book that seemed designed for me specifically to go bonkers about it, i could talk about it for hours and hours

Underland, Robert Mcfarlane. Macfarlane's style occassionally isn't my favorite (a bit too prose-y for nonfiction for my taste) but i appreciate a book about underground spaces by someone who clearly understands their weight and also their beauty

World War Z, Max Brooks. this one was unexpected! but it's a fascinating way to tell a story about zombies, and brooks does a really good job of actually imagining what this world would look like. i find myself thinking of a few chapters all the time

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

unfortunately Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. it's a book that i very much wanted to like but found myself unable to meet on it's terms and sort of walked away feeling unsatisfied. never been able to articulate exactly why!

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

im not watching too many releases, i think the most recent murderbot book was the only one i was particularly looking forward to!! its sitting on my shelf but i haven't read it yet so i cant judge if it meets expectations yet

[stillwinterair]

I did it! I read 33 books in 2020!

It’s been a shitty year, but boy, I completely blew past my goal. Previously, the most I’d ever read in a year was 16, in 2019. And before that, probably uhhh... probably in 2014ish, and probably only like 5, maybe 6. I never really considered myself a big reader, I have pretty severe ADHD and dyslexia, so this... this feels really big, for me, personally.

So, without further ado the full list:

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski (The Witcher mid-quel) -- finished January 4th, 2/5 stars

Star Wars: Hard Merchandise by K.W. Jeter (The Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy #3) -- finished January 17th, 2/5 stars

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (The Thrawn Trilogy #1) -- finished February 2nd, 3/5 stars

Migration by Julie E. Czerneda (Species Imperative #2) -- finished February 18th, 4/5 stars

Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn -- finished February 25th, 2/5 stars

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) -- finished March 12th, 4/5 stars

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #1) -- finished March 29th, 3/5 stars [this is the book I was in the middle of when the pandemic hit, so, that was fun, I read most of this book in a state of panic]

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Goblin Emperor #1) -- finished April 16th, 4/5 stars [this was the first book I read while quarantined, so I didn’t have a reading regimen ironed out the way I did at work, so this one took me forever to finish]

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #1) -- finished May 3rd, 5/5 stars

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Culture #1) -- finished May 21st, 3/5 stars

Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #2) -- finished May 30th, 5/5 stars

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut -- finished June 1st, 4/5 stars

The Strong Shall Live by Louis L’Amour -- finished June 2nd, 3/5 stars

Larissa by Emily Davenport -- finished June 4th, 3/5 stars [see how close together the last several have been? I was really feeling it here but was also amidst a depression spiral.]

Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #3) -- finished June 13th, 4/5 stars

Regeneration by Julie E. Czerneda (Species Imperative #3) -- finished June 25th, 4/5 stars

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #4) -- finished July 4th, 5/5 stars

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #5) -- finished July 16th, 5/5 stars [began a different book July 5th -- The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, but hated it so deeply I gave up on the 9th and immediately jumped to this book, objectively the right choice because this is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read]

The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke (Magic of Blood and Sea #1) -- finished July 21st, 2/5 stars

Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #6) -- finished August 5th, 4/5 stars

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente -- finished August 13th, 5/5 stars [read this book in one sitting, I loved it so much]

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb #1) -- finished September 9th, 3/5 stars

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #7) -- finished September 19th, 5/5 stars

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) -- finished September 21st, 2/5 stars

Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #6.5) -- finished October 1st, 5/5 stars

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights by various -- finished October 12th, 4/5 stars [there were some truly 5/5 stories in here imo, but being a short story collection, the stinkers dragged it down]

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #8) -- finished October 19th, 5/5 stars

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (The Sixth World #1) -- finished October 26th, 4/5 stars

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #2) -- finished November 8th, 4/5 stars

Dragon Age: Asunder by David Gaider -- finished re-read November 18th, 4/5 stars [first read in 2014]

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (Culture #2) -- finished November 28th, 4/5 stars

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon -- finished December 14th, 5/5 stars

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #3) -- finished December 28th, 2/5 stars

And that’s all she wrote! I had a blast! Didn’t read nearly as much fantasy as I planned to, the sci-fi clearly really drew me in this year. I’d also been putting off The Expanse for soooo long, but boy, it sucked me in like absolutely nothing else.

Standouts:

Caliban’s War, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, and mother fucking Tiamat’s Wrath absolutely blew me the hell away. Really, nothing quite compared to The Expanse, and these four in particular were just...... perfect.

Six-Gun Snow White was a goddamn weird one, but I couldn’t help reading it in one sitting. It really hit all the right notes for me. I could stand for some more wild west retellings of fairytales, you know?

Remnant Population just reeeally touched me. This is such a gorgeous little first contact story. Sometimes I think I hate slow-paced books, but then I find something like Remnant Population and I realize that slow pacing can be incredible. Oh, how I cried at the end of this one.

The City of Brass was just as good as I’d hoped! I can’t wait to read the sequel in 2021; it’s been sitting on my shelf since September!

The Player of Games just hit me right in my strike zone. I’d almost given up on the Culture series after Consider Phlebas, which I’d found really mediocre, but the character writing, pacing, world building, tension... everything just gelled so well in this book, I’m excited to read more Banks content.

Trail of Lightning was so good! Another book whose sequel is sitting on my shelf as we speak; the post-apocalyptic Navajo Witcher vibe was everything I ever wanted it. The cheese and melodrama were a little too much, but hey, I fell in love with Maggie Hoskie and everything about the Sixth World.

Tevinter Nights was exactly the Dragon Age 4 tease I’d been hoping for. There’s so much fun to be had here. I wrote reviews of each and every short story in the book here, if you’re interested!

[theres-no-protocol-for-this]

Werewolf

A fanfiction about Murderbot as a werewolf, sort of.

Also on AO3 @ https://archiveofourown.org/works/28416036/chapters/69631233

The humans should have really known better.

When the haunted doll struck, they were all standing around it and discussing possibilities. At one point, Ratthi even called the damn creature 'cute.' Frankly, I couldn't care less if the doll was alive or not—fuck metaphysical debate, I didn't even care if it had an actual heartbeat. All I cared about was that the humans (a group of paranormal investigators) didn't murder themselves while exorcising the demon inside. Because dying in a haunted house wasn't my idea of a good time.

The doll floated about a foot off the table, clearly not content to listen to plans of its own demise passively. I growled at it, and it glared daggers at me. But ha, it was stuck on the table, and I had sharp canines in case it decided to make a move.

Dr. Mensah, the head of this ragtag group of complete weirdos, pulled out a heavy book and consulted it like a proper witch. Pin-Lee came over and read some of the text over her shoulder. And while they were doing this, the doll somehow managed to scratch at the table with enough force to disturb their binding circle. 

It went for Dr. Baradwahj, possibly because the older woman was the closest and not wielding any weapons. Every item in the room that wasn't nailed down suddenly rose into the air. The humans looked around, bewildered. I heard someone mutter "shit" under their breath.

I had one priority: stop the idiot doll before it hurt Baradwahj. So, I lunged at the doll, grabbed it in my teeth, and landed on the other side of the table. I dropped the demon-possessed toy and stomped on it with both front paws.

"Or you'll what?" the doll taunted me. "You're worse off than me."

Oh, shut up, I grumbled and threatened it by showing off more teeth.

Suddenly, Dr. Mensah was standing over me. "Are you all right?" she asked as the doll tried to poke out an eye.

Why the fuck was this creepy, beady-eyed monster well-armed? I tried to bat the knife out of the creature's hands, but it was sewn on. Great. Just great. No, I am not all right. Please do the thing you were going to do. 

In my human form, I can talk—I just don't want to because it's awkward as fuck—and when I'm a wolf, growls are all you're going to get. It's usually convenient, except when it's not. Dr. Mensah made a decision while I'd been wrestling with the angry little demon, and now, she and the rest of her team were actively doing their parts of the ritual. 

The doll thrashed about and tried several more times to poke me with its tiny knife. A few of those attempts hurt, but I was a giant wolf, and it was the size of a ruler. It just didn't stand as much of a chance.

Except at the fucking end, when the demon finally escaped its toy-sized body and materialized at full height. All seven feet of bright-red anger and resentment. The humans flailed a little but kept going, chanting and whatever else they usually do to send a demon back to its plane of existence.

It swiped at me with way more force than before, and I had to struggle to stay on my feet. Its razor-sharp claws raked against my side, leaving behind bleeding lacerations. I returned the favor because I hate bleeding and because fuck that hurt. And I needed the demon to stand still long enough for the ritual to finish. 

When not-quite-Beelzebub over here realized I was sturdier than I looked, it turned to the nearest human and swiped at them instead. Oh no, you don't, you asshole. These are my humans. I don't like them, but they're mine, and you don't get to hurt them. 

I rushed at the creature, sprang with all the strength in my back paws, and knocked it over. Front paws on its chest, I growled in its face and opened my mouth, ready to bite at its neck. 

"Wait," Ratthi called. "Don't touch its blood."

I was tempted to growl at Ratthi instead to finish what he was doing and let me do my fucking job. I know not to drink demon blood. Everyone knows not to do that. But Mensah shushed him instead.

The demon yowled like a cat with its tail in a trap. It clawed at me and snapped its jaws, and generally made a nuisance of itself. And at the very fucking end, when the ritual was done, and it was literally halfway to its destination, it kicked me hard enough to send me flying into the ceiling. 

I landed on the floor where the demon had been. Everything hurt. 

"Are you all right?" Dr. Mensah asked again, kneeling beside me. 

I wanted to roll my eyes, but she was being nice. That's not something people usually do around me. I tried to sit up... which didn't go so well. Thankfully I'm magic, so I would heal given enough time and a lack of demons. 

"You know," Ratthi said thoughtfully, in that way where you could practically see gears turning in his head. "I wonder if this guardian can understand us."

"I thought it was a wolf. Wolves don't exactly speak human," Pin-Lee mused. 

"Yeah, but..."

Dr. Mensah sighed. "It most likely does."

I could've just laid there and pretended that I didn't understand them. It would have been easier that way. Except, they didn't have time to stand around and discuss my mental state. Shifting forms, I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

"Who's that?" Dr. Gurathin asked, having been paying attention to something else. 

"You need to check the rest of the house," I said, "and set up a security perimeter. If there's one angry demon in this house, there are likely to be more of them."

"The department said it was a single-item haunting," Arada explained.

"The department does shoddy work," I countered. 

"The guardian would know," Dr. Mensah interjected. "Let's set up a perimeter. It's standard procedure." She looked at me full-on, and I tried not to run or hide. "Are you all right, Guardian?"

I had some broken ribs and was probably leaking—nope, not probably, definitely—but I'd live. I was definitely not dying if that was the question. I sat up with a wince and took inventory. 

"I'll live." Getting up was more problematic, but the humans tried to help me, and that was worse. "I'll check upstairs." 

"Wait," Ratthi called out. "I'll go with you. Just in case. I'm pretty good with a wand."

The last time someone said that they ended up stabbing me in the eye with it, but sure. Let's go with that. I couldn't argue with him anyway because my collar would zap me into tomorrow if I did. So, we headed upstairs to see if any other members of the family's toy collection had a vendetta against my humans. 

[tharacelehar]

2 and 3!

HIII thank you for sending this in!!

2. Did you reread anything? What? I actually reread bits and pieces of Corambis and The Goblin Emperor pretty often (both by the same author, who goes by the name Sarah Monette or Katherine Addison), so much so that both books are on my bedside table, because they're both just really quiet and calming books. I think there's a lot to be said for rereading books and finding new lines that give you meaning! That being said, I need to sit down and reread them fully to get all the context back. But the book that I actually sat down with the full intention of rereading was The Angel of the Crows (also written by the same author under the name Katherine Addison). IT'S SOOOO GOOD, IT'S A SHERLOCK HOLMES RETELLING WITH VARIOUS TWISTS, it's just so good. I didn't re-finish it lol. Honestly, Sarah Monette has only written a handful of books, and she's occasionally partnered with other authors, but the ones that are her... solo work? I guess? Are my absolute favorite books, no question. 3. What were your top 5 books of the year? I started a lot of things I ended up not finishing, which I feel kind of bad about, but I didn't get annoyed enough by anything I read that I didn't finish it, it was more that it just didn't catch my attention. A lot of these are short, I did not have the brain capacity this year for long fiction.

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison: I was waiting for this for so long and it did NOT disappoint, also the main character is my URL now lol. I love all of them so much. I think Thara and the theater director whose name I forgot should kiss.

The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells: I keep trying to get into Murderbot but it is not exactly a surprise that the fantasy series was more compelling to me than the scifi. I actually only made it through 4 books, and didn't finish the series yet, but I'm still working on it. It is very weird, and very fun--I love when fantasy decides to go wild with the idea of gender and there are no greek letters in sight.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: this one is sad and slow and weird, but sooo... visually stunning? Like I don't always like books which are heavy on the dreamy aesthetics and impossible architecture things, but Piranesi himself is just such a sweetheart and so in love with the setting that it's hard not to love it too.

Inside Man by K.J. Parker: Sharp and fucked-up, just like its prequel Prosper's Demon, and I was really looking forward to this because of how much I enjoyed Prosper's Demon. This one I read one morning while my best friend overslept, standing me up on a coffeeshop hangout. It was the nicest morning I'd had in MONTHS.

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers: I love Becky Chambers soooooo muuuuuch. I want to live in the world of this book!!!! I want to go sit with a tea monk!!!! It was so nice.

[brigdh]

Reading Saturday

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. Book 6 of The Expanse series. "I made my name with the story on the Behemoth. Aliens and wormhole gates and a protomolecule ghost that only talked to the most famous person in the solar system. I don't think my follow-up to that can be "Humans Still Shitty to Each Other". Lacks panache." That's Monica Stuart, a journalist looking for her next story, but it makes a fairly good summary of Nemesis Games as well – though I'd disagree about it lacking panache. After five books of zombie viruses and a vast galaxy of empty planets for the taking and physics-defying abandoned security systems, Nemesis Games features pretty much no alien content at all. Instead we have humanity reacting to these events, mostly in negative ways that feature them being, well, shitty to each other. The biggest reaction comes from the Belters, millions of humans born and raised in no-gravity or low-gravity. Those conditions have led to extremely low bone-mass (among other physical adaptations), which means all those new planets out there for the taking? The Belters won't be going to them, at least not without months or years of expensive medical therapy that's out of reach for most of them. They can see the future coming, and it's going to abandon them to poverty and irrelevance. They lash out with terrorist attacks on a scale grander than any before, as though enough violence will force humanity back to where it was before the first encounter with the alien protomolecule. That might be an impossible goal, but a hell of a lot of people are going to die anyway. Meanwhile, the spaceship Rocinante is in need of repairs, which means our four main characters are out of action for a few months. They take this opportunity to split up and visit family and old friends – Amos to Earth, Alex to Mars, Naomi to the Belt, and Jim stays with the ship at the repair station. Having separate plotlines means that each one gets their own POV, and you guys, I was so excited! I've been waiting to hear Naomi or Alex's voice since Book One, and this does not disappoint. Amos's narration was particularly well-written; he's a straight-up sociopath (though one who tries to do good nonetheless) and struggles to recognize emotions either in himself or in others, often defaulting to describing social situations as a set of maneuvers toward a desired outcome. It lends his POV a curiously flat tone, but one that is really interesting to read. The four crew members are still separated when the terrorist attacks begin, and most of the emotion in the book comes from them trying to desperately make their way back to one another. Each one thinks of the others as family, as home – this is such an absolute fantastic series for those Chosen Family feels – especially Jim, and who would have thought the boring action hero of Book One could become such an adorable softie? He spends a significant portion of this book being sad that no one will do the space-equivalent of texting him back, and I love him so much. Holden could sit at a tiny table skimming the latest news on his hand terminal, reading messages, and finally check out all the books he’d downloaded over the last six years. The bar served the same food as the restaurant out front, and while it was not something anyone from Earth would have mistaken for Italian, it was edible. The cocktails were mediocre and cheap. It might almost have been tolerable if Naomi hadn’t seemingly fallen out of the universe. Alex sent regular updates about where he was and what he was up to. Amos had his terminal automatically send a message letting Holden know his flight had landed on Luna, and then New York. From Naomi, nothing. She still existed, or at least her hand terminal did. The messages he sent arrived somewhere. He never got a failed connection from the network. But the successfully received message was his only reply. After a couple weeks of his new bad Italian food and cheap cocktails routine, his terminal finally rang with an incoming voice request. He knew it couldn’t be from Naomi. The light lag made a live connection unworkable for any two people not living on the same station. But he still pulled the terminal out of his pocket so fast that he fumbled it across the room. Each character gets to star in a very different genre within this one book: Jim himself is in a political thriller, trying to find the mole hidden in the security forces; Amos is making his way through a post-apocalyptic landscape; Naomi is in a prison-break movie; and Alex gets at least two extremely cool car chases (well, spaceship chases) between being a detective following the paper trail. All of them are great, but I think my favorite is Naomi's, which is an incredible depiction of the harm and suffocation of emotional abuse (gaslighting in particular) and the depression and learned helplessness that can result, especially when everyone around you sees nothing wrong. We get a lot more about her long-awaited backstory, as well as Amos's, and there are reappearances of a lot of my favorite secondary characters: Martian marine Bobbie, failed murderer Clarissa Mao, foul-mouthed politician Chrisjen Avasarala. (Though I'm still holding out hope Prax will show up again someday; I miss him.) All through The Expanse series I've admired Corey's focus on petty human squabbling and politicking in the face of grand, universe-changing discoveries. Nemesis Games is that thread turned up to eleven. It's not a cynical series, though; for every narrow-minded failure there's an equally small but important triumph of friendship or justice or well-meaning. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett, in a way. Not at all in Corey's style of writing or type of humor, but they both have a view of humanity which is simultaneously realistic and fond and exasperated. And if there's a bigger compliment than that, I don't know what it is. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. Book 2 of the Murderbot Diaries. A security robot/cyborg armed with all sorts of guns and other methods of killing has hacked its governor module, allowing it to do whatever it wants, and nicknames itself Murderbot. But it turns out that what Murderbot really wants to do is spend hours watching dumb sci-fi TV shows, avoid eye contact or any social encounters with humans, and not have to deal with its own emotions. Unfortunately that last one is hard to avoid. In this book, Murderbot is heading to a mining planet where it knows something bad went down in its past, involving lots of human deaths. But Murderbot can't remember exactly what happened, since its memory was wiped, and so it's off to investigate. Getting to the planet means hitching a ride on a spaceship run by a massively complicated AI (which Murderbot promptly nicknames ART: Asshole Research Transport) and then getting a job as a human bodyguard to a group of scientists heading down to the planet's surface. Things, unsurprisingly, go wrong, and Murderbot finds itself with another pack of dumb humans in need of protection. I enjoyed Artificial Condition a lot, but it's not quite as good as the first book in the series, All Systems Red. Part of that is very simply that it's a middle book of the series, and it shows; progress in the larger plot is made, but not much, and there's a feeling of spinning our wheels while we wait for big events to happen. That said, it's still an extremely enjoyable novella (only about 120 pages), which builds out the world from what we learned in All Systems Red. Now we have sexbots and ship navigators, more about how different governments interact and function (or don't), and some hints as to what's going on with the company that created Murderbot. Plus there's Murderbot's wonderful narration, which honestly is worth the price of admission all on its own. A section from where it introduces ART to trashy entertainment: I watched seven more episodes of Sanctuary Moon with it hanging around my feed. Then it pinged me, like I somehow might not know it had been in my feed all this time, and sent me a request to go back to the new adventure show I had started to watch when it had interrupted me. (It was called Worldhoppers, and was about freelance explorers who extended the wormhole and ring networks into uninhabited star systems. It looked very unrealistic and inaccurate, which was exactly what I liked.) [...] “It’s not realistic,” I told it. “It’s not supposed to be realistic. It’s a story, not a documentary. If you complain about that, I’ll stop watching.” I will refrain from complaint, it said. (Imagine that in the most sarcastic tone you can, and you’ll have some idea of how it sounded.) So we watched Worldhoppers. It didn’t complain about the lack of realism. After three episodes, it got agitated whenever a minor character was killed. When a major character died in the twentieth episode I had to pause seven minutes while it sat there in the feed doing the bot equivalent of staring at a wall, pretending that it had to run diagnostics. Then four episodes later the character came back to life and it was so relieved we had to watch that episode three times before it would go on. At the climax of one of the main story lines, the plot suggested the ship might be catastrophically damaged and members of the crew killed or injured, and the transport was afraid to watch it. (That’s obviously not how it phrased it, but yeah, it was afraid to watch it.) I was feeling a lot more charitable toward it by that point so was willing to let it ease into the episode by watching one to two minutes at a time. After it was over, it just sat there, not even pretending to do diagnostics. It sat there for a full ten minutes, which is a lot of processing time for a bot that sophisticated. Then it said, Again, please. So I started the first episode again. C'mon, tell me you wouldn't read a million pages of that, plot or no plot.

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[sobdasha]

booking continued!!

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries), Martha Wells This book was exactly as advertised to me (with two choice pics of pages as quotes), except better. If you, like me, identify with robots and A.I. because you are salty and ace and hate people and being social and would rather just sit around binging Netflix, Murderbot gets you. My only sadness is that the library doesn't have the second book, so for the sake of Not Having Really Weird Preconceived Notions (I inevitably started reading a lot of series as a child from the second book and not being able to get my hands on the first book until much later in the series, and let me tell you, it's just…it's never quite the same after……) I stopped reading after #1. But it's pretty clear I won't regret buying these even without a pre-read so it's only a matter of time. (I am holding out for now for possible omnibus, tho)

The Broken Earth Trilogy, N. K. Jemisin Honestly I put this trilogy on my to-buy list before I even finished the first book, and I stand by that decision. I marathoned these very heavily, partly because my library holds all came in at the same time and suddenly I had like 5 books in the house that I needed to read because I couldn't renew them and there were a lot of people after me so I'd have to wait forever for another chance, but mostly because they were very engaging and I had a hard time putting them down! Or else an easy time just……not……pausing… I'm doing these very belatedly so I've read more of Jemisin's stuff and I think part of what is so compelling is first of all, the writing style is beautiful and gorgeous and exactly what I look for in a story. And second of all, it reminds me of all the good things about fanfic. I'm invested in all of the characters, complex and shitty as they are, except for the ones who aren't getting any redemption and are fair game for hate. The writing style is "current" (I didn't realize this was such a thing, but as I'm reading more I'm realizing I've gotten very accustomed to a certain flavor in writing, which older works do not have, having as they do their own current-at-the-time trends that I have not submerged myself in. There's stuff I grew up with that feels ~classic~ to me, but there's plenty of stuff that just does not). Present tense for the win. Jemisin throws in things like "We started out hating each other but now we've married the same husband together so I guess we're emotional support spouses to each other who don't like to have sex together but each greatly enjoy watching our husband lay the other spouse aaaaand we're all raising a baby together??" and "This doctor seemed like a perfectly adult young man until I realized he's pining for me and I'm in my 40s and he's 15 years my junior which makes him basically a baby uggghhhhh but also the world is ending and I'm tired and I shouldn't but oh well I gave in and slept with this in-his-late-20s baby" and I love it???? I am WELL KNOWN for not being here for sex or romance but like this…is intimacy…so I've been won over. Also I fell in love the instant that Jemisin dropped into second person pov, because second person is ~amazing~ when it's done properly and Jemisin not only knows that but she's a master. (I will confess, I cried betrayal towards the end of the first book when it was revealed that the second person was actually first-person-in-disguise. BUT LET ME TELL YOU, I was so wrong to feel betrayed. This wasn't a cheap "fooled you" trick, this was Jemisin wielding the tools of writing to the absolute fullest of her ability to weave the tightest possible narrative and it pays off. Let me go find a hat so I can take it off to Jemisin.) The last page of the first book tho!!!!!!!!! *Clock Town theme suddenly starts playing* I died but it was so worth it. Also it should tell you how amazing Jemisin's writing is that I, who am usually just here for escapism, who doesn't want books that are Too Real (unless they're also funny so they're hilarious in addition to being painful) or too grimdark and gritty in content, loved these books and couldn't put them down. They weren't self-indulgently dark, they were dark for a reason, but they weren't humorous and there's racism and slavery and rape and other atrocities in abundance and you figure out pretty quickly "anyone who lives to the end will have to be counted as an optimistic, happy ending for relative values of 'optimistic' and 'happy' and I'm honestly not sure how many characters will make it that far." But I want to read them over and over again and I want to strongly recommend them to all of you!

The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders I don't know how I feel about this one? I think for me this one would benefit from a reread, to see if that makes it feel any stronger as a narrative. And also because it was kind of a perfect storm of having: a writing style/tone I didn't care for, especially coming off of the Broken Earth trilogy that was to me Peak Writing Style, I misjudged the entire plot from the summary on the back and spent the whole time going wtf. With this one, I did not have that can't-put-it-down urge. I wasn't unhappy when I was reading it, but I also didn't crave to pick it up and sit down for a while with it. I wasn't terribly invested in any of the characters, even though Sophie is the sort of YA heroine I would have appreciated reading in earlier years (think The Woman in the Wall, which I remember only vaguely but very persistently where the heroine nopes out of life, becomes a hermit in the house crawlspace, and when told she has to go to a costume party she's like "I'll be a moth because that is what my soul is" and gets presented with a letter-of-the-law lime-green luna moth costume and is like "THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED.") A pet peeve in this book: for absolutely no reason that I personally can see, the story is immediately framed as being A Very Factual Account From Sources. The reason it's a pet peeve to me is that when you try to logic out why disbelief should be suspended in a narrative…it automatically kills my suspension by calling attention to exactly why the narrative doesn't make any sense, plus the fact that your explanation? Doesn't fully cover the logic gaps. So I started off on the wrong foot here. (Years ago I had a creative writing teacher who told us for our assignment, we absolutely were forbidden to write about the zombie apocalypse. After demands for explanation, he relented: okay, we could write about the zombie apocalypse, but with one strict rule. We were not to explain in the story how the zombie apocalypse comes about. We had to start when it had already happened, with no explanation. He said that anything that had ever tried to stop to explain how the zombie apocalypse happened had been awful and poorly-done, so we just weren't allowed to do it. It seemed a bit harsh at the time, and of course blanket statements, but in retrospect I fully agree with his sentiment. Don't bog me down with details that detract from the actual story and also cause me to realize that your story is full of nonsensical holes.) The story also felt very...like I could see all the seams? It felt very contrived? Which--I  mean--stories are! That's the entire point! But usually something smooths it out so I don't notice. Again, I'm not sure that was a technical problem, it might have just been me not preferring the tone and the style and honestly thinking I was reading a different plot. On the plus side this novel had a lot of disaster lesbians and as far as I remember it did a good job of showing rather than telling the nuances of the relationships in a book that overall had a more unsubtle, YA feel. Like you can tell that Sophie's relationship with Bianca is unhealthy before Sophie admits it to herself, even while Sophie's so very in love. That was the part I saw advertised, and the reason I put it on my book list, so it wasn’t like I didn’t get anything out of this.