Tag Archives: Reading

The City We Became

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The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read, finished and enjoyed this one. It was a very real feeling set of characters who moved through and met the very Lovecraftian challenges arising in New York City together. As a reader I clearly got the mental struggle each of them went through as their lives changed when the spirit of the city itself became part of them. It was refreshing to see the wide variation in points of view as well.

I likely would have enjoyed this story a lot more if I were in some way involved or invested in NYC. Honestly, being a Boston person my whole life, it made a lot of the ‘feel’ a little bit off for me. I could easily see a reader diving deep into this story and being in love, but that wasn’t ever going to be me.

If you’re a fan of existential horror, you’ll probably like this book quite a lot.



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Hypothetically

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Hypothetically, our science fiction and fantasy group focuses on reading things within those categories. This was not the case this month

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Side note – I hate that Kindle automatically marks things as “read” on here no matter how many times I change the setting. It’s terrible and stupid to boot.

On to the book itself. I don’t know how a romance novel snuck into the line up for the science fiction book club, but it did. I remain skeptical, but the book does contain scientists and it is fiction… so we’ll go with it?

I found the people in this book to be very real, if not entirely relatable or likable. I know we’re supposed to be cheering for the main character, but she just lies to people all the time. She’s very damaged and unlikable (at least to me).

I have seen others that have been down on this book as a whole, but it was light and quick and gave me everything I was expecting from a romance novel.

If this is the sort of story you enjoy, I would suggest going and reading Bellwether by Connie Willis. It’s a bit older (96) and was nominated for a Nebula award. The story revolves around a scientist studying fads and prediction. IF you enjoy that, then go and read more of Willis’s work – you’ll be glad you did.



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Colonyside

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I do like the jungle planet

Colonyside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This one fits the same mold as the previous two in the series.

Carl still doesn’t really grow or learn… we get more and more back story, and that’s good, but he gets played again and again. His blind spots are massive and he ignores them.

This is a good book that fans will enjoy. I’m glad I read it to finish out the series (and this one does end a little better) but I think I’m done.



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Spaceside

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Spaceside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m going to be less spoilerific for this review.

Carl is still Carl in this book. The track record of 0 growth continues unbroken. He does have more background given about his life and reason for being in the place where he is, but he doesn’t move forward or learn… again.

There are a couple of returning characters that are enjoyable as much as side characters can be. I didn’t peg the story as quickly this time, but I think some of that was based on the way the whole thing became something of a corporate convoluted mess. I did NOT like the ending where things are resolved… mostly, except a couple of really important things. That sort of ending really irritates me. Give me an epilogue or something – wrap it up. I’ll pick up the next one if the character and/or story interest me. Forcing somebody to get the next one by leaving major things hanging is a jerk move and I resent it.

Once again, this is a very good action thriller that needs the space travel / aliens thing in order to work. Fans of military science fiction will still very much enjoy this story… just know you’re going to need to get the next one for this one to be fully resolved.



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Reading and Reviewing

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Last year was a rough year as far as the total number of books I read. This is a very mood based thing for me – but this year seems to be off to a quick start. I’ve managed to polish off 3 books so far – and I’m digging into the 4th already.

Part of this, I’m certain, is the extended time I’ve spent in medical waiting rooms already. I suppose one can put a silver lining in there if you were really working at it.

The first book I finished this year was Planetside… and I just kept forging ahead with the next 2 in the series. Here’s my review of the first one.

Planetside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is going to be a spoilerific review ~ fair warning.

I wasn’t certain what I was getting into when I picked this one up. This was a reading group selection for Watch The Skies. It was touted as something military science fiction fans would like. Having powered through this one very quickly, I agree with that.

Around page 45 (ish?) I figured out what happened to the missing Lieutenant. I made a note in the book specifically because I was hoping I was wrong, but I wanted to place that marker in case I wasn’t. I had figured out what happened right then – just not all the specifics of how or why. The guy isn’t among friendlies on the ground and he never gets back into space on the medical ship… that doesn’t leave a lot of choices.

The main character, Carl, has precisely 0 character growth during this story. He does not learn nor does he change at all. His predictability proves to be a significant factor in duping him into making an extremely harsh choice. Firing the missiles/triggering the bombs is definitely a discussion worthy topic.

The secondary characters were well written and believable, but I struggled with the doctor who went from so very strong willed to shooting herself in what felt like an extremely short number of steps. That felt forced and incongruous with her character as written.

Having said all that, I did still enjoy this book. It’s well written and fast paced. It’s a very solid action/thriller style story in space, complete with aliens. I’d love to see this turned into a film.



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SPEAR

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Spear by Nicola Griffith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


First – I hate beyond measure that no matter what I change the settings to on the Kindle it marks these things as read on Goodreads before I get out here to post things. That is a completely different topic, so to the book review.

Giving this book 2 stars doesn’t seem fair, but the “it was ok” that hovers up is the closest thing I could say based on the super limited star system.

The writing, the language, the way this book came together just drew me in. I was enthralled. I love the way this author uses words. I was reading this magical story and loving it.

I was loving it because of my lack of knowledge. I don’t know they myriad forms that the Arthurian legend carries through history. I’m going to say that’s on me. I went into this book cold, no reviews, no understanding of what it was, no blurbs, nothing. I grabbed it from a publisher I know to serve up things I enjoy. This certainly seemed to fit the bill. Then, about 2/3 of the way through the story Christianity was thrown in. That jarred me hard enough to almost stop reading right then and there. THAT is most certainly NOT what I want in my fantasy stories. There’s more to it than that, but we’ll leave it as ‘bad’ in terms of the story.

Then I started to pull all the parts together and understand this as a King Arthur retelling.

IF you want a gender swapped story from the King Arthur story vein, this is an excellent choice. I still believe what I said about the language. It’s wonderfully written. I may go and look at other works by this author… but I will certainly look into what the story is before hand. My feeling toward the story never recovered after that jarring moment – so I don’t know that I could recommend the book.



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BALTICON – The Panels

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Saturday’s list of panels wrapped up with one on recommendations for reading. I was ready, but also worried for this panel. While I have read a lot, my reading has suffered lately. The volume of words I have consumed has dropped off sharply. It’s been a struggle to read sometimes. The weight of things going on around me has made even the escapism of a good book work. Couple this with the folks on the panel were clearly experts in the field, while my qualifications amounted to being part of a fan group with a long reading list. As it turned out, a really skillful panel moderator made this one run! At the end there was only one request for finding “something else like this” we couldn’t come up with an answer for. At the end of the day, I think I held my own. The things I go back to the most tend to be older works and not the most recently released stuff, but I managed. Here’s the description and the panel notes I had going in.

What Should I Read Next?

While it’s easy for us to be bombarded with automated algorithm-derived suggestions, it’s important to get book recommendations from a dialogue with a real person. Our well-read panelists will listen to what you like and don’t like and suggest something you haven’t heard of… we hope.


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Hope is right – this tends to be a very well read crowd.

I keep a list of books shelved in the dining room. They are books that I go back to over and over again when talking about books. Some examples are:

Magic for Sale (short story collection)
Light of Other Days (Stephen Baxter / Clarke)
Bimbos of the Death Sun (Sharon McCrumb)
Pandora’s Legions (Christopher Anvil)
Song in Stone (Walter Hunt)
Rollback (Robert J Sawyer)
Bureau 13 (Pollata)
Griffin & Sabine (Nick Bantock) series of mysterious letters
Immortal warrior Kane (pulp fantasy series) Karl Edward Wagner
House in the Cerulean Sea (T.J. Klune)
Written in Red (Anne Bishop)

Find a small press!

Talk with booksellers (Cupboard Maker Books in Enola PA is my favorite by far!)

Watch the Skies has a 20+ year reading list. You can always jump on and chat with us! Connect with us here!

Which Witch?

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The Witcher of course…

Totally misleading cover too~

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I picked this up to read it because my fan group Watch The Skies picked it as one of our monthly reads. I don’t know if I would have picked it up if not for that – based on the show based off this material.

People who know me, know that I have a fantasy bent and are frequently trying to point out sword and sorcery type things they think I’ll enjoy. I love and appreciate that.

This is NOT one that I’m going to agree with them on. Is this sword and sorcery (aka ‘traditional fantasy’)? You bet it is. Even given that it falls into my favorite genre it’s just not working for me. It feels dated as I read it some 35 years after the initial publication. It feels slightly ‘man centric’. Misogynistic is too strong a word perhaps, but the stories lack female characters with more than passing agency. The book itself, as I understand it, was an assembly of many short stories and the book didn’t feel smooth or well fitted as a story because of that. The stories themselves were all clearly variations on fairy tales of our world (beauty and the beast, snow white, etc.) and that just didn’t land well with me.

All in all, it gets 3 stars, but barely. I’m glad I read it as it gives me more context for the show, but beyond that I don’t foresee me digging into this series / franchise.



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Victory

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Love this color!

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have been meaning to pick up one of the works of this author for some time now. I’m glad I picked this book up and got into it. It took me a minute to get into the story, but once I was in, I finished the book in a day.

The characters were very believable. They were real. I could easily picture them in my mind’s eye. The world building was slightly off to me. I might have missed something early on? I’m not sure. The beacon could easily fit into a ‘current day’ scenario, but I’m not sure this was supposed to be ‘current day’ and that’s where my disconnect happened. It was not enough to pull me out of the story, so I just rolled with it.

I have figured out that heroic stories work for me. I know this about myself and I try to temper my reviews with that understanding. The characters in this story were absolutely heroic… but absolutely not in the old school / traditional sense of the square jawed action man. It was delightful and refreshing to see this in a story. I don’t want to go deeper into the differences for fear of spoiling it for anyone else.

My one and only quibble is something that I understand is completely on me. This does not have to do with the work or the author, just me. The constant pronoun thing was annoying. I know I’m old and this is something that should be part of normal – but it’s not that for me. As I said, minor quibble and all about me, not the work.

This was a fast read, and exciting story and a lot of fun to ride along with. I intend to recommend it to my fan group and hope it makes the selection list!



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Invisible Life

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I don’t know if I would have ever picked this book up were it not a book club pick. This book is a fantastic example of why a person should join book clubs. Read something you didn’t think you would, you might find a gem.

This book is exactly that. A multifaceted, shining gem of a story. Making a deal to save yourself only to find out the deal was not so clean and easy as all that. What do you do if nobody remembers you? Are you still you? What power does your name have? This is a fantastic reversal of the old “don’t tell a wizard your name” concept. Tell a wizard your name and give him power over you. And when nobody knows or remembers your name, what power remains?

Along with the concept, the author does an excellent job exploring the feelings of Addie and the ways she has been forced to move over her long, unyielding life. How does it change your feelings when having them no longer has meaning to those around you? What will you be willing to do? How clever do you need to become to get what you need?

I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the characters and the many lives they led. It was also a really well done ending – and that’s something I don’t get to say very often. A satisfying work with an excellent sense of completion. If you get the chance, you should pick this one up.



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