I found In the Watchful City to be a whimsical, almost poetic account of the relationship between Anima et al, technology, and the humans that inhabit Ora. For a novella, I think this book does a great job of demonstrating how complicated and interconnected these interactions can be.
Science Fiction
Review: Twenty-Five to Life by R.W.W. Greene
The wasteland is stark but wonderful. The road is long, it’s unforgiving, but there’s a lot of beauty we can find along the way. Welcome to the park!
Review: A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine
A Desolation Called Peace is the second and last (for now, at least – the author has been quoted as wanting to return to this Universe, but this book does conclude the current storyline) installment in Arkady Martine’s award-winning Teixcalaani series. It resumes the story soon after the events of book 1, A Memory Called Empire, and continues following Mahit et al after the crowning of a new Emperor in Teixcalaan.
Review: A Strange and Brilliant Light by Eli Lee
A Strange and Brilliant Light in the political, thought-provoking debut from Eli Lee that poses the question of AI in a dystopia where humans are losing their jobs in tech advancement and puts it to several vastly different but interconnected POVs that answer in the way they move through the novel and navigate this new world.
Review: A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
A Memory Called Empire is Arkady Martine’s debut novel and first the author’s Teixcalaan series. I am here to tell you this book is a phenomenal read! There are so many aspects of it that are enjoyable that I cannot wait to rant them all. Let’s go!
Review: Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine
Alison Stine’s Road Out of Winter is one of those rare books that hits the serendipitous sweet spot of right time, right place, right mood—right everything. Almost. It’s a fairly short read, so I fired up my Kindle and went for it, pulled the trigger, ‘cause why not? A couple of days blurred past, and Stine pulled me through a story of rural landscapes full of climate-wrought confusion and dread, human nature’s ugliest sides, heartfelt friendships, physical and mental adversity, and, to my pleasant surprise, genuine hope.
Review: Skyward (Skyward #1) by Brandon Sanderson
Some reviews or taglines in the covers mention the non-stop action and amazing plotting of the book and yes, there is that too! But the characters and the growth (and losses) they experience through this book made me put the novel at the top of my favorites. Sanderson nailed the human part of going through such a crisis as an impending alien invasion, and enhanced it with crazy spaceship fights, crazy-yet-funny AI and a world of characters and a planet we truly want to know more beyond this first novel. I literally had to take a breather after I finished this book, something that never happened before. It touched me deeply, as if I knew Spensa and lived Detritus’ struggles against the Krell with her, as a friend. For me, Skyward opened a door to the possibility of living a book on a deeply emotional plane, something I’ve never experienced before.
Review: Nophek Gloss (The Graven #1) by Essa Hansen
Nophek Gloss is Essa Hansen’s debut and the first in the author’s The Graven series. I have seen some categorize this book as Space Opera, but I do not see the sweeping elements one normally finds in a book characterized as such. In my opinion, this is just good Science Fiction. The caveat to this statement is twofold: 1) I am not very good at labeling sub-genres, and 2) Sometimes with SciFi it is the second book in the series that really develops the epic scope that can broaden the horizons to push the series into Space Opera territory. So, I will reserve final judgement for now, but know that this is the context into which my review is framed.
Review: The Gottingen Accident by James F. Mordechai
The Gottingen Accident is a novella that I absolutely flew through. Coming in at under 150 pages you get thrown into the action from page one.
Maths is not my strong suit, and it never has been. So starting a book that talks about Non-Euclidian Geometry had me a little worried, I had even googled the term before I started the book. Thankfully, you are in safe hands and I shouldn’t have worried at all. Over the course of the start of the book Mordechai finds ways to weave in the meaning, and demonstrates it without using overly-complicated explanations. Once you get to the weirder portions of the book you’ll be going right along with it. For me, I ended up picturing the Oldest House from Control (the super crazy sections) but with way less sharp edges.
Review: Catalyst Gate (The Protectorate #3) by Megan O’Keefe
the past couple of weeks. And it feels like I just read a 1600-page book, as it definitely appears like it was carefully crafted and planned that way. So, although the review focuses on Catalyst Gate I’m providing an overall review of the series, as the final book delivers on all the promises and questions raised throughout the trilogy and I can’t review the conclusion book without considering the previous tomes. Overall, there were a few slower moments in the second book—definitely on purpose—but in the end, I loved it through and through.
Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
It’s a blockbuster of a book, a space epic, a race against time, and a novel about cooperation, friendship, and the greatest sacrifice of them all. I cannot recommend this book enough!
Review: When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson
When the Sparrow falls is a literary scifi spy thriller in the vein of Altered Carbon meets the Iron Curtain – set in a future where people can have their consciousness digitized. The Triumvirate are, George, Athena and Confucius, three Super AI who rule the world apart from Caspian, a state that rejects all the Machine would offer and places strict law and harsh judgement on anyone using said tech from within their territory; it’s a place which finds comfort in state executions, and the only real escape is a bullet through the head or a needle in the back of the neck … if you can find Yoshik.