Not a review

I have a day job, as do most of us. This day job is generally delightful, fulfilling, rewarding, et cetera; however, on occasion, I am subjected to the Worst Writing Evah, aka business jargon. Multi-page memos of obscurantism, sound and fury, signifying nothing. EG: As part of our review of horizontal management structure, we have …

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik

Ask a writer how a book came to have a particular title and you might get any number of answers. Sometimes the writer chooses the title, and that title might not be the same over the course of the writing of the book. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, was originally titled Offred. I don't …

The Protector of the Small Quartet, by Tamora Pierce

Sometimes, a girl wants a story with horses and kittens and puppies. Where right makes might, justice is merciful, and good wins. And also, pie. Because pie is awesome. I don't know how Tamora Pierce does it, but she consistently manages to craft lovely, uplifting novels with difficult themes; characters who are deep and emotive …

Sandman Slim novels, by Richard Kadrey

If you haven't already figured out that I like mystery and suspense with my SFF, then you haven't been paying attention. Stark (perhaps an homage to Donald Westlake's Parker novels, published under the pseudonym Richard Stark?) is a human magician who was sent to Hell by his "friends" at the tender age of 19, whereupon …

My Top 3 of 2014

The Girl with All the Gifts, by MR Carey The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Clair North The Girl in the Road, by Monica Byrne ...just in case you were wondering, so you can set your taste and/or baseline against mine. The Girl in the Road is the only novel I've read in …

Touch, by Clair North

Did you read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? Did you love it? If you read it, you must have loved it. I refuse to believe that anyone who read that book wasn't moved, horrified, awed, amused, saddened... pick a verb, any verb. There aren't enough verbs. Touch is exactly the same, but totally …

Defenders by Will McIntosh

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted a book review. Not because I haven't been reading (ha! Like that could ever happen!), but because I was torn by a conflict and didn't know how to resolve it. I read a book I didn't like. Not like it's the first time that's happened, but …

The Mechanical (The Alchemy Wars), by Ian Tregillis

I don't read a lot of Steampunk. I don't hate it or anything, I'm just not a gadget person, so the details of dirigibles and steam engines bore me. I feel much the same way about gun-porn SF: I love space opera, but I will skim the schematics of missiles, torpedoes, or super-sekrit death rays. …

The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins

It's not often that a book completely surprises me. I'm notorious for spoiling the end of something--book, movie, whatever--long before I get there. I'm not aloud to speak during movies and TV shows, or talk to the Other about books we are both reading, until she's finished it, because I inevitably give it away. I …

Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear

Ms Bear is fairly well known among genre fans, so I should be embarrassed that this is the first book of hers that I've read, but I'm not. My reasoning was, believe it or not, that I've already got too many "Elizabeth"'s among the authors I keep up on, and I just could bear (heh) …