Printer, anarchist, illustrator, & enthusiast of the printed word.
FediBanter: @Thundering@kolektiva.social
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I want everyone to read it and think of it often
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book, fun, and uncomplicated
⭐⭐⭐ Good, feel complicated about if I wasted my time
⭐⭐+⬇️ I hate read this
How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?
I ask because …
A 4th book in this series???
3 stars
This book follows up to the old man's war world and it felt a bit like I was working to finish it for the sake of completion.
It is the 3rd book told again from the perspective of the main characters daughter. It literally just covers the same timeline and plot points with a different narrator.
+: sometimes it read like space opera mean girls. It centers a women in the stories. There is a few moments that Zoe's perspective tells part of the story that didn't come up in the 3rd book.
-: You know the plot, twists and turns. It wasn't a good enough book for a second run.
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.
Avice is an immerser, …
Best book I read of 2024
5 stars
This was a really fantastic novel and I think you should read it. With a heavy hand in world building and exploration of linguistics and translation this novel gave so many hints and tidbits of the world without creating a complete picture which left you will so many paintings of these worlds with just enough to have you pondering the world just outside the frame.
It is really impressive the amount of world building that was built into a standalone novel, I would read anything, including fan fiction, created in the universe after finishing it.
The story itself and it's interactions were fantastic. There was many times I was left feeling so alien from the valleys that divided characters that I truly believed that there was alien consciousnesses so different than ours, rather than a metaphor for human struggles.
The plot was very hard to predict and kept my rapt …
This was a really fantastic novel and I think you should read it. With a heavy hand in world building and exploration of linguistics and translation this novel gave so many hints and tidbits of the world without creating a complete picture which left you will so many paintings of these worlds with just enough to have you pondering the world just outside the frame.
It is really impressive the amount of world building that was built into a standalone novel, I would read anything, including fan fiction, created in the universe after finishing it.
The story itself and it's interactions were fantastic. There was many times I was left feeling so alien from the valleys that divided characters that I truly believed that there was alien consciousnesses so different than ours, rather than a metaphor for human struggles.
The plot was very hard to predict and kept my rapt attention as it twisted and turned building and referencing with clues and surprises that I honestly didn't know where we were going including the conclusion.
China mieville is one of my favourite contemporary authors because his writings bring in politics, class and revolution in such honest and contextual ways that I am left feeling like through the story I am newly a revolutionary within a different world and power dynamics.
I think everyone should read it. And talk about it with friends.
From the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden is an extraordinary …
A Standalone a.t. novel
4 stars
Content warning
Very general spoilers
This was not the novel I was expecting. Following up the children of time series with this standalone book was really useful cause it put into perspective that Adrian Tchaikovsky is a solid sci-fi biologist, choosing to explore world's and evolution among so many creatures beyond mammals.
Some of the highlights of this book include communist Neanderthals and solid queer representation, to the point that this book felt like a subtle nod to his take on the culture wars and progressive inclusion. While not revolutionary, I feel like this novel produced a solid soft spot in my heart for the author, whom previously I could infer had some systemic critiques of power, but this book felt less like I needed to read into that understanding.
As for the content and story overall, it was a bit of a slow burn in many ways, with a lot of world building and some classic sci-fi motifs. Sometimes books give you just enough info about the world that your yearning for more, but this novel I found gave me so much that I wish the balance of world building and plot narrative had skewed just a bit away from world building Into the story arch.
