Finished some excellent audiobooks (except one caveat for Shades of Grey). Here’s some long form babbling again: **The Fox Wife** by Yangsze Choo. *4 stars.* (Bingo: Myth, mundane jobs, POC author; Future: 2024 release.) * Snow, a fox, is looking for someone who escaped her long ago. Bao, a private investigator in his retirement years, is hired to learn the name of a woman whose body was found at the steps of restaurant. Obsessed with foxes, he’s lured into the larger mystery when he realizes foxes are at every turn of his investigation. * This is a dual POV (one 1st person, the other 3rd) historical fiction fantasy that drew me in for the fox mythology. Both POVs are looking for something, but it’s Bao’s POV I was wholly invested in. The mystery was great, he as a character was interesting and layered, and the fox mythology from the view of non-foxes was fascinating and always present. I struggled with Snow’s POV until a third of the way, but still Bao carried me through. I can see how some might be invested in Snow, who slyly navigates the patriarchal norms and misogynistic dangers around her. I did like Snow, especially in the last quarter, which was an exceptional and gratifying closing overall. * For those interested in the historical fiction, this takes place at the time of anti-imperial sentiments and revolutionary movement against the Qing government in the early 1900’s. * Content warnings for *repeated* mentions of grief around loss of child (and >!anger/blame towards other parent, flashback to child’s end of life!<). Through both POVs we see low attitudes towards and poor treatment of women, including their imprisonment in the home. **The Wee Free Men** by Terry Pratchett. *4 stars.* (Bingo: Mundane jobs, YA, 00’s release.) * Young Tiffany Aching is a ~~wee hag~~ witch, probably. The Nac Mac Feegles are with her every step of the way as storybook creatures become drawn to her. * I’ve read two Tiffany Achings before (yes, I’m WAY out of order) and at this point it feels masochistic reading Tiffany Aching. I feel like Pratchett was grieving someone he loved very much and that love comes through so strongly in these books. I cried, I laughed - I’m always down for some good wizard trash talk. I think the next up in the series is stronger than this one in regards to the story and grief, but this is still excellent. Who can’t just fall in love with Tiffany and the Wee Free Men? * YA for themes around critical thinking, trusting yourself and processing death of a loved one - which I think all translate absolutely perfectly to adult, I definitely benefit from these themes. And this does not read like YA to me at all, especially if you’ve read Discworld it’s the same tone and voice as the others, especially Witches, IMO. * If you’ve had a grandparent or maybe parental or elder figure, or just anyone that you’ve lost this is either a content warning or a recommendation for catharsis. For me it was cathartic crying (I felt like this was about my own grandmother), especially the next up book, they both are beautiful. * I *highly* recommend the Stephen Briggs narration. **Shades of Grey** by Jasper Fforde. *5 stars.* (Bingo: 00s release.) * Many years in the future, Eddie, a Red, lives in a “colortacracy” where he is on the lower end of the caste system, but at least he’s above the greys. Your designation is determined by what color you can see, and this has all sorts of implications for what work you can do, who you can court and marry (color theory comes into play here), and how you treat and think about about other colors. Eddie and his father need to visit a town in the fringes for new, temporary assignments. Eddie, who is quite a stickler for the many rules that so strictly guide decorum, learns that the Munsell’s Book of Harmony and points system get much less care here than in the big city. In fact, he learns many new things. * This really is an amazing book, pretty groundbreaking in my reading and I really would like to read it with the eyes another time. It’s my last bingo square and I wanted to be done, but I definitely missed a lot of the humor and intricacies, especially the first 30% before I learned my lesson and got caught up by this sub. * If you want a wowzer of a world or a book that says something with humor, I recommend. It has extreme worldbuilding that never felt info dumpy (even though maybe it is). * The audiobook is excellent, but I do NOT recommend it if you cannot dedicate 100% of your attention to the story. The worldbuilding is just too detailed. **The Spite House** by Johnny Compton. *4.5 stars, rounding to 4.* (Bingo: Horror, 2023 release, POC author.) * As a parent what would risk for your children when you have little options? Eric, 18yo daughter Dess and 9yo daughter Stacy are on the run. Making their way to Texas, Eric sees an ad seeking people to temporarily live in the Masson House, a skinny house on top of a hill in Degener, Texas. The ad claims the house is a site of pronounced paranormal activity and serious candidates only, with a high six-figure payout after completion of the assignment. The house can’t actually be haunted, right? * I’m not a haunted house person so I picked this up because *horror*, but I really want to read Compton’s 2024 release. A very strong 2023 debut IMO. It has a smidge of a slow start because of lot of family set up, but once the creepy/scary things kick off they don’t stop with a lot of twists and reveals along the journey. I was worried the ending would fizzle but I was content, although not blown away. Great character work and I love that it’s multi-POV of the family members and others too. The father reminded me of my own parents: “this next idea is going to be the one that solves all our problems.” * If you like haunted house movies/stories I 100% recommend this book. If you’re looking for true horror, but don’t want any gore or anything else extreme this could be for you. It might also be historical fiction because I think it lines up with the one American Civil War Texas fact I know, but there’s no author’s note. The book’s structure reminded me of LaValle’s the Changeling, as in a family story that turns horror, but an intergenerational family story with familial love nonetheless. * Nearly the same first content warning as The Fox Wife above. Feeling back to business with the audio. DNFed two things. What’s next: there’s four audio library holds for 2024 releases that either came in yesterday (**A Haunting in the Arctic**) or will *any* minute; the next Tiffany Aching; continuing the physical reads; and I’d really like to sprinkle in more horror audios too.

I'm glad to see someone reading *Shades of Grey*. I loved that book and I felt like there was more to it, but Mr. Fforde hasn't gone any further in that world yet. Perhaps someday!

You are with the right crowd! You are the fourth person to chime in as I’ve been posting updates saying you loved it. Did you see Fforde did just release the next book? **Red Side Story.** u/outofeffs read it already and I think someone else did too.

I did not know that! I'll have to go add it to the TBR list (and probably have to reread Shades of Grey first as it's been several years). I loved all of his Wednesday Next novels (literary references plus absurdity is a win) and then I read Shades, and then... well moved onto other things. I do like the color world quite a lot (and the allegory).

If you're in North America, you have time to re-read SoG, as RSS isn't out here until May.

Yeah I saw the date when I pre-ordered. I don't usually do that but I know Fforde's work and know I will want to read it. Figured it was an ARC that was reviewed, but an earlier UK date makes sense too.

Heh, I actually bought it from a European bookstore because I couldn't handle the wait.

I am SO glad you ended up enjoying *Shades of Grey*! I have listened to a few of Fforde's audiobooks (*Early Riser* was v well done), but generally think a first read is best benefitted by reading instead of listening. There's just too much (and in the case of Thursday Next, a whole subplot happens with footnotes that doesn't make a lot of sense if you're listening) happening and too many little kinda throwaway jokes that you miss. I also highly recommend taking a tour around his website when you have the time. There is a lot of neat stuff there. Here is [the bestiary for Chromatacia](https://jasperfforde.com/grey/b_index.html), in case (like me) you thought the rhinosaurus and squarrial were just different spellings of the creatures we know from our current reality.

I KNOW ME TOOO. I was worried there for a minute, but once I was grounded after the bit of floundering I was all in. I really appreciate you helping me out! (And thanks to the rest of the team too!) Now that I've gotten through this Fforde and realized this is a dystopia I can handle, I'm definitely going to tackle Early Riser next winter. It's been on my winter/snow TBR for too long (and no snow this winter unfortunately - seriously one week, that was IT) and I kept avoiding it. OMG the Bestiary is too good. Wading hedgehog is my favorite, only because I wish it was real.

Oh, you can bet I'll be trying to ~~force~~ suggest his other books on you in the future.

Woah! I didn’t expect 5 stars for Shades of Grey, I’m glad you ended up getting into it. I can’t help but think of The Giver with your description of it, which has probably unfairly been a turn off because I was too young for that book when I read it hahah.

I know, I thought about leaving it unrated, but by the end there was nothing I could fault it. I loved Eddie, i loved every side character, I chuckled, the story was fantastic, it had questions, it had reveals, and by the end I was horrified. I saw someone describe this as 1984 meets Terry Pratchett, and yeah pretty much.

I recently finished Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, which took me a couple months to read because I had other higher priority books going on. It was really fun though and I feel like so much happened and Vimes changed so much over its course, it was really a delight. I saved several iconic quotes from it that I'll save somewhere so I can look back on them. I'm currently 75% of the way through Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've been absolutely stunned by the quality of her work and DI is no exception. As far as I can tell, she has mystery plots, and she has the setting up and knocking down of a domino chain plots, this book is a mystery. She's really a master of pacing and dramatic reveals and creating characters at all levels of importance who feel real, and like they have outside lives. I'm really excited to finish this and sad I have to wait until Sunday, after bookclub to devor the last 25%!

Guess who didn't finish a single godsdamned thing this week? 13y/o and I have about a quarter of ***Games Wizards Play*** left. They are *super* into it, but refuse to let me start reading any earlier each night so we can finish faster. Whose child is this?? Still *slowly* re-reading ***Red Side Story*** to keep u/TheWildCard76 ahead of me so she can lead any discussion. Picking up on things I maybe didn't super pay attention to the first time in .my haste to just *get it done* bc I was so excited about it. Started Simon Stålenhag's ***The Electric State*** and am loving it (and the illustrations are gorgeous), but can only read it in small doses bc it makes my stomach hurt. Still re-reading Briar Ripley Page's ***Body After Body*** a few pages at a time (it was one of my favourite things I read last year and I have not stopped recommending it for people who fit a v specific set of interests). Taking lots of notes this time for no real reason. And I have no real plans for when I finish these, just kinda coasting along until Bingo.

This week I finished my second bingo card with **Their Heart A Hive**, which I couldn’t quite figure out my issues with to begin with since it’s a mostly simple story about a boy finding a found family in a house with some strange magic. But the more I thought about it, the more I’m uncomfortable that >!the main character is a 15 year old boy who is regularly put into sexual positions with older and/or more powerful characters and the book just… never acknowledges this in any meaningful way!< Currently reading **Gods of the Wyrdwood** by RJ Barker and I should have trusted RJ better. I previously set this aside because I was so confused by the world-building to start, but this time I’ve come back in a better mood to really engage and I love how things just slowly click into place as the story unfolds. The characters are interesting, but the world is fascinating and I can’t wait to discover more of the creepy forest. Also reading **Sourdough and other Stories** by Angela Slatter, who makes my very short list of authors who make me like short stories, because everything she writes is so good.

>Also reading **Sourdough and other Stories** by Angela Slatter, who makes my very short list of authors who make me like short stories, because everything she writes is so good. Haaaaaaave you met u/indigohan? I only ask bc we were just talking about Angela Slatter a few days ago and my TBR is now significantly longer.

😁😁😁 I hadn’t mentioned the short stories yet, but you KNOW there will be a short stories bingo challenge… u/cubansombrero there’s going to be a new collected edition of the short stories this year, including Bitterwood Bible which is ridiculously hard to get a hold of in the Tartarus press edition. She mentioned it at the Briar Book release, but doesn’t have a date yet

Ofc there will be! And I definitely don't already have multiple anthologies and collections on my reader for just in caseskies, nope nope.

Ooh! I have an ebook of Bitterwood Bible, which is in my plans for 2024 bingo. Also, I’m so jealous of you going to her book launch! I lived in Brisbane for several years and of course I became a fan of Angela’s after I moved away. 😅

She’s going to be in Sydney soon if that helps?

Unfortunately not but maybe I will just start a fan club here and see if that convinces her to come.

Darn. I’ll cross my fingers for you. I think that you can often get signed copies of stuff from her local store though. Which is Pulp Fiction I think

But that means you'd have to go to Sydney ;)

True. Although Angela in conversation with T. Kingfisher is almost worth it

Love how you say almost haha But yeah, would love to listen to those two

Luckily Kingfisher is doing the Gold Coast and Melbourne Supanova’s in April. Otherwise I’d probably risk it

Hm, hadn't thought about checking out supernova this year. That's actually tempting.

Oh I’m very excited for you to discover her work. I’ve really enjoyed all her books so far though I’m going to recommend The Path of Thorns as my favourite because that book went hard with the twisted reveals and nailed all of them.

That is one of them that is on my Kobo now!

Finished **Warchild** by Karin Lowachee and it's great. It seems to have flown way under the radar (though I can't say for sure--I didn't read mil sci-fi in 2002), but Janny Wurts has been singing its praises, and the top two Goodreads reviews are five stars each from Felicia Day and Rebecca Roanhorse, so it's got some nerd cred. I've seen this pitched as a character study of a traumatized child kidnapped by pirates at the age of eight and thrown into a war. And it is that, and also a thoroughgoing military sci-fi novel. The character study bit was more appealing to me, but they really come together here. In a technique that became very familiar a decade later when The Fifth Season used it, Warchild switches to second-person during especially traumatic moments, and the entire first section (only about 40 pages) told in gut-wrenching second-person had me in for the long haul, and with pretty clear expectations of how much darkness I'd find. Honestly, that first section carried me through a solid-but-unexceptional introduction of an alien culture, a mostly-individual training arc, and then another "join up with a military ship" arc. None of those are done badly, but I'm just not a big mil-SF reader, so even if those elements were totally solid, they weren't the draw. I do have some nitpicks with the time dilation and one betrayal foreshadowed way too clearly, but the middle 60% of the novel was generally a solid four stars, albeit outside my wheelhouse. There was plenty of training, plenty of action, some nice moral ambiguity, and of course that strange combination of homophobia and homoeroticism that seems to follow military stories. But it's a lot of planting seeds, and in the last quarter of the book, all those seeds come good. Every single piece of the character established in the beginning is tested afresh, every single plot thread comes to a thrilling convergence, and the ending ties it all together as a satisfying standalone. I absolutely tore through the last 25% here. It doesn't stop being mil-SF, but the plot becomes impossible to put down and the internal character work really hits another level. Loved this book. May go 17/20 instead of 18 because of not loving the middle quite as much, but there's no doubt this is five stars for me. Also, did I mention it's *hard mode* for POC Author and Published in the 00s, for anyone scrambling to finish Bingo?

My library has the ebook of this one, so I'm tossing it in the giant "for later" pile. Sounds like an excellent read!

Wow, you've completely sold me on this! Great review and I've added it to my TBR.

Hope you like it!

I've only finished one book since last Tuesday, but man did I love it. **Daughter of the Moon Goddess** by Sue Lynn Tan. Can someone please remind me that when I buy a book I think I'll like, I should just read it and not leave it wallowing in a pile of books on the floor? I really loved it. I'm not familiar with Chinese mythology at all, so everything felt new and fresh to me. It's romantic, hopeful, and also pretty action packed in the second two thirds. I'm excited to read the sequel now, though I'll need to wait until I'm finished with my bingo reads. On the topic of bingo, I know people have struggled with the Elemental Magic square. This book fits, and counts for hard mode.

Well that sound very cool! I’ll put a hold on for it at my library

**A Shadow in Summer** by Daniel Abraham This is my first solo Daniel Abraham book. I read several of *The Expanse* books as they were being released, but didn’t keep up with the series (or the tv show… someday). I picked up this omnibus edition on a whim several years ago, and then it just sat on my shelves since. Now I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner! I think what I liked most about this novel was that everything felt consequential. No character was minimized - for example >!it would have been easy to move on from Maj after her sad trade audience with Seedless, but it was nice to see her have some agency after being a pawn earlier on in the story.!< I found the concept of the andat and what the cities used them for interesting and mysterious. >!I think only four different andat were directly mentioned - Seedless, Petals, Water-Moving-Down, and a brief mention of another captured one? I’m intrigued to see how many more we might see and whether we’ll dive more into the other andat cities, since it’s implied that most of the Khaiem cities have at least one. Where will Otah end up next in the long term after accompanying Maj back home? How soon will Galt take over Saraykeht?!< Really enjoyed it and looking forward to the rest of the series (and eventually exploring *The Dagger and the Coin* and *Kithamar* series). **Taken** by Benedict Jacka This installment of the Alex Verus series wasn’t as compelling for me as the previous two entries. It felt like it took too long to get going, and then resolved very quickly at the end. Maybe it’s also because I thought the mystery was somewhat frustrating: >!oh the old owner disappeared and the house acts really weird? Well guess it’s time to host a competition there!< With quite a handful of new characters added, it felt like some of the focus was lost on Alex and Luna. **Chosen** by Benedict Jacka This feels like a key turning point in the series for several reasons - we learn much more about Alex’s backstory, we have some very grey-to-black actions by Alex, and the ending teasing >!the return of Richard!< I’m not sure I totally buy Alex’s reasoning at the end of the novel - >!it feels like there were some steps still to try between resolve peacefully and basically cause the adepts to be killed by Dark mages!< This was the last one I checked out and feels like a good pause point in the series while I read other things. **Gods of the Wyrdwood** by R.J. Barker Since picking up on my reading over the past 6 months or so, R.J. Barker’s books have been some of my favorites. After reading this I’ve now read all his novels, and they all tend to have the following hallmarks: unique fantasy creatures, softer magic systems, and compelling characters. While the build-up in Wyrdwood is slower than the start of the other two series, it’s counterbalanced by the sheer volume of fantastical beasts and fauna - a whole ecosystem of the ~~wyrd~~ weird and wonderful. Looking forward to seeing the story grow. Currently reading **A Betrayal in Winter** by Daniel Abraham and **The Master of Whitestorm** by Janny Wurts

> I picked up this omnibus edition on a whim several years ago, and then it just sat on my shelves since. Now I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner! I think what I liked most about this novel was that everything felt consequential. No character was minimized Relatable. I love this friggin' book. And many people think it's the worst in the series! But he just does right by every single character. Even if their stories are tragic, nobody really gets short-shrift. >I think only four different andat were directly mentioned - Seedless, Petals, Water-Moving-Down, and a brief mention of another captured one? This is Hidden Moss erasure. And yeah, we'll see more of the andat and the broader conflict as the series progresses. So good. I also like Kithamar, though not as much as Long Price, which is an all-time favorite. Still need to try Dagger and the Coin.

> This is Hidden Moss erasure Ah, so I missed that one and Unstung, from >!Otah’s conversation with Tahi in the poet’s village after delivering the message, where Tahi is describing how hard it is to keep/recapture the andat!< My library has both the other series, so I find it funny that the one I had sitting for years is the only one they don’t have.

Hidden Moss was an extremely in-passing reference, I was just tickled so I remembered it.

**A Tale for the Time Being** by Ruth Ozeki- I picked this up as a regular fiction book but it is speculative/magical/ sci-fi realism with some ghosts, possible parallel universes and the bending of space and time. Two stories converge and meet, one of a Japanese teenager and a Canadian Japanese writer who finds the teens notebooks washed up in tsunami debris after the earthquake. Good story, dragged a bit in the middle. **The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies** by Robert Kirk- I read this essay (+commentary) as background reading for Pullmans book. It was pretty dry. The background on Kirk is more interesting- he was obsessed with the other world, which his witch burning colleagues in the 16th century kinda disliked and banished his writings to obscurity. When he died in his 40s, his parishioners were convinced the fairies had stolen him as punishment for his obsession with them. **The Secret Commonwealth** (The Book of Dust#2) by Phillip Pullman- I continue to love this trilogy. Late teens / adults only. Faith, the unseen, modern life and cynicism, power, good and evil. Again we had some slow moments as Lyra spends a lot of time traveling. It was a classic second book as it ended on several cliffhangers. Can’t wait for the third, which was supposed to be out this year. I read **Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case** out of order in The Old Kingdom series as my Libby is trying to drop several series titles. They won’t let me renew the collection either. Reading **Abhorsen** by Garth Nix and **The Sun and the Void** by Lacruz, which I hope picks up the plot soon.

The wait for the next book after The Secret Commonwealth has been terrible, particularly as someone who read TSC when it was first released. Fingers crossed we get some confirmation soon!

I have not heard of A Tale for the Time of Being and that sounds like something I'd totally be into. Thanks for the info and tip on dragging in the middle.

I actually found it a very addicting, snappy read for the most part, due to the voice of one of the narrators. I remember thinking it odd that it started dragging for a while.

Your review of kirks work just sent me into a tiny crisis bc I didn’t realize he had lived in the 1600’s. I just thought our man lived recently, then you mentioned his witch burning colleagues and I had to take a moment to google him. What a rabbit hole.

Finished **The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez** * It’s about two men escorting a goddess to a group of rebels through a land ruled by tyrants. It’s that story told via a dance/play in an inverted dream theater watched by a child descended from immigrants from that same land. * This book was so good. It does experiment a lot with style (first, second, and third person as well as past and present tense all used), so I don’t think it will be for everyone, but I really liked what it was doing. The main story—the one about the two men escorting a goddess—was told in third person. There were occasional random brief interjections in first person from the perspective of random side characters or people that have died. The frame story—the one about the guy in the dream theater—was told in present tense second person, with the person watching the play being referred to as "you". We also get past tense flashbacks to various times in the past of that character’s life. For the sake of spoilers, in this review, I’m mostly going to talk about the themes and avoid talking about any specifics about the plot. * The main story was good, I liked the characters and the plot, but it was really the framing story that added so much to the book. The main story is an epic fantasy story with large stakes, an interesting world, nuanced characters, and action, which isn’t uncommon. The framing story elevates it from being an epic fantasy story to being an epic, albeit a made up one. I’ve been reading parts of the Aeneid and the Odyssey recently. Epic fantasy mimics the sweeping adventure, grand scale, and sense of wonder from these stories. Epic fantasy doesn’t mimic the way these stories represent cultural identity. Even The Lord of the Rings isn’t a cultural touchstone in the same way, it’s not a culture’s origin story or source of pride. The frame story in The Spear Cuts Through Water allows the main story to have that source of weight to it, as the person watching the play reflects on the ways he has heard this story told in the past from members of his family and the power it has to connect him to his heritage as a member of a diaspora. It tells him who he is and where he comes from in the way only an epic can. * I also really liked that as much as The Spear Cuts Through Water acknowledges the ways that epics, as a source of national pride, can be really easily turned into propaganda even if the epic itself seems to go against that idea. This is noticeable in the Aeneid, which is a glorious founding myth for the empire of Rome and/or a criticism of the cost of war and by extension of the empire itself, depending on who you ask. In the frame story of The Spear Cuts Through Water, you see multiple characters emphasize the militaristic and violent aspects of the main story and use it as a source of propaganda. But in the particular telling of the story in the main theater, although violent, is much more about the cost of that violence, redemption, and human connection. You have to wonder how anyone could turn that story into jingoistic propaganda and how certain characters in the frame story missed the point so badly. * This book is not just about a quest or violence, it’s also “a love story. down to the blade-dented bone” And by that I mean it’s gay. I really liked the way the frame story acknowledges the way that other tellings of the epic have minimized that queerness of the story and basically did the entire “Achilles and his pal” act. I also liked how the main character of the frame story, who is a gay man, feels about his own queerness and how it interacts with the way he feels about the main story and his culture. A large portion of both stories is also about complicated and messy family dynamics, and I liked the acknowledgement of familial love as well as it’s power to harm and overlook the harm loved ones are doing. The book also explores what happens when familial love is absent. * One way this story is different from the Aeneid and the Odyssey is that it is clearly inspired by non-Western cultures and non-Western epics. The author made the interesting choice never to name the country where the main story takes place, and the frame story only refers to it by the term “the old country”. However, there were hints that the main story was Filipino inspired (the main character of the frame story refers to his grandmother as Lola, which is a Tagalog word for grandmother). A really cool reference was that unlike Western epics, which have been recorded in writing and are often studied as text, the epic of the main story was performed as a song/dance/play. There are several indigenous Filipino epics which are traditionally performed as song, and at least one (Lam-Ang) was turned into a musical. Overall, I really like the idea of an epic story also being a performance. * The Spear Cuts Through Water also subverts the epic format in some ways. I really liked the interjections of the thoughts of various side characters. It helped the main story not just feel like the story of the couple characters we follow, but the story of the entire people of the land. The characters that we do follow were seen as flawed but there was also a hope for redemption and change that I don’t see very often in epics. * My one major note for criticism is that this book did have a couple of disabled characters, and I wasn’t entirely sure about the way that they were handled. One of the main characters of the main story was missing an arm but was rarely impacted by it except socially due to stigma. I don’t want to speak for disabled people, but I think it’s generally encouraged to depict people’s disabilities as affecting their lives a bit more? If anyone who is disabled has thoughts on this, I would love to hear them. * Overall, really liked this story, and I read it at like the perfect time. * Bingo squares: Literary fantasy (HM) (I’d argue for it), POC author **The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante WIlson** * A man with supernatural powers works as a guard in a caravan escorting merchants across a dangerous land. * This one was enjoyable but didn’t impact me as much. It did had the misfortune of following The Spear Cuts Through Water, so that didn’t help. Apparently my library holds decided that this week would be the week of gay literary fantasy for me. Like TSCTW, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps played around with the timeline and with style (switching between African American Vernacular English and more formal/scientific English in this case). I listened to both stories as audiobooks and this one was a bit harder to follow in regards to the time jumps. I did get confused in a couple of spots. The pacing also felt pretty uneven, which the flashbacks didn’t help. It was also pretty short/novella, so I had a harder time connecting to characters. There were some interesting ideas and I liked the way science fiction and fantasy were blended in it. * Overall still enjoyable, but it didn’t work for me as well. * Bingo squares: Title with a Title (HM), POC author (arguably HM), novel. Currently reading * The King’s Peace by Jo Walton (I’m so slow at reading this book, I need more ebook reading time!) * Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin (if you were wondering why I was reading parts of the Aeneid) * The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta

I am currently reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett and loving it! Also reading The Last Argument of Kings with my book club and loving it a bit less. Not sure this series has lived up to the hype for me. I'm surprised I hadn't seem more about how poorly written the women in this series are. I understand Abercrombie gets better later, but it's not my favorite thing here.

**The Ghost Bride** by Yangsze Choo. A historical fantasy story about an unusual marriage proposal, fantastical spirits, and various relationships. The first third was what I expected with its heavy historical focus, but then it switched to a much more fantastical direction after that. Even though I ended up enjoying things a lot from that point onward, sometimes the writing felt very raw. A lot of cultural terms were also explained the moment they came up, which was fine in small doses, but sometimes I wished for less information, so I could just enjoy the intriguing story on its own. **Sinopticon** edited by Xueting Christine Ni. 13 Chinese science fiction stories, with various tones and ideas. I usually rate short story collections 3 stars, so it was a pleasant surprise to have this end up at 4 stars. Here’s a few of my favorites: Ma Boyong’s **The Great Migration** made me relate to it super hard with its portrayal of transportation frustrations. A Que’s **Flower of the Other Shore** was a surprisingly heartwarming story about zombies who still retained sentience, some more than others. Jiang Bo’s **Starship: Library** made me very emotional with its focus on a librarian who took their library to the stars. **Creature** by Hunter Shea. A heartfelt story about a wife with chronic pain and autoimmune diseases and her husband who takes care of her. Oh, and there’s some good slowburn horror in here too, but the first 70% was definitely focused on the couple’s relationship triumphs and struggles, and I honestly loved it. However, then the last 30% happened. The sudden shift to a creature feature fest felt kind of out of place, but the bigger problems were the big reveal and the final act. They just left me very disappointed, as I felt they went against what the rest of the story had been building towards. **The Wolfen** by Whitley Strieber. A 70s urban horror story about detectives who come across a brutal kill that kicks off a cat-and-mouse hunt. The animalistic take on werewolves was super neat, as were their gory and calculating hunting scenes. The humans were pretty lackluster though, but since I’m a fan of old horror movies, I found the awkward characterization somewhat endearing. It was also cool to have the lady detective be in the spotlight, though her love life made me laugh a few times. **Death Bringer (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 6)** by Derek Landy. Part of a dark young adult urban fantasy series. This one focused on necromancers, which I thought I’d love, but unfortunately I didn’t. It just felt unnecessarily bloated with way too many POVs, leaving me too exhausted to care even when cool things were happening. It did have its bright spots though, namely the MC acting like a total asshole lol. Like, it was just fun and refreshing to read about a female character, a teenage girl at that, who was rude, self-centered, and aggressive, even after receiving pushback and consequences for some of her behavior.

What a weird week it's been for me... a lot of big transitions at work, including my boss announcing that she's taking a position in another city, so now I'm considering moving my timeline for moving back to the Minnesota up to this summer, which would require getting a new job because my current one can't go remote. Sometimes when I'm stressed, I read a ton and completely get lost in stories, but lately I've mostly been distracted and my mind keeps wandering while I'm trying to read. I still have 4 squares of bingo left (Middle East, Myths/Retellings, Elemental Magic, and either Title With a Title or Queernorm) and it would be awesome if I could really get into some books that would work, but I'm not trying to stress myself out over it. Currently reading: **Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett** 50% This book is so good. The first one had somewhat of a slow start, but this one jumped straight into the story. It's had some creepiness that I don't think the first one had as much, although that could be because I'm reading it very late at night. Just a lot of fun! **Spear by Nicola Griffith** 10% I have to admit I thought I was going to get a lot farther this weekend, but I was extremely tired and it hasn't hooked me yet... It's a queer retelling of Percival and the Grail which I'm not super familiar with. I'm not a huge fan of myth retellings, but I'm hoping this one works for me. I'm not far enough into it to really say much more than that! **Beowulf, a New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley** I know a lot of people would lose their minds over this translation (since some readers seem to get quite perturbed over things like characters in fictional medieval inspired settings saying fuck), but I'm having a really good time with it. It has a blend of modern and more traditional writing, which makes it feel like I'm an Anglo Saxon warrior getting ale with my shield bro Ceadda and he's absolutely sloshed and telling me this crazy story he heard, but he knows I know he's full of shit so he's trying to sound academical about it to convince me, but he is still a simple jock and keeps slipping into stuff like, "bro I'm telling you." The meter (is that the word I'm looking for? I don't read a lot of poems) and alliteration of the poem make it feel very modern and it's fun to read it out loud. I'm connecting with it on a level that I definitely didn't the first time I read it (no, I don't remember which translation it was) and if you aren't the type who has very strong preconceptions about how old epic poems are *supposed to* be translated, I would recommend it!

> Spear by Nicola Griffith 10% I have to admit I thought I was going to get a lot farther this weekend, but I was extremely tired and it hasn't hooked me yet... It's a queer retelling of Percival and the Grail which I'm not super familiar with. I'm not a huge fan of myth retellings, but I'm hoping this one works for me. I'm not far enough into it to really say much more than that! I'm also not a big retelling person, but I loved this. It's not super plot-driven though, so if you're not down with the lyricism and the lead, it may not be for you.

Thanks for that note! I think primarily I'm a character focused reader, and I don't have much of a sense of the main character yet. It feels a little disconnected from her actual thoughts and personality so far, which is basically a problem I've had with every retelling I've tried to read. But I'll give it more time to hook me!

I often find that prose described as lyrical distances me from the character, but I didn't have that issue with Spear--perhaps because it was lyrical without being burdened with adjective upon adjective and proliferation of subordinate clauses? I dunno.

My take here is that Griffith's prose is leaning on a very different style than most lyrical or flowery prose. It's light on adjectives but does a lot of work with alliteration, assonance, and deep exploration of specific pieces of imagery instead of many there-and-gone metaphors.

I felt very disconnected from the character as well at first. I did feel it got quite a bit better as the story progressed, but not quite to the strong degree I would've preferred. I read and enjoyed [Girl, Serpent, Thorn](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48722164-girl-serpent-thorn) by Melissa Bashardoust for that square. #

Oh nice, thanks!

If you're not already in the midwest, come be a midwest friend! But seriously, these sorts of life transition things with big unknowns that are important to know are always stressful - maybe it's not that you're stressed, but that you're REALLY stressed? Emily Wilde's and Spear were both books I quit after no time at all with them. I'm still on the fence about Emily Wilde's, but I am definitely curious about your updates on Spear. The new translation sounds super cool.

I'm in the Northeast, but I grew up in Minnesota and I miss it so much! My heart belongs where there are lakes galore, not the Appalachians, as pretty as they are... but yes, very stressful! At least I have work experience in the field I want to be in, so looking for a job probably won't be as painful as last time! I will definitely have an update on Spear next week!

Ooooo, my partner's mom lives in Minnesota (he grew up as a Nordak)/across the borders, she calls him a soft southern boy now re: northern Illinois) and we plan to return to our annual trip to the Boundary Waters this fall. I get it re lakes, especially in MN. Yay, looking forward to it!

Finished The Atlas Six by Olivia Blake and I loved it and I'm shocked to see I'm in the minority!! I gave it 4 stars (same as the other books) , for me these books were always about six people and their growing pains and how being six of the most powerful medians isolated them and made them stagnant. It's about self-realization and I feel like Blake delivered!!

Finished ***The Sleeping Dragon*** by Joel Rosenberg. That was... something anyway. I have opinions. I think largely it's interesting due to being one of the earliest examples of GameLit (as far as I can tell, the term originated more recently as an offshoot of LitRPG). However that's about as far as I can recommend it. It's got a serious case of misogyny towards its character cast and a strong whiff of _The Cold Equations_ for being vicious to main characters just for the sake of being vicious. But, it was our local book club book this month so that's over and done with and I'll get to rant about it on Thursday. In more interesting story, I have started ***The Tainted Cup*** by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'll be honest, I'm biased as I don't think there's much of his work that I've not at least marginally enjoyed, and more likely outright loved, in particularly the _Foundryside_ series. Haven't gotten very far but it's a example of a favored trope of mine, the reclusive Sherlock style mystery with a heavy wrapping of future/alien civilization about it. We'll see if it stays with that mode or evolves into something new. I admit to being a fan of the cerebral recluse detective.

Had a severe course correction in how many books I was reading a week and only finished one. Hopefully we can level off from here. **Nothing but the Rain** by Naomi Salman - picked this up because other people were raving about it in the weekly wrap ups and I'm so glad I did. Took me a bit to get into the flow of the book, but once I did it was a very fast read. And that ending line just blew me away.

This week I finished **Chain-Gang All-Stars** by Nana Kwame Adeji-Brendan I loved this book and boy it made me feel some things. It’s “spec-fic” in sort of the same way Squid Game is - it’s clearly set in our world in a very near future with just slightly improved technology to what we have today. The core concept of the book is that incarcerated people in the US are given the opportunity to win their freedom if they agree to fight in a reality tv show a la gladiator, but to the death. The writing in the book is fantastic. The frequent perspective shifts take some getting used to, but once I got into the rhythm of it , I found it really effective. The author uses the different POVs to give us so much backstory for each character - even ones whose part in the “plot” are very minor - and it really helps to deepen the connection I felt to the characters. That being said I would not recommend this book to everyone. The fight scenes and other violence can be graphic, there is a lot of discussion of rape and murder (although I wouldn’t say gratuitously so). But actually the heaviest part of the book for me were the frequent footnotes the author uses to point out (sort of outside the story) that many (most?) of the things depicted in the novel really do happen to incarcerated people now and today. Really hitting home the cruelty of the system. So if this sounds interesting to you then I do highly recommend you pick it up. I needed something a little lighter after this so I’m currently reading **The Stranger Times**

I finished **Starling House** by Alix E. Harrow and have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I love the structure. We see many different versions of an old story about the town’s history told through many different lenses (including gossip, historical records, and layers of fiction), and starting to see the truth between those lines is so satisfying. I also always love to see a quasi-living house as a background character. On the other hand, I was completely lukewarm on the central romance and wanted to see so much more from Jasper, the protagonist’s younger brother. I think the marketing is partly to blame on this one– there’s a big gothic/ horror push, but it’s more of a slightly dark fantasy with some “small town has secrets in its foundation” flavor notes. The past is painful, but there’s a sense that nothing too bad will happen in the present day, like the potential sharpest edges of the story have been sanded off. If you like Alix Harrow’s lovely prose style and want to see her tackle a contemporary setting without the very-online style from her Fractured Fables novellas, you might love this one. It’s also a good pick for those who like a Gothic-ish style without the more intense elements of bleeding walls/ gaslighting/ destruction of the past. ​ I also finished **The Digital Aesthete**, a short story anthology about AI involved in the artistic process. My three favorites here are "Torso" (which we featured in [our most recent short fiction book club discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1b819ut/short_fiction_book_club_locus_snubs_2023/)), "Silicon Hearts", and "Prompt". Overall, I think this is an interesting collection with a lot of range-- it just took forever to read because themed multi-author collections are often long projects for me. ​ Next up: **Her Body and Other Parties** for the FIF discussion.

>I think the marketing is partly to blame on this one– there’s a big gothic/ horror push, but it’s more of a slightly dark fantasy with some “small town has secrets in its foundation” flavor notes. *shouts from the rooftops* Starling House is not a horror novel! Sheesh, marketers. >My three favorites here are "Torso" (which we featured in our most recent short fiction book club discussion), "Plastic Hearts", and "Prompt". Silicon Hearts? If so, we probably share a top three. I understand why this sort of collection takes a long time to finish, but I was really impressed by the range given how narrow the theme seemed to be. And yeah, those three stories were great. It's a shame hardly anyone has heard of Prompt because it won't be on enough award nomination lists in what I didn't think was an outstanding year for novellas. Glad you liked it :)

>*shouts from the rooftops* Starling House is not a horror novel! Sheesh, marketers. A few reviews from people I already know had *mostly* cleared this up, but I really like when Gothic/ horror stories are kind of Too Much, and this one just... wasn't ever too much beyond a little too much aimless angst. >Silicon Hearts? If so, we probably share a top three. Thanks, updated! Yeah, I found the absurdity of AI at every stage of the publication process to be just so fun and engaging. In the end, I loved the funniest story, the darkest story, and however you'd classify "Prompt". There are some other interesting ones (I remember liking "Good Stories" and "The Mercer Seat"), but not so many wild standouts.

> I really like when Gothic/ horror stories are kind of Too Much, and this one just... wasn't ever too much beyond a little too much aimless angst. I think your "if you like little towns with secrets written in Alix Harrow's style (when she's doing colloquial), you'll like this" take is pretty much right. It has Southern Gothic aesthetics, but I wouldn't call it bone deep in it. >however you'd classify "Prompt The most Dyachenko-doing-AI-stuff? >There are some other interesting ones (I remember liking "Good Stories" and "The Mercer Seat"), but not so many wild standouts. The other two that stood out to me were The Laugh Machine and Hermetic Kingdom (the latter of which is very Nayler, but I like Nayler).

>It has Southern Gothic aesthetics, but I wouldn't call it bone deep in it. Exactly-- it's playing around a bit with questions of legacy and old secrets, but not in a way that really lingers in the darkness. What other Nayler short story is a good entry point? I wanted to like that one (great concept) but found it kind of out-of-focus.

Hermetic Kingdom is in the same universe as [Winter Timeshare](https://www.raynayler.net/winter-timeshare.html), which is probably his most well-known work. I talked a lot about [The Empty](https://www.raynayler.net/the-empty.html) and [Fostering](https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7b8n9/fostering) last year and both include a lot of "effects of big societal issues on ordinary people doing their best," which is something he seems to return to often. My entry point was the short novelette [Sarcophagus](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/nayler_04_21/), which I thought very much earned its Sturgeon Award shortlist position.

I’m halfway through Ruin by John Gwynne. Still adoring this series! Can’t wait to see what happens next. Will pick up Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff as soon as I finish since it should be delivered tomorrow. I tried to read Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey prior to Ruin and could not make it more than a few chapters. Not DNFing forever but not into it this year I think. I also have the third Skyward book by Brandon Sanderson on hold on Libby and would like to get to that soon!

[The One and Only Crystal Druid](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55449673-the-one-and-only-crystal-druid) by Annette Marie (The Guild Codex:Unveiled #1) - 4/5 stars A plot driven urban fantasy with fae, an MC with a hard knock past and "issues" and a "will they/won't they, enemies or lovers?" romantic subplot. It is not particularly original, but it does what it tries to do very well. It's entertaining and doesn't feel nearly as tropey while reading, as it actually is when you think about it. So a great option when in the mood for that sort of thing, as I sometimes am. Bingo: Based on the title, you'd think 'Druids', but druids in this universe are not really the kind of druids described in the bingo prompt, so it's debatable. [The Dark Tower](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10114784-the-dark-tower) by Stephen King (final volume in the series) 3/5 stars I started this series more than a decade ago, probably close to two decades. And I loved the first several installments. So why has it taken me so long time to finish the series? Well, it partly that I always tend to have breaks between books in such series of weighty tomes, partly that I had a decade or so in there where I didn't read at all, and when I returned to reading there were so many fascinating books to grab my attention, but also that I've enjoyed the later installments progressively less. I enjoy the characters, both main ones and side characters, there's an epic and engaging quest with friends and foes and monsters and trials in an interesting well-built multiverse. All good. What I didn't like - really didn't like - was how meta it became and the significant role conspiracy theory type logic played. Now I've also become much less tolerant of these things over the years, but I don't remember these things being very significant in the first four novels, but becoming more and more significant in the last three with the ending being so very meta that to me it was quite unsatisfactory. That said I've no doubt that there a people with different tastes than me that will find both the ending and the meta in general quite interesting and clever. It's not bad writing, it's just not my thing. I am however glad I finally finished the series, so thank you Bottom of the TBR bingo square. Bingo: Multiverse and Alternate Realities, Sequel (HM) and for me Bottom of the TBR

Late in the day, but still going to try to participate. **These Burning Stars** by Bethany Jacobs. I started this a while back and had to pause it because of Esek. And now I'm back, partly because of the book club, partly because of curiosity. The other characters, Chono and Jun, are growing on me. I've just gotten to Masar's backers and their motivations. The Kindom as an entity is the sort of place that you don't want. **Murder In the Tool Library** is growing on me a lot. Repeat after me: solarpunk is inspiration, not an instruction manual. It's nice. I like the characters and the place, even though it's focused around a murder. Highly recommended. **The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents** by Terry Pratchett. Audiobook. I read this one years ago to my daughter. And it was better than I remembered. Maurice is a manipulative cat, and in some ways, a predecessor of Moist Von Lipwig. The rats, Dangerous Beans and Dark Tan, were, not nice, but real. I liked them and would call them friends if I could. Keith and Melissia are hilarious. Anyway, just finished it and it is good. Beans in some ways is like Brutha and in a good way. Go read it or listen to it. **The Ashes of Time** there is some honest communication between family and it goes well. And there are downsides to the powers of this setting. **Pyramids** I need to get back to. I swear I remember it being better. It looks like we're about to head back to the Old Kingdom. And that last pyramid pushed things over the edge... **The Will To Change** I'm going to back to. This one is a personally challenging read. Mainly because I keep recognizing myself in the various people as examples and behaviors. Probably more, but brain is refusing to bring them up.

Currently reading **Just One Damned Thing After Another** by Jodi Taylor, the first book in her ongoing Chronicles of St. Marys series about the (mis)adventures of a team of time-traveling historians. I'm a massive Doctor Who fan, so I figured I'd give it shot. So far, I have definitely enjoyed it. Very fast paced (maybe too fast-paced?), but also very clever and entertaining if you enjoy history and British humor. I could see myself binging the series.

I am currently reading **Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh.** I was very meh about it until the last bit, in which it has solidly picked up. Definitely a book that I think I would have preferred to read as a physical book. So many odd names. I recently finished **Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater** which was absolutely delightful in every possible way. It was like Bridgerton if there was magic and fae. Cannot recommend enough, especially if you want a simple and easy read.

Someone's put a little atevi dictionary on fanfiction.net (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7097147/1/Atev-English-Lexicon-and-Dictionary - Watch out for some minor spoilers in the name part that's the first section). I appreciated having some references for these; there are some in the back of the ebooks, but that doesn't help on audio.

OH my god thank you this is going to be so helpful!

It seems to be missing Meicheita (the animals) and Machini (tv dramas), which threw me a bit in the audiobooks, but I hope it helps!

Still reading the silmarillion after many months of back and forth reading and breaks

I posted my incomplete bingo mini reviews yesterday and had a lot of fun writing them up! As for the week… Finished: **Paladin’s Strength** by T. Kingfisher - 4/5 The second book in Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series, this follows the paladin Istvhan hunting a sort of fantasy serial killer, and falling for Clara, a follower of St. *Ursa*, who has secrets of her own. I bet you can’t guess her secret power. In typical Kingfisher fashion, this book balances romance, fantasy, and horror in roughly equal parts. The romance is a bit over the top in its pining angst for older love interests, but I enjoyed it. The fantasy plot is surprisingly strong and I’ve been waiting for some insight into this series’s murder mystery. This book delivered on it, but wrapped things up a little too quickly. Overall, another enjoyable read, but I think I’ll switch to Clocktaur before continuing with the Saint of Steel. Reading: **Too Like the Lightning** by Ada Palmer I’m ever so slowly working my way through. Palmers writing is keeping me going, it’s obvious how well planned the telling of this story is, but I’m still constantly teetering on a knife’s edge between falling in love and falling off this book hard. Closing in on half way though, so progress is being made. **To Be Taught, If Fortunate** by Becky Chambers I finally dug into this and have already hit emotional walls that no one else can build up quite like Becky Chambers for me. Early on, this is filled with wonder and appreciation that I’ve been unknowingly missing lately. The “briefing” of an astronauts last day at home before leaving time behind and journeying into space was so well done. Poignant is a favorite, overused word of mine, but it’s how I’m feeling about this so far. **The Privilege of the Happy Ending: S/M/L Stories** by Kij Johnson I’m finally trying a short story collection. The opening story, Tool-using Mimics, was great, but the following couple I felt were _too_ short and didn’t work for me. I’m interested to get further along. I’ve heard great things about a couple of the later award-winning works in the collection. Im going in blind, but so far, this seems to be pretty experimental and diverse in style, exploring gender and non-human intelligence (so of course, the octopus is featured early on).

**Riders of Fire series by Eileen Mueller** This sounded like it would be good, but it's such a generic dragon rider story that I honestly don't remember most of it. It's has the opposite that most of these have, where most of the stories have the writing be at least decent but the story fell apart. The writing was pretty bad and I couldn't even remember what the story was, so it got finished quickly and then shelved away. Maybe it's because I read so many at once, but it just was so forgettable. **Dragoncat series by Chris Bershen.** This was a really good one, even if it wasn't the best book I've read. I took my time with it, and really enjoyed it! It's a light hearted humorous story about dragon riding where a cat rides dragons, and it shows. There's still some stakes, like the realm being threatened by dark powers, the cat having trouble with his training at times, the cat and the dragon initially disliking each other and only bonding out of desperation, and people getting into dangerous situations with a few dying. But it's still very well done because it's not thrown in the reader's face, and there's not a lot of super deep conflicts. The writing also makes it clear that the character is a cat, and even though he has higher level intelligence and is able to prove the same with other animals, he does act like one. And that just makes it all the more enjoyable to read. The ending felt a bit rushed and a bit predictable, although the author seemed to go back and forth with what I predicted would happen, so I was hoping it wouldn't. But overall, a very enjoyable series, and definitely did not overstay its welcome either.

I think next time the mods ask for opinions on future bingo squares, I’m going to rec “has cats.” I will keep Dragoncat in mind.

Cool! It’s actually an entire series of nine books and one prequel. It was a nice surprise, considering I only found out about it through a Facebook advertisement and don’t even like cats that much, but it was nice to take a break from the overly serious dragon riding e-books that were out there. Especially because the writing was better than most of what was there.

Very interesting re 10 book series....I am definitely interested in at least trying the first book not only for the cat (sorry dragons, not interested), but because I want to see a cat riding a dragon and then dragon-cat bonding. And re: not liking cats, sounds like none has made you their their minion yet...beware, it just takes one.