Valerie

(Very general spoilers)

“The Magicians” was an interesting twist on portal fantasy. Ordinarily, I don't like the genre because it has been done so many times and I can never stand how the hero always has to, or even wants to, go home at the end of the story. This book uses the “be careful what you wish for” trope in a unique way. I enjoy how Quentin gradually gets all the things he never thought possible, up to and including the portal fantasy of his dreams, and finds all of them eventually give way to the mundane. While Quentin is frequently an unlikable character and untrustworthy point of view, I did identify with his drive to succeed even if he wasn't particularly passionate about the avenue of success. He's driven, but every destination he reaches just drives him right back out. I've heard some people call it an allegory for academia, but I think it's a broader metaphor than that. To me, it's the idea that anything, no matter how wonderful, unique, or unbelievable, can become mundane with enough time.

I started The Expanse not long after the first book came out. I've religiously read each and every sequel almost as soon as they appeared on shelves. I don't think there are many other series I can say that for, especially not ones that go to 9 books. I think it is my favorite long-running series of all time. Every character is interesting and complicated. Every plot point is intriguing and well-researched. I can't fathom spanning this many decades with characters, and would love to sit in on the planning meetings with the authors.

Each book made me eager to read the next one, and as a finale, I couldn't have asked for better. Justice done to all the characters and to the world, beautiful moments of reflection on past events. I got teary-eyed more than once, which is something I can count happening while reading on one hand. It completes the circle while still being full of surprises. Look, if you're reading this review, you've hopefully read the other eight books, and if you've done that you need to read this one. That's about as simple as I can make it.

I didn't see how this fit into the Patternmaster series much at all until I finished the fourth book, but damn did Octavia Butler know how to write aliens. The invading species hybrid with humanity is eerie and very clearly foreign, yet it assimilates so completely with humans that even the reader ends up on its side some of the time. Some of it. Which is exactly how the kidnapped family feels, I imagine. Making the two daughters bi-racial is a brilliant move too, emphasizing the two worlds the characters already inhabit. This book asks us to look a humanity and what its survival really means.

This series is just my favorite long-running series in existence. We're in the penultimate chapter, and so much is lost. So much of the book is spent with a broken, fractured crew. So much of the book is spent far away from the Rocinante. It's deeply impressive how far the world has moved from Leviathan Wakes, how much the characters have changed and grown. If you're already an Expanse fan, you'll need this in your life. If you're not, get on it. You also need this in your life. This fine ship. This fine crew.

Back during the election, I think I remember Octavia Butler and this book specifically being referenced as eerily prescient. I don't think I clued in to how specifically prescient it was in that the nation would elect a reactionary demagogue working from a elitist form of Christian values who literally uses “make America great again” as his tag line. Guys, we weren't even recovering from an Apocalypse when it happened...

But unsettlingly accurate future visions aside, this is an unsurprisingly amazing book. It is vast, encompassing both Olamina's story after founding Acorn and her daughter's story and opinions as a frame. It speaks a lot towards the imperfections that come with being human, the betrayals which can so quickly escalate to horrific, as the traitors and bystanders repeatedly justify their actions and move along. It forces us to look at even what the protagonist justifies, and then what excuses we ourselves make, what moral compromises would we rather just not think about.

Butler pulls no punches, and I often struggled to get through because I couldn't handle that much vicarious suffering. Her prose makes Sharers of us all. She was a master, fully deserving of her acclaim and reputation, and this duology in particular are necessary reading in America's current climate.

This isn't my favorite Octavia Butler book, probably because it's true historical fantasy instead of one of her amazing science fiction epics. That said, it is still a very powerful book, and one that I'm glad I read. The story follows a black woman in 1976 through a bizarre series of time travels to repeatedly save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor. Each time, she her journey is fraught with peril from all directions, and she is repeatedly forced into the life of a slave on her ancestor's plantation.

Butler makes slavery viscerally real in a lot of ways, from her no-sugar coating descriptions of the beatings slaves received (and the horrors of the relatively mild beatings Dana receives) to her fully-fledged, multi-faceted portraits of the black characters living under the Weylin estate. Dana is an easy character to see through, as she has witnessed all of the slave stereotypes modern media has furnished and also the complicated lives of African-Americans in what is still relatively early on in the Civil Rights Movement. Dana, a writer in her own time, chronicles the people she meets not as Mammies or Uncle Toms or noble martyrs, but as flawed humans struggling to survive however they can, sacrificing whatever levels of pride and dignity they can individually bear.

Dana's relationships with the white characters are just as complicated. From Rufus, the man she is called again and again to save for whom she feels something despite is reprehensible treatment of her and those she cares for, to Kevin, her progressive, white husband who seems to, if not belong in 1819, at least manage to justify and fit in even as he forms his own stop on the Underground Railroad. The ties we forge for ourselves, the ways we let coventions and society make slaves of us, make us believe things have to be certain ways, these are themes Butler's works bring up again and again. Here, though, they are not cloaked in alien metaphor, but very real and remarkably present.

Butler's work is as relevant (maybe more relevant?) than when it was written, and while I don't claim this book to be an easy read, I think it's an important one.

You know the problem with this book? You buy it on your Nook and it says “270 pages” and you trust that and get to page 230 and think you have 40 pages left and then all of a sudden you don't because the last 40 pages are a preview of the next book and the book is over and you weren't ready for it!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It's the kind of book I have dreamed of writing. It is smart, thoughtful, and beautiful. It is disturbing and familiar, thorough and concise, human and alien. I don't have the words to properly review the book. I immediately went and ordered the rest of the Xenogenesis series in paper because this is one of those I'm just going to want to have around. Brilliant.

This book stressed me out in the best way. The Expanse is one of my favorite sci-fi series, and each volume keeps ....well, expanding. There is a decades-long time gap between this and Babylon's Ashes, and it's strange to see how the characters have aged and changes. The universe has grown so vast and complex and echoes of previous books are paying off and rippling through our beloved crew. This book has a particularly strong focus on Bobbie, which is a great tact, in my opinion as the world needs more giant lady space marines smashing the establishment. My only complaint is that it needs more Avasarala, but really, what doesn't?

I put off reading this for a long time because it was the only Octavia Butler book I had left to read, and it's really sad to live in a world where I will never get to read one of her works for the first time. This one was not my favorite of hers, but I really enjoyed reading it. After a few books that felt rather sloggy, the refreshing pacing and tension of a Butler novel were much needed. It's a vampire story, but not like any you've read about before and definitely pulls in themes from the Lilith trilogy and the Parables as far as found families and what is really important in life. I enjoyed it as I've enjoyed everything she has ever written.

I heard a lot of negative reviews for this one before I read it, but I still think it was a pretty good continuation of the series even if not quite as strong as the first two. It was definitely a brain-stretcher, and having Miranda as a POV character was quite the Brave New World, but I wouldn't expect a book that's essentially about how we define sentience and the value of “life” to be anything less than a challenge.

Given Tchaikovsky's penchant for references, could the alternate title to this book be “The Meaning of Liff?”

This book was okay, but I think in the grand scheme of things, I'm going to forget it. It's a romance, sci-fi, mystery, and that's a lot of genres to juggle. I think if the order was a mystery, sci-fi, romance, I might have liked it more. As it was, I found it taking me an extraordinarily long time to finish such a short book because I just didn't engage with the romance or the mystery parts at all. It wasn't bad, per se, but I don't think it's going to stick with me.

I really love the Tufa, and I make a point of downloading the next book whenever I go to my in-laws' house in the Smokies. Bledsoe really does justice to this landscape and I love his fae interpretation. That said, this installment really needed more of those two thing. The switch to first person, human POV didn't work for me, and while I'm always happy to read more diverse characters, Matt often seems defined by little else other than his sexuality and refusal to do literally anything anyone asks him to do. Emily's storyline gets zero emotional investment, and I just wanted more Bliss, Mandalay, and Bronwyn. Giving it a 4 because I love the series as a whole, but this was not the strongest volume.

Look, Madeline Miller is at the forefront of mythological retellings and I intend to read everything she writes. Galatea is a short story, but it packs all of the depth and perspective of Miller's full-length novels. It's the perfect size for the story, but it also just makes me wish there was another story to follow it. Alas, we'll just have to keep waiting.

This book is really clever. I love stories that explore gender through a sci-fi lens, and of course Annalee Neuwitz delivers. I was much more interested in the Paladin storyline, but Jack is a pretty great protagonist too (middle-aged, bisexual Asian tech pirate? More of this please). The style and story itself remind me a lot of Cory Doctorow. It's pretty violent and gritty at times, but the themes of autonomy and gender are powerfully and thoughtfully explored. If you are an io9 reader, you probably will enjoy this.

Abraham excels at complex stories with complicated characters. I don't even know who I was supposed to root for in this final installment. It's a great series, and the ending lives up to the rest of the books.

Well, I think this is probably my least favorite Jemisin book, which is sort of like saying it's my least favorite ice cream. Jemisin is definitely in my top three living authors, and this was still a fun read even though it didn't quite live up to the first book in the duology. After reading her afterword, I think I understand why a bit, and how she might be a little burned out writing what is supposed to be a fantastical dystopia but is in fact our reality.

The City people are all fantastic. The Lovecraft smackdown is still great. The action sequences are a little sillier and clunkier to me than the first book, and some of the “New York is great!” occasionally feels like the post 9/11 add on scene in Sam Raimi's Spiderman movie. But most of what I know about New York comes from this series and Broadway musicals, so maybe it's more realistic than it seems from my suburban eyes. I think it probably could have used 3 books, but I'm glad she at least decided to finish the series even as Lovecraftian horrors spring up around us in realtime.

So I read the sparrow something like 15 years ago. I loved it. Totally meant to read the sequel. This was a time before ebooks and Amazon when I would have had to go to a store to purchase a book with money college me didn't have. So I didn't. It took over a decade for happenstance to return to The Sparrow to my shelf and throw the sequel in with it. I do finish things I start; I do.

Children of God is much more hopeful than The Sparrow, and I think that's why it didn't resonate quite as strongly with me. The Sparrow is an ambiguous book that looks at religion as it affects believers, agnostics, and atheists alike. That sort of parity is the main reason I love it. This book is more of a summation and because Mary Doria Russell doesn't want all her readers to kill themselves, the various endings are hopeful if not all good. They point to ineffable plans bearing fruit in a way that makes me happy for the characters, but sits a little bit wrong in my bitter, realist heart.

The main themes of this book are coping with senseless tragedy and the benefit of hindsight. Whatever the actual plausibility of Russell's use of speed of light travel, the element of Emilio's lifespan allows for him to witness a span of time most of the other characters will never see, and the reader benefits from his perspective. We see societies collapse and reform and our sympathies shift from victims to oppressors. We see people do awful things for noble reasons. We see consequences play out past anyone's expectations both for good and ill. It's a sweeping novel, and I envy Russell's control of a shifting time scheme.

In the afterword, Russell says the main element she hopes readers take away with them is “Don't be so damn quick to judge!” I think this statement is a worthwhile one for everyone to take with them. Learning it while exploring Russell's brilliantly brought to life alien cultures is much easier than trying it in real life. I only wish there was one more featuring Rukuei's story as he ventures to H'earth. That is a whole different thematic palette I'd love to read

I'm a huge fan of Saga, and I wanted to try a new series on Free Comic Book Day when everything was on sale. I heard the hype about Vaughan's new work, and I don't think it was overestimated at all. Paper Girls is eerie, unsettling, and fascinating. It takes place in what appears to be a near future, but a lot is left unclear and adds to the haunting feeling of the story and art. The heroes, for paper delivery girls who have to be seriously hardcore to do their job, are all great examples of complex kids, being forced into adult roles and decisions. I'm eager to pick up the next volume.

A very surreal issue which was mostly to my taste although the first one with the toddler was a little much for me. If you have a young child, I'd put a few trigger warnings on that one. Overall though a quality issue of a quality magazine.

This collection has some interesting tie in stories to both The Wind Up Girl and The Water Knife which we're probably my favorites. Climate fiction is some of the scariest stuff out there. “The People of Sand and Slag” about broke my heart. There was only on story I didn't care for (the one where the man kills his wife ... title escaping me), but overall I thought it was an intriguing collection and definitely recommended for fans of his novels.

You can find my review of this as part of my review for the eBook Elric collection for [b:Elric of Melniboné 30036 Elric of Melniboné (The Elric Saga, #1) Michael Moorcock https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388345555l/30036.SY75.jpg 388812]

I teach. I'm supposed to be up to date on my children's books, but I've had a long line of grown-up books I've been plowing through this summer, and now suddenly it's August and there's going to be children in my neat, perfect classroom in a couple of weeks and I need something new to read to them, STAT! Last year, my teaching partner recommended this book to me, and now I have to write her a letter of gratitude. This is definitely going to be one of my read-aloud's this year.

Good books sometimes have bad covers, but good covers are usually good books too, and this one gripped me with the visual right away. A modern writer working in the Chinese fantasy paradigm with dragons? That is all sorts of in my wheelhouse. But wait, there's more. Grace Lin takes the opportunity of the journey of Minli to reinterpret a dozen or so class Chinese folk tales, something that my classroom library is sadly missing and something I would struggle to get my students to pick up to begin with.

Lin's style is my favorite thing about this book. The voice narrating this tale perfectly complements the content, a high-fantasy Narrator archetype who is nevertheless easy to read and understand. Her language is mixed and stoked with vivid imagery that makes this strange world entirely palpable. The story flows from Minli's journey through the hidden stories and ties each one together with satisfying neatness. Indeed, it isn't hard at all to believe this is story right out of the Old Man of the Moon's book, held together with perfect read thread. Lin's stories are not true re-tellings, but her own fantastic interpretations without the history or politics of many of the original tales.

It's an opportunity to teach kids about re-reading, prediction, symbolism, metaphor, and diversity all in one. I'm very eager to share this book with my class and fellow teachers. I read it over the course of two days, so it doesn't take long acquaint yourself with. Highly recommended for anyone with a love of folktales and a taste for a good hero's journey. Short chapters and fast pacing make it an ideal read-aloud novel.

The James S.A. Corey team did a fantastic job of wrapping up the Expanse Trilogy. There isn't that much I can say about it that I haven't already said for the previous two books. The dialogue is sharp, entertaining, and Whedonesque (The pain is Whedonesque too. So much pain). The characters are well-rounded, understandable if not always likable, and Holden in particular is a different person at the end than he was at the beginning or even in the second book. The new characters add another layer of depth and even spirituality to what was already a raucous adventure tale. The return of old ones (kinda) is welcome and not overdone.

There are some specific things that the Corey team does which set them apart from a lot of science fiction and clearly illustrate the advances in the genre. I like that in this book, a person's last name doesn't necessarily indicate their race. The picture of the future they paint is one in which we've pretty much crossbred enough that skin color, last names, gender, and sexuality have become silly ways to identify people. Everything seems downright Utopian from a contemporary civil rights perspective. So what do we do? We make new divisions. Now we've got Belters and Earthers and Martians and enough division there to keep humans snapping at each right up to Doomsday which is pretty much where the last book takes place.

I like that they show how humans gravitate towards an “Us vs. Them” mentality, and that even when faced with a horrific alien goo invasion, we are still pretty much the biggest threat in and of ourselves. I also like they the story remains hopeful, even as the authors increase their cruelty levels to Whedon levels for this last book.

I also have to say how much I like Clarissa. Well... not like like but enjoy reading her. I read an article recently that talked about how the trope of “Strong Female Character” is pretty empty if we don't also include horribly dysfunctional females as well. Clarissa is that. She's horribly dysfunctional, not at all evil, and a great little ticking time-bomb interpersed throughout this novel. She's a good foil to the primary antagonist since both of them are basically killing just out of a childish sense of pride magnified exponentially by stress, grief, and trauma.

I like Anna too. I like that this book has a spiritual center without ever getting preachy or heavy-handed. I imagine her playd by Gillian Anderson or Kate Mulgrew or one of the other badass heroes of my impressionable youth.

The book has its flaws. I pretty much picked out who wasn't going to make it to the end early on (the deaths all hurt but they are none of them at Firefly levels of cruelty). I can't speak for the science although the authors clearly did a lot of research on what life at zero g would be like. They are probably the team that most makes me feel the weirdness of that environment. It's not just people floating; it's downright unnatural and everything about it repeats that to the Earth-born characters. I also would've liked a bit more return to the protomolecule and some external antagonists, but that isn't really what the book is about. It's about humanity reaching for the stars and forgetting that stars are really, really hot.

The rating is for the whole trilogy. I definitely do not advise starting in the middle with this one, but put in the time and you will not regret it.

I'm constitutionally unable to not purchase a Gaiman comic on sight. Accidentally bought this when I went to pick up my pull list. It's not my favorite short story of his, but it's definitely a good one. It's fun looking into the world of an adolescent boy and realizing that to him, girls are so very alien. And then... they actually are aliens. The art does great justice to the story, especially the final scene with Stella on the stairs. That's a panel that will stick with you. All in all, a great piece for any lover of Gaiman, comics, or Gaiman comics.

I really like the James S.A. Corey team up. I enjoy the way they organize their stories so that the fact that there are 2 people writing this really doesn't become an issue. The chapter structure aligned with each of the 4 POVs provides variety in the writing and helps keep the pace fairly brisk considering the length of the book.

I read Leviathan Wakes last year and loved it, but have had the sequel sort of sitting on my shelf. Part of the reason was I wasn't sure I wanted to continue without Miller's viewpoint. I don't mind Holden, but he was a little too simple for my tastes. The three new POV characters, however, were all equally engaging, particularly Avasarala. I love a foul-mouthed grandmother, okay? Who doesn't? The Firefly vibe is still pretty strong in this second volume and the dialogue has a distinctly Whedon feel. That's probably a big part of why I like the series so much, though.

I liked the emphasis the book had on Holden's character slowly turning into Miller. To me, it said this is what happens to you if you work for The Man too long. Holden takes a lot of shortcuts on his idealism road, and it's interesting to watch him shift between idealism and pragmatism instead of just choosing the moral high road by default. Contrasting him against Prax was a nice touch. That said, I thought the transformation was a little forced at times and could have used some more fleshing out in the beginning of the novel instead of everyone suddenly shouting “You're turning into Miller!” in the middle.

Now... as for the ending. Holy freaking flying monkeys! I expected Miller's consciousness to survive the protomolecule's sciency woogledy boogledy Venus takeover, but I did not expect him to just appear in the hallway. I had to go back and re-read that page just to make sure I wasn't grossly misinterpreting something/Holden was having a hallucination of some sort. Nope. Looks legit. I am not sure whether this is sloppy or awesome yet and really need the third book to find out. The first book left me comfortable waiting to see what happened next. This one emphatically does not and book 3 isn't out till June. Damn it.

Overall, a very fun space opera shoot ‘em up with witty dialogue and fun characters. Any Firefly fans out there should give this series a go. I suggest you wait until book 3 is out in June though because I am going to spend the interim blinking in confuzzlement.