aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. Also, I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.
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64% complete! Phil in SF has read 18 of 28 books.
With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, …
What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words? …
New book on the If Books Could Kill podcast!
Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless …
John Chenneville wakes up in a Union Army field hospital after being unconscious for months due to a serious head wound. He returns home only to find out his sister has been murdered while he was a soldier. The murderer appears to be a local deputy, so the sheriff doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it. John swears revenge, and thus begins a multi-state chase via foot, horseback, and boat. Along the way John meets a young female telegrapher but he is resolute on revenge instead of love.
The story is made by lots and lots of details about life on the post Civil War road that illustrate both his personality and what life was (presumably) like for an unattached veteran at the time. Additionally, the narration by Grover Gardner has just the right amount of gravelly old gentleman in it for the story.
Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption …
The first international history of railroads and railroad infrastructure told through stunningly reproduced maps.
Since …
The peak year for the number of collieries in South Wales was 1910, when there were 688.
— A History of the Railroad in 100 Maps by Jeremy Black (Page 122)
new vocabulary: colliery
a coal mine and the buildings and equipment associated with it.
The first international history of railroads and railroad infrastructure told through stunningly reproduced maps.
Since …
Making an effort to get a few pages read every week.
Phil in SF
boosted
He was supposed to be a myth. But from the moment I crossed the River …
So this was overall enjoyable, but if you're thinking of reading it due to being touted as a "retelling" of Greek myths with some spice sprinkled through, just skip it. The names and the places are the only part that really have to do with Greek mythology. This could have easily just been skinned over with a different world and felt the same. Even the power struggles are pretty minute. Definitely over-hyped, but I've read worse. I'll be continuing with some of the books just to see how they measure up.
Phil in SF
boosted
In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, …
This book is off the #SFFBookClub backlog, and I saw it mentioned on Imperfect Speculation (a blog about disability in speculative fiction).
The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future world where most people have lost the ability to dream, and the only "cure" is through the exploitation of bone marrow from indigenous people who still can. The book follows Frenchie, a Métis boy who has lost everybody he cares about and travels with a found family trying to find safety and community. The metaphor here resonates directly with the horrors of Canada past, as armed "recruiters" capture anybody who looks indigenous to send them off to "schools" to extract their bone marrow.
I know this is a YA novel, but I wish some of the characters and the protagonist Frenchie had more depth. Maybe this would land better for somebody else, but I also don't have any room …
This book is off the #SFFBookClub backlog, and I saw it mentioned on Imperfect Speculation (a blog about disability in speculative fiction).
The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future world where most people have lost the ability to dream, and the only "cure" is through the exploitation of bone marrow from indigenous people who still can. The book follows Frenchie, a Métis boy who has lost everybody he cares about and travels with a found family trying to find safety and community. The metaphor here resonates directly with the horrors of Canada past, as armed "recruiters" capture anybody who looks indigenous to send them off to "schools" to extract their bone marrow.
I know this is a YA novel, but I wish some of the characters and the protagonist Frenchie had more depth. Maybe this would land better for somebody else, but I also don't have any room in my heart for jealousy subplots, and the one here did not create any extra characterization that could have made it interesting.
Even if some of the plot points felt a bit weak and unearned, the book still ended in a very emotionally resonant way that worked for me.
Phil in SF
boosted
After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of …
Overall feelings: the ideas were fun, the middle felt like it dragged on, and the politics often felt heavy handed
The part of this book that I enjoyed the most and felt like was the strongest was all of the interpersonal dynamics. The first book ends with waking up the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, who in this book takes control immediately. The triangle dynamics of Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi from the first book are broken up, with Shimin hostaged, Yizhi becoming Qin Zheng's advisor, and Zetian becoming Qing Zheng's wife. There's a lot of good tension between the fact that Qin Zheng is an authoritarian tyrant that rules with violence, but also establishes some policies that try to address inequalities from the previous regime. Zetian loathes his controlling nature, but also finds that he listens and can be extremely reasonable when given policy advice. And, all in the background, the …
Overall feelings: the ideas were fun, the middle felt like it dragged on, and the politics often felt heavy handed
The part of this book that I enjoyed the most and felt like was the strongest was all of the interpersonal dynamics. The first book ends with waking up the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, who in this book takes control immediately. The triangle dynamics of Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi from the first book are broken up, with Shimin hostaged, Yizhi becoming Qin Zheng's advisor, and Zetian becoming Qing Zheng's wife. There's a lot of good tension between the fact that Qin Zheng is an authoritarian tyrant that rules with violence, but also establishes some policies that try to address inequalities from the previous regime. Zetian loathes his controlling nature, but also finds that he listens and can be extremely reasonable when given policy advice. And, all in the background, the gods are manipulating everybody and everybody is trying to deceive each other and the gods. It adds up to a nuanced dynamic that was really intriguing to me.
Another thing I liked is that the ending of this book (like the ending of the first) is a great escalation. The first book ended with "oh wow, you're just going to reveal for free that [major spoiler]". The ending to this book likewise breaks up established dynamics, creates additional tensions, and remixes and stirs up interpersonal conflicts.
That said, I do think that it just took a while to get to this ending. The politics felt didactic and heavy handed to me, and the overall plot was much slower than the first book.
Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband; a palatial house in the heart …
Been sitting on my TBR long enough that the publisher has actually retitled the book as The Lagos Wife.
Ronald T. Turner is prepared for anything. And the zombies are prepared for him.
Content warning Spoils a punch-line that's not good enough to really worry about spoiling but nevertheless here we are
Small bite-sized that's barely a short story. Ronald Turner has thought through all the zombie scenarios and thinks he prepared for all of them, but they get him anyway. All to set up a a bit about zombies without teeth that's not really funny.
Ronald T. Turner is prepared for anything. And the zombies are prepared for him.
In a quiet residential area in London, a couple is discovered bound and imprisoned in …
Jack Caffery, brilliant detective whose past includes his brother disappearing and likely killed by a pedophile next door, is put on a case where a child is missing and increasingly likely to be dead after a pedophile ties a family up and does unspeakable things to the family. In fact, there may even be overlap between the current case and the long ago case of his brother.
The story is intense and fucked up. The families of the child victims are somewhat unlikable, and Hayder writes too many characters to make the reader think they may also be pedophiles. So while it's a well-written police procedural, I am not going to keep reading the series. Child abuse is just too infused into every aspect of the story and I'd rather read something not so depraved.
In a quiet residential area in London, a couple is discovered bound and imprisoned in their own home. Savagely battered …
In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the …
Here's the premise: Humans explore space, establishing settlements across the galaxy. Something happens, and all the settlements are on their own for hundreds of years. Many devolve to pre-industrial states without connection to other settlements. A revived Earth sends out research missions to all the settlements with a Prime Directive like instruction to observe but not interfere. But then something happens again and all the research missions lose contact with Earth, stranding researchers, who have access to life-extending health technology as well as other machines not available to local settlements.
Nyr is the stranded anthropologist. Lynesse, aka Lyn, is local settlement royalty, but is the 4th, and least important daughter. A corruption starts defeating outlying kingdoms. Royalty doesn't care much because they are outlying. Lynesse sees a bigger danger, and sets off to find the wizard of legend (Nyr) to convince him to help. Isolated and lonely, he agrees.
The …
Here's the premise: Humans explore space, establishing settlements across the galaxy. Something happens, and all the settlements are on their own for hundreds of years. Many devolve to pre-industrial states without connection to other settlements. A revived Earth sends out research missions to all the settlements with a Prime Directive like instruction to observe but not interfere. But then something happens again and all the research missions lose contact with Earth, stranding researchers, who have access to life-extending health technology as well as other machines not available to local settlements.
Nyr is the stranded anthropologist. Lynesse, aka Lyn, is local settlement royalty, but is the 4th, and least important daughter. A corruption starts defeating outlying kingdoms. Royalty doesn't care much because they are outlying. Lynesse sees a bigger danger, and sets off to find the wizard of legend (Nyr) to convince him to help. Isolated and lonely, he agrees.
The story follows them in their journey, alternating points of view between Nyr and Lynesse. To him, it's just technology. To her, it's magic. They struggle to connect, and both struggle to understand if they have a chance to defeat a demon made of stuff that is unknown to both of them.
On the one hand, it's a lovely story of people trying to, and ultimately, coming together. And I mostly relate to it on that level. But also, there's a germ of ick at a dude who uses a vast power difference to be the impressive cool wizard. Tchaikovsky does a pretty good job of threading the needle so that Lynesse is both able to be impressed and also together enough not be be naive about the ancient wizard.
