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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Success! Phil in SF has read 34 of 28 books.
In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Jack Caffery …
Content warning spoiler for what's happened so far
The police have already figured out the murders that happened at the beginning of the book. But there's 16 chapters to go, so something is up. It's been quite good so far.
Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …
There's a lot of sex in the first 31% (according to Kobo) of this book and I have to put it down because writing that makes sex this tedious ain't for me.
So far, Merry Gentry:
There's a lot of sex in the first 31% (according to Kobo) of this book and I have to put it down because writing that makes sex this tedious ain't for me.
So far, Merry Gentry:
None of them make much sense and drag on with how sexy and good at sex faeries are because eye color and auras and somesuch
I gave up.
Phil in SF
boosted
San Bruno Mountain, located in the center of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a …
This book describes the plants (and some other things like geology and animals) of San Bruno Mountain, a park nestled between San Francisco, San Francisco Airport, and Daly City. San Bruno Mountain contains more species than most pieces of land its size and features diverse microclimates, for example from the foggy west to the drier parts near the bay, or from shaded canyons to exposed mountaintops.
This book is up to date, contains beautiful photographs, and great information on what is found on the mountain.
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman …
Jade's life has been unraveling since her father died a decade ago. A rare illness causes her to drop out of medical school track. A breakup with a shitty self-help guru leaves Jade effectively homeless. And then, Jade sees her father through the window of a restaurant on her annual pilgrimage to New York City to remember him. Could her father be alive?
Cardboard-thin caricatures for the characters in this story, and card-board thin machinations comprise the plot, and the last third of the book is exposition on what really happened and that's done in a flat and uncreative fashion.
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman to unlock the secrets and …
Jon and Toku travel the universe suspended in Interdream, only waking up to check up …
A pair of aliens show up to Earth expecting a planet where humans have killed each other off and they can harvest all the leftovers. The incredulity of the aliens toward the still living humans reminds me a bit of They're Made of Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman to unlock the secrets and …
Humans live deep within an apparently lifeless planet covered by massive ice sheets. Having to …
Osaji feels stifled by life on Benn, a water planet where humans live in biological arks that float beneath the surface and which supply their needs in the water environment. Benn is very polite, and people are not adventurous. Jack Halliday is an offworlder stuck on Benn for some reason which I've forgotten, and he feels even more stifled.
A disaster strikes the cluster of arks, and Osaji, her grandmother Mota, and Jack find themselves on a disconnected ark outside the protected gulf where everyone lives. They get to go on an adventures, reconcile their differing viewpoints on life, and along the way get to view the unknown life that populates the wilder parts of the Bennite ocean that noone has ever encountered.
Solid hard-SF novella. Everyone has a personality, even if they are a bit archetypical. Fun imagining of a human society and its biological support that could be …
Osaji feels stifled by life on Benn, a water planet where humans live in biological arks that float beneath the surface and which supply their needs in the water environment. Benn is very polite, and people are not adventurous. Jack Halliday is an offworlder stuck on Benn for some reason which I've forgotten, and he feels even more stifled.
A disaster strikes the cluster of arks, and Osaji, her grandmother Mota, and Jack find themselves on a disconnected ark outside the protected gulf where everyone lives. They get to go on an adventures, reconcile their differing viewpoints on life, and along the way get to view the unknown life that populates the wilder parts of the Bennite ocean that noone has ever encountered.
Solid hard-SF novella. Everyone has a personality, even if they are a bit archetypical. Fun imagining of a human society and its biological support that could be on an underwater world. That everyone lives in one protected area and noone has surveyed the rest of the planet seems a little contrived in order to tell a story of exploration & adventure. But I've also seen worse setups.
Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …
Had this in my TBR for a while (since like 2009). Let's see if I like it.
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by …
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
Next week: another deputy minister caught out on charges of peculation, or whatever.
— Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) (84%)
New vocabulary: peculate
embezzle or steal (money, especially public funds)
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
Beside her, Pilot Officer Parnell adjusted the leads and cannulas to his headset and settled more comfortably into his padded chair, ready for the neurological control of the upcoming wormhole jump.
— Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) (37%)
new vocabulary: cannula
a thin tube inserted into a vein or body cavity to administer medication, drain off fluid, or insert a surgical instrument.
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
The earth still breathed a comfortable warmth from the heat of the afternoon, and the stream purled softly in the stillness.
— Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) (17%)
new vocabulary: purl
(of a stream) Flow with a swirling motion and babbling sound
Phil in SF
boosted
A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in …
Right away I realised that this was not my usual type of book, and if I'd actually read the entire jacket before before starting, I probably would not have given it a shot. But I'm glad I did.
The protagonist has all the hallmarks of being one of these unrelatable characters that has all these gifts (beauty, wealth, normativity) while still feeling sorry for themselves, but if I was ever annoyed at Oona it was because the writer wanted me to be, and even then it didn't last for long.
The characters are so fun and physically present. The chapters/sections are a nice, medium length. The plot moves along at a great pace, and each "leap" brings about an exciting paradigm shift that has you excited to keep reading.
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if the premise sounds tantalising to you, you should at least read until the …
Right away I realised that this was not my usual type of book, and if I'd actually read the entire jacket before before starting, I probably would not have given it a shot. But I'm glad I did.
The protagonist has all the hallmarks of being one of these unrelatable characters that has all these gifts (beauty, wealth, normativity) while still feeling sorry for themselves, but if I was ever annoyed at Oona it was because the writer wanted me to be, and even then it didn't last for long.
The characters are so fun and physically present. The chapters/sections are a nice, medium length. The plot moves along at a great pace, and each "leap" brings about an exciting paradigm shift that has you excited to keep reading.
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if the premise sounds tantalising to you, you should at least read until the second chapter.
Also the last lines of the book put forward a terse little thesis that would be the perfect thing for a book club to discuss.
