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Phil in SF

kingrat@sfba.club

Joined 1 year, 3 months ago

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.

2024 In The Books

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Phil in SF's books

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46% complete! Phil in SF has read 13 of 28 books.

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Warrior's Apprentice (EBook, 2018, Spetrum Literary Agency) 4 stars

Discharged from the Barrayan Military Academy, Miles Vorkosigan chances on a jumpship with a rebellious …

There was another view of the fight between Elena and the Pelian on the screens; Miles had a dizzy sense of being in two places at once, as if his atman had left his body, then realized he was looking at them through another Oseran's suit.

The Warrior's Apprentice by  (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) (50%)

new vocabulary: atman

  1. The spiritual life principle of the universe, especially when regarded as immanent in the individual's real self.

  2. A person's soul.

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Warrior's Apprentice (EBook, 2018, Spetrum Literary Agency) 4 stars

Discharged from the Barrayan Military Academy, Miles Vorkosigan chances on a jumpship with a rebellious …

But she nailed me a while ago, when she couldn't find Aral— seems she wants Aral to stand the boy up in a corner somewhere and brace him for – er –swiving the servant girls, which ought to embarrass them both thoroughly.

The Warrior's Apprentice by  (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) (13%)

new vocabulary: swive

have sexual intercourse with

avatar for kingrat Phil in SF boosted
Kritika Rao: Surviving Sky (2023, DAW) 3 stars

High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, …

3.75/5⭐ reading experience, but the world build/story couldn't stick the landing. #bookstodon

3 stars

Good job really exploring a broken marriage. Plant-based tech was neat, though hard to conclude

reviewed Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)

Lois McMaster Bujold: Shards of Honor (EBook, 2018, Spectrum Literary Agency) 4 stars

When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …

Enemies to lovers

3 stars

Cordelia Naismith's science team is ambushed by a Barrayaran military unit while conducting a survey of what they thought was an unclaimed world. In a double-cross, some in the unit mutiny and strand their leader Aral Vorkosigan on the planet as well. Vorkosigan, known as the butcher of Komarr for slaughtering innocent people there, has claims to wanting a bloodless capture. In order to survive, both of them must trek tens of kilometers to a claimed supply cache and learn to trust each other.

Thus begins a number of encounters between Cordelia and Aral, interspersed with a few scenes of Cordelia on her own. Nobody believes her that she thinks Aral is different. And will Aral be forced by his war-like society to live up to the stereotypes with respect to Cordelia?

I'm not going to explicitly spoil this, but this follows romance rules in a very romance inspired book. …

avatar for kingrat Phil in SF boosted
Rosalie Knecht, Elisabeth Rodgers: Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery (AudiobookFormat, Blackstone Pub, Blackstone Publishing) 5 stars

Great mystery set during the 60s

5 stars

Set in the 60s, Vera Kelley is a lesbian spy in the CIA who leaves CIA when they leave her hanging during a hairy time in Argentina. She loses her next job when the manager finds out she is lesbian. She turns to being a private investigator putting her spying skills to good use. This book touches upon the US intervention in Dominican Republic and how much it did to prop up a dictator while also being a mystery that touches on the foster care system and how screwed up it is. Really loved the atmosphere setting which felt very lived in and how difficult it must have been for LGBTQ+ folks to be surviving in the middle of it all and yet they did.

commented on Birdman by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #1)

Mo Hayder: Birdman (EBook, 2012, Grove Press) 4 stars

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

reviewed A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry, #1)

Laurell K. Hamilton: A Kiss of Shadows (EBook, 2001, Ballantine Books) 2 stars

Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …

Tedious

2 stars

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:

  • gets a microphone implanted in her bra with a roomful of men, many of whom leer because it's just polite to harass a faery
  • goes undercover and we get a magically caused but still lustful rape including a mysterious magical faery occluded in a darkened mirror and spiders
  • a near orgy when being questioned by skeptical police
  • magical sex that restores a seal faery's ability to become a seal again
  • an exhibitionist shower scene for the benefit of the boss
  • a boring ass chase scene on Sepulveda Blvd where unseen monsters poke holes in the side of a van
  • and an I'll show you mine if you show me yours scene with a stomach …