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.
This link opens in a pop-up window
89% complete! Phil in SF has read 25 of 28 books.
Discharged from the Barrayan Military Academy, Miles Vorkosigan chances on a jumpship with a rebellious pilot and arranges to take …
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
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. …
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. Don't read this for the unexpected plot twists. Read this for the solid characterization and some clever plotting for how Cordelia turns her relationship with Aral into an advantage for her world, the Beta Colony.
In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Jack Caffery …
Really liked this. review this weekend.
Phil in SF
boosted
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.
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 …
