Outside of a Dog

Tak! reviewed The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (The Gilded Ones, #1)

Namina Forna: The Gilded Ones (Hardcover, 2021, Delacorte Press)

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether …

3 stars

The Gilded Ones is a fantasy epic set in a Handmaid's Tale esque dystopia where women and girls are subject to strict social rules, on pain of physical punishment and death.

The tone is very YA, although the subject matter is full of graphic violence and (thankfully nongraphic) rape.

The setting is interesting, but the plot is kind of nonsensical and the author goes hard on the chosen one trope.

The Gilded Ones is a fantasy epic set in a Handmaid's Tale esque dystopia where women and girls are subject to strict social rules, on pain of physical punishment and death.

The tone is very YA, although the subject matter is full of graphic violence and (thankfully nongraphic) rape.

The setting is interesting, but the plot is kind of nonsensical and the author goes hard on the chosen one trope.

Tak! quoted The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (The Gilded Ones, #1)

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether …

Today is the Ritual of Purity.

— The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (The Gilded Ones, #1)

#OpeningSentence

Tak! reviewed The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Antonia Hodgson: The Raven Scholar (2025, Hodder & Stoughton)

She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with …

5 stars

I thought The Raven Scholar was refreshing and original.

It has some familiar tropes (the unappreciated, hypercompetent loner; multiple factions competing in a deadly tournament), but does a great job of avoiding cliches and subverting expectations.

There were a couple of places I was annoyed by the narration seeming to jump between character-limited and omniscient, but this is a minor quibble.

Despite apparently being the opener of a trilogy, it does a good job of telling a complete story and wrapping up the first phase of events.

Tak! quoted The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with …

There were many things Neema might do, in an emergency. Stealing from a library was not one of them.

— The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Tak! quoted The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with …

“Sorry,” she said to the book, and pressed the torn segments together.

— The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Tak! quoted The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with …

Once they made sacrifices here, to appease the Eight.

— The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

#OpeningSentence

Tak! reviewed Automatic Noodle

From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella …

5 stars

Automatic Noodle was short and flavorful.

The story of a group of sentient robots who start a noodle restaurant after California secedes from the US, it's primarily about autonomy, identity, and chosen family.

Automatic Noodle was short and flavorful.

The story of a group of sentient robots who start a noodle restaurant after California secedes from the US, it's primarily about autonomy, identity, and chosen family.

Tak! quoted Automatic Noodle

From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella …

Still, humans were humans. They wanted you to know their opinions about your body, even if you hadn’t asked.

— Automatic Noodle

Tak! quoted Automatic Noodle

From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella …

Thanks. I really don’t want to get sent back to America. Fuck that place. It’s a hellhole run by garbage cans.

— Automatic Noodle

Tak! reviewed The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish: The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings

No rating

When I was a kid, I had an old copy of The Three Musketeers, an english translation, and it was loaded with verbose, repetitive phrases that didn't really add any meaning. Kid Me decided that this was just how old-timey people talked (and wrote). Later I read a french edition and decided that the translation I had gotten was just overly literal. Now, having read "The description of a new world, called the Blazing-World, and other writings", I'm back to thinking that Kid Me had the right of it.

I read this because it was proposed as potentially the first science fiction novel, and while it's kind of interesting in a historic and linguistic way, it falls pretty solidly in the "I read this so you don't have to" category. In modern terms, I'd file it under fantasy - a noblewoman gets kidnapped and then isekai'd to another world, …

When I was a kid, I had an old copy of The Three Musketeers, an english translation, and it was loaded with verbose, repetitive phrases that didn't really add any meaning. Kid Me decided that this was just how old-timey people talked (and wrote). Later I read a french edition and decided that the translation I had gotten was just overly literal. Now, having read "The description of a new world, called the Blazing-World, and other writings", I'm back to thinking that Kid Me had the right of it.

I read this because it was proposed as potentially the first science fiction novel, and while it's kind of interesting in a historic and linguistic way, it falls pretty solidly in the "I read this so you don't have to" category. In modern terms, I'd file it under fantasy - a noblewoman gets kidnapped and then isekai'd to another world, of which she immediately becomes empress. She spends about half the book grilling her new followers, various types of anthropomorphic animals, about how things work on their world, and they reply with reams of pseudoscientific waffle. She also becomes "Platonic Lovers" with the literal soul of the author. It is nonsensical, extremely verbose, and rambling.

Tak! quoted The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

No rating

and truly their meeting did produce such an intimate friendship between them, that they became Platonick Lovers, although they were both Femals.

— The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

Tak! commented on The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

No rating

I'm kind of fascinated by some of the linguistic differences - for example, she repeatedly uses "onely" for "only", and also "several" to mean separate or distinct (as in "on three several occasions I saw…")

Tak! quoted The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

No rating

But said the Empress, there is some likeness between Maggots and Cheese; for Cheese has no blood, nor Maggots neither; besides, they have almost the same taste which Cheese has.

— The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

👀

Tak! quoted The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

No rating

A Merchant travelling into a foreign Country, fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady; but being a stranger in that Nation, and beneath her, both in Birth and Wealth, he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire; however his Love growing more and more vehement upon him, even to the slighting of all difficulties, he resolved at last to Steal her away; which he had the better opportunity to do, because her Father's house was not far from the Sea, and she often using to gather shells upon the shore accompanied not with above two to three of her servants it encouraged him the more to execute his design.

— The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

#OpeningSentence

Tak! quoted Sunward by William Alexander

William Alexander: Sunward (Paperback, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers)

Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her …

Preconscious algorithms periodically threaten to bury authors beneath an avalanche of debased language reduced to gray goo. Such regurgitating formulae are capable of churning out words like factory-baked slices of fungal bread, devoid of understanding or communion.

— Sunward by William Alexander

#SFFBookClub