Reviews and Comments

A difficult thing about sequels in SFF is that, a lot of the time, a big part of the appeal of the original is being introduced to a new universe, and of course you don't get that in a sequel.

In Cosmic Survivors, I really enjoyed getting a deeper view into Vala's backstory, and I was pleasantly surprised by the (relatively) politically charged plotlines around the Cosmic Defenders, and the way it complicated Luxorian's relationships with their siblings. I did feel like there were a lot of references to Luxorian's anxiety around the thought of Finder's invention from the previous book, even though neither Finder nor the device made an appearance here.

The whole thing is still cozy and wholesome despite the heightened dramatic elements, and Luxorian remains a lovable curmudgeon.

It's time!

I feel like this one tried to do too much and kind of ended up all over the place as a result. Almost every major character in the entire craft sequence gets some pagetime, and it gets very hard to keep track of who's doing what to and/or with whom, and why.

The Obsidian Tower is driven by Frantic Protagonist Syndrome - the heroine, Ryx, rushes from bad decision to worse decision, impelled by an entirely artificial sense of urgency. It's obviously the planned start of a series, so a whole lot (a whole lot) of questions are left open, and very little is resolved in the end - I would be kind of interested in some of the answers, but not enough to endure another installment.

Monstrilio is one of those books about people's relationships, and how their choices affect the shape of their lives, that reviews well in The Atlantic, except it happens to contain a monster.

@picklish@weirder.earth recommended me this on a prompt of "I want to read new weird things" and it did not disappoint.

I like that the author didn't try to rationalize a suspension of disbelief about anything that happens - he was like "none of the characters know what's going on and neither will you".

Each section is from a different character's perspective, which is a fairly common mechanic, but each section covers an entire phase of the characters' lives, so there will be like a decade where we don't know what's happening in the relationship between two characters because neither of them has the mic.

Great space horror that has a classic vibe yet doesn't get all tropey

The framing of "point fives" is particularly thought-provoking given the steadily increasing number of news reports of llm-induced psychosis

#SFFBookClub