Reviews and Comments

Short, sharp, clever, and weirdly horny

A psychologist volunteers to join a small research and exploration team on an extraplanetary mission, drama ensues.

Ghost Station reminds me of Before Mars in a number of ways, the most important being that I really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing.

Now I'm off to go find something else by S.A. Barnes

I really dig the premise, but the execution bothered me a lot. Maybe they were just trying to do too much in a novella length, or maybe it's just me, but everything just felt rushed and clumsy. 🤷

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What’s that I see at the top of my reading pile?

Oh, NBD, just a copy of my book. Not its final form, but still, the first time I've held it in my hands.

A tangible version of something that’s existed in more abstract, emotional, and digital forms for years.

mastodon.scot/users/kristiedegaris/statuses/114319100705199265

I am so mad at this series for normalizing "gov-corp" in my brain 😡

Although set in the Planetfall universe, After Atlas is a crime novel that reminded me strongly of Stross's Halting State.

Carlos Moreno is the left-behind son of one of the Atlas passengers from Planetfall, and is now an investigator for the ministry of justice. The plot revolves around his investigation of a high-profile murder with Atlas connections.

There are strong themes around surveillance capitalism tech dystopia, coercion and slavery, and childhood trauma.

Really highlighting how annoying and disturbing ubiquitous ar/vr and "virtual assistants" would be in our existing capitalist hellscape

omg this is a gem, and I've slept on it for ten years!

Planetfall is a scifi novel about space exploration, community, betrayal, and mental illness, in no particular order. It's superbly written, and the characters are deep and complex, and the gradual unpacking of the narrative is masterful.

Close whatever you're reading this on and go read Planetfall!

The #SFFBookClub pick for April 2025

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart is a vignette about working through guilt and self-loathing toward self-forgiveness.

There's a lot going on in terms of themes: gender, transhumanism, anarchy and fascism, cloning, all mixed into a more standard crime plot.

Although the main thread is satisfactorily wrapped up, there's definitely room to explore the world further - I want more Dora!

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This is a book that isn't ashamed to show its influences - Interstellar space empire where magic shield belt technology has obsoleted guns in favor of knives and swords - "Highmatter swords" whose blades cut effortlessly through anything except each other, and whose blades can be summoned and dismissed from the hilt - Interstellar space empire that has regressed to feudalism, with the state religion taking a dominant role

There's some interesting stuff here, but there are also a lot of tired tropes. Every woman's appearance is described exhaustively. Every woman is either a love interest or an unfeminine drudge. The hereditary ruler scorns his intelligent, educated, hardworking son in favor of his other son who's a loutish brute.

It also has start-of-a-series syndrome - there's a lot of exposition and things started up, but hardly anything is concluded or resolved.

I don't know, I'm reading the next one, but

Astounding!! Finally you can see the cover of the anthology I've been working on for the past couple of years with co-editors @older@wandering.shop and Karen Lord! "We Will Rise Again" is full of essays, interviews, and speculative stories about protest, social movements, and hopeful resistance -- all informed by the experiences of real-life movement leaders and community organizers.

wandering.shop/@annaleen/114152401439112892

A very different book than The Space between Worlds, but equally good.

While TSBW kind of revolved around the interworld travel premise, Those Beyond the Wall is firmly rooted in "Earth 0"'s Ashtown. Mr. Scales has a wildly different perspective on the Ashtown oligarchy and culture than Cara did, and it's kind of fascinating to see some of the blind spots the author built in. Despite the very different plot foci, there are similar strong themes of antifascism, anticolonialism, and the struggle for justice.

It's even more gritty than the original, yet potentially more hopeful as well.

I would strongly recommend reading TSBW first, because a lot of the setting is taken for granted here.

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