Tak! commented on A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather
The #SFFBookClub pick for September 2025
Reviews and Comments
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Tak! reviewed Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions …
Under the Eye of the Big Bird
3 stars
This felt to me like a much more surreal variant of North Continent Ribbon. Each story/chapter was a continuation or a tangent of a previous one, but I don't feel like the whole contributed much to a more coherent understanding of the whole picture. Overall, the vibe was very vague, and I'm not sure how much I took away from the experience.
Tak! rated Where the Axe Is Buried: 5 stars
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his …
Tak! commented on Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions …
The #SFFBookClub selection for August 2025
Tak! reviewed North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher
On Nakharat, every contract is a ribbon and every ribbon is a secret, braided tight …
North Continent Ribbon
4 stars
Cloud Atlas vibes, good writing, great settings
Tak! reviewed Saturation Point by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A group of scientists and soldiers are hunted by mysterious enemies in a terrifying new …
Saturation Point
5 stars
Clever and grim near-future climate catastrophe scifi
Tak! reviewed A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors …
A Sorceress Comes to Call
5 stars
Surprisingly (to me) dark fantasy about a girl whose abusive mother is trying to seduce and manipulate her way into the aristocracy
Tak! reviewed Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
Full Speed to a Crash Landing
3 stars
A shallow, funny scifi heist novel, basically a Janet Evanovich in space
Tak! reviewed Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado
Pocket World―a geographically small, hidden offshoot of our own reality, sped up or slowed down …
Time's Agent
4 stars
BLEAK
Tak! reviewed Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba
In this an enthralling Filipino-inspired epic fantasy, a nun concealing a goddess-given gift is unwillingly …
Saints of Storm and Sorrow
4 stars
Content warning spoilers
Despite the overt themes of colonialism and religious imperialism, Saints of Storm and Sorrow feels primarily like a story about toxic relationships - Catalina's abusive partnership with Lunurin, Alon's self-destructive infatuation with Lunurin (and Lunurin's knowing, cynical usage of it), Alon's father's abusive treatment of Alon, even the goddess's relationship with Lunurin.
The hollywood ending feels good, but I have to wonder if any of these characters is undamaged enough to live Happily Ever After.
Tak! reviewed Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Shroud
5 stars
I devoured Shroud. This is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his scifi best - truly alien aliens and humans being humans, engrossing drama ensues.
Tak! reviewed Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov
Refusing the queen’s order to gas a crowd of protesters, Minister Shea Ashcroft is banished …
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory
3 stars
I didn't enjoy this one, and I don't know if I can explain why. The whole thing has kind of a 70s scifi vibe (derogatory). The protagonist is shallow and self-serving, but not in an interesting way. There are interesting things about the world, but we barely explore them because we're chasing the dull protagonist. 🤷
Tak! commented on Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov
Refusing the queen’s order to gas a crowd of protesters, Minister Shea Ashcroft is banished …
Someday I will read a book by a russian author that doesn't have alcoholism as a theme
Tak! commented on In Universes by Emet North
For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel …
Ok, I made it through seven chapters, but this book is really not for me, in more ways than one.
Each chapter is a vignette of the protagonist's life in (apparently) a different parallel universe. Maybe they tie together in the end, I don't know. It doesn't help that I find the main character very unlikable in all her incarnations. It feels very inspired by Cloud Atlas, but not in a good way imo.
Tak! reviewed A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant …
A Drop of Corruption
4 stars
A Drop of Corruption was a great followup to The Tainted Cup.
I love the universe, it's so delightfully weird and mysterious. Additionally, I appreciate that Din, despite being A Watson, actually does the majority of solving things and unraveling the story, instead of just floundering around until his Holmes solves everything.