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el dang Locked account

eldang@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 2 years, 4 months ago

Also @eldang@weirder.earth

I am an enthusiastic member of #SFFBookClub so a lot of what I'm reading is suggestions from there.

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el dang's books

Currently Reading (View all 6)

Maleea Acker: Hesitating Once to Feel Glory (2022, Nightwood Editions) No rating

Maleea Acker’s dauntless new poetry collection is crafted with emotion and bold style.

Any …

The author is a geography professor at the University of Victoria, who I have got to know a bit through a shared interest in watersheds and water management. I knew she was also a published poet, but had filed that away in the back of my mind until seeing this volume at a bookstore and wondering why the poet's name sounded familiar.

Fonda Lee: Untethered Sky (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

Ester's family was torn apart when a manticore killed her mother and baby brother, leaving …

A good story in a world that sometimes felt a little flat

This is a good story well told, but I could really feel the difference between the setting here and the extremely real Janloon of the Green Bone books.

Lina Rather: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

A surprisingly fun exploration of some heavy themes

I loved this book for several things:

  • How real and solid the historical-London setting felt. I'm used to that sort of thing feeling very flimsy, but this is an author who clearly does deep research and lets it suffuse the writing without getting all 'splainy.
  • The very palpable tension between the protagonist's precarious position and her need to have some freedom.
  • The delightful-if-implausable retconning of Sir Christopher Wren's secret motive for shaping London the way he did.

#SFFBookClub

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If you've ever tried to follow @eldang@outside.ofa.dog and had the request ignored, please try again. Our Fearless Sysadmin just upgraded us to the latest Bookwyrm version and I can already see that this has fixed some other bugs.

Angela Rodel, Georgi Gospodinov: Time Shelter (2022, Liveright Publishing Corporation) No rating

A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …

About halfway through and I have mixed feelings about this book. I find the plot such as there is one quite interesting and a very good vehicle for dissecting/mocking the 2010s-2020s turn to fascism. And I like the writing itself a lot. But Gospodinov seems perpetually unsure whether he's writing a novel or an essay.

The thing that's keeping me going is that he's a good enough writer and observer for it to be an enjoyable essay, but I am increasingly finding myself wanting the essayish digressions to get shorter so the plot can move more.

#SFFBookClub

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Jamison Shea: I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call (2024, Hot Key Books)

You want it darker?

I loved how this picked up from where book 1 left off and immediately ripped any optimism to shreds. It was a gripping read with the painful twist that it keeps me cheering for Laure even when Laure is being terrible. I found the primary antagonist a little flat, though - "the whole Paris Ballet and all its insiders" just made such a good villain in book 1 than I don't think "a bitter individual" can compare.

Annalee Newitz (duplicate): Automatic Noodle (2025, Tor Publishing Group)

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