User Profile

Deborah Pickett

futzle@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Technical nonfiction and spec fiction. She/her. Melbourne, Australia. Generation X. Admin of Outside of a Dog. BDFL of Hometown (Mastodon) instance Old Mermaid Town (@futzle@old.mermaid.town). Avatar image is of a book that my dog tried to put on their inside.

My rating scale: ★ = I didn't care for it and probably didn't finish it; ★★ = It didn't inspire but I might have finished it anyway; ★★★ = It was fine; ★★★★ = I enjoyed it; ★★★★★ = I couldn't put it down.

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Deborah Pickett's books

To Read (View all 8)

Currently Reading

Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Hardcover, 2021, Tordotcom)

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …

Chambers is easy to read, and fortunately this one is not as Californian as some of her prior work. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is short, and clearly just the first episode in the Monk and Robot series.

I do wish that she had an editor, though, or at least a proofreader. Sometimes Chambers uses a word which I can only conclude is a malapropism—In this book, "erstwhile" (where I think she meant "estimable"? It's hard to know). Also one sentence which uses "they" pronouns for Mosscap, who is referred to throughout with "it".

Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Hardcover, 2020, Hanover Square Press)

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving …

This was fine. I didn't really get emotionally attached to any of the characters, and the premise was getting a bit worn by the end.

Sayaka Murata: Convenience Store Woman (2018)

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how …

Content warning Spoilers, plot of Convenience Store Woman

Paul J. McAuley: The Quiet War (2009, Gollancz)

It was fine. I didn't particularly love any of the characters, and I'm struggling to recall much of the plot now. I see it's the first in a series of four, and I can borrow the second, so maybe I will check it out at some point.