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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What is the true origin of the phrase 'one fell swoop'? Does the word 'honeymoon' …
It's weird that the title of this book is exactly one of the folk etymologies that the author is keen to dispel. I guess it's what sells.
What is the true origin of the phrase 'one fell swoop'? Does the word 'honeymoon' …
From the tsundoku pile.
Back cover description - Raoul Smythe wanted nothing more than to be left alone with …
I shouldn’t expect too much from a first-time author under the Del Rey label, but Shade & Shadow feels like two stories—one about magic research, one about the murder—smushed together. The former wasn’t really hashed out properly, and the latter was acceptable but with some poorly chosen red herrings.
Back cover description - Raoul Smythe wanted nothing more than to be left alone with his computer research. Unfortunately, such …
@jfinkhaeuser@bookwyrm.social I was gifted this a couple of years ago and I am still dipping into it. Agree it’s not something you’d want to read more than a page or two of as a time. So many of the words are melancholy or of loss, best sipped at sparingly.
Back cover description - Raoul Smythe wanted nothing more than to be left alone with his computer research. Unfortunately, such …
Picked five stories in this collection, published in the 1970s and 1980s. Bounced off two of them. Annoyed at Bear’s depiction of women in two more of them—one featured negative portrayals of sex work and one simply had no women in it. I can get better stories than these.
A collection of short stories by Bear from the 1980s. I’ve been bouncing off 1980s sf lately because of its pervasive cishet maleness, so let’s see how far I get.
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris …
Content warning Murderbot 3 "Rogue Protocol" spoilers
Ok, I think I'm going to take a short breather before I tackle the next in this series. The stories are starting to feel a bit samey and Murderbot's prejudices about humans and other bots are grating a bit.
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more …
It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen …
It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past …
Content warning Spoilers, Murderbot 2: Artificial Condition
This one was OK. The plot felt less well-formed than All Systems Red. Murderbot’s relationship with ART jumped implausibly from ART being controlling to cooperating. Solving the Tlacey problem with violence felt like a cop-out.
It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen …
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
Content warning Plot spoilers
One of the things I like about recent sf is that it doesn’t feel the need to adhere to the old tropes. The protagonist’s secret comes out, and unlike in old sf where there would have been hand-wringing and ostracism, the allies accept the new information, accept the protagonist, and the story moves on. Old sf would definitely have killed off one of the protagonist’s group for shock value, but that isn’t a given nowadays. Old sf likes to explore the axis of the powerful against the underdog, but now the force driving the story is bureaucracy, opportunism, and selfishness. I like this first Murderbot story because it (the story, but also Murderbot) is relatable.
