Reviews and Comments

Deborah Pickett

futzle@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 3 years, 2 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 rated Convenience Store Woman: 2 stars

Sayaka Murata: Convenience Store Woman (2018)

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in …

Deborah Pickett stopped reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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

Content warning Spoilers, plot of Convenience Store Woman

No, I'm done with this book. Yes, it's quirky and the prose of the translation is enjoyable, but the endless plot about Keiko needing to find a husband, and the reappearance of the frankly disgusting Shihara... I bailed as soon as the sham marriage was proposed. I don't care that—according to the synopsis I subsequently read—she dumps him in the end; by that point I'll want to smack them both.

Deborah Pickett started reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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

Mum stuck this translation of a short Japanese story in her latest care package. That's all I know.

Deborah Pickett rated The Quiet War: 3 stars

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

The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

Deborah Pickett finished reading The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

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.

Deborah Pickett rated Kraken: 3 stars

Kraken by China Miéville

Kraken is a 2010 fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in the UK by Macmillan, and …

Deborah Pickett started reading The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

Last read one of Mcauley’s books 25 years ago in “Pasquale’s Angel”. Suspect this’ll be very different.

Deborah Pickett finished reading Kraken by China Miéville

Kraken is a 2010 fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in …

Slogged through it, finally. I think I have to accept that the default for China Miéville is “it’s fine”, with the occasional rare masterpiece.

Deborah Pickett commented on Kraken by China Miéville

Kraken is a 2010 fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in …

Oh, this is getting very weird in a kind of horror-adjacent way that I am disliking. Book, you are on notice.

Deborah Pickett started reading Kraken by China Miéville

Kraken is a 2010 fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in …

Recommended to me on Mastodon when I mentioned I was reading The City and the City.

Deborah Pickett finished reading The City & the City by China Miéville

China Miéville: The City & the City (Paperback, 2011, imusti, Pan Publishing)

Oh yes, so satisfying. The whole crosshatched city premise pervades the whole story and makes for a thrilling read. One of my top five books of all time.

Deborah Pickett started reading The City & the City by China Miéville

Had insomnia, this was the only recently-unread book on my ereader.

Deborah Pickett finished reading The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #3)

N. K. Jemisin: The Stone Sky (Paperback, 2017, Orbit US)

The Moon will soon return.

Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something …

It was … fine, I guess? I feel like this was a different story than what I’d started in book 1. Maybe I’ll write a longer review later.

Deborah Pickett commented on The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #2)

N. K. Jemisin: The Obelisk Gate (EBook, 2016, Orbit)

The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster …

Content warning Spoilers The Broken Earth trilogy

It’s taken me one and a half books to figure out what the derogatory word “rogga” is supposed to correspond to in our world. I’m slow sometimes.

Deborah Pickett started reading The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #3)

The Moon will soon return.

Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something …

Book three, here we go.