Outside of a Dog

colin reviewed The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves (EBook, 2022, Random House Publishing Group)

The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll …

Really strong conclusion to the series

4 stars

I think my biggest complaint about these three novels would be that the author does a lot more telling rather than showing, which I tend to dislike. There's no shortage of that in the beginning of this novel, but ultimately this might be my favorite book of the series. It finishes really strongly and I found myself more emotionally invested than I thought I would be. I can't say too much more without giving away some important plot elements, but defs recommend if you've read the first two books.

colin reviewed The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

The Apollo Murders (Hardcover, 2021, Mulholland Books)

Did you know this book was written by an astronaut?

4 stars

You certainly will by the time you're done! This was a breezy, fairly silly read that I enjoyed. It shoehorns in a lot of science explainers in the form of awkward dialogue, and some of the characters are really cartoonish, but it was definitely a fun page-turner.

colin reviewed A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

A Master of Djinn (Hardcover, 2021, Tor)

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe …

It's fine

2 stars

As much as I wanted to, I didn't find this book very compelling. I certainly like the notion of a fantasy-ish story that takes place somewhere other than London or NYC, but that wasn't really enough for me. The plot gets bogged down in endless explanations -- basically with every introduction of a new tool, location, creature, character, etc, instead of showing us the thing, the author just tells about the thing. The dialogue drags and is repetitive. The concept of the plot has a lot of potential, but in execution it is extremely predictable, especially for a book that purports to be a mystery. The book is vaguely anti-colonial, and the gender politics are certainly interesting, but at the same time it's really falls into traditional genre tropes and in a lot of ways it buys into the accepted structure of western/colonial politics. I almost put it down several …

As much as I wanted to, I didn't find this book very compelling. I certainly like the notion of a fantasy-ish story that takes place somewhere other than London or NYC, but that wasn't really enough for me. The plot gets bogged down in endless explanations -- basically with every introduction of a new tool, location, creature, character, etc, instead of showing us the thing, the author just tells about the thing. The dialogue drags and is repetitive. The concept of the plot has a lot of potential, but in execution it is extremely predictable, especially for a book that purports to be a mystery. The book is vaguely anti-colonial, and the gender politics are certainly interesting, but at the same time it's really falls into traditional genre tropes and in a lot of ways it buys into the accepted structure of western/colonial politics. I almost put it down several times.

colin reviewed The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

The Tommyknockers (Hardcover, 1987, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

From the Flap:

Late last night and the night before,

Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers,

    knocking at my …

terrible

1 star

There's a good book somewhere in these ideas, but it's not this one. It's bad! Even King says so, and he's correct. Deeply and inexplicably misogynist. Edward Hermann did a good job of reading it though.