Dr Ms Kat commented on Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …
Look, I admit to being concerned that the author doesn't know what "brackish" means.
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Dr Ms Kat started reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …
This has been on my TBR pile forever. Now it's Hugo nominated for series so I'm finally gonna read it.
Dr Ms Kat started reading What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
The follow-up to T. Kingfisher’s bestselling gothic novella, What Moves the Dead .
Retired soldier …
Please let this one not be too depressing
Dr Ms Kat finished reading The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.
Moscow …
Oof.
Dr Ms Kat finished reading The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels …
Engaging, intruiging horrifying. It'd be hopeful if its worldbuilding wasn't so bleak.
Dr Ms Kat finished reading Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard
I struggled to connect with this story. Disappointing, because I normally really like the author's writing.
Dr Ms Kat finished reading Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
A world-weary woman races against the clock to save two children from an enchanting but …
This book gave me anxiety the whole time I was reading it. The opposite of a cosy read.
Dr Ms Kat finished reading The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to an aging lord …
A book where you read the acknowledgements at the end and go "Ohhhhh".
Dr Ms Kat finished reading Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, …
Content warning Spoilers
Ok this one was better than Alien Clay. But Tchaikovsky does seem to have a third-act-goes-off-the-rails problem. Surely it can't be that hard to set up the big payoffs and conclusions a bit earlier, rather than suddenly coming in with King Robot and Robot God in the last 3rd. Literally a deus ex machina.
Dr Ms Kat started reading Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, …
Dear lord, I hope this is better than the other Adrian Tchaikovsky book I read.
Dr Ms Kat finished reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a …
This was ok. It's essentially a murder mystery, set in a fantasy (not high fantasy) world. I was faintly irritated by the character who solves the mystery, suddenly describing sequences of events in an unearned way, but maybe that's just a common trope of the murder mystery genre.
Dr Ms Kat started reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a …
I'm definitely trying to avoid that second Adrian Tchaikovsky book now
Dr Ms Kat finished reading A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors …
Ah, this was a lovely palate cleanser after the last awful book.
Dr Ms Kat reviewed Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (duplicate)
Professor Arton Daghdev has always wanted to study alien life in person. But when his …
I hated this book the more of it I read
Content warning Spoilers but I don't recommend you read it anyway
This book could have had some good ideas and turned them into something interesting to read. Instead it mashed together a bunch of concepts, not fully fleshed out, and produced some drivel. It's full of tortured metaphors (even in the title Alien "Clay", except there's nothing special about the soil or earth of this planet - it's the ecology and the lifeforms which are talked about). The first third of the book is brutality (it's a convict prison planet), the second third is horror (OMG the weird way that life happens on this planet - genuinely a bit squickful), and then the last third is a hurried, unearned conclusion where humans start to coexist with the life on the planet. It's written in an engaging manner so I can imagine people would be drawn in by it, but the more I read, the more I grew to hate it. I don't know how this got nominated for a Hugo and I'm annoyed that this author has two nominations and I have to read another book by him. Don't read this book.
Dr Ms Kat started reading Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (duplicate)
Professor Arton Daghdev has always wanted to study alien life in person. But when his …
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