System Collapse by Martha Wells
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The latest installment of the Murderbot Diaries finds our favorite SecUnit, their adopted humans, and Asshole Research Transport dealing with the aftermath of the events that occurred in Network Effect. Events that have caused Murderbot to deal with unique form of trauma. As usual with this series, the combination of Murderbot's snarky narration and outstanding action writing made this book an absolute pleasure to read for me. Can't wait for the next one.

Saga, Book Three by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm still really enjoying this science fantasy series following the child of star crossed lovers from opposing waring planets as she grows up. But there is a thing these books do, where they surprise you with the most unexpected thing, and the fact that it happens regularly makes it less surprising. Doesn't stop the thing from being upsetting, though. I have to wait to see what happens next since I'm reading in these giant hardcovers.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that is almost impossible to describe. A god who owns a library containing all the knowledge in the universe goes missing leaving his adopted children locked out and trying to find out what happened. But that doesn't even scratch the surface of what is in this book. It's filled with bonkers, over the top action, violence, and larger than life characters, all in the service of a story about dealing with the trauma of having a bad Dad.

Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton & Sarah Tomlinson
⭐⭐
A memoir of an Olympic long distance runner who became a high-priced Las Vegas call girl. I went into this wanting to root for Hamilton in her struggles with mental health, but I found her to be a thoroughly unlikable person. Any message about getting proper diagnosis and treatment were drowned out by the prurient way the prostitution sections were treated, and the unhealthy, in my eye, way she used her bipolar disorder as a catchall excuse.

Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber
⭐⭐⭐
Somewhere there must exist a perfect Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story, but I didn't find it in this collection. Lean times in Lankhmar, in which our heroes split up and end up on opposite sides of a religious dispute was my favorite. The Adept's Gambit was the most disappointing, starting out with some of the best Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stuff I've read, but then devolving into a half baked cosmic horror slog. I plan to read more, but not immediately.

Heart of the Comet by David Brin & Gregory Benford
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The story of a 2061 mission to ride Halley's Comet and change its orbit to park it in the inner solar system where it can be mined for resources. Things go wrong in a myriad of ways with technical difficulties, sociological friction, and unexpected biological problems. I found some of the relationship drama to be grating at times, and it felt too optimistic in the crew's ability to overcome issues, but otherwise it was a fascinating book.

Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
⭐⭐⭐
A fantasy about an army priest, Tomas Piety, who returns home from war with is squadmates and uses them to take back his family's criminal empire. I was hoping there would be some interesting friction from Piety being both a Priest and a crime lord, but nothing much was done with that, and the story also suffered from there being no doubt that he would complete his goals. There was some good, gritty action in this though, which did make it worth reading.

Frontera by Lewis Shiner
⭐⭐⭐
A science fiction about a rescue mission to a Mars colony which has been quiet for over ten years. This was a fairly entertaining, fast-paced, space techno-thriller that reads like an 1980s action movie. Most of the characters are jerks with their own personal, political, and corporate agendas, surrounding a mysterious technological discovery, all of which converge in an explosive climax. It was fun while I was reading it, but lacked any real depth.

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A thriller about a British podcaster who meets a woman who has the same birthdate as her and decided to make a podcast about her and things go very much sideways from there. Jewell does an excellent job through both the main characters' POVs slowly ratcheting up the tension until it became actually uncomfortable to read for me, all of it paying off in a inevitable, yet shocking climax. And then There's an added little surprising stinger at the end.

Wild Cards II: Aces High edited by George R.R. Martin
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The second book in a long running alternate history anthology series about people given superpowers by an alien virus. It felt like Martin had a tighter reign on this one, getting authors to drive overarching plotlines. Some thrived at this, like Walter Jon Williams, others seemed too constrained by it, like Roger Zelazny, and one, Pat Cadigan, failed at it, flubbing the climax of a major story arc. But overall this was a good time.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
⭐⭐⭐
A gothic horror about a woman scraping by in a Tennessee mining town trying to give her younger brother a better life who gets a job at the local haunted house. While the story and characters were fine, I think i finally have to admit to myself that I just don't get along with Harrow's prose. Add to that some immersion breaking nitpicks like Corvettes with back seats, and swallows that come out at night, and I think this may be the last book of hers I read.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another Murata book in which she looks at human society from an unusual perspective to point out its absurdities, this time following a woman who grows up believing she is an alien. The child sexual assault in this is hard to read, but central to showing how society fails the main character, and how trauma leads to a series of choices that culminate in a truly bizarre climax. If that sounds rough, the author's other books do similar things with a lighter tone.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
⭐⭐⭐
A fairly entertaining contemporary fantasy about magic books which are created with the blood of special people. The characters were good and enjoyable to follow, and it did a nice job of playing out it's mysteries as the story went along, but once I got to the end, the plot felt very linear to me. Part of this was set in Vermont and it captured the local atmosphere well with only one immersion breaking detail. I give that part a solid B+.

Memory's Legion by James S.A. Corey
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A story collection from The Expanse series which adds detail to the world and expands on characters. All of the stories were worth reading, and it may be good for those new to the series to read them alongside the novels in chronological order, with the exception of The Butcher of Anderson Station which I feel is best read after Caliban's War. My favorites were The Churn giving one character's backstory, and Sins of Our Fathers giving closure to another.

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A fantasy retelling of the rise of the founder of the Ming Empire, Zhu Yuanzhang, with a gender swapped lead. These books just make so much of that conceit, exploring gender and identity through vivid characters who's motivations and biases are laid bare. It also takes an open-eyed look at the costs of seeking power, and if creating a world in your vision is worth the harm it causes. The Radiant Empire duology is absolutely brilliant.

Exordia by Seth Dickinson
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A first contact sci-fi set in the 2010s in which the aliens are incredibly alien in their thinking. Imaging the cast of LOST investigating an alien object, except Dickinson knows what the proverbial red button does, and whether or not you push it has massive personal and galactic consequences. I'm reading reviews rating it from 1-5 stars and kind of agreeing with all of them. I'm giving it a high rating because parts are great, but honestly, some parts were a slog.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A mystery featuring Flavia de Luce, an improbable eleven-year-old girl, from an improbable family living in 1950s England, who uses her wits and chemistry skills to solve a murder. The mystery was pretty standard, so what makes this unique is the main character—if you can stand her—which I guess I can. It reads just quirky and self aware enough to not put me off. I'll probably space out reads of the sequels as I continue, though.

Gateway by Frederik Pohl
⭐⭐⭐
A sci-fi in which we follow an intensely unlikable character as he escapes an overpopulated earth to join speculators in using abandoned alien tech to travel to other worlds at great risk to find their fortunes. Kind of disappointing for a Hugo/Nebula/Locus award winning novel. The ending had an interesting twist, but overall the book was more about the main character's outdated Freudian psychosexual hang-ups and therapy than it was about exploring alien worlds.

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The second novella in the Sworn Soldier series following Alex Easton, retired soldier, in their unintentionally creepy Victorian era adventures. This time they travel to their hunting lodge in the fictional country of Gallacia to host the intrepid mycologist, Miss Potter in her search for fungi, only to find the caretaker dead, and supernatural rumors of the cause. I love this character and the story is genuinely spooky. I hope we get more of these.

The River of Silver by S.A. Chakraborty
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A collection of short stories from the Daevabad Trilogy that expands on the world some, adds depth to some of the character's motivations, and in a couple of cases gives some additional closure. None of these stories are necessary to a reader of the series, but I enjoyed them just because it was fun to be with these charact in this world again.

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The final book in a series about group of young members of the Alexandrian Society, a library which gatekeeps magical knowledge from most of the rest of the world. This book almost wore out my patience for existential musings, which the characters all indulged in from one degree or another, when what I wanted was for them to get on with playing magical Kiss, Marry, Kill, but when it finally did get there in the end, it resolved things in a satisfying way.

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A prequel to Legends & Lattes which finds a young Viv—the Orc warrior series protagonist—convalescing after an injury in a small town, hanging out at a bookshop, and getting involved in a bit of a mystery. I have to say I liked this one a bit more than the first for having an additional layer of plot and action.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
⭐⭐⭐
A historical fantasy set during WWI. A field nurse, recovering at home from injuries, goes back to the front to find her only remaining family, her MIA brother. There are some very good, creepy scenes in here, but I think I would have liked it better if I hadn't read Arden's middle grade series first. While this book is decidedly adult, it does share supernatural logic and many story beats from those books, so it just felt too similar to me.

The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Clarke is my favorite of the hard sci-fi authors because, though he very much wrote in service of speculative ideas, he always managed to inject just enough humanity, and avoid getting too bogged down in technical minutiae to avoid being accused of being dry. This book is about the building of a space elevator, a structure which allows cargo an people to get into space without the use of rockets. It won a bunch of awards, and is a good read.

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A necessary reframing of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as the century-long Zionist colonialist project that it is. This book's best argument is showing how the Palestinian people have been disenfranchised from any part in substantive political negotiations. And in case you think this book presents a too one sided view, Khalidi has plenty of criticism for the failings of Palestinian leadership, and the nihilism of violent extremists.

Ninth Rain by Jen Williams
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A really good, genre bending, high fantasy, action/adventure book with rapidly escalating stakes. The real highlight of the story for me was the character dynamic between gentlewoman explorer Vintage de Grazon, and her Eboran (vampire/elf) bodyguard Tormalin as they searched ancient sites for clues about recurring catastrophes. Coincidences drive a lot of the plot in here which is sometimes a big negative for me, but I was having so much fun that I didn't care.

Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A very weird little fever dream of a novel about an author trying to capitalize on winning a literary prize and getting thwarted by a multiverse jumping trophy, an arachnid Bambi, and an eccentric community television production, all of which cause trouble in their relationship. There are lots of extended metaphors going on in here making it feel purposeful, all while being really funny. Recommended for fans of Nino Cipri's Finna.

The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A story set in an alternate US in which Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared war on climate change. That this turns out not to be the social panacea some might believe it may have been is largely the point of the book. A core group of queer characters defending their warehouse/venue/home from a greenwashing highway project act as a smart foil for examining the value of voting, protest, and staying hopeful in a system violently resistant to change.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Horror about a young woman living with her conservative Christian family in a town centered around a 100% effective gay conversion therapy camp. I enjoyed the sharp criticism of anti-LGBT+ church doctrine, and the portrayal of the main character's autism and how that played into the way some of the twists were revealed. I also liked the book's compassion and hopefulness which I guess one should expect from an author who is trying to prove love is real.

What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Did you know that in some owls, hearing is connected to the visual centers of their brains, so they may be able to "see sounds"? I didn't until I read this, and I had considered myself fairly knowledgeable about owls. The subtitle, "The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds," points to why, because owl research is ongoing and there are constantly new things being learned. The downside is there may have been too many things for me to take in.

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A novella set in a post-apocalypse Kansas City in which a private security agent returns to the community she left due to the death of a former lover and discovers that they were murdered. I really liked the discussion of the practicalities of a functioning anarchist commune. The author is trans and the book does a lot with trans identity, including with a scene that I think works, but that A LOT of people are going to hate.

Erasure by Percival Everett
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The novel the film American Fiction is based on. An obscure black literary fiction author, disgusted by the popularity of a novel claiming to portray the black experience, which he finds insulting, writes a parody under a pseudonym, which ends up being taken seriously, sells for a ton of money, and attains popularity and critical acclaim. What a corker this book is! A smart skewering of publishing, with metatextual commentary on race, art, and life in general.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
⭐⭐⭐
Set in an alternate present in which people who commit heinous crimes have animal familiars attached to them which grant a magical ability, but which must protected, or the owner will be immediately dragged to hell. I struggled with suspending disbelief on magical conceit when it was contrasted against the gritty, realistic Johannesburg underworld it was set it, and though it was essential to the plot, I felt it distracted from an otherwise solid noir mystery.

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A reread that I appreciated more the second time around for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that the themes are very relevant right now. I've also read The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin since my first read and see how this is in conversation with them. And some personal stuff has made one of the story arcs land much harder. Anyway, this is great leftist contemporary fantasy and I'll be picking up the sequel very soon