el dang started reading Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
#SFFBookClub November
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el dang reviewed Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
Ten years have passed since a widespread blackout triggered the rapid collapse of society, when …
Great sequel that I think could also stand alone
5 stars
I found this a very satisfying continuation and conclusion of the story started in Moon of the Crusted Snow. It has a very different mood and focus, so much so that in this review I'm trying to avoid spoilers for the previous book more than for this one. Where Crusted Snow gets a lot of its tension from us as readers learning things as the protagonists do, this one is mostly not a suspenseful story. The broad outline of how things have to go is apparent from early on, and most of what makes it interesting is atmosphere and character development. Even the cover art of the two books does a pretty good job of communicating their relative moods.
I'm pretty sure this book would stand alone far better than most sequels do, because it largely follows a character too young to remember the events of or background to …
I found this a very satisfying continuation and conclusion of the story started in Moon of the Crusted Snow. It has a very different mood and focus, so much so that in this review I'm trying to avoid spoilers for the previous book more than for this one. Where Crusted Snow gets a lot of its tension from us as readers learning things as the protagonists do, this one is mostly not a suspenseful story. The broad outline of how things have to go is apparent from early on, and most of what makes it interesting is atmosphere and character development. Even the cover art of the two books does a pretty good job of communicating their relative moods.
I'm pretty sure this book would stand alone far better than most sequels do, because it largely follows a character too young to remember the events of or background to the first book. This neatly gives Rice a way to work in some rehashing naturally as people answering her questions, but also this book fills in a lot of information that none of the characters knew during the first one. That said, I'd still recommend reading Crusted Snow first because the most emotional parts of this story are bound to have more impact if you've had longer to get invested in the older characters.
CWs: racist violence, and this one's a real tear jerker.
#SFFBookClub (we read the first one as part of the book club last year)
Tak! reviewed Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
Feed Them Silence
4 stars
Content warning Feed Them Silence review with spoilers, because I can't figure out how to do it without
This was a hard read.
I identified quite a bit with Riya from the beginning, particularly including the criticism that the researchers were literally objectifying an animal for their own purposes, which did not happen to include helping the animal.
I'm glad that the brain pattern anomalies turned out to be from brain damage instead of something like a two-way connection - it's much more fitting from scientific, literary, and justice perspectives.
I'm missing a sense of finality in the end, feeling a little like Sean's own frustration - Sean didn't grow or change, the corporation keeps on corporating, the research doesn't go anywhere, the wolf pack is going to agonizingly peter out. We just get a snapshot of a bleak slide along an unchanging trajectory from not great to less great, just like real life.
For what it's worth, I'm glad they didn't go all in on the wolf sex.
Tak! commented on Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
Content warning Feed Them Silence chapter 1
It would be pretty hard to be married to somebody that I felt like their whole career was unethical
Tak! quoted Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
The portable surgery unit hulked at the edge of a tract field, ringed by four-byfours and a lone Jeep.
el dang wants to read Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
#SFFBookClub November
Tak! commented on Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
The #SFFBookClub selection for November 2025
el dang reviewed Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
An edit of this book could be amazing, but it does need the edit.
3 stars
There's an excellent book in here. An engaging story about individual and collective self-delusion and amnesia, with some very clear political messages and a grim humour to it. But at times, especially in the second quarter or so of the book, the author seems unclear whether he's writing a novel or a NY Review Of Books essay about individual dementia, collective amnesia, and the selective remembering of nostalgia. It's clear that he could write a fine essay and I'd enjoy reading that too, but the hybrid is clunky. From the POV of a novel reader the essay portions make the plot drag slowly enough that I started to lose interest. From the POV of a creative nonfiction reader, the actually fiction parts are jarring and confusing.
el dang reviewed A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather
Lina Rather's A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is an eldritch historical fantasy of midwifery, monstrosity, …
A surprisingly fun exploration of some heavy themes
5 stars
I loved this book for several things:
- How real and solid the historical-London setting felt. I'm used to that sort of thing feeling very flimsy, but this is an author who clearly does deep research and lets it suffuse the writing without getting all 'splainy.
- The very palpable tension between the protagonist's precarious position and her need to have some freedom.
- The delightful-if-implausable retconning of Sir Christopher Wren's secret motive for shaping London the way he did.
el dang commented on Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
About halfway through and I have mixed feelings about this book. I find the plot such as there is one quite interesting and a very good vehicle for dissecting/mocking the 2010s-2020s turn to fascism. And I like the writing itself a lot. But Gospodinov seems perpetually unsure whether he's writing a novel or an essay.
The thing that's keeping me going is that he's a good enough writer and observer for it to be an enjoyable essay, but I am increasingly finding myself wanting the essayish digressions to get shorter so the plot can move more.
Tak! commented on Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
Ok, I think I'm putting this down now - it has become a slog. I took a little break, thinking maybe I just needed a change of pace, but I'm just not into it.
I'm reminded a bit of when, having loved The Historian, I picked up The Shadow Land, also by Elizabeth Kostova. I spent much of the novel anticipating how the surreal elements were going to be introduced, only to eventually realize that it was just a "normal" mystery story (coincidentally also set in / revolving around Bulgaria).
Some of the concepts are intriguing, but they don't seem to be going anywhere (so far).
Tak! quoted Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
Dying has gotten to be quite expensive.
Tak! quoted Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
So tell me, he started in . . . is Denmark still a prison?
Tak! quoted Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
Death, you’ll say, yes, of course, death is his brother, but old age is the monster.
Tak! quoted Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces …
Without being able to formulate it clearly, he senses that if no one remembers, then everything is permissible.
this is a statement about the current geopolitical landscape