User Profile

joël

jollysea@wyrms.de

Joined 5 months, 1 week ago

he/him, cis. ~37 years. journalism, podcasts, writing. and also reading, of course.

I like sci-fi, plants, public transport, ttrpgs, lasagna, birds. Thinking a lot about the apocalypse, the climate, monsters and queerness.

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joël's books

Currently Reading

2025 Reading Goal

91% complete! joël has read 22 of 24 books.

Vajra Chandrasekera: The Saint of Bright Doors (Hardcover, 2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. …

At this point, I'm already 2 hours in. The language was hard to grasp at the beginning, but that has either been smoothed or I have become better at grasping it. Very enjoyable, but I'm also glad I've read a goodreads comment where somebody explained what this is about (Buddha’s son Rahula).

Arkady Martine: A Desolation Called Peace (Hardcover, 2021, Tor Books)

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with …

enjoyed it a lot

I enjoyed this a lot, even if I found the viewpoint of the young emperor sometimes a bit tired, because it seemed to slow down the narrative. Will have to think about all the different perspectives on personhood and assimilation that are offered here.

fun concept, but gets tiresome

I found this as an audiobook on an old HDD, quite mysteriously. The premise is fun, but most of the short stories are presented in form of fluffy newspaper articles, which I found a bit tiresome after a while. The last two or so stories aren't, and I enjoyed them more.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Elder Race (2021, Tordotcom)

A junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to …

interesting concept

A friend recommended me this after I wrote a blog post about real-world towers that would be good magical towers in 1000 to 10 000 years. This is, in a way, a story about such a tower. It has also a protagonist that has some curious parallels with Murderbot, which I enjoyed. It is also quite short and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Alison Rumfitt: Brainwyrms (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As …

Disgusting and brilliant.

Disgusting and brilliant. I liked this very much, I would have loved a little bit more of the "main plot", but I liked the rest a lot.