User Profile

joël

jollysea@wyrms.de

Joined 11 months, 3 weeks 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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2025 Reading Goal

Success! joël has read 36 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).

Gretchen Felker-Martin: Manhunt (2022, Tor Nightfire)

Y: The Last Man meets The Girl With All the Gifts in …

In the very first chapters, there was already a scene where I pondered if this was going to be too brutal for me. But I think I'm hooked anyway.

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 (Paperback, 2021, Tordotcom)

In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the …

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.

Emily St. John Mandel: Sea of Tranquility (2023, Pan Macmillan, PAN MACMILLAN)

I liked this a lot. It's been five years since the "official" start of the COVID 19 pandemic in western Europe, so this felt like a very timely lecture. Bonus: the cover has a very beautiful gold effect.

Emily St. John Mandel: Sea of Tranquility (2023, Pan Macmillan, PAN MACMILLAN)

So that's going to be it, isn't it? An audiobook, an ebook on the tablet, and a paperback to read on Saturday mornings while drinking coffee? Here, also, very small chapters, at least in the first … part(?). Reads very well. Kinda want to make another coffee, get back in bed read it all in one go.