Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned …
White women and black maids navigate civil rights
4 stars
In 1960s Mississippi, white women and the black maids they employ navigate the upheaval of the civil rights movement. The contrast of ingrained racism and the deep emotional integration of black women into white family life is astounding. Potential for deep analysis, but you can also just enjoy the story.
Return to the planet Detritus with FM, Alanik, and Jorgen in this must-have three-novella collection …
YA scifi with lots of dogfights, light humour and a little romance
3 stars
While the hero of the series is lost in the Nowhere, her fellow pilots get on with being awesome and taking the fight to the oppressors. Decent YA fare with lots of dogfights, light humour and a little romance. The hyperslugs are adorable.
Every nine years, people disappear into a house which otherwise can't be found. The author's usual layering of stories across different time periods gradually reveals the truth, though it's not particularly clever this time around. Dark arts & illusions, bit creepy, not really my thing.
Will slipped on the left glove and twitched a finger to establish a link to …
Very slow and overly explicatory
2 stars
YA dystopian set in Canberra! In a polluted world, cities have been enclosed in domes and pervasive tech & propaganda keep the population in line. A teenage boy gets entangled in mysterious intrigue, and soon starts to wonder if his dreams are more than they seem. Very slow and overly explicatory, except for the ending which was sudden, unclear and too easy.
From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a queer sci-fi novel about an …
Where refugees from climate-riven Earth are a mortal accidental risk to Martians
4 stars
A sci-fi romance set on Mars, where recent refugees from climate-riven Earth are so strong in the low gravity that they are a mortal accidental risk to Martians. Excellent premise, and the contradictory reactions of the protagonist feel real & difficult. But some of the underlying science is dubious (MW ≠ MWh!!!), the romance had potential but felt a bit weak and the ending used up its momentum too soon. Mammoths!
It’s footy season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson’s under-16s team. She …
It's still just footy and Melburnians are weird
4 stars
The author shadows her grandson's under-16 Aussie Rules team for a season. A glimpse from the boundary line of boys on the cusp on manhood, the solidarity of teammates, the strange spiritual appeal of sport. Wonderfully written & absorbing, but it's still just footy and Melburnians are weird.
A worldwide bestseller for over thirty years, Watership Down is one of the most beloved …
Strange cultures, claw-biting escapades and the terror of war
2 stars
The trials & adventures of rabbits setting up a new warren: strange cultures, claw-biting escapades and the terror of war. Similar to Wind in the Willows but the anthropomorphism is weaker and the characters less vibrant. It's just as misogynistic: does are thought of as mere 'breeding stock', though worth fighting over. Drags along though it builds to a decent climax.
By day Ogata Shingo, an elderly Tokyo businessman, is troubled by small failures of memory. …
Mellow & unfocussed, much like old age
3 stars
In post-war Japan, an aging man grapples ineffectually with the autumn of his life, the failure of his children's marriages, and his slightly inappropriate relationship with his daughter-in-law. Calmly mellow & unfocussed, much like old age might be.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one …
Classic early Le Guin, holds up
5 stars
A few aspects of the story will strike 21st century readers as quaint, naive, or dated. For example the reliance on hypnosis as a foolproof method of making people dream whatever you want them to dream. However, this is a minor quibble, and the overall story arc is truly haunting, thought-provoking, and unsettling. It's sweet and beautiful in places, too. No wonder it's a classic.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one …
If utopia lacks free will, is it still utopia?
4 stars
A man's dreams shape reality, and his therapist uses him as a tool to fix the wrongs in the world. But if utopia lacks free will, diversity & creativity, is it still utopia?
What will the fracturing of the United States look like? After the Revolution is an …
Definitely worth it, it's short and mostly fun, but also brutal and sad.
4 stars
Excellent transhumanist post-apocalypse sci fi adventuring, reckless and fucked up in all senses of the phrase, but also a meditation on trauma and how we cope with it. Worth checking out for the following:
-Rolling Fuck, a mobile city full of posthumans who are mostly high out of their minds
-the Big Bad being really awful Christian supremacists
-the awful Christian supremacists getting their fucking asses kicked from here to high heaven. Or hell, more likely.
Technically that's a spoiler, but that outcome is something of a foregone conclusion. The truly interesting parts of the plot are about how the people on the "right" side, if there is such a thing, try to prevent themselves from turning into monsters in their fight to stay free, and how they deal with it when they kinda turn into monsters anyway.
One point deducted only because the writing is a bit stiff in …
Excellent transhumanist post-apocalypse sci fi adventuring, reckless and fucked up in all senses of the phrase, but also a meditation on trauma and how we cope with it. Worth checking out for the following:
-Rolling Fuck, a mobile city full of posthumans who are mostly high out of their minds
-the Big Bad being really awful Christian supremacists
-the awful Christian supremacists getting their fucking asses kicked from here to high heaven. Or hell, more likely.
Technically that's a spoiler, but that outcome is something of a foregone conclusion. The truly interesting parts of the plot are about how the people on the "right" side, if there is such a thing, try to prevent themselves from turning into monsters in their fight to stay free, and how they deal with it when they kinda turn into monsters anyway.
One point deducted only because the writing is a bit stiff in places; the ideas and the story are fantastic but high literature it is not.
Life, even in its simplest forms, is *amazing* and incredibly improbable
3 stars
How did life come about, how does it work, how does it seemingly defy entropy, and what has information theory & quantum mechanics got to do with it? Doesn't quite manage the clearest explanations, leaving me on the cusp of comprehension, but then the underlying concepts are at the forefront of human knowledge. Life, even in its simplest forms, is amazing and incredibly improbable.
Pride and Prejudice is a romance novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The …
Frustratingly delectable frission
5 stars
Long-time viewer (BBC only, thank you), but first-time reader (well, listener), and it did not disappoint. If anything the Bennetts are even nuttier. Love Lizzie's snark, and the frission with D'Arcy is frustratingly delectable. Really doesn't work as a #SleepStory though!