log(book)
There are currently 155 reviews missing.
The last time I was up to date with reviews was 2022-01-31. Since then, 270/425 books (63.5%) have been reviewed. We'll get there … eventually.

Welcome to log(book)!

This is where I valiantly try to keep track of The data gets synced to Goodreads, but this site is the primary source. If you're really interested in what I'm reading, you can subscribe to the feed. Thanks for the content go to our civilisation and the preceding ones, to the people involved in the publishing industry – authors, editors, layouters, translators, printers, illustrators, agents, publicists, marketers, book sellers, antiquarians –, to my family for hooking me early and understanding that all a child needs to be happy are eighteen hours of uninterrupted reading per day, and to my friends for their consistently good-or-interesting recommendations and their patience with what they call my "reading habit".

Here are a few of the books I’ve read recently:

Cover of Merchanter's Luck.

Merchanter’s Luck

by C. J. Cherryh · published 1982 · read 2025-03-22
★★★★☆
Way more fun than I had expected it to be – I had read Downbelow Station before, but didn’t remember much (enough to remember recurring characters when they came up, at least). This, though! The two protagonists, Sandor and Alli, come from opposite sides on pretty much every issue out in space: Sandor poor and barely scraping by on his solo ship, traumatised by the death of his family, has been getting by on his own for over a decade. Alli, privileged by being part of one of the big family merchanter ships, is at the same time never going to make real bridge crew because too many people are in line. It’s a good setup, I feel, and it makes the characters develop depth, because each has something the other wants: family vs independence; and each suffers from their version of it. (Not that the book is explicitly introspective about any of this, which would've been obnoxious.) More things that I like: Sandor and Alli start out by having a one-night stand, just two space sailors on shore leave. This is an honestly great way to defuse any sexual tension between the two: It’s there, sure, but it’s also out in the open and nothing mysterious, it’s something the two can name, and also can get past and agree that there are way more important things. The way that spending a decade never-quite-on-the-run, with only his dead brother’s pre-recorded computer messages (interactive, but very clearly not sentient, just spoken sound bites for the nav + some good advice) didn't break Sandor, but made him also very clearly traumatised. It’s not played up; but it’s not played down either, and some asides are haunting. The way that the four privileged rich kids don’t react to this traumatised guy with understanding, but instead with suspicion: Sandor doesn’t share the source of his trauma (and why would he), and they assume the worst (and why wouldn’t they), and things escalate in nasty but real-feeling ways. It’s just the small bits everywhere. When outfitting the ship, Alli goes for a regular store, and Sandor is appalled at the prices. He explains where he would get everything for much cheaper, Alli explains why this is worth it, and even though he understands, his unease doesn't magically vanish (nor does it in related situations later. The book spans a couple of weeks, that's not enough time to change survival behaviour learned in decades!) So, yeah, this was fun. I’m not sure if/how I’ll continue with Alliance/Union: but I’m very glad I read this book. (First book on my new, wonderful, pretty e-reader, an InkPalm Pro!)
Cover of Vigor Mortis.

Vigor Mortis

by Natalie Maher · published 2021 · read 2025-03-22
★★★☆☆
This is a weird one – an online serial that is a) finished, b) published as four books, and c) still available to read for free online. My review is about the free online version: I raced through the ~4k pages in under a week and had fun. It’s alright – or rather, there are parts that are fun and parts that are really ehhhh, and it averages out. There’s a lot to criticise: the deranged plot turns at some points; some of the characters would be better off just … not existing; the author’s unhealthy fascination with inhuman disaster lesbians (and I say this affectionately, believe me!). But! At the same time, the story goes some really weird places and then follows them to their conclusion, which I appreciate a ton. Personhood, godhood, continuity of personality (or lack thereof), the nature of God (oh the worldbuilding on that one is beautiful!): hell yes. Time spent very well, overall, do not regret reading this at all. Plus, it’s rare that you find a serial that has finished and hat an actual final arc that went somewhere. I imagine that some people don’t like the overall ending; I thought that while the pacing was naturally odd, it had some really, really really cool stuff going on, and it was satisfying without being cheesy.
Cover of Reach Heaven Via Feng Shui Engineering, Drug Trade And Tax Evasion.

Reach Heaven Via Feng Shui Engineering, Drug Trade And Tax Evasion

by melmonella · published 2025 · read 2025-03-15
★★★☆☆
Xianxia plot with decent worldbuilding. Reviewing at chapter 91 (which is relatively early in book/arc 3). As usual, the protagonist is overpowered, not in terms of actual power, but in terms of analysis and brain power. Very rationalist/Martian/my-brain-will-save-us vibes, but with good worldbuilding and progression. Definitely indulging in reading this, but it was nice, and the characters and plot seem distinct enough that occasionally reading a batch of updates should be doable.
Cover of Safety Anarchist.

Safety Anarchist

by Sidney Dekker · published 2017 · read 2025-03-09
★☆☆☆☆ (did not finish)
You’d think that this book would be catnip for me: The premise (compliance and security theatre has grown way too much, rules like that are good at preventing some accidents but not others, give people some agency and watch how they’ll make much better decisions!) is solid, after all. You’d think. I ended up not finishing this book, because I have limited time on this planet and don’t need to spend it being angry at this guy’s tone. It’s just so know-it-all, talking down to the presumably stupid reader (Chapter 5 is just explaining Goodheart’s Law. Chapter 9 out of 10 is “lays out the difference between anarchy and anarchism”), and so extremely impressed with itself. Chapter 2 is about "who has the right to rule / make these rules". Chapter 1 opens "this is not a political book". Angery noises.
Cover of Light from Uncommon Stars.

Light from Uncommon Stars

by Ryka Aoki · published 2021 · read 2024-12-04
★☆☆☆☆
Every minute I spent reading this book was a minute that I could have read trashy bad fanfics that still have more nuance, plot, character and consistent world-building than whatever this was. I don’t even know where to start. The writing is bad. Formulaic in language, and committing POV hopping in a way to make sure that we never get to see important inner reactions or emotions of anybody to anything. Pacing is all over the place – the parts that should be emotionally load-bearing get skipped entirely, and there are things like completely new characters getting dropped on us, including their whole family history, about a third of the book in, and somehow we’re expected to care. And was this book not edited? I’m not a native speaker and there were things I’d have called out for editing. Content-wise, it only gets worse. The world doesn’t feel real and has zero consistency. How do “alien space empires all die of depression when they realise mortality doesn’t go away and nothing is eternal” and “heaven and eternal torment in hell and bargains for your soul with demons really exist, but only here” mesh? They don’t. But sure, shove an emerging sentient AI finding personhood in there, I’m sure that’ll help. In spirit, this book is pure wish-fulfillment. It literally ends with “oh and also the rich guy gave the self-insert protagonist a Tesla”. There is absolutely zero examination of anything it presents, and zero consequences for anything. Secondary POV character is redeemed(-in-narrative) for not sending the protagonist to hell, after doing the same for six others (zero emotional impact) and also just … killing people who annoy her? Sure, sure, why not. How are your space aliens doing handling their angry school shooter son? Oh, they just pause him, which they can do for 50 years? Grand. The big relationship gets a happy-ever-after even though it was terrible and unfulfilling throughout? Why not. Emphasize excellence as the thing that can’t be bought, but then it can be bought from hell, and the protagonist isn’t great at music, but at the same time she’s this hidden genius whose soul will just let her make the most beautiful music, especially if the secret aliens give her holoprojectors? … sure but why. There’s a lot of needless detail about donuts, other food, and violins. As somebody who loves classical music and recognised ~half the performer names etc, I can say that this did … nothing. It felt wooden and dead and janky – which is probably the best way to describe the whole book and its characters. Oh, and actually, the queerness: The trans character is just a trope checklist. Yeah, I know the author is trans – queer people are allowed to write queer people badly, just like everybody else – they don’t have magic writing powers. And this stuff was so bad – a lifeless trauma dump. Ew. The only redeeming feature of this book was complaining about it at book club, and getting very drunk in the process.