Catalogue 📚 log(book)

The Wild Girls by Ursula K. Le Guin contains a short story/novelly named like the book, two essays, a couple of poems, and an interview with the author. I liked the short story well enough, but it was like the remainder of the book: agree

A Fisherman of the Inland Sea

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1994 · read 2018-11-30

I'm not a huge fan of short story collections – they're hard to rate, I don't like reading stories bunched together all that much, it's just not for me. So giving A Fisherman of the Inland Sea 4/5 stars means a lot – Ursula Le Guin alwa

Four Ways to Forgiveness

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1994 · read 2018-10-02

Four Ways to Forgiveness is part of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, and gives us a bit of a backstory on the Hainish themselves, how the Ekumen was founded, and how worlds may come to join the Ekumen. The story is told in four parts, a

The Tombs of Atuan

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1970 · read 2018-02-12

Oh wow. This touched me, and the ending was perfect. It didn't follow all the fantasy rules, it followed Earthsea rules. ❤

The Eye of the Heron

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1978 · read 2024-02-06

Setting: On a planet with a human population at one just one point, exiles from earth who arrived in two waves: First a group of criminals from South America (many thousands, though their origin isn't commonly known among them), then decade

Die Verschworenen

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2013 · read 2017-01-09

Rias Gruppe wird dezimiert (sogar eher im ursprünglichen Sinn), und nach einigen Nachforschungen in Jordans Chroniken verlassen drei der vier Überlebenden die Wildnis, um mehr in Erfahrung zu bringen. Bringt leider nicht so viel an Fakten,

Die Verratenen

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2012 · read 2017-01-09

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2014 · read 2017-01-11

Mehr, bitte!

Die Vernichteten

Good conclusion to an excellent series.

Elanus

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2016 · read 2019-04-04

Elanus by Ursula Poznanski is an alright YA thriller/mystery. (Keep in mind that I'm not the intended audience anymore, though). She writes a very good unreliable/unsympathetic protagonist – a way too smart 17-year old boy, who by way of

Erebos

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2010 · read 2018-03-12

Woah. Unendlich viel besser als Ready Player One oder Epic. Richtig richtig gute und gruselige Fassung eines KI-gesteuerten RPGs, das Auswirkungen auf die echte Welt hat. Hnnng.

Fünf

by Ursula Poznanski · published 2012 · read 2016-05-14

Hm, it might just be that I'm not a fan of thrillers, but I don't particularly love this one. There is nothing wrong with it. The characters are very relatable, the story is sound, the details are well-researched, the language and pacing ar

The Sea Witch Sets the Record Straight

by Ursula Vernon · published 2013 · read 2022-12-27

Very neat short story that Ursula Vernon dropped on her Livejournal of all places. Ariel from the sea witch's perspective. Liked it a lot. Read it now! ([Archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20230319064855/https://ursulav.livejourn

Vicious

by V.E. Schwab · published 2013 · read 2021-06-20

★☆☆☆☆ (did not finish)

Villain protagonists are cool in theory, but hard to do well, and I didn't feel like Schwab got it right. It's not that there is no motivation or background, it's more that the protagonist is an asshole and I don't enjoy spending time with

A Darker Shade of Magic

by V.E. Schwab · published 2015 · read 2020-07-18

A Darker Shade of Magic should be a book I like a whole lot: Decent writing, imperfect characters, parallel worlds – particularly parallel Londons – connected by magic, this book has it all.

Forge Your Future with Open Source

by VM (Vicky) Brasseur · published 2018 · read 2019-09-20

Forge Your Future with Open Source by VM Brasseur was a book I started with incorrect expectations: I thought I was the target group, and it would explain different things from its actual content. Bummer.

Vierbeinige Freunde

by Vera Tschaplina · published 1950 · last read 2023-01-10

Childhood favourite, especially after I found out that this wasn't a magical fairytale about living with a lion in the middle of Moscow, but that it was reality! Lots of small bits that I loved, especially how Chaplina talked about her work

Rainbows End

by Vernor Vinge · published 2006 · read 2018-03-23

Well, this was great scifi. It was focussed on a not very likeable, but very real character, and a completely informationally connected world. I enjoyed that it focussed so much on where and how information flowed, and the implications of V

A Fire Upon the Deep

by Vernor Vinge · published 1992 · read 2019-03-03

A Fire Upon the Deep was very impressive scifi! The scope ranges across the complete universe, complete with medieval worlds, advanced civilisations, up to god-like transcended entities, their interactions, and wildly alien races. And at th

Divergent

by Veronica Roth · published 2011 · read 2016-10-11

★☆☆☆☆

Horrid generic post-Hunger-Games YA with no redeeming features.

Evitative

by Vichan · published 2020 · last read 2024-02-11

Spent my February reading all the good fics. This one starts as a standard re-sort, then goes sideways into a beautiful take on dark magic, rituals, friendship and love. Like, some of these rituals I just want to adopt for myself. Let's

Gavroche

by Victor Hugo · published 1957 · read 2020-04-12

Heavily edited short excerpt from Les Mis. The most enjoyable part was the short Hugo bio after the main part, which was extremely biased – the edition is from Eastern Germany after all.

The Connoisseur

by Victoria Goddard · published 2020 · read 2024-01-17

Cute, until you start thinking about it – and not written well enough to compensate for that. But not bad, not bad.

Knightley Academy

by Violet Haberdasher · published 2010 · read 2020-06-04

Knightly Academy is, in a sentence, a conservative Harry Potter knockoff without magic.

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov · published 1955 · read 2010-09-01

Lolita was an interesting book to read when I was 18: I was used to reading classics with a critical distance, and Lolita never fit either my analytic access nor my "god this is really good" access. It's a tough read, but it's always skillf

Pale Fire

by Vladimir Nabokov · published 1962 · read 2019-12-02

Pale Fire was my second book by Vladimir Nabokov, and it curiously resembled the first one (Lolita, naturally): An unreliable narrator, who felt incredibly off-putting, full of himself, and mentally ill. I do want to note that the narra

Die Revolution Von 1918/19

by Volker Ullrich · published 2009 · read 2017-11-16

So viel au :( aber ein guter Überblick.

Micromegas

by Voltaire · published 1752 · read 2018-07-09

Throughly enjoyable and witty. It's mostly Ada Palmer's fault I read this, but this is definitely the earliest space-faring fiction I know about.

The Inner Game of Tennis

by W. Timothy Gallwey · published 1974 · read 2020-03-31

I hadn't expected a Zen book, but here we are. This book is short and to the point, and presents a couple of very good takes on not-just-tennis. It applies at the very least to every physical activity and anything that works like a compet

Quillifer

by Walter Jon Williams · published 2017 · read 2022-11-02

No idea how to rate this. On the one hand: didn't care for the plot or for the protagonist (a fop, thrown into adventure, somehow always escaping and then showing some sort of magic genius to get himself out of tight spots, starting from th

A Canticle for Leibowitz

by Walter M. Miller Jr. · published 1959 · read 2022-03-28

Damn, rating this book is hard! The first part had me thinking that it was just standard (though not standart then, of course!) far-future post-fallout sci-fi where humanity lives in its own ruins. And then the second part was alright, e

Wilde Reise durch die Nacht

by Walter Moers · published 2001 · last read 2021-01-13

Walter Moers decided to branch out and do something wildly different. Okay, maybe not wildly: there's still much absurdity going on. But it's not Zamonien. Instead, it's the story of Gustave Doré, the famous painter. Or rather, his painti

Die 13½ Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär

by Walter Moers · published 1999 · read 2006-05-01

This is where Moers proved he was a wizard. It's not his best book, but it's absolutely outstanding nevertheless. The tour through the 13½ lives of Cpt Bluebear is amazing, astounding, sparkling with fantastic ideas as if it had been writ

Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher

by Walter Moers · published 2004 · read 2007-11-01

The year I got this book, I must have read it five times in a row. It's one of those books that appeal deliberately to any reader's affinity to books – but where stories about magical librarians or book-hopping narrators are cautious abou

Der Schrecksenmeister

by Walter Moers · published 2007 · read 2008-07-01

I wasn't the biggest fan of this book, possibly because I thought that I had to read the book it was satirising first. I didn't have to do that, and it wasn't a lot of fun. I was impressed with the food porn though – when Moers sets his mi

Zamonien. Entdeckungsreise durch einen phantastischen Kontinent. Von A wie Anagrom Ataf bis Z wie Zamomin

by Walter Moers · published 2012 · read 2020-12-27

Even though I love the Zamonien books as much as anybody, this … was not it. This book is an encyclopaedia for the fictional continent Zamonien, as a tie-in for all the other books by Walter Moers. And

Rumo

by Walter Moers · published 2003 · read 2009-07-01

Rumo was a lot of fun. Not as grand as Bluebear, not as nerdy as the book city, but a very good take on adventure books noneteless. Hitting all the tropes without being unintentionally cheesy. Probably the closest you can come to The Prin

Das Labyrinth der Träumenden Bücher

by Walter Moers · published 2011 · read 2011-10-01

Well, this was an exercise in disappointment. The follow-up book to the City of Dreaming Books is strictly worse than its predecessor. It reads as if Moers needed money and so decided to make a bad B-movie following his great blockbuster.

Ensel und Krete. Ein Märchen aus Zamonien

by Walter Moers · published 2000 · read 2003-02-01

Bluebear was a great book. This is an okay book – more experimental in ways, and definitely less astounding. Where Bluebear means that you get an even balance of action and snark, and the City of Dreaming Book works even when you don't ge

A Brother’s Price

by Wen Spencer · published 2005 · read 2020-04-30

This is comfort food, but it's GOOD comfort food. Fantasy world with inverted gender roles (only one man per 20 women, group family marriages ensue). It follows the Regency romance arc perfectly except for leaving out that relationship buil

The Arithmancer

by White Squirrel · published 2015 · read 2021-01-03

Honestly decent Harry Potter fanfic: Hermione starts out a math genius and things escalate. Good writing, a bunch of very thoughtful world-building. Close to canon without being stupid or pretentious. Delightfully nerdy, good research. Over

Annals of Arithmancy

by White Squirrel · published 2019 · read 2021-01-05

Last part of the trilogy. Not bad per se, but far from good. A collection of "look where I could take this" stories, loosely connected. No urgency or impact, really. Better than the original epilogue, but what isn't.

Lady Archimedes

by White Squirrel · published 2018 · read 2021-01-04

Second part of a Harry Potter fanfic. Better plot elements, maybe, but worse writing – started being a drag at some point. Still good execution on the theme of "what if science nerd, but Hermione" – several leagues more plausible and readab

Max und Moritz. Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen

by Wilhelm Busch · published 1865 · read 2000-01-01

Max and Moritz is an extremely quotable gruesome story of two boys and their pranks. It's written in rhymed couplets, many of which have turned into common sayings because they are witty, sarcastic, or just brutal. They are in many ways an

Bridesicle

by Will McIntosh · published 2009 · read 2019-04-22

Good title. Sadly, Bridesicle by Will McIntosh is not as good as its title – cryo facilities where people can be revived by prospective partners. He tries to capture the horror of it all, but it fell flat for me.

Soulsmith

by Will Wight · published 2016 · last read 2025-06-27

After resenting the cliffhanger ending in Unsouled, I'm more reconciled with this one. Once you expect the cliffhangers, after all, they can't hurt you. This second part of the Cradle series sho

Unsouled

by Will Wight · published 2016 · last read 2025-06-27

This was nice. Chinese inspired fantasy, but with a high escalation path into stellar politics among superpowered/ascended beings. The juxtaposition of the two ("low level farm boy" vs "god-like beings") was clumsy at times, and it cuts off

Neuromancer

by William Gibson · published 1984 · read 2017-03-10

Not quite sure what to think of this one. It's fast paced, but I think it tries too hard. I liked how it plays with multiple realities, or layers of reality, but both the plot and the pacing felt so … forced.

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding · published 1954 · read 2017-05-15

Well, that might have been predictable if I had read it in more than a few hours, but it did its job in being terrifying and depressing.

The Princess Bride

by William Goldman · published 1973 · read 2018-02-28

Well, this was just plain funny. Great storytelling, great pacing, great everything. I caught myself looking up if William Goldman really had a son. He hasn't, thank god.

The Wind Singer

by William Nicholson · published 2000 · read 2019-09-29

The Wind Singer by William Nicholson is somewhere between Fantasy for kids and YA. As I'm not the target audience, my opinion can't serve as a good recommendation.

On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi!

by William Tenn · published 1974 · read 2021-02-20

You know how I'm into space monks, aka scifi that has serious thoughts about religion? Yes, this is it. Hilariously tongue-in-cheek, there's nothing I did not like about this short story. It's written in 1974, and thankfully available onlin

Draußen vor der Tür

by Wolfgang Borchert · published 1947 · read 2007-06-01

Borchert's most famous piece – because he died the year it was published, aged 26, of a fever contracted during WW2. We lost a good one that day. This play has the subtitle "A play that no theatre wants to play and that no audience wants to

Ninefox Gambit

by Yoon Ha Lee · published 2016 · last read 2024-01-04

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee was a lot of fun, but at the same time frustrating. It's high fantasy in space, and comes with all the usually frustrating parts of high fantasy (minus the racism). The writing, pacing, and characters are

Raven Stratagem

by Yoon Ha Lee · published 2017 · read 2024-01-05

Kinda like the first book in the series – a lot of very cool worldbuilding, but … kinda too much coolness and not enough substance. If you look behind the window dressing, it's kinda just Omelas, yet again. Don't get me wrong: It's pret

Planet for Rent

by Yoss · published 2015 · read 2022-04-22

Aliens are advanced, humanity is a backwater, deeply indebted to the aliens, and also trying to suck up where possible for survival. Lots of poverty, econ horror, emigration into circumstances that are both worse and somehow yet better. Lik

The Lost Books of The Odyssey

by Zachary Mason · published 2007 · read 2021-10-17

The Lost Books of the Odyssey are, in truth, the Lost Short Stories of the Odyssey, and an impressive 44, at that. Each short story presents a different version of some part of the Iliad or the Odyssey, most-but-not-all focused on Odysseus.

Sorcerer to the Crown

by Zen Cho · published 2015 · read 2020-05-03

Really didn't like this one, partly because I'm not in the target group (not female, not PoC), partly because I thought the worldbuilding was shoddy. Pre-victorian British wizards have been done better, and I thought the Montague siblings s

before the door of hell lamps burned

by basketofnovas · published 2020 · read 2023-02-09

The brilliantly difficult series is a top contender for my favourite fanfic series. It's ambitious, and it sometimes fails, but especially if you read the one-shots, the author ties it together so well. Possibly the only AO3 author I will r

the glass fortress

by basketofnovas · published 2021 · read 2023-02-10

I could read basketofnovas for a week straight without getting sick of the stories tbh, even though I found the second part getting a bit stuck on occasion, especially in fleshing out the political system. It all comes together once you've

the grave of the saint

by basketofnovas · published 2022 · read 2023-02-11

Difficult to tie off a series like this (and I'm perpetually grateful for the one-shots and shorts illuminating the time after the main plot's end). There is too much going on, but I found all the moving parts interesting in the end, and wa

swallow some of their history

by basketofnovas · published 2024 · read 2024-11-03

basketofnovas is writing amazing stuff again. It’s still in her very cool spin on the Potter universe, only this time it opens up an alternate universe, where Hermione is thrown back in time (and into an alternate universe) and ends up shar

All About Love: New Visions

by bell hooks · published 1999 · read 2020-03-15

This book has good, true sentences. It also has weird stretches. It reads like a time capsule into late 70s/early 80s feminism, so I was surprised at the 1999 release date. I liked it for the respectful discussion of agency and how both men

Worth the Candle

by cthulhuraejepsen · published 2017 · read 2018-07-12

While I'm a sucker for "suddenly in a game" stories, I dislike most, because they're typically really bad. This one isn't. It gets meta (well, not fast, but it does), and addresses most things you'll point out as ridiculous in the beginning

Sansûkh

by determamfidd · published 2017 · last read 2021-01-27

Sansûkh is an incredibly well-researched, detailed, well-written Lord of the Rings fanfiction, telling the whole story from the perspective of the dead dwarves keeping watch over their relatives. Its protagonist is Thorin Oakenshield, and i

Taking Control

by fake a smile · published 2008 · last read 2024-11-06

Yawn. Classic way overpowered fanfic protagonist who is super special and nearly everybody else is stupid or evil, but He Prevails And Also Finds True Love. Even while needing a power fantasy, it feels kinda cheap.

Measure of a Man

by inadaze22 · published 2022 · last read 2024-10-31

Very empathetic take on what having Alzheimers does to a person and their family and friends. The fact that it’s embedded in a slow-burn Harry Potter fanfic romance is basically irrelevant, as it should be – the subject matter is taken on w

Psyche, du kleiner Schlingel

by kriegundfreitag · published 2021 · read 2021-10-25

As much as I love kriegundfreitag, I always feel like putting the whole book together is just … too much. It's surprisingly dark, compared to reading just one post at a time. Still, the production quality is great, no simple printout of a T

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

by melmonella · published 2025 · last 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/Ma

The Serpentine Subterfuge

by murkybluematter · published 2013 · read 2019-02-01

The subterfuge works somewhat too well.

The Futile Facade

by murkybluematter · published 2016 · read 2019-02-08

More place-switching, but with people growing up and increasingly high stakes.

The Ambiguous Artifice

by murkybluematter · published 2016 · read 2019-02-02

by murkybluematter · published 2012 · read 2019-02-02

Stakes rise further.

The Pureblood Pretense

Despite the Lemony Snickety naming, an interesting series. Female-Harry has grown up with both parents and her godfather and his son. Due to pureblood idiocy, the two decide to switch places.

Digging for the Bones

by paganaidd · published 2011 · last read 2024-05-19

Decent enough hurt/comfort Severitus. Nothing special, but nothing stupid either.

There is No Antimemetics Division

by qntm · published 2020 · read 2022-03-30

Entertaining and fun. If I were more into the whole SCP aesthetic, this would be an easy 5/5 read. I found myself constantly busy anticipating the (somewhat repetitive) twists in the stories – who is forgetting what? Who has odd blind spots

Comes Around Again

by scarletjedi · published 2016 · last read 2024-05-19

Sansukh-variation, with travelling back to the past to fix things. Not as well-written as Sansukh, but then again, what is? Decent and entertaining, but might have done more with the added knowledge – "some moments in time are fixed" is suc

Draco Malfoy and the Mirror of Ecidyrue

by starbrigid · published 2020 · read 2023-01-29

Pretty alright. Drew me in with the back-in-time stuff, and apparently I read the entire series. PTSD stuff, as is only right. New friendships. blah. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Draco Malfoy and the Heir of Slytherin

by starbrigid · published 2020 · read 2023-01-28

More of the same. Unreliable narrator, which was fun in places. Very slow burn. Too much patience for this shit, but what can you do. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Draco Malfoy and the House of Black

by starbrigid · published 2020 · read 2023-01-30

Actually decent. Some development, some betrayal, blah. Not great, but could be so much worse. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Draco Malfoy and the Wheel of Hecate

by starbrigid · published 2020 · read 2023-01-31

Getting longer, and more whimsical, not for the better. But the whole wand-branding thing is more than interesting, though already shows sings of shoddy execution, sadly. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-backlog-i

Draco Malfoy and the Talon Brand

by starbrigid · published 2020 · read 2023-02-01

Sigh. Relationships. Brands. Blah. Any decent fanfic series inevitable goes insane. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Draco Black and the Prisoner of Nurmengard

by starbrigid · published 2022 · read 2023-02-02

Still more silly super-hero, super-villain super-drama. I did like parts of the prison arc, actually, but the general protagonist idiocy was just off the charts. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident

Draco Black and the Bastard Dragon

by starbrigid · published 2022 · read 2023-02-03

We call it "trying too hard". Falls down all the terrible pitfalls of terrible fanfic. (You know, among the fanfic that is readable and has an understanding of grammar and punctuation.) This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](

Rock Falls, Everybody Dies

by zechamp · published 2023 · read 2023-02-14