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Oh, the first shadows of moral conflict!

Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy · published 1877 · read 2011-12-01

Funny story, actually: I had to give a presentation about Anna Karenina in school, and since the book was so terribly long, I did it entirely from online sources (and got the highest possible grade). But while looking for the passage I wanted to read out loud, I discovered that the book was super readable and so I read it … after the presentation.

The Magicians

by Lev Grossman · published 2009 · read 2020-05-05

I enjoyed this one, and not just for the digs against Fillory (which is a transparently renamed Narnia). The darkly realistic magic school: good. The annoying, whiny, dickish protagonist getting his comeuppance: yeah, dig it. No magic reform arc, either. In total it was rough and not particularly fulfilling as a book, but individual parts all worked really well for me.

Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll · published 1981 · read 2004-06-01

The trippy book. I read Alice as a child, with a lot of confusion at first, and then with some resignation to the fact that it would all make sense once I was older.

Brilliance of the Moon

by Lian Hearn · published 2004 · read 2006-05-01

As set up by the previous book, everybody is being stupid and then there is a lot of battling and death. Not a fan.

The Harsh Cry of the Heron

by Lian Hearn · published 2006 · read 2006-03-01

Concluding the series, we get the "15 years later" book we never wanted. Things fall apart. Then they fall apart some more. There's a lot of death to go around, much of it by backstabbing.

Across the Nightingale Floor

by Lian Hearn · published 2002 · last read 2021-01-16

Everybody is extremely dramatic in this book. Very YA. But it stood up to a re-read surprisingly well: Young boy in faux-Japan gets his family murdered, is adopted into a clan and things escalate from there. Oh, and it turns out he's not only adopted by the rightful leader of the clan, he's also born to a long line of secret assassins and has lots of magical gifts. And everybody wants a piece of them.

Grass for his Pillow

by Lian Hearn · published 2003 · last read 2021-01-17

Enjoyable second part of the series: Our heroes encounter adversity and have to make bad choices and live with their decisions. Less comfort read than the first part, different and good. The ending is extremely stupid and sets up the exceedingly stupid cause for the drama causing part three and four.

Der Auftrag des Magiers

by Licia Troisi · published 2004 · read 2009-12-01

Protagonist rides more dragons, is more stubborn, gets a bit of personal growth.

Der Talisman der Macht

by Licia Troisi · published 2005 · read 2007-10-01

Decent conclusion to a decent series.

Im Land des Windes

by Licia Troisi · published 2004 · last read 2021-01-18

Worldbuilding! I forgot about the worldbuilding of this book. For example, there are tower cities where everything is organised by the tower layers.

Maze of Light

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2005 · read 2018-02-11

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2005 · last read 2024-01-09

Interlude.

No Mouth But Some Serpent’s

More like the first, but starting to show its weaknesses: overly-elaborate stupidity.

I Am Also Thy Brother

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2007 · read 2018-02-10

This was a really rewarding (and terribly long) series. I liked the constant self-improvement and evolution the characters had. Even if the plot was predictable at times, and people didn't change much beyond their morality, I liked it, since they evolved in their understanding and behaviour. I even think I learned some things about myself, and have come to think of other things about myself differently – and what more can you ask of any book?

Saving Connor

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2005 · last read 2024-01-08

Winter is fanfic reading time: Harry, well, lives for saving Connor. Slow burn, very much focussed on character development, but still sees lots of action and lore. It's pretty alright. I liked the depiction of manners and traditions as dances.

Wind That Shakes the Seas and Stars

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2006 · read 2018-01-20

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2006 · last read 2024-01-11

Second War starting up.

Freedom And Not Peace

Harry trains his brother. So very repetitive. Each successive book is longer than the last, with not much to show for it. Stopping here on my re-read.

A Song In Time of Revolution

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2006 · read 2018-02-01

More Harry and more Draco.

Comes Out of Darkness Morn

by Lightning on the Wave · published 2005 · last read 2024-01-11

More hurt/comfort arcs. Getting long and repetitive with the emoshuns.

Mimus

by Lilli Thal · published 2003 · last read 2021-01-21

Mimus is the wonderfully cruel tale of Prince Florin. In the struggle of two nations, the baddies use the age-old plot of suggesting peace-talks to come closer to their enemies. They capture the royal family and important court officials. Everybody is imprisoned, except Prince Florin, who is humiliatingly apprenticed to the court jester. That's the short setup. The book follows Florin in his reluctant apprenticeship to Mimus, through hardship, diplomacy, heartbreak and the realisation that life goes on.

The Martian Obelisk

by Linda Nagata · published 2017 · read 2018-08-02

I felt like The Martian Obelisk by Linda Nagata only built despair to alleviate it, and that was about it. I think the reason is that I don't buy an Earth with reduced but still significant population levels and significant infrastructure mixed with sentences like "surgery became a lost art" and the debilitating despair that seemed to stop everybody from doing anything actually useful.

Axiom’s End

by Lindsay Ellis · published 2020 · read 2021-07-03

Unconvincing first-contact fiction. The protagonist is the daughter of quasi-Assange, and lives in poverty due to his actions after the divorce from her mother. It's all pretty grim, and then the aliens land. For semi-random reasons, one of them picks her as its translator – nothing to do with her skill or anything, and the fact that she has studied linguistics has nothing to do with anything.

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

by Linus Torvalds · published 2001 · read 2008-12-01

Torvalds tells his (and his project's) life story up to 2000. Nothing special.

Harka

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1962 · read 2003-07-01

This series … weirdly enough, I wouldn't say that it has had a huge influence on me, despite being one of my favourites at the time. And the first part was my favourite among the series (once I got to read it – my introduction was a shortened mashup of volumes 4-6, if I recall correctly). Seeing the young Harka encounter hardship and deal with it with strength and grace was enchanting.

Heimkehr zu den Dakota

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1951 · read 2003-05-01

Pain and emotional turmoil. Conflict and strife and family warmth – this book is high drama, and is both payoff for reading the first three books, and also sets up the second half of the series extremely well.

Über den Missouri

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1951 · read 2003-03-01

Concluding the series – I really should re-read to see what I think now. Back in the day I liked the early books more, but then, that's where the protagonist was closer to my own age. I wonder if my reading tastes just shuffle along with the protagonist's age …

Die Höhle in den schwarzen Bergen

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1963 · read 2003-06-01

I didn't relate to this book all that much, and I disliked the whole gold story arc. The story might have been better off without it. It's definitely good setup for the second half of the series though, so I won't grump too much.

Der junge Häuptling

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1951 · read 2003-09-01

More goodness: Harka has really come into his own and gotten back from his (well, his father's) banishment. Many well-loved characters from the first book re-occur. Welskopf-Henrich handles the reuniting very well, if memory serves.

Der Weg in die Verbannung

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1962 · read 2002-05-01

Our beloved hero is banished (well, his father is and he follows). The mood is predictably bad, but seeing Harka stand on his own and living through all the shit life throws at him was inspiring.

The Three-Body Problem

by Liu Cixin · published 2006 · read 2018-08-10

I came into the first volume of Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past with high expectations, as there was somewhat of a hype surrounding the book. It's nearly as good as (and too me, evocative of) Subjective Cosmology by Greg Egan. It's very nice physics (and physicists) scifi. The characters were irritatingly flat a lot of the time (a common hard scifi illness), and often felt over the top to me. The beginning of the book was slow, and compared to that, the ending felt sudden (not rushed, mind, only sudden), and I missed some information and worldbuilding there – I can't be more specific without heavy spoilers. I appreciated the somber ending (although the very final scene was over the top for me). The translation was decent. There remained occasional phrases that sounded weird/unidiomatic, but it happens, especially if there's so much culture to translate.

The Dark Forest

by Liu Cixin · published 2008 · read 2018-09-24

I felt both bored and annoyed at The Dark Forest (sequel to Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem). The plot was convoluted and wandering, but not all that bad – but the people in it continued to be cardboard cutouts of one motivation, and optionally one emotion or one habit, if you were lucky. Also, the vanishingly few female characters had even less of a personality (and were mostly partners-of-somebody with little page time and even less impact). One female character was literally introduced directly as the protagonist's fantasy and then fridged to provide motivation for him.

Memory

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1996 · read 2019-08-07

In Memory, part of the Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold shows off what character development can look like. Talk about emotional payoff! Without spoiling too much, we see Miles, our somewhat-hero, change his life in many ways, and go through the dark passages, darker thoughts, and inevitable pains this change brings. My only criticism might have been that ignoring the somewhat obvious(?) solution to the whodunnit is not very Miles like, but when I thought about it, I realized that this blind spot has a perfect explanation in Miles' character, so there is that. A very impressive book, that let me keep my high opinion of the Vorkosigan series (because improving it would be close to impossible).

Diplomatic Immunity

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2002 · read 2020-08-15

Among the Miles Vorkosigan books, Diplomatic Immunity did not impress me. Among wider sci-fi books, it was warm, clever, with deep character and worldbuilding, and the ability to make me laugh out loud multiple times. It is a credit to the Vorkosigan series that this book does not stand out as good.

The Mountains of Mourning

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1989 · read 2018-11-23

The Mountains of Mourning is a very touching Vorkosigan novella by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's deeply impressive to me how very emotional and touching this novella gets in under 150 pages, while still maintaining the character and tone of the overall series. Our favourite hero, Miles, confronts a backwater village while investigating a child murder. The crippled man confronting a society where killing crippled children is more than just tolerated – and at no point Bujold goes for the easy way out. No good vs evil here, oh no, just heartbreak.

Cetaganda

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1995 · read 2018-11-26

As per usual, Cetaganda is a very enjoyable book in the Vorkosigan series. It gripped me less than usual, which still makes it a very good book. We follow Miles as he saves yet another empire. I still enjoy both the dry wit and how you've got to think along to get the most of the subtle fun between the lines. Other than that, it felt like Yet Another Adventure, where usually the Vorkosigan books tend to contain series-changing events. Great scifi in any case, I'm looking forward to the next one.

The Borders of Infinity

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1987 · read 2019-03-12

In The Borders of Infinity, Lois McMaster Bujold shows her series protagonist Miles Vorkosigan as a prisoner of war. It's Miles distilled to his essence.

Mirror Dance

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1994 · read 2019-03-17

Mirror Dance was yet another really good entry in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. I disliked the protagonist (mildly at first, strongly in the middle, barely at the end), and yet the book worked wonderfully for me. I felt afraid for Miles, scorn, compassion, and pity for his brother, and a whole range of things for everybody else. We get to see new and brilliant parts of Cordelia, and seeing the world from the eyes of Miles brother definitely shows a good perspective on our favourite hero (and reflects well on Miles' growth over the series so far!).

The Warrior’s Apprentice

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1986 · last read 2020-08-19

Wow! If you're new to the series, … start here. This book has all the fun, and action, and, y'know, forwards momentum.

A Civil Campaign

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1999 · read 2020-08-14

Most Vorkosigan fans seem to like A Civil Campaign a lot, and this may or may not have screwed with my expectations. I liked it less than Komarr, which I read directly beforehand.

Labyrinth

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1989 · read 2019-03-12

Labyrinth is a scifi take on the legend of the Minotaur by Lois McMaster Bujold in her Vorkosigan saga. The novella really carries it off.

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2012 · read 2020-08-16

Captain Ivan Vorpatril finally gets his own book, after decades – both in our world and theirs – of grumbling in Miles' shadow. Unfortunately for him, he gets his book at the point in life when Miles' bad habits have finally rubbed off enough to push him into a chivalrous-if-ill-advised wedding. Bujold has the decency to show up front that this will be a romance, so that the inclined reader doesn't have to fret about the ending, and just gets to guess how she'll bring it off.

Weatherman

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1990 · read 2018-11-23

Weatherman is a novella that is also part of The Vor Game. It was the weaker part of Vor Game, but it's still bloody good. I mean, it's Lois McMaster Bujold.

The Vor Game

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1990 · last read 2020-08-20

The Vor Game is another Miles book in the Vorkosigan Saga, and as usual, it is a lot of fast-paced fun. I was lost over the first third or so, where it wasn't clear where the plot was going, and every time I thought I had it figured out, it switched to an entirely new track. I spent a good amount of time wondering how those threads would be tied back together, and the story did not disappoint at all – but it does turn out that the first third was a standalone novella at first, explaining the break.

The Curse of Chalion

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2001 · read 2021-04-25

Bujold has a type. The type here being "adult physically broken but very clever reluctant hero, who meddles with aristocracy without being a ruler himself". It's not like they are the same person: there are differences between Miles Vorkosigan and Cazaril. Caz had a much worse life and less privileges, and is also less (over-)confident. But the parallels are very much there.

Cryoburn

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2010 · read 2020-08-18

Miles does his thing, and he does it well. Side characters are strong and complex. The plot is a mess, intentionally and outrageously, though no more so than usually. Bujold shows that she can do precocious children – they and their treatment by the adults broke my immersion at times, but Miles addresses this issue in an attempt to appease the readers and editors, so that's covered. Nothing else is really strange or new, except maybe the lack of a strong woman pulling the plot together – it's the first Vorkosigan book in quite a while where the main female character is mostly being rescued (though she does have some offscreen badassery).

Falling Free

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1987 · read 2018-04-11

How is Lois McMaster Bujold not one of the first authors to be recommended to people starting scifi? Falling Free introduces the Quaddies (humans with arms instead of legs), as seen and told by an Engineer, capital E. It's awesome, and it's got everything you'd wish for: a new culture, social implications, lots and lots of economic and corporate implications (I see where Charlie got his Laundry File bureaucracy from), and the cultural implications aswell. Also, very sweet and cool characters all around, and funny af. Leo Graf, the protagonist, is just ♥

Winterfair Gifts

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2002 · read 2020-08-15

Wedding stories – I accidentally read this one out of order, as it belongs before Diplomatic Immunity, both to get the couple settled, and to introduce Roic as a character in his own right. Oh well. The wedding was, of course, very Milesian in every way. As this a novelly, Bujold mostly uses it to show us all our old favourites again, and still manages to cram new characters in there, plus something resembling a plot.

The Flowers of Vashnoi

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2018 · read 2020-08-17

Headcanon: Bujold discovered that her vaguely-somewhat-Russian scifi setting allowed her to tell a Chernobyl Baba Yaga story, and then she just had to do it. Sometimes the prompt is stronger than the story.

Brothers in Arms

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1989 · read 2018-07-11

Brothers in Arms is the fifth part (in order of publishing) of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga and I enjoyed it immensely. After the previous volumes vaguely related tales, we finally return to Miles and his crew. It's been seven years (!!!. Where are the stories about those years? Well, at least one later volume takes place in the space between.), and it's brilliant. Miles is still the protagonist with the most absolute forward momentum, and the story has no clear villain, the characters are ambiguous, the narrator is only nearly reliable, and the plot is just tremendous amounts of fun. It really says something when you see that a series has 16 volumes + minor works and you're relieved because it won't be over quite so soon.

Ethan of Athos

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1986 · read 2018-03-10

Brilliant fun! Take this mostly horrible scifi concept of an all-female planet, reverse it to an all-male planet, then take it seriously. This poor protagonist doctor, sent out into the hostile and horrfyingly feminine universe, meets the brilliant Ellie Quinn of all people. It was SO MUCH FUN. (Also, we get a gay happy end, in a way? Aww www.)

Barrayar

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1991 · last read 2020-08-19

Update: This book is a perfect read after Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Sadly, Gentleman Jole is also the perfect read after Barrayar, somebody send help, please?

Komarr

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1998 · read 2020-08-13

Komarr reads so much like Gaudy Night to me, it's ridiculous (although it doesn't go to the same romantic height). That is to say: I liked it very much.

Shards of Honour

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1986 · last read 2020-07-04

I re-read "Shards of Honour" somewhat by accident while looking up a quote for a writing exercise. I had remembered it as a decent first entry in brilliant series: Okay sci-fi, but nothing special.

Dreamweaver’s Dilemma

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1995 · read 2018-11-23

Dreamweaver's Dilemma is a short story by Lois McMaster Bujold, set vaguely in the same universe as her Vorkosigan series. It's nice enough, and shows again her mastery at painting realistic scenarios in unfamiliar worlds, complete with a story arc, but also everyday details. At the same time, it didn't particularly grip me, the pacing was off, so it was just a nice afternoon read.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2016 · read 2020-08-18

by Lynn Flewelling · published 1999 · read 2021-07-18

❤

Traitor’s Moon

Just as with the previous book in the series, I enjoyed the world and the storytelling a lot, but some relationship-related things clouded my enjoyment.

Stalking Darkness

by Lynn Flewelling · published 1997 · read 2021-07-14

Avoiding second-book syndrome, Stalking Darkness is at least as good as Luck in the Shadows – but it also touches on some serious yikes. I have thoughts.

Luck in the Shadows

by Lynn Flewelling · published 1996 · read 2021-07-02

Excellent fantasy – very 90s, and I devoured it in a single Saturday. Teenage boy with no family gets helped out of prison by a mysterious stranger who accepts him as apprentice. Said stranger turns out to be a jack-of-all trades spy, a charming and capable rogue. They encounter harship and intrigue and find friends and blah blah, classic fantasy story arc in the end.

Shadows Return

by Lynn Flewelling · published 2008 · read 2021-07-20

This is where I stop reading the Nightrunner series. The protagonists are kidnapped after a lengthy exposition part. The kidnappers are, well, how do I put this? From a country where rich men keep harems and slaves, and where the masters have darker skin and curly beards. That's not even fantasy racism, it's just regular racism. Evil arabs seem to have been acceptable way longer than most other lazy racist stereotypes.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 18: September/October 2017

by Lynne M. Thomas · published 2017 · read 2018-09-24

Two reviews for this issue: Fandom for Robots is a charming humorous story about the only existing sentient robot (bulky out-of-date thing from the 50s) finds anime and fanfiction. Fluffy, funny, but sadly a bit inconsequential.

Infinity Gate

by M. R. Carey · published 2023 · read 2024-11-13

I thought this was going to be a three- or even four-star book, but alas, the let-down. Promising in the beginning: I love a good alternate-worlds story that puts some thought into how the whole thing can shake out socially and economically, and this book seemed to do just that. Plus, the identity of the narrator was cool and promising, and the narrator’s bias was clever and snarky. Well, that all went down the drains after the first quarter or so, when suddenly space-opera-MilSF-blah. Why are we reading out super-soldier specs? Y a w n. I could’ve lived with the added POV characters (and actually, the school girl x AI couple was endearing and decently written), but man, going all-in on adventures in space and technobabble was not a good call. And then, in the very end, it turned out that a) the author clearly thinks we are stupid, because there is something that is signalled so clearly it might as well be spelled out, and it’s treated as a twist. Maybe Graydon Saunders has broken me, because he would’ve considered that part almost too clear and in need of less obvious hinting (and leave it at that, forever), but that felt lame as the outcome of the final showdown. And then the book ends on a non-ending/cliffhanger, while formally revealing the identity of the narrator – which has been clear from the beginning, so either this is another faux-twist or the writing is just off. Definitely not enough to get me to read the next part, as you can just tell how it’s going to go from here. Man, this one had potential – the initial AI rights setup plus the parallel similar-but-not worlds with different species were cool. But sure, throw it away to get in a couple more stats about your Iron Man suits. Kinda sad, that.

The Hierophant’s Daughter

by M.F. Sullivan · published 2019 · read 2019-03-17

The Hierophant's Daughter by MF Sullivan was an advance reading copy provided to me by NetGalley. It's … dystopian cannibal vampires? I have to confess that I aborted reading the book about a third of the way in. Its mix of unsympathetic characters, bleak dystopia, random info dumps, and random remeniscing about the past did not work for me at all. Dystopian cannibal vampire empire churches take a lot to be believable – Charlie Stross could do it, MF Sullivan couldn't.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

by Mackenzi Lee · published 2017 · read 2019-12-09

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee is fun, but not outstanding. I was very tolerant of its flaws because it's very queer. The protagonist is an English aristocratic ass on his Grand Tour, which is a fine narrative device … until it gets tiring. Even a mistreated entitled idiot is still an entitled idiot, who in this case is surrounded by way cooler people. Especially his sister, who was the most competent person involved, would've made the book much better if it had been multi-POV, I think. Also, less of a euphoric "we ride into the sunset" ending – I had been hoping against hope for a better ending, and was disgruntled at this.

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle · published 1962 · read 2018-02-26

Started off as five star book, ended as a three star book. I found the religious … themes very jarring, much less low-key than in Diane Duane's books. The descriptions and characters were great, the story and pacing a bit lacking.

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller · published 2011 · read 2021-05-13

Circe was okayish, this is the second chance I was giving Miller before deciding that her access to myths doesn't match mine. I liked Achilles more than Circe, but part of that is that I'm a sucker for the pairing. I didn't like the depiction of Patroclus too much, and both felt oddly pale to me. I know it's the current poster child of queer readership and TikTok in particular, but … ehh. It's alright.

Circe

by Madeline Miller · published 2018 · read 2019-11-24

Circe by Madeline Miller is solid antiquity fanfiction – which means to say good things about "Circe" and about fanfiction. It manages to convey how everybody in Greek myths is cruel or stupid or both in some way – not the most uplifting book, but a good take on Circe, to be sure.

Raven Boys

by Maggie Stiefvater · published 2013 · read 2024-03-28

It’s a year later, and the only thing I remember is being annoyed at the amount of teenage/YA angst, so I’ll just say that this book was not for me and move on.

Berlins Drittes Geschlecht

by Magnus Hirschfeld · published 1904 · read 2020-08-12

Berlin's Third Gender (Berlins drittes Geschlecht) by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld is a description of queer lives in Berlin around 1900 (published 1905). Even though it's naturally sad in some ways, it's also encouraging: Berlin was comparatively liberal at the time, and I enjoyed the descriptions of queer groups, events, relationships, and creative side-stepping of general conventions. The descriptions are very vivid and obviously well-researched, and contain lots of amusing facts about everyday life in different social circles.

Dog Country

by Malcolm F. Cross · published 2020 · read 2022-08-22

Clone soldiers, but they are neurotic dogs. Much strong, very brotherhood, wow. Consistent, and if you like MilSF, possibly interesting? I'd usually resist the urge to say "Furry MilSF", but the author, and I quote, is "a member of the furry fandom", so I feel somewhat justified. Not a ton of depth, but not nothing – the country they invade when they are mobbed out of Fantasy Violence Football turns out to be way more complex than they thought, and the post-capitalist lawyer wrangling was funny. Not sure about the neurotic relationship stuff, but ehh. It's fine. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Innocent

by MarauderLover7 · published 2013 · read 2024-09-21

Logic is the author's enemy. Frustrating read, because there were some neat ideas in there. It's a longer series and I shudder to think how bad the plotting and characters will get when built on a basis this shaky.

Initiate

by MarauderLover7 · published 2014 · read 2024-09-22

Slightly better than the first part, but not by much. The fanfic logic is still making my brain hurt. Please, god, why.

Identity

by MarauderLover7 · published 2014 · read 2024-09-28

Best of the series so far. Ginny's perspective on possession and second year was well done, even as Gryffindor Draco continued to be weirdly written.

Impose

by MarauderLover7 · published 2016 · read 2024-09-29

The series continues at its new fun-not-stupid fanfic levels, rather than the first volume of why-please-stop levels, so that's nice.

Intensity

by MarauderLover7 · published 2021 · read 2024-10-02

It's wild how this series started out worse than mediocre – because here, it's actually good. Maybe good-for-fanfic, but the upper end of that, at the very least. Characters come together, and act with intelligence (especially the villains, aswell). They have relationships that influence how they live and act in wider society. There's plotting and storytelling, and the writing is decent, too. Huge improvement over anything before, and especially over the first three books.

Influence

by MarauderLover7 · published 2024 · read 2024-10-06

The story continues escalating with real stakes, real character development, and tons of accumulated background that is used well instead of ignored as in the og series. For example, in the very first installation, the series introduces life debts as serious and binding (within a limited context), and this book then sees the bad side working to exploit this mechanism. Characters are also still growing and feeling very vivid and real. Good work.

Die Känguru-Chroniken. Ansichten eines vorlauten Beuteltiers

by Marc-Uwe Kling · published 2009 · read 2012-05-01

Mostly funny, sometimes hilarious. Listen to it – it loses half its charm on paper.

Das Känguru-Manifest

by Marc-Uwe Kling · published 2011 · read 2015-03-01

More of the same – never change a running system.

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood · published 1985 · read 2017-12-21

Oh yes, definitely the dystopic tale I needed without knowing it. Nicely done.

We Who Will Destroy the Future

by Margaret Killjoy · published 2018 · read 2018-07-31

We Who Will Destroy the Future is a nice little time travel short story, available online. Good story, good setting, very good narrator voice.

Beowulf

by Maria Dahvana Headley · published 2020 · read 2021-11-13

Confession: this is my first time reading Beowulf, in any translation. So of course I picked a new, modern, controversial one: what else? Maria Dahvana Headley had previously written The Mere Wife, Beowulf with Grendel's mother as protagonist, and she has some very intriguing criticism of longstanding translation traditions.

Vita Nostra

by Marina Dyachenko · published 2007 · read 2021-08-15

by Marina Dyachenko · published 1997 · read 2023-01-12

Vita Nostra is often described as "If Kafka had written Harry Potter", and neither part is a good fit. Closer to the truth would be to call it a Russian version of The Magicians, where everybody is depressed for good reasons instead of just being whiny idiots, and also the meta part is actually meta instead of being just Narnia.

Age of Witches

Heads-up, I read this one in German, and I thought the translation was fairly good, though in that slightly annoying overly dramatic tone of German that all German Fantasy seems to be in. So props to the translation to be tone accurate, but also, ugh. Current-ish day modern society, but witches exist and so does the inquisition. Our POV characters are a young witch and an old inquisitor. They fall for each other. Their multi-decade age gap seems to mirror the authors' age gap, and that preoccupied a lot of my attention and … ick. Ickkkk. Big "are you writing about your marriage? I really hope not." But even apart from the language and the relationship thing, I was not impressed. Now, admittedly, expecting another Vita Nostra isn't fair on anybody, but man, this just was not it. Everybody is constantly moody and obeying their every moody whim, inconsistent, and meh. Nobody is even remotely likeable, everybody sucks: Witches are somehow both legal to exist if they register and submit to state authority, and also regularly tortured. The inquisition does the torturing (what a nice protagonist to have), but also kinda sorta wants to pretend they keep the general population under control, who hate witches even worse and would just lynch them. Other mythical beings are also around and just integrated in society as enforcers, or hunted. Did I mention that everybody is incompetent, changes their opinion five times per day, is overly given to tantrums, and sucks? Also casual use of torture as just a plot device without any consequences. Ehhhh, I'm not even sure why I finished, as the ending was so muddled and overly dramatic without real purpose. Ah man, I really didn't expect this book to just suck. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Red Sister

by Mark Lawrence · published 2017 · read 2018-12-04

Red Sister is a beautifully written fantasy novel that switches flawlessly between intimate characterisation, lyrical prose, and gripping action, all set in a deeply fascinating world. And by fascinating I mean: the moon is a parabolic mirror that heats a liveable strip of land at night, keeping the encroaching masses of ice at bay. Yess. And no, it's not scifi, it's deeply fantasy. I loved everything about this book, including the main cast, the supporting characters, the plot, the unpredictable turns, … wow!

Grey Sister

by Mark Lawrence · published 2018 · read 2019-04-04

I liked Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. Grey Sister was an appropriate second volume – It was a good-ish second part to Red Sister, but I felt it lacked a sense of cohesiveness. For a long time it just moved from one action after the other, switching to a bit heavy-handed character development from time to time. The protagonist is also too successful with most things she does, and then there's some torture/pain/loss thrown in for balance. Language felt a bit inconsistent, too: mostly very good standard storytelling (think Sanderson), then suddenly flowery.

Models: Attract Women Through Honesty

by Mark Manson · published 2011 · read 2020-04-16

Do not read this book, except if you're not interested in dating women. In that case, read my objection below and replace all "woman" with "person" and "women" with "people" so that the ridiculous parts stand out better.

Stuff Matters

by Mark Miodownik · published 2013 · read 2022-03-12

All my notes are lost to a hardware disaster, so the tl;dr is just: material pop-science, fun read, drags on in places. Nice without being great. The chapters on steel and chocolate were great, the one on concrete could have been great but instead was grating. All in all cool info, presented well, if you can stand the voice. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

by Mark Twain · published 1889 · read 2020-06-08

I only barely finished this book. I picked it up on a whim – Twain sounded like fun, time travel into old England sounded like it could be hilarious. Which it really wasn't.

The Prince and the Pauper

by Mark Twain · published 1881 · read 2005-03-01

Twain humour and snarky class commentary – I wouldn't swear that it holds up to a re-read, but I liked it a lot when I was young.

The Awful German Language

by Mark Twain · published 2010 · read 2007-07-01

Twain about the awfulness of German is honestly peak Twain. He's funny, and more: he's right.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain · published 1875 · read 2002-10-01

Probably my first trickster book – I reveled in how clever and witty Tom was. All his tricks, all his deals and feelings felt real and like something to aspire to. I even took his frequent bartering of small items and introduced it at school. It was great fun.

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

by Mark Twain · published 1906 · read 2006-01-01

Not the height of hilariousness, but solidly funny – might have been my first humorous take on the Bible?

The War Prayer

by Mark Twain · published 1900 · read 2014-03-01

Where did I get my pacifist stance? It wasn't here – I read the War Prayer much too late for it. But it might as well have been here.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain · published 1884 · read 2003-04-01

Huckleberry Finn is a less likely protagonist than Tom Sawyer, and I liked the book much less as a consequence. Bleaker, more contrived (the plot, at least), and just more depressing. It's probably the better book from a literary perspective, what with the first person vernacular and all that, but that didn't endear it to me either (which may be a translation issue, come to think of it).

How to Move Spheres and Influence People

by Marko Kloos · published 2019 · read 2019-04-04

Unfair rating, because: I'm sick of generic superhero origin stories. How to Move Spheres and Influence People by Marko Kloos is a superhero origin story. It's about a teenager who discovers that she can move any spherical object with her mind. Very slice-of-life, not really going anywhere.

I Am the Messenger

by Markus Zusak · published 2002 · read 2017-06-29

I didn't enjoy this book at all. Too much everyday mysticism for me.

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak · published 2005 · read 2010-06-01

Sensitive, but oddly distant take on childhood in Nazi Germany.

Artificial Condition

by Martha Wells · published 2018 · read 2018-10-19

The Artificial Condition is the second volume of Martha Wells' Murderbot series, and it's definitely better than the first one. I see why people love Murderbot, now – they, and their interaction with both humans and other bots, are bittersweet and relatable. In this second volume, Murderbot has to figure out what to do with their freedom, and they use it well – to examine their past, and work on ways to live their future. I enjoyed that while the protagonist is snarky, the snarkiness isn't overdone at all, and leaves spaces for cleverness, and vulnerability, and all kinds of connections to other people.

Rogue Protocol

by Martha Wells · published 2018 · read 2019-01-04

In Rogue Protocol, the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells continue to be enjoyable – it's lighter on the character building and action than the previous two volumes, and some ticks of our protagonist start to feel worn-out, but I still liked it! I read it when I was feeling tired, and down, and easy and fun (but never too easy, or too fun) books like these are the best thing next to hot chocolate for moods like that.

All Systems Red

by Martha Wells · published 2017 · read 2018-09-02

It's hard to judge All Systems Red on account of it being so short – it's fast-paced and engaging though, and I felt invested in the story. But after reading it, I was more interested in reading the next part and finding out more about the world and the protagonist – the whole book felt like it just provided a backdrop for the further series. As the series is generally well-liked though, I trust that things will pick up from here.

Exit Strategy

by Martha Wells · published 2018 · read 2019-05-10