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List: group:bsbc

Cover of The Player of Games.

The Player of Games

by Iain M. Banks · published 1988 · last read 2025-02-06

★★★★★

Omg yes. More, please. One of the best Culture books.

Cover of A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

by Becky Chambers · published 2021 · read 2023-01-23

★★★☆☆

After not getting on too well with Wayfarers (I liked it, but too fluffy, no desire to go back), this book worked much better for me. Some of that is "right place, right time", of course, but definitely more my thing than Wayfarers. Disc

Cover of Flowers for Algernon.

Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes · published 1966 · last read 2023-03-15

★★★☆☆

I liked Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes – even though the ending in itself felt predictable, it was very clear that the journey to that ending was the core of the book. It's not an easy question: How much does intelligence dete

Cover of Mind of My Mind.

Mind of My Mind

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1977 · last read 2025-02-18

★★★☆☆

I liked Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler – to me it was the most interesting part of the Patternmaster series so far. It explores how, within our society as it exists today, the Patternist community came to exist, and soon domina

Cover of Wild Seed.

Wild Seed

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1980 · last read 2025-02-17

★★★☆☆

Wild Seed (first part of Octavia Butler's Patternmaster series) was good, but not great. She experiments with the implication of mortal and immortal characters, who definitely aren't gods, and while I enjoyed the premise, and the writ

Cover of Patternmaster.

Patternmaster

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1976 · last read 2025-02-20

★★★☆☆

Patternmaster was very enjoyable, and presented great characters (ever Octavia Butler's strength). There was decent worldbuilding, and I'd love to learn more about this world that is a distant decendant of ours – but sadly, the book ends

Cover of Eon.

Eon

by Greg Bear · published 1985 · read 2023-01-07

★★☆☆☆

Big Dumb Object, but without the Dumb, as the Object is actually load-bearing and has context and faux-science attached to it. Sadly not great for me: The old sci-fi disease of being better at conjuring up scenarios than at having character

Cover of Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

Prayer for the Crown-Shy

by Becky Chambers · published 2022 · read 2023-01-24

★★☆☆☆

Even more fluff, lots of recaps, no new conclusion, some unwarranted angst immediately alleviated with more fluff, an ambivalent ending, and too much focus on a non-workable economy. Not a fan, but if you loved the first one and just want m

Cover of Sea of Tranquility.

Sea of Tranquility

by Emily St. John Mandel · published 2022 · read 2023-02-08

★★☆☆☆

Inoffensive to a fault. Read for book club. Feels odd in several ways: feels slice-of-life even when it's not; doesn't feel sci-fi even when it isn't. The characters are cool but I won't remember them. The author stand-in is awkward. The ti

Cover of Deep Wheel Orcadia.

Deep Wheel Orcadia

by Harry Josephine Giles · published 2021 · read 2023-02-15

★★☆☆☆

I tend to really like the experimental stuff, especially when it’s playing with language, and very especially epic poetry. So why didn’t this work for me? I don’t know. Harder for a non-native speaker to get into, I guess, because it runs

Cover of Terminal Boredom.

Terminal Boredom

by Izumi Suzuki · published 2021 · read 2023-03-09

★★☆☆☆

Everything here sucks: The protagonists are all a mix of stupid, unreflected, and plain assholes. There’s a distinct lack of imagination: e.g. in a world without men, lesbians are still somehow repulsive and gender roles are well and alive.

Cover of Clay's Ark.

Clay’s Ark

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1984 · last read 2025-02-19

★★☆☆☆

Man, Octavia Butler doesn't do nice – in the end, there's always violence/rape/horror. I'm starting to see a little too many parallels between her books in terms of characters involved, and the general feeling/direction, so I'll probably la

Cover of The Glass Hotel.

The Glass Hotel

by Emily St. John Mandel · published 2020 · read 2023-02-09

★☆☆☆☆

Again with the flat emotional affect and the repeating characters. Jumbled, didn't go anywhere, and wasn't compelling enough to convince as a slice-of-life. The only things I slightly cared about were the less obvious connections to [Sea of