Books read in 2019 📚 log(book)

DNF: The writing style was grating for me, and the book opened with such strong tech pessimism ("kids these days don't know how to talk to each other", phrased more nicely) that I disengaged very soon. Later she goes on to say that she only

Unnatural Death

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1927 · read 2019-12-25

A Lord Peter Wimsey mystery about lesbians, mostly. The mystery itself wasn't very compelling, with a solution so obvious I kept expecting a twist. The lesbian couples were a nice touch, though applied with their fair share of misogyny. The

On the Manner of Negotiating with Princes

by François de Callières · published 1983 · read 2019-12-19

I enjoyed this book a lot, because it gives insight into the thoughts and everyday work of diplomats three hundred years ago. It's not a subject I've thought about in detail before, so this was fascinating. The approach to the matter is bro

Thus Was Adonis Murdered

by Sarah Caudwell · published 1981 · read 2019-12-19

This book sports a dry humour that's a lot of fun to read. The self-important unreliable narrator is incredibly well done, and makes for an unusual and fun narrative arc. I'm not a big fan of mysteries, so I wasn't all that interested in wh

Annihilation

by Jeff VanderMeer · published 2014 · read 2019-12-17

Horror is not my genre, and this one just didn't have an effect on me? Not a bad book, just book-reader-mismatch, I think. The protagonist had a good distinct voice, and Area X was weird in a good way, but it never clicked for me.

Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration

by Bryan Caplan · published 2019 · read 2019-12-12

I can't really judge the content, not being an economist. But the presentation was very well done: The arguments were clear, with good rhethoric lines and arc, and the illustrations were good, too. There was a fair bit of stereotyping going

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 de

Record of a Spaceborn Few

by Becky Chambers · published 2018 · read 2019-12-04

I'm never really sure what to make of the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. I usually enjoy reading the books, because I only start them when I'm in the right frame of mind, for instance after reading a couple of complicated or dark

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

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 uplif

Starship’s Mage: Omnibus

by Glynn Stewart · published 2014 · read 2019-11-22

I really liked the premise of Glynn Stewart's Starship Mage, but the execution was meh enough to get me to drop the book two thirds in. A world with magic for space travel, with defined rules and organisations and governance? Super co

The Last Sun

by K.D. Edwards · published 2018 · read 2019-11-20

The Last Sun was somewhat generic urban Fantasy, set in a modern Atlantis – that is, if generic urban Fantasy was usually queer. I appreciated the queer cast, and the worldbuilding, and the hints at larger, deeper things. But since hints wa

The English Patient

by Michael Ondaatje · published 1992 · read 2019-11-20

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje is a lyrical, slow, pain-ridden book about the trauma and separation and surreal life of people in and after WW2. It's not really for me, but it wasn't an unpleasant read, either.

Ravencry

by Ed McDonald · published 2018 · read 2019-11-20

I did not finish Ravencry by Ed McDonald. It's not bad Fantasy, but it's not outstanding either, and I noticed I just didn't care about the story or the characters, and didn't even notice when I stopped reading for several weeks. Life

Doomsday Book

by Connie Willis · published 1992 · last read 2026-01-25

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is the best book about time travel that I know of, with the notable exception of "This is how you lose the time war". It's started out good, and then proceeded to kick me in the feelings. Repeatedly. Time

The Door Into Fire

by Diane Duane · published 1979 · read 2019-11-15

I loved The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane a whole lot. It's incredibly character-focused fantasy, to the point of reminding me strongly of Lois McMaster Bujold for its strong characters and Ursula Le Guin for its sensitive, almost lyr

Children of Time

by Adrian Tchaikovsky · published 2015 · read 2019-11-15

With Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time I've finally come upon a book that most of my friends liked or loved, and that I couldn't get into, for … complex reasons.

Gifts

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 2004 · read 2019-11-15

Gifts by Ursula Le Guin is one of the books that I will be able to remember clearly for its atmosphere for a long time, but I didn't actually particularly like it. It's good Fantasy, with a ton of character building and world building. Th

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

by N.K. Jemisin · published 2010 · read 2019-11-15

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K.Jemisin is solid Fantasy, with cool mythology, a decent protagonist and good other characters, and absolutely nothing wrong with it – it just didn't really come to life for me. Huge bonus points for a

The Student Prince

by FayJay · published 2010 · read 2019-11-15

The Student Prince is very well-written Merlin (the TV show) fanfiction. You don't need to know the show to enjoy it: It transplants the characters of Merlin, Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot et al into pre-Brexit UK, where they go to college and

Trouble with Time

by Arthur C. Clarke · published 1960 · read 2019-10-13

Trouble with Time is a nice enough short story by Arthur C. Clarke. My impression is good idea, okay-ish execution, nothing special.

Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships

by Meg Barker · published 2012 · read 2019-10-05

Many if not most books on relationships out there are not good. Sometimes the author had a spot of luck and generalises. Sometimes it's just stuffed with common knowledge, or advice meant to make people feel in control. Of course, most of t

Three Parts Dead

by Max Gladstone · published 2012 · last read 2022-01-09

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone was just straight up enjoyable Fantasy. We get magic, and gods, and … magic lawyers? Dabbling in magic means dabbling in contracts, so our protagonist has clients (or, well, her employer does), and there

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

by Brené Brown · published 2012 · read 2019-10-01

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown is a book on vulnerability, and touches on many emotional and structural concepts that influence how we can or cannot be vulnerable in our current societes, such as hero worship, scarcity culture, disengageme

Scythe

by Neal Shusterman · published 2016 · read 2019-09-29

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is YA scifi, and as such I am not the target group. I read YA occasionally, though, so I am familiar with both good and bad examples. This one, to me, fell in the latter group. Shusterman built a utopia somehow f

Whose Body?

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1923 · read 2019-09-29

I read and re-read a lot of Dorothy L. Sayers in German when I was a kid, around 10. I loved those books to bits, so I started wondering if they were as good as I remembered. I started my re-read in the beginning, with Whose Body?, an

My Real Children

by Jo Walton · published 2014 · last read 2023-04-05

This review is biased. Of course, all my reviews are biased, what else are they there for? But this one is more biased than most. My Real Children by Jo Walton came recommended by a friend who said “if you ever feel the need to bawl

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.

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1971 · read 2019-09-29

I think, despite all its brilliance and cleverness, the best thing about Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones by Samuel R. Delany is the playfulness. It's a short story that's won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards back in

Anti-Ice

by Stephen Baxter · published 1993 · read 2019-09-25

I finally read a book by Stephen Baxter! Anti-Ice seems like it should be very much down my road: Victorians! In space! Science! Alternate history!

The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life

by Epictetus · published 2017 · read 2019-09-24

I had a couple of stressful weeks, with both positive and negative experiences with wonderful people. When I start losing my equilibrium (ok, no, when I have irrevocably lost my equilibrium), I sometimes go back and read The Manual, a v

In an Absent Dream

by Seanan McGuire · published 2019 · read 2019-09-23

As with every book by Seanan McGuire, In an Absent Dream is full of charm and wit and very real observations about how children work. As a part of the Wayward Children series, we follow yet another child into a Door to a place tha

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar · published 2019 · read 2019-09-21

This Is How You Lose the Time War was written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. They must be magic. They can't just write like this without magic. Trust me.

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing: Proven Professional Techniques for Writing Ith Style and Power

by Gary Provost · published 1985 · read 2019-09-21

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost is from 1985 and has aged remarkably well. It's a set of rules, short and to the point. Some advice is dated and not relevant any longer – a couple of hints on how to acquire information an

Black Box

by Jennifer Egan · published 2012 · read 2019-09-20

Twitter literature! Black Box by Jennifer Egan is a neat experiment – a story that was tweeted out, back in the old days, when Twitter was still at 140 characters. I found the distinctive style and the rhythm of the tweet boundaries inte

Anathem

by Neal Stephenson · published 2008 · read 2019-09-20

Anathem by Neal Stephenson kept me busy. Between a bunch of conferences, the sufficient concentration was a bit hard to come by. What's worse: Now that I have read it, I can't tell you if it is a good book or not.

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.

Asches to Asches

by Scott Alexander · published 2014 · read 2019-09-20

What is truth, quoth Pontius Pilate. Asches to Asches is one of those witty stories by Scott Alexander. It illustrates precisely the source of my anxiety when reading non-fiction: I think I can be conned into believing anything if yo

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

by Scott Alexander · published 2017 · read 2019-09-20

What is it with rationalist fiction and that stilted style? Can't people make an argument without sounding like badly written robot hybrids? Ars Longa, Vita Brevis is not one of Scott Alexander's best stories. Skippable, to me, because t

It Was You Who Made My Blue Eyes Blue

by Scott Alexander · published 2015 · read 2019-09-20

Speak about writing to a narrow target demographic: This is a rationalist short story by Scott Alexander, exploring the impact of logic and colonialisation on an island tribe. KIDDING! While technically correct, it is also false, and I can'

The Hydrogen Sonata

by Iain M. Banks · published 2012 · read 2019-08-07

With Hydrogen Sonata, I have now finished the Culture series by Iain Banks. It's been a ride.

The Calculating Stars

by Mary Robinette Kowal · published 2018 · read 2019-08-07

The Calculating Stars by Marie Robinette Kowal sure is a book. It is set in the US in the 50s, just shortly after a meteorite drops into the sea next to Washington, kills millions, and starts what might be an extinction level event. Our p

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, an

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter

by Theodora Goss · published 2017 · read 2019-08-06

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss was an absolute delight. It takes place in Victorian London, and we see the daughters of Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde, Dr Moreau, and other classics of Victorian literature trying to unr

Dread Nation

by Justina Ireland · published 2018 · read 2019-07-26

Zombie Western. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland had the potential to be a book I liked a lot, but … I didn't. Its premise is that zombies rise in the US during the confederate wars, and so history changes. Slavery is abolished, but black

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles

by Pierre Bayard · published 2008 · read 2019-07-20

I'm really very much not a fan of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Pierre Bayard. Spoilers ahead, though I won't spoil the proposed solution to the Baskerville case.

2BR02B

by Kurt Vonnegut · published 1968 · read 2019-07-16

2BR02B is a very Kurt Vonnegut short story about a future with immortal people and very quid-pro-quo population control. Think Futurama's suicide booth. It's gruesome in this Vonnegut style that shows you reality, but in a very specific d

Focusing

by Eugene T. Gendlin · published 1978 · read 2019-07-15

Focusing by Eugene T. Gendlin was my first book I really wanted to give up on this year. I'm always very hesitant to pick up non-fiction books, especially those that touch on self-help or psychology in any way. There's so much misinformat

The Well of Ascension

by Brandon Sanderson · published 2007 · read 2019-07-15

I'm pampered by more recent Brandon Sanderson novels, and so I thought that the writing in The Well of Ascension (part two of Mistborn) was disappointing. Both the story arcs and character arcs were decent (and while patterns Sand

Dhalgren

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1975 · read 2019-07-11

Asking me to rate Dhalgren by Samuel Delany is like asking me to rate Kafka's Process. I'm sure that they are both good books, objectively. I'm sure they are good books to many people out there. I can recognize their excellent languag

The Bear and the Nightingale

by Katherine Arden · published 2017 · read 2019-07-07

In The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden tells a Russian fairytale, and she does it with a lot of feeling. The atmosphere is wonderful and a great mix of fairytale logic: everything is slightly off, belief and patterns carry m

The Thief

by Megan Whalen Turner · published 1996 · last read 2022-06-29

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner is a short fantasy novel placed in a fictional Mediterranean-medieval world. We follow a young thief, who is retrieved from prison to steal something for (and with) the King's Magus. The world is fleshed

Senlin Ascends

by Josiah Bancroft · published 2013 · read 2019-07-07

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft is unexpected in many ways, and at least some of them are charming. It takes place in the Tower of Babel, so that's one. We are definitely in a fantastic world, because we have trains, and airships, and g

A Memory Called Empire

by Arkady Martine · published 2019 · last read 2021-03-26

A junior ambassador from one alien nation and planet to another, which boasts of a highly complex language and culture? Finding herself scrambling to catch up with her predecessor (rudely murdered, instead of being in her brain as would be

Red, White & Royal Blue

by Casey McQuiston · published 2019 · read 2019-07-07

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a rom-com, pure and simple. It's light-hearted, it's witty, it doesn't feel like "Hello, fellow kids" – what more do you want?

The Tea Master and the Detective

by Aliette de Bodard · published 2018 · read 2019-07-07

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard is a nie short scifi novella in a world where different sorts of teas can have a profound impact on how the human brain works, there is deep space that behaves entirely different from

Foundryside

by Robert Jackson Bennett · published 2018 · read 2019-05-31

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett is a hard book for me to rate. In the beginning it was lackluster, because it felt like very system-heavy Fantasy: Fantasy where the author cares more about the magic system than about the character

Godsgrave

by Jay Kristoff · published 2017 · read 2019-05-26

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff is the second part of The Nevernight Chronicle, and it felt underwhelming. I'll try to tell you why: In Godsgrave, we continue to follow Mia, who is now a trained assassin and still hell-bent on revenge. To make

The Victorian Internet

by Tom Standage · published 1998 · read 2019-05-24

My first non-fiction book in quite some time, The Victorian Internet is a nice introduction into the rise and fall of the electrical telegraph, and all its implications. Tom Standage shows us in an easy, meandering style how the world

Kings of the Wyld

by Nicholas Eames · published 2017 · read 2019-05-18

Ever wanted to read a self-aware Expendables in a Fantasy world? Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames is for you. I wasn't a fan for the first half (it was solid, but annoying, and Getting The Band Back Together isn't a story I enjoy),

Beneath the Sugar Sky

by Seanan McGuire · published 2018 · read 2019-05-10

While Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire was yet another pleasant entry in the Wayward Children series, it didn't grab me nearly as much as the previous novellas. I'm not into Candyland in the first place, or that of the troupe

Exit Strategy

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

The (currently) last part of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is aptly called Exit Strategy. I liked it, just as I liked all the Murderbot Diaries. It's not quite slice-of-life, but it's got a protagonist that dearly wishes to

The Monster Baru Cormorant

by Seth Dickinson · published 2018 · read 2019-05-08

I really liked The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. It was provided to me as a review copy by the publisher. Some parts were weaker than the first part of the series, which was rich due to its time skips and introduction into

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel · published 2014 · read 2019-05-08

Sometimes, you find books that are good books, and you notice how they are good books, and you like the parts that make them good books, but you don't like them. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is such a book for me. It's not

The Stars My Destination

by Alfred Bester · published 1955 · read 2019-05-05

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is a scifi classic, and most of those don't work for me. This one was better than average, but I still felt like I was in a weird dream. I have a low tolerance for people behaving horribly and/or

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

by Seth Dickinson · published 2015 · read 2019-05-05

I loved The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. I don't even know where to start. Our protagonist is a young girl in a "primitive" country when the story starts. Her country is annexed by the big empire next door by economic and

Blackwing

by Ed McDonald · published 2017 · read 2019-05-05

Blackwing by Ed McDonald is classed as grimdark fantasy. I'm usually careful about those – much of the genre strikes me as ~edgy~ woe-is-me drivel that just delights in being as cynical as possible. Looking at the facts, Blackwing seems s

The Wolf in the Whale

by Jordanna Max Brodsky · published 2019 · read 2019-05-05

The Wolf in the Whale is delightful fantasy, centered around a small group of Inuit during the phase of christianisation of the vikings. Jordanna Max Brodsky, the author, is a dedicated historian, and it shows – the book is never dry or b

Beware of the Dog

by Roald Dahl · published 1944 · read 2019-04-23

Short stories are tricky: when they rely on a twist and you see it coming, it's not all that much fun. Beware of the Dog is a short story by Roald Dahl about a WW2 pilot who loses his leg – it was alright, but (at least for me), the timin

Lud-in-the-Mist

by Hope Mirrlees · published 1926 · read 2019-04-22

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees is a fantasy novel from 1926, which means it reads a bit aged – but not only that, it also subverts all kinds of implicit genre expectations, having been published before Tolkien and his larger-than-life i

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.

Song of Sacrifice

by Janell Rhiannon · published 2018 · read 2019-04-16

I'm a Greek mythology geek, and Song of Sacrifice by Janell Rhiannon (as an ARC via NetGalley) should've been right up my alley. Alas, it wasn't – while it showed human perspectives on all the big players in the myths leading up to th

Tournament of Losers

by Megan Derr · published 2015 · read 2019-04-10

Tournament of Losers by Megan Derr was surprisingly good for a fantasy romance novel, but it was still utterly predictable (and fairytale sounding in the ritual situations that lead to its predictability, actually). A nice enough read, es

The Library at Mount Char

by Scott Hawkins · published 2015 · read 2019-04-09

It's always fun finding out that everything you assumed about a book is wrong – I had this pleasure with The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. It was beyond not what I expected (shame on me for having preconceived notions of wha

Walking to Aldebaran

by Adrian Tchaikovsky · published 2019 · read 2019-04-08

Walking to Aldebaran was my first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and it certainly was a good book. The story itself was a bit on the shallow side, I felt, but the writing, and the protagonist exploring weird alien catacombs, both were well

The Unicorn Anthology

by Peter S. Beagle · published 2017 · read 2019-04-08

Rating anthologies is always hard. The Unicorn Anthology, fittingly edited by Peter S. Beagle contained stories that touched me, and stories that just passed some time. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. Most stories

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 he

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

Grey Sister

by Mark Lawrence · published 2018 · last read 2025-04-26

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 oth

The Telling

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 2000 · read 2019-04-02

And yet again, Ursula K. Le Guin makes me happy. In The Telling she explores a society changing following first contact with a wider galactical (pan-human) civilisation. Part of her Hainish Cycle, we see a world desparate to catch u

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

Ink

by Sabrina Vourvoulias · published 2012 · read 2019-03-31

Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias is okay urban dystopic fantasy with a critical stance towards important issues within the US, mostly concerning latinx population and immigration. It touches on these issues beautifully, but came off a bit heavy

The Raven Tower

by Ann Leckie · published 2019 · read 2019-03-22

I'm not quite sure where I stand on The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie. On the plus side: a fantasy story told from the perspective of a god (and with a fascinating definition of 'god', to boot), in a consistent voice (good thing I was use

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson · published 1962 · read 2019-03-21

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is very "what did I just read"? It's a weird horror short story, in a way, that makes vrey good use of the first-person narrator. Soft and slow horror, coupled with very good informati

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

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

Embassytown

by China Miéville · published 2011 · last read 2024-06-06

Embassytown by China Miéville starts out as okay-if-weird scifi, with decent characters, plausibly weird worldbuilding, and appropriately weird aliens, so everything you'd expect from Miéville. It starts by following a good if generic f

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.

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.

A Closed and Common Orbit

by Becky Chambers · published 2016 · read 2019-03-07

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is the second part of the Wayfarers series. It's a good match for the first part: expanding different parts of the world, and worldbuilding, and starring characters that were not quite centr

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

The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson · published 2006 · read 2019-02-22

The Final Empire is good Fantasy, no more, no less. In comparison with Sanderson's Stormlight Archives it's much more YA-y (not in a bad way, though). I enjoyed that I wasn't able to predict the plot too far ahead, aside of generalities. Th

Persepolis Rising

by James S.A. Corey · published 2017 · read 2019-02-19

In many ways, Persepolis Rising was a gamble. How do we react to our heros having grown older together, all of a sudden? How do we treat non-standard story arcs? How do we react when we don't have a whole lot of movement in this huge space

The Nine Billion Names of God

by Arthur C. Clarke · published 1967 · read 2019-02-19

I appreciated the woo, but. The Nine Billion Names of God is a short story typical of the Arthur C. Clarke times of scifi. Doesn't hurt to read, but by now it's predictable, and the premise was new then, but is ehhh today.

A Marauder’s Plan

by CatsAreCool · published 2016 · last read 2023-11-05

Good fanfic, in which Sirius is not an idiot.

The Stone Sky

by N.K. Jemisin · published 2017 · read 2019-02-13

The Stone Sky is a great ending to a great trilogy. I dislike books where the ending is clear ahead of time, but the amounts of good storytelling and additional context we got made up for it. Nassun's development felt a bit heavy-handed at

Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle

by Inverarity · published 2007 · read 2019-02-09

American Harry Potter spin-off.

Surface Detail

by Iain M. Banks · published 2010 · read 2019-02-08

Surface Detail is a true Culture novel. Complicated action, backstabbing actors, different civilisations, matters of life, death, and life beyond death, and witty Minds. Well. The beginning was a slow burn (but Culture novels tend to have w

The Futile Facade

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

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

On the day you spend forever with your dog

by Adam R. Shannon · published 2018 · last read 2022-07-08

It must be because I never had a dog: On the Day You Spend Forever with your Dog is a short story that tries to roll heart-breaking dog love and (emotional) time travel into one, but fell flat for me.

The Ghoul Goes West

by Dale Bailey · published 2018 · read 2019-02-05

As the title suggests, The Ghoul Goes West may be nice if you're an Old Hollywood buff, but otherwise it falls flat.

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.

The Serpentine Subterfuge

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

The subterfuge works somewhat too well.

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

The Egg

by Andy Weir · published 2009 · read 2019-01-26

Super-short, not exactly original, but well-done and strangely foundational: The Egg is a wonderful little, tiny, short story. I first read it some years back, but it always stayed with me, just in the back of my head. Now I came across it

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir

by Karin Tidbeck · published 2019 · read 2019-01-24

Even though I'm a fan of sentient ships: The Last Voyage or Skidbladnir is just an okay scifi short story – too predictable for my tastes, and the switch between concrete scenes and dream-like time skips feel unfinished. But the concept of

Wool Omnibus

by Hugh Howey · published 2012 · read 2019-01-23

The Wool Omnibus is a collection of truly good scifi – the old trope of isolated humans in a post-apocalyptic world, but without a huge predictable arc. You can predict some things some of the time, but not a lot, which I always appreci

You can make a dinosaur, but you can’t help me

by K.M. Szpara · published 2018 · read 2019-01-23

Crossing a trans guy's story with Jurassic Park. Occasionally sweet, but also unfocussed.

Tower Lord

by Anthony Ryan · published 2014 · read 2019-01-21

I thoroughly enjoyed Tower Lord (second volume of Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series). It's good fantasy, with a careful mix of known elements (the weary hero who is always right, the young fighting gutter princess, the clever queen

Nussia

by Michele Tracy Berger · published 2018 · read 2019-01-14

I'm just not one for exchange student stories. Nussia is a short story that describes the first alien exchange student, who comes to a black family in the Bronx. The writing felt very uneven, and the plot directionless, so even though the i

Blindsight

by Peter Watts · published 2006 · last read 2026-02-09

Re-read notes: I love a couple of things about this book. I love that it is well-written, particularly for sci-fi, particularly for hard sci-fi. It reads well, if you're into sci-fi in the first place. I love that it is clever, and that i

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

Nevernight

by Jay Kristoff · published 2016 · read 2019-01-06

Nevernight is nice fantasy – setting-wise, it's confusingly similar to Red Sister, all about a young girl assassin going to a slightly religious assassin school, but it's different in style. I think I liked Red Sister more (seeing as it

Gardens of the Moon

by Steven Erikson · published 1999 · read 2019-01-05

I did not finish Gardens of the Moon – I gave up after a month, and that's saying something with 180+ read things in 2018. I just wasn't feeling it. It dragged on and on and on and – I'm sure this is a good book to many, and I have the feel

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

Down Among the Sticks and Bones

by Seanan McGuire · published 2017 · read 2019-01-03