Tak! commented on Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi KAWAKAMI
From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions …
The #SFFBookClub selection for August 2025
Reviews and Comments
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Tak! reviewed North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher
On Nakharat, every contract is a ribbon and every ribbon is a secret, braided tight …
North Continent Ribbon
4 stars
Cloud Atlas vibes, good writing, great settings
Tak! reviewed Saturation Point by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A group of scientists and soldiers are hunted by mysterious enemies in a terrifying new …
Saturation Point
5 stars
Clever and grim near-future climate catastrophe scifi
Tak! reviewed A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors …
A Sorceress Comes to Call
5 stars
Surprisingly (to me) dark fantasy about a girl whose abusive mother is trying to seduce and manipulate her way into the aristocracy
Tak! reviewed Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
Full Speed to a Crash Landing
3 stars
A shallow, funny scifi heist novel, basically a Janet Evanovich in space
Tak! reviewed Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado
Time's Agent
4 stars
BLEAK
Tak! reviewed Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba (Stormbringer Saga, #1)
In this an enthralling Filipino-inspired epic fantasy, a nun concealing a goddess-given gift is unwillingly …
Saints of Storm and Sorrow
4 stars
Content warning spoilers
Despite the overt themes of colonialism and religious imperialism, Saints of Storm and Sorrow feels primarily like a story about toxic relationships - Catalina's abusive partnership with Lunurin, Alon's self-destructive infatuation with Lunurin (and Lunurin's knowing, cynical usage of it), Alon's father's abusive treatment of Alon, even the goddess's relationship with Lunurin.
The hollywood ending feels good, but I have to wonder if any of these characters is undamaged enough to live Happily Ever After.
Tak! reviewed Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Shroud
5 stars
I devoured Shroud. This is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his scifi best - truly alien aliens and humans being humans, engrossing drama ensues.
Tak! reviewed Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov
Refusing the queen’s order to gas a crowd of protesters, Minister Shea Ashcroft is banished …
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory
3 stars
I didn't enjoy this one, and I don't know if I can explain why. The whole thing has kind of a 70s scifi vibe (derogatory). The protagonist is shallow and self-serving, but not in an interesting way. There are interesting things about the world, but we barely explore them because we're chasing the dull protagonist. 🤷
Tak! commented on Goblins & Greatcoats by Travis Baldree
A goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery, a rain-soaked night, …
TIL a new 25-page eBook by author Travis Baldree exists, who wrote the wonderful books Legends and Lattes, and Bookshops and Bonedust.
It's called Goblins and Greatcoats and it's FREE🎉 at Subterranean Press:
Tak! reviewed Dual Memory by Sue Burke
Sue Burke, author of the acclaimed novel Semiosis , returns with Dual Memory, a standalone …
Dual Memory
4 stars
Dual Memory was good, but it didn't fascinate me the way that Semiosis did.
Tak! commented on The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and …
The #SFFBookClub selection for May 2025
Tak! reviewed Bunny: A Novel by Mona Awad
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA …
Bunny
2 stars
A kafkaesque nightmare, a 200-page lsd trip, Fight Club for lit majors
Tak! reviewed Roadside Picnic by Борис Стругацкий
Roadside Picnic is set in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event called the Visitation that …
Roadside Picnic
3 stars
Roadside Picnic reads like a love letter to functional alcoholism.
The basic premise is that there were a series of isolated visitations to earth by unknown aliens, who subsequently fucked off and never came back. However, the places where they visited are now strewn with various items and phenomena that behave inexplicably to modern science, in ways that are often extremely dangerous to humans.
In addition to scientists coming to study the visitation zones, this also results in a black market for harvested technology, with people ("stalkers") sneaking in to exfiltrate things at great personal risk.
It's clear that this is if nothing else a spiritual predecessor to Annihilation. Everything is focused around the weird and often brutally inscrutable, with no explanation required or given. It definitely shows its age (and possibly cultural origin), especially in terms of attitudes about gender roles.
The translation was very good imo. I was …
Roadside Picnic reads like a love letter to functional alcoholism.
The basic premise is that there were a series of isolated visitations to earth by unknown aliens, who subsequently fucked off and never came back. However, the places where they visited are now strewn with various items and phenomena that behave inexplicably to modern science, in ways that are often extremely dangerous to humans.
In addition to scientists coming to study the visitation zones, this also results in a black market for harvested technology, with people ("stalkers") sneaking in to exfiltrate things at great personal risk.
It's clear that this is if nothing else a spiritual predecessor to Annihilation. Everything is focused around the weird and often brutally inscrutable, with no explanation required or given. It definitely shows its age (and possibly cultural origin), especially in terms of attitudes about gender roles.
The translation was very good imo. I was a little apprehensive after having read a terrible translation of Metro 2033, but no complaints on that front.
Tak! reviewed Atlas Alone by Emma Newman
Atlas Alone is a 2019 science fiction novel by British writer Emma Newman. It was …
Atlas Alone
5 stars
Newman keeps me guessing as usual.
After Atlas follows Dee, an ancillary character from After Atlas, in her quest to figure out what the hell is going on.
This one gets very dark, but it's wonderfully written, and I devoured it.