Reviews and Comments

Tak!

Tak@reading.taks.garden

Joined 3 years, 6 months ago

I like to read

Non-bookposting: @Tak@glitch.taks.garden

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Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2024, Bloomsbury Publishing USA)

A bestseller in South Korea, Bo-Reum’s English-language debut is a tranquil if meandering slice of …

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

This is not my usual type of read - in fact, I almost put it down early on, but then I identified so hard with the first Minjun chapter that I stuck with it.

It's very much like a version of Bookshops & Bonedust without the fantasy trappings and the larger plot - characters with a variety of personal issues come together around a bookshop.

It's well written (and well translated! which is not a given!) - what I'm really missing is something actually happening. The characters each go through their different journeys of personal discovery and/or growth, but nothing is materially different at the end of the book. 🤷

reviewed Steelflower by LILITH SAINTCROW (The Steelflower Chronicles, #1)

LILITH SAINTCROW: Steelflower (2008, Samhain Publishing)

Thief, assassin, sellsword—Kaia Steelflower is famous. Well, mostly famous, and mostly for the wrong reasons. …

Steelflower

Steelflower was kind of a rollercoaster for me.

The world-building was nice, and I like that it avoided both the elves/orcs/humans/hobbits and fantasy-china/fantasy-italy/etc. tropes - I particularly enjoy the habit the author has of reconstructing words from their components (e.g. telescope => farseer).

I got really annoyed with the main character's level of melodrama and self-victimization around halfway in - I get that it was probably intentional, but I still found it aggravating. Overall I do enjoy that the characters are complex and that the protagonist isn't a perfect chosen one.

I don't feel like there was a whole lot of conclusion at the end, it kind of just segues into the next book without anything really being resolved. …so I immediately started the next book. 🙂

reviewed Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty (The Midsolar Murders, #1)

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group)

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Station Eternity

I really liked Six Wakes, and Station Eternity makes it clear that it was not a fluke.

I loved the different alien species, the way the plot continually unfolded new dimensions, and the depth and variety of the characters.

I would unreservedly recommend this book to anybody who has any interest in science fiction, mystery thrillers, or just good storytelling.

commented on Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty (The Midsolar Murders, #1)

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group)

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Thanks also to Mary Robinette Kowal, steel goddess of kindhearted patience,

Damn, if someone said something like that about me, I'd make sure it got engraved onto my tombstone

commented on Steelflower by LILITH SAINTCROW (The Steelflower Chronicles, #1)

LILITH SAINTCROW: Steelflower (2008, Samhain Publishing)

Thief, assassin, sellsword—Kaia Steelflower is famous. Well, mostly famous, and mostly for the wrong reasons. …

Suyi Davies Okungbowa: David Mogo (Paperback, 2019, Abaddon)

Nigerian God-Punk - a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy set in Lagos.

Since the Orisha …

David Mogo: Godhunter

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the Akata series, but for adults - Nigerian setting, making friends and enemies with supernatural entities, Nsibidi script as magic writing, etc. (This is not a criticism of the Akata series, I love them.)

The setting was the best part of this for me - I enjoyed postapocalyptic, god-ravaged Lagos.

I appreciate that David is imperfect and fallible - he makes mistakes, fails, etc., and it has real consequences for him.

The first section (book? sub-book?) was my favorite, followed by the second - as the story progressed, I felt like it kept getting progressively more frantic and less coherent.

Overall, I enjoyed it, though, and I'm looking forward to more.

#SFFBookClub

reviewed The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)

Robert Jackson Bennett: The Tainted Cup (2024, Del Rey)

An eccentric detective and her long-suffering assistant untangle a web of magic, deceit, and murder …

The Tainted Cup

The Tainted Cup is very much a fantasy Holmes novel, where a labyrinthine mystery is being solved by an almost supernaturally skilled investigator and their lovable but hapless assistant, through whose viewpoint the story is being presented.

The setting is delightfully weird, much more like Divine Cities than Founders, with elements of existential/apocalyptic threat and imperialism.

I'm looking forward to more in this universe.

Naseem Jamnia: The Bruising of Qilwa (2022, Tachyon Publications)

In this intricate debut fantasy introducing a queernormative Persian-inspired world, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of …

Content warning big plot spoilers