reading: may-september 2024
22 September 2024 04:23 pmBack at it again. It's been a while.
General read:
Exordia by Seth Gladstone. A maximalist genre spanning attempt to deal with the failures of the Obama admin alongside Homestuck-esque punny relationship terms and sci-fantasy dualism. Hell is real. Earth explodes. Very strange.
SBG read-along:
Tomie, Uzumaki, Gyo, Remina, Sensor, and selected short stories by Junji Ito. As an overall review, Tomie and Uzumaki are the best of these. Gyo will stick in my mind for being repulsive, which I find more memorable, but I don't think I liked it. Remina is nothing. Sensor is fun and odd but fell down for me at the conclusion.
Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. Starts out as torment of a gayboy, detours into a barely sketched, overdramatic and boring romance, returns to torment. If you like whump fanfic you might like this. Really odd use of shifting perspective... but nostalgic. I think it's probably bad.
DNF: Three Short Stories by Samuel R. Delany, Mazes and Labyrinths by W.H. Matthews.
Webnovel recommendations:
Reach Heaven via Feng Shui Engineering by melmonella. Xianxia inspired. Salt needed. A story that deals with practical problems of magic, with well drawn main characters.
Transliterated by Perpetual Motion. A "post-TF ensemble cast story about human minds overwriting the minds of animal hosts in a (post-uplift?) world of animals. Has a slice of life tint to it, but an overarching plot as well. Deals with issues of neurodivergence and the physical and emotional consequences of the setting's communiction magic.
TBR: Seven of Infinities (still), Priory of the Orange Tree, The Light Eaters.
General read:
Exordia by Seth Gladstone. A maximalist genre spanning attempt to deal with the failures of the Obama admin alongside Homestuck-esque punny relationship terms and sci-fantasy dualism. Hell is real. Earth explodes. Very strange.
SBG read-along:
Tomie, Uzumaki, Gyo, Remina, Sensor, and selected short stories by Junji Ito. As an overall review, Tomie and Uzumaki are the best of these. Gyo will stick in my mind for being repulsive, which I find more memorable, but I don't think I liked it. Remina is nothing. Sensor is fun and odd but fell down for me at the conclusion.
Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. Starts out as torment of a gayboy, detours into a barely sketched, overdramatic and boring romance, returns to torment. If you like whump fanfic you might like this. Really odd use of shifting perspective... but nostalgic. I think it's probably bad.
DNF: Three Short Stories by Samuel R. Delany, Mazes and Labyrinths by W.H. Matthews.
Webnovel recommendations:
Reach Heaven via Feng Shui Engineering by melmonella. Xianxia inspired. Salt needed. A story that deals with practical problems of magic, with well drawn main characters.
Transliterated by Perpetual Motion. A "post-TF ensemble cast story about human minds overwriting the minds of animal hosts in a (post-uplift?) world of animals. Has a slice of life tint to it, but an overarching plot as well. Deals with issues of neurodivergence and the physical and emotional consequences of the setting's communiction magic.
TBR: Seven of Infinities (still), Priory of the Orange Tree, The Light Eaters.