User Profile

infryq

infryq@books.theunseen.city

Joined 1 year, 9 months ago

Bring me all the speculative fiction. Whose stories have I been missing out on?

Rating system calibration:

1 star - not worth reading 2 stars - worth reading, but has major problems 3 stars - satisfying read, may have minor problems. Most books live here. 4 stars - inspiring read, overshadows any issues 5 stars - life-changing read

Reading log for @infryq@social.wub.site, @infryq@pgh.social

This link opens in a pop-up window

Elizabeth Bear: Machine (2020, Blackstone Pub) 4 stars

Stitched-together but pretty fun

3 stars

This reads like a collage of (at least) Iain M Banks, Becky Chambers, Jodi Taylor, and Ann Leckie, which would normally be a slam dunk for me but the execution is disjointed -- not enough time to melt together, individual lifts still too recognizable to feel like a cohesive thought.

It may have suffered a bit in the reading; I would 100% listen to Adjoa Andoh all day every day but either she was blindsided by the layers necessary for the protagonist or she'd never listened to Zara Ramm's rendition of Madeline Maxwell, which hits similar character development notes but does it while making the character, not the reading, seem fractured.

Nevertheless! I want to know more about this universe and how it functions, I enjoyed racing the characters to the end, and I was delighted by several surprises. The treatment of disability and assistive technology was refreshing; neither rosy …

reviewed Dreadful company by Vivian Shaw (A Dr. Greta Helsing novel -- 2)

"Contemporary fantasy in the world of Strange Practice, starring Dr. Greta Helsing, whose family has …

Strong continuation

4 stars

Love a damsel in distress who rescues herself. Love love a love interest and would-be rescue team who roll with it. Plus bonus tribbles.

TW for kidnapping, imprisonment, and pretending everything is fine when a leader’s behavior is completely unhinged.

Okay and look I’m not saying “Crepusculus” is a bad name for one half of a buddy cop/ghost detective/hunter/“remedial psychopomp” duo, in fact it’s a brilliant name, I’m just saying it could been such a better name for someone involved in the dawn as well as the dusk of life.

Vivian Shaw: Strange Practice (2017, Little, Brown Book Group Limited) 4 stars

"Meet Greta Helsing, fast-talking doctor to the undead. Keeping the supernatural community not-alive and well …

Nicely grippy

4 stars

A medical-flavored mystery with a down to earth sense of urban fantasy to it. The descriptions are particularly wonderful and manage to escape getting too florid. Fun magic/infernal system, skillfully revealed. Gentle presence of social anxiety lending depth and comfort to the characters. I wish the recording had a better (or perhaps any) pop filter but that’s not the fault of the text. Excited to see more of the series.