User Profile

Otts

otts@books.theunseen.city

Joined 10 months ago

I read 10-12 novels a week in grad school and some heavy literary theory. No interest in non-fiction now, and mainly read sci-fi and fantasy. Using this account to track/share my reading from 2023 onward (and maybe backward, if my completionist tendencies kick in). On Mastodon @ottsatwork@artsio.com.

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Otts's books

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The long way to a small, angry planet (Paperback, 2015, Hodder & Stoughton) 4 stars

When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, …

Getting to know you…in space!

4 stars

Wow, not what I expected: actual character development in a sci-fi title with lots of new species, cultures, and morphologies. How refreshing to take the time for this and not just plot plot plot! It does drag just a teeny bit: I wanted more to happen at one point. But I have faith Chambers can calibrate plot and character development for the rest of this series. Excited to read the rest.

Two Serpents Rise 3 stars

Need a re-read to fully appreciate

3 stars

The second title in The Craft Sequence, I didn’t like it as much as the first. Gladstone doesn’t hand-hold in his world-building, which I prefer, but I felt I missed a lot of subtleties with the new characters, time period, and location. This is the kind of thing a re-read will address though, and I look forward to that.

I do love every part of the world across these books, just certain parts more than others.

Babel (2022, Harper Voyager) 4 stars

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, …

Some Promise, But Disappointing (like me!)

2 stars

I really wanted to like this. And I did until just after Robin gets into Oxford. Maybe it’s because so much resonated with my own life and studies, I didn’t need to be lectured to as much as he did—I get it, girl. My frustration may just be disappointment in my younger self.

What is going on with editors these days? It did NOT need to be this long. The magical system rooted in translation was pretty cool. Dark Academia fails me again.

Three Parts Dead (EBook, 2012, Tor) 4 stars

"A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic …

Instant fan of Gladstone

5 stars

What a great writer. Learned after the fact that he’s one of the co-authors of “This Is How You Lose the Time War”. Makes sense.

The ideas here felt new and exciting. Exposition and world-building doesn’t happen in clunky blocks like it does in so many books. It takes real skill not to frustrate readers when you throw together dead gods, magic from starlight, gargoyles, vampires, contract law, and a whole lot more.

Promises Stronger Than Darkness (2023, Tor Teen) 4 stars

Promises Stronger Than Darkness marks the final installment of the international bestselling author Charlie Jane …

“GIVE ME YOUR FUR! WE’LL BE FURLESS TOGETHER!”

4 stars

I expected to be lost—it’s been a while since I read the prior two books—but nope! And we get to spend more time with the Grattna, a species whose bodies, language, and worldview is based on threes, not binaries. Fascinating!

Overall, the series has too many species, cultures, etc. to fully track, but the way they solve problems and work through their shit is how more people should be in the universe.

The Power (2019, Back Bay Books) 4 stars

Parts of it were really good

2 stars

Cool premise that the author doesn't carry all the way through. The story unfolds through several POV characters, but there's always the one (or more) that you're bored with, or there's a boring stretch for one you do like. So I often felt unsatisfied.

The conceit that the book itself is written by a man in a matriarchal world is fascinating. It only bookends the novel with "research" interspersed—I wished there was more.

Radicalized (2020, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 4 stars

Four short stories about the near future and the dystopia we're building for ourselves.

I still don't understand how encrytion works

4 stars

I went through a brief love affair with Doctorow. But the sweetly clunky how-to-do-X-techie-thing-to-bring-down-Y-bad-guy-slash-system got too clunky for me. And repetitive too.

These short stories were OK though. Maybe he's gotten better, or maybe it's been long enough between my readings. Either way in all his writing, I still don't understand how encryption and private/public keys work (not asking for an explanation).