Reviews and Comments

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I love Southern literature (American South)—almost specialized in it in grad school. Something in its sensibility reminds me of Caribbean lit. Almost every page of this novel-within-a-novel CRACKED. ME. UP.

Make sure to read this edition. It requires you to flip the book over & around to read the intertwined stories: a really cool tactile mechanic that brings new layers of meaning to the experience. It really is book art.

Does well making up for the first book’s faults: less tortured metaphors of an embodied NYC, more story and world building. Still, none of the five boroughs/characters has a chance to really develop. I’d rather just a low key hang with them all rather than the multiversal drama. I love Jemisin, but this series is my least favorite. She really did rescue it with this second installment though.

Part 2 of a trilogy, this one depicts how we got to all of the events in Part 1. More of a near future scenario with white guy protagonist™️ constantly failing up until he has the power over all of our lives. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, and like the first book, some parts went on too long: could’ve been a full third shorter at least. Curious if the TV show is any good.

Well-written and smart in the way that makes you notice just how many sci-fi books … aren’t. The ideas aren’t new—alien life forms, AI, mind-hacking, new linguistic systems, and questions of sentience—but Nayler’s take and world-building are inspired. Especially how he connects capitalism to climate collapse, exploitation, and species extinction. Humans really are terrible. Highly recommend this book. 🐙

Four stories, the two with Violenzia were the best. I love Sala’s creepy sensibilities, but this didn’t do it for me. My library doesn’t carry many more of his books so this may be my last. We’ll always have “Invisible Hands” though, which I’ll link to (again!) for your delectation: youtu.be/n5sP4yRb8Mw