Rated Locked In 8/10
Wow, a lot of stuff happens in this one and some old mysteries get solved. I think I read somewhere that there won't be any more of these but this is a decent place to wrap up.
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Rated John of John 10/10
This might be my favourite [a:Douglas Stuart|19629033|Douglas Stuart|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570471773p2/19629033.jpg] novel so far. I like the viewpoints of the father and son and it's fun to see their lives and how each sees the other. Maybe a bit less trauma in this one than in his other two books.
Rated Blacktail 10/10
I loved [b:The Library at Mount Char|26892110|The Library at Mount Char|Scott Hawkins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453225113l/26892110._SY75_.jpg|42797715] and this is hardly like that book at all, except for being very engaging and well-written. Most of the characters are animals and it almost reads like an epic legend, but from very personal viewpoints. (Also it's not very long so it's a quick read.)
Rated Buckeye 10/10
Very well done and does a great job drawing a picture of some connected families over generations. Makes me want to look up some more of his writing.
Rated Ignore All Previous Instructions 10/10
This was a lot of fun -- space opera with pretty hard SF except for maybe the AI? It also has queer and neurodivergent characters in it portrayed very realistically. Goes back and forth between the 'present' and the main character's youth. I don't think it needs a sequel but I'd enjoy reading more about the main characters.
Rated The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories 8/10
Lots of different feelings from these story, but they are all well done and have good ideas behind them.
Wants to read Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
Wants to read How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back
Rated The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine 8/10
This was a pretty good follow up to the first one. It is short and it's mostly plot, with some kind of twist coming almost every chapter. Definitely more idea based than character based, although there are a few different viewpoint characters. I'm not sure if there needs to be a third one.
Rated What We Can Know 10/10
This one was excellent. It took me a few chapters to really get into it but then it snowballed from there until I could barely put it down. A lot of it is the characters and the academic setting and the different viewpoints, plus the realistic near-ish future. This book has a lot to say about history and literature and the study of those things, also none of the characters really come off that well.
This was super informative if often a bit infuriating. Also I was familiar with a lot of it from Cory Doctorow's blog, but it is good to have it all in one place without any digital collages.
Reading Demon Copperhead
Rated Platform Decay 6/10
I finally got my hands on a copy after a long waitlist from the local library. I'd gotten used to the thicker novels so I was a little disappointed to see it was back to the slimmer novellas. I probably should've checked back to read a summary from the last book because I was lost as to who the people were Murderbot was now rescuing.<br/><br/>It's probably partly why I never really made a connection in caring who were the new pack of humans it was trying to rescue. Murderbot getting itself out of no-win situations with multiple humans in tow, especially "juveniles," has become old hat. The emotion checks are a good addition, but I suppose I wanted more evolution by now. More interaction with Three or even that other random...unit? would've been great. And then just getting a line or two with A.R.T. was really disappointing.<br/><br/>All in all, a typical Murderbot novella. For me personally, I would've liked a little less running from crisis to crisis and little more meat.
Rated The Doorman: A Novel 8/10
This is a lot of fun, has interesting details about the fancy building that the 'main' (there is another couple of viewpoints too, but kind of one main one) viewpoint character works at as a doorman. Characters are well developed and the plot is interesting and has a surprising ending. I read another book by this author in July and it was pretty good too.
Rated The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir 10/10
This was interesting to read, lots of parts like her writing about her first experiences with live music were very well written and resonated with me. A lot of sad experiences in her life and I would have liked to see more about her more recent music (and also about her time playing drums for Cub, but that's just because I really like Cub) but I would definitely recommend this if you're a fan.
Rated Or What You Will 10/10
Very well written and a bit of an unusual book. I don't want to spoil it, but it's almost a meta-novel in some ways -- I found the first chapter or two somewhat slow and abstract, but after that it was very compelling, with lots of local Florentine colour.
Rated The Bewitching 10/10
Excellent as always for a [a:Silvia Moreno-Garcia|4088550|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1597118464p2/4088550.jpg] novel. Has three different timelines in it and they all come together in the end in a satisfying way. From the afterword it seems to be based a lot on the author's own life and it certainly has a lot of verisimilitude.
