by Joshua Whitehead (Editor)
★★★
Tag archives: science fiction
The Vanished Birds
by Simon Jimenez
★★½
Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories
by Vandana Singh
★★★★½
Woman on the Edge of Time
by Marge Piercy
★★½
To Be Taught, If Fortunate
by Becky Chambers
★★★½
Axiom’s End
by Lindsay Ellis
** spoiler alert **
Everything Belongs to the Future
by Laurie Penny
★★★
Friday Black
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Uneven, from distasteful sympathies (the anti-abortion Lark Street and the entitled white male murderer redemption story Light Spitter) to scintillating acuity
The Future of Another Timeline
by Annalee Newitz
★★★★½
Babel-17
by Samuel R. Delany
★★★★
Exhalation: Stories
by Ted Chiang
Many of the stories are glaringly built around a fixed idea so that the notes at the end are redundant—or are more interesting than the stories themselves. The surrounding texts are more filler than breathing worlds. “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”, and … Read more
Rosewater
(The Wormwood Trilogy #1)
by Tade Thompson
It’s a shame that nearly all the authors who are paid homage are long dead white men. And having one character describe the protagonist as sexist isn’t enough. Why is alien telepathy more envisionable than gender equity in 2066?
Still Thompson has created an … Read more
How Long ’til Black Future Month?
by N.K. Jemisin
I managed to finish six of the stories. Generally too on the nose and yielding to stock themes of science fiction. “Walking Awake” was the most engaging even with all the hand-holding, with allusions to Get Out and TNG’s “Conspiracy”.
So far Jemisin’s not for me.
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea
by Sarah Pinsker
★★★★½
Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy
(Laksa Anthology Series #3)
by Lucas K. Law, Derwin Mak (Editors)
Read:
- “DNR” by Gabriele Lee ★★★
- “Meridian” by Karin Lowachee ★★★
- “Crash” by Melissa Yuan-Innis ★★★
- “Memoriam” by Priya Sridhar ★★
- “Decision” by Joyce Chng ★
- “Moon Halves” by Anne Carly Abad ★★
- “The Bridge of Dangerous Longings” by Rati
Death’s End
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)
by Liu Cixin
In between significant and smaller blind spots—including, like Goethe, promoting a stalker’s idea of love—is a work of phenomenal imagination. It’s the most absorbing book of the three, and excitingly explores ideas of humans in time and space.
Love: Beyond Body, Space & Time
by Hope Nicholson (Editor)
★★★★
The Dark Forest
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #2)
by Liu Cixin
Reading about an ant painstakingly tracing each character on a gravestone signals the early slog. The flatness of the first two parts cannot be pinned entirely on the alternate translator either. The details are dull and offensive. Women squeal and fuss, and when … Read more
Warcross
(Warcross #1)
by Marie Lu
I didn’t know I needed this book in my life till I started it. It’s populated with my personal wish fulfilment characters in a rainbow of representation.
An Unkindness of Ghosts
by Rivers Solomon
I liked the big picture of the story and the identities of the characters—women of colour, neuroatypical, queer, non-maternal. The pacing was lurching, however, with some episodes feeling out of place, others unfinished, while others still went on too long, like with the multiple flashbacks of misogynist role … Read more