by Hope Nicholson (Editor)
★★★★
Tag archives: science fiction
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
Starlings
by Jo Walton
★★★★½
The Three-Body Problem
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)
by Liu Cixin
★★★★
Unexpected Stories
by Octavia E. Butler
★★★★
Imago
(Xenogenesis #3)
by Octavia E. Butler
The most frustrating aspect of Adulthood Rites and Imago is the same as in Survivor, the book Octavia disowned, which is the essentialism of race. In Survivor, blue Kohn are leaders; in the Xenogenesis series, humans and Oankali are also set in their respective singular … Read more
Adulthood Rites
(Xenogenesis #2)
by Octavia E. Butler
★★★★
Dawn
(Xenogenesis #1)
by Octavia E. Butler
★★★★½
Bloodchild: And Other Stories
by Octavia E. Butler
“Bloodchild” is my favourite short story of hers. I would avoid “Near of Kin” and “Crossover”.
Survivor
(Patternmaster #3.5)
by Octavia E. Butler
Octavia ejected Survivor from the canon of her work because of its racial essentialism, with the Kohn having strict social classes according to colour. Aside from this element, Octavia’s exploration of space is utterly absorbing, whether humans believe they are graduating from the earth or … Read more