The secret life of bots by Suzanne Palmer
Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine #132, September 2017 Bot 9 has just been activated after a long time offline. The Ship it serves has a huge list of to-do activities and...
10 July 2018
Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
The Machinaries of Empire Although this novelette is part of the larger Machinaries ‘verse, you can read it without any knowledge of that wider world as it is a prequel. So...
10 July 2018
Children of thorns, children of water by Aliette de Bodard
Dominion of the fallen ; 1.5 Thuan and Kim Cuc and attempting go gain entrance to House Hawthorn. Every year the House accepts applicants, tests them, and maybe takes them in....
9 July 2018
Masterminds of the right by Emily O'Reilly
This is a short but fascinating book. Written in 1992 it details the growth of hard-line right-wing religious individuals and organisations and their efforts to keep Ireland Catholic. I’ll admit that...
9 July 2018
June 2018 round-up post
I am now up to 30 books written by women, and 13 by men. The vast majority of the books I’ve read this year are by UK (12) and US (15)...
4 July 2018
Jane, the fox, and me by Fanny Britt
Translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou Oh, this is a beautiful book. The art work is just lovely, I love the style of it. Simple, often black and white, but...
29 June 2018
The turkeyfeather riders by Louis L'Amour
A collection of five short stories by the classic western author Louis L’Amour. And by classic I mean the idealised version where men were men1 and sometimes a man had to...
26 June 2018
A series of steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
2018 Hugo Award Finalist – Best Novelette Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine #124, January 2017 I really enjoyed this novelette/short story, call it what you will. It takes an interesting idea,...
24 June 2018
Anatomy of a scanal by Sarah Vaughan
Told from a variety of point of views, and interspersed with flashbacks this book starts off with an affair that turns into an alleged rape. Sophie is married to James, the...
24 June 2018
The language of power by Rosemary Kirstein
The Steerswoman series ; 4 If you haven’t read the previous books in the series then this is not the place to start. Go back to book one and follow Rowan...
23 June 2018
The ordinary princess by M. M. Kaye
At her christening Princess Amy is blessed with the gift of being ordinary by one of her fairy godmothers, and, much to the horror of all around her, that is how...
20 June 2018
The hundred thousand kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Inheritance trilogy ; 1 Okay, so I’m behind the times with this. And yes, I’ve heard so many people talk about N.K. Jemisin in such a positive light that I really...
15 June 2018