arifel - Network

SMOL REVIEW: The Ignyte-winning GHOST SQUAD by Claribel A. Ortega is a cute middle grade tackling big themes of loss and reclaiming cultural...

SMOL REVIEW: The Ignyte-winning GHOST SQUAD by Claribel A. Ortega is a cute middle grade tackling big themes of loss and reclaiming cultural heritage in the face of erasure. It significantly features cats, which is a bonus, and I liked the mix of plucky kid shenanigans and trustworthy adult intervention (Babette was so cool). I wasn't the target audience for it age-wise but I'd put Ortega on the christmas present list for any middle-grade readers in my life, or yours!

SMOL REVIEW: Explorer by C.J. Cherryh. I was overdue to finish the second trilogy in the Foreigner sequence, and knowing that I'm still...

SMOL REVIEW: Explorer by C.J. Cherryh. I was overdue to finish the second trilogy in the Foreigner sequence, and knowing that I'm still 15+ books behind is a bit disheartening. But I really respect Cherryh's ability to create a tense, exciting science fiction story with minimum violence and the studious overthinking diplomat saving the day. The atevi are great aliens and I like that their on-page representatives have become less "inflexible warlike alien, cannot understand" as the series goes on

SMOL REVIEW: The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox is kind of all over the place, and is the most understated "war with the...

SMOL REVIEW: The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox is kind of all over the place, and is the most understated "war with the angels"-type book I've ever read. I enjoyed a lot of what it was trying to do, although the ideas around justice that came through in the end were uncomfortably skewed based on some of the (again, weirdly understated!) atrocities in the story itself. In principle, I'd like more books like this, but The Absolute Book didn't fill me with confidence to continue with the author.

SMOL REVIEW: Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather is a middle-of-a-series novella (I hope) that struggles to make sense as a story...

SMOL REVIEW: Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather is a middle-of-a-series novella (I hope) that struggles to make sense as a story without being part of something longer. But I love this world and the characters in it, it does really interesting things with faith and religion and how those work alongside secular political struggles and across the vast distances of space. Plus, the living ships are wonderful but we don't spend enough time with them here! A series worth checking out.

SMOL REVIEW: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is the kind of bleak "missed connections"-ish literary...

SMOL REVIEW: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is the kind of bleak "missed connections"-ish literary experience that I don't enjoy in my books, and the lack of recognition for women game pioneers in the acknowledgements is grim. But it does enough interesting things with timeline and gameplay and coincidence-that-isn't-really-coincidence that it kept me reading, and it genuinely made me tear up at points. Maybe it's more your thing?

SMOL REVIEW: Sacraments for the Unfit by Sarah Tolmie is some deeply weird shit and I'm all here for it. A collection of short stories,...

SMOL REVIEW: Sacraments for the Unfit by Sarah Tolmie is some deeply weird shit and I'm all here for it. A collection of short stories, mostly set in various COVID lockdown scenarios, where esoteric academic rabbit holes and body horror permeate the lives of people trying to get by in isolation. Out from Aqueduct Press and well worth checking out, especially if you haven't experienced the weirder side of Tolmie's work yet.

Gonna reinstate my Smol Reviews over here, because I need to break the TwiX dependency somehow...

Gonna reinstate my Smol Reviews over here, because I need to break the TwiX dependency somehow...

Oh damn I'm going to America TOMORROW, going to Wiscon, ADVENTURE

Oh damn I'm going to America TOMORROW, going to Wiscon, ADVENTURE

SMOL REVIEW: "Novel in verse in Orkney Scots" might seem like a daunting prospect if you're a) not Orkneyan and b) mostly read...

SMOL REVIEW: "Novel in verse in Orkney Scots" might seem like a daunting prospect if you're a) not Orkneyan and b) mostly read prose, but DEEP WHEEL ORCADIA by Harry Josephine Giles is both accessible and deeply rewarding. The story of an isolated space station and its struggling people, through the lens of a returning daughter and a fleeing visitor, Deep Wheel Orcadia combines the unknowable, otherworldly magic of space and the practicalities of small community life, to beautiful effect.

Is anyone else on the Shop playing Pentiment and want to talk to me about how good (and painfully, deliberately unsatisfying) it is?

Is anyone else on the Shop playing Pentiment and want to talk to me about how good (and painfully, deliberately unsatisfying) it is?

SMOL REVIEW: I'm not sure what to make of Fractured Infinity, by Nathan Tavares. Part science shenanigans, part thriller, part (very)...

SMOL REVIEW: I'm not sure what to make of Fractured Infinity, by Nathan Tavares. Part science shenanigans, part thriller, part (very) understated romance, the story elements never quite came together for me. Still, there's some cool stuff here on identity and how small things might ripple into big changes, both on a world scale and on a personal one. The leads are sweet and I ALWAYS want more men writing queer men from publishing. It wasn't quite my thing but it might be yours!

SMOL REVIEW: Legacy by Whiti Hereaka is a young adult novel in which Māori teen Riki finds himself transported back a century to his...

SMOL REVIEW: Legacy by Whiti Hereaka is a young adult novel in which Māori teen Riki finds himself transported back a century to his great-great-grandfather's WW1 batallion after an accident. The writing style is simple but the story itself is anything but: grappling with the glorification of war and how it interacts with racism and colonialism, and depicting the futility and misery of the Gallipoli campaign. The ending is a bit "wait, you're going THERE?" but it's a nice thematic wrap-up.

One day I'm going to work up the energy to actually learn how this app works best, I'll be hashtagging all over the show, just you...

One day I'm going to work up the energy to actually learn how this app works best, I'll be hashtagging all over the show, just you wait.

Not yet though.

SMOL REVIEW: The Blacktongue Thief met my expectations and kept me entertained: a white European-derived secondary world which mixes up a...

SMOL REVIEW: The Blacktongue Thief met my expectations and kept me entertained: a white European-derived secondary world which mixes up a lot of "classic" DnD-esque tropes to create something more interesting than the sum of its parts. The irreverence and humour plays out against the aftermath of devastating, non-sugar-coated war, with a self-interested young protagonist whose situation is easy to empathise with. High body count, though it stays on the right side of gratuitous.

SMOL REVIEW: Damn, what can I say about The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri, except that it's all I hoped from this series? All the...

SMOL REVIEW: Damn, what can I say about The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri, except that it's all I hoped from this series? All the powerful and ambitious women negotiating patriarchy are still there, so too is the sapphic yearning. And also there's an undercurrent of dread and impending disaster which makes it near impossible to put the book down - excellent stuff. I'm in love with this series and its exquisite disaster queers.

Next on the novel pile is The Blacktongue Thief!

SMOL REVIEW: Unraveller by Frances Hardinge is a book about living alongside fae magic, in which the schemes and secret-keeping of humans is...

SMOL REVIEW: Unraveller by Frances Hardinge is a book about living alongside fae magic, in which the schemes and secret-keeping of humans is just as potent and sinister as their otherworldly counterparts. Grapples with power and responsibility and trust and trauma recovery, with a lot of fun adventure along the way.

CW specifically for body horror: people get turned into a lot of unpleasant things, but most of them get better (eventually).

SMOL REVIEW: No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull was excellent - sort of a mosaic novel but everything loops back in much smaller and...

SMOL REVIEW: No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull was excellent - sort of a mosaic novel but everything loops back in much smaller and more satisfying circles, and the way characters think about social justice in their changed world is A+. Out for us UK people from Titan later this month!

Next up: The Oleander Sword. Already so much yearning...

Hello! I'm on Mastodon now!

Hello! I'm on Mastodon now!