The Time Traveler's Passport collection

  

This is another of Amazon’s themed short story collections by top authors. This time, the stories are all time travel themed and the authors are John Scalzi, R. F. Kuang, Peng Shepherd, Kaliane Bradley, Olivie Blake, and P. Djèlí Clark. This one was a real mixed bag for me. The Scalzi story was enjoyable and clever but with a lack of characterization - something I have come to expect from this author, and it didn’t hurt the story at all. The Kuang story was brutal and breathtaking and the protagonist made a particularly violent choice towards the end that made me dislike them intensely again, not a surprise from this author. And the Clark piece was haunting and sadly realistic. The real standout for me was the story by Peng - I’d never read anything by this author before and I will look out for them in the future. The other pieces were much, much weaker. I might’ve been happier skipping them entirely. I disliked the Bailey story almost as much as I disliked her debut novel (which was a lot). And the Blake story didn’t even feel like science fiction. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 edited by Nnedi Okorafor and John Joseph Adams

I always said I never used to like anthologies because of the tonal shifts and the variability in quality of the stories. However, I have really started to really enjoy these best of the year anthologies - it’s a great way for someone like me, who usually prefers single author short story collections, to catch up on recent short fiction. There were some Hugo nominees that I had read before in here that I remembered, but much of this collection was new to me. There was a particularly haunting tale about a family using a device to remove memories, originally intended to prevent trauma, being overused with disastrous consequences, that still sticks with me. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Snake Eater by T. Kingfisher

 

I don’t like horror - or at least I thought I didn’t. I never wanted to watch scary movies as a kid. I got nightmares from E.T. so I never saw anything with Freddy or Jason. But after reading and enjoying The Twisted Ones and The Holllow Places by T. Kingfisher, I realized that I can enjoy horror by the right author. After all, T. Kingfisher is also Ursula Vernon, the author of the Hamster Princess books, which my daughters and I love, as well as the Saint of Steel series, Thornhedge, Nettle and Bone, and a bunch of other books I have adored in recent years. So of course I was going to request an eARC of her new novel, Snake Eater from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. And I am SO glad that I did because it was fantastic. Like the Twisted Ones, the protagonist is a woman with a dog who moves to a small town and ends up living someplace a bit creepy where creepy things start happening. There is a delightful cast of oddball supporting characters and the dog, of course, is a very good dog who is just fine in the end. 

Like in The Hollow Places, the characters are amazingly detailed and feel so real and the fantastical elements impinge on the story so gradually that you never lose your suspension of misbelief. The mysteries are meaty and satisfying, though the final reveal felt a little out of left field. Only a little though - the wackiness of the museum of oddities setting did help sell it. It worked in the context mostly, but it was the only  weak point in an otherwise excellent novel. I’m so glad I read this book! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was first drawn to Sarah Beth Durst when I saw her book The Spellshop in a Barns and Noble with those delightful purple sprayed edges. I absolutely despise deckled edges, and have refused to read books because they made the reading experience unbearable, but I really do enjoy the current trend of sprayed edges. I was intrigued by the Spellshop’s description, bought the book for my wife, and ended up reading it before she did! It was light and fun and enjoyable, so when I saw another book in the same world by the same author I immediately requested it from NetGalley as an audio eARC. 

This book, The Enchanted Greenhouse, was equally delightful! It really upped the ante on one of my favorite parts of the first book, which was delightful talking plants. This book tells the story of someone referenced in the first book - the woman who magically awakened that novel’s plant sidekick - and it tells what happened to her. Because this is a romatasy, there is a romance between the protagonist and a taciturn man with hidden depths who is an excellent gardener and a pretty good baker. This book would be great to read with a cup of tea with honey on a snowy day in front of a fireplace. I really enjoyed it

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

 To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Why did I wait so long to read this book???

I never heard of this book until the 2024 Hugo Award nominations came out, and it was nominated for (and later won!) the Lodestar Award (and the author was nominated for the Astounding Award). Based on the description it didn’t sound that exciting to me. It sounded like a big standard magical school/dragon riding book, and I’ve read so many of them over the years. But when the author won the Astounding Award in 2025, I decided I should probably give it a shot. 

And I’m so glad I did! This was not like every other underdog magical school outsider story I’ve read before. It was a delightfully nuanced tale of an indigenous girl going to the school in the white European/American coded society’s dragon training academy. The characters were interesting and well rounded (although the protagonist came off as a little too capable at times). The world building was excellent and I loved every minute of it! I’m very much looking forward to the sequel!

The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed

Five years ago, I wrote in a review of Premee Mohamed’s first book: “After reading this book, I will definitely pick up the next book by Premee Mohamed.  This author has a great deal of potential and I look forward to seeing what else she writes.” I am so glad I stuck with this author because she has improved immensely and now she is a must-read when I see she has something new out.

When NetGalley listed this new novella by Ms. Mohamed, I was happy to check it out, and I was even happier when I realized it was a third book in the same series as The Annual Migration of Clouds, a post-apocalyptic novella that was set at a repurposed university where survivors were ekeing out an existence and many people were infected with a parasite of some sort that changes their behavior to push self-preservation. 

This book picks up with the friend of the protagonist of the last two books. In the first book, he had frozen on a hunt and gotten someone killed. This book starts with him having left his settlement looking for a place to start over. He seeks out an uncle who is living in a very strict community. Once again, the story went in some directions I wasn’t expecting, and this book ended up being much more violent and brutal than I had anticipated. The protagonist is not the most likable of characters, but the writing is wonderful. I’m still not sure I know what this book was trying to tell me, but I enjoyed the ride. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Constituent Service by John Scalzi

 

This  story was a delight!

I’m a big fan of Mr. Scalzi’s work since I found Redshirts on the new books shelf at my local library years ago, and I’ve been reading his website regularly for a long time. After Redshirts, I went through his back catalog.  I remember enjoying Old Man’s War but bouncing off the sequel, the Ghost Brigades, the first time I tried to read it. I went back to it and enjoyed it eventually, but found the series to be a bit uneven. I didn’t particularly care for the Zoe character and didn’t love The Last Colony or Zoe’s Tale, but I enjoyed The Human Division and The End of All Things a great deal more. I realized that what I enjoyed most about this series was the world building much more than I enjoyed the Perry family. This was a space opera set in a world where humans were often the villains and where human civilization was not a monolithic political entity, both ideas that I find interesting and that I thought were executed well. 

Mr. Scalzi’s novels in the past few years have been more misses than hits for me. Many of them were weaker than some of his earlier work, and I personally think it was due to his habit of rushing through writing them to make his deadlines (as he has eloquently described on his blog). However, I loved his last novel, The Shattering Peace, and, along with When the Moon Hits Your Eye(which I loved up until the ending); he seemed to have gotten his mojo back. 

So I was quite pleased when I got this new John Scalzi book from NetGalley and Subterranean in exchange for an honest review. This book was originally published as an Audible original and subterranean press is putting out a limited edition physical copy. 

This is what I come to Scalzi books for - fun SF worldbuilding and characters trying to solve problems together, with a healthy dash of the absurd. It is reminiscent of Android’s Dream and Agent to the Stars in its sense of fun. It’s a not too distant future and tons of other alien species have encountered Earth and everyone has to learn to live together. Our protagonist gets a job working at a district office for a local legislator and has to work to solve problems for all of the different types of people (many of whom are nonhuman) in the district. It is lighthearted and fun and I would love to see Mr. Scalzi write more in this world.