Robots through the Ages edited by Robert Silverberg and Bryan Thomas Schmidt

As I have said before on several occasions, I am often wary of anthologies - I worry about changes in quality and tonal whiplash between stories in themed multi-author collections. But I am a sucker for stories by my favorite authors. This collection includes a new story by Seanan McGuire which was brilliant and haunting and just fantastic. It also includes a story by Connie Willis written years ago for a different anthology, Foundation’s Friends, honoring Isaac Asimov, which I read once in the library years ago and was so so happy to see it again. This book is worth it for those two stories alone. 

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

Old Babes in the Woods by Margaret Atwood

Who doesn’t love Margaret Atwood? I still remember how chilling it was when I read the Handmaid’s Tale the first time, realizing that I recognized the Harvard campus and how real and chilling that made the story, and how every year since then realizing how real this piece of SF was as the Right forces us closer and closer to its reality. I know Ms. Atwood sometimes eschews the label of science fiction author, but that seems more like a marketing strategy. Her Maddaddam books, for example, are amazing SF. 

So I was super excited when I got an eARC of Ms. Atwood’s new short story collection in exchange for an honest review. 

Her prose sings. I have no other way to put it. Every word is a masterpiece. 

Many of the stories are interconnected and told from the perspective of a woman after losing her husband. Having lost my father recently and seeing my mother continue on, this book hits very close to home. Sometimes you need a book to help you process your emotions. 

This book is a must read. Go get it today. 

Phoenix Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido

I’ve been reading Keith R.A. DeCandido’s reviews on Tor dot com for years and I’ve loved them. His Trek rewatches and superhero reviews are excellent. So when I saw one of his novels on NetGalley I was curious to see what his fiction was like. The answer: not bad? It’s a police procedural in a generic D&D-esque fantasy kingdom. The mystery is cookie cutter, the characters interchangeable- and the plot by the numbers.  But the writing is adequate and it was a pleasant way to pass the time. 

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

I have said it before and I will say it again-  love Connie Willis. She used to be my favorite living author, and she was eclipsed mainly due to my discovery of Seanan McGuire - I still love her books to pieces.  But it can be hard to love your old favorites with the same intensity when their productivity slows. I have had the pleasure of meeting her twice at conventions and I treasure those moments. I last saw her when her last novel, Crosstalk came out in 2016. That was a long time ago. 

 Il still remember the first book of hers that I read - I got a copy of Doomsday Book from the science fiction book club when it came out on the 90s. It took my breath away. I love her novels and her short stories and her novellas. Her books make me laugh and make me cry and I wish I hadn’t read them all already because reading one off her books for the first time is a singular treat. 

So I was thrilled when her publisher and NetGalley approved me for an eARC of The Road to Roswell, her new novel coming out this summer. Connie Willis has been mentioning that this book was in the works for many, many years and I was so happy to finally read it!

I didn’t just read it - I devoured it! It was so much fun! Like many a great Connie Willis story, it had a protagonist just trying to do the right thing while surrounded by realistic yet ridiculous people who are more than they appear, who also have encyclopedic knowledge of esoterica, and a slowly simmering romance. 

The plot is simple but compelling - a woman going to stop her best friend from marrying a UFO nut gets abducted by an extraterrestrial and wackiness ensues! I don’t want to spoil any more but the resolution was quite satisfying and the alien encounters felt real and not too slapstick. 

This may be the last time I read a new Connie Willis novel. If so, this is a good one to go out on. I cannot recommend this enough. 

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

I was not a fan of Aliette de Bodard before  reading this book. I had previously read The Tea Master and the Detective when it was nominated for the Hugo Award and found it did not make an impression on me. But then I heard a lot of buzz about this book, and so I figured those people might know something I don’t, so I requested an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I later saw the book on some best of lists and I was like, I really have to get to this one. So I read it. 

I don’t know exactly why, but this book did NOT work for me. It was a slog from start to finish. I disliked all of the characters, except the Censor, who I believe I was supposed to dislike. This book was billed as a pirate romance novel between a woman and a mindship. I guess it was that? But in the worst possible way. The protagonist is effectively captured and forced into marriage with the mindship, in a way that if the mindship was a corporeal man would feel very rapey. The mindship is a pirate who doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with rape, theft, and murder, and is completely unsympathetic, although I don’t think she’s supposed to come off that way. The protagonist is supposed to be sympathetic- her partner is dead, her child is left alone on a planet with friends! But there is no emotional core to her abandonment of her child, and she goes out drinking and partying pretty quickly once they get to a pirate space station. She does nothing to try to reconnect to her daughter and gives up very quickly. Then, when she find out her daughter is going to be sold into slavery she decides to go get her, and the author breezes past the child sex trafficking going on so quickly that I had whiplash. 

None of the characters feel real or lifelike, the sex scenes felt needlessly graphic and also out of character, and the spouses calling each other things like “little sis” came off as creepy instead of affectionate. I regret the time I spent reading this book. 

Dispatcher:Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi

 

Ive said it before, and I’ll say it again: I really like John Scalzi’s books, and I enjoy the Dispatcher series, but if you asked me what my one problem with them are, I’d have to answer “core concept”.  His worldbuilding is virtually nonexistent- he wanted to write mystery stories, gave them a fantastical bent, and never bothered to explain the how or why of resurrection (but only from murder). It allows him to tell the stories he wants to tell (I assume) but it leaves me unsatisfied, like eating only candy for dinner. That being said, his newest Dispatcher novella, Travel by Bullet, is fun, fast, and entertaining. The book tries to exist in a post pandemic world of occasional masking, which just feels jarring, since the world building in this novella is so thin as to be nearly nonexistent. In spite of all that, I enjoyed it, and will happily read the next volume when it comes out. Thanks to Subterranean Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Squirrel Girl: Universe by Tristan Palmgren

I adore Squirrel Girl. Ryan North’s run on the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the epitome of what comics should be, and I am still so sad that it ended. I have read it through multiple times and read it with my oldest daughter. We also loved Shannon and Dean Hale’s Squirrel Girl novels. So I was very excited to get an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher of this new Squirrel Girl novel in exchange for an honest review. 

I was so very disappointed by this book. It’s not bad, it’s just so, so boring. The author only briefly captures the joy and delight of the title character. Most of the story is a paint by numbers slog of a cosmic comic story where most of the characters are cyphers. With the possible exception of Brain Drain, none of Squirrel Girl’s supporting cast sounds like themselves at all, and they add nothing to the narrative. Maybe my expectations were too high?  Perhaps, but that doesn’t make this book any less dull.