Jul 312018
 
100 word review: The One who wrote Destiny, by Nikesh Shukla

The One Who Wrote Destiny is about siblinghood. Family. Immigration. Generations. Identity. Love. Death. Choice. Bricks in the night, 1966: Mukesh is a normal teenager in Bradford just trying to celebrate Diwali and meet a pretty girl whlist not getting beaten up by a fit arsehole. The wrong laughter: Raks wants people to laugh at […]

Jul 182018
 
100 word review: Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers

I have thinks (and significant feels) about Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. Before the review, some scene setting: A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a fun adventure story about finding yourself, love, and loss, and it introduces you to the Wayfarer universe, which is diverse and fun and interesting. […]

Sep 262017
 
100 word review: PROVENANCE by Ann Leckie

If you expected Ancillary++, you’ll be disappointed. Leckie has gone from big to small – the Radch Empire makes only a small appearance. Where the trilogy was big – gender, class, humanity and empire-spanning revenge, Provenance sits on a smaller, more personal scale, digging into what family means. Ingray is the adopted daughter of an […]

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Jul 072017
 
100 word review: BLACK WAVE by Michelle Tea

The end of the world typically doesn’t bother with heroin, politics, and books. Memoirist and poet Michelle Tea delves into a very personal the end of the world stepping backwards and sideways to an alternate 1999 San Francisco – gentrification still sweeping across the city & cleaning up the drug-addicted lesbian punks. Protagonist Michelle takes […]

Jun 132017
 
100 word review: Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee

Oh my bloody god this book. This series. This writer. Ninefox Gambit was my one book of 2016. The one I wanted to win all the awards. The one I was doubly-disappointed to be skipping a year with The Kitschies. Twisty-turny maths-based alteration of reality meets big evil empire and mad geniuses. It gets weirder […]

Apr 242017
 
100 word review: The Boy on the Bridge by MR Carey

If I had any problem with The Girl with All the Gifts it was the same as I’ve seen elsewhere: It’s very good, but it’s Yet Another Zombie Book. This, despite being in the same universe, goes way beyond that. The hungries (zombies) aren’t the main feature: here it’s the humans, and what happens to […]

Apr 192017
 
100 word review: Jesus and the Eightfold Path, by Lavie Tidhar

Ed note: This was written in 2013 and just turned up in my drafts folder. Oops. Have it now! Somewhere between the manger and gathering fishers of men, Jesus grew up. Lavie Tidhar presents us with a Jesus learning from three wise men: Pig, Monkey, and Sandy, from the Chinese classic Journey to the West. […]

Mar 292017
 
100 word review: If We Were Villains, by M. L. Rio

This book is an astonishing gamble of object desire and fervent hope: that there are people out there who are filled with a combination of a love for language, the theatre, and Shakespeare that they’ll make a market for a book like this. It’s by no means perfect: it’s riddled with continuity errors, anachronisms, and […]

Mar 022017
 
100 word review: Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

  I missed these books the first time they came around – and on @kameronhurley’s recommendation, had a watch of the telly series, and thought it might be worth a read. It is. Take one part big idea space opera, add top worldbuilding and pretty progressive politics, and shake it together with a lot of […]

Feb 282017
 
100 word review: A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James

&nbsp What more can be said about this book? It won the Booker. Irvine Welsh called it amazing. I’ve finally got round to reading this book, and it… I don’t even know how to describe it. The style and craft of it is mind-blowing. There’s a bit of lush, prose, and just when you’re thinking […]