There aren't very many authors who can take the idea of the space opera and shift it from being about a war to about bank fraud and keep me on board. And then there's Stross. He's a...polarizing author; his style of writing can make you want to scream with all the digressions and the way his first person narrators are conscious of their own storytelling.
Having said that, his space operas work for me. Actually, as a rule, the closer his settings get to the real world, the less I enjoy the fiction.
This is a hard book to recommend, but if his style and the idea of gonzo sci-fi works for you, Stross may be your thing. How else can you get assassins, zombies, mermaids and Ponzi schemes all into one narrative?

I see what all the hype is about. All the descriptions are pretty good: silkpunk is probably my favorite but game of thrones in China works well too. But, you know, better, because there are more not-actively terrible people which makes it much easier to get into and adds to the excitement. And grace of kings is decidedly well written, which always helps. It's still epic fantasy, with all the pov switching and cast of thousands that entails, but a really good example of the genre that pulls no punches and balances an almost frenetic plot with gorgeous moments of character.

Gladstone's Craft sequence remains excellent - the world is well-conceived, the plotting is brilliantly executed and the characters are great. I think I missed the main characters from book 1, but I forgive Gladstone for telling a whole new story in a different part of the world. Really well done, looking forward to Full Fathom Five.

It's an Anne Bishop novel; it's exactly what it says on the tin.
I do find her worlds to be really interesting places, though. They're this odd combination of deeply subversive and traditional. Gender roles, in particular, tend to be very prescriptive, but the overall societal structure tends to play into "men are the brawn. women are the brains," with undertones of "men who listen (and obey) women are better off and better people."

Definitely a higher 3 star than the first book in this series. I still find the present tense to be a bit weird, but overall, it was better.
Having a male lead who is not a complete dick does wonders for a narrative. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the story and still love the idea of assassin nuns. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the way that gods/religions work - they are a bit...umm, deus ex machina-y in a way that solves psychological problems that I'd prefer to see worked through.
Still, this is a solid sequel and fixes many of the things I didn't like about the previous book.

This book was absolutely adorable. And, in its own way, a bit fanfiction-esque. It had the almost roller coaster feel that I associate with fanfiction chapters. And the characters were all great.
You don't need to have read (or written) fanfiction to appreciate what Rowell does with this novel, but - especially in her treatment of Cath - it really resonates if you have.

I enjoyed this book,although I'm not entirely sure I would have picked it up on my own had I known now about the plot. Which may be the point.
Spoilers from here on out.
I thought Carey did a really good job with the post-zombie-apocalypse element and his take on what happens next was intriguing. It was clever in a way that zombie novels aren't always clever and surprisingly compelling in both character and narrative. It was really good.

I feel like this was one of those books with a really excellent premise that just didn't quite deliver for me. It might have just been a surfiet of YA books with mourning siblings or the main character's voice just didn't work for me. The story was fascinating, but I'm not sure if I liked the characters enough to go on to the sequel.

I'd read all three of the books before, although the novella at the end was new.
Still amazing, still love all of Jemisin's novels, still can't wait until her next one.

I really enjoyed this book (which, I admit, I only picked up because one of Stross's other books, "Rule 34" is in the same universe and I like reading things more or less in order). The far-in-the-future world he imagines is incredibly well realized and does, I think, an amazing job of taking people into account. His scifi was very fun, his characters were great and his story was fast-paced and exciting.
On a slightly different level, there were two things that stood out, to me, as being very well done. The first was that Stross did a very good job of imagining a world where what you look like influences, but does not dictate who you are. Characters are not defined by their masculinity or femininity and Stross really doesn't give in to the temptation to change charactorial voice when sex changes - a choice which makes for a better story.
And, on that note, Stross also manages to fit a razor-sharp and terrifying critique of 20th and 21st century attitudes into the middle of a sic-fi thriller without making it heavy handed. I am definitely impressed with that.
Given that the last two books I read that were set in a future left me very disappointed, this was definitely the kind of book I needed to enjoy science fiction again.