Apparently I forgot to set weird AF as a goodreads shelf. My bad.
So, yeah. This was an odd book. I don't think I'm quite enough of a D&D/RP fan to really appreciate what Tchaikovsky's doing here since it did feel a lot like the novelization of a campaign. At the beginning, I found the writing style somewhat pedestrian and I honestly can't tell if I got used to it or if he deliberately increased the complexity/elegance of the writing as Nth grew in experience. Which would be very clever. I was reminded that I could, in theory, answer that question if I wanted to using the text analysis skills I have. But that would be WAY too much work.

We're not going to talk about how long it took me to figure out she was [a:Daniel José Older|5137530|Daniel José Older|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1336535512p2/5137530.jpg]'s sister. Duh. Next time, read the acknowledgements.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. It's a bit outside my comfort zone - near future thriller isn't really my thing, but people keep having these amazing premises and then falling down on the execution. Fortunately, Older doesn't. I found this evolution of the burbclave/phyle approach (see Stephenson) to be an intriguing and realistic update of the fall of the nation state. And I also like that she presents a world that is better than this one while still being problematic. It's not a utopia, but it's also not a facile middle-grade novel where everything looks great, but it turns out no one has autonomy. Her approach - what are the problems with this system - crafts a story around how humans can screw things up and is unabashedly about that rather than a heavy handed critique of technology. And in doing so, she manages a much subtler and more complex conversation about the availability of information, the idea that data are somehow neutral, what it means to think or rethink democracy and, somehow, Brexit. Still not sure how that last worked out.

Interesting premise, nicely executed, not overly predictable (other than, you know, the obvious predictions that come from setting a story about geology in San Francisco right before a certain historical natural disaster) and I really appreciated the number of tropes that were averted simply by having good people continue to be good rather than screw with their characterization for the sake of the plot. I certain plan to track down the sequel once it exists.
Also, was incredibly pleased to see the "girl dressed up a boy" trope reconsidered in a way that is less gender essentialist than usual. That was well done.

I'm not sure why I'm happy to tolerate worryingly possessive men when Anne Bishop does it since it clearly annoys the hell out of me elsewhere.
I thought the story itself was interesting, but I spent the majority of the book wondering whether I should be rooting for Tor to turn out to be evil or not. If he was evil, that would be the most predictable plot twist in the history of books. If he isn't, that's even more disturbing because he's scarily possessive and buys into a ton of toxins masculinity bullshit that, incidentally, Maya is stuck putting up with because money.
I will probably read the next book on principle and because the actual urban fantasy world is really interesting and compelling and nicely handled. And I hope Tor gets what's coming to him. Ass.

I swear, Mieville has two modes of writing - wtf did I just read that was amazing and plain old wtf did I just read.
This was the latter.

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. Overall, it was good. It did what it was supposed to do - adapted the story of pride and prejudice to the modern era in a way that also critiques contemporary society.
Eligible's critique is both less coherent and strident than P&P's although some of that is because Sittenfield is working within Austen's framework.
But I found that the details and the updates were, overall, well handled and way more fun than I expected.

This one has been on my to-read list for a while, although I didn't really know what it was about. Reminiscent of V E Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, this book shares certain conceits about multiple worlds and getting involved. It was nicely handled and kept me on my toes, which was fun.

Oh good. This series is finally finished. I can stop trying to remember it exists
The setup for these books is the only memorable thing about them. Otherwise, they're serviceable works of science fiction that might work better if read as one long book. But I'm not sure I want to bother.
Still, I liked reading them. If there's a brand of sf that favors catastrophic optimism, I suppose this is it.

I've seen a lot of "It's like Firefly!" which is not a bad description in that it tells you that if you like a story that plays out in multiple small episodes and that doesn't mind diverting for a chapter or two to tell you more about characters, this is absolutely right for you.
Basically, it's the crew of Serenity operating legally in a Star Trek universe. With the delightful change that the interpersonal drama was never about love and sex. Just about all the other things that could happen.
Anyway, it made me smile in all the right places.

Oh, right. I like this series.
It's not even that it's forgettable (I have no memory, but that's not the same thing), it's just that I have too many books to read. Sequel was good, progress occurred both in directions I expected and those I didn't.
It was Kate Elliott who said that trilogies go Book 1: Set the stage, Book 2: Kiss, Book 3: Save the world, right?
Bring it.