This did not go entirely as I expected, which is always nice. A good ending to a solid series. I enjoyed her other series more, but it's worth reading these in order.

I don't know quite what I expected from this book, but this was not quite it. It was much more of a WWII (though not really) story and a story about loss and magic and life in a far more real way than I think I expected from my escapism. But it was a gorgeous book nonetheless.

I'm enjoying Tor.com's ongoing work to make novellas a viable genre. They're good at recognizing stories where the scope is not the right size for a novel, but the world is too interesting for a short story. This is one of those. It's one of those books that people who like this sort of thing will like. I'm not sure if I'm a person who likes such things, but I can tell that it was well done.

This is such a strange book. Not to mention a useful look at utilitarianism. But MacFarquhar makes it clear this is about trying to understand rather than rationalize or dismiss. The stories she tells are disconcerting and strange and I'm still not sure what to do with them. It's one of those books that just sits with you. Like a lump in your throat.

I don't remember the last time I cared this much about the characters in an epic fantasy series. Seriously, I forgot how much this kind of reading is an emotional trial.
Liu does an amazing job with his secondary world, building an empire that feels real and vibrant. I'm invested in the state of the state even when I accept that anyone can die and probably will. Liu also does a better job with people doing terrible things that ASOIAF ever manages: alliances, motivations, character complexity, people using ends to justify means ring true in Liu's work.
Also, he does this thing where the gods and magic are just much less interesting than the SCIENCE! and it's just so cool!

There just aren't enough books discussing women and wombs and bodily autonomy. Fortunately, Kameron Hurley is singlehandedly writing against that trend with every series she publishes. Tangled up in the questions of selfhood and identity that make up the arc of the story are also questions of biology, maternity, what it is women bear in every sense of the word, and the relationship between motherhood and sacrifice.
Though this is relatively straightforward for Hurley, the book itself is weird and complicated and the kind of story only she could tell.
Also, I feel like I've gotten a lot of viscera in space recently, but that might just be The Expanse and Lesbians in Space back to back.

If you're listening to this book, you should probably listen to a neutral palate cleanser before listening to Hamilton. Going from actual Washington to Chris Jackson is jarring.
Anyway, it's a wonderful short-but-not-little work of history that uses the Washingtons and Judge to reconstruct the complexity (and hypocrisy) of slavery in the 18th century. The book itself is cautious, indicating clearly the difference between what we can know and what we can only speculate. It's a stark reminder how little information we have even about figures like Judge who actually spoke out about their lives. And how much of that information comes from those in power who care little about the lives experiences of the powerless. Reconstructing what Judge's life would have been like is well done and I applaud the choice to emphasize the lack of information while still providing Judge with her real and complex emotional life.

So my attempts to catch up on all the milSF I've missed in the past decade continue apace.
I liked the balance between weird and not weird in this story, and the serious commitment to science. I'm not entirely a fan of the hard boiled detective in any genre, but he was okay here. Will definitely continue with these series, though I'm not sure if I want to actually listen to all of them.

This book took longer to get into than the first one--partially my fault, I grant, as I'm the reader who remembers literally nothing about a book after she finishes it--despite being off to an interesting start. It took me a while to remember who these people were and why I cared about them, but it picked up about halfway through and I definitely enjoyed it. Should probably read the third before I completely forget this one...

I loved this. Seanan's novellas are right in my sweet spot of stories that discuss difficult emotional things through world building. Apparently I've found the books of hers that work for me.