Ahoy there me mateys!  I have always loved wolves so the idea of getting the inside perspective of a pack was appealing.  In this novella, Sean links her mind using a neurological interface with a female wolf in the name of scientific research.  I found the technology aspect of this book to be intriguing even if the consequences were alarming.  However, this wasn't the strong science oriented book that I wanted.

What the novella focused on was the toxic and failing relationship between Sean and her wife.  Sean is set up to be a selfish person who is only focused on her research.  However, I didn't really sympathize with her wife, Riya, either.  Riya also makes bad choices.  In fact, the moral of this story might be that all people are selfish, want connection with no real effort, and ultimately make decisions based on pure emotion even when they believe they are logical.

This is not a happy story.  The people are miserable.  The wolves are miserable.  The world is miserable.  Greed is the leading motivation.  The near future does not look very pleasant or appealing.  And I kinda despised the ending.

That said for being such a stark and sad look at humanity, I did feel it was well written.  The people and situations felt realistic.  The ethical considerations are touched upon.  I can't say I liked this very much (despite the wolves) but I would read something else by the author.  Arrrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I read this when I couldn't sleep and when it was raining outside.  It was a perfect mood read.  This is short at less than 100 pages but was so much fun.  The premise deals with memory loss caused by rain.  This seems silly but the author managed to make it both atmospheric and suspenseful.  

Written as a journal, I loved the main character Laverne.  She is a retired woman in her 60s.  How she deals with the drama (and trauma) of the situation was so intriguing.  I was rooting for her while also trying to figure out what happens next.

I inhaled this story.  I thought the ending was perfect, if alarming.  After I was done, I ended up still not being able to sleep because I was admiring the story and the ramifications of the plot.  Highly recommended.  Arrr!

Ahoy there mateys! This book is described by the publisher with “Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.” The main character is a nonbinary refugee who has to hide their blood magic and works as a healer. This was another book where I enjoyed a lot of the elements but overall was a left unsatisfied. I did not feel that the book was nuanced, just messy. The mystery was not really surprising and how it gets solved was rather boring. In general I felt like this book would have been much improved with a larger page count. I ended up not really understanding the politics or history of the region. The main character was awkward and clueless and I couldn’t really grasp if they were actually supposed to be an adult or not. The plot gets muddied with the plotline of a rescued street orphan. The main character’s brother had a sympathetic plight but went about it the wrong way. No one communicated properly. I didn’t dislike this book but didn’t really love it either. I would read something else by the author though to give their work another shot. Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  This was a fun take on what happens if a popular children's book series is based on a real place.  And what happens if that real place actually sucks?  Harry Bodie finds out when he ends up in Underhill - the "imaginary" land his grandmother wrote about.  I enjoyed this read even if I did not like Harry as a character.  He is an arrogant person who I wasn't really cheering for even if I wanted a happier story for Underhill's inhabitants.  I did, however, like all of the nods to Narnia which is a place I visited over and over again in my imagination as a child.  The characters and Underhill didn't feel completely fleshed out but that could be because of the short length.  I loved the dark tone and appreciated the ending.  Not the author's best but I am glad I read it.  Arrr!

Side note: The publisher lists this book as being part of the "Terrible Worlds" series and is listed as destination 3.  I have read the other two and these can certainly be read as standalones.  I would read more of these types of novellas.

Ahoy there me mateys!  The ideas of a meritocracy are always interesting for me.  I want to know how they got started, how they work, and how merit is evaluated.  This meritocracy takes place in India.  Social media seemed to be the key indicator of status of the majority of the 20 or so characters followed in the book.  While that seemed realistic given today's reality, I wanted more insight into the jobs that did not involve being social media personas. I never truly understood the practicalities of how this meritocracy functioned.

The other personal preference is that the insight into the lives of the characters all were vignettes.  I wish there was at least one character who could have been a through-line in the plot.  The major problem was that while I liked how all the characters were portrayed, I didn't get enough insight into their lives, thoughts, or what happens to them. 

The timelines were also a bit hard to follow because of the writing style.  I wasn't always sure how much time was passing.  This was particularly evident in the rebellion subplot.  I don't really know what the rebellion was hoping to accomplish and the ending was weak on that point.  Overall, while the concepts are always worth reading about, the execution didn't really work for me.  I would try another book by the author though.  Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  This novel is supposed to be a gothic horror.  While it does contain a haunted house, I found it to be more fantasy in feel.  It does contain Kingfisher's humor elements though.  This was a good read but was not one of me favorites.  I loved the main character Sam, the vultures, and the bug references.  I did think the house itself felt quite creepy.  The major problem for me was that Sam took forever to figure things out and that both her mother or the neighbor should have tried to explain sooner.  I also didn't particularly care for the reason of the haunting or how that is handled.  Personal taste, I think.  I did like the resolution of the situation overall though and how Sam's family moves forward.  No regrets reading this, as I will read anything the author writes.  Arrrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  This book takes place on a generation ship, the Calypso.  After a failed attempt to colonize a new world, the survivors feel that they had no choice but to try to make it back to Earth.  However, several generations later, the ship is badly damaged and the likelihood of survival is looking dim.  Jacklyn "Jack" Albright, the first mate, is struggling to keep the ship going and looking for any solution.  It all gets worse when something inside the ship starts killing.

The positives of this book began with Jack.  I appreciated her tenacity and stubbornness.  I really was rooting for her the entire time.  I also grew to like the android, Watson.  Watching these two characters interact was compelling because of how their relationship changed.  I also enjoyed the concept of failed colony trying to make it back home.  This is a topic I wish was explored more in sci-fi.

While this book was a quick read and enjoyable in some ways, there were also some major flaws.  The big reveal dealing with the MIA captain was unrealistic, campy, and tropey.  The cause of the "engagements" damaging the ship is never explained and used as a deus ex machina for the ending.  I thought the threats inside the ship were fun, if unoriginal.  It seemed silly that the whole fleet could be taken out by them and also that Jack took forever to figure out what the banging was.  There was attempted horror in having a theme of opening doors that also ultimately didn't make much sense to me.  Also life onboard the ship isn't explored much and there are no real secondary characters other than to provide fodder for plot points that go nowhere. 

This book did not keep me in suspense but that could have been due to the short length.  A longer novel much have fixed some of the issues.  That said, I like the writing style enough to read something else by the author.  Arrrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I love clone novels so I was excited to pick this up.  Machines are at war with humans.  The humans are not winning but with clone technology they are trying to turn the tide.  Adrienne Valero is a sergeant serving in the military's expendable 802nd unit.  She has died 96 times and just wants to die for good next time.  However, the clone technology makes the user effectively immortal and, frankly, a bit crazy.

When Adrienne is transferred to an elite special forces group, she is grateful for the chance to stay in her current shell for a while.  But PTSD is taking its toll.  When Adrienne is assigned a new "rubicon" AI interface she doesn't trust it.  But as she settles into her new assignment, the AI becomes essential to her survival and humanity.  As Adrienne learns what it is like to live again, she is drawn into confrontation with a human menace that might destroy them all for good.

I adored the set-up for the novel and how the 802nd unit worked.  I also enjoyed Adrienne's adjustment to her new ship, crew, and AI.  While I enjoyed the majority of the characters and how Adrienne combats her PTSD, I found the plot to be the weak part of the novel.  I did not like the bad guy at all and thought his motivation was both short sighted and nonsensical.  Adrienne should have caught on way sooner.  I also did not like the "reveal" of how the machines were created.  The novel started to fail for me after the climax when the big bad tries to take over.  It was too much drama and action and felt rushed.  Also the plot of this whole section didn't work for me.  And the ending made me angry.  I thought this was a standalone and was very disappointed with the last couple of pages.  If there is a sequel, I am not sure how the author can make it work.

This doesn't walk the plank because of how much I enjoyed the beginning and the characters overall.  But I hesitate to recommend it to another reader unless I know there is going to be future explanation for the downer of an ending.  Arrr!

Ahoy there mateys! I thought the first book was a standalone but I was excited enough by a new Garth Nix book to immediately read this in one sitting.  This book was so much better than the first one.  This tale involves a magic map that inadvertently sucks Merlin inside of it.  His sister Vivian must rescue him but to do so, she needs Susan.  Susan wants nothing more than to be normal and put the events of the previous book behind her.  Of course, she cannot leave Merlin in danger so she is drawn into the plot to chase down a serial killer.

I rather loved this one.  It is a rather straightforward story but the mystery of how and why there was a serial killer was engaging.  I loved watching Susan come to terms with her past and future.  I still find Merlin (and his clothing choices) to be fun.  I loved the setting of Bath and the Old One who lives there.  The idea of the Booksellers and their work is happy.  This book ends somewhat predictably but satisfactorily.  If there is another in the series, I will happily read it. Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I enjoy reading about statistics and was intrigued by the concept of how numbers tracking in the era of the smart phones affects life.  I thought I was going to get a more serious look into the science of numbers.  Instead this book was written in a loose style of a self-help book with very little practical advice.  The theme was "numerical vaccination" which the authors themselves don't seem to follow.  I understand they are economics professors but their personal anecdotes seem to fall into all the "traps" they warn against.

There are interesting comments in here, particularly about how numbers influence news articles in both "real" and "fake" news.  However, the book seems to be a doom and gloom look into the numbers game and seems to focus on the fear aspects.  Even when I agreed with the points the authors were making, I still struggled with the point of this book.

Even their own research was lightly touched on and received a couple of paragraphs per study.  I would have preferred a text with actual citations rather than a bibliography.  Why not link to the actual studies?  Or online sources?  Also because I was reading on an e-reader, I couldn't read many of the illustrations and couldn't enlarge them.  The book felt like a gimmick.  I did find some new concepts and data here so I don't regret reading this book.  I was just expecting a lot more.  Arrrr!