CW: abuse, murder, suicide
I picked this up in February, after my library card was finally renewed and I was able to check out ebooks on my phone. I didn't have a reading list prepared yet, so I decided to check out something a friend of mine suggested in a writerly Discord server: this.
The hero of this story is a floundering author who discovers a former student of his died several years ago without having published a novel he'd been working on - a novel the main character knows for a fact would be a bestseller. He picks it up, reworks it, and enjoys the success that follows, but soon begins to receive emails from someone who claims to know the truth.
I was expecting bigger stakes, I'll admit, but I wasn't disappointed with the reveal, even if it was far from a happy one. It was a good mystery and a good book with which to get back into the habit of reading!
CW: death, animal abuse/death, ableism
I used to go to a Polish supplementary school, and took up the optional liceum program, which concluded with a "matura". As one of the graduation requisites, I needed to write a thesis paper. I chose one of the suggested topics - Polish Nobel Prize winners in literature - and wrote primarily about the most recent one at the time, Olga Tokarczuk. My mother decided that it would look nice if I was able to tell the teachers when defending my paper, "Yes, I have read Pani Tokarczuk's work!" and bought me an English copy of Primeval and Other Times to read.
I did not finish it.
Don't get me wrong, it was well-written, but not for me. As you might find out, I don't like realistic or historical fiction too much. It was a bit frustrating to find out later I could've read something about a girl developing psychic powers, or a woman describing a string of mysterious deaths targeting those who abuse animals... so I decided to pick up the latter.
I knew the ending going in, though I'd forgotten some of the details. A good book isn't ruined by spoilers, after all. It was interesting to try picking up the foreshadowing ahead of time. While I didn't always vibe with the themes or word choice, it was still a well-written murder mystery. I might pick up E.E. sometime in the future... or maybe finish Primeval.
CW: murder
My mother suggested this one day as she watched The Da Vinci Code. She recommended the author, and thought it seemed nerdy enough for me.
Our protagonist works for a branch of the US federal government that deals in breaking codes and ciphers, and thanks to a new computer, they have gotten very, very good at their job. Unfortunately, someone claims to have invented an encryption program even the machine can't break, and things rapidly begin to fall apart when they try to investigate.
In my opinion, this isn't a bad book as long as you don't overthink it. The plot is solid, and every little detail is woven well into a tapestry of scandal. It's well-made entertainment, and I was dragged in by the thriller elements. I do have some qualms though about some choices though... The description of Spain has a palpable yellow movie filter over it, and it leans a bit into xenophobic or ableist stereotypes. Our woman protagonist is very obviously a woman written by a man - some readers will know what I mean.
I will give it credit for describing tech-y words in very plain English. Sometimes, things felt a bit too simple, but I think I would've gotten lost with anything more convoluted or specific, so it's very approachable. I was also a bit worried that it glorified surveillance, but that was addressed better as the book drew to a conclusion.
I will say, if you're looking for the book equivalent of a cheesy spy film, this is it.
CW: body horror
If Digital Fortress was more entertainment than literature, Our Wives Under the Sea is more literature than entertainment. Not that I had a bad time! I liked this.
This was getting tossed around on social media after the Oceangate fiasco. If you are looking for something along those lines, you won't get it, but it's a very well-written description of grief and lost love.
The story alternates between two first-person POVs: that of a woman whose partner returns from a deep sea expedition gone wrong changed both physically and mentally, and that of what her partner actually experienced on the job. There's themes of decay; loss; things slipping out of your hands/control; feeling small, lost at sea.
The ending isn't happy, but it's satisfying. Even if I feel there were things I didn't understand, I feel like that was part of the point.
CW: body horror, suicide
This book went viral online after a mecha anime fan encouraged their followers to read it as blind as possible, so I tried to do just that, but I'll give a quick synopsis here anyway.
Red and Blue belong to two distant opposing futures - one ruled by omniscient machines, the other by otherworldly forces of nature. They are just two of many agents tasked with ensuring the existence of their respective futures by sabotaging things that would lead to the existence of the other. They start leaving taunting letters to each other in time through various twisted means after each success, and the story quickly becomes an enemies-to-lovers epistolary work.
I read this twice, partially because my first go was when I was sleep deprived on a plane for 24 hours. Rest assured that, despite a certain tragedy in the third act, you will not be left with a downer ending. I loved the themes and imagery, and the time travel element was done well. It's a good romance, and I'm not much of a romantic.
CW: dehumanization, death
I finished this one quickly, not that that's a bad thing, but I kinda got the vibe that it was below my reading level. Not to insult it! I just realized I was probably not the target audience. I enjoy plenty of fiction intended for younger demographics, but it didn't draw me in. I wasn't bored, and I don't consider my time wasted, but I don't exactly feel the need to finish the series.
The plot is simple: the POV character, a mass-produced cybernetic humanoid hiding the fact that it isn't under its producers' control, is hired muscle on a research trip that starts going terribly wrong. It's the first entry into a longer series.
If you are apprehensive about starting a new series, I'll say it's worth a shot because the first book is very self-contained, like a pilot episode, and very short, so not much of an investment. You won't leave with questions, and if you're still interested, the author's ending leads gracefully into potential sequels.
After I'd finally finished this book, a friend of mine told me they loved to see the beef I had with the author. This should tell you something.
It's definitely not a bad book, but it's not one you're expected to read for fun, and the author is well aware of that. Lem famously was a scifi author, but one that was extremely critical of the genre. Most of his works are parody or sature, and the narrator of His Master's Voice himself tells the reader that if he's expecting a grand revelation, he should put this book down.
Luckily, my pronouns are she/they.
It has a very slow start dedicated mostly to the narrator's navel-gazing, and chapters are very long, but once it reaches the actual plot - the narrator's description of a project in which he was involved - it becomes more interesting, as the philosophical infodumps are tied to arguments between characters or related more concretely to a theme or plot point. By the end, the worst of my frustrations had passed, but it hadn't been an easy read. I guess All Systems Red had been too easy; Lem humbled me.
Maybe I do have beef with the author. I have to wonder if we'd get along. Maybe he'd hate me for writing childish science fiction and desecrating the fine art of creation. Maybe he'd cut me some slack as someone who bothered to deal with him and try formulating an opinion about what they went through the arduous task of consuming. Or maybe he died when I was a toddler and therefore doesn't care what I say about him.
I'm going to try picking up The Cyberiad or maybe Solaris sometime so I can yell about him more.
CW: homophobia, religious trauma/themes (Christian), gore
Yes, this book is written by that Chuck Tingle, famous self-published author of silly gay monster erot- hey where are you going
This book is, of course, nothing like his usual work, and is instead a played-straight (haha) horror about our main character unraveling the truth surrounding a seedy conversion camp, discovering things about herself as well in the process. (Wonder what that might be!)
There's quite a lot of gore and less-than-happy religious talk, though I personally think it was done well, without necessarily talking down organized religion or spirituality as a whole - just the individuals that use it as a weapon. To quote FAITH, what this camp is doing is not approved by the Vatican.
I think if you can stomach it and love supernatural horror (the kind with demons, mutilation, blood, and cults), it's worth a look! It has the vibes of a tacky horror film, in a good way. I had a lot of fun with it, and it was a good, quick read to have after the battle I had with Lem.
CW: suicide, abuse
Our main character, a librarian in a crumbling home by the sea, is sent a well-aged book by a total stranger. Upon giving it a look, he discovers it lists the deaths of multiple women in his family, and they all fall on the same date, happening for the same reason. As the date draws nearer, he works to investigate what might be the reason for this weird curse in his bloodline - one tied to circuses, water, and mysticism.
I found this book was entertaining, and the symbolism was done very well. I found myself reading in class for the first time in years, so it drew me in, and I felt very proud of myself for picking up on a certain mythological allusion before the name was dropped. It leaves you wondering just how much "magic" is real here, and you find out the reason for the curse by the end of the second act, so you spend the time hoping the hero connects the dots before time runs out. Overall, not a bad time.
Trurl and Klapaucius are "constructors", robots that build various odd machines in a world of other mechanical marvels. This book contains a collection of short stories about the things they do, with the first story being an account of how Trurl once built a machine that could create anything that begins with the letter N. It sets the tone for the rest of the book pretty well.
This is one of Lem's better-known works, and I'll admit, it's a lot more entertaining. His disdain for science fiction doesn't bleed through this one, and it's very cute while having intelligent ideas to explore. I hear some of Lem's works are notoriously hard to translate because he coins a lot of neologisms, and I have no doubt that's the case here, though the translators did a very good job of preserving what they could, so maybe someday I'll try getting through the original. I was even able to understand a joke that might've been funnier in the original text - after all, "make nothing" and "do nothing" in Polish are both "zrobić nic".
However, I need to say... Trurl and Klapaucius have something almost romantic going on. I'm not the first to say it, I won't be the last, and I'm not even the kind of person who ships characters unprompted, but dear lord, I think this "enemies-to-lovers homoerotic rivalry" vibe would drive someone more terminally online than me mad. In one story, Klapaucius refuses the offer of safety if it means leaving Trurl to fend for himself. In the one immediately after, he asks a machine to clone Trurl for him, then throws said clone in a cellar so he can beat him to death with a crowbar.
The Homestucks call this "kismesissitude".
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