Alex Shifman (Author of The Pale)

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Fruits of Our Labor by Ian Patterson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm ...more
Jul 01, 2026 08:56AM · like · see review
Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Feverchain by M.A. Knight	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is one of those rare books that yanks your eyes down the page. Knight gives you a main character whose anxieties and fears become yours...and then she ratchets those up from the terrors of daily life to true terrors. She teases you constantly wi ...more
Jul 01, 2026 07:41AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 23, 2026 01:58PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sabriel by Garth Nix. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sabriel by Garth Nix <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alex Shifman is finished with Sabriel Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author) progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 23, 2026 01:58PM · 1 like · like · see status · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sabriel by Garth Nix. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sabriel by Garth Nix <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alex Shifman and 2 other people liked MA Knight's review of The Pale: "This book transports you into a magical version of the past, particularly in the Pale of Settlement, which, before reading, I knew ZERO about. The story follows two estranged brothers--one a hot, moody warrior and the other a demon hunter with a demon" Read more of this review »
Jun 19, 2026 05:24PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Pale by Alex Shifman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Pale by Alex Shifman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing My Terminal Molt by Bobby Goldner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is the second book by the author I've read and he pulled off the same magic as his last book; a strange, absurd meditation on grief that had me laughing until the reality hit. ...more
Jun 18, 2026 01:21PM · 1 like · like · see review
Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Bobby writers unlike anyone else I've ever read. I inhaled this book in two sittings. It had me laughing, until I tripped over how lyrical and devastating it was. A beautiful, absurd book about greif and anxiety in a time of too much information. ...more
Jun 18, 2026 01:20PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Bobby writers unlike anyone else I've ever read. I inhaled this book in two sittings. It had me laughing, until I tripped over how lyrical and devastating it was. A beautiful, absurd book about greif and anxiety in a time of too much information. ...more
Jun 18, 2026 01:19PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Strung Out on Plenitudes by Bobby Goldner <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing Fruits of Our Labor by Ian Patterson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm ...more
Jun 10, 2026 09:15AM · like · see review

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Fruits of Our Labor
by Ian Patterson (Goodreads Author)

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Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm as well, to be sure, but his strength lies in his use of a few changes to twist faders on the present moment and highlight the ugly aspects we’d wish to avoid. Fruits of Our Labor, his forthcoming book is the par excellence of this skill of his; one small conceptual change and then the logical dominoes fall, forcing us to stare at ourselves in the mirror.

The small change in this near future tale would actually be a massive change, but for those of us used to Ian’s other works featuring generation ships, space fairing energy drink conglomerates, and neo-Taoisam mind fucks it feels so nearly real you could expect to read about it in the papers. First one woman, and then any woman who wishes to becomes able to conceive without the help of a man. That’s it and that’s all he really needs. The future that falls from this is not one dictated by technology but by politics and is so near to our own day to serve as much a parable as a warning, and a historical document sent back in time.

This later aspect is always running through this novel written in three voices; a close third narrator telling us the story of a woman at the beginning of this historical moment, then a second person accounting of a young girl growing up as the first generation of girls to be born this way (parthenogenesis produces only female offspring), and finally a scholarly account of the historical precedents of the current struggle.

This historicity is the only thing I find complicated about this book. Let me be clear first by saying it is fabulously pulled off. Each of these sections reads like real scholarship and does what Ian intends, which I posit is not to truly teach his readers about the history of civil rights and women’s suffrage, but to serve as a constant drip drip drip reminder on our foreheads that the horrors of this sci-fi tale are not something we can brush away as ‘dystopian’. As a fan of Ian’s writing, this cold remove of historicity does pull me away from the heat that has me run to read each of his books as soon as I can.

The rest of this novel packs the heat however. The first and second person sections are constant sine waves of a sort of Utopian, Hyper-optimists joy of a whole world slowly becoming Portland (I love Portland, by the way), then to just as quickly become the rural America of nightmares, replete with red hats and joyous violence. Ian gives us butterflies to celebrate only to crush them, and show us that the hands that did the crushing are around us now, every day and may just be our own.

If Ian is anything though, he’s an optimist, or at least a believer in the eventual, if fraught and bloody, triumph of human love and beauty over the obstacles of human greed and cruelty. That success is a welcome reprieve, both from the horrors of this book and the very real horrors of our own day this book highlights. If you're looking for a Fahrenheit 451 for the post-Roe age of civil rights struggle let this be it. ...more

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Feverchain
by M.A. Knight

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare books that yanks your eyes down the page. Knight gives you a main character whose anxieties and fears become yours...and then she ratchets those up from the terrors of daily life to true terrors. She teases you constantly wi ...more

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)
by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author)

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Alex Shifman is finished with Sabriel

Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)
by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author)

progress:

Rate this book

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Alex Shifman and 2 other people liked MA Knight's review of The Pale:

"This book transports you into a magical version of the past, particularly in the Pale of Settlement, which, before reading, I knew ZERO about.

The story follows two estranged brothers--one a hot, moody warrior and the other a demon hunter with a demon" Read more of this review »

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

My Terminal Molt
by Bobby Goldner

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book by the author I've read and he pulled off the same magic as his last book; a strange, absurd meditation on grief that had me laughing until the reality hit. ...more

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Strung Out on Plenitudes
by Bobby Goldner

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Bobby writers unlike anyone else I've ever read. I inhaled this book in two sittings. It had me laughing, until I tripped over how lyrical and devastating it was. A beautiful, absurd book about greif and anxiety in a time of too much information. ...more

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Strung Out on Plenitudes
by Bobby Goldner

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Bobby writers unlike anyone else I've ever read. I inhaled this book in two sittings. It had me laughing, until I tripped over how lyrical and devastating it was. A beautiful, absurd book about greif and anxiety in a time of too much information. ...more

Alex Shifman is accepting questions on their profile page.

Alex Shifman rated a book it was amazing

Fruits of Our Labor
by Ian Patterson (Goodreads Author)

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm Sci-fi as a genre has two strains, laser beams and space marines, or work that makes you stare reality in the face by removing the chaff of the everyday. This is where Ian Patterson has always lived as an author. He has chops in the laser beams realm as well, to be sure, but his strength lies in his use of a few changes to twist faders on the present moment and highlight the ugly aspects we’d wish to avoid. Fruits of Our Labor, his forthcoming book is the par excellence of this skill of his; one small conceptual change and then the logical dominoes fall, forcing us to stare at ourselves in the mirror.

The small change in this near future tale would actually be a massive change, but for those of us used to Ian’s other works featuring generation ships, space fairing energy drink conglomerates, and neo-Taoisam mind fucks it feels so nearly real you could expect to read about it in the papers. First one woman, and then any woman who wishes to becomes able to conceive without the help of a man. That’s it and that’s all he really needs. The future that falls from this is not one dictated by technology but by politics and is so near to our own day to serve as much a parable as a warning, and a historical document sent back in time.

This later aspect is always running through this novel written in three voices; a close third narrator telling us the story of a woman at the beginning of this historical moment, then a second person accounting of a young girl growing up as the first generation of girls to be born this way (parthenogenesis produces only female offspring), and finally a scholarly account of the historical precedents of the current struggle.

This historicity is the only thing I find complicated about this book. Let me be clear first by saying it is fabulously pulled off. Each of these sections reads like real scholarship and does what Ian intends, which I posit is not to truly teach his readers about the history of civil rights and women’s suffrage, but to serve as a constant drip drip drip reminder on our foreheads that the horrors of this sci-fi tale are not something we can brush away as ‘dystopian’. As a fan of Ian’s writing, this cold remove of historicity does pull me away from the heat that has me run to read each of his books as soon as I can.

The rest of this novel packs the heat however. The first and second person sections are constant sine waves of a sort of Utopian, Hyper-optimists joy of a whole world slowly becoming Portland (I love Portland, by the way), then to just as quickly become the rural America of nightmares, replete with red hats and joyous violence. Ian gives us butterflies to celebrate only to crush them, and show us that the hands that did the crushing are around us now, every day and may just be our own.

If Ian is anything though, he’s an optimist, or at least a believer in the eventual, if fraught and bloody, triumph of human love and beauty over the obstacles of human greed and cruelty. That success is a welcome reprieve, both from the horrors of this book and the very real horrors of our own day this book highlights. If you're looking for a Fahrenheit 451 for the post-Roe age of civil rights struggle let this be it. ...more

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