Samantha (AK) > Recent Status Updates

Review to come

I feel like if Dead Astronauts was a fever dream, this is VanderMeer overshooting in the other direction. Not necessarily in a bad way, mind, but if he was aiming for the same vibe as Authority he didn't quite hit it. Still plenty of book to go, though.

Hadn't the hummingbird been a kind of miracle?
Hadn't it diminished us not to see this as a miracle and protect it?

Fin 1/28 - RTC

This is getting logged as a hardcopy because the epub I got from the kobo store isn't in the database and I don't feel like jumping through hoops this week to find out why.

I... I didn't see that coming. Bravo, authors. I have no words.

This book keeps reminding me (setting-wise) of Cheryh's Heavy Time and Hellburner, and that's a good thing.

I met the author of these books back in March, and she was cool. Romance is not my typical reading material, but I'm on vacation, so now's as good a time as any to step out of my comfort zone for a quick read.

The aliens, who learned about humanity from tv and radio broadcasts, don't know how humans do sex and gender. This seems incongruous.

So, despite the description and the presence of aliens, this book is about 90% gender politics so far. Which is technically fine, but very much not what I expected based on the blurb.

So far, this one is not grabbing me.

I feel like I'm reading a train wreck. What is with this decision making???

...on the plus side, I *am* entertained, in a "what the hell" way. But still. What the hell? XD

Not really relating to this "Oh no, he's hot!" crisis.

Yep. This was just what I needed. RTC.

I'm in the mood for something optimistic and light on plot.

RTC

Welp. There is now a "very spiritual" indigenous person who had a dream and is interpreting it over the phone to facilitate the last stage of the protagonist's journey. My disappointment is immense.

Alright, so I know this interaction is supposed to be funny/cute, and it kind of is in a romcom movie way... but if this was me? I'd be running the other direction so fast.

There are things that people do to each other that are just so far beyond horrific you lose all words for it. This book just gave me fresh nightmare fuel in that regard.

RTC

I finished this. am sitting on it, and will probably continue to sit on it for another day before I can pull my words together for a review. Really good, but also really heavy.

Absolutely phenomenal. A literary love story and so much more. Will write a full review later.

"I had no war story. I'm safe, my family is safe, thousands of people are far worse off from this tragedy. What the hell is going on that all of a sudden, I can't get out of bed in the mornings?"

It's not often that I see a book directly address this kind of trauma/guilt response.