(2023) First in a Lovecraftian dark urban fantasy series featuring a professor and a student at Miskatonic University. In this one they battle Chthonians, with a showdown in an abandoned mine; and face their own pasts, with drama to be played out as the series develops. Mixed feelings: the story is fine, but I'm not comfortable with the blossoming student-teacher romance. That, and nitpicky copy-editing gripes, mean I probably won't continue.

(2021) Book one of an epic high-fantasy series, set on a tidally-locked world (maybe a distant future version of our own), whose single moon is falling out of orbit and soon will fall into the planet. An motley band of heroes sets out to avert this catastrophe, as happens in this sort of story. It's a sort of story that appeals to me, and this hit the right notes well enough that I want to continue.

(2022) Sharp poems on hard subjects, by a Somali-British poet. These poems touch on the refugee experience, domestic violence, and complicated family relationships. They will break your heart.

(2016) After 200 years of peace, the space navy has become more of a social club than a fighting force. So when ex-Sergeant Roger Rogers finds himself forced to reenlist he expects hours of unprofitable time-wasting. His old ship is more chaotic than ever, but when an actual crisis looms, he may have to take his job seriously. The comedy is a little broad for my taste--too many body-function jokes--but the satire of bureaucracy is frequently sharp

(2024) Fifth in the author's “Singing Hills“ series of novellas about a traveling, storytelling cleric. There's not a dud among 'em, and this is a strong addition to the series. All five enthusiastically recommended.

(1947)

This is a kind-of sequel to April's #ClassicLSFBC read, “The Weapon Shops of Isher“, and continues the story of Weapon Shop agent Robert Hedrock. Here he investigates rumors about a new interstellar drive ... and finds himself condemned to death both by the Empire and the Weapon Shop. This was conceived as a single story so feels more coherent than mashup TWSOI; still, the story takes off in multiple directions for that signature VV style

(1966) “Shock Troop in Time and Space“

Perry and the crew of the CREST III are still stuck 50,000 years in the past, but in the last episode, the “parasprinter“ Woolver twins snuck past the guards of the time gate and returned to the present to update the other Terrans on the CREST's status. Now the Woolvers, teleporter Tako Kakuta, and 22-cm secret agent Lemy Danger dive back into the past to help Perry find his way home

I have a four-day weekend, so am on board for the #JumpStartSummer readathon. These reads top my TBR:

The Starless Crown (my May #BookSpin pick)
Mechanical Failure (#ReadYourEbooks)
Shock Troop of Time and Space
The Weapon Makers
The Brides of High Hall

I'm well into three of them already, so I feel confident about finishing all of these. We'll see what comes after.

Have fun, everybody! And thanks @TheSpineView !

(1982) Kirk and Spock trade places as captain and first officer under a nonsensical premise. Spock turns into a tyrant, Kirk into a toddler learning the boundaries of “no.“ Turns out their adversary is provoking aggression for scientific reasons, but that leads nowhere interesting. I'd been warned by @RamsFan1963 that this was a bad one. I don't think I disliked it as much as he did but I do think the best part was the first blank page at the end

(1735-1738) It's a wildly inventive, uniquely structured story about underground civilizations, cities in the air, and strange kingdoms in faraway lands. It's like a mashup of ideas proposed in a brainstorming session led by Jonathan Swift: Worm people! Toad monsters! Achieving enlightenment through being chewed to death by giant bees! Unfortunately, it's complicated by 18th-century misogyny, but the relentless flood of wild ideas is spec-fic joy

(1966) “Return to the Present“

The CREST III is stuck 50,000 years in Earth's past. The time gate is heavily guarded so that the CREST cannot return the way it came, and Perry sends Rakal and Tronar Woolver -- who as “parasprinters“ can travel radio waves -- into the enemy fleet with orders to get a message to the future by any means possible. It's a good episode with plenty of action and our first direct encounter with a “Master of the Island“

(1877) I understand this was one of the first books to use first-person perspective from an animal's viewpoint, and that choice was brilliant for Sewell's project of exposing cruelties toward animals. It won't be among my favorites -- too plotless and polemic and I'm probably just too old -- but I admire Sewell's aim and her effortless prose. I get why it's a classic.

The mighty north winds had been tossing us around in a terrible storm for three days and had thrown us on death‘s doorstep in the raging chaos of our blasted sails, when they suddenly stopped.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2019 Ed.) It's a fast and humorous love letter to horror films in the form of a handbook for readers who think they might be in a horror movie and wish to survive. I expect that it would appeal most to horror fans: others may not get the joke, mistake it for ridicule, or find that it wears out fast. But I dug it, and if you enjoyed the Scream series for its meta commentary, or Cabin in the Woods for any reason at all then you may too.

(1980) Two immortal humans -- one a killer and the other a healer -- are lovers and rivals and the parents (figuratively and often literally) to communities of super-powered humans, set against the backdrop of the Atlantic slave trade. It's a disturbing read because of its gaze at abusive relationships and abusive social structures, but also a very powerful one. For my taste, it's the most effective of the series so far.

(2024) This is a very scary account of how autocratic governments around the world work together to stifle dissent and promote antidemocratic movements worldwide. It was published only last year, and already things have gotten worse. This stuff keeps me up at night.

(2023). Cosmic horror at Gallipoli, mostly told through dispatches from an embedded journalist, all tangled up with ponderings about truth-telling, secrets, and information control. The horror works, and the themes speak to some of my own preoccupations. Plus: it's short.

(1966) "The Temples of Darak"

Still trapped 50,000 years in the past, the crew of the CREST III find themselves involved in a battle among ancestors of the Maahks and Haluters, a crew of cosmic engineers likewise stuck in the past, and newly-introduced aliens who met Gucky and conclude he is some sort of god. Plenty of action, and some dot-connecting among the plots of previous adventures.

The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2011, English translation 2017)

This was a delight. It's an understated story about the relationships and preoccupations of a publishing team as they prepare a new dictionary. The story takes up questions about the relationship between words and the concepts they signify, the value of experience in forming definitions, and the ever-changing nature of language. Thoughtful and charming, and recommended.

And here's my #BookSpinBingo card for May.

Good luck everybody!

And thanks @theAromaOfBooks !

Here are my #ReadYourEbooks picks for May.

Thanks @Cbee !

Kohei Araki had devoted his entire life—his entire working life—to dictionaries.

#FirstLineFridays
#ShyBookOwl

Hip-hooray for #BookSpin Day! My May picks are very different books: #BookSpin is a chunky volume one of an epic fantasy series; and #DoubleSpin is a Victorian-era classic of animal fiction. Looking forward to both.

Thanks for spinning, @thearomaofbooks !

(2025) Here's one of the better horror stories I've read in a while, about a sister and two brothers in a difficult family situation. When one brother gets into trouble with the law, they escape to a cabin in the woods where family history, present reality, and the sister's nightmares blur together. It's a suspenseful, surreal, and very smart story about family trust and family trauma, and resonates with experiences of my own extended family

Any French speakers able to help me with this quote:

... souvent il vaut mieux faire des riens que de ne rien faire du tout ...

Google Translate renders it as: “... it is often better to do nothing than to do nothing at all ...“, which matches the sense from my very elementary French but which is no sense at all. I expect I'm missing a nuance, maybe between the plural “riens“ and the singular “rien“?

Merci d'avance!

Two bingos in April. I've had two months this year with no bingos at all, so I'm doing a happy yay-me dance.

#BookSpinBingo
@thearomaofbooks

I only finished one of my #ReadYourEbooks titles for April, but it was a long one that had been sitting unread for a long time so I'm content. If I get at least as much accomplished from this May list I'll be happy.

Thanks for hosting @cbee !

(1996) “The Time-Eye“

Trapped 52,000 years in the past, Perry and the crew of the CREST III try to find a way back to the present. This one is extremely busy, packed with events that could easily have played out over two or even three episodes. The breathless pace keeps things fun, while the plot continues to establish connections to backstory and set up future complications.

Here's my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #BookSpinBingo list for May.

Thanks for hosting again, @thearomaofbooks !

This collects stories from the author's “Fairy Tale Almanacs“ of 1826-1828. They are of their time: orientalist and antisemitic stereotypes sometimes make the stories not so much enjoyable as, let's say, historically interesting. But they can also be charming. My favorite is “The Cold Heart,“ in which a young man makes foolish bargains with spirits of the Black Forest in hope of riches.

(1951, from stories 1941-1949)

I read and enjoyed this back around 1980, but avoided revisiting it because I remembered a libertarian/gun-rights theme that I'd now find irksome. Which is true a little, but it's hard to stay irked by something so bonkers. For me this is peak Van Vogt: so packed with ideas it can't be bothered with things like consistency, craft or common sense: a hot mess that tips “hot“ enough to be enjoyable still

#ClassicLSFBc

And here's my 2025 #IndependentBookstoreDay haul.

The tote is a holiday incentive. I wish there'd been one that said “Oh yes definitely smut what's it to y'all“ because that would make me seem *so* much more interesting, but it's still my favorite free tote in a long time.

(Also: Mrs Swynn assures me that's exactly what the tote says but with fewer words)

Happy #IndependentBookstoreDay !

It's a rainy day in Tulsa, but Magic City Books had a pretty good crowd when we stopped by after lunch.

(2023) It's a middle-grades supernatural thriller about a basketball player who is recovering from a serious accident while dealing with a monster from his nightmares. I'm not the target audience, but it's fun for what it is. I picked it up for its terrific cover.

(1984) It's a collection of three interconnected novellas, about a failed revolution on Mars and what happens after, set in the 23rd-27th centuries. The “icehenge“ of the title is a megalithic structure on Pluto, which may have been constructed by Martian rebels, or by aliens ancient or recent, or something else. I quite liked the premise and the epistemological themes, but found it difficult to engage with the story.

Es zog einmal eine große Karawane durch die Wüste.

“Once upon a time, a large caravan moved through the desert.“

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1966) “The Invasion of the Dead“

Perry and the crew of the CREST III fall into a trap that transports them to the Milky Way Galaxy and 50,000 years into the past, to a time when Earth was called Lemuria and the Lemurians fought a doomed war against invading Haluters. Much to like here: there's plenty going on, it's rich with references to backstory, and the debut of Lemurians puts one more piece of the Perryverse in place. I'm a happy reader.

(2019) A telepath and her partner are trapped in the caves of a prison planet. She doesn't remember what she did to get there; her partner says it was mass murder, but she has no recollection -- and then she sensed the presence of another person who may have a different story. It's fine, though it dwells more on relationship drama than I prefer. Others have loved it and I'm sure they're right.

(1966) “Seven Hours of Fear“

Last episode ended with Perry and the crew of the CREST III in pursuit of a Tefroder ship which was making duplicates of Gucky, Icho Tolot, and Andre Noir. As this ep opens, the Terrans have just seven hours to destroy the ship before the duplicates are complete -- but the Tefroders won't wait that long to teleport a troop of still-developing Guckys onto the CREST. And if that sounds nuts, you probably read it right.

(2020) It's a collection of five stories set in and around the Rwandan genocide. It's a gut-wrenching theme, Mukasonga's prose is graceful and restrained, and the stories will break your heart. The last story, “Grief,“ centered on a woman who attends funerals of strangers in search of comfort for the unobserved deaths of her own family, broke mine. This is what stories are for, so much that I found it hard to take more than one or two at a time

(2025) It's a supernatural thriller set in a maternity home for pregnant teenagers in the 1970s. Forced by circumstances into a place where they have no agency, some of the girls are drawn to a darker path that leads to a tight spot between the patriarchy and a a power that demands more than they may be willing to give. It moves right along, delivers the promised suspense, and wraps nicely. Recommended.

(2006) It's a collection of essays addressing issues of ownership and trade in cultural objects, mostly in the context of the looting and illegal trade in Iraqi antiquities that flourished following the 2003 invasion. Authors are museum professionals, dealers, a collector and an archaeologist, so multiple perspectives are represented and all are well stated. The context is a little dated, but the arguments are evergreen.

(2017) This was an audiobook for a long drive, and served nicely. It's an historical novel with dual timelines, one featuring a woman spy in WWI, and the other a young socialite searching for a friend lost in WWII. I'd read another by the author.

(1966) “The Master Plan“

The Tefroders set a trap for the Terrans: an apparently damaged and abandoned spaceship with multiduplicators to capture Terran boarding teams and duplicate them for interrogation. The trap captures Gucky, Icho Tolot, and “hypno“ Andre Noir, who escape but not before the Tefroders capture the information they need to make duplicates. Now the Terrans must destroy the ship before the Tefroders can complete the process.

You were a displaced little girl like me, sent off to Nyamata for being a Tutsi, so you knew just as I did the implacable enemy who lived deep inside us, the merciless overlord forever demanding a tribute we couldn't hope to scrape up, the implacable tormentor relentlessly gnawing at our bellies and dimming our eyes, you know who I'm talking about: Igifu, Hunger, given to us at birth like a cruel guardian angel ...

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2003) A young magician works a spell far above his level of training to summon a demon for a plan of petty revenge. Things go downhill from there. For a book in which all the characters are dislikable except for the demon a little bit, it's surprisingly fun.

And here's my#BookSpinBingo card for April. Good luck everybody! And thanks @thearomaofbooks !

Here are my #ReadYourEbooks picks for April.

Thanks @Cbee !

My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin reads for April are a couple of short weird novels. Looking forward to both

Thanks @thearomaofbooks !