April Wrap-Up and May Reading Plans

This is going to be quick since I only read three books.. Yes three! It was the least productive reading month I had in years so that’s why I have been a bit absent from the Internet for the last couple of weeks. The good thing is, even if I wasn’t very productive the three things that I read I enjoyed A LOT so there is that!

Books Read

• In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park ★★★★★
• Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey ★★★★
• Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee [REREAD] ★★★★★

As you can see, two five stars rating and a four, April was good month for me!

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park is a nonfiction book, more precisely, it is a memoir of Yeonmi’s escape from North Korea and it was mindblowing. I almost never read nonfiction but I’m so glad I picked this up, it’s a hard read but it is fascinating and it made realize a lot of things about my own life. I know I sound extremely cheesy saying that but I mean it, I have always been fascinated by North Korea and how people lived there and reading Yeonmi’s story was hard but eye-opening and I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone!

 

Cibola Burn was good book to read after In Order to Live because of how different it is. I liked it a lot more than Abaddon’s Gate that I found a bit boring and had a hard time concentrating on (mind you, it could have been because I was listening to it) and it reminded me why I liked this series so much. The characters, the world and the adventures are really good and when you read an Expanse book, it feels like you are reading a blockbuster. The Expanse is not my favorite SF series but it is fun as hell and I really like it for that. (And also, Avasarala and Bobby!!)

Speaking of my favorite SF series, I decided to re-read Ninefox Gambit because I just received an ARC of its sequel, Raven Stratagen (my thanks to Solaris I am sooo excited!), and I really wanted to experience the first book again. I am so glad I did because even though I found Ninefox Gambit amazing the first time around it was even better the second time. Indeed, this time I wasn’t confused during the first part of the book because I already knew how Yoon Ha Lee’s world worked. Yes this is not a book for everyone, I saw a bunch of mixed reviews lately saying that this was too complicated and the world made no sense. It is complex, true, but it is damn clever and I personally think that the world make sense as long as you don’t try to assimilate it to our own. Anyway, enough fangirling, as you can obviously see, I love this and it is a book that I will revisit many times in the future!

 

Currently Reading & TBR

I am basically currently reading the same things I was currently reading at the same time last month: The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu, Five Stories High edited by Jonathan Oliver and Empire’s End by Chuck Wending.

Since my reading schedule is all over the place, I don’t have a TBR but I would very much like to read Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee but we shall see if that’s actually going to happen!

 

Hope you had a good reading months! What were your favorite reads this April ?

Mini Reviews: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson & The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Let’s talk about books that everyone seems to adore, books that are considered masterpieces in their respective genre and that I didn’t enjoy at all.

Since I seem to have unpopular opinions about them, I figured it would be interesting to review and to discuss them with you to see why you enjoyed those books more (or not) than me, since those are very popular books, I think it will be interesting to see the different opinions!

 

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood ★★★

Offred, our narrator and main protagonist, is a handmaid. Her mission is to bear children for rich people  and if cannot do that, she will be sent in slave camp. The story takes place in a dystopian American society, The Republic of Gilead, where women are looked down upon and in some cases, are turned into sex slaves.

I was expecting a lot from this book since it is considered to be one of the best dystopian books out there. I did found some parts extremeley interesting, for example, I was fascinated by the fact that the political regime that turned the USA into a a very oppressive society was very young but that it did everything to make iself appears old and so, legitimate. In this aspect, it reminded me a lot of fascist Germany, indeed the Nazis were inspired by the Roman Empire (their symbol and constructions for example) because that was a way to show that their regime was in the continuity of something very old which was a way to help people forget how the society worked before them.

I found Offred’s flashbacks fascinating because they allowed us to see how everything changed and how people just let everything happened to them because it was easier for them. Those sections were poignant however, I couldn’t relate to Offred and her life as a handmaid at all. Her narration felt incredibly distant and I couldn’t feel anything for her even when what she was in the middle of what should have been horrifying to me. I was bored while reading and toward the end, I found myself skimming large chunks of this novel.

I feel like this story should have grab me more, maybe it would have if I had read it sooner, I might have read and seen too many things similar to this but infortunately, even if had interesting things to say, I wasn’t blown away or particularly interested by what was happening at all.

I might give the TV show a chance to see if seeing Offred and the other characters going through all this things will have more impact on me that the novel.

 

 

• Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★

I tried to read this book once before back in 2016 and I just couldn’t do it, I tried again in March and I finally succeeded in finishing it. It was one of my most anticipated releases back in 2015 and since it had been called “the best SF book of 2015” numerous times by people whose bookish opinions I trust deeply (like the guys at The Coode Street Podcast), I was pretty certain I was going to like it. Well, ugh…

If you don’t know what this books is about, it follows a generationship’s journey to Aurora, an Earth-like planet that could sustain life. We follow the crew of the ship when the ship is near Aurora and how they deal with some unexpected issues. If this book hadn’t been an essay on “Why we shouldn’t attempt to colonize another planet because it is going to end up all wrong”, I think I would have liked this very much.

Objectively, it is brilliant. KSR did an amazing research work, everything was detailed and explained and for an amateur of hard SF, this book is a candy. I liked the technical bits quite a lot, the narration was really interesting (especially how it evolved) and the pacing was good. So, as I said, objectively, I can see why people admire this work so much.

Subjectively, I freakin’ disliked this. I am not the most optimistic person on Earth at all, I think we humans are selfish and that we tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. However, I still have a part of me that loves SF stories where humans managed to colonize planets, encounters aliens and be at peace. I love watching Star Trek episodes and seeing humans exploring different worlds. It might be unachievable but still, a girl can hope. So, having someone repeatedly and scientifically destroying my dream isn’t what I like to read for leisure.

Overall, KSR’s message was fairly clear, we should take care of our planet instead of trying to find another one. I get that and I agree but still, reading about all the struggle of the people on the ship was hard, depressing as hell and just an awful lot of “not fun”.

 

Have you read those books? What did you think of them?

 

 

March Wrap-Up and April Reading Plans

I don’t know about you but I feel like this year is flying by, I mean, is it really April already?

I’ve read many interesting books this month, I really don’t have any favorite one but, they almost all had some elements or discussions that interested me quite a bit. I didn’t have a lot of free times to read so hopefully, I’ll have more in April because, as always, I want to read ALL the books.

Books Read

• Miniatures by John Scalzi ★★★1/2
• Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald ★★★1/2
• Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★
• A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab ★★★
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood ★★★
• Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer ★★

DNF

I did not finish Kokoro by Keith Yatsuhashi, I read the first book, Koijiki last August and even though it definitely had some flaws, I quite liked the world Yastuhashi created. However, I couldn’t bring myself to finish Kokora, it was a bit all over the place and it was pretty confusing. I felt like all the characters were the same and when I realized I was forcing myself to read the book, I decided to put it down. I’m sure some people would enjoy this series, it has some cool elements (the world, the unusual magic and Japanese mythology) but infortunetely, I just don’t think it’s for me. I always feel bad when I don’t finish books I was sent for reviews but I prefer that to forcing myself to read. For me reading is something I do to relax and I don’t want to feel any pressure to read anything, especially because if I had read this up until the end, I would have probably hated it which isn’t really fair since it’s just not for me.

Currently Reading & TBR

I am currently reading five books because apparently, I wanted to start everything at the end of March. I am still reading The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu, it took me two months to read 50% but it doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying the book, it’s very good but I’m still taking ages to read it because I always read other books at the same time. I also started In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Aftermath by Chuck Wending, Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey and Five Stories High, an anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver.

I will probably review Abanddon’s Gate and Cibola Burn at the same since I am reading them pretty closely, I am really trying to catch up on this series! I will also do a review of Aurora one day because I have very conflicted feelings on this book and I think I need to put them out there!

 

I hope you had a great month!

Top 5 Wednesday: Top SFF Books on Your TBR

Top 5 Wednesday was created by gingerreadslainey and  is now hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes if you want to know a little bit more about them you can check the Goodreads group here

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I haven’t done a T5W in a while but this topic was right up my alley ! In case you don’t know about The Booktube SFF Awards, it is an SFF award organised by the Booktube SFF community, they are currently doing readalongs of the different nominees and you can find more about the award here.

So here are some SFF books that I really want to read! 🙂

 

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

 

I know I am probably going to adore this book, I mean it is about AIs, ships and it is supposed to be a very interesting discussion on gender and conciousness. This series have been recommended to me multiple times and I have the whole trilogy on my ereader, I just need to read it now.

 

 

• A Tyranny of Queens by Foz Meadows

I read and loved An Accident of Stars last year, a fantastic portal fantsay books with great female characters, it was one of my favorite book of the year and I was lucky to receive an ARC of the sequel recently. If it’s near as good as the first, it will be an awesome read, it’s a book that I really need sooner rather than later!

 

 

• The City & the City by China Miéville

 

 

I’ve read This Census-Taker, his very odd novella published last year, and, even though I can’t say that I really understood it, it was still fascinating and very atmospheric and I want to try his works and The City and the City sounds like a good place to start!

 

 

 

• Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer

The sequel to Too Like The Lightning is waiting on my ereader and while I want to read it badly, I think that it would probably be better for me to read the first book again because I don’t remember most of the evnts that took place in the first book and I don’t want to be too confused since a lot of things happened! By the way, I just saw that Too Like the Lightning is a Hugo finalist and I am so happy about that, I am probably going to do a post discussing the finalists in the different categories!

 

• Making Wolf by Tade Thompson

 

I really don’t know what this book is about, I just know that Thompson wrote it so it is probably going to be excellent. I read Rosewater in January and so far, it is still my only five stars rating of 2017, I also read Gnaws last week, a horror novella part of the Five Stories High anthology and it was also excellent. His writing style is on point and so far, the three works of his that I read were all very different and really good so I hope it is also going to be the case of Making Wolf!

 

What about you ? 😀

Book Review: The Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Publisher: Tor

Length: 416 pages

Format: eBook

Rating: 2 stars

Publication Date: September 1st 2015

 

 

 

Publisher’s description

Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But that name she has forsworn, and now she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are forbidden to answer such callings-a fugitive who must conceal her identity or risk imprisonment and even death.

On the eve of a great festival, Lin learns that an ancient scourge has returned to the land of Eivar, a pandemic both deadly and unnatural. Its resurgence brings with it the memory of an apocalypse that transformed half a continent. Long ago, magic was everywhere, rising from artistic expression-from song, from verse, from stories. But in Eivar, where poets once wove enchantments from their words and harps, the power was lost. Forbidden experiments in blood divination unleashed the plague that is remembered as the Red Death, killing thousands before it was stopped, and Eivar’s connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed, broken.

The Red Death’s return can mean only one thing: someone is spilling innocent blood in order to master dark magic. Now poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a challenge much greater: galvanized by Valanir Ocune, greatest Seer of the age, Lin and several others set out to reclaim their legacy and reopen the way to the Otherworld-a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future.

 

Book Review

Following a young female musician in a world where music and poetry is reserved to men, The Last Song Before Night transports us in a world where, centuries ago, music used to be a dangerously powerful magic. In order to protect the world from evil musicians, music was stripped down of its power and it is now strictly regulated by the Court Poet. The only way to free magic is to find the Path which might be the only way to put an end to the blood plague that has returned to Eivar.

For its lenght and considering that it is a standalone story, this book has a big cast of characters. Kimbralin Asamaroth, who is now calling herself Lin after running away from her mad brother to make a name for herself as a musician is for me the main charactrer of this story and I liked her parts the most. We follow other characters including Darien and Marlen, two Academy students who wants to enter a contest that might allow them to win what they have wanted for so long, for Darien, the hand of the woman he loves, and for Marlen, the pretigious title of Court Poet. Darien’s lover Rianna, the daughter of the most powerful merchant in the realm is also a recurring characters but eventhough all the characters had pretty much the same amount of “page time”, Lin felt the most developped.

I wished I wasn’t so disappointed by this book especially because it started out pretty great. Myer’s prose felt lush and beautiful until it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, this book wasn’t awful, however, it came so close to be a great book that the fact that it wasn’t just made it worse. It had all the elements to be excellent, a magic system based on music, Seers, an epic quest and it was extremely readable, even if I didn’t end up liking it a lot, I wans’t bored at all while reading. The descriptions at the beginning of the book managed to create a unique atmosphere and well drawns setting and I loved the book up until the middle part where I realized it had several flaws that I really dislike when I see them in books.

First of all, the characters all felt like one and the same. They all had the same basic personalities, all the characters were abused one way or another during their childhood and they all had had problems with their relatives.  I felt like they were only variation of the same characters, especially if we only look at the female characters, once you get past their physical appeareance and minor character traits Lin, Rianna and Marilla, the three main female characters look completely alike. It was easy to see what characters Myer likes to write about. All the female characters were hurt in their childhood, they all were trying to be more that what they were born into, they were all trying to help every male characters around them suceed even if it means sacrificing themselves and also, they were all falling in love with every man they talked to more than two times.

Moreover, Myer has a tendency to over explained things a lot. All the things that could have been subtle were repeated over and over again to the point it made some dialogues extremely awkward because it felt like the characters were just repeating things over during two pages. I really dislike it when an author thinks I am to dumb to understand what they are trying to do. Repeating things isn’t helping, it’s just lazy writing.

Also, this felt very tropey, what could have been a very original tale was just a very standart quest story where you could basically find every standart characters, the hero, the mentor, the evil guy and his minions, a path to take to save the world and side characters that are only there to help the main character suceed.

Finally, the pacing was off, the ending was completely rushed and predictable and, the more we read, the less we actually read about music, all the charcatres kept mentionning how much they loved music and poetry but we never really saw any which was frustrating since it is basically the whole premise of the world…

With more editing and diverse characters, this could have worked for me. It was a fast read and it had good elements but at the end it just fell flat and I can’t really recommend this one to anyone. If the premise sounds good to you, go for it, I just hope that you won’t be as disappointed as I was..

 

 

Book Review: Luna Wolf Moon by Ian MacDonald

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Gollancz

Length: 416 pages

Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publication Date: March 28th 2017

 

 

 

 

Publisher’s description

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed .

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward–virtually a hostage– of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey–to Earth.

In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

Book Review

The long awaited sequel to New Moon, Wolf Moon starts off a couple of months after the fall of  Corta Helio. The few remaining Cortas are scattered around the Moon under the protection of several families and, of course, they are planning revenge.

 

I read New Moon when it just came out back in 2015 and even though I remembered the world and the cliffhanger a the end, the cast of characters is so immense and the relationship between the different characters are so complex that I was completely thrown off at the start. For the first 20% of this book, I had trouble remembering who was who and what the hell was happening. I even mixed up some characters (Lucas and Lucasinho for example) which led to pretty confusing scenes where I couldn’t understand why a character was acting in this way until I realized that I wasn’t reading it the right way.

However, getting back into this bloody world full of political intrigues was a real pleasure. In this series, the Moon isn’t a pleasant place to live it, Lady Luna isn’t sweet Earth, she wants to tear you down and all mistakes can be deadly. And if the Moon doesn’t kill you, one of the Dragons probably will.

Wolf Moon is an very good sequel to New Moon. I found it even more political intrigue heavy than the first book and I really enjoyed this aspect once I remembered who was who. It was really fascinating to see all the players reacting to the events of New Moon and basically trying to destroy everyone around them (family included). Some of the new characters introduced were as interesting, if not more so, that some of the old ones and I cannot wait to see the parts they are going to play in the next book.

Speaking of next book, I don’t know why but, back in 2015, when I read New Moon, I thought this series was going to be a duology so, when I was reading Wolf Moon, I was expecting some kind of conclusion that just didn’t come. I don’t know how long this book series is going to be but with that ending we readers deserve at least a third book.

I liked Wolf Moon quite a bit however, I didn’t find it as mindblowing as New Moon. I wasn’t bored while reading but thinking about it, not a lot actually happened in this installment which was surprising after the first book. Also, it had a tad to many weird sex scenes, I don’t mind sex in books but I couldn’t see their point at all in this book. I mean sometimes I had to skim read them because a) they were a bit cringy and b) I just didn’t care about them. I like the fact that in this world, bisexuality is the norm and that a lot of characters are gender fluid but still, you can speak of sexuality without writing  abunch of weird ones especially in the middle of suspenseful action sequence.

 

Anyway, I think that if you enjoyed New Moon, Wolf Moon is going to be an exciting read, just bear in mind that it isn’t a conclusion. Also if you don’t remember books well, try to find a recap of the first book online, I think it might help a lot!

Recommended.

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Gollancz and Netgally. All opinions are my own.

 

 

 

 

 

Short Fiction Review: Uncanny Magazine 14 January/February 2017

You may or may not know it but Uncanny won a Hugo Award last year in the category Best Semiprozine. Uncanny is a very young short fiction magazine (it has less than three years) but they publish good short fiction from very famous speculative fiction author. If you want to dip your toes in short fiction, I would highly recommend this magazine because it is one of the most accessible magazine in my opinion.

I have only read a couple of issues so far and I liked them all so I would like to read this magazine more regularly this year!

 

Bodies Stacked Like Firewood – Sam J. Miller

As one of Sam J. Miller biggest fangirl, I was very pleased to see that he had a story in this issue. I mean this man can write. As usual with Miller, this story is about love, loss and friendship and it features queer main characters. Bodies Stacked Like Firewood follows two characters dealing with the suicide of their mutual friend, Cyd. Those two characters don’t know each other before Cyd’s death and it was fascinating to see how this death affected their behavior and how they could relate to each other.

This has few speculative fiction elements, just a bit of magical realism at the end and even though it is not Miller’s strongest work, it’s still very good (and depressing).

3.5/5

 

Monster Girls Don’t Cry – A. Merc Rustad

Following two monster sisters who both deals very differently with their monstrous abilities, this relevant story has a lot to teach to girls who aren’t confident in their bodies. It’s a very hard story and there are descriptions of sexual assaults but I found it very important. It is quite short but I found it extremely thought-provocking and fascinating.

4/5

Goddess, Worm – Cassandra Khaw

I tend to dislike most of Khaw’s stories so when I saw this story, I was tempted to not read it at all. However, I’m glad I read it because it is definitely a good story, it is very weird and I’m not exactly sure I really understood what it was talking about but, I think it is about a woman trying to prove she was abused to a jury of gods. This woman wants to punish her agressor but no one want to listen to what she has to say. The gods just want her to be quiet in exchange for a compensation. As with the previous story, it’s a very relevant story indeed.

3.5/5

Some Cupids Kill With Arrows – Tansy Rayner Roberts

This one is very different form the other stories, it is very light-hearted and cheesy since it follows a speed dating session involving a woman and Cupid. I don’t have much else to say except that it was very fun and I wished it had been longer!

4/5

The Unknown God – Ann Leckie

I thought I was going to love this story but it was the story I liked the least of all which was very disappointing. It follows a god who tries to get his lover back after abandonning her to a malediction for years. I was pretty boring and I just couldn’t really care about the characters at all. I don’t even remember if I finished it or not. Definitely not memorable at all.

Sorry Ann Leckie but that’s a 1/5 for you!

 

The Thule Stowaway – Maria Dahvana Headley

This very well-written piece is a ghost story heavily insprired by Edgar Allan Poe, I can’t say much more about it because I haven’t read much Poe so I think most of this story went over my head, but it was still cool, I just wished I had understood it better!

3/5

To Budapest, With Love – Theodora Goss

Another very strange one, I think it is more of a love letter to Budapest than an actual story but it was still extremely interesting. It follows a protagonist at different stages of her life and how her opinions of the city of her birth, Budapest, change with time. It’s a story about immigration, accepting who you are and your culture. Very well written but odd.

3.5/5

 

Issue 14 wasn’t my favorite Uncanny Issue but it still had interesting stories and except for the Ann Leckie one that I just didn’t like at all, it had some really unique stories! 🙂

 

Overall Rating: ★★★

Novella Review: Binti Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Publisher: Tor.com

Length: 176 pages

Format: ebook

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publication Date: January 31th 2017

 

 

 

Publisher’s description

It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she left her family to pursue her dream.

And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?

 

Book Review

Set a year after the event of Binti, Okorafor’s multi-award winning novella, Binti: Home starts off when Binti wants to come back home. She is suffering from PTSD after the events of the first book and she’s unsucessfully trying to keep it together at Oomza University . However, she knows that she finally needs to confront her family after running away at the other end of the universe against her family’s will.

Of course, once back in her home, she has to deal with the anger of her family members and she soon discovers family secrets that might change everything.

 

I very much admire Nnedi Okorafor, I think she is an extremely talented writer, her stories and worldbuilding are always unique and interesting however I didn’t had a lot of expectations about Binti: Home. Indeed, I had very mixed thoughts and feelings about Binti, her first novella, that I found overhyped and pretty lacking in terms of worldbuildings and character development. So I went with very low expectations in Home and I liked it a lot more.

The world was indeed built on, we met other races of aliens and we learnt a bit more about the Koush and The Meduse’s wars. However, I still hope that Okorafor is going to explain what is happening on Earth, because so far, we just know that they are three types of humans, The Koush that appears to be white and seems to be the most widespread human race, The Himba and the Desert People and… that’s all. I found the fact that Okorafor wants us to believes that her universe is full of diverse species but even the humans only “come in” very few different types and that’s bothering me a bit. It was the same in Binti and I wished she had changed that a bit but infortunately that’s not the case.

One of the other hopes I had was that the character of Binti would be more explored, in the first novella, I found Binti to be a very one dimensional character and again, I didn’t really thought she changed in Home. True, she is now dealing with her trauma but she’s almost defined but it. I feel like I don’t know her at all and that’s a bit sad. She is very self-centered but she doesn’t seem to want anything, in Binti, when her body is modified against her will, she says nothing, in Home, when strangers ask her to come with them, she does, when her family critisize her, she doesn’t defend herself.

I can deal with unlikeable characters as long as I know a bit about them, I just don’t like it when characters only feel like a word on a page, I want them to have more substance and in Binti and again in Home, I didn’t get that. And that’s not because of the format, I have read short stories that in 5, 10, 15 pages managed to create characters that felt real so I think that it is doable in 96 pages (Binti’s length) or 176 pages (Home’s).

However, even if I still had issues with Binti, I still thought Home was better installment than the first novella. I enjoyed learning more about the world, about Oomza University and about the history of this world. I read Home in two sittings and I never felt bored and even though it’s far from perfect for me, if you enjoyed Binti, I think that Home will also please you. Even if it’s not Okorafor’s best work ( in my opinion this title should be reserved for The Book of Phoenix), it’s still worth a read.

2017 Anticipated Releases – March

I know we are near the middle of the month but I still want to mention a few titles that are coming out this month and that I am very intrigued about! 🙂

Fantasy & Horror

The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories edited by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin (March 14, Solaris)

This short story collection about djins has an amazing line-up, I mean Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, Amal El-Mohtar, Usman Malik, Claire North to quote just a few. I was actually tempted to request it on Netgalley but even though I love reading short story collections, I really dislike reviewing them and since I am very lazy I know I am probably going to read it without doing an extremely detailed review.

13 Views of the Suicide Woods by Bracken MacLeod (March 16, ChiZine Publications)

Another short story collection. I haven’t read any Bracken MacLeod even if I heard good things about his books but since I much prefer to read horror in a short format, I think this collection would be a good way to give his works a shot!

Science Fiction

 The Wanderers by Meg Howrey (March 14, G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

This book follows an astronaut crew preparing for a journey to Mars. I like the fact that it sounds very focused on the psychologival aspects of this type of mission and so far, I have only seen positive reviews.

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (March 14, Orbit)

I already have mixed feelings about this book, I mean I tend to love climate fiction and I really want to see KSR visions of the future. The idea of New York being under water is really interesting and I want to see how he is going to use the setting for his story. However, I finished Aurora a few days ago and I really didn’t like it so I am a bit afraid to give his other works a try.

Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald (March 28, Gollancz)

This book was supposed to come out last year but it was pushed back and it is finally coming out! It is the sequel to Luna: New Moon a fascinating and bloody family saga set on the Moon. I already read Wolf Moon at the beginning of this month as an ARC and I highly recommend this series to any SF lover!

February Wrap-Up and March Reading Plans

January was pretty busy and so was February, I had my first internship last month and when it ended I had to manage a week-long event by a student organization I’m part of , and, because of that my reading at the end of the month wasn’t great. The fact that I watched  way too many korean dramas episodes probably didn’t help because really, I don’t think I actually read anything the last week of February! 😛

However, I read a couple of good books and I am back in the “reading mood” so I am still happy with this month!

Books Read

• The Fortress at the End of Time by Joe McDermott ★★★★
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare ★★★
• Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey ★★★ 1/2
• The Long List Anthology Vol. 1 ed. David Steffen ★★★★
• Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor ★★★
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 114, January/February 2017 ★★★
• Culottées by Pénélope Bagieu (a french graphic novel) ★★★★
• Abbadon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey ★★★

I am very behind of reviews (as always) so a few reviews of books I read in February are going to be posted later this month ( I just need to edit them a bit, they are pretty much just word-vomit for now).

 

Favorite Read of the month

 

I posted my review of this book a few days ago and eventhough it has been receiving very mixed reviews lately (average rating of 3.06 on GR), I think that this novel deserves more attention. Yes it’s depressing but I am fairly certain it is going to be very different to the SF you are used to and if you want to try something different, think about this.

 

DNF

 

No DNF for me this month, I’m happy with everything I read! 🙂

 

Currently Reading & TBR

 

I already finished three things in March, Miniatures by Jogn Scalzi, Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald and PS: I like you by Kasie West. I picked back up Aurora by KSR that I had to put down in November because it was way too depressing at the time and I am also 20% in The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu so you should expect reviews of those soon(ish).

Hope you had a great month, what are your favourite reads of February ? 🙂