Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.
16/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The basic concept and ideas are good (flipping “college-ready students” to “student-ready colleges”), but at times really needed a stricter editorial eye (the point where a sentence begins “In short…”, but then goes on for nine lines, and is already three sentences into a page-and-a-half paragraph being a prime example).
15/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1978 Hugo Best Novel
The main character’s something of an ass (admittedly, this is part of the story, so at least he’s not an ass for no reason), but the general conceit and worldbuilding is fascinating. Humanity has found the remnants of an alien race, including a fleet of FTL ships…but nobody really knows how to work them. Take one out and you might come back with treasures worth millions, you might come back with nothing, you might come back dead, you might not come back at all…and the odds aren’t in your favor.
14/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall, there was a more melancholy feel to this collection, but bookended with two very enjoyable and hopeful stories (the first, one that I’d even qualify as hopepunk). Bradbury continues to be a lifelong favorite of mine.
13/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A clever attempt at tying together virtually all of the “travel back in time to 20th century Earth” episodes into a single adventure. Enjoyable, though I did end up getting a bit confused about timelines towards the end, but not enough to be a major bother.
As I have for the past several years, I’ve read all of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award nominated works.
This year had a nice strong slate, I’ve actually had a hard time picking which I’d choose for the top spot. Top three is pretty easy, but top spot…that’s more difficult.
My picks for top three: Nino Cipri’s Defekt, Tade Thompson’s Far From the Light of Heaven, and Lavie Tidhar’s The Escapement. All of them were the kind of stories that took up residence in my brain and poked me for a few days afterwards, which is always a good sign.
If I had to pick a top choice (and I don’t have to, but then, what would be the point of this post), I think I’d go with Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. Amusingly, it was one of two “murder mystery in space involving an investigator dealing with misbehaving AIs” stories (the other being Kali Wallace’s Dead Space); both were good, but I found Thompson’s to be my preference — admittedly, possibly somewhat influenced by my prior enjoyment of Thompson’s earlier Wormwood trilogy.
Of the books I haven’t mentioned yet, Jason Sanford’s Plague Birds was an enjoyable adventure and well worthy of being nominated; and Giacomo Satori’s Bug was the only one of this year’s picks that just didn’t work for me.
As noted, though, another strong slate, and I’m looking forward to seeing who wins this year (and my tongue-in-cheek advance apologies to Tade Thompson; as his book is my favorite, if historical trends hold true, another book will take the top spot…but hey, maybe this year is the year to change that)!
12/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee
A locked-room murder mystery in space, with mysterious AIs, interstellar politics, and somewhat mystic aliens. I really enjoyed Thompson’s earlier Wormwood trilogy, and this absolutely holds up. His characters are fascinating and very real (even when artificial), and motivations are not always as clear cut as they might seem.
11/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee
A murder mystery on an asteroid mining colony, under investigation by an AI-expert-turned-indentured-security-officer after a catastrophic disaster on their scientific expedition ship. I had fairly good guesses at several of the final reveals, but enjoyed the journey even if it never really caught me off guard.
Eternals: ⭐️⭐️: Really long. Lots of things happened that involved a lot of fancy glowy effects. Outside of that, I can’t think of much to say about this addition to the MCU. Where Shang-Chi felt like it was part of the MCU but you didn’t have to be particularly well-versed in the MCU as a whole to enjoy it, this seemed like it wanted to feel that way, in the lack of direct overt connections to any of the other films, but was so steeped in the larger Marvel cosmology that I never felt like I really understood what was going on or why I should care about the characters or the events.
10/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A solidly stronger than average anthology of stories exploring how the old gods get by in modern times.
9/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee
I wasn’t sure at first, but the more I got into this surreal dreamworld of westerns, circuses, and mythology, the more I enjoyed it. Like reading a dream and being caught up in the emotions of the dreamer. Really enjoyed this one.
