Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
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Book 27 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A simple, quick adventure, as a mysterious signal diverts the Enterprise from ferrying diplomats around so they can investigate. Not terribly surprisingly, the landing party has difficulties and great peril. A perfectly serviceable quick Trek novella.
Book 26 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A nice short peek at Etakerina’s work on Barrayar, tying together several small threads from various points earlier in the series.
Book 25 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this issue were “Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War” by Caroline M. Yoachim and “Hi! I’m Claudia” by Delilah S. Dawson.
Book 24 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this month were “The Library of the Apocalypse” by Rati Mehrotra, “We, the Fleet” by Alex T. Singer, “Descent” by Wole Talabi, and “Yarn Theory” by Marie Vibbert.
Book 23 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We turn to Miles’s cousin Ivan for this entry (Miles is reduced to a cameo role), as he gets drawn into helping refugees from a fallen House, dealing with a heist, and finding a little romance along the way. Another fun romp in the Vorkosigan saga, even if I don’t find Ivan to be quite as strong a character as Miles.
Book 22 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like the first, it’s cute, but that’s about it. I really think I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d read it when we were both much younger. Not that it’s bad or juvenile, just that it’s, well, lightly humorous fantasy from 1980, and its not going to appeal to me as a 51 year old in 2025 the same way it might have as a tween/teen in the ’80s.
Book 21 of 2025: ⭐️⭐️ 2003 Hugo Best Novel
A portal is accidentally opened between our Earth and a parallel Earth, where Neanderthals became the dominant human species, bringing one Neanderthal scientist over to our world. Some amusing moments as the scientist comes to grips with the oddities of our world when compared to his. However, I was quite thrown off by the introductions of the two primary female characters: one, in order to dive into water for a rescue attempt, strips down to her underwear, pausing to reflect that she wished she hadn’t donned such a lacy pair that morning; the other is raped at knifepoint. After finishing the book, I have only the vaguest ideas of what either character looked like; one is blonde and beautiful, the other more average. That got the book off on poor footing, and I never really warmed up to it after that. Not what I’ve come to expect from these more recent Hugo winners, and I won’t be continuing on with this series.
Book 20 of 2025: Clarkesworld Issue 223 edited by Neil Clarke: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My favorite this month was “Still Water” by Zhang Ran, translated by Jay Zhang.
Book 19 of 2025: Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Miles heads out to solve a diplomatic crisis that quickly becomes more of a crisis than expected (which, well, of course, that’s how it works, right?). Ties together a lot of threads and brings in long unseen characters from prior books in the series. I continue to be impressed with how consistently enjoyable this series is. Only a few books left before I’m done!
🚀 Very busy on both the Norwescon and Seattle Worldcon 2025 front, with the first just a couple weeks away, and the other further out but with behind-the-scenes stuff helping with digital accessibility matters. Feeling a little behind on everything, but I don’t think i’m actually as behind as it feels.
🔄 Once again, this is being posted on Monday but backdated to Sunday. Starting to wonder if I should just admit that Sunday evenings aren’t the best time for me to try to post these, but we’ll see….
Started Lois McMaster Bujold’s Diplomatic Immunity.
Just the usual mindless evening stuff: NCIS: Origins, Drag Race All Stars, and Scrubs. Scrubs “My Musical” is still an excellent episode.
Was happy to see that VNV Nation’s new album Construct is coming out soon, and they just released the first song. Have to admit, I’m not a big fan of the cover art, but the song is good!
No links this week; too much of what I’ve read has been about the political idiocy, and, well, you can find those stories absolutely everywhere.