Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
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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.
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.
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.
8/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee
Entertaining far-future adventure with genetically engineered animal/human hybrids, AIs bonded to human hosts and used as weapons, and schemes spanning tens of thousands of years.
7/2022 – ⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee
Unfortunately, this one just did not work for me. The main character is a 10-year-old deaf (and, I believe, possibly autistic) child, and it’s narrated in a first-person, nearly stream-of-consciousness style, which (in-universe) is the child dictating in sign language to a caretaker who translates what he says. In actuality, the book was originally written in Italian, and has been translated to English. So there are multiple levels of abstraction and translation, and I’m at a loss as to how much of the final writing style and choices were the character’s, an artifact of the in-universe translation from sign language, the author’s, an artifact of the real-world translation from Italian, or some combination of all of those. The end result was that I just didn’t enjoy it.
6/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Darker and weirder than Finna, complete with elements of body horror, but just as fun to read, and still with the same optimistic current to it. Liked this one a lot; a strong start to this year’s PKD lineup.
5/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Navigating working with someone after breaking up with them is hard enough. Doing that while also navigating a multidimensional IKEA isn’t easier…but can be surprisingly helpful. A quick, funny, and fun read.
