User Profile

Unity by John Leahy offers a captivating and unexpected journey into the disturbing psyche of Jonah Gates, a man wielding world-ending power. The narrative delves into the consequences of an incel armed with the means to seek revenge on the entire world, presenting a chilling exploration of human depravity.

Jonah Gates had a hard lot in life. Coming from a family where his mother abandoned them, his twin older brothers died, and his father fell into alcoholism, Jonah was left completely alone. However, despite the fact that he was always an odd child with some concerning behaviors, he was not without ambition. After one of his brother dies from rabies, Jonah becomes utterly fascinated with the concept of viruses, and at the age of 9, decides to devote his life to studying them. And study them he does, through high school, college, and graduate school, he focuses on almost nothing else other than studying virology. Almost nothing else... because Jonah has a nasty habit of becoming overly obsessed with particular women. From high school through adulthood, Jonah continually gets into trouble with the law for his inappropriate stalking, obsessive behaviors towards specific women he takes an interest in. After being approached by a government organization to be at the forefront of exterminating viruses in all of humanity, Jonah is set to eventually become the hero of the world, once the project is planned to finish in 10 years. But then he meets Mary, an up and coming actress that becomes the latest obsessive project of Jonah, and will remain so for the rest of his life. What follows is a world-ending, explosive series of events that illustrate the depths of Jonah's obssession and the lengths he will go to in order to not only get what he wants, but to prevent anyone and everyone from standing in his way. And Mary is seemingly the only one who can stop him. "Unity" succeeds in delivering a horrifying experience, unabashedly exploring the depths of Jonah's twisted mind and his heinous actions, including rape, violence, and murder. The narrative skillfully navigates the descent into madness, achieving its goal of instilling horror in the reader.

I always say when I read horror books that, at the end of the day, if it does NOTHING else, I must be horrified. And Unity really delivered in that regard. We are walked slowly and carefully, in great detail, exactly through the extremely perverse mind of Jonah, his irredeemable actions and, and the extremely horrific results. This story does not shy away from explaining in detail the worst of human depravity, including rape, excessive violence, murder, and the slow descent into maddness. So for that, I really have to applaud this book. It definitely achieved what I think it was trying to do.

However, the technical aspects of the book, such as character development, pacing, and structure, reveal some shortcomings. While Jonah's character evolves in terms of actions, the lack of depth in his motivations hampers his overall development. Mary, a pivotal character, follows a predictable arc without substantial personality beyond reacting to traumatic events. The pacing feels uneven, with a swift setup of Jonah's backstory followed by prolonged periods of less significant events. The transition from a mundane life to a thrilling, horror-filled second half may have been intentional but lacks execution finesse. The overall structure, while engaging, follows a predictable trajectory without significant twists or turns.

All in all, Unity effectively achieves its goal of horror, offering a blend of psychological obsession and physical horror. However, refining the character development, pacing, and introducing unexpected elements could elevate the book to a higher level. If you appreciate a mix of psychological depth and visceral horror, this book is worth exploring.

"The Offing" is a sensory tale of a young boy's coming-of-age in England, marked by a unique friendship with an older woman on the outskirts of a bay town. While the narrative unfolds as a sweet and engaging story, it leaves me wanding more substance beyond its charming surface.

At 16, Robert, hailing from a coal mining family, embarks on a solo journey after completing his school exams. His travels, filled with encounters with diverse individuals and moments of rustic charm, lead him to a cabin near Yorkshire. Here, he encounters Dulcie, an older woman with her dog Butler, whose blunt demeanor contrasts with her warm hospitality. Despite the simplicity of the plot, their evolving friendship becomes the focal point, revealing life lessons and a mystery surrounding Dulcie's past. Everything is beared eventually, drawing these two people to a friendship that will impact both of them for the rest of their lives.

So that's the book! That's not an introduction to what the book is about, that's not a teaser, that's the full summary of what happens. And it's the reason I'm finding it a bit hard to reflect on what I'm supposed to take away from this. The writing is captivating with its accessibility and beauty, striking a balance between eloquence and engaging storytelling. Despite occasional moments of overwriting, the narrative flows smoothly. The character development, particularly of Dulcie, stands out, making her a captivating figure from the outset.

The story, while quick, intriguing, and predictably sweet, lacks the depth that would make it more memorable. The absence of substantial themes or motifs left me with a sense of wanting more to reflect upon. Despite my enjoyment of the reading experience, I expect that the lack of memorable elements may diminish its lasting impact.

In essence, "The Offing" is a well-crafted coming-of-age tale with likable characters and an enjoyable narrative. However, its limited thematic exploration may limit its resonance for readers seeking a more profound or thought-provoking experience. I recommend it to historical fiction enthusiasts looking for a self-contained, entertaining story that prioritizes enjoyment over challenging reflection.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm a vampire girly at heart. Having never read Twilight or anything by Anne Rice, I'm not sure, but I was eager to jump into this to get a taste for that sweet, sweet vampire life. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. It was 200 pages too long, had too many tropes, and couldn't settle on a consistent tone, all while having a choppy, unsatisfying story.

In Silver Under Nightfall, we are following Remy, a vampire hunter in the kingdom of Aluria, son of a renowned vampire hunting duke who kind of hates him. After Aluria strikes an alliance with one vampire court, Remy is roped into allying with two engaged vampire lords, Malekh and Xiaodan to find the source of a mysterious, undead plague that is affecting both vampires and humans alike. Through this, he grows closer to both Xiaodan and Malekh and eventually becomes their familiar (butt boy). That honestly sums up this entire book, but it is 500 pages long.

Okay where do we start. Characters were bad. Everyone was completely one dimensional with very little growth. Remy was bombastic, hot headed and dumb, always getting into trouble. His dad was an asshole. Xiaodan was warm, loving, kind, and quick to trust. Malekh was a stubborn, hard headed know-it-all. And none of these characters changed at all throughout the entire book. There was nothing dynamic about them, and this is one of the reasons the romances felt undeserved. No one grew into a character that was lovable, so it felt weird that they all started to like each other as time went on when none of them were changing. The romance between Xiaodan and Remy was rushed and boring, and the romance between Malekh and Remy was waaaay too slow and never developed into anything that was compelling aside from the fact that they all had a lot of sex with each other without a lot of emotional connection. And I'd argue the attempt at justifying this polycule was like half the book, so in between weirdly paced action sequences, it was a lot of arguing and bitterness, that then turned into a lot of arguing, sex, and bitterness.

Yeah, so the pacing. This story was a bit of a mess to begin with. I feel like it was poorly developed, so there wasn't really a clean way to map it out into a cohesive narrative. The intersection of vampire politics, human politics, attempted world building, and the sloppy inclusion of numerous personal storylines made this tedious to follow. Too much going on, too much jumping around, and not enough attention devoted to any one thing. There were moments where twists were revealed that were so unsatisfying because I had no investment into that subplot because it was sloppily attended to. Action sequences and character deaths had no weight because I wasn't fully clear on why this battle was happening or why I was supposed to care about this character that we barely got to know. It just felt like everything had such low stakes despite the narrative constantly trying to convince you that everything that was happening was So Important. While I found the actual action sequences to be interesting to read, ironically enough, this is where the tone shifting was at its most egregious. Constantly throughout, the book is taking itself extremely seriously, but every time someone scored some kill, we would get the most cringe inducing Marvel one-liner that entirely took me out of the action.

It wasn't all terrible though. I did find the world building to be interesting, and I certainly didn't hate this by any measure. There is an actual story here that I think could have been executed on better, but I was just really hoping it would be more interesting. I'd even consider picking up the next one if reviews are good.

I'm really hoping to read some better vampire books this year, this was not a good kick off to 2024. I suspect if you enjoy very trope-y, digestible fiction that reads like fanfic, you'll like this. That's not to shit on fanfic though, I have read a lot of fanfic much better written than this.

System Collapse feels like a tightening of the Murderbot Diaries formula that really paid off. Despite some of the same issues that have gotten in the way of my enjoyment of previous installations, I really liked this one and it's reinvigorated my love for the series.

It wouldn't be accurate to say that Murderbot is back at it again, because it hasn't been away from the action in a few books now. We left off on a planet with a few colonies that were being ravaged by a strange alien contaminant that had the ability to jump between humans and artificial systems, making both act erratically. Murderbot, along with a gaggle of "its humans" continue to help the colonists on this planet, but are soon met with a corporate exploration team from the company Barish-Estranza (B-E) who they suspect is scouting the planet to assess whether they can take advantage of the rich resources while also conning the unsuspecting colonists into joining B-E as indentured servants. Our Murderbot group learns from the leaders of one of the two primary colonies that there's actually a separatist colony that broke away decades before, living near one of the terraforming stations at one of the poles. They lost contact with them because of the communications interference caused by the station, but if either B-E or the Murderbot group are going to convince the colonists to leave, they need to get that colony on board as well. Hoping to head B-E off, the Murderbot team heads to try to make contact with this elusive colony and typical Murderbot shenanigans ensue including trying to communicated with antiquated systems, trying to communicate with annoying, emotional humans, getting into trouble with the corporations, and lots of action coming to an explosive conclusion.

The Murderbot diaries are kind of hard to review because they are so unique in the space of science fiction. Nearly all of them are novella length and focus on a very small mission or story, but they all pack a massive worldbuilding punch, filled with both blocks of exposition and technical jargon that can sometimes get in the way of the story. I think many people would agree that the first book in the series was the best, both because it was so novel and interesting, but also because it wasn't getting in its own way at that point, with some of these more distracting elements becoming "worse" in subsequent books. But I think System Collapse was a genuine attempt to get back to its roots. It wasn't perfect, but it was a noticeable change.

The story here was fantastic. These books are at their best when they are focused and self contained. The plot here is tight: get to this separatist colony and if they're still there, try to convince them to leave. I'd say most of the book is focused on just that with a healthy dose of interpersonal narratives which are also nice to see. Murderbot is struggling with something similar to PTSD, and it has a very dynamic and interesting relationship with ART which serves as an interesting foil to its relationship with the humans. We continue to see the struggle with Murderbot understanding humans while it also tries to understand why it is so protective of them. I find the author's ability to pack these aspects of very interesting character development into such small books very impressive.

While improved, this book did not abandon some of the aspects that I'd consider weaker, like the poorly integrated exposition and overuse of jargon. In the middle of dialogue or action, the narrative will trail off to give context about how corporations work, or what a bot is designed to do, or how a system interacts with humans. It can be very interesting, but it is almost always jarring and an interruption to the flow of the narrative. I think there could be a healthy amount of editing some of this down. At points I would stop reading entirely and think "why is this being brought up? why is is being brought up now? is this relevant to the plot at all or did the author just have a fun idea about worldbuilding and insist on including it?" and while sometimes these tidbits did later have a narrative purpose, oftentimes they did not.

This felt like a refreshing jump back into what Murderbot was in the beginning and I think it really paid off. I understand the necessity to continually build the universe given that we are 7 books in, so I find that I can forgive some of the weaker aspects of this book. If you feel like you've dropped off of the Murderbot Diaries train, allow me to suggest you get back in for the sake of reading this one!

In Project Hail Mary, the sun is going out. Huge bummer. We also don't know why, and it's happening to many stars in the local area of the galaxy. But we figure out why! And we also find one system where the star ISN'T going out even though it should. So we gotta throw together a ship and crew as quickly as possible to investigate, find a solution, and get it back to Earth in time to save the sun. Enter Ryland Grace, one of the crew members of this ship. He doesn't know any of that though, because he woke up on the space ship billions of miles from home without his memory. As his memory returns, he has to work to figure out who he is, what he's doing, and how to save his home. After a shocking discovery in this alien solar system, he has new exciting opportunities to maybe make it back home too.

This was a lot of fun. Very much Andy Weir, down to the movie-like scenes and the quippy dialogue and the weird mix of isolation and hope you get from the story. I wasn't expecting this to be as hard sci-fi as it was, but I really enjoyed those parts of it. I'm not at all familiar with physics, chemistry, or biology, but I found its integration to be seamless and well-done. I found the story to be paced really well, jumping between the present, fixing things, solving problems, staying alive, running tests, and the past as memories return to our main character. We get to learn about the events leading up to this hail mary of a mission and Grace's involvement in it. I don't feel like this dragged at any point, and was a very quick read for being almost 500 pages.

There were aspects I think could have been improved upon. Personal taste, but I really don't enjoy heavy-handed quippy "marvel" dialogue, and that was pretty much every conversation in the entire book. I didn't find it funny or executed well. I'd rather have more authenticity, but I'd also rather have unique characters. Everyone important had the same personality, and everyone unimportant had some token personality quirk that never changed. I also found it hard to suspend my disbelief in some areas. Some things were just far too convenient or far too simple. I feel like, if you're going to commit to hard sci-fi book, then you need to limit the convenient coincidences that help your characters. But ultimately these things didn't detract much from my enjoyment. While it wasn't anything super groundbreaking, it was enjoyable.

If you loved The Martian, I think you'll like this a lot. Also I think if you like Blake Crouch, this would work for you, though it is a bit more lighthearted than something like Recursion or Dark Matter. Also if you like books that are paced like movies this will be perfect. If you like you science fiction to be deeply serious, like anything by Peter Watts or William Gibson, this isn't for you. It's also like.. the opposite of philosophical. Topical? So if you like commentary on the human condition, this doesn't have any of that. Just a lot of the human doing stuff. But I do guarantee you'll have a hard time putting it down!

This was a fantastic whirlwind of politics, intrigue, diplomacy wrapped in a vivid, unique setting. While some of the finer aspects of the book didn't quite land for me, I thought this was a great read and look forward to the next one.

In A Memory Called Empire, we follow Mahit, a resident of Lsel Station, a space station off in deep space; but that's not where the story takes place. You see, Mahit has been selected as the next ambassador to the Teixcalaanli Empire, a sprawling and powerful empire, influenced by Aztec culture. The previous ambassador, Yskander, has died under extremely mysterious circumstances, and while it is Mahit's mission to fulfill the role as ambassador, her secondary mission is to figure out what happened to him. And thankfully she has help from -- Yskander himself.. Well, an outdated version of him. On Lsel Station, residents utilize an extremely secretive technology that allows people to access the consciousness of other people before them, assuming they are a personality match. After a few years as an ambassador, Yskander returned to Lsel station to upload his consciousness at the time, then returned to the Teixcalaanli Empire, only to die after 15 years. It is this outdated version of Yskander that Mahit has to consult, but he knows almost as little as Mahit stepping into this new role. What follows is almost immediate politicking and backroom deals, figuring out where her successor left off, what he got himself into, what deals he made, and who to trust. With the backdrop of growing unrest around a succession crisis with the aging emperor and a growing unknown galactic threat, Mahit must move quickly to position herself as a main player so she can do what it takes to protect her people.

I have always really enjoyed extremely political science fiction stories. This book takes it to another level with the intriguing story being set in a beautifully crafted world. With every passing chapter, the Teixcalaanli culture took more shape and grew more vivid, leading me to love it as much as Mahit did. I loved how the tension steadily grew and grew throughout the book, coming to an explosive head that felt satisfying and well-earned. While the story was long and many might argue it was slow paced, I found the backroom machinations to be interesting, and I was never bored while reading this.

Despite being a lover of good world building, at the end of the day, I'm a character reader, and that's where this book missed a bit. While I liked Mahit's character a lot, I think many of the other characters I was supposed to like more than I did, particularly Three Seagrass and Twelve Azaela. I think an attempt was made to really make them likable, but I just wasn't feeling it, so some of the story beats that hit later on in the book that relied on the reader feeling a connection to the characters fell flat for me personally. There were some characters that I liked, like Nineteen Adze and the emperor, but that was more to do with how the story treated them with a level of reverence rather than having them be dynamic characters that cultivated an emotional connection. I really wish the character work here was stronger or it would definitely be a new favorite.

But still, I can't recommend this enough. Especially if you enjoy other political sci fi, like Dune, The Expanse, the Luna series, or the Ancillary series. I'm eager to pick up the next one!

Is it heresy to say that this is probably my favorite installment in the Stormlight series so far? There is so much to be said about the expansive, detailed world and captivating stories that Sanderson is known for, but Dawnshard really is a testament to his skill as a writer in creating equally captivating, brief stories that hyper focus on a small cast of characters.

In Dawnshard, we are following Rysn, a recently "graduated" full fledged merchant who studied under a master merchant for many years. After an accident, Rysn lost the use of her legs, but eager to dive into her new trade, and with a gifted ship and crew, she is eager to take up an assignment from the queen of the Alethi herself who asks her to take a ship to an isolated, mythical island to excavate for treasure. This is fortuitous for Rysn, as her faithful animal companion, Chiri-Chiri, a small winged creature who is the only one of her kind, is rumored to come from this island and seemingly needs to go back as her health is failing. The queen sends some Radiants to accompany Rysn, Lopen and Huri who are familiar faces, as well as Cord, a Horneater woman and the daughter of Rock. When embarking on this journey with her personal assistant Nikli, many things are set into motion, firstly it becomes apparent that the captain and crew of the ship she owns owe no devotion to Rysn and seemingly hold some animosity. But strange things begin to happen, as if fate is pushing them away from pursuing this mission. What follows is an explosive adventure that carries consequences that will affect the entire Cosmere.

This was such a fun adventure that had me gripped the whole time. Sanderson is known for his complex and intriguing stories and worlds, but I think Dawnshard is the result of a concerted effort for Sanderson to write a very character-centric story, an area he's been known to be a bit weak in. There was so much care put into exploring all of the main players in depth, and everyone had a very satisfying arc that made sense and will carry heavy hitting consequences back into the main series. Actually, I would argue that this installment isn't really optional as it has some huge story revelations, so be sure to pick it up if you're planning on carrying on with Stormlight. I also feel that I should mention, why I am not physically disabled myself, I did some research into different reviews of Dawnshard from people who are quadriplegic, paraplegic, and those who use mobility aids, and in general, it seems that this was a satisfactory representation of a person with a disability, so props to Sanderson for taking the care to get it right, and massive props to his sensitivity readers who are credited in the acknowledgements.

This was short so there were a few times that the story felt rushed, but that's honestly relieving when it comes to Sanderson's works. I felt that the fast pace contributed to the story. That's really all there is to say, I enjoyed this a lot. I feel that this was an improvement in some of the personal criticisms I have about Sanderson's style, so I hope that these carry forward into his future installments as well. On to Rhythm of War!

Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie is a fantastic collection of works that showcase the author's innovative and deeply creative approach to fantasy and science fiction writing. This was a wonderful and extensive variety of stories from her Imperial Radch Universe, her Raven Tower Universe, and stand alone works as well. I couldn't get enough of these and, to varying degrees, found myself enjoying each and every one. So much so, that I actually wanted to take the effort to individually rate each one very briefly!

First up, we have her stories that are independent, unassociated with either of her existing universes.

Lake of Souls - 5 stars, love it. Love the mix between a short, sweet coming of age story and the almost shocking body horror for such a short story.

Footprints - 2 stars, just too short. Brief introduction to something uncanny, but not long enough to actually find engaging.

Hesperia and Glory - 3 stars, quite interesting. A bit of historical fiction, magical realism, and science fiction bundled into one. Self contained and brief.

The Endangered Camp - 5 stars, dinosaurs go to space just as the meteor strikes. Filled with emotion and mythology, tragedy and hope. Loved it.

Another Word for World - 4 stars, very enjoyable! Interesting setting where two figurehead leaders of two different peoples, one native to a planet, the others recent refugees, are forced to work together to survive while their respective societies clash over settlement rights. Pacing dipped from time to time, but overall very good.

The Justified - 5 stars, righteous white hot revenge on a corrupt and class divided world. This was such a satisfying read, if a bit violent.

Bury the Dead - 3 stars, cute little quirky story of a family having Thanksgiving dinner, involving the recently deceased grandfather who apparently is a zombie. I liked it.

The Sad History of the Tearless Onion - 3 stars, itty bitty one page story of a man who tried to create onions that don't make you cry, but almost caused the collapse of society. Humorous.

These next three occur in the Imperial Radch Universe which I was excited to revisit after reading Translation State earlier this year. Each did its part in expanding this already fascinating universe, and while I found that I prefer the longer works in this universe, each of these were quite enjoyable.

Night's Slow Poison - 3 stars, returning to the Radch empire, we get to learn about an idyllic, isolated system plagued by spies for the Radch empire, protected only by a unique barrier to their system. Espionage, cultural exchange, and a brief dive into what it means to be human.

She Commands Me and I Obey - 5 stars, wow what a ride! A tale of intense politicking mixed with an election, a sports event, and extreme religious piety. I loved this, even if it was hard to follow at times with the long ass names.

The Creation and Destruction of the World - 2 stars, enjoyable mythological story about the wrath of a storm god and the pleas of a desperate mother to save her child and humanity. Felt out of place here, but it was fine.

The rest of these all occur in the universe of The Raven Tower, which I absolutely adore. I was most excited for these stories, and I think they really paid off. While the themes could be repetitive, each story was so captivating that I didn't mind diving into them over and over.

The God of Au - 2 stars. Ah getting into the Raven Tower world! This was interesting, but there was a lot of background setup for not a lot of payoff. It felt both slow and rushed at times and I wish it could have been tightened up a bit.

The Nalendar - 3 stars, very cute little story about a helpless god, a woman in need of an escape, and shady deals made along the way. Something that Leckie does often is move the story along through dialogue, reserving non-dialogues text to serve as information, but not forward progression. This is a case where I found that stylistic choice to be a bit weak, the dialogue was just obscure enough to be a bit confused as to where the story was going, but not in an intentional way.

The Snake's Wife - 4 stars, wow this really packed a punch. Some trigger warnings here for dysmorphia, castration, and sexual assault. This is a complicated story that I think others might try to dig to find fault within regarding "good representation" but I think it was handled well and I liked the story overall.

Marsh Gods - 5 stars, I really liked this one. A straightforward story about deals between humans and gods, and the ancient rivalries between gods.

The Unknown God - 5 stars, this was a great story, exploring the limitations of what gods can do, the uniqueness of humans in this world, and learning to think before you speak.

Saving Bacon - 3 stars, not much to say about this one. It was lighthearted and cute, but not wholly memorable.

Beloved of the Sun - 4 stars, what a way to end the book. A cultivation of all of the things that had been explored in this world up to this point. Scheming between gods, using humans, and an ultimate battle. This was great.

I really can't recommend this collection enough. If you enjoy science fiction or fantasy, there's something here that you'll fall in love with.

Hum was an anxiety inducing, dystopian peek into the natural trajectory of our own world, but with so much to say, I feel that it wasn't able to say enough about any one theme it attempted to explore.

May has hit a rough patch in life. Recently laid off from her job due to the rise in automation and the introduction of artificial beings into the workforce called Hums, she has been struggling to land on her feet so she can continue to help support her husband Jem, a gig worker, and her two children, Sy and Lu. After a former coworker connects her to a local startup that is apparently exploring how to surgically modify faces to become unrecognizable to the big brother-esque security networks, May has enough money to finally have a bit of a safety net for her family, and a slightly new face. She takes this opportunity to buy a three day stay for her family to the Botanical Gardens, a half fake nature oasis in the middle of the city where they can disconnect and explore urban nature. After MUCH coaxing, May convinces Jem to leave his phone and removes her children's "bunnies" or child friendly computing devices (think apple watches, or iPads on demand for kids), they finally start to enjoy themselves despite the growing tension between Jem and May that she would make such an expensive purchase when they need to save in their financial instability. After a scary incident at the gardens, the family narrowly avoids tragedy with the help of a Hum, but this is just a start to their problems as the family tries to return to their stressful lives. Dealing with the fallout of this incident and their daily lives which includes incessant advertising, distant children addicted to screens, a lack of mutual trust with Jem, and the world's eyes casting judgment, May is stretched thinner than ever, desperate for a life line so she doesn't drown.

Despite the over arching story being fairly straightforward, there was a LOT going on in this book. Each tiny chapter about May's life was filled with advertising, natural disasters, technology addiction, viral videos, and job insecurity. Just about every dialogue she had with her son Sy mentioned another depressing fact about some animal going extinct or a viral video the children were addicted to. Every conversation with a Hum was littered with advertising. Every description of the outside focused on the heat, the humidity, the air quality index, and the crowds. I understand the purpose of this, but with so much going on, it was difficult to find the message here. While this whole book might be summarized as "phone bad," I do think an attempt was made to make it more nuanced. But this was lost in the attempt at creating this building anxiety within the reader. I think that was intentional, but I don't think it was intentional to distract from the main takeaways from the story. This could have been really interesting had it been a bit more focused in what it was trying to do by perhaps eliminating some of the more unexplored themes like the dangers of "going viral," the strangely out of place tension May seemed to have with Jem, or the seeming afterthought of humanizing Hums. Overall, it was a bit convoluted for me to really enjoy. While this could have been very thought provoking, with so much going on, I fear the meat of it isn't really going to stay with me.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an arc of this book to review in advance!

Void Station One is a melancholic exploration of one's self and self worth set in an interesting, far future where humans have stretched throughout the galaxy. Despite some stumbles and being largely introspective, there was enough story to keep me intrigued, and even had some small twists along that way that made this an easy read.

We follow Cole, a deeply sad man who is struggling to find purpose in life after his beloved wife left him. He works basically as a deep space trucker, collecting salvage from wherever his agency sends him, but lately he's been taking the farthest deep space jobs located at the Void Stations, or stations that were initially set up during humanity's initial traversal into space. These stations have long been abandoned, and they take a long time to get to. Even though very fast space travel exist, it still takes many many years to travel to these places, thus preservation drugs and cryo sleep is used to preserve the traveler, but that doesn't stop time for when they return home and many years have passed since they departed. This adds to Cole's sense of meaninglessness, and he decides to take on the Void Station One assignment, a station that is about to fall into a black hole so the window for recovering salvage is tight. He resolves to go to the station and stay on it, allowing the black hole to kill him. However, upon arrival, he encounters the last thing he expected.

The first thing that you need to know about this is, as I mentioned before, it is extremely introspective. There are moments of dialogue, and there are moments of exposition and world building, but the majority of the book is a narration of Cole's spiraling depression and bleak outlook on life, with a healthy dose of philosophical existentialism. This is a science fiction novel, and there are beats that advance the plot but it feels that this is really supposed to challenge you to confront your own sense of self worth, and where you draw meaning in your life. So if you're looking for an action packed adventure, this isn't it.

While I do enjoy introspective stories, particularly science fiction based, there were moments of this where I felt the pacing was severely limping along. There was a lot of repetition during these parts in particular that had me skimming to get to the next conversation or something.

With regard to structure, the story was fine. There was a lot of set up to get Cole to where he was going, but I didn't mind it. Characters were interesting. Without spoilers, Cole as a character did have development, but it didn't feel fully deserved in my opinion. He had epiphanies and revelations that changed him, but they seemed rushed and contradictory to what felt like his stagnant nature, but with so few characters to begin with and the short length of the book, I suppose it makes sense that the character development felt rushed. Also the ending chapters of the book felt drawn out at times. Several chapters ended with language that I felt would be fitting for the end of the book, only for me to turn the page and realize it was still going.

Overall, I enjoyed this. There was some tightening up that could have been done, but I thought it was good. If you like the way Becky Chambers approaches themes of character and self mixed with sci fi, you'll like this (but not necessarily if you like the hopepunk themes because this isn't the book for you). If you like a quiet narrative where you get to sit with the thoughts of a character, pick this up.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me an advanced review copy of this book, and I'm so glad they did. This was a really, really enjoyable reading experience. It was funny, charming, action packed, and had a very interesting plot throughout. While there were some issues with character development, what was done well made up for it.

Mal is software. Well, I guess the technical term is "free A.I." or sentient AI that lives in "infospace", away from the dirty, strange humans who are currently embroiled in a vicious war. The Humanists believe human augments and invasive technology has gone too far and are fighting against the Federals, the highly augmented, government backed force that is rumored to be developing technology that will give them full control of whomever they want. The free A.I.s regard humans with a sort of pitying curiosity, but when Mal finds himself temporarily controlling a drone as the local infospace comms tower is destroyed, he has no choice but to ally with a band of true misfits to try to get back home. However, the intense dangers of being on the front lines of technologically enhanced guerrilla warfare pose threats to Mal and the humans that Mal has to travel with (and usually travel inside the heads of). But through kidnapping, sabotage, and a lot of hacking, more nefarious details about the war are revealed to Mal, and his growing fondness of his human companions start to interfere with his race back to infospace.

There was a lot here that was done really well. Firstly, the story was very interesting and was a treat to follow. It flowed very well, and the story beats were paced precisely. There were no big blocks of exposition, and only a few times where I felt the story was rushed or underdeveloped. The humor here was done well, focusing less on "ha ha" moments, but rather more of a steady amusement at the stilted AI-human interactions, silly manifestations of programming, and the unfortunate circumstances our band of friends found themselves in.

Now while I really enjoyed the character of Mal, I did find much of the other character development to be a bit lacking. Mal, who is largely disgusted by humans, for some reason takes a VERY strong liking to the first human he meets, Kaleigh. But I don't feel that the narrative really built up or justified this strong bond. Particularly because it didn't feel as if it was reciprocated at all. Additionally, almost immediately after meeting Kaleigh, they join with another human named Asher who Mal never grows to like at all, despite Asher getting them (including Kaleigh) out of several dangerous situations that should have made Mal appreciate him more. I think the problem is that we spent so much time learning about Mal and Mal's introduction to humans, that we don't really get a chance to develop deeper appreciation of his human companions, so it felt odd when Mal had any strong feelings about any of them. Even though the humans were interesting at times, when any of them were in danger, I didn't feel much as the reader because I don't feel we got to know them very well. This, however, was the perfect way to manage lesser important human characters, and I feel the narrative was enhanced by our distance from less important human characters.

But as I mentioned before, this was a small gripe I had, and overall the strengths of the book really made me enjoy the whole reading experience. I'm finding that the science fiction sub-genre of "AI/robot grows connected to humans through dangerous circumstance" is one that really works for me. If you like Murderbot, the Ancillary trilogy, Sea of Rust, Partition, or even the Tea Monk & Robot books, I think you'll like this as much as I did.

What can I say about this, it was fine but certainly nothing remarkable. There were a multitude of things in this book that I think fell short, and it all came together into one average horror/thriller experience.

In Confessions, we are initially following a middle school teacher, Yuko Moriguchi, who has decided to retire at the end of the year. The book opens with her telling her class that she'll be retiring and the reason is because her young daughter died tragically during the school year on school grounds, and she couldn't cope with it. But it is revealed in her final lecture to her students that she knows that her daughter's death wasn't actually an accident. She knows that her daughter was murdered by some of the students in that very room. What follows is a multi POV suspenseful, tragic, and often horrific exploration of all of the events that happened leading up to her daughter's death, the events afterward, and the explosive conclusion to this sad tale.

Let's start off with what I think was done well. The story was moderately disturbing, particularly the ways in which some of the kids were supremely fucked up in the head. I've noticed in a lot of translated Japanese literature, the English translation often reads as a bit stilted and emotionless, and while that's been a criticism for other works I've read, I think that actually worked in this book's favor. The disturbing content was really juxtaposed with the seemingly straightforward, sterile prose, emphasizing some of the more "psychotic" behaviors of some of the characters. I also really like the structure of the story, the shifting POVs and perspectives of the story did a good job to both unveil details of the story we didn't know while also weaving new story threads into the whole narrative. Unlike some other reviews, I would not go so far as to say there were a lot of "twists" here though. But I don't think a thriller really needs twists to be successful.

Moving onto the "needs work" portion of the review.. how do I organize my thoughts about this.. let's first start with the things that I initially clocked as a bit shitty. While there was no connection between AIDS or HIV to the gay community, they are inextricably linked culturally and I am particularly sensitive to HIV misinformation. While it is not itself "problematic" to use the threat of HIV infection as a compelling plot device to amp up tension and fear in the story, I do think the plot relied heavily on HIV transmission misinformation and exacerbated harmful stereotypes for perceptions of people living with HIV/AIDS. While the story did attempt to rectify this at the very end, I don't think it did an adequate job to correct it. I don't mind using such a thing to drive tension, but the way it specifically relied on stereotypes bothered me. Also, there was a very, very brief mention of a trans character that was handled in a bad way. Honestly, the way this book handles a lot of gender was annoying and distracted from the story.

There were a fair number of things here that I just don't think made it a particularly successful horror/thriller/whatever book. Firstly, it just wasn't very horrific/thrilling/tense. Not counting, you know, all of the murder, there wasn't a ton here that made me feel particularly uncomfortable or disturbed. Yeah, so kids are a bit fucked in the head, I already knew that. I was hoping to have more of an emotional reaction honestly. And while the shifting POV and trickle of new details about the story were interesting at times, the majority of the time we were reading about the exact same events over and over again just from different perspectives. And while the more disturbing parts of the book were enhanced by the straightforward prose, the rest of the book just read as dry and repetitive. But again, as with all thriller/horror that I read, its gravest sin was that it just didn't elicit the emotions I think it was trying to. The exception to this would probably be the strong vindication I felt on behalf of our main character, the teacher. Despite not being with her perspective for long, I liked her as a character and I was rooting for her the whole time, she could do no wrong in my eyes.

From what I've seen, the other book by the author looks to be quite similar to this one. I'm curious if it is any better, but I'll probably end up reading a summary of it instead. If you're looking to dip you toe into the genre, then pick this up but it's not really anything to write home about otherwise.