Defiance of the Fall 9 by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jonah and the Whale? How about a prison breakout!

I'm still having fun with these LitRPGs. I'll never say they're great literature, but for my video-game loving heart, it's a balm. Let's level up some more among monarchs!

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Bach and the High Baroque by Robert Greenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wowsers. So. I'd been joining my buddy reader on a musical journey with Greenberg's wonderful lecture series and I'd been accustomed to 4-5 hours per lecture. A nice bite-sized immersion in musical history.

And then we get to Bach and the High Baroque, assuming we'd get a quick little masterwork on some masterworks.

I immediately had to change my tune -- indeed, all my tunes -- when I realized that this one was a true honker of a lecture cycle. It was only 4-5 times longer than all the rest. And then it slowly dawned on me that Greenberg must have started out with this particular period, even sharpening all his musical keys on Bach's whetstone.

And, indeed, I've never been so steeped in notation as when he showed me Bach's brilliance.

Ok. Back up. I admit I've always been a huge fan of Bach. Give me those concertos any day, or maybe the fugue, or, hell, any piano. It always spoke to me, even sharpened my mind, and I used to muse on how many future artists, even rock-n-roll artists, roll with him. It's just one of those constant idle musings, you know? I and I always enjoyed going back to Bach for the pure pleasure of it.

Fast forward to now. I've never been filled this high to the brim in musical theory, enthusiasm for the Baroque, or amazement at Bach's tonal masterpieces.

And for the future, if any ya'll pick up Greenberg's lectures, just know that this one is a definite outlier. It's great, but wow, it's overflowing, almost too much so, with composition and nitty-gritty. :)

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Defiance of the Fall 8 by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this LitRPG is back in top form. I love the Twilight mystical realm and the neat complications Zack runs into, there. Nicely OP.

I'm about 3 times as excited as I was about 3 books ago. So.. yay! :)

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Defiance of the Fall 7 by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I wasn't truly sold on the realm introduced in the previous book, it found a rather cool conclusion here.

In the end, I loved the shorter title-hunting stories a lot more.

While these LitRPGs are pretty average, there are some really cool aspects in the cultivation areas. Improving one's soul, for example, is pretty primo here. Actually beautiful. :)

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The Merry-Go-Round by W. Somerset Maugham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, I wanted to like this more than I did. I love Maugham for many reasons and he has a wide scope for all his novels, but this one in particular just reminded me of a 19th century soap opera with super-headstrong idiots making idiotic choices.

Sure, Maugham referred to London, itself, as the Merry-Go-Round, but I think it's more proper to call the PEOPLE within it the Merry-Go-Round. They hop on each other and hop off each other with such random glee, picking another griffin or dolphin or dragon whenever it pleases them, spilling all their drinks and cotton candy all over the ride -- and these are ADULTS, mind you, behaving so abominably, and they don't seem to care if they step on anyone. Not even kids! *gasp*


Honestly, it's like a poor-man's Edith Wharton. It's decent for what it is and it reminds me of a ton of other Manners fiction, but to me, some of the characters sucked all the enjoyment out of it.

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House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I honestly can't believe how much fun I had reading this. The first book was pretty great, but not nearly my favorite among all of Tchaikovsky's works. And then, when I read the blurb on this one, I wasn't sure.

And then, as I followed the war-camp life, I was doubly-sure that I was unsure. The Butcher is a surgeon but is considered a serious torturer.

I thought to myself, "Uh-oh, we're in Grim-Dark territory."

Imagine my surprise when it evolved into a pretty amazing amalgamation between early Abercrombie grimdark and TERRY PRATCHETT. When we got to Jack and his small gods, I was utterly hooked. With the healers being necromancers, and a love interest... well, not a necromantic thing, please don't let your mind go there... I simply had a fantastic time.

I loved this one's characters and denouement so much more than the first. No spoilers, but it's fantastic.

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Flux by Jinwoo Chong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I will say this: the first third of the novel is fantastic. Engaging, weird, sharp. All the periphery hints were spectacular and I was totally down for any/all reveals.

When it did develop, I was kinda shocked that it all turned into an exploration of grief, hidden or not, and then the plot got further submerged. I decided at that point to just enjoy the ride instead of trying to figure out what is happening.

And then, by the end, already long-aware of the spoilerish nature of the story, I can't say I really remained drawn into the emotions of it. I wanted to, but it lost me. If I sound super vague, it's because I can't talk about the seriously WEIRD (nicely so) nature of the novel.

I mean, sure, I can talk about the utter immersion in an old, bad, 80's sitcom, or the job that was utterly f***ed up, or the swirling-down-the-drain nature of the plot, but without details, all I can say is: go read it for yourself!

It IS pretty damn interesting and creative and when you consider just how few novels go off the deep end, we need to treasure those who do. :)


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A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first impression of this book was that it was going to be slightly gimmicky, by focusing on twelve cherry-picked events and spreading out from there, and I was right.

That is not to say that it wasn't entertaining, because it was. I suppose I might have gotten more out of it if the writing had been more engaging, even more narrative. We did get some of the circumstances of some of the crews, of course, where we actually have history for them, and in general, I was happy to see context spiral out further and further from the core wrecks.

As it is, we got ancient boats all the way up to subs, and it had much more depth to it, more details, than I might have expected.

Interestingly, though, as I was reading it, I was struck by the idea that all of this would have been much more engaging as if it had been written as though from the ghosts of true sea men. Alas, however, it wasn't to be.



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Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here's an impressive economics book that isn't even precisely about economics.

It's properly anthropology by an honest anthropologist. If it were actually written by an economist, it'd be devoted to actual coinage and a priori arguments, not with an eye to what was actually going on.

So, what's the meat? Well, economists bring up an old, oft-repeated fairy tale about barter systems, how they become super unwieldly super quick, and that's why another symbol for exchange must always be created so they can all work together easier. But in reality, as seen through actual anthropologists observing reality, there's a much more obvious side to it. In order to get along and survive, money was created as a form of social currency, of trust -- and that is what debt really is.

A person might willingly sell their social standing, putting them lower than another, in order to get the goods they need to survive. That's employment. Enslavement is quite similar, always getting boiled down to hierarchical social standings and enforced with violence, with the whole thing reduced to a system of running debt. Of course, nothing works in a vacuum. It's all a social construct, with religions running the same gambit and ingraining the IDEA of debt in everyone's minds.

"You can never repay your parents for raising you, so you better do extra good for your offspring."
"You can never replay your god, your country, your wife, for all they've given you, so you must remain perpetually in debt to them."
"We house and feed you, slave, you can never repay your debt to your slavemaster."

I mean, obviously, some of these sound really good, and others, not so much, but the idea of self-sacrifice, or just plain sacrifice, is embedded in not just our economics, but in every kind of social structure, and so much returns directly to the idea of debt.

Now, here's a funny little thing: throughout history, there's the commonality of the abuse of debt and inequality -- and its correction. The forgiveness of sins isn't only for Catholics. The forgiveness of sins is the same as DEBTs. Hammurabi used to run a yearly debt-forgiveness party. Hell, the Rosetta Stone itself is super famous for being the bridge between ancient languages, but was anyone taught what it ACTUALLY SAID? It was talking about a debt forgiveness. :)

That brings us back to the obvious inequalities on how debt is treated across the world and time.

Debt is OFTEN forgiven for those who have high social standing. The rich get a welfare state. The poor are usually enslaved or pushed to the point where they EITHER revolt, or they are given their eventual debt holiday.

What we're never taught is that this is a common cycle. We often put others higher above us on the debt cycle, making kings, celebrities, or religious leaders, freeing them from the burden of debt and putting ourselves in the yoke. When it gets abused, as it always does, tons suffer, and it either devolves into bloodshed, massive hardships for the lower classes, or debt forgiveness of some smaller or greater effect.

You can talk all you want about supply side economics or the divine right of kings, but all of it circles right back to the core: across all cultures, debt of all flavors has been around since recorded human history. It's primarily a social structure passed from generation to generation, a symbol of intertwining interests and social cohesion -- but it's abuse is also almost eternal.

Just look at our modern world, creaking and straining on immense loads of debt, where the grand majority is squeezing normal people to death, with the super rich just shrugging off the burden of that debt as if it were nothing but a social guffaw. As if it was just an annoyance that they could cancel at any time. As, indeed, it actually is.

If that makes you a bit angry, then join the club. When the pressures of debt build up too much, then, historically, that's when the weapons come out and the class war begins.

It's easily solvable, of course. Erasing the debt also erases the social webs that keep or society in place, but if so many are suffering, then we need to ask if those social webs were worth keeping in the first place.

I, for one, absolutely love seeing corrupt rich mf's getting away with the worst shit imaginable, having all their debts welfared, while everyone else gets inflationed into utter poverty.

(Yes, I am, indeed, being sarcastic.)


That being said, what a cool book! It's pretty exhaustive and touches on so many different cultures and time-periods. A definite must for non-fiction fans.

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A Curse of Krakens by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kevin Hearne wraps up his epic fantasy trilogy in fine form. There are tons of interesting and colorful characters, a seven-prong magic system that gets nicely into the nitty gritty, and, of course, the gods.

All of them are real characters -- in the way that you have that really quirky and downright bothersome neighbor that will borrow your lawnmower then reduce it to its base components because it didn't quite cut all the corners on his lawn -- and I was here for it.

Then again, the mortals were just as bad. I loved all of them. Great dialogue and asides.


But, if I am to be utterly honest, these were the main selling points -- and not the battles or the grand action. It was fine, but not the best. It was still worth the read, however.

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The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent and fun tale.

We've got the modern genre of cozy space-opera mixed with a heist tale that has a little bit of everything else. Maya is a sympathetic character coming off a mini-career of stealing from museums to return art to the alien species they came from, now trying to get some higher-education in. From there, however, is the call of an alien friend's Grail, and it all gets fun from there.

Between lots of travel, alien locales, and bumping into her academic advisor in all the weirdest places, we get space battles, bloody broken planets, and some enormous stakes for her alien friend.

I love it. It's adventure like I used to love grand adventure. Indiana Jones in space. I need a lot more of this.

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Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Michael Lewis's non-fiction really hits different. I loved the detail and my outrage after watching, then reading, The Big Short. Little did I know that he took on High Frequency Traders as well.

Flash boys spans the first couple of years after the '08 debacle, when high speed trading and the creation of Dark Pools took more than half of all trades off the lit market to be finagled, squeezed, and literally scalped by predatory traders. Put simply, a black curtain was pulled over the entire stock market (still true today) to hide everything about the trades on the backside. This means that brand new middle-men were telling everyone on the outside some hogwash about greater liquidity in the market, while actually lining hedge fund shark's pockets and screwing over average traders who weren't in the know. This quickly led to an average of a billion dollars per year profit with no downsides for these middle men. They didn't have skin in the game. All they did was take an order from the outside, screw up the trade, make sure it gave the trader a worse deal, then let finally letting the trade through, skimming the profit for themselves. (As a single example)

The problem with this is that every big hedge fund or outfit getting into this lucrative business is making a TON of money and have absolutely no incentive to call it quits -- and the profits are so huge that they can literally buy themselves out of anything. And now, a decade and a half later? We're still in the same boat. Dark pools, high-speed trading, and now AIs to do most of the behind-the-curtain work to skim, scalp, and deny everyone else a fair market.

You know, a "fair market" where a direct, one-to-one buy and sell order could go through, giving true price discovery rather than outright, extensive price manipulation.

The fact that this book came out in '14, laying out all these problems that have gotten so much worse since then, should still give it a top billing for anyone who wants to know HOW the market is so fucked up. Its writing is great. It shows some wonderful individuals and their own path to discovery, highlighting all the their challenges to create the IEX, finding out how pernicious the rest of the exchanges were, while attempting to prevent all scalping when any order goes through them.

Of course, at this point, it is still just early days and so much has happened since then, good, bad, and interesting. What I really want now is a follow-up.

Or better yet, actual reform. What did I hear the other day? That approximately 28 trillion dollars goes through all the market -- and most orders are getting scalped through Payment Through Order Flow. Only the big boys are making tons of profit, but that's because they own the casino. Put in perspective, the entire world economy sits at around 90 trillion.

Put simply, THIS is THE current method on how the rich get richer. There's no transparency, so no accountability, and worse, nobody in positions of power are willing or able to sit down and understand this problem -- or if they did, I'm pretty certain that most are getting paid off.

Honestly, this is one of THE biggest problems. It needs a spotlight shining on it. It's definitely not cleaning itself up.


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Defiance of the Fall 6 by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While there is just minimal character development, I really don't care that much. The progression part of the fiction, new cores, leveling-up, new powers, skills, and incidental action is enough to keep me pumped up.

I was really quite interested in the system vs heaven levels of the multiverse. The deeper delve into the technological division is getting pretty interesting, too.

Sometimes, wild gaming imagination is all a guy needs. :)

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Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pitch perfect.

Of course, it's extremely topical and has been extremely topical ever since I was a kid, too. Power plays by little people who probably haven't cracked a book in 30 years trying to limit everyone else's choices is so common, by this point, that we call them busybodies, Karens, assholes, and little-minded jerks.

Yes, this book is set in a small town full of people trying to just get along while a hateful vocal minority tries to squash everyone else's minds. You know the type: those who ban the Diary of Anne Frank or Judy Blume. Any book that tries to tell the truth about history, especially black history, that contradicts their sense of entitlement. It's writ small here because it's enormously painful everywhere else.

This book just hit all the right spots. A clandestine, deliciously naughty book lending circle gives so many of these peeps hope.

It's not an original story, of course. I've been living this tale since the 80's, in my own school, beset by small-minded assholes, and I used to get just as much enjoyment out of getting these banned books as I did out of sharing them.

I am a book lover, after all. This kind of tale is me. And more importantly, if you're reading this, then it's probably you, too. Enjoy!

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Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir by Agatha Christie Mallowan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really something for those who aspire to be completionists, this memoir follows a younger Agatha Christie, in her own words, through foreign parts before WWII. I thought some of it was interesting for its own sake, but mostly I followed along for insights into Agatha Christie herself.

Part nostalgia, part disquiet over the Traditional English Outlook, I nevertheless feel like it was a worthwhile book to read.

But to be honest, I'd still always rather read her mysteries. :)

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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 215, August 2024 by Neil Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alice Towey ("The Time Capsule") - (4*) A nice bit of future nostalgia while looking back. Resource dystopia, a little hope, and a wistful look at our future past.

Thomas Ha ("The Sort") - (4*)Creepy near-future small-community almost SK horror. Gotta love how people mutate and grow just like a Monsanto scourge -- and we don't know whether it is getting really bad, or whether it's just a new normal. Perfect for us, no?

Rich Larson ("Molum, Molum, Molum the Scourge") - (3*) Fights, implants, and tech-treatments just like drug fixes. Not bad, just feels rather cyberpunk.

Timothy Mudie ("Something Crossing Over, Something Coming Back") - (4*) A literal putting yourself in someone else's shoes story. I enjoyed the subtle give and take, the sliding away from actual espionage into true understanding. There's a lot to be said about acceptance, especially today.

Rajeev Prasad ("Canyon Dance") - (3*) Addiction + asteroid mining. I get what it's all about, but I just didn't really get invested. I mean, I've survived the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch -- this is admittedly more down to earth, but just okay in the end.

David McGillveray ("The Deformed Saint and the Poison Wind") - (3*) A maybe-heartfelt tribute to doing the very minimum you can for indigenous people suffering from greater wars, SF style.

Emily Taylor ("Where My Love Still Lives") - (3*) Barely SF, more of a coming-home story than anything else.

Marisca Pichette ("Three Circuits of the Monoceros Ring") - (5*) Epistolary romance story spanning the whole galaxy. Rather sweet. :)


We also get a pretty great non-fiction on African SFF identity and examples.

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Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All told, a fun, light, thriller.

Huh? Light thriller? Well, there is a bit of humor in it and the assassin chap is rather shaping up to be a nice guy. I mean, as nice as you can be, transforming yourself from Baba Yaga into a reformed assassin. (Hey, wait, haven't see seen this before, John?)

Either way, this novel scratches that itch. Almost a year sober, now, and enter in assassination attempts. I enjoyed Mark and all his interactions. It's not quite as bloodthirsty as some, and he stuck to his guns, so to speak, but I really appreciated his stubborn streak.



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The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hugo winner for '24.

I wasn't quite sure, but I suspected I had read it when it came out, but I was entirely sure by the time I got a quarter in.

My Other Review for the same story.

This is hope-fiction, people, and I'm all down for it. I like my dystopias fine, but it's THIS kind of stuff that balances it all out. So freaking necessary. :)

Read or listen to it here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

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Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know, putting aside the fact that this just won the Hugo for best short story in '24, if someone had told me I had to read this, and insisted, perhaps with a gun to my head, that I would love it, forcing me to read it, I probably would have come out of the experience in something much more than shock.

Not only would I turn on that person who had put a gun to my head, I'd probably give them a hug, thanking them for the abuse.

Why? Because the story was just that touching.

Being socially sequestered, a bit of a loser, myself, I found a lot of things in this short story just -- delightful. Did I want something like this? Yes. All parts of it, up to the point where the expiration date hit? Yes.

I mean, damn. This is the flip side of everything we've got. The UPside. And this is what we should be striving for. All of us.

Beautiful. Totally beautiful.

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Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Somewhere in my hindbrain, I remember reading some early Paul Di Filippo in some SF mags, and, among others like Greg Bear and more, my imagination soared with with I called Biopunk fiction. You know, biology-science heavy imagination, usually flying with wild worldbuilding.

Think Farscape or any subsequent soup of hard-SF focused on much more than simple gene-splicing, going full ribosome hacking, all kinds of animals blending with human genomes, and the weird-ass kind of society that would support -- or exploit -- such a thing.

Ribofunk is one of the best of this sub-genre. This particular collection of short stories are pretty damn amazing. The sentence-level writing is super rich with science-made-common bio terms, and in one particular story, written in RHYME, if you can possibly believe it, was particularly brilliant.

The nineties were particularly great for bio-punk. I don't know why it kinda went away, but I wish I could see so much more of it. I think of Speaker for the Dead, Child Garden, even Darwin's Radio. These kinds of stories are really fascinating to me and have seemed to disappear from the SFnal imagination. Alas. I wish there were so much more.

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A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Honestly, I thought this would be more about a good girl who slides into darkness, PERFORMING murder, but alas, it wasn't nearly so funny.

Instead, it's a rather good mystery that follows closely to a coming of age story, giving us the whole package of amateur investigation, twists and turns, and all kinds of neat characters.

That being said, I read this with my buddy reader with the express intent of enjoying the streaming series based on this book -- and let's just say I love the book.


*whispers*

(Why, oh, WHY do people have to make so many absolutely stupid changes to a perfectly good book in an adaptation? Seriously. It's not about money or problematic ideas. It could have EASILY followed every detail in the book without a SINGLE PROBLEM, thereby enchanting the actual fans of the book, becoming a rare unicorn in the entire industry, and just STICK to the DAMN landing.)


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Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos by Lisa Kaltenegger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no real complaints about this book, assuming all you're looking for is a decent, surface-skimming book on planets, their formation, and a decent amount of info on theoretical and discovered exoplanets out out there, then this is pretty much perfect for you.

Don't expect anything but a light survey on the level of a short documentary, but do expect something on that level.

While I didn't mind it, I personally wanted a lot more meat. Or rather, dirt, gas, and starshine. But we can't always get what we want, alas.

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The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thing first, this isn't the Expanse. It is, however, a truly fascinating exploration of a vast prisoner's dilemma on the scale of many, many civilizations.

A hive-like alien civilization basically hoovers-up every alien species in its range, and we humans just happen to be in its path -- on this lonely, strange, colony world.

We follow its scientists and survivors among what amounts to an absentee landlord that just cherry-picks the best parts of our civilization, or any civilization, and us humans are forced to try to survive not just our total captivity, but also our own shit.


Great start to a series. I'm all down for it. It's exciting and enraging just like our reality, only put on a much bigger display. There's choice, but not really. There's huge stakes beyond just us, too, with the threat of another vast enemy. So it's not like we can simply just choose sides. The premise is difficult, complex, and fascinating.



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The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Re-Read 8/8/24:

I went into this with managed expectations and thought it was pretty great SF. As a Zones of Thought novel, it's weak compared to the other two -- but who cares! If you want to know what happened further down the line to all the Tines, their society, and all the stranded human children as they grow up, then you should be all over this book.

Full SF mode, alien society, interesting alien characters. I mean, come on, packs of snake/dogs that only get intelligent as packs, not as singles, but adopting humans to help them out? What happens when packs just let go and become a huge sea of mingled, super-organism minds? Or let's see what kind of trouble everyone can get into when they build airships and use radios to enhance their telepathic pack range, and what happens to their society?

Fun stuff, truly, and worthy of any SF fan's shelf.

It's just not on the "OMG that's BRILLIANT" level. :)



Original Review:

This was a bit of a roller coaster for me, in that I expected huge undertakings and huge payoffs, but what I got never delivered more than an upheaval of Tines society and the progression toward a technological revolution in the Slow Zone, but after I got over this rather large disappointment, I was pleased to run with all the packs in a fascinating, complex, and plot-driven wonder of a really good character novel.

I should have reread A Fire Upon The Deep first, but it wasn't absolutely necessary. I loved that classic novel. It was the one that spurred the Singularity that we all know and love. This is its sequel, but The Children of the Sky has little to do with the Singularity, except as a far-off threat.

Setting my personal expectations and desires aside, I sat down to read this long novel intent to enjoy it on its own merits no matter what the cost. It is a Vernor Vinge novel, after all. I have always GUSHED over his novels in the past, and it really speaks very well for him that 3 out of his 6 novels won the Hugo award.

Quality is Quality is Quality.

And this novel is Quality. The characters took a while to fall into, and the starting plot was somewhat okayish, but the depth and the execution of all the characters grew overwhelmingly poignant with time. It required patience, but never once did Vinge let me down. The whole novel is a painstaking tapestry that is imminently steady and complex with character relationships and development. Ravna grew on me, as did Amdi and Joanna. Even Tycoon grew on me, and he surprised me by not being any sort of classical villain. I was surprised by the developments, to be sure, and that goes double for the Choir. What a strange and fascinating creature.

For those who either haven't read the first novel or have completely forgotten about it, the Tines are an alien race clawing its way from a medieval worldview to an advanced society. They are packs of dogs with telepathy, combining together in groups between 4-8 dogs to have equivalent human intelligence. That's the premise, but what Vinge has really given us is an extremely dense and really fantastic exploration of alien subtlety ranging from romance to warfare. Human technology only makes things chaotic and hopeful and destructive, and how the two races get along is the true heart of the novel.

I think of C J Cherryh with so much fondness when it comes to this kind of alien exploration, but honestly, Vinge holds more than his own when it comes to the same thing. This novel isn't as flashy as the Foreigner series, but it is definitely as deep and magical and thought provoking, if not more so.

It wasn't what I expected, but it certainly was more than I bargained for, and I can't help but feeling flush with satisfaction after reading it. It's true science fiction, exploring ideas, even if they are mostly "soft" ideas. I can't help but sit in awe with what he pulled off, even if the novel isn't completely mind-blowing.

It isn't. It's not going to rank at the top of any list, but I am supremely glad I got to experience it. No reservations. No regrets.

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Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Second read.

I'm enjoying the simple adventure with a couple of boys on Mars -- with their alien friend. :)

Nothing big about it, but it's like any Boy's Adventure tales back in the 40's, but with the natural SF twist. I thought it pretty funny that they were skating on Mars.

Not my favorite Heinlein, but it was very wholesome -- which is one of the main reasons I've always liked RAH. For context, comments about women back then, interspersed in dialogue, were directly refuted by strong women being strong in action and word. I thought this was very funny.

Worth reading!

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A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Third read.

I've been a massive Vinge fan for so many years, always ranking the first to Zones of Thought books as some of the most impressive in all of SF, and I'm pleased to realize that others think the same way.

Before we had Children of Time, we had Deepness in the Sky. Even though we get spiders in both novels, it's immediately clear that the alien-treatments of both are very different. I have to say that Vinge's IS better, for the depth and societies of both humans, their factions, and the all the other aliens. We've got intrigue, pure science, massive failures, striving together, and so much more. I mean, seriously, this novel is jammed packed with so much detailed SFnal goodness, from deep histories, long travels, impressively evil mind-hacking, and even tons of trade.

Space battles and civilization building, all these species stuck in a little solar system.

Don't trust me? Try reading this classic. For it IS a classic. There's nothing better than seriously good SF, and this is that.

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My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 by Emil Ferris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When it's good, it's great -- just shy of profound, but definitely right there with the heart.

When it's a bit too meandering, or odd in a "why is this even here" way, it tries to entice me to care, but doesn't quite make it.

I really loved the first volume. The second volume merely continues it. I still want to get those reveals of those mysteries, the ones closest to our monster's heart, but it's just taking a bit too long. Or rather, the side-stories are sometimes a bit meh.

Even so, the art is all kinds of wonderful. I really enjoy pretty much everything about it. I just want to see where it picks up next. I hope it doesn't take so long.

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Defiance of the Fall 5 by TheFirstDefier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Much more than solid this time. We get the full tower raid and aftermath. *YAY* and a return to Earth, decimated incursions, and even a full bloodline change.

The one thing long-running LitRPGs have going for them is the sense of increase, of progress, of depth and OP awesomeness.

This one definitely flies with all that. It's now so much better than the beginning.

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