invicticide's reviews
47 reviews

The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

dark sad slow-paced

2.5

Ararat by Christopher Golden

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

3.5

Lilith by Nikki Marmery

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.0

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

4.5

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

The first little bit feels unfocused, but things start coming together through the middle and the themes get strong, building toward a well-crafted and thoughtful ending. It's worth sticking through that initial friction!

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For quite a while - perhaps too long - the book feels like a series of bottle episodes, each about meeting a different character in a different place, with a structure so regular it could pass for a video game. While the encounters are charming, the lack of an apparent purpose to any of them almost made me put the book down.

But then someone is re-introduced, and it suddenly becomes apparent that those weren't standalone episodes at all, nor were they mere exposition, and in fact you're in the grip of a careful and deliberate storyteller who knows _exactly_ where he's going.

This book doesn't end so much as it hands off to the second in the four-book series, but even this handoff is a thrilling and satisfying climax.

The titular character, Thomas Senlin, has an arc. It's a good arc. The entire book is _really_ about that arc. And now, after going through that arc, I'm _so ready_ to find out what this character will get up to next.

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.5

At first blush, Wintering is a meditation on rest, recovery, and resilience. But on a deeper level, I think it's about re-attuning oneself to life's natural rhythms -- the sun, the seasons, one's own body -- instead of the artificial ones imposed on us by jobs, clocks, and the demands of others. It's the best therapy session ever. My only complaint is that it doesn't really end, so much as it just kind of... stops. But maybe that's because I wanted more of this very good thing.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

adventurous mysterious

4.0

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective

5.0