rperce's reviews
34 reviews

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Absolutely beautiful writing — floral in the best way and carefully, fractally, detailed. Just like *Time War*, I have the strong sense that I could reread this a dozen times and pull fresh meaning from each delicate word choice and turn of phrase every time.

Esther and Ysabel's world pulled me in immediately. The pacing ebbed and flowed, letting me soak in the pastoral beauty of their home before whirling into the rapids of intrigue and magic: a gripping plot with a lovely wrap-up.

I'm absolutely thrilled to see El-Mohtar continue her longer-form work!

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

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funny inspiring slow-paced

4.0

Like most of John Green's work, this is a clear lens onto John Green's life and psyche more, perhaps, than its purported contents. Which the book is rather up-front about, to be clear. Luckily, I like John and I like his ever-hopeful point of view. I loved the podcast version of this work, and while that means I've already heard most of these essays before, it also means I can more clearly feel the humor and vulnerability woven through them. It's unquestionably cliché to review this book on its own terms, but: I give _The Antropocene Reviewed_ four stars.

Polostan by Neal Stephenson

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A return to form in the hist-fic tradition of the Baroque Cycle, but at a thickness that doesn't preclude the book from coming on a camping trip and a pacing that makes it a pretty fast read. A slow warm-up at the start accelerates rapidly through the middle, to a whirlwind finish that has me waiting eagerly for the next installment. I've always enjoyed Stephenson's approach to historical fiction, presenting the past as the alien world that it is; it's very satisfying to settle back into that space and in such a tightened, readable package—and with a female protagonist, by no means an unprecedented perspective in Stephenson's work, but still certainly a welcome point of view.

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced