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zillanovikov's reviews
65 reviews
A SteamPunk's Guide to the Apocalypse by Colin Foran, Margaret Killjoy
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Did I enjoy this? Yes. Did it terrify me for how useless I'll be with civilization's warm embrace? Also, yes. A good starting guide to educate me on how much I need to learn if this whole "saving the world" thing doesn't work out.
Cold Rising: A Cold Rush Novella by Rohan O'Duill
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It is a challenge for me to review a book that I love this much.
If I only liked one thing about the book—say, if I enjoyed the fast-paced adventure in the bowels of Mars, or the found family of Olgo choosing to love a brave Martian child, or the focus on making heroes from the too often-neglected stories of sweatshop workers—I could write about that thing. Or maybe I could write about the humour, the way Olgo's dry wit keeps you entertained despite their grim circumstances. Or the brilliance of the gritty worldbuilding which gives us a grim future, but one where there's still hope to improve it.
But what if it's all those things I love, and more? I can't write a review that's as long as the book itself.
I read this book half a dozen times to beta read it for Rohan, and I never once got bored. It is a very good book. And I love it.
If I only liked one thing about the book—say, if I enjoyed the fast-paced adventure in the bowels of Mars, or the found family of Olgo choosing to love a brave Martian child, or the focus on making heroes from the too often-neglected stories of sweatshop workers—I could write about that thing. Or maybe I could write about the humour, the way Olgo's dry wit keeps you entertained despite their grim circumstances. Or the brilliance of the gritty worldbuilding which gives us a grim future, but one where there's still hope to improve it.
But what if it's all those things I love, and more? I can't write a review that's as long as the book itself.
I read this book half a dozen times to beta read it for Rohan, and I never once got bored. It is a very good book. And I love it.
Corrupted Vessels by Briar Ripley Page
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read Corrupted Vessels twice, and it never gave away its secrets to me.
Ash is a cult leader and a prophet, a murderer and a saviour. Ghosts are unreliable, offering true visions as they extract contradictory promises from their former companions. Photos trap your soul, but is then housed in the camera or in the photographer?
Every incident in the story has a plausible explanation, on reread could be as mundane as a stray memory of a half-drunk conversation, a clearer appearance with a change of clothes. But still I wonder, if Air had come to the house when it was all 4 of them, if Ash had trusted their angels, could it have been different? Was the magic possible, once, or was it always an illusion?
If the book tells you the answer, I never found it in the pages.
Ash is a cult leader and a prophet, a murderer and a saviour. Ghosts are unreliable, offering true visions as they extract contradictory promises from their former companions. Photos trap your soul, but is then housed in the camera or in the photographer?
Every incident in the story has a plausible explanation, on reread could be as mundane as a stray memory of a half-drunk conversation, a clearer appearance with a change of clothes. But still I wonder, if Air had come to the house when it was all 4 of them, if Ash had trusted their angels, could it have been different? Was the magic possible, once, or was it always an illusion?
If the book tells you the answer, I never found it in the pages.
Never Say Never by Justine Manzano
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This was a very fun, very sassy YA romance. Bonus points for a story where the friendships were just as important as the romance, and where family is who we unconditionally love not who we share genetics with. A great read to lift your mood, if you want a heartfelt YA comfort read.
Trip the Light Fantastic by Nicole Bea
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Trip the Light Fantastic is a beautiful, gentle book. It's about learning to dance and not minding that you make mistakes. It's about reinventing yourself without losing who you were. It's about falling in love with someone who makes you pancakes and teaches you the Charleston and always meets you where you are.
"A kiss that reminds me I am more than just having love. I, too, am love itself—formed together from sea salt breezes and gauzy curtains and the smell of rubber burning on the highway."
"A kiss that reminds me I am more than just having love. I, too, am love itself—formed together from sea salt breezes and gauzy curtains and the smell of rubber burning on the highway."
Assassin of Reality by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The first thing you have to understand is that Vita Nostra is perfect. When something is its own ideal, fully encapsulated, how can there be a sequel?
The answer is Assassin of Reality.
Sasha is older now, more aware. They are all. They know what is being done to them, and they know why. They cannot become a concept without deconstructing their humanity; they cannot grow without retaining it, at least a little. Without love, and therefore fear, to trap them. They will trade freedom for harmony. They will become the trap.
Except there are always possibilities. A world where the ice fell on neither mother nor baby carriage, where you bought the fire extinguisher, where you swerved away from the bus. A world where love exists without fear.
Be brave, Sasha tells us.
The answer is Assassin of Reality.
Sasha is older now, more aware. They are all. They know what is being done to them, and they know why. They cannot become a concept without deconstructing their humanity; they cannot grow without retaining it, at least a little. Without love, and therefore fear, to trap them. They will trade freedom for harmony. They will become the trap.
Except there are always possibilities. A world where the ice fell on neither mother nor baby carriage, where you bought the fire extinguisher, where you swerved away from the bus. A world where love exists without fear.
Be brave, Sasha tells us.
Beyond Human: Tales of the New Us by Rohan O'Duill, Emma Berglund, Vera M. Key, Jason Clor
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Lower Decks Press has done it again, producing another anthology of undeniably modern short stories that reads like Golden Age science fiction. I grew up reading ‘Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine’, and these stories feel as familiar as rereading those yellowing pages. But between the alien battles and unintended consequences of cybernetic technology, the themes of this anthology belong firmly in 2023.
We live in a world where late-stage capitalism is turning every aspect of our lives into a commodity to be optimised, not for ourselves, but for our employers. Workplaces put on wellness seminars because mentally and physically healthy employees work harder. In Beyond Human, undertested technology is used to maximise workers’ productivity, from those in office jobs to working personal protection. Consent becomes an illusion, if the truth of what you are consenting to is withheld, or if the consequences for failing to abandon your bodily autonomy are more severe than the risk.
I also see a trans reading in many of the stories. Society dictates what transformations must be imposed on us, but also which we are denied. Parents, religious leaders, and governments refuse to allow some people to replace broken body parts with cybernetics, or to upload their minds to the cloud. In a world where trans people are all-too-often denied the agency to modify their bodies, science fiction is the perfect vehicle to show the injustice in these stories.
In some ways, the most hopeful stories in this anthology are those with the reverse message. Instead of humans becoming alien to themselves, we learn to see the humanity in that which is unlike us. Whether it is the space dinosaur trying to save our doomed planet or the aliens who cannot survive without merging with us, Beyond Human asks us to see the other in a new, kinder light.
We live in a world where late-stage capitalism is turning every aspect of our lives into a commodity to be optimised, not for ourselves, but for our employers. Workplaces put on wellness seminars because mentally and physically healthy employees work harder. In Beyond Human, undertested technology is used to maximise workers’ productivity, from those in office jobs to working personal protection. Consent becomes an illusion, if the truth of what you are consenting to is withheld, or if the consequences for failing to abandon your bodily autonomy are more severe than the risk.
I also see a trans reading in many of the stories. Society dictates what transformations must be imposed on us, but also which we are denied. Parents, religious leaders, and governments refuse to allow some people to replace broken body parts with cybernetics, or to upload their minds to the cloud. In a world where trans people are all-too-often denied the agency to modify their bodies, science fiction is the perfect vehicle to show the injustice in these stories.
In some ways, the most hopeful stories in this anthology are those with the reverse message. Instead of humans becoming alien to themselves, we learn to see the humanity in that which is unlike us. Whether it is the space dinosaur trying to save our doomed planet or the aliens who cannot survive without merging with us, Beyond Human asks us to see the other in a new, kinder light.
It Helps with the Blues by Bryan Cebulski
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There is a tendency for lonely, disconnected teenagers to fall too deeply into introspection. To observe their own life as they live it, both Nick Caraway and Jay Gatsby in their own story, hurdling towards their destruction, their eyes open. I know this because I was this kind of teenager. The narrator of It Helps with the Blues knows this too.
I'm not old enough to know if manic-pixie-dream-girls existed before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gave them a name. But I know that all too often, lonely, disconnected teenagers are looking for an external saviour. This thing we feel when we find the person we think will save us, will give us meaning, will make us finally not alone–it's not love. But it's not exactly not love either. Only it's too much to ask someone else to save you. Especially someone who needs saving just as much as we do. It's not just unfair. It's impossible. It ends in heartache. It ends in tragedy.
When I was in high school, I felt like my life was recursive, like I would be given the same choice over and over in different contexts until maybe–I hoped, if I made the right decision–I could escape the loop. Jules. Gabriel. Estelle. Joshua. The narrator is trapped in a Midwestern prison of suburbia and recriminations, doomed like Sisyphus to endlessly repeat and reexamine his mistakes.
It Helps with the Blues pours one out for the lonely kids. That was me. Maybe that was you, too
.
I'm not old enough to know if manic-pixie-dream-girls existed before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gave them a name. But I know that all too often, lonely, disconnected teenagers are looking for an external saviour. This thing we feel when we find the person we think will save us, will give us meaning, will make us finally not alone–it's not love. But it's not exactly not love either. Only it's too much to ask someone else to save you. Especially someone who needs saving just as much as we do. It's not just unfair. It's impossible. It ends in heartache. It ends in tragedy.
When I was in high school, I felt like my life was recursive, like I would be given the same choice over and over in different contexts until maybe–I hoped, if I made the right decision–I could escape the loop. Jules. Gabriel. Estelle. Joshua. The narrator is trapped in a Midwestern prison of suburbia and recriminations, doomed like Sisyphus to endlessly repeat and reexamine his mistakes.
It Helps with the Blues pours one out for the lonely kids. That was me. Maybe that was you, too
.
Thank You For Loving Me by Nicole Bea
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"This connection, the one between our skin, is a kind of unwritten, unpainted, unphotographed something that tells me that from now on we might have moments of loneliness, but we’ll never be truly alone."
Thank You For Loving Me is a gentle book. It's a story about healing after a loss that destroyed you. It's about forgiving each other and yourself for continuing to go on, for finding happiness when all joy seemed lost. It is a book about sailing your grief ship to safe waters.
Maggie's world ended when she lost her sailor husband, Taylor. Her remaining lifeline to community is his sister, but Caitlyn has her own wounds, and Maggie is as lonely when she calls as alone. Thank You For Loving Me tells the story of Maggie allowing herself to move past her grief to find friendship and new love, without forgetting Taylor.
The book is classic Nicole Bea; the description is lush and the east coast setting is a character in its own right. The sea took Taylor from her, but the maritime ocean is not cruel in this book-–it is the inspiration for Maggie's paintings, and the colour of the eyes of her new love. Even when she has little human company, Maggie is never truly alone on the beach. The world can be impossibly hard, but Nicole shows us that it can be kind, too.
...And the Stars Will Sing by Michelle Browne
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Anyone who liked The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet will love this space opera about found family on a remote space station. Told as a series of letters Crystal is writing to her best friend, we see the gorgeous world building of a complex intergalactic social system, we see friendships (and love) unfold, and then we see things fall apart when the pirates attack. Come for the space, stay for the adventure.