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Review: This is How to Lose the Time War by Amal Al-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
I feel like everyone else that I know has already read this and loved it but I have just absorbed it and I have feelings that I simply must share. Gosh I loved this novella. Its poetic and epic and visceral and it really got to me in a way that I didn’t expect. Red is an operative of the agency she is aware that there is an enemy operative who is trailing her and she feels that she has finally met her match. One encounter Red finds a letter from her opponent, reads it and then decides to continue the correspondance at great risk to both of them.…
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Review: To be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
This novella is a long slow punch to the gut. I adore Becky Chambers writing I have loved her Wayfarers sequence and whilst this is not part of that universe it shares enough DNA that it feels similar. Ariadne, Chikondi, Elena and Jack are crew members on a mission from Earth to travel to four different envrionments on moons and planets for science! As ever with Chambers work there is a quiet humanity to her work where hope and doing things for the joy of them are celebrated and the work that four people undertake as well as how they interact and manage to get on. The emotional is…
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I could go on singing
Last week I went to The South Bank Centre to experience F K Alexander’s performance art I could go on singing. I’ve not seen that much performance art so I wasn’t sure what to expect but having read the description, I knew it was something I wanted to attend. F K Alexander Sings along to the final recording of Judy Garland singing somewhere over the rainbow against a backdrop of noise music. Its very intense but it is also incredibly beautiful. Self selected members of the audience step up and give their ticket to her and she then performs the song holding your hand and maintaining eye contact. I have…
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Review: Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold
Damned this is a good book. Luke Arnold has a gift for storytelling. Last Smile is the first in the new Fetch Philips series and it this opening story is anything to go by readers will be in for a treat. Fetch is a man for hire in a world where the magic has broken and the once mighty magical races now dwell in reduced circumstances because something the humans did and there is a lot of friction between humans and magicals because of this. Fetch has been involved in both sides and we see his back story shown through flashbacks which genuinely add depth to his…
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Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry
Charley and Rob are brothers with an awkward past. Charley a former child prodigy with the very unique ability that he can read characters out of books and have them appear in ort world. This concept I found utterly delightful, not least the opportunity to meet some of your favourite characters in the flesh. However, for Rob its something of an embarrassment, his brother is deliberately ruining his life and always has done. Especially as Rob is a Solicitor and has a serious life that he has built with his partner Lydia. The brothers are not close and Charley feels like the kind of vague professor who is so much…
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Subjective Chaos Nominations 2020
Subjective Chaos has started and these are the works that have been nomintated by the group. I’m really excited because I’m going to be reading outside my comfort zone and I’ll be reading some shorter fiction when I tend to read for novels for preference. Come with me on this journey for I shall not be sleeping as look at what we have nominated…. Best Short Fiction This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes & Dale Halvorsen (The Outcast Hours edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin) Doll Seed by Michele Tracy Berger (Fiyah Magazine Issue 11) The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor by…
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Subjective Chaos 2020
I am very behind on my blogging this year, I blame starting a new job but here’s the news. I have been asked to be part of the Subjective Chaos Awards this year and if you want to know more about us and what we are up to please read on. The rules/aims/guidelines/best intentions – We will embrace chaos – We will have fun – All discussion will be good-humoured – We do not shout and disturb the other readers The Categories – Best Fantasy Novel – Best SF Novel – Best Blurred Boundaries – Best Novella – Best Complete Series (final instalment published in 2019) – And now a…
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Welcome to 2020
Ugh I know I’ve been missing in action. I kind of ran out of steam at the end of last year the day job really took over and there were some pesky life moments getting in the way of editing podcasts and making this blog as interesting as it could be. So a quick round up. For the first time in forever I did not complete my Good Reads Challenge and, you know what I’m not going to beat myself up over it. It was a large number, I read very few comics and my personal life had a lot going on. This year I’m making some exciting reads…
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Shadowrun Character History
I was born in Cuba back near the start of the century when the world was just starting to turn properly to caca for most. One of my earliest memories is ma madre telling Eduardo and I just what she had sacrificed to bring us into the world and how we were a disappointment and her shame. I guess I should explain, Eduardo and I were such disappointments as we were both born dwarven and it was just at the time where we were first generation freaks rather than the kids today. We got stared at a lot as children and I could not help but notice their shame. There…
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Wherein I come out.
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Frozen 2
I came to the original Frozen quite late on, I didn’t see it in the cinema but rather watched it with some Disney obssessive friends and apart from Agnes Nitt I don’t think I’ve ever empathised with a character more. I loved Elsa so fiercely and Let it Go has been an anthem for me ever since. This probably makes me a basic bench but at this point I don’t really care. I had a moment of glorious catharsis where I ugly cried at Disneyland Paris when Elsa appeared and sang let it go. It touches me somewhere deep in my feels and I’m not going to apologise for that.…
