Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's  Shards of Honor. The Short of It Plot:  After getting stranded on an uncharted planet, Commander Cordelia Naismith's only hope is Lord Aral Vorkosigan, a notorious military leader. The closer she grows to Lord Vorkosigan, the more she becomes a target for his enemies. Page Count:  313 Award: Prequel to Barrayar , which won a Hugo and Locus in 1992 Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Ah, that's some sweet, sweet, SF. A space opera/romance. Excellent lead characters with their own complexities - and probably one of the strongest and most compelling female protagonists yet. Good balance of action and drama with world building. Pacing is excellent - a generally tight package. A superb entry point to the Vorkosigan Saga.  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! As the blurb of Shards of Honor on both Goodreads (and Amazon) notes that "mu

Hello, Stranger. The Vorkosigan Saga  is worth a read. It is also long. Here is the order in which the author recommends reading them. This is not a review: it is a game plan. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga  has a bad habit of winning awards. If it wasn't bad enough that four books have won, two novellas have, and the whole series was given a Hugo award for "Best Series" in 2017. Did you know that there's a Hugo Award for best series ? My reading list cackles maniacally whenever I glance at it. This means, of course, that they all need to be reviewed. The whole saga.  Below is the list of the full series, in the order in which I read them. As I add each review, I will put in links to go from this page to the appropriate one. A number of these will be reviewed as pairs - usually based upon a main character completing their arc over two books. As a general rule, each review down the list may contain spoilers for those books and stories listed above it, thoug

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Connie Willis's  Doomsday Book. The Short of It Plot: A historian's time travel to the Middle Ages grows more and more complicated - and a crisis in the present adds new dangers. Page Count:  592 Award:  1992 Hugo, 1992 Locus SF, 1992 Nebula Worth a read : Yes. Primary Driver:  ( Plot ,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Past Technobabble:  Some babble, but often relevant. Review:  An array of excellent characters and compelling relationships ground two parallel stories. World building is excellent and remarkably prescient. Brilliant use of small setting details work wonders. Willis uses tropes well - leaning into some and spinning others in unexpected ways. A few unnecessary subplots stretch the length of this novel and slow pacing, but that is the only real issue.  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Wait a second! Aren't you jumping a few years in your reviews? Are you just trying to avoid writing up the Vorkosigan Saga reviews becau

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's  The Healer's War. The Short of It Plot:  A nurse in Vietnam tries to navigate the everyday danger of life on the front, and puts herself at risk to care for others. Page Count:  336 Award:  1989 Nebula Worth a read : No Primary Driver:  (Plot, World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  None Review:  Turns out the Vietnam War was not that great. Turns out being a woman in a warzone is not that great. Turns out viewing your enemies as subhuman is not that great. This is a character-driven story, and is semi-autobiographical. Kitty is likeable enough, though inconsistent. There is not really a story, exactly. She is thrown from one situation to another, usually without agency of her own. Pacing is all over the place. Not a terrible book but feels like yet another war story in a long line of such. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! It is a bit uncomfortable to say, "Hey, you should skip this gut-wren

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Peter Straub's  The Throat. The Short of It Plot:  Tim Underwood and Tom Pasmore team up to investigate a death close to Underwood.  Page Count:  692 Award:  None, final book in Blue Rose Trilogy Worth a read : No Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Fail Technobabble:  None. Review:  A decent horror thriller with interesting meta-fiction elements. However, it feels less like a culmination of a trilogy than a retread, and does not build appreciably upon Mystery . Main character work generally solid, but falls off for side characters. Writing is good, plot is messy. Pacing is alright for a 700 page tome, but the story does not justify its length. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Spoilers for Koko  and Mystery. A preface for everything that comes: there will not be much discussion of the story itself. This is a solid suspense/mystery novel, that is a bit too long. Straub is a better-than competent writer. As a suspense no

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Peter Straub's  Mystery. The Short of It Plot: The best detective out there - a misanthropic bookworm - tackles corruption and violence in his own backyard. Page Count: 548 Award:  Sequel to Koko . No awards of its own. Published 1990. Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character )  Bechdel Test : Pass. Technobabble:  None.  Review:  A delightful if surprisingly dark mystery/adventure. Elevated above comparable stories by compelling protagonists and a clear love of books woven throughout. As is the case with many mysteries, some jumps are a bit contrived - but the suspense elements deliver, and Straub's writing shines. Excellent character work. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! There's a minor but obvious spoiler here: that the protagonist does not die at the very start of the book. This is also spoiled by the blurb, so we're just going to accept that. Through the transparent medium of books, he left behind his bod

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Peter Straub's  Koko. The Short of It Plot: A series of murders over many decades point to only one person: Koko. But his former squad mates could have sworn he was dead... Page Count:  562 Award: 1989 World Fantasy Award Worth a read : No Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Fail Technobabble:  Doesn't really apply. Review:  Turns out that the Vietnam war was pretty much not a good thing. Superb use of atmosphere and mood coupled with generally good writing. Plot is not great, heavy flashbacks break flow of present-day story. Scenes of gratuitous gore and violence are at first shocking and then become dull. Most characters are flat, making it hard to stay invested in what is a heavily people-driven story. Ends up feeling more like an experience than a story. And gets relentlessly depressing. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! If one were to read this is a fantasy story, it is sorely wanting. It is a gritty Vietnam ho