Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's  Mirror Dance. The Short of It Plot:  Hiding out on Earth seems like a good way to avoid the Cetagandans, but Miles ends up embroiled in more politics. Page Count:  392 Award: 1995 Hugo, 1995 Locus SF Worth a read : Yup Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate Review:  The first Vorkosigan book that has multiple POV characters. A significant improvement from its predecessor regarding plotting and pacing: things move fast. Character work is good and favorites from early books help make new characters more palatable. De-emphasized world-building gives this a very different flavor from other Vorkosigan books. The Medium of It Spoiler Free!  It feels silly to keep reviewing this series - at this point, either you're invested or you're not. This is the ninth Vorkosigan review. Who will I convince now? But when you fail at a task you se...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Ursula K. Le Guin's  Tales from Earthsea. The Short of It Plot:  A collection of short stories which flesh out the history of Earthsea. Page Count:  296 Award:  None, but is preceded and followed by award winners. Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass. Technobabble:  Nah. Review:  Does for Earthsea what the Silmarillion does for Middle Earth, but does not require the same level of buy in. Mileage may vary for each story. Le Guin successfully creates short, compelling vignettes, which illuminate aspects of her world - without sacrificing character or plot. Nice to see Ged doing his thing again. Probably my favorite of the post-trilogy Earthsea  books. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! The way one does research into nonexistent history is to tell the story and find out what happened. I believe this isn’t very different from what historians of the so-calle...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Vernor Vinge's  Children of the Sky. The Short of It Plot: Enemies old and new threaten the fragile stability of the alliance between humans on tines. Page Count:  444 Award:  Sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep Worth a read : No. Primary Driver:  (Plot, World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate Review:  Disappointing. Almost exclusively focused on underdeveloped interpersonal relationships between characters. Works within an established world and adds only negligible new details. Dull story beats and poorly executed limited omnipotence regularly eject the reader from the story. This is not a tale that needed to be told. The Short of It Spoiler Free! On its own, or in a different series, perhaps this book would be easier to stomach. As it stands, however, it is a frustrating and disappointing slog, a smudge on the legacy of an otherwise fantastic series. A Fire Upon the Deep is a comp...