Hi all, and welcome to part 2 of The Quill to Live and Orbit reread of Cibola Burn - the 4th book of one of the best space operas to grace the page, The Expanse. We will break this reread into three parts to discuss the various acts of the book, its themes, and the statements…
Continue reading ➞ Cibola Burn Re-Read Guide: Act 2 – Playing With Corpses
Hi all, and welcome to The Quill to Live and Orbit reread of Cibola Burn - the 4th book of one of the best space operas to grace the page, The Expanse. We will break this reread into three parts to discuss the various acts of the book, its themes, and the statements it makes. We…
Continue reading ➞ Cibola Burn Re-Read Guide: Act 1 – Tragedy On New Terra
Cassandra Khaw is a name that has lurked in the back of my mind for a long while now, even though I have never read her other works. A review of one of her previous works exists on the site, and though I didn’t get to those stories (yet), those words ring true about her…
Continue reading ➞ The All-Consuming World – A Veritable Buffet of Good Times
With The Expanse sadly ending this year, I have been on the lookout for new space operas to fill the void, and I have found a new contender. Site favorite Adrian Tchaikovsky has put out the first novel in a sweeping science-fiction epic titled Shards of Earth, and it is a wild ride. Tchaikovsky has…
A Memory Called Empire is easily one of my favorite debut novels of the last several years. Not a lot of other books captivated me with the levels of palace intrigue Arkady Martine was able to stuff inside it. Not only that, but the book massaged my big brained ego with its exploration of identity…
Continue reading ➞ A Desolation Called Peace — A Sequel Deemed Magnificent
Alright, I am finally ready to tackle a "review" on The Interdependency trilogy by John Scalzi. As much as I’ve wanted to review these books on their own, I feel the best approach to talking about these novels is at a series level. When I tried writing about them individually, I wanted to focus on…
Continue reading ➞ The Interdependency – Interdependent Habitats, Planetary Dependent
I’ve been meaning to check out Kameron Hurley’s recent work for a long time. I read The Mirror Empire back in 2015 and was immediately impressed by her ability to be brutal about violence and use her settings and worlds to convey sharp critiques while keeping her books fun. As I began to read more…
Continue reading ➞ The Stars Are Legion – Brutal and Whimsical
Sometimes you read a book, and you’re not entirely sure how you feel about it. It’s hard to put into words how you would recommend it. Over time, you realize your gut feelings are just going to be the way you feel about it for a while. And it’s not necessarily the book’s fault; it’s…
Continue reading ➞ Pale Light In The Black – If Only It Were A Little Brighter
The First Sister, by Linden Lewis, is an impressively ambitious debut, and one of our dark horses of 2020. Part space opera, part social commentary, part feminist power piece, and part character-driven narrative, this book has a lot of moving pieces in a fairly small page count (350). It feels like a tiny explosion of…
Continue reading ➞ The First Sister – A Little Bit Of Everything, Not Enough Of Something
A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, is a 1992 sci-fi modern classic that is getting a re-release this year from Tor. While it is not a golden age sci-fi, missing the era by about 50 years, it definitely feels like a tribute to the great classics. At the same time, it is highly…
