A YOUNG WOMAN ON THE THRESHOLD between student and adult, between her early childhood in China and her life in Canada, and even between English and Mandarin, is haunted by memory and her younger self as her mother drifts into illness. B PLUS
... first novel featuring DI Nyree Bradshaw (BETTER LEFT DEAD is now available), set in the upper north island region of New Zealand, with idyllic scenery, pockets of poverty, a strong, tight knit Māori community, and a lot of fractious relationships.
I forgot to post that I was reading The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. This is the sequel to The Maid that I read previously. I liked this book better than the first one, maybe because I knew what to expect from Molly and the other hotel staff. Another thing I liked about this book was how it switched from Molly’s perspective in present day to her memories of her childhood. It added a lot of background and context that I found necessary for the development of the book’s plot.
"You are my Sunshine" is a song that hums with all the notes of clifi, from the horrifying to the hopeful. Its titular novelette is a bone-chilling plunge into the terrifying depths of our climate reality. Octavia Cade @octaviacade weaves the same spell of sobering disquiet found in her novella, THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF, to this collection of sunflowers, starfish & submarine paths to reworlding. A magnificent read. @StelliformPress #clifi#climatefiction#solarpunk#bookreview#sff
A RELUCTANT HITWOMAN’S COMPLICATED life gets a bit more difficult when her imperious aunt orders her to run a charity race and her mobster boss commissions her to assassinate a dictator. Cozy thriller combines action and fun. SOLID B
I'm thrilled with my first review for The She-Wolf of Baker Street!!! Ashleigh Meikle says:
"As ancient & modern worlds, mythology & reality collide...this unique Holmesian adventure was brilliantly executed, & managed to traverse the fae traditions in a modern context to allow the story to work well & come to life as part of the Holmesian cannon of literature."
🆕 blog! “Book Review - Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy”
★⯪☆☆☆
This is a weird book. The politics of the Star Wars universe are rarely deeply examined. The various tax-related shenanigans of The Phantom Menace were derided by geeks but here become a potent source for art as a dozen artists reimagine classic p…
Book cover for Star Wars Propaganda.This is a weird book. The politics of the Star Wars universe are rarely deeply examined. The various tax-related shenanigans of The Phantom Menace were derided by geeks but here become a potent source for art as a dozen artists reimagine classic propaganda posters from Earth and remix them with pop-culture.
There are some stunning pieces of art - with a real feel of history. Here's a typical sample:
The images are a decently sized - but could have been a bit higher resolution for viewing on a tablet.
The textual content is mostly unserious filler. It is a weird pastiche of history books, going through the purported story of the artists and circumstances behind the propaganda. It is further padded with low-resolution screenshots from the movies.
It might have been better if this were a proper art book - showing the human-world's propaganda and how a series of artists adopted and synthesised it for Star Wars. If you aren't familiar with 20th Century poster art, some of the significance will be lost on you. One nice touch is that the book prominently lists the human artists behind each work.
You'll flick through the book in about 20 minutes. It's the sort of thing which could have been a BuzzFeed listicle. It's further cheapened by the adverts for OpenRoad Media's book giveaways. Beware, if you sign up for them, you'll find it difficult to remove yourself from their endless mailing lists.
"From the beginning, I was completely enthralled by this book... the world building is top notch. If you love dark romance, fantasy, queer characters, flawed and morally grey characters... you’ll love this book."
TWO SISTERS, VETERANS of World War II and still eager for “excitements” in their late nineties, find more thrills than they had bargained for on a trip to Paris. Charming adventure for fans of the Thursday Murder Club and Mrs. Pargeter. B PLUS
HORRORS BOTH HUMAN AND SUPERNATURAL roll out with a relentless, breathtaking pace in this final installment of the Indian Lake Trilogy. As ever, Stephen Graham Jones’s deft characterization and vivid sense of place drive the chill deep. B PLUS
Book review #26 for 2024 is John R Bruning's Race of Aces: WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky. An interesting yet sobering re-telling of the men, primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater of operations, who fought to beat Eddie Rickenbacker's 26 victories in World War 1. ☕☕☕☕review #books#ww2#history#military#bookreview@bookstodon@books
🆕 blog! “Book Review - Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World by Georgina Voss”
★★★⯪☆
Every technology is a transitional technology. This book makes the case that the complexity of modern technology is, well, complex! Systems are designed by so many people that their outputs are an utter mystery to anyone - even t…
Book cover for Systems Ultra.Every technology is a transitional technology. This book makes the case that the complexity of modern technology is, well, complex! Systems are designed by so many people that their outputs are an utter mystery to anyone - even those deeply enmeshed within them.
It is somewhat scattershot - leaping between sextech, payment processors, architecture, and half a dozen other subjects. Each chapter is a worthy examination of a complex technology - but I felt it would have benefited from being a little more focussed.
‘what happens when systems break?’ is that they become visible.
This, I think, is the crux of the book. We don't notice the systems around us until they no longer work. That might be because a power cable is severed, or it might be because we as individuals are rejected from it. There's a long discussion about accepting payment for adult services. It turns out that payment processors who refuse to serve that market aren't making a moral judgement - the economics of constant chargebacks and fraud simply make it unprofitable.
To invent the sailing ship or the steamer is to invent the shipwreck. To invent the family automobile is to produce the pile-up on the highway. Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.
Paul Virilio
Every system creates its own waste-product. To invent Internet tracking is to invent the data breach. To invent the password is to invent the cracker. It was Katherine Myronuk who said "All complex ecosystems have parasites" - but I think it is more pervasive than that. Complex systems have inherent flaws which reveal themselves in disturbing and unexpected ways.
Systems are both structure and behaviour.
If we engage with systems, it is our reaction to them which often shapes how they behave. Technology isn't just action, it must also be reaction.
‘In the future . . .’ is rife at CES. It smooths the gap between the cracked asphalt on the roads outside the convention centre and the promise of new sensor-embedded freeways that autonomous cars can navigate. ‘In the future . . .’ offers a familiar world with the same old culture but now, we have jetpacks.
This is the key misunderstanding that technologists have. We point to the future without ever explaining how on Earth we get there! Transitional technology is everything. And yet, we cannot invent a new system without creating a failure mode with severe ramifications.
The book is a little meandering and could do with some phones to illustrate the subjects it is talking about. But it is certainly an intriguing ramble through the complexity of the modern systems and some of the implications those complexities impose on our future.
You have four more days to download an early review copy of My Happy Time Loop Fail on BookFunnel. The book comes out on April 28th. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/acqoqf3730
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
The family trauma that pervades THE DAY OF THE DOOR is horrifying enough, but coupled with the intensely creepy events that occur, this story encapsulates "HORROR" in a masterful, terrifying way. Laurel Hightower has written a beautifully dark story about the Things that haunt our hearts. (Ghoulish Books)