lauraglovestoread's reviews
419 reviews
The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
The Water Outlaws is a revolutionary feminist wuxia tale inspired by Water Margin, a novel written in Mandarin (the publication date of which is unknown, but which is certainly pre-1524). It follows Lin Chong, an instructor who works training soldiers for the Emperor, whose carefully constructed life of respectability is torn apart by a violently misogynist commanding officer. Fleeing, she finds herself amongst the Bandits of Liangshan, a crew of mostly women who consider themselves fighters for justice for the oppressed.
I loved this novel. Huang has so skillfully blended the conventions of wuxia, political intrigue, epic fight scenes, and complex & well developed magical systems that I wish I could go back a little bit in time so that I wasn’t finished reading yet. The plot drew me in and kept me interested, and the characters - in all their moral ambiguity - stole my heart. I so hope that Huang returns to Liangshan for a future novel.
Content warnings: sexual assault (on page), violence, murder, death, gore, injury detail, grief, misogyny, sexism, cannibalism (on page), torture (on page)
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Misogyny, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Cannibalism, Torture, and Sexual assault
The Druid Grove Handbook by John Michael Greer
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
This is a set of ritual scripts and methods for the AODA (Ancient Order of Druids in America) as of time of publication (2011), compiled by a former Grand Archdruid who did a lot to revitalize the Order. It is essential reading for AODA Druids (it is part of the Apprentice grade curriculum), and likely of interest to Druids of at least some other Orders also. While some aspects of the rituals have changed and others are explicitly described as examples that the reader/practitioner is to adjust to include symbolism meaningful to them, this is an excellent reference and Greer's inclusion of chapters on the history of AODA ritual and its symbolism and structure is vital reading.
Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
This is the third story I've read in the Universe of Xuya, a large collection of relatively stand-alone short stories and novellas set in a world where, in the author's words, "Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration: scholars administrate planets, and sentient spaceships are part of familial lineages." I have enjoyed them all.
"Seven of Infinities" follows Vân, a tutor with a secret that would cost her her job, and The Wild Orchid In The Sunless Woods, a mindship who isn't who she appears to be. When Uyên, the young woman Vân tutors, receives a mysterious visitor who promptly dies on her floor, the characters must investigate to find out who might be targetting one or more of them and why.
I really like the Xuya universe as a setting. I liked the character development in this story, which felt thorough despite the novella's short length. What didn't work for me was the romance, which felt very abrupt.
"Seven of Infinities" follows Vân, a tutor with a secret that would cost her her job, and The Wild Orchid In The Sunless Woods, a mindship who isn't who she appears to be. When Uyên, the young woman Vân tutors, receives a mysterious visitor who promptly dies on her floor, the characters must investigate to find out who might be targetting one or more of them and why.
I really like the Xuya universe as a setting. I liked the character development in this story, which felt thorough despite the novella's short length. What didn't work for me was the romance, which felt very abrupt.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and Death
Minor: Gore
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Wengrow, David Graeber
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
"What if we treat people, from the beginning, as imaginative, intelligent, playful creatures who deserve to be understood as such? What if, instead of telling a story about how our species fell from some idyllic state of equality, we ask how we came to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even the possibility of reinventing ourselves?" [9]
Absolutely fantastic. In this wide ranging, ambitious book, "the Davids" pick apart deep seated presumptions underlying much of anthropology and history and demonstrate that not only are these assumptions not aligned with facts, but that they are rooted in ideological commitments that refuse to allow the possibility that ancient ways of organizing societies were the result of deliberation and decision-making. Dismantling assumptions like 'cities that are complex need hierarchies' and 'social development is determined by technology,' the Davids discuss examples of early societies from all over the world as experimenting with how best to live and organize themselves and ask how it is that unlike our ancestors, many of whom lived in societies that oscillated between different political systems seasonally, many of us can barely even imagine alternate forms of social, political, and economic life.
Absolutely fantastic. In this wide ranging, ambitious book, "the Davids" pick apart deep seated presumptions underlying much of anthropology and history and demonstrate that not only are these assumptions not aligned with facts, but that they are rooted in ideological commitments that refuse to allow the possibility that ancient ways of organizing societies were the result of deliberation and decision-making. Dismantling assumptions like 'cities that are complex need hierarchies' and 'social development is determined by technology,' the Davids discuss examples of early societies from all over the world as experimenting with how best to live and organize themselves and ask how it is that unlike our ancestors, many of whom lived in societies that oscillated between different political systems seasonally, many of us can barely even imagine alternate forms of social, political, and economic life.
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement, Xenophobia, Sexism, War, Antisemitism, Slavery, Torture, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder
A Fire in the Heavens by Mary Robinette Kowal
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
"A Fire in the Heavens" follows Katin, a woman persecuted for her religion who has hired a ship to take her towards where her holy text suggests the religion began in hopes of finding a homeland. What they find is not what anyone expected. I enjoyed this story; my only real complaint with this is that I wish it were longer.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
3.5 stars.
This collection of short stories is best read after (re)watching Dirty Computer, as the text is set in the world of Dirty Computer and includes the characters therein. I appreciate this collection as a hopeful visioning, in many cases focused on the carving out of utopian, pleasurable spaces amidst struggles for liberation from totalitarianism. I like the inclusion of a short essay and some discussion questions at the end of the book, well suited to a book club. With each short story featuring a different co-author, I did find the collection read a bit unevenly, with some stories more compelling than others. The book is best at its most subtle; in a few instances, the analysis felt a bit heavy. Monáe is tremendously talented and I'm not at all surprised her first work of written fiction is solid; I'll happily pick up her next one.
This collection of short stories is best read after (re)watching Dirty Computer, as the text is set in the world of Dirty Computer and includes the characters therein. I appreciate this collection as a hopeful visioning, in many cases focused on the carving out of utopian, pleasurable spaces amidst struggles for liberation from totalitarianism. I like the inclusion of a short essay and some discussion questions at the end of the book, well suited to a book club. With each short story featuring a different co-author, I did find the collection read a bit unevenly, with some stories more compelling than others. The book is best at its most subtle; in a few instances, the analysis felt a bit heavy. Monáe is tremendously talented and I'm not at all surprised her first work of written fiction is solid; I'll happily pick up her next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality
Barbara Walker's The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History, and Symbolism by Barbara Walker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.
DNF at 50% (I made it through the introduction and major arcana). From the very first sentence's declaration that tarot cards are precursors to playing cards, this book is full of incorrect information. While there are citations throughout, the author attributes their own ideas to sources they don't appear in and many of the sources cited are not very good. There is a lot of problematic generalization here, conflating different cultural contexts and incorrectly positing highly culturally specific ideas as universals. I cannot recommend this.
The Druid Revival Reader by John Michael Greer
informative
slow-paced
3.0
In the The Druid Revival Reader, John Michael Greer has collected 12 writings to represent the Druid Revival. Some of the texts are by Druid Revival participants, such as Iolo Morganwg and Ross Nichols, while others are by authors who in some way influenced the Revival but were not themselves practicing Druids. For each, Greer includes a short introduction contextualizing the author and his work and providing a few bibliography entries for further reading; the texts are chronologically ordered, and Greer's forward provides an excellent guide to the collection without imposing too much on the reader in terms of interpretation of the texts. This is not a text to learn about Druidry as it is practiced today, but it's a valuable resource for learning about contemporary Druidry's roots. Inevitably, some of the writing is rather dry. I would recommend this collection to those interested in or practicing Revival Druidry, and to those interested in the historical development of contemporary Druidry.
Witch King by Martha Wells
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
The Witch King is a stand-alone fantasy novel set in two timelines, both following Kaiisteron, a demon. In the earliest timeline, here positioned as a backstory, the novel follows Kai's emergence into the mortal realm into his first human body, his meeting most of the supporting characters, and his participation in an uprising. The later timeline begins with Kai awaking from imprisonment and needing to figure out who betrayed him and to what end. Both timelines are, effectively, adventure stories, complete with magic artefacts, dangerous terrains, outmaneuvering enemies, and the need to keep complicated, messy coalitions and allegiances together.
This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters. It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance. The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here. The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning. It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.
While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).
This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained. I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise.
Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture
This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters. It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance. The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here. The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning. It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.
While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).
This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained. I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise.
Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, War, Murder, Blood, and Torture
The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
3.5. The Scourge Between Stars is a solid sci-fi suspense debut novella following the first mate of a generational ship attempting to return to Earth after an attempt at developing a new colony on another planet failed. Jacklyn, acting as captain while her father hasn't been seen for a week, must navigate not only internal crew dynamics (including wards contesting bridge decision-making and seeking autonomy) but the threat of something mysterious lurking inside the ship. A well written novella with a pace that kept me engaged, I appreciated Jacklyn as a POV character and the tension that built over the course of the book. I didn't find this the most original by any means - it feels a lot like Alien and was rather predictable - but I had fun reading it and would absolutely read more by Ness Brown.
Content warnings: blood, gore, violence, death, murder, gun violence, body horror, grief, sexual assault (off page / clearly implied but not detailed)
Content warnings: blood, gore, violence, death, murder, gun violence, body horror, grief, sexual assault (off page / clearly implied but not detailed)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Body horror, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Sexual assault