Reviews and Comments

A kafkaesque nightmare, a 200-page lsd trip, Fight Club for lit majors

Newman keeps me guessing as usual.

After Atlas follows Dee, an ancillary character from After Atlas, in her quest to figure out what the hell is going on.

This one gets very dark, but it's wonderfully written, and I devoured it.

A psychologist volunteers to join a small research and exploration team on an extraplanetary mission, drama ensues.

Ghost Station reminds me of Before Mars in a number of ways, the most important being that I really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing.

Now I'm off to go find something else by S.A. Barnes

I really dig the premise, but the execution bothered me a lot. Maybe they were just trying to do too much in a novella length, or maybe it's just me, but everything just felt rushed and clumsy. 🤷

#SFFBookClub

What’s that I see at the top of my reading pile?

Oh, NBD, just a copy of my book. Not its final form, but still, the first time I've held it in my hands.

A tangible version of something that’s existed in more abstract, emotional, and digital forms for years.

mastodon.scot/users/kristiedegaris/statuses/114319100705199265

Velvet Was the Night is a little like if the video game Revolution 1979: Black Friday was written as a Tarantino screenplay.

It's loosely based on El Halconazo, and follows El Elvis, a member of Los Halcones, and Maite, a bored legal secretary, as they get tangled up in its aftermath.

It didn't really draw me in, I kind of kept waiting for the real story to start, but it felt like it never did.

This is my third Emma Newman novel, and I am now down to read anything she writes.

Before Mars follows geologist and hobby painter/streamer Anna Kubrin, who has been sent to join a small group of scientists at Mars's only research station, at the behest of her employer.

As usual with Newman's novels, it's very difficult to discuss what I loved about it without stomping all over her masterful unfolding of the plot, but she has followed her previous pattern of weaving an engrossing scifi story through a handful of Serious Themes - postpartum depression, psychosis, coercion, betrayal, and surveillance capitalism. With this one, I was a bit less in the dark throughout because of my experience with the previous two, and because the universe is getting more filled in.

Go read Planetfall! Read them all!

I am so mad at this series for normalizing "gov-corp" in my brain 😡

Although set in the Planetfall universe, After Atlas is a crime novel that reminded me strongly of Stross's Halting State.

Carlos Moreno is the left-behind son of one of the Atlas passengers from Planetfall, and is now an investigator for the ministry of justice. The plot revolves around his investigation of a high-profile murder with Atlas connections.

There are strong themes around surveillance capitalism tech dystopia, coercion and slavery, and childhood trauma.

Really highlighting how annoying and disturbing ubiquitous ar/vr and "virtual assistants" would be in our existing capitalist hellscape

omg this is a gem, and I've slept on it for ten years!

Planetfall is a scifi novel about space exploration, community, betrayal, and mental illness, in no particular order. It's superbly written, and the characters are deep and complex, and the gradual unpacking of the narrative is masterful.

Close whatever you're reading this on and go read Planetfall!

The #SFFBookClub pick for April 2025

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart is a vignette about working through guilt and self-loathing toward self-forgiveness.

There's a lot going on in terms of themes: gender, transhumanism, anarchy and fascism, cloning, all mixed into a more standard crime plot.

Although the main thread is satisfactorily wrapped up, there's definitely room to explore the world further - I want more Dora!

#SFFBookClub