Reviews and Comments

via @TeamMidwest@glammr.us

based on jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/watch-us-where-we-go

I still mostly adore this book, but will be away from my paper books for a bit.

It's an accounting trick. I'm still listening to the same audiobook, but my plan is to listen through the first book (1/4) and see how I feel, possibly take a break.

First part of the Deverry: Books 1-4 box set.

What are the odds I'm going to listen to this entire monster without longish interruption. Probably I should break my review (if any) into constituent books.

I'm about half way through this. I'm reading it on my phone which at the moment is less enticing than audiobook while multitasking or a paperback in the bathtub. I am not a big reader of short stories, I think perversely because of a lack of attention span. I have a hard time keeping in my head what I think about a collection of stories, especially a big collection like this. Just looking at the table of contents I have a clear recollection of maybe half of the stories I read so far.

I'm a sucker for a good deal. USD12.99 for 58 hours of audiobook! I hope the narration is good as @kitkerr@wandering.shop says, because that's a lot of narration.

Based on the review by @Princejvstin@wandering.shop

Long form review at www.nerds-feather.com/2023/02/review-mimicking-of-known-successes-by.html

So far I am enjoying this much more than the last Discworld novel I re-read (Reaper Man). Who knows, maybe I'm just in a better mood, or maybe Pratchett developed as a writer in the intervening 19 novels.

At points this book reminded me strongly of certain influential works of speculative fiction, most notably Murderbot (corporate surveillance dystopia, cyborgs are people too) and Neuromancer (cyberspace, hacking as a kind of magical system). On the other hand, Okorafor writes confidently from the point of view of young Nigerian woman in the near future.

For me the warmth comes from the details of daily life in (roughly contemporary) Nigeria. On the other hand I don't have much of a reference point other than other books by the same author.

The book is, and is-not "hard" science fiction. It relies (mainly) on technology for setting and plot devices, but doesn't spend a lot of time on the technical details, and in one or two places might be jarring for the nerdier reader.

Content warnings: occasional violence, some body trauma. The moderate amount of sexual content is thankfully unrelated to the violence.

Liking the Nigerian cyberpunk vibe so far. I recognize some of the food from Akata Witch.

I haven't made much progress on this for a while.

There is a definite nerd-romance thing going on here. The characters are engaging and the adventure (if not the romance) has a few surprises.

I think young adults would be mortified to know their parents are reading parts of this, but it seems harmless enough to this non-parent.