David Bremner wants to read Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Box Set by Hayao Miyazaki
Although I don't read much on paper these days, for manga I guess it's the only sensible choice.
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computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver
Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.
FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz
bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.
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David Bremner's books
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David Bremner started reading Deverry: Books 1-4 by Katherine Kerr
I have made to book 4, but too lazy to import that separately at the moment.
Against the passionate sweep of Deverrian history, the powerful wizard Nevyn has lived for centuries, …
the series is growing on me
4 stars
First of all, a warning. If you are sensitive to depictions of sexual assault, this might not be the book for you. It isn't graphic, but it is there for a chapter or so.
With that said I think the series is coming into it's own. The world building is finally stretching a bit with pirate towns and a whole new continent / civilization. I also think the promotion of Salamander to a leading-for-this-book character was clever, as he brings some needed irreverence to the scene.
For better or worse, it really is a cliffhanger, and I kept going from book 3 to book 4 without a pause.
David Bremner wants to read Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow
Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow, Rebecca Giblin
A call to action for the creative class and labor movement to rally against the power of Big Tech and …
David Bremner started reading The Bristling Wood (Deverry Series, Book Three) by Katharine Kerr
The Bristling Wood (Deverry Series, Book Three) by Katharine Kerr
Against the passionate sweep of Deverrian history, the powerful wizard Nevyn has lived for centuries, atoning for the sins he …
David Bremner started reading The City Inside by Samit Basu
The City Inside by Samit Basu
“They'd known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”
Joey is a Reality Controller in …
David Bremner reviewed Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Sequel to Shadow Captain.
Expanse meets Kidnapped
4 stars
Reynolds fans will be sputtering at the title, since of course the Glitter Band of his own Revelation Space universe is also a good match for "The Congregation", the collection of stations orbiting the old sun that are the setting for all 3 Revenger novels.
This is the third of the series. It is probably readable as a standalone novel, but it would somewhat spoil the other two, as there is essentially one big story arc.
The book is first and foremost an adventure story about two middle-class sisters who run away to become space pirates. There is also musings about deep time and the flow / cycle of history that will be familiar to readers of Revelation Space.
Technologically the setting is a bit steampunkish, with most of the locomotion involving solar sails, and fairly primitive space vehicles. This is interspersed with a variety of artifacts from older/distant civilizations, …
Reynolds fans will be sputtering at the title, since of course the Glitter Band of his own Revelation Space universe is also a good match for "The Congregation", the collection of stations orbiting the old sun that are the setting for all 3 Revenger novels.
This is the third of the series. It is probably readable as a standalone novel, but it would somewhat spoil the other two, as there is essentially one big story arc.
The book is first and foremost an adventure story about two middle-class sisters who run away to become space pirates. There is also musings about deep time and the flow / cycle of history that will be familiar to readers of Revelation Space.
Technologically the setting is a bit steampunkish, with most of the locomotion involving solar sails, and fairly primitive space vehicles. This is interspersed with a variety of artifacts from older/distant civilizations, and a few early-20th century electronics.
The characters are interesting for being ethically nuanced. Even the bankers turn out to be not completely evil, although mostly so. The main characters are engaging enough that at least this reader cared whether they lived or died.
The plot is a bit like a roller coaster in that some of the ups and downs you see coming, but there always tends to be one more reversal of fortune to keep you reading. I did stop once or twice to take a breather, so I guess the plotting succeeded as (the audiobook equivalent of) a page turner.
There is some space-opera style big reveals, but although those were interesting enough, I would not say they are the main reason to read this book.
The world building does seem mostly quite original and always well crafted. Towards the end of the book I did start to see more echos of Revelation space, but I think this could be seen as related to the "end of series big picture explanation" above.
David Bremner replied to Bruce IV's status
@bruceiv@bookwyrm.social I had a very similar "uhoh it me" reaction.
David Bremner finished reading Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Sequel to Shadow Captain.
Overall I enjoyed it quite a lot. At some points almost too suspenseful for my current state.
David Bremner wants to read The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future.
Destry's life …
On the long roads of Deverry ride two mercenaries whose fates like hidden deep in …
Well crafted escapism, not for everyone
4 stars
Content warning sexual violence mention
The characterization is rather good, and plotting is above average. The world-building feels a bit too familiar to me. We have "humans", dwarves, and elves. The dwarves live under mountains and the elves live in the west. Elves are inherently noble and dwarves secretive and talented metal workers.
On the other hand, there is less "racial determinism" than in some of the fantasy genre. We have had at least half-elf characters ranging from insane villain to cheeky heroic secondary character. There is some depth of character to the antagonists (although there could be more without going full anti-hero). There is no equivalent of "orcs", where being of a certain "race" defines a character (if they can even be called characters) as a villain.
In this second book of the series, I felt like reincarnation was used in a more interesting way, where flashback stories involve previous incarnations of the same characters.
The antogonists (aka the Dark Dweomer) use "sex magick" in a ways that sometimes made me uncomfortable. There is (not too graphical) discussion of sexual violence, and whether by coincidence or not, one of the main antagonists is the only openly queer character, and also a rapist. I would not say it is gratuitous or homophobic in itself, but it does potentially reinforce some pretty vile homophobic stereotypes.
David Bremner started reading Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Sequel to Shadow Captain.
It's been a while since I read the second book in the series, but I think I'm not suffering too badly from that. Reynolds doesn't spend a lot of time recapping the previous books, but there seems to be enough there to get the gist of what is going on. I also appreciate that the book (and the series?) seems to center around a non-romantic relationship (between sisters), which makes a change.
David Bremner finished reading Darkspell (Deverry Series, Book Two) by Katharine Kerr
Darkspell (Deverry Series, Book Two) by Katharine Kerr
On the long roads of Deverry ride two mercenaries whose fates like hidden deep in that of their own land. …
David Bremner commented on Darkspell (Deverry Series, Book Two) by Katharine Kerr
On the long roads of Deverry ride two mercenaries whose fates like hidden deep in …
Content warning sexual violence mention
Overall I am enjoying this more than the first book in the series. However a couple things bug me so far.
1) I was just thinking to my self that it felt less like Tolkien fan-fiction (to put it unkindly) than the previous one, when the ancient and wise wizard gets the dwarves to let him take a short cut under a mountain instead of over it.
2) the treatment of homosexuality seems clumsy at best. The only openly gay character is a villain, and the only explicit gay sex is rape. So hmm. Also the homophobic reaction of our hero to meeting said gay villain is a bit of a puzzle. Is the hero flawed? Are we meant to see that as a reflection of the pseudo-historical setting? Or is it a reflection of the author and her historical setting (about 35 years ago).
Neither of these is central to the book, but feel like rough edges that could have been edited away.
David Bremner reviewed The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
"Another world is colliding with this one," said the toad. "All the monsters are coming …
Crivens, more Feegles please.
4 stars
I might just be a shallow person, but I enjoyed the earlier, more Feegle-heavy parts of this book the most. In the later interactions with the Queen of Fae, I had the uncomfortable impression Pratchett had one or more serious points about psychological abuse.