Reviews and Comments

A Cory Doctorow recommendation.

I don't know if I'm just too siloed, but I don't remember ever seeing this pretty jaw-dropping story in the news. It's a good look at how law enforcement is coping with encryption technologies, though the implications for the general public are only touched on. It would be more fun if law enforcement's efforts weren't wasted fighting a futile war on drugs, but I appreciated it more for the investigation than the good guys versus bad guys spin.

I nearly abandoned this when it opened with detectives at a murder scene, a prelude I realized I've come to associate with formulaic slop. And I wasn't sure I would still enjoy noir as much as I once did. It doesn't take long for the wildly imaginative dimensions of the story to burst forth from the outrageously explosive plot. The alternate history is both utopian and dystopian in noir proportions, full of interesting observations, implications, and jazzy interludes.

From Cory Doctorow's review.

The broken earth has a lot of appealing elements (sorry) with narrative experiments going on at different scales. Some worked better than others for me, none were total flubs. The power dynamics between characters are fairly well balanced, but sometimes the characters felt a little too imaginary to me.

Deserts and a great review from @SallyStrange

Based in technicat's review :)

We get an account of a groundbreaking scientific expedition to Antarctica from a writer grappling with understanding climate change while yearning for motherhood, and determined to break the Antarctic adventure tale mold by including as many perspectives as she can.

I grabbed this without much consideration and got embarrassingly far through it before I got the Dickens heritage. If I read David Copperfield I've forgotten it, but if it explores real societal issues through the eyes of kids as well as this story does, it would be worth a comparison to get a sense of how the problems have evolved. It's not just problems though, they are lived by good characters.

I get the metaphorical value of power over geological processes, but it feels somehow ungainly so far. Hoping the characters win me over.

Multiple recommendations, most recent from my cousin Anneke.

Pretty good for an airport pick. As a lover of walking, deserts, and mountains I wanted more detail of travel challenges and geography. The theme of aloneness was good and reminded me a little of Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds”.

recommended by Jason Lemieux

Picked at the Denver airport Tattered cover