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Soh Kam Yung Locked account

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Joined 3 years, 11 months ago

Exploring one universe at a time. Interested in #Nature, #Photography, #NaturePhotography, #Science, #ScienceFiction, #Physics, #Engineering.

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The Alice Run (EBook, 2024, Tor.com) 3 stars

A comatose patient undergoes an experimental procedure that uses favorite childhood stories to pull the …

Dreaming of Alice in Wonderland, but with guns.

3 stars

An entertaining story of an experiment being performed by researchers on a comatose person to try to revive her. Stimulating her brain causes her to start to dream or hallucinate, which eventually turns out to be scenes connected to the story, "Alice in Wonderland". But the dream deviates by featuring guns, attacks, and connections to people she knows, each appearing more and more often until finally, the truth is revealed about why she ended up comatose, which results in a violent confrontation in the real world.

White Horse, Red Fruit (2023, Subterranean Press) 3 stars

Ava is a sin eater. This responsibility requires her to consume the final sins of …

Eating the sins of the newly dead is no easy task.

3 stars

An interesting story involving a sin-eater, a person who eats the sins of a newly dead person, so that the dead person won't have a reason to return from the dead. In this story, she has to eat the sins of a friend, but things don't turn out as expected: she gets called to the underworld by her friend to do one final task for her. Agreeing to the task would cause a disruption to both the living and the dead that can only be resolved by a confrontation.

Immortal, Invisible (EBook, 2024, Subterranean Press) 4 stars

Robin Hearns has been kidnapped. Or murdered. Or kidnapped and murdered.

He isn’t sure.

What …

How to escape from a place that seems impossible to escape from.

3 stars

A story about Robin Hearns, who wakes up in an unknown place, apparently kidnapped and now presumed dead. His captor hides in a suit that hides his features and is apparently invulnerable: until he meets with another captor, and they plan an escape together. It is only at the end do we learn more about the where they have been kept.

The Small Hands of Chokedamp (2023, Subterranean Press) 4 stars

In “The Small Hands of Chokedamp,” Josiah Bancroft gives us the first glimpse of the …

A detective who investigates with the help of charms and hexes.

4 stars

A fascinating detective story involving Isolde Wilby, a police captain with the ability to cast hexes, during her line of work at the Office of Ensorcelled Investigations. During an unrelated investigation, she stumbles upon an unusual magical item: a doll's arm. But she is then forced to release it to a very highly paid lawyer, which makes her curious. Her investigations into the purpose of the arm, and how it might be related to a dispute between a union and a company over high-classed watches, who lead her to discover a form of slavery. And it would need all her wits to finish the investigation.

A Sign of the Times (EBook, 2023, Subterranean) 3 stars

Girl trouble got you down? Do bigger guys kick sand in your face? You don’t …

Maybe burning an evil sign on to your palm wasn't a good idea.

3 stars

A short story about a man who has relationship troubles and, following an influencer, burns an evil sign on to his palm to improve his life. But things start to go wrong when the sign doesn't do what he wants, but instead causes havoc to himself and to those around him, and especially to the girl who dumped him.

The Formidable Miss Cassidy (EBook, 2022, Epigram Books) 4 stars

In 1890s Singapore, the formidable Miss Leda Cassidy arrives as paid companion to Sarah Jane …

Western and Eastern spirits and goddesses come alive in Singapore.

4 stars

An entertaining book set in the 1890s Singapore. Miss Cassidy arrives to become a companion for Sarah Jane Bendemeer, whose family has recently suffered the loss of her mother and siblings. Miss Cassidy is slowly revealed to be more than just an English Lady in an Asian Country, when she investigates and learns the cause of the tragedy: a local spirit, the Pontianak, who has come to haunt the family.

Just who Miss Cassidy is really is not yet fully revealed, but enough is shown that she can converse with local spirits and even goddesses to learn just what must be done to remove the threat to the Bendemeer family.

But that is only half of the book. The other half concerns the family of Mr Kay Wing Tong, who hires her to become an English tutor to his family. Mr Kay himself develops a curious conversational relation with Miss …

Pages to Fill (EBook, 2022) 4 stars

Short story prequel to Legends & Lattes.

An prequel with an expected ending.

3 stars

A short story prequel to "Legends & Lattes" involving Viv the Orc and a few other characters, who are on the hunt for a robber who has stolen some plans. With some detective work, Viv discovers the robber's hideout but has a change of mind when she discovers why the robber was hiding there; for like the robber, Viv is also looking for a way out of their current way of life. The story ends, as expected, with Viv discovering what she would like to do next, leading to the beginning of the book, "Legends & Lattes".

Goblins & Greatcoats (EBook, Subterranean Press) 4 stars

A goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery, a rain-soaked night, …

A fun book about a different kind of investigator.

3 stars

A fun short story about a goblin, Zyll, who enters an inn and discovers a murder scene. The people at the inn believe she is there to investigate the murder and discover who is the murderer. That she does, showing an eye for detail, both mundane and magical, while pocketing various eating utensils from the inn.

The twist comes at the end when the murderer is revealed, and Zyll is shown to be not the person they expect her to be.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 215 (EBook, 2024) 3 stars

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month …

An average issue of Clarkesworld.

3 stars

An average issue, with interesting stories by Alice Towey, Timothy Mudie and David McGillveray.

  • "The Time Capsule" by Alice Towey: a girl discovers a space probe that fell from space, which is a time capsule from an earlier time with more technology than current times. But now, she has to keep its information from falling into the wrong hands before she has time to make use of the knowledge to make the current world a better place.

  • "The Sort" by Thomas Ha: a father and his son, who appear to have an unusual way to communicate, travel through a town. But this is no ordinary town, set in a future where genetic manipulation have created that can delight people or bring out their hatred.

  • "Molum, Molum, Molum the Scourge" by Rich Larson: in the future, an enhanced gladiator who is down and out is told of a store of drugs …

Oliver's Great Big Universe (2023, Abrams, Inc.) 3 stars

Cosmos meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Oliver’s Great Big Universe , an original …

A humourous young reader's guide to the universe.

3 stars

A light-hearted and entertaining book on the adventures of 11-year-old Oliver. After seeing a presentation by Dr. Howard, an astrophysicist, Oliver decides that is what he wants to be when he grows up. In the meantime, he plans to bother Dr. Howard with questions about astrophysics and write down the answers in a book when he will then present to his fellow students. This is that book, along with various shenanigans that Oliver gets into while writing the book.

The book lightly covers topics about modern astrophysics like the big bang, black holes, the sun and planets, the size of the universe, the end of the universe and the nature of time. Aimed at young readers, it is quite light on details but filled with enough unusual facts about the universe that readers can trot out for dinner conversations. Comics related to the topics also fill the pages and help …

Service Model (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 3 stars

o fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, …

The story of a robot's journey during the end of the world.

4 stars

An entertaining and thoughtful book about the end of the world as we know it and a robot who wanders through it and comes out at the end with, perhaps, a way to remake the world to be better. The story is full of SFF and literary allusions to writers and situations, especially Asimov's positronic robot stories, as well as other writers like Kafka, Orwell, Borges and Dante.

Charles is a robot valet and, as the story begin, murders his master. He suspects a malfunction and leaves the mansion to return to a central service for decommissioning. During the journey, we see the world through his eyes, and it is a world that has decayed and gone to waste, with no humans to be seen, but lots of robots, all waiting for confirming instructions from humans that never come.

His journey is in vain, for other robots are waiting before …

Semiosis (Semiosis Duology, #1) (2018) 3 stars

In this character driven novel of first contact by debut author Sue Burke, human survival …

An interesting story about living with intelligent plant life.

3 stars

An interesting novel set over several human generations on a world where a colony of humans has become dependent on an intelligent plant to provide them with the required nutrients. In return, the humans 'serve' the plant by protecting it from other predators and helping it to spread when required. An unusual novel presenting a plant as a form of intelligence, possibly superior to man.

The plant's intelligence isn't evident at the start when the colony begins. But the biologist in the colony begins to suspect that the plants on the newly colonized planet, Pax, are intelligent when one plant tries to kill them while another 'protects' them. The way herbivores behave also give a clue as to whom is the dominant species on the planet. As the colony slowly grow under the plant's protection, conflict breaks out over whether to move the colony to yet another plant that may …

Breathing Constellations (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 3 stars

Misunderstanding threatens a commune whose survival is dependent on precise communication with another species...

When talking to Orcas means having to do a dangerous thing.

3 stars

In this story, people can now communicate with Orcas. A sister and her brother are trying to talk with a pod of Orcas near their community to get permission to harvest from the waters controlled by the Orcas. Her request is rejected, and she fears her community may have to leave or starve. But then, one orca offers another chance to talk, if she is willing to get out of her comfort zone.