Exhausted anarchist and school abolitionist who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]
I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.
And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.
I like that there are effectively two mysteries going on and that one of them surrounds Mao. I'm not sure where it's going because it should (based on the acknowledgement) be a critique of Mao, but I'm still not sure in what way.
There's also the mystery of the fictional Jiao and Xie, though they seem to be taking second place to Mao (which also functions as a critique because the reason they're being investigated is because it is believed that they are blaspheming against Mao and selling information that could "hurt the Party image").
The shitty editor of great talent (his name is Keith Kahla) strikes again with probably the funniest mistake I've ever seen, which exists in the following sentence:
"Besides, their conversation was disturbed by a loud Manila band and other louder diners, bantering about Madam Chiang, popping off the cocks on expensive champagne like in the old days."
Dude really must've been the epitome of the "Well, the computer's spellchecker didn't catch it" kind of editor.
Now if you were going to fall into a book, a book of fairy tales …
The shitty editor of great talent (his name is Keith Kahla) strikes again with probably the funniest mistake I've ever seen, which exists in the following sentence:
"Besides, their conversation was disturbed by a loud Manila band and other louder diners, bantering about Madam Chiang, popping off the cocks on expensive champagne like in the old days."
Dude really must have been the epitome of "Well, the spellchecker didn't catch it."
The shitty editor of great talent (his name is Keith Kahla) strikes again with probably the funniest mistake I've ever seen, which exists in the following sentence:
"Besides, their conversation was disturbed by a loud Manila band and other louder diners, bantering about Madam Chiang, popping off the cocks on expensive champagne like in the old days."
Despite the author being a poet, the poems are laid out in ways that are almost entirely unreadable. They look like paragraphs that separate lines and stanzas using slashes... which all look like capital i's, especially to a dyslexic reader.
My first thought is that the person who was thanked for editorial ability really shouldn't have been because they... simply didn't catch things that would improve readability in at least a section of about ten pages (e.g., using 'lead' as the past tense instead of 'led' because of homophones, dropped articles which disrupt the flow of reading, weirdly used commas that create strange lists when it's not supposed to be one, missing plurals...). I would not have thanked him because he did not do his job well and appears to have randomly skipped large sections, as if he read three pages and was like "Yeah, these three pages had minimal problems" and made that assumption for later sections.
ANYWAY, the poor editing aside (which really is a me-issue in terms of flow because of how I learned to read with dyslexia), it doesn't detract from the story. The story is …
My first thought is that the person who was thanked for editorial ability really shouldn't have been because they... simply didn't catch things that would improve readability in at least a section of about ten pages (e.g., using 'lead' as the past tense instead of 'led' because of homophones, dropped articles which disrupt the flow of reading, weirdly used commas that create strange lists when it's not supposed to be one, missing plurals...). I would not have thanked him because he did not do his job well and appears to have randomly skipped large sections, as if he read three pages and was like "Yeah, these three pages had minimal problems" and made that assumption for later sections.
ANYWAY, the poor editing aside (which really is a me-issue in terms of flow because of how I learned to read with dyslexia), it doesn't detract from the story. The story is succeeding in making me want to learn more about Mao (the person) because... holy shit. The things being discussed are just... unsurprising, but I've never looked into them.
To be fair, the book's acknowledgement says that it is 'for those who suffered under Mao'.
My first thought is that the person who was thanked for editorial ability really shouldn't have because there are so many issues that there was at least a whole section that was difficult to read (almost as if they skipped it because they read three pages, noticed nothing, and then went on). This does not, thankfully, detract from the story thus far.
It is succeeding in making me want to learn more about Mao (the man) because holy shit. (To be fair, the book's acknowledgement says something like "for those who were suffered under Mao.")
Sixteen years after Caroline Crale has been convicted of the murder of her husband, Amyas …
A Book of a Cold Case
4 stars
I love mysteries, but I always love looking at them from more 'novel' perspectives that are so rarely used. In this instance, it's that Hercule Poirot has to solve the murder of a painter from sixteen years ago after being commissioned by the painter's daughter to learn the truth.
Because so much of the book takes place in interviews and narratives, it really gives a different perspective to the ways that a crime can be solved. This book relies almost chiefly upon uncovering which person told a key lie and recognising that all people understand an event differently (even if they all agree with the same result). This really was truly enjoyable.
Though, it's so odd because I could see the version from the Poirot show with David Suchet as I read it, but that didn't lessen how good I thought this book was.
Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from …
Delightful.
5 stars
I genuinely enjoy Yokomizo's novels. Even in translation, they are well done and engaging. It's hard to not applaud that.
The thing I liked about this one, even with the detective of Kindaichi Kosuke being part of it, is that it was less from his perspective (or involved him less) while still making it clear that he was an important part of the story. He was solving the many crimes alongside the protagonist, who wasn't entirely setting out to solve the crime (as he recounts).
I also really liked that this is written in such a way that it's like a mystery memoir from the perspective of one of the suspects. Being from his perspective, it creates a lot of chaos about who you trust and who you don't. This makes it a bit more interesting because you're trying to empathise with him while also scrutinising him and what he …
I genuinely enjoy Yokomizo's novels. Even in translation, they are well done and engaging. It's hard to not applaud that.
The thing I liked about this one, even with the detective of Kindaichi Kosuke being part of it, is that it was less from his perspective (or involved him less) while still making it clear that he was an important part of the story. He was solving the many crimes alongside the protagonist, who wasn't entirely setting out to solve the crime (as he recounts).
I also really liked that this is written in such a way that it's like a mystery memoir from the perspective of one of the suspects. Being from his perspective, it creates a lot of chaos about who you trust and who you don't. This makes it a bit more interesting because you're trying to empathise with him while also scrutinising him and what he sees or how he understood something. I really like that because it's a great way to kind of hide the solution, and it's so simple once you start unravelling who really committed the murders.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
A Mismarketed Book of Far Too Many References
1 star
I'm going to start from this premise: If they had properly marketed this book as a sci-fi thriller or an action sci-fi or something, I probably would have fewer problems with it. I probably wouldn't have spent 300+ pages trying to keep track of clues (that didn't exist) so that I could solve a mystery (that wasn't really there); I would've just gone with the flow, as I did for the remainder of the book. It got better (not good) once I did that, but the marketing was literally the worst part because it established incorrect assumptions and expectations. They told me it was a sci-fi mystery/detective novel... I literally got zero of one of those genres, despite all claims to the contrary (by people who I'm guessing didn't even read the book or have no concept of what makes a mystery).
Beyond that, while it would've been a more …
I'm going to start from this premise: If they had properly marketed this book as a sci-fi thriller or an action sci-fi or something, I probably would have fewer problems with it. I probably wouldn't have spent 300+ pages trying to keep track of clues (that didn't exist) so that I could solve a mystery (that wasn't really there); I would've just gone with the flow, as I did for the remainder of the book. It got better (not good) once I did that, but the marketing was literally the worst part because it established incorrect assumptions and expectations. They told me it was a sci-fi mystery/detective novel... I literally got zero of one of those genres, despite all claims to the contrary (by people who I'm guessing didn't even read the book or have no concept of what makes a mystery).
Beyond that, while it would've been a more tolerable read had they actually tried to set expectations in a better way, it still wasn't good. So much of it is peak white liberal woman writing diversity, not knowing shit about anyone or anything. The aliens are treated very similarly to how we (predominantly but not limited to English-speakers) treat East Asians with regards to their names; I seriously couldn't get that out of my head, especially as the explanation for why there are aliens named Tina, Ferdinand, Stephanie, Algernon and the like... is because it's the "closest approximation in our language" (or some similar rubbish). And all the random social justice throws? A psychiatrist telling a patient off for using the word crazy because it's ableist, the weird handling of race and poking at racist characters (with the single Korean character needing a non-Korean man to tell her what is part of Korean culture because she's "so disconnected")... It kept happening in so many ways that I had to roll my eyes at how White Liberal Lady this book genuinely is.
Along with that, there is very little creativity in the handling of non-human species, even when they are vaguely interesting. The Sundry are a hivemind (but they still act like humans despite being a bunch of insect-like sentients); the Gneiss are rock people (who are still more culturally like humans despite... being fucking rock people). The qualities that make aliens... alien? Aren't really there and are... quite superficial. There's very little deviation based on perspective.
The other thing that ruins this book is the timeline. The timeline is atrocious and difficult to follow, which I'm guessing is how so many people wrongly categorised this as "mystery." A book being obtuse for no real reason and difficult to follow does not... make it a mystery. It makes it annoying. So many chapters could've been pulled from where they were and re-slotted somewhere else to make things coherent, especially when it was never clear what time or place you were in until you were at least half a page into a chapter. Or section, actually! Sometimes the middle of chapters just would suddenly jump without any indication anywhere of what was going on.
My final gripe is with the number of references to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have no problem with references, but these were at one point so excessive and frequent that it really just felt like "Did you get it? Did you? Did you see it? Get that one? What about that one?!" I wanted to scream because it honestly just made me angry at how many there were. I'm fine with references when they're utilised well, but this was just the equivalent of smashing me in the face with a brick for at least the first half of the book. Annoying as hell.
I wouldn't recommend this, and I have zero desire to read anything else in this series... especially because it's not a mystery like it keeps trying to claim.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
A Mismarketed Book of Far Too Many References
2 stars
I'm going to start from this premise: If they had properly marketed this book as a sci-fi thriller or an action sci-fi or something, I probably would have fewer problems with it. I probably wouldn't have spent 300+ pages trying to keep track of clues (that didn't exist) so that I could solve a mystery (that wasn't really there); I would've just gone with the flow, as I did for the remainder of the book. It got better (not good) once I did that, but the marketing was literally the worst part because it established incorrect assumptions and expectations. They told me it was a sci-fi mystery/detective novel... I literally got zero of one of those genres, despite all claims to the contrary (by people who I'm guessing didn't even read the book or have no concept of what makes a mystery).
Beyond that, while it would've been a more …
I'm going to start from this premise: If they had properly marketed this book as a sci-fi thriller or an action sci-fi or something, I probably would have fewer problems with it. I probably wouldn't have spent 300+ pages trying to keep track of clues (that didn't exist) so that I could solve a mystery (that wasn't really there); I would've just gone with the flow, as I did for the remainder of the book. It got better (not good) once I did that, but the marketing was literally the worst part because it established incorrect assumptions and expectations. They told me it was a sci-fi mystery/detective novel... I literally got zero of one of those genres, despite all claims to the contrary (by people who I'm guessing didn't even read the book or have no concept of what makes a mystery).
Beyond that, while it would've been a more tolerable read had they actually tried to set expectations in a better way, it still wasn't good. So much of it is peak white liberal woman writing diversity, not knowing shit about anyone or anything. The aliens are treated very similarly to how we (predominantly but not limited to English-speakers) treat East Asians with regards to their names; I seriously couldn't get that out of my head, especially as the explanation for why there are aliens named Tina, Ferdinand, Stephanie, Algernon and the like... is because it's the "closest approximation in our language" (or some similar rubbish). And all the random social justice throws? A psychiatrist telling a patient off for using the word crazy because it's ableist, the weird handling of race and poking at racist characters (with the single Korean character needing a non-Korean man to tell her what is part of Korean culture because she's "so disconnected")... It kept happening in so many ways that I had to roll my eyes at how White Liberal Lady this book genuinely is.
Along with that, there is very little creativity in the handling of non-human species, even when they are vaguely interesting. The Sundry are a hivemind (but they still act like humans despite being a bunch of insect-like sentients); the Gneiss are rock people (who are still more culturally like humans despite... being fucking rock people). The qualities that make aliens... alien? Aren't really there and are... quite superficial. There's very little deviation based on perspective.
The other thing that ruins this book is the timeline. The timeline is atrocious and difficult to follow, which I'm guessing is how so many people wrongly categorised this as "mystery." A book being obtuse for no real reason and difficult to follow does not... make it a mystery. It makes it annoying. So many chapters could've been pulled from where they were and re-slotted somewhere else to make things coherent, especially when it was never clear what time or place you were in until you were at least half a page into a chapter. Or section, actually! Sometimes the middle of chapters just would suddenly jump without any indication anywhere of what was going on.
I wouldn't recommend this, and I have zero desire to read anything else in this series... especially because it's not a mystery like it keeps trying to claim.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
I am 361 pages in, and there have been NO CLUES AND NO MYSTERIES TO SOLVE.
One of the praises for this book on the back reads: "If Jessica Fletcher ended up on Babylon 5, you still wouldn't get anywhere close to this deft, complicated, and fast-moving book." It's driving me insane when I see it because I don't know how this book is 'deft' and both 'complicated' and 'fast-moving' aren't inherently good things. But also, it's an insult to both Babylon 5 and Jessica Fletcher because even Jess (who solved some of the most convoluted crimes I ever saw on a detective show) wouldn't have written this shit because she would've found it too convoluted and absurd and WITHOUT A MYSTERY TO SOLVE.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
Content warning
In which I'm still annoyed by this book.
I keep trying to give this book the benefit of the doubt as I read it, trying to remind myself that authors don't pigeon-hole their own books...
... and then the author just does shit that just makes me want to throw it out of frustration. First—and this is a minor gripe—is that the author has a character say that she "went out with her girlfriend" to try on wedding dresses. For all of two seconds, I was hopeful that there would be a lesbian couple (at the minimum)... And no, it's the cishet lady speak that I have always found grating. Yes, I guess they are technically girl friends, but sigh. Disappointing use of a term that isn't really used that way as much.
The second is the timeline in this book. I don't know how it got through editing like this, without showing some clear indicator of changes in timeline. I know some authors write timelines that feel out of order, and that's fine... But again, if I'm reading a novel claiming to be a mystery? It feels a bit like a cheap way to hide clues, if there even are any. The entire 14th chapter is precisely this; it's a huge piece of exposition AND a flashback for a character that... hasn't even been named at any other point except on the list of injured in a space shuttle. It feels out of place, and it feels irrelevant to everything I've read... Kind of like someone slotted it into the book with no care in the world for why it was there.
Third is something I was reminded of which is another flashback scene depicting how Xan met the three Gneiss (the aliens named Stephanie, Ferdinand, and Tina) and their elder-Gneiss-but-a-ship-now grandpa Algernon. We've already met these characters (with limited descriptions of what they look like), so there's no reason for us to be sitting in Xan's perspective in the flashback not knowing who they are... Yet the author makes a decision to intentionally be confusing, even though she hasn't given you sufficient detail to really clue you in to who is who BEFORE that scene happens. It's so badly placed. This whole book is an organisational nightmare.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
Content warning
In which I'm still annoyed by this book.
I keep trying to give this book the benefit of the doubt as I read it, trying to remind myself that authors don't pigeon-hole their own books...
... and then the author just does shit that just makes me want to throw it out of frustration. First—and this is a minor gripe—is that the author has a character say that she "went out with her girlfriend" to try on wedding dresses. For all of two seconds, I was hopeful that there would be a lesbian couple (at the minimum)... And no, it's the cishet lady speak that I have always found grating. Yes, I guess they are technically girl friends, but sigh. Disappointing use of a term that isn't really used that way as much.
The second is the timeline in this book. I don't know how it got through editing like this, without showing some clear indicator of changes in timeline. I know some authors write timelines that feel out of order, and that's fine... But again, if I'm reading a novel claiming to be a mystery? It feels a bit like a cheap way to hide clues, if there even are any. The entire 14th chapter is precisely this; it's a huge piece of exposition AND a flashback for a character that... hasn't even been named at any other point except on the list of injured in a space shuttle. It feels out of place, and it feels irrelevant to everything I've read... Kind of like someone slotted it into the book with no care in the world for why it was there.
Third is something I was reminded of which is another flashback scene depicting how Xan met the three Gneiss (the aliens named Stephanie, Ferdinand, and Tina) and their elder-Gneiss-but-a-ship-now grandpa Algernon. We've already met these characters (with limited descriptions of what they look like), so there's no reason for us to be sitting in Xan's perspective in the flashback not knowing who they are... Yet the author makes a decision to intentionally be confusing, even though she hasn't given you sufficient detail to really clue you in to who is who BEFORE that scene happens. It's so badly placed. This whole book is an organisational nightmare.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
Content warning
Could spoil characters and plot, but... you can't?
I'm losing my mind with so much of this.
There still are far too many blatant Hitchhiker's Guide references, which makes me feel like I should just read that series instead. There's a Gneiss elder (who is a ship) who... recites poetry to everyone who boards, which is reminiscent of the Vogons who recite poetry to stowaways.
The most interesting names for aliens are those that the author points out as "sounding Indian" (Devanshi), which... that's definitely a look. Others are named Tina, Algernon, Ren, and Osric. None of them have names that sound like a version of 'space'. Again, if your influence is Hitchhiker's (as the acknowledgement stated), then... you had an example of fun names! And you could've played with names to have fun. (Other alien names are mostly nouns, like a space station named 'Eternity'.)
As a mystery, it's... not. If this was a "sci-fi thriller" or something in that area, I'd probably be less annoyed (even with the excessive references). But so far, I haven't found anything resembling a mystery. It's like Lafferty read one Agatha Christie book (And Then There Were None), thought that because it had shifting perspectives... that's how it always was. But even so, she didn't learn the mystery element at all. There are no real clues and all the questions are asked and answered almost immediately. Things are hidden for giggles (it seems), but it's not obscuring it for a mystery's sake... The people in the praise-for-the-book section talking about how it's the "sci-fi version of Agatha Christie" clearly haven't read Christie (and if they did, didn't understand why her novels were actually engaging and were really good at building a mystery for the READER TO SOLVE... which is the key part of a mystery).
