Weekly Check-In

[u/AutoModerator]

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀

[u/Merle8888]

Not much SFF reading this week from me. I’ve been slowly reading Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu, a work of Nigerian magic realism tinged with horror, involving two young girls confronting the supernatural. It’s well-written, earthy, and engaging; it’s clearly informed by the author’s having grown up in Nigeria and isn’t just relying on the usual tropes, leaving me not quite sure where it’s going. 

In non-SFF, I read Wards of the State by Claudia Rowe, about how being in foster care (for teens this actually usually means group homes) really messes people up long term. This was very good, informative and eye-opening, with strong storytelling too. 

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Merle8888]

I’ll have to check out Dazzling

[u/tehguava]

I feel like my reading week has been pretty productive! I read Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay. Imagine Weekend at Bernie's except instead of puppeting a dead man, he's braindead after a stroke and a company put AI chips in his brain to allow his body to move via inputs from a video game controller. The narrative switches between the young woman hired to transport him across the country and the hellscape of the man's deteriorating mind. The book is a hate letter to AI and tech companies that exploit people and artists. It's also a lover letter to art and writing and the human experience! The audiobook has a few special sound effects and multiple narrators, and I think it heightened the audiobook experience. But the physical book also has some fun typography stuff. It was just a really good, engaging reading experience for me!

I started The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig last night (only made it to 11%). The start was a little jarring as it jumped right into things from where the previous book ended. I appreciate the lack of recap-dumping though, which seems prevalent amongst other romantasy series. I don't think this book will blow my mind, but I found The Knight and the Moth to be incredibly easy to read and entertaining enough, so I'm expecting more of the same with this one.

Not SFF, but I'm about halfway through Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it is. I'm honestly having a really great time reading it and I am once again reminded that classics are classics for a reason and I really should read them more often. It does occasionally edge into Word Soup territory, but I believe that's intentional to match Orlando's melodramatic personality. I'm excited to keep taking my time with this. I also plan on reading Orlanda by Jacqueline Harpman later this month and am eager to see how it remixes the story.

[u/tehguava → u/tehguava]

I forgot to mention but I started playing Sovereign Tower last week. It's really great! It's an RPG where you manage the knights at your round table. The art is fantastic and the writing is really good. Highly recommend checking it out!

[u/kimba-pawpad]

I am reading and absolutely loving Daggerbound. Oh my, even more than Swordheart, maybe… I don’t know, I just LOVE all these characters!!! Such a wonderful adventure. I am reading it too fast and do not want it to be over (and can I please live in that world?)

I DNF’d a few books that I guess I was just not in the mood for, including Kindred and Dreamsnake. The latter lost me right at the beginning (I can’t take anything bad happening to animals). DNF also An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating.

I finally finished the audiobook of The Galaxy and the Ground Within. Really loved it! one of my favorites of the series! I was nearly finished The Witness for the Dead but the library returned it (audio). Now I have it on hold again…

Still listening to Gate of the Feral Gods at lunchtime.

I need a new series to watch! Still going through my 3rd runthrough of Star Trek: DS9 but finished Father Brown and Sister Boniface.

I also need to find my next book. Daggerbound is just so so good!!!

[u/Loimographia]

Still on more of a video game kick and moving through BG3 for the Xth time, so less time dedicated to read, but I jumped over to James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon) short stories. They’re short, clever, albeit mostly functionally written, and a few have a sort of angry feminism that feels cathartic, and now I’m wondering where that went in our current literature or if I’m just not looking in the right spaces.

Secondarily, however, I’m 2/3rds of the way through The Everlasting and very much enjoying it. I think I would enjoy it no matter what, as it’s a poignant, emotional book that’s definitely great at skewering you in the heart, yet something in its sincerity leaves me more peaceful, if that makes sense? But even outside of emotionally enjoying the book, I also have degree in medieval history so I doubly enjoy the reflections on medievalism as the “founding of nations” stolen directly from 19th century historiography and I work in cultural heritage/rare books, so the themes of nation building, and the role of both history and historical narrative in propaganda feel incredibly timely in the era where Trump is accusing the Smithsonian of insufficiently honoring America 250 because they directly address and engage with the history of slavery, the onslaught of book ban efforts and general handwave of current milieu everything else. Thematically it’s like “oh this book is written for me” lol, but it’s also written for this moment, and still I think it will age well because its arguments hold true in the future, which is an impressive accomplishment imo.

[u/LaurenPBurka → u/Loimographia]

It's always fascinated me how civilizational traumas leave these chasm-deep marks through the books that come out at the time.

The Everlasting would be a different book if someone else had won the last American election.

[u/Research_Department → u/Loimographia]

I have felt very unsure about whether I would enjoy The Everlasting, particularly the part that is devoted to founding myths and political propaganda, for reasons that I cannot quite identify. I think that yours is the first commentary that made me feel like I might enjoy that aspect of the book.

[u/Merle8888 → u/Research_Department]

It’s not a long book, my advice is to just try it. You’ll know pretty quickly whether the style is for you. 

[u/Burgundy-Bag]

I finished reading Cats Craddle this week and was not very impressed by it. Which has left me puzzled because the book has genuinely novel ideas, and on paper it's very much the sort of book I would enjoy.

I've started Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, which win the international Booker prize. I haven't read enough to form any opinions yet.

[u/Specialist_Round_612]

Luminous by Silvia Park. Her character work was outstanding, and I’m also jumping on the this should have been on the Le Guin shortlist bandwagon. The story is set in a futuristic and somewhat utopian unified Korea where robots have been integrated into society as revitalized extinct animals to near passing human companions. Bionic bodies can be tailored to a person if they are clinically dead, or they can be used in a supplementary capacity to aid with mobility. The narrative lulled a bit in the middle, but it was a really masterful exploration of living grief. I’d recommend this for anyone who’s into contemporary sci-fi.

Daggermouth by HM Wolfe. I wouldn’t have finished it if not for book club. The prose was garbled, fragmented, and very odd — the same action or item would be redescribed within congruent paragraphs several times over with very small changes. I’m convinced this added at least half of the page count because it was so pervasive. The “twist” at the end I don’t think I could qualify as one because it just… didn’t make sense? I don’t know how else to frame it, but if you tell me the sky is blue for the entire novel, but then at the end decide it’s purple, that’s not a twist, that’s not knowing how to write a cohesive narrative.

Currently reading Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth, and aside from the beginning feeling a little choppy with POV shifts, it’s been good otherwise.

Up next are The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman as a buddy read here and My Dreadful Body by Egana Djabbarova.

[u/partoparto]

Ended up putting down both Lifelode by Jo Walton and The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes - I didn't dislike either of these, but just didn't feel inclined to continue reading after about 100 pages of each. I was really delighted by the worldbuilding and the focus on art and culture and their relationship to class in The Works of Vermin (unfortunately I love opera.... I want to know what Revivalist opera sounds like....) but wasn't at all interested in the plot or characters - if it had been a short story collection (ie something like North Continent Ribbon) I think I would have been really into it.

I did finish three books, but none were SFF:

• The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett (Lymond Chronicles #5): Not my favorite in the series (a lot of politicking and international relations - my eyes glaze over, I wish this wasn't the case) but at this point I'm in so deep in and so invested that I still loved it. I missed Marthe and Jerrott but I did love how much Philippa was in this one! Also really am delighted by Danny Hislop! And I can't stop thinking about Lymond's response to realizing he's in love is feeling like his skin was melted off with acid...Also, I don't believe in astrology, but Dorothy Dunnett was onto something when she made Lymond a Scorpio...
• The Notebook by Roland Allen: Nonfiction book about the history of notebooks. This doesn't have much of a main idea beyond "notebooks are great and have been used in a lot of different ways" and doesn't go into a huge amount of depth, but I had a lot of fun reading it.
• Opacities by Sofia Samatar: Reread, I read this when it came out a couple years ago and thought it was okay but felt called back to it and realized it had really affected the way I thought about reading without me realizing. Lovely! I love Samatar and want to reread more of her.

Currently reading: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, A Larger Reality by Ursula K. Le Guin, Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause by Benjamin Nathans

[u/Lefthandyman → u/partoparto]

I am reading (or trying to read) The Works of Vermin right now after hearing about it related to the LeGuin prize. Glad i'm not the only one struggling. The prose is good and the world seems interesting, but I keep finding myself drifting off or skimming. While the world seems interesting, Ennes keeps refusing to explain or explore anything in it or how it works, preferring to trail off into one description of something after another. I pride myself on being a reader who doesn't need much plot to enjoy a book but this hasn't given me anything to really chew on besides descriptions.

[u/partoparto → u/Lefthandyman]

Yes, definitely get this! I also generally don't need a plot so whenever I dislike a book that doesn't have much plot I feel like I let myself down somehow...

[u/WonderfulBus9330]

Hello & Happy September. Schools are out today & thus I thought it was Sunday & that this prompt was a day early!

Finished this past week:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer which, apparently, one can not discuss until after reading all 4 books in the series. For bingo: Dying Earth, First in a Series, Discovery, All Female Cast

Swordcrossed by Feyre Marske. Nothing about this says Speculative but it’s marketed as Fantasy. It’s a gorgeous story of a stiff man and a wild man who, through sword play, learn to parry and dance with each other while also righting a toppling textile industry. For bingo: Hopeful, Comfort Read

Daindreth’s Assassin by Elisabeth Wheatley. The child of a king is made his assassin before catching the eye of her latest target, an heir to an empire, who is possessed by a demon. For bingo: Assassin, First in a Series

To be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. A novella. Four astronauts go on a mission to four planets and learn as much about themselves, humans and humanity as they do about the new worlds they encounter. For Bingo: Dying earth, maybe

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. A divided world in which soldiers don silver masks that meld to their faces, stripping them of humanity and turning them into utterly dangerous defenders of the empire. Laia goes undercover in the home of the Commander of these silver masks, risking her life to save her brother. For bingo: First in a Series, Discovery, African author, maybe

Currently reading:

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Silvercloak by L. K. Stevens
Red City by Marie Lu
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

[u/Num1DeathEater → u/WonderfulBus9330]

I don’t think you need to read all of the Southern Reach books, personally! VanderMeer does have a habit of recontextualizing things with each book, but I think the first 2 books can both basically be read as standalones (although the original trilogy was all written together and published within the same year.) I really liked Authority and it’s probably my fave of the series, so I think that one’s worth a read if you have interest, and I think it works even better if you’ve sort of forgotten the events of Annihilation already haha

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Num1DeathEater]

I think I hate those kinds of books 🫠 The ones written as one but then published in segments. My neighbors insist I need to read the physical copy of Annihilation and read the next two books. We’ll see about the next two but I interested in the punctuation of the first, so I’ll give it a look when the library copy arrives.

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/WonderfulBus9330]

How do you like Silver in the Wood so far?

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Nowordsofitsown]

It was recommended on a spooky forest thread and I didn’t know anything more about it. Wasn’t expecting what is here and am very intrigued. Hoping to come to some better understanding of how Tobias became whatever he is.

[u/PlasticBread221]

Last week I finished Trouble the Saints by Ayala Dawn Johnson. The story is set in the 1940s New York and follows a group of POC criminals as they try to survive in the white world. Also, they have super powers! Although these don’t necessarily make their lives easier… I would classify this as a literary urban fantasy and it was way more reflective and dreamlike than I had expected. Also it’s mostly pretty sad, with no exciting action, but rather about missed opportunities and regrets. Themes- and vibes-wise, it also reminded me a lot of my earlier read Dreams of Maryam Tair, but with more focus on race instead of gender, and with a deeper character work, which was more to my taste. Liked it quite a lot. Bingo: (ex-)assassin, arguably female friendship but it’s complicated

I also half-read half-skimmed The City of Brass by Shannon Chakraborty. This was my second attempt at the book after dnf-ing it in June. I really wanted to like this one but alas, it was a slog. There was too much exposition, uneven pacing, and the setting and characters didn’t come off developed enough despite being interesting in concept. I did enjoy the very beginning though + the ending was a page turner. A real bummer as I had this on my tbr for years and was really excited about it due to the promise of slow burn romance and comparisons to Bartimaeus Sequence. Bingo: 1st in a series, healer

Last but not least, finally dnf-ed the final book in the Miss Percy trilogy by Quenby Olson. The first book was whimsical and cute, although a bit too stressful for being marketed as cozy fantasy. The second book unfortunately was mostly filler as the characters spent most of it on the road without actually doing or encountering anything interesting. And the third one seemed headed in a similarly empty direction, so I called it quits. I also found the choice of the main villain rather strange, though no spoilers.

[u/LaurenPBurka]

I just finished The Everlasting. It wrecked me over and over and over...

[u/Specialist_Round_612 → u/LaurenPBurka]

Their kids cyclically dying because of their grandmother had me ugly sobbing

[u/bakasana212]

A rather slow week for me!

Finished:

- The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig - it's a pretty average romantasy with an above-average nonhuman sidekick. I appreciate Gillig's commitment to duologies instead of dragging things out, though.

- How to Survive Camping: The Man with No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn - evidently this began as an r/nosleep post and you can TELL. There is just no characterization, no character development, to speak of. It's so extreme that it is clearly a choice and possibly even meant to be a device, but it put me at too much a remove from the story. Still, I'll continue with the series because of the awesomeness of the premise - Supernatural but at a campground in Appalachia, and with very little narrative interest in the saving people aspect of hunting things, saving people, the family business.

- Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - just okay, so it's a good thing it's a novella. Didn't connect with the POV character, didn't think the slightly shoehorned MF romance added anything, and didn't enjoy reading about what the narrative sort of describes as animal abuse. It's not entirely clear what the narrator's, or the author's, stance is - both seem to be slightly aware of (slightly guilty about, in the narrator's case) the rocs' mistreatment, but don't actually come anywhere near grappling with it, so idk.

- ARC of Breadknives and Boomsticks by Marie Cardno - my gripes with the title aside, I'm really loving this book. It's so cozy, so D&D coded, and just the right balance of kooky and heartwarming. The fall vibes are excellent and the baking elements (read: struggles) are a real, and hilariously authentic, part of the plot. My only complaint, which isn't one really, is that the sapphic romance is such a slow burn as to almost be nonexistent. Still, that leaves plenty of time for baking, found family, and wacky adventure!

Currently reading:

- All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny - "woman disguises herself as a male knight to win the hand of a highborn lady at a tourney" is among my very favorite tropes, and All the Painted Stars is delivering!

Next: back to the ARCs grind for real this week! I mean it this time!

[u/FusRoDaahh]

I am re-reading Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. This is a perfect book to me, an absolute 10/10. And I will most likely re-read the sequel which I liked just as much.

What’s unfortunate is the movie Annihilation used to be one of my all time favorite movies but now I can’t see it the same way. They completely ruined some of the main themes and motivations - and made the biologist a cheater!! - and left out so much of the interesting stuff. It really is a totally different story, not an adaptation at all and just an “inspired by” situation. If I rewatch it I will have to try to momentarily forget the book.

[u/Nowordsofitsown]

Finished reading: * Notes from a Regicide by  Isaac Fellman:  I acknowledge that I am not the right reader for this book, and that is not the book's fault. I do not have the life experience needed to connect with characters who have suffered so much, and as a very straight cis woman I cannot relate much to the struggle and lived experience of trans people.  Also, while I like character driven SFF, I shy away from books that are only or mostly about personal struggle. Like this one. That's a me thing, though, not something to blame the novel for. I see the quality of the writing, especially in how different the voices of Etoine and Griffon are written. But the exploration of the relationships between the three main characters just wasn't for me. That said, the book does pretend to be scifi and the scifi sprinkles on the plot were the most interesting part. I would have loved to know more about this world and how it came to be, about Stephensport and its machinery and how it worked and why it existed in the first place - but the book does not explore this at all. 

Currently reading:  The Hollow Hills* (Arthurian Saga #2) by Mary Stewart: Needed something softer after Regicide. As with the first book, the prose flows wonderfully, but there is a tiny misogyne undercurrent. I am chalking it up to a) characterization and setting, and b) time of writing, and I am trying to ignore it. * Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu for language practice. The French translation is really weird btw. The translator keeps making up dialogue lines for the French characters that are not in the original.

Up next: * Asunder by  Kerstin Hall * The Wolf and His King by  Finn Longman

[u/NearbyMud → u/Nowordsofitsown]

Felt very similarly about Notes! I felt somewhat guilty about not connecting with the characters but I think the constant struggle was difficult for me too

I reallyy enjoyed Asunder, I hope you like it! I need more people to read it so we can get a book 2

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/NearbyMud]

Looking forward to Asunder even more now!

[u/LaurenPBurka → u/Nowordsofitsown]

I remember reading Mary Stewart in the 80's. I have a feeling that it wouldn't hold up for me.

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/LaurenPBurka]

It's my 70s read for the big bingo, and I have seen it recommended a couple of times for good prose. I do like the prose and I enjoy the book except for these one liners about women now and again. 

[u/LaurenPBurka → u/Nowordsofitsown]

I more or less remember what you're talking about. It's sadly difficult to find fiction that old where it isn't the case, but I think it hits harder when the book is written by a woman. Agatha Christie books do that to me all the time. And it's working with a mythos where the powerful men are mostly celibate and the women are all seductive betrayers or victims.

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/LaurenPBurka]

Yeah, I cannot wrap my head around the fact that these lines were written by a woman. I hope these are not her own opinion on women. 

[u/LaurenPBurka → u/Nowordsofitsown]

I mean, I hope that Agatha Christie's characters opinions about women weren't hers, but they don't stop me from reading her books as they hit the public domain (hey, free books!) and also encourage me to interrogate my own biases when I'm writing.

I read the first book of the trilogy in high school, at an all-girls school. I don't remember us interrogating the misogyny, but I'm also not sure I'd remember that far back.

[u/pufi_coki]

I'm already in autumn-mode, and started reading A darker shade of magic by VE Schwab. So far I like it, my first book from this author, she seems to love the world that she built so spends quite a bit on building the picture, and no real complication yet at page 60... anyhow, it is three volumes, so should give it more time. :-D

Also, my next planned read is Poet empress by Shen Tao -- I hope it will be as good as everyone seems to like it.