Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer: a robot sets out across post-apocalyptic America, in the company of a cyborg dog, to recover his stolen leg. Surprisingly hopeful, given everything. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4wglwTR

Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe - a cozy romantasy about a princess being trapped in a bookshop (Oh no! <grabs book> However will I survive? <settles under blanket> Won't someone break this terrible curse? <store cat starts purring on lap> ) Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4xMdpQe

The Last Contract of Isako by @fondalee.bsky.social features a too-old-for-this-shit ronin, great worldbuilding, and lots of very smart social commentary. And yet another entry on the list of "good authors I like but haven't read what they're famous for." Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/3QoGkt1

Everything Katherine Arden writes is fantastic, beautiful, and very well researched; the Unicorn Hunters is no exception. A wonderful reimagining of the story of Anne of Brittany; full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4xi6ePG

Sublimation by @isabel.kim - well that was pretty god damn incredible. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review for this novel about identity, disaspora, and technological revolutions here: bit.ly/4x0H6g9

All Hail Chaos by @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social - this book left me convinced the author is playing a smart game with this. Highly recommended for those who liked the first book, but those who didn't I don't expect this to change your mind. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐review here: bit.ly/4f12V8P

About a third through All Hail Chaos by @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social. So far:

Green City Wars by @aptshadow.bsky.social - what's not to love about an Adrian Tchaikovsky noir novel with a raccoon PI? Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/42iqaUm

Building 903 by Lois Lowry - hits many of the same themes as The Giver, updated for our modern age of connection & surveillance. Not giving this one a star rating because it's unfair to judge a middle grade book not hitting as hard as a similar book I read at 10. Full review here: bit.ly/4u5fft0

The Faith of Beasts by James SA Corey - great second entry in this very dark space opera. It's a hard thing to make a collaborator your protagonist, but Abraham & Franck are doing a great job with it. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4sT2Ze4

About 3/4 through The Faith of Beasts by James SA Corey (aka Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck). Fantastic book, and have to ask, @abraham.bsky.social - how much of the history of the Jewish ruling councils in the Nazi ghettos in WW2 went into this?

Sorry to say that I didn't enjoy The Rose Field by Philip Pullman. Too much bloat, too many dangling plot threads, and some retconning of HDM I'm going to work hard to forget. Full ⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4cw5ywo

I am surprised to admit that I quite enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Carl. I picked it up as a skeptic, not being a huge fan of LitRPG in general, but I'm a convert. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4me3I7R

My ballpark for moderation was that a place like r/fantasy, with ~10k daily users, has a single-digit number of moderators, say 10. Twitter is about four orders of magnitude larger, so you'd be at 100,000 or so dedicated, careful moderators to keep it running.

The Tapestry of Fate by @shannonchakraborty.bsky.social is a FANTASTIC follow up to the Adventure of Amina al-Sirafi. One of, if not THE, current ongoing series I am most excited about. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4sbSbqY

Where Furnaces Burn by Joel Lane - excellent, and exceptionally bleak, book of short horror stories set in post-industrial England. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/3NADuQa

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by @thomasha.bsky.social - very weird, very creepy, very topical, absolutely excellent. Strong recommendation. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4dkNlnC

The Scarlet Throne by @amyleowwrites.bsky.social - excellent story with a villain main character who actually acts like a villain. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/400Vkyr

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. It's ground-breaking. It's important. It's influential. None of that, sadly, is synonymous with "good." And, sadly, no tap number to "Putting on the Ritz." Full review here: bit.ly/3ZzF47i

"Dawn" by Octivia Butler - great story about sexuality, love, and colonialsm. Thanks to r/Fantasy bingo (80s SF/F square) for finally getting me to read a Butler. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4qjagT1

Enjoyed this return to Area X despite @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social screwing me over, personally, by announcing more Southern Reach books thereby making this not count for the "Last in a Series" r/Fantasy Bingo square. (I swear that square will be the death of me). Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐review here: bit.ly/3ZgZPEA

*I've* never won the Nobel Peace Prize. Can I have Baffin Island? 👉👈

To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose - excellent follow-up to To Shake a Dragon's Breath - with with fantasy o-chem! Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/3NGcYnX

"We Will Rise Again" anthology - not sure if now is the best or the worst time to read a book like this, but there were some good stories in here. And this kind of book is important. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4qH4kUK

The Works of Vermin by @hironennes.bsky.social - One of the weirdest things I've ever read. I didn't understand it - AT ALL - but I loved every moment. My ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review is here, for what it's worth; I try to talk about it, but I'm not convinced that's possible. Just go read it. bit.ly/4jp14ek

We Dance Upon Demons by @vaishnawrites.bsky.social - excellent novel about a woman struggling against demons, both literal and metaphorical, but a novel about working in an abortion clinic in post-Roe America is not exactly what I would call "escapism." Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review: bit.ly/4pUy0wY

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill - decent book that would have been better if A) the author had embraced writing a YA book; and B) Orbit hadn't marketed it as cozy. Definitely a solid read though. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐review here: bit.ly/4iERtiR

Snake-Eater by @tkingfisher.com - a woman finding her self-confidence again after escaping a bad relationship, while also dealing with the god of roadrunners (which are vicious mini-dinosaurs) that was involved with her late aunt. Cozy, creepy, and wonderful. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4ioEim0

Sign of the Dragon by @marysoonlee.bsky.social - well that was a masterpiece, and I might even stop crying some day. Epic poetry isn't something I read too much of, so thanks to my fellow r/Fantasy mod u/oboist73 for suggesting this. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review at bit.ly/3MbFyNn

It's not that often that a book manages to take me COMPLETELY by surprise, but @mikecarey.bsky.social managed it with Outlaw Planet, his standalone follow-up to the Pandominion duology. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/3KgRTiD

#TSOTD_note. "The Sign of the Dragon" has a Best Sellers Rank of 53,631 on Kindle just now. Best-selling authors would laugh derisively at this number, but it's the highest I remember seeing for my book, so I'm happy! ✏️📖🐉 N.B. Lower numbers are better, so there are over 50,000 books ahead of mine.

My new favorite kind of meme is "here are detailed instructions on how to turn off AI". 🔨

Another excellent, excellent book from @angelaslatter.bsky.social. I'd meant to read it when it came out, but I'm glad I did not - this was a great book to read in the fall. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review at bit.ly/3K1meBF

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

Reading & enjoying The Crimson Road by @angelaslatter.bsky.social and filling out @katkale.bsky.social 's Sourdough Universe bingo card. Futher updates as things progress

Dead Hand Rule by @maxgladstone.bsky.social - another fantastic entry in the series. Incredibly frustrating when characters I care about are on opposite sides for very good reasons. I needs book 4, I NEEDS IT. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review at bit.ly/4hREava

PHILIP PULLMAN HAS A NEW BOOK OUT?! TODAY?!?!?! www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

The Everlasting by @alixeharrow.bsky.social - well that was a freaking masterpiece. Both topical and timeless (rimshot), heartbreaking and uplifiting. Easy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Full review at bit.ly/47e1yht

"Red City" by Marie Lu - a Romeo & Juliet retelling, but with less choreography and tough guy finger snapping and more extreme violence from rival magical drug cartels. Intense read. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review at bit.ly/3VQI25x

"Kill the Beast" by @serratheswift.bsky.social - one of the more interesting Beauty & the Beast retellings I've ever read. Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/4gP1SYE

There's an upcoming ReadAlong for "The Sign of the Dragon" on Reddit fantasy: www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/co... As far as I can tell, it's organized by oboist73, to whom I'm greatly indebted for posting many many kind comments about "The Sign of the Dragon." The first bit of the discussion is on 10/7

Sad to say that I was disappointed by John Scalzi's new Old Man's War novel "The Shattering Peace." We learn lots more about the Consu, which only serves to make them much less cool à la the Borg. Full ⭐⭐ review at bit.ly/4nBVNkc

It's a standard tactic of narcissist bullies to blame those abused within the situation the narcissist created for the effects of the situation the narcissist created, as a pretext for enacting further abuse. It's not necessary to accept it, though. It's actually pretty important not to.

In 2023 it was calling enemies "vermin" who were "poisoning the blood of the country," and promising "I am your retribution." In 2024 it was never-ending promises of violence to cheers and applause of people who wanted to see it done on their behalf. In 2025 they've been doing it. It's their world.

In 2021 it was an actual attempted overthrow of the government, along with the attempted assassination of the Vice President and Congress. In 2022 it was laughing about the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi and the brutal attack on her husband by a deranged hammer-wielding maniac.

In 2015 it was "lock her up." In 2016 it was "2nd amendment solutions." In 2017 it was telling cops "please don't be too nice." In 2018 "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." In 2019 it was "can't you just shoot them in the legs or something?" In 2020 it was "stand back and stand by."

This explains it better than I can

Nice of the Hugo folks, after more or less ignoring the /r/Fantasy bingo team during the awards, and indeed poking fun at us, to also leave us out of their non-apology. I wasn't expecting us to win, and am honestly quite happy to lose to Jordan S. Carroll, but we deserve respect regardless. 1/2

Planned obsolescence is the WORST. If I'm paying very nearly nine dollars for a pair of earbuds, I should be able to expect them to keep working after a mere two trips though the washer and dryer. #sorrynotsorry