![]() Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, by Daniel Warren Johnson (graphic novel, 2020) – Answers the question what would happen if Greek gods were blasted with nuclear missiles? The artwork is pretty awesome. As a bonus, there are a lot of interesting glimpses into antiquity, which I found fascinating. But if you’re a fan of Arthurian legends like I am then you will probably enjoy this book. The excessive modern profanities are tedious in the same way that listening to Limp Bizkit is. One complaint I have is the book tries a little too hard to be edgy. The rise of Christianity threatens to extinguish eldritch magic. Lancelot is a Judean assassin, Guinevere leads a team of sexy warrior thieves, and Arthur is an shameless powermonger. The chivalrous knights and maidens are now scummy connivers. This was a very disturbing book.īy Force Alone, by Lavie Tidhar (novel, 2020) – King Arthur: The Gritty Reboot. The Remembrance of Earth’s Past Trilogy is one of the best things I have read in the last 10 years, but so far I haven’t really been impressed with any of Cixin Liu’s other works.Įarthlings, by Sayaka Murata (novel, 2018) – Young Japanese cousins resort to incest and extraterrestrial fantasies to escape the horrors child abuse, neglect, and undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. ![]() But the country exchange program at the end was a little dumb, and the epilogue was even dumber. It was interesting to see the progression of the kids’ attitude towards governance. Stoic child prodigies take control after a cosmic event kills everyone over 13. The Supernova Era, by Cixin Liu (novel, 2003) – AKA the gritty reboot of the 90s McDonalds ad campaign McWorld (“hey it could happen!” Look it up if you’re not a 90s kid). Also present: a 500 year-old whore, an electrified latrine, a warty, hairy aunt, incest, many characters with grotesquely enlarged features (mostly noses or knees), Indira Gandhi bashing, lots of spitting, and chutney. Premise: a self-loathing telepath who barely uses his super power in the whole long book has many gross adventures and family drama as he witnesses India’s rise to independence and its wars with Pakistan. The premise made me think it would be some kind of literary proto-superhero novel, The Indian X-Men, for example, but it was mostly magical realism weirdness and sociopolitical allusions that went over my head. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie (novel, 1981) – This was a strange and difficult read, and I don’t think I really understood it. Lots of thought and attention was put into extrapolating the horrifying directions corporate greed will take society. Jennifer Government, by Max Barry (novel, 2002) – a twisty cyberpunk thriller set in a peak-“Capitalizt” nightmare. ![]() Like Ted Chiang, but from a dimension that sucks. Weak humor and boring hypotheses to unoriginal scenarios (what if ? What if ?). ![]() Sorry Please Thank You, by Charles Yu (short stories, 2012) – Bad speculative fiction. So caveat emptor, this review is only over the first half of the book. The narrator reads all of Ampersand’s (the alien boyfriend) lines in an annoying robot voice that by the halfway point I couldn’t handle anymore. But Cora, the protagonist, is useless and clueless in a fairly unrelatable or unsympathetic way, and all the other human characters are really obnoxious. I rapidly lost interest in everyone involved.Īlso, this may not be the author’s fault, but the audiobook is excruciating. Through a series of governmental mishaps, a young woman ends up on the run with an alien. The author reminds you of this by frequently shoehorning in references to Fergalicious and My Chemical Romance. It went on for either five minutes or five hours, in the same way it’s hard to keep track of time when you’re being tortured. One passage stands out in my mind as particularly irritating and overwrought: where the alien boyfriend makes the protagonist swallow a can of creamed corn. I guess pointing out the sexism and faux-progressiveness of Disney reboots and writing stories are nonexclusive skills. ![]() Unfortunately, it is overwritten, self-indulgent, and tedious. I’m a writer on Hogwarts Legacy during the week, but today I thought I would share some quick thoughts I had on some sci-fi/fantasy books I read recently:Īxiom’s End, by Lindsay Ellis (novel, 2020) – I used to enjoy Lindsay Ellis’ Youtube videos, so I was excited when her book finally came out last June. ![]()
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