All Systems Red (2017)

Martha Wells
★★★★

The first book (really a novella) of the Murderbot series. Stumbled on this having read Network Effect in 2022, and it's a good and quick read. Interesting to see how the ideas for the world and tone are already there and strong even in what is effectively a short story. Made me more inclined to read more than the novel did---perhaps as a result of starting at the start.

Cold Enough for Snow (2022)

Jessica Au
★★★★

A lovely short meditation on family, narrated by a woman escorting her mother on a visit to Japan. Her thoughts drift from Japan to earlier events in her and their life. Refreshingly it often draws no conclusions, simply records observations and events, leaving the reader to extrapolate and ponder. The relationship between the narrator and her mother is very believable and poignant.

Immortal X-Men Vol.2 (2023)

Gillen / Werneck / Bandini / Curiel
★★

It all starts to fall apart in Vol 2. I felt very cheated reading this, as many of the key events happen off page in another book. The second panel announces the death of a major character, but never explains how or why because you have to read something else to find out. It's beyond frustrating, and there are more examples as the issues progres (e.g. the Hellfire Gala). Very disappointed in Marvel, and I imagine it must be frustrating for Gillen too—there are some fun sequences in here but Sinister has worn out his welcome a little by now. And the 'Immortal' part of the title begins to feel silly: having no consequence death makes the stakes very low. I think I'll read Wikipedia to find out about the looming disaster rather than having to buy random extra books to satisfy Marvel's coffer-filling narrative gaps.

Immortal X-Men Vol.1 (2022)

Gillen / Werneck / Bandini / Curiel
★★★

Quite a different X-book, with a lot of the Silent Council sitting around pontificating and joking around rather than punching things. Still it's interesting to see the political machinations even if it does sometimes feel like watching a actual council bicker. Gillen takes a Game of Thrones style approach of having each issue from the perspective of a new character—some work better than others, but he does well differentiating tone and style.

Nona the Ninth (2022)

Tamsyn Muir
★★★

After promising a three-book series, Muir sprung a surprise and squeezed in this book before the finale. It's quite a strange diversion from the first two books, both of which were wild and very original. This feels like a backward step in comparison, a little tame, a little slow, and a little 'normal': schools and beaches and regular cities. It gets there in the end, but takes a while where Gideon and Harrow were compelling from start to finish. Perhaps should have stuck with the trilogy plan, but I'm still super anticpating the finale in 2024.

Klara and the Sun (2022)

Kazuo Ishiguro
★★★★

Androids, or Artifical Friends, as companions for children is not a new tale (see: *I, Robot*), but Ishiguro brings typical gravitas and emotion to the idea. Klara is perfectly realised, as is the world she tries understand. What responsibilities will we (or do we) have to an intelligent machine, particularly one that is so dedicated to their human companion.

Sea of Tranquility (2022)

Emily St John Mandel
★★★★

Presision plotted from multiple perspectives, and drawing narrative threads from the both *The Glass Hotel* and *Station Eleven*. Echoes through time and place lead to stream-crossing which St John Mandel juggles very adroidtly. Clever and satisfying storytelling, with some particularly emotionally effective threads emerging from having being written during CV19.

The Glass Hotel (2020)

Emily St John Mandel
★★★☆

A strange mixture of isolation (the titular hotel) and big money. Like Station Eleven, the big money ponzi scheme plot almost predicts the cryptocurrency mania and collapse, though this is obviously heavily based on the real story of of Bernie Madoff. It's interesting to learn about high finance shenanigans, but the book overall is less satisfying than *Station Eleven* despite clever foreshadowing of the events and characters from that book being scattered throughout.

Station Eleven (2022)

Emily St John Mandel
★★★★

A re-read after discovering that St John Mandel's following books were presquels of a sort, or at least featured a continuity of characters. A very well realised story of pandemic (written before CV19 (with far more dramatic consequences) and a post disaster society. Memorable and smart.

Between Two Fires (2012)

Christopher Buehlman
★★★★

Medieval plague horror with angels and devils, which sounds dire but isn't. The visceral presence of heaven and hell amongst the wreckage of the plague is eye wrenching and powerful.