Wow! A worthy ending to the Imperial Radch trilogy ba Ann Leckie. The actions and decisions of the previous volumes find their somewhat logical conclusion in a complicated struggle for independence in an empire that has pretty much forgotten what independence even is. This book was a truly amazing mix of fast-paced action (lots of fun and creativitiy in there, too), and deep, deep character development. This series hit my tastes in pretty much every way, balancing action, character development, humor, serious issues of personal growth, society, and politics. Wow.

The Wild Girls by Ursula K. Le Guin contains a short story/novelly named like the book, two essays, a couple of poems, and an interview with the author. I liked the short story well enough, but it was like the remainder of the book: agreeable but inconsequential. The essays held opinions I liked, without anything actionable, and the interview showed a person I liked, but nothing more than that.

Influx by Daniel Suarez was disappointing, especially since I enjoyed Daemon f. – Influx bore all the marks of a sub-par action movie, with one Deus ex Machina chasing the next, random high-powered technology spawning all along, a big reveal (oh no! everybody knew!), and characters who are flat, and either Good™ or Evil™. It didn't help that I disagreed fundamentally with the barely-veiled message Suarez tries to bring across (don't ever hide innovation, kids, or you may bring about the end of the world). Even the writing was way over-the-top to make readers see every scene as part of a generic action movie. Very meh.

Brothers in Arms is the fifth part (in order of publishing) of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga and I enjoyed it immensely. After the previous volumes vaguely related tales, we finally return to Miles and his crew. It's been seven years (!!!. Where are the stories about those years? Well, at least one later volume takes place in the space between.), and it's brilliant. Miles is still the protagonist with the most absolute forward momentum, and the story has no clear villain, the characters are ambiguous, the narrator is only nearly reliable, and the plot is just tremendous amounts of fun. It really says something when you see that a series has 16 volumes + minor works and you're relieved because it won't be over quite so soon.

Okay, wow, this book had me discussing and screaming at it a lot. People die. People nearly die. Some of those deaths I was not at all okay with.

Bull and Sam. And nearly Naomi. I swear I'd have stopped reading the book and the series if Naomi had died.

Discovering the background of the protomolecule, the history, the vast other worlds out there, and the threat was awesome. Seeing both personal and political interactions in the crisis in a closed-off environment, too. God this series is brilliant.

I always enjoy thought experiments with alien cultures with different values. This one was … well, very Yudkowsky-ish, which to me isn't only good in a story. It's still very enjoyable. Babyeathers and Super Happy People, y'all.

This is the infamous Culture book that's mostly ships talking. Which is not the part I disliked, the ships and their story were cool! But the humans were terribly one-dimensional and felt lazy, which distracted me from the cool Excession and nearly-as-cool intrigue.

Great successor! We see more of Arlen (and later, Renna, who has a wonderful story), Rojen (who was a bit neglected, to my feeling), Leesha, and a fancy new character! Also, more insight into politics and the demons. Everything was very cool, especially how people had all sorts of agency. I felt that character development ran a bit low in this book, but that's a common theme for second volumes, so let's hope the next one picks it up a bit.

2-3 stars for me. This is … space fantasy? A space epic? I wouldn't call it scifi, and it reminds me of Star Wars (although more thought was put into it). The writing had some seriously weak moments, large plot elements were predictable, and, the worst, all characters were clearly good or evil. It was never phrased like that, but c'mon. Seriously, that's no fun.

I liked the backstory, the different types of human and alien settlements (and of course the Roamers, which are clearly the coolest. But again, they're meant to be the coolest, meh). The story was, well, ok.

Wow, this book was … a lot to take in. I liked it very much. Getting thrown into an Ankh-Morporkesque city, discovering alien races, and characters, and social structures was awesome. I noted with thanks that there was very little of a conventional story arch, so that the overall direction of the story only grew really clear when reaching 50-65% of the story. The very clear-cut and very different characters were relatable and realistic, and the final twists were all the better for the fact that they were not positive.

Also, screw those transcendent moths with their creepy fractal wings ewwwww.

This was terrific. We get Locke, Jean, and Sabetha, their backstory (Scott pulls off the old past-present alternating chapters well), and a contest with unfair rules and unfairer outcome. I loved how, again, Scott makes clear that the women in the story (mostly Sabetha, but not only) have agency, and character. No matter if they choose to fuck people or not, their choices are shown to be theirs and valid, and men who don't respect that are shown to be assholes. It's great.

This book gives a good overview over the way online culture gravitates towards outrage and shaming. We get to meet some of the people impacted by this, and industries surrounding it, as well as contextualisation, both historical and with the justice system. While there is little actionable advice here – I appreciated it. It read like a very long, thorough reportage and I enjoyed reading it.

I appreciate the absurdity of the book, I really do. The plot was part funny, part horrible, always absurd and tragic. I see how the repetetiveness of the theme can be read as great. It just didn't fit my taste. It felt like it nearly could have been a Vonnegut, but wasn't thinking quite the same way. I'm glad I have read it though, it was time well spent.

Very very nearly a five-star book for me due to the ending, and I enjoyed it much more than the first volume. The story of Olamina told by herself, but commented on by her daughter, is really something. The pacing is outstanding and not very conventional (meaning you don't anticipate how the story is going to evolve and end). I was happy and impressed to follow Olamina through her budding community, her imprisonment, pregnancy, and founding a religion.

This whole series continues its spree of positive surprises. This time we get a new Lucifer, and we get various conversations with God. Well well well.

A good end to the series. The different roles and characters were great, and the explanations of humans vs dragons explained previous plots.

3.5 stars, weird one. Greg continues to play with the rules of perception and what perceiving a thing implies, only this time we go on a trippy trip to parallel universe central, launching of parallel universes as we go, dropping through thousands of years and more, and "failing" (in one universe, and what's one universe) in the end because the aliens we created have a more solid and cohesive perception of reality than we do. I just felt the whole time that Greg made all the rules fairly arbitrarily and could change them whatever way he wanted at any time. Which may have been due to me not understanding the premise deeply enough (and is a feeling shared by Maria, one of the two protagonists, at least).

I definitely liked this one more than World of Rocannon. It shows us two alien cultures as seen by the other culture, and their interactions. It's short and simple, and its narrative arch is not very impressive, but it's okay or even good scifi, hands down.