Tag: Writing

  • My review: The Everlasting, by Alix E. Harrow

    Another last-minute review of a book I read months ago. Another attempt to put my thoughts in order before voting. Every evidence of procrastination and incomplete work is another chance to grow? Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It does fall heavily into the “war is war” category of books that give me some kind…

  • My review: Shroud, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

    I read this on ebook back in like May 2026 but never wrote a review and now I’m panicking and trying to organize my thoughts before voting in the 2026 Hugo Awards. This is a great sci-fi story with a classic feel. An alien planet so weird that it has to be explored. An alien…

  • My review: Tender Is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica

    I read this in paperback on 26 July 2026. I grabbed this book and every other one mentioned in the New York Times article about cannibalism as a publishing trend. I’m a sucker for a theme, and especially for this theme. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/books/cannibalism-fiction.html Look, I grew up on Rocky Horror, and Meatloaf is a rather tender…

  • My review: The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

    My review: The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

    I read this (epub) on 15 May 2026. This novel is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself. Magic-school stories, which I suppose are a subset of boarding-school stories, are not my jam. Not anymore. I was a Harry Potter kid. Like,…

  • My review: What Stalks the Deep, by T. Kingfisher

    I read this (epub) on 14 May 2026. This novella is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself. I think this one takes my vote (sorry to Cinder House and Automatic Noodle, which also got this endorsement in their reviews). Honestly, I’ll…

  • My review: The Raven Scholar, by Antonia Hodgson 

    I read this (epub) on 14 May 2026. This novel is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself. I really enjoyed this one, despite all the things I didn’t like. Stories about formal factions are fine but so often overdone. This one…

  • My review: Cinder House, by Freya Marske

    My review: Cinder House, by Freya Marske

    I read this (epub) in two or three sittings on 12 May 2026. This novella is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself. Fairy tale retellings, especially the ones Disney has already done, are always a bit of a miss for me.…

  • The clothes make the (hu)man (pt 2)

    Okay, my first swing at this prompt devlolved into a screed about not letting your ideal writing conditions become an excuse for not writing, and I need to revisit and refine that post a bit, but also I recognize that I didn’t answer the question, really. I just did the edgy thing of rejecting it……

  • The clothes make the (hu)man (pt 1)

    There’s a line used in classist repression: “the clothes make the man.” Okay, maybe that is unfair, it is about more than repression. The idea is that a convincing wardrobe can do a lot for a person, make them feel better, and make them look better. Clothes can in fact make the difference in many…