Tag Archives: Tor.com

Book Review: Network Effect & Fugitive Telemetry

I pre-ordered a hardback copy of Martha Wells’ Network Effect and received an e-copy of Fugitive Telemetry through Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:

Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

Review:

OMG, full length Murderbot book; cue incoherent and excited babbling. Except, I do this weird thing when I’m really excited to read a book. I buy it and then I sit on it. Not literally, I just mean I don’t immediately read it. I don’t know why. But I do it often enough to recognize a pattern and I did it with Network Effect. So, I’ve had the book and the anticipation for a while now. But I read it yesterday. So good.

I did think the beginning a bit rough. Murderbot has a tendency to sarcastically name thing and make internal commentary. The result was several passages I had to read more than once to grasp the meaning. At one point, for example, Murderbot entered a room with what I thought was 2 people (and Amena). I had to go back and read it again and again because I couldn’t figure out how some were dying and still running away. Turns out it was 4 people; I’d just misunderstood Murderbot’s naming structure.

It did smooth out and I loved seeing Murderbot grow. I think there is more emotional growth in this book than all the others combined. And please give me more of ART and Three. I’m so curious about Three! I, as always, look forward to continuing the series.

Description from Goodreads:

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Review:

After stepping away from Preservation Station in Network Effect, we’re back during Fugitive Telemetry. It was a little jarring, because it didn’t feel like it fit the timeline, like maybe FT should have come before NE. But either way I enjoyed it after those first few disconcerting “when am I” moments.

As always, Murderbot is wonderfully sarcastic. Here we see it working with people who aren’t (or aren’t yet) it’s people. It’s a struggle sometimes. As was Murderbot trying and do it’s job while ham-stringed by not being able to hack the computer systems. It was forced to interact with outside individuals more. All of it was a lot of fun.

The writing is readable and editing clean, as it has been with all the books so far. I can’t wait for more.

Book Review: Magic For Liars, by Sarah Gailey

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It was chore day, so I wanted to listen to an audiobook while I slogged away at them. But none of the ones I have on my Audible cloud looked appealing. Thus, I borrowed Sarah Gailey‘s Magic For Liars from the library.

Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magical. She is perfectly happy with her life. She has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It’s a great life and she doesn’t wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.

But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach.

I’ll admit that this was a tad on the slow side, but I generally enjoyed it. And I’ll tell you what I liked about it. I too am a salt-n-pepper woman (like the main character). That makes me 43. I figure Ivy was a bit older, though it’s not explicitly stated. She’s stuck in a high school dealing with teenagers. I have an almost 14 and almost 12 year old. They roll they eyes at me constantly, and generally think they know everything and parents are idiots, as teens are wont to do. The teens in Magic For Liars are the same. And like adults everywhere, Ivy sees right through their act. But because she has a mystery to solve she uses her adult knowledge to get the information she needs. She doesn’t posture and ensure the children know they’re children. As is always so tempting when their mien of superiority gets to be too frustrating. She lets them go right on thinking they’re the smartest people in the room. What parent hasn’t had that feeling while dealing with their teen? Maybe because I too am stuck dealing with tweens/teens in my real like, I found her manipulation of them with their own artifices superbly satisfying.

I did feel sorry for Ivy. She wanted to desperately to be loved, not too unlike all those teens. But her sister just wasn’t capable of it. I really hope the open ending, with the possibility of happiness on that front comes to fruition for her.

Interestingly, this could be read as a parable on the importance of providing access to safe contraceptives and/or abortions. There are certainly some interesting reflections of life and death, beginning, middle, and end of life going on in the book.

All in all, a winner for me.

Book Review of The Good Luck Girls, by Charlotte Nicole Davis

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I purchased a copy of Charlotte Nicole Davis‘ The Good Luck Girls.

Description from Goodreads:

Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the catalyst

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS

The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls–they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a “welcome house” as children and branded with cursed markings. Trapped in a life they would never have chosen.

When Clementine accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta’s most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It’s going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

Review:

I should not have read this book. It’s good. The writing is imminently readable. The characters are distinct and meaningful. The editing is clean. Just look at that cover; it’s to die for. The use of having/not having a shadow as a metaphor for racism based on skin color works effectively. The world is interesting. This is a good book.

But the main characters are teenaged girls indentured for life to a brothel (starting in young childhood) and a large part of the plot is the effects of their trauma and PTSD. (There basically aren’t ANY non-victimized females in the book. Only Good Luck Girls, evil men, and a very few decent men.) And while I understand intersectionality and how important it is to face the realities of abuse in people’s lives I assiduously avoid it in the books I read for entertainment. (It’s just become a little too triggering for me in recent years.) So, despite how much I could appreciate about this book (and there is so much), I had to grit my teeth and force myself to keep reading because the subject matter is one I try not to touch in fun books. (I guess I need the distance of academia because I do read about such things to educate myself.)

My biggest critique would be that meeting up with Zee, who seems overly knowledgeable and capable, and doggedly loyal, seemed a little too convenient for the plot. And the lack of women in the world was notable. This is a book about women as victims and men as perpetrators (and about racism) but the lack of other women to flesh it all out both made it feel unreal and, I thought, showed a male lens that is too common in literature. Women exist to be victims and don’t seem to exist outside that role. Almost none were seen passing on the street, or in a saloon, through a show window, etc. The world was basically all men and the Good Luck Girls. That’s it.

All in all, I’m torn. I recognize it’s a good book but I did not enjoy reading it.