Book #81 of 2020: The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (Great Cities #1) I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but author N. K. Jemisin’s foray into urban fantasy reads rather like a 1990s throwback, with its tale of five New Yorkers who become powerful avatars of their respective boroughs harkening …
Continue reading “Book Review: The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin”
Book #80 of 2019: A People’s Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams I expected to really love this anthology, based on its foreword and stated goal of bringing a Howard Zinn recentering of marginalized perspectives to the world of tomorrow. The authors and characters include women, LGBTQ people, …
Book #244 of 2018: How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin A few of these short stories miss the mark for me, and the ones I like best seem front-loaded in the first half of the collection, giving the book at large an uneven feel. Still, author N. K. Jemisin’s imagination is …
Continue reading “Book Review: How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin”
Book #233 of 2017: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth #2) As this series goes along, it’s starting to feel like author N. K. Jemisin is more interested in showing off her admittedly awesome and intricate worldbuilding than in telling a story with compelling emotional stakes for her characters. It’s still …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin”
Book #225 of 2017: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth #1) Great fantasy worldbuilding and effortless diversity of race, gender identity, and sexuality, but it bothered me a little that the three different storylines felt so isolated from one another (even after I developed a suspicion about how they were connected …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more