Book Announcements + Masked Ball + “Phoenix Extravagant” (Lee) summary

Join us!

Summary “Phoenix Extravagant”

What we enjoyed about the book:

  • world heavily inspired by Korea; Razani; world feels very alive; great setting; interesting setting
  • dynamics / characters / setting works well
  • world felt ‘real’
  • artistic part of the story enjoyable; painting really interesting and nicely done
  • magic was connected to magic
  • art and magic really cool
  • magic system innovative
  • characters cool
  • queer characters, identities, relationships normalised, very nice
  • dragons really cool
  • protagonist’s relationship with the dragon really interesting: animal machine to be commanded not to be befriended
  • give the dragon agency / questions of free will
  • main protagonist a bit unlikeable, interesting
  • philosophy of the main character interesting: I do not want to fight
  • pigment as magic cool
  • bureucracy gives it a nice dystopian touch
  • Arazi is really cool
  • writing style love or hate: “somewhere in between there”; artistic-esque and other parts were a bit much
  • some concepts over the protagonist’s head, parts confusing, in the way of understand the world sometimes
  • main character very oblivious; interesting; wanted to know more about it all
  • mechas!!!
  • trauma transported very well
  • great ideas, lots of potential
  • philosophical dimension incredibly interesting
  • full of strong contrasts that boggled the mind

What we discussed:

  • what is going on in the end???
  • dark secret not so dark: pigment from art; we expected something darker
  • blurb did not really capture the novel
  • Arazi is a great character but “a really really lame mecha”
  • dragon pacifist bit weird; capable of spaceflight; could’ve been more inspiring or more destructive; goes to the moon!
  • world building did not make sense for the first half for one BSFG member
  • answers sometimes came too late
  • what was the end about? saved the art from being turned into pigment and they put it on the dragon; the two lovers / main protagonists go to the moon and store the art there; in space they meet supernatural beings? World war is starting? Super rushed; meta????
  • breathe in space on top of the dragon?
  • magic system could’ve been explained more?
  • ending very nebulous; bit magical realism like
  • fairy tale ending, quite puzzeling
  • love story happens out of nowhere
  • so many open questions / plotholes
  • villain not convincing
  • “I really did not get the characters. They were nice, but they were also kinda stupid”
  • Disjointed novel: one book until the escape, really cool; after the escape: very rushed
  • dreamlike quality of the latter part of the book
  • strong contrasts interesting but also weird: war machine automaton dragon –> pacifist
  • “it’s a nice novel” but it could have been a great novel
  • could’ve been a great trilogy: get more information; learn more; explain more; explore more
  • felt very scattered
  • blurb describes more what we would have liked to see

How we rated the book:

  • 3.5 / 5 dragons: journey and characters enjoyable, “I enjoyed reading it”
  • 3 / 5 mechanical dragons: “I liked some of the ideas, there was much potential; not as well executed as I would have liked”
  • 3.5/5 stars: “concept is great”; “I would’ve liked to have seen much more in the book”
  • 3 / 5 stars: “liked the concept”, “entertaining”; ending disappointing
  • 3/5 stars: “the idea was good and I liked the writing style”, feeling at the end; was expecting more
  • 4/5 mecha dragons: great queer rep; magic pigments cool; loved the dragon; but the ending kinda destroyed it a bit

Other books we talked about:

  • “Machineries of Empire” by Yoon Ha Lee: calendar magic; fascinating; space; society liberal as long as it does not concern the calendar; 1984 crack; conquering a space fortress; lot of action; very different to “Phoenix Extravagant”
  • “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill: leave a baby in the forest for a supposedly evil witch; kind witch brings it to the other side of the forest which offers better living conditions; story about one child that received too much magic and is raised by the witch; love as a strong theme
  • “The Watchers” by A.M. Shine: monsters in the woods, a group of people stuck in a bunker
  • “Eric of Melniboné” by Michael Moorcock: a classic; Conan the Barbarian deconstruction; counter culture; “bit dusty”
  • “Saga” comics recommendation by Brian K. Vaughan: art style; story extremely creative; inventive; highly enjoyable; now continued
  • “House in the Cerulean Sea” by Klune: “so gay”, “just fills my inside with warmth”
  • “The Death of a Sailsman” by Arthur Miller: theatre, weird theatre, recommendable

Summary H.G. Wells

What we liked about “The Time Machine” and “The War of the Worlds”

  • Classics can feel a bit “dusty”, but it’s fascinating what Wells started in terms of science fiction
  • “Dusty imagination of the (late) Victorians”; great imaginations in the books
  • They cannot really be compared to modern science fiction novels but considering the time, they are truly impressive
  • Very imaginative!
  • “War of the Worlds” dry but “Time Machine” very nice
  • Ideas we are used to now but they were revolutionary in the day
  • “War of the Worlds” not as fast-paced as scifi is today; chill alien invasion in this one
  • No infodump at the beginning is nice
  • “Time Machine” goes all out, H.G. Wells is like “hold my beer”
  • Rereading it as an adult makes one appreciate how influential these books were
  • “Time Machine” is a story about humanity at its core
  • Old fashioned but fun
  • Hard sf gets boring quite fast, H.G. Wells has fun and just rolls with it
  • “Thin line between going totally bonkers and really really dry and dusty” scifi
  • Writing style not too stuffed, can be read nicely
  • “Time Machine”: time travel novels are cool, “Dr Who” ❤
  • Really cool how influential the novels were, how many adaptations were sparked
  • Parts of it are really funny; gave “Mars Attacks” vibes
  • H.G. Wells visionary
  • “This is not specific at all, but I enjoy finally reading classics that I already kind of know about – it feels new but also familiar I guess”
  • Clean and simple: aliens come, aliens want to conquer; “epic scale”
  • Epicness and action (even though it is a bit dry)
  • Alien invasion happens in England and NOT in the United States, that was nice
  • Panic induced by a radio adaptation: https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/30-october/orson-welles-causes-panic-with-his-%25E2%2580%2598war-of-the-worlds%25E2%2580%2599-broadcast
  • Extra: “Island of Doctor Moreau”: “H.G. Wells predicts genetic engineering”; his take on “Frankenstein”; less space, more biology
  • Extra: “The Invisible Man”; not as good as the others but still cool; not as scifi-ish; social commentary cool; “it was fun”

What we discussed:

  • Pacing often a bit slow
  • Narration drags on sometimes
  • “War of the Worlds”: adaptations always a bit better, but it’s unfair to bash H.G. Wells because “he’s the daddy of these concepts”
  • Racism shows and sucks, still hard to read even if we think about when the novels were published
  • Humans couldn’t really do anything against the aliens was quite frustrating; this changed in later adaptations
  • Helpless humans felt like horror; same aesthetic too
  • Parts of the content boring because we are used to tropes etc (because H.G. Wells invented them), but this is kinda unfair
  • H.G. Wells very smooth, could’ve been a bit more gritty
  • Lack of things happening is boring, too many descriptions, “nothing’s happening!!!”
  • Too much speculation as part of the narration
  • Visionary but H.G. Wells talking about the future “very whack”, feels weird, over the top; he wanted to impress people during Victorianism and it shows

Rating of the books:

  • 10/10 Morlocks as classics; “they are nice”; “they deserve their acclaim”
  • War of the Worlds 9/10 Martians
  • Time Machine 7/10 Morlocks
  • Time Machine 3.5-4/5 Time Machines
  • War of the Worlds 2.5-3/5 Martians
  • Time Machine 4/5
  • War of the Worlds 3.5/5
  • War of the Worlds 4/5 Aliens
  • Time Machine not yet finished, final rating later
  • 4/5 weird visions of the future for both of them as they were so influential and its impressive

Other books we talked about:

  • “Project Hail Mary”: cool, especially the first contact part; ending satisfying
  • “Master of Djinn”: great queer rep, set in Cairo, interesting take on colonialism, well written
  • “Endgame” by Seanan McGuire: really enjoyable; coming of age; fun
  • Adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice”: “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”; book: “The Secreat Diary of Lizzie Bennet”
  • “Our Violent Ends” (#2 “Our Violent Delights” #1) by Chloe Gong: retelling of Romeo & Juliet in 1920s Shanghai, great series!
  • “Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao: entertaining, violent, dark, queer, feminist, MECHAS!

Summary Darcy Little Badger

What we enjoyed about the book:

  • Crime Mystery enjoyable
  • Magical urban fantasy United States, setting in Texas cool
  • Lipan Apache community cool
  • Dynamic between protagonist and dog was super enjoyable to read
  • Ace main protagonist so rare, really cool
  • Aro/ace not a plot point, not a coming out story, normal!!!
  • Representation well done
  • Teenager was listened to, she was loved, very good family dynamic
  • Setting: contemporary, Texas, reminded us of “Trail of Lightning”
  • Characters really cool
  • Family worked together so well, goes against the trope of the absent or useless parents (they are not obstacles here)
  • Merging mythologies cool
  • Ancestral land: get rid of vampire, nice
  • Elatsoe so cool, we would like to read more urban, realistic magic stories
  • Illustrations beautiful in the hardcopy version
  • Wonderful cover
  • Families can function and it is great to see that this can also be found in YA now
  • Coming of age and the parents are there to support them
  • Feels very contemporary
  • Queer characters cool
  • We love the doggo sidekick! Dream: you are able to bring your dead pet back to life! A new trope we love! Save the pets! ❤
  • Funny book too
  • No romantic relationship, but great depiction of a close relationship that is intimate but not sexual (hard to do, but “done very well”)
  • Villain really cool, “genuinely suprised and upset that he should’ve died” –> genuine surprise felt extremely real, think about worth
  • Villain deems himself more important than other people’s lives, worth = money; problematic
  • Villain: evil white person, colonial dimension
  • Like that we know the villain right away and then trying to find out WHY
  • Writing style: easy to read
  • Lipan Apache representation so cool! We want more of this!
  • humour was good

What we discussed:

  • Slow start, hard to get into
  • We know the villain very early on, sad, flat ending
  • Writing style could be smoother
  • Unrealistic bits: how can your best friend not know about your school incident? Author tried to give the characters some background and it didn’t fit in (especially in the beginning)
  • Pacing a bit off
  • Sometimes really rushed, more “tell than show”
  • One can see that it’s the first book by DLB but writing style worked!
  • World building did not make sense for a long time, we wanted more information, too normalised???
  • Too much info-dump, felt a bit forced
  • Balance!!!
  • Magic totally normal, but police etc. are unprepared? Weak world building? Could’ve been explained more?
  • We love the doggo, our hearts go out to the doggo!
  • Pacing sometimes rushed, ending
  • “soaked in zeitgeist” too much?
  • Ellie felt really really young, not 17, “child-like wonder” (which was in itself really nice), rather 12-ish to 15, bothered us, supportive home makes her not as bitter and mature as other 17 yo YA protagonists (maybe we read too much YA dystopia?) –> other extreme: “Six of Crows” everyone is way too mature
  • Felt more like middle grade than YA
  • Ellie really good kid, no teenager vibes, but she is still a strong character and cool!

Rating:

  • 8.5/10 non creepy leeches
  • 4/5 ghost dogs, “read the book within a book and I really enjoyed it”, was not bored
  • 5/5 grandmas on ghost mammoths ❤
  • 4.5/5 “excited to see what else this author can write”
  • 3.5/5 fairy mushrooms, “not done yet, really hard to get into the story”
  • 4/5 vampires on ancestral land, “had the potential for a perfect read”, “some parts left me wondering / dissatisfied”
  • “Also not completely done yet, therefore for me also ca. 3,5 out of 5 ghost dogs, because it took me very long to get into it.. but with the possibility that I’ll change my mind to 4 out of 5 after I’ve finished it :D”

Other books we talked about:

  • DLB: “A Snake Falls to Earth”: Lipan-Apache, Indigenous Futurism, sci-fi, climate change very very strong
  • “The Cybernetic Teashop” by Meredith Katz: hummingbird companion, travells with her tea shop, robot friendship, great representation, wonderfully queer (95 pages), “very very cozy read”, ace rep
  • “The Craft of Love” by E.E. Ottoman: 18th century New York, silversmith (trans man) and quilt maker (bisexual woman), bit idealised / romanticised, “felt very comforting to me”, “escapist read”, “affirming”
  • “I finally started “The Way of Kings” by Sanderson and really love it so far! Can’t believe it took me so long to finally pick up one of Sanderson’s series 🙂 I think the emperor’s soul gave me the final nudge :D” GOOD GOOD, ANOTHER PERSON CONVERTED TO BRANDON SANDERON
  • Last Wayfarer novel by Becky Chambers (we read #1 together): “reminded me how much I love the series and the characters”, “cultural differences and understanding”, wholesome
  • “Murderbot” series: “so delightful”, “very relatable”, murderbot with social anxiety, we love
  • “Handmaid’s Tale” (Atwood): “now I want to burn a lot of bibles in front of some Christians”
  • “Grey Bees” by Andrey Kurov: roadtrip novel, beekeeper from the grey zone travels to Ukraine but also Crimea, great insight into country, politics, beekeeping. Pick it up if you want to learn more about Ukraine, no speculative fiction of course. Sometimes hilarious but also tragic. 5/5

Summary Paver

What we enjoyed about the book:

  • Light reading (in a positive sense), pacing / flow of narrative worked smoothly
  • Setting was the best –> creepy atmosphere, sense of place, “lonely”, “abandoned”, worked together in the end
  • Creepy sensation
  • Well researched, small details impressive
  • Not infodumping with historical trivia and detail
  • Dogs ❤
  • Progression of how attitudes changed: dogs, place
  • Relatable: alone, thinking somebody is outside, looking out of the window, trying to see who is there
  • Reading it made me too feel haunted, hunted, like Jack
  • Psychological horror well done, thrilled, “sucked me in”, goosebumps, one person glad they finished reading in the afternoon
  • Relatable main character
  • Narrative choices + format worked really well, but also took away from the suspense (he wrote all of this down, so he needs to be alive in the end)
  • “Very gay and I loved it”, subtle though
  • Queer infatuation also gave Jack a reason to stay, he craved validation
  • Foreshadowing well done
  • Interesting connections to R.L. Stevenson

What we discussed:

  • Horror could have been weirder, could’ve been more Lovecraftian
  • Imbalanced relationship with Gus, idealisation
  • Not creepy to everyone, ghost moments handled very well, not a very original ghost tale
  • Atmosphere and setting great, but not invested in the expedition or the characters
  • Jack being fatphobic made us uncomfortable
  • Villain is a victim –> problematic
  • Ending frustrating, confession of love did not work out 😦
  • Killing the gays terrible
  • “I hate bad endings”
  • Ending too fast, pacing off, resolve way too quickly
  • We would’ve liked to know more after the ending, what happened to the place?
  • “It wasn’t scary enough”, beginning too slow, more scary stuff please
  • Conflict with the ghost did not feel resolved, classic ghost story move but we do not like it
  • Bleakness of the ending both fitting and frustrating
  • “Not 100% my jam”
  • Jack annoying protagonist
  • Jack the only really developed character –> part of the problem why we did not like most of the other characters –> narrative situation explains that sorta

Rating:

  • 4/5 knives, “I felt entertained, I felt scared, I was rooting for the love story, I would pick up another book by the author”
  • 4/5 “did a good job, I enjoyed it, it is not really my genre”, gave back the audiobook because it does not work a second time
  • 3/5 cute doggos, “I enjoyed the book for the atmosphere and for the setting, I felt like I was in that place”
  • 2.75/5 “really out of my comfort zone”, “I still enjoyed it, took me a while to get into”, “too slow in the beginning”
  • 8/10 as a ghost story, 6/10 overall: “good ghost story, just okay for me”
  • 3.5/5 “not my genre”, “worked”, “picked up in the end”
  • 4/5 husky dogs, “really like ghost stories, this one did a good job at creeping me out”, being stuck somewhere alone reminded the person of lockdown fears, “very enjoyable read”
  • 4/5 “creeped me out reading late at night”

Other books we talked about:

  • If you enjoyed “Dark Matter”, you will enjoy “Thin Air” (expedition into the Himalaya) + “Wakenhyrst” (doom!)
  • “Wheel of Time” finished (14 books): 5/5 stars, makes the entire series worth reading
  • “The Sound at the End” by Kirsty Logan: queer Arctic horror, full audiobook ensemble, wonderful
  • Polk’s sequel to “Witchmark”, queer, very enjoyable, “Midnight Bargain” by the same author, love interest reminding of “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” by Pulley
  • “The Shining” by Stephen King: psychological horror, “really worked for me, really creeped me out”
  • “The Dragon Republic” by RF Kuang, second book in the Poppy Wars Series; “amazing series”, realistic take on warfare and strategy; historical dimension interesting, grim-dark
  • Ted Chiang short story collection “Exhalation”: philosophy, Philip K Dick, non-paranoid version of PKD, great short stories, “really relaxing collection”
  • “The once and future witches”: “really love the concept”, bit like “Midnight Bargain”, witchcraft is illegal, political dimension used well, queer 🙂
  • Kowal “Calculating Stars” #2: scifi in 50s, “I like my scifi realistic”, very enjoyable, sexism bit hard to stomach, smart
  • “Mountains of Madness” recommendable especially after “Dark Matter” –> expeditions gone wrong

Summary Sanderson

What we enjoyed about the book:

  • unique magic system, “nothing like I’ve read before”
  • forging fascinating
  • Shai a really cool character
  • interesting world
  • story economic: good pacing, story flows well, not too fast-paced (especially in the beginning of the story)
  • structure nice: first “beyond confused”, pacing well done
  • how you get to know the Emperor even though he is not actually there –> fascinating
  • Emperor is a character even though he is dead
  • Shai says that she never really got to meet the emperor, relatable sadness
  • Shai starts of quite critical, but she later understands him more, she needs to understand him thoroughly, fascinating
  • quite postmodern novelette: cut up technique, putting pieces together or the discussion about the painting (“basically Roland Barthes […] in a fantasy setting”)
  • very smart novella
  • what makes us us? What makes a person? Complex take on identity, can one forge a person?
  • alludes to all the ‘big questions’, unique take
  • What makes people good? How much influence does Shai have?
  • Great ending!
  • Novel had “twists which I did not see coming”, e.g. painting, revelation bit by bit satisfying, always nice
  • Sanderson manages to surprise
  • Shai cannot leave before her work is finished, made us nervous
  • Smooth and satisfying ending
  • 90% of the plot takes place in one room, works perfectly, almost like a play in theatre that takes place in one place, just two actors, “very well done”
  • Shai is very passionate, delightful to read about
  • Philosophically intriguing
  • Art vs. Forgery debate fascinating, “you’re not an artist, you’re just a forger”; Shai simply cannot let go of her project –> hallmark of an artist, passionate about her work
  • Shai was improving her room all the time, delightful little details, vivid transformation of the room –> also a great example to expand the magic system further
  • relatable book: working towards a deadline, procrastinating along the way
  • Shai pays a lot of attention, she invests a lot of time to learn everything she can about everyone
  • well written, well crafted, great attention to details, little jokes
  • no romance, quite nice!
  • unique
  • very well crafted
  • reminded one of us a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uncle Iroh & Zuko vibes

What we discussed:

  • very economic, but some parts are weak, e.g. world-building has information gaps: why are the court officials corrupt? World-building could be expanded
  • sleek novella, but more detail always nice
  • info drop at the beginning a bit much, confusing, overwhelming
  • Criminal artist cool but also a bit hard to position Shai between criminal vs. artist, social environment of Shai left open, what is her life usually like? Bit missing
  • Shai never really meets the emperor, kinda sad
  • Gaps in the world-building: political system could have been explained more, “Heritage Faction”, remained unclear, “my brain couldn’t fill the gaps so easily”, curiosity remained, “left in the shadows”
  • one member does not really like high fantasy and this felt like high fantasy, too much world-building and too little story –> Sanderson is a plot-writer, much more about the philosophy, comes from the high fantasy angle, clever take on high fantasy

How we rated the book:

  • 5/5 soul stamps, “read it fast” which is a good sign, “very much enjoyed it”, “first Sanderson book I actually finished”
  • 5/10 stars, “not deeply impressed”, “right in the middle”
  • 5/5 “one of my favourite books”, “so short, you can just read it whenever”
  • 5/5 soul stamps, “I really liked this book and I have literally nothing to criticise”
  • 5/5, “I love Sanderson in general”, “I am looking forward to rereading it every now and again”
  • 4/5 because it did not have the same “wow effect” as the first Mistborn book, “lacked the oomph factor”, “I really enjoyed it”
  • 5/5, peak philosophy content, “my brain could not shut up” thinking about it
  • “I just got home from work and have to check out the blog immediately after typing this, but here are my thoughts on The Emperor’s Soul (feel free to add it to the blog post!): As usual with Branderson, I absolutely love the magic system. Shai as a character was immediately likable to me and I loved how the magic system and everything concerning to seals and stamps was slowly revealed over the course of the narrative. Big bonus point in my book was that it was inspired by Asian art and I absolutely loved that inspiration and connection. It was an easy book to read, I loved the connection with the Cosmere (HOID!) and the ending was perfect, it was well-rounded but still left room for more story in the future. And it’s an easy book to reread because it’s relatively short (very short for Branderson standards) and is not part of a series but still ties into the Cosmere as a whole. 4.5 / 5 soul stamps because I prefer other Branderson works over this one but it’s still top tier reading material!”

Other books we talked about:

  • Deleted prologe for “The Emperor’s Soul” featuring Hoid: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/the-emperors-soul-deleted-prologue-imperial-fool/
  • If you like to read more Sanderson and are not afraid of big books: Stormlight Archive (brilliant!)+ Mistborn are both set in the Cosmere (universe) and are connected; YA scifi Cytoverse is very enjoyable, Reckoner’s is Sanderson’s take on superheroes, free Sanderson, “Warbreaker”: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Warbreaker_hardcover_1st_ed.pdf; “Elantris” set in the same world as “The Emperor’s Soul” (but not the best Sanderson), overall Sanderson recommendation
  • Sanderson annotations, “director’s cut” for “Warbreaker”, “Way of Kings”, etc.: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation-mistborn-introduction/
  • Sanderson podcast: https://writingexcuses.com/ (parts with Mary Robinette Kowal!)
  • Dreamer Trilogy by Stiefvater (same universe as Raven Cycle), also deals with forgery & art
  • “The Night Circus” by Morgenstein: dreamy, colourful, wonderful Circus
  • Thomas Ligotti short stories, famous for inspiring the “True Detective” series: weird fiction, horror writer, following HP Lovecraft, but modern. Builts upon Lovecraftian horror but modernises it. “He inherited the baroque language, the pessimistic view on humanity”
  • Kingfisher: “Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking”: like a Diana Wynne Jones novel, funny, more middle grade
  • Douglas Adams: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, very funny, “perfect escapism when you’re stressed”
  • Related recommendation for a series based on Douglas Adams (the books are not that good): “Dirk Gently” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNXaCBAjpo (has Corgis in it!!!)