Weekly Roundup

Two review blog posts out this week, covering 19 stories in all! I finished one book, continued two more and read 1 short story from The Big Book of Modern Fantasy I also watched a movie. Read on to find out more.

This Week’s Posts:

Tuesday: LitRPG Round-up: Divine Dungeon, Bone Dungeon, Level Up Or Die – A three in one review post about some fairly mediocre LitRPG books

Thursday: Collection Review: From the Neck Up and Other Stories – This collection was excellent, please read my review to find out what I liked about it!

This Week’s Reading:

This week I finished From the Neck Up, a collection by Aliya Whiteley. I’m happy to say that the quality of the stories towards the end were pretty strong, pulling the overall experience back up in my estimation. For a full review, check out this week’s posts above.

I started reading Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover, the second book in the Acts of Caine series. I had to put a pause on this one though, so I haven’t got very far yet. Hopefully I’ll be able to get right back on this book next week!

I’ve also continued reading the Hexarchate Stories collection by Yoon Ha Lee. I’m on the Jedao stories, and being reminded why I love the character so much.

I’m almost through with my SPFBO reading for now – this will pick right back up in November when all the finalists are announced, so I’ve got some time in the meanwhile to try and read books that I’ve chosen for myself!

The Slow Read Through The Big Book Of Modern Fantasy

In which I read and review at least one short story a week from The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

The Gopherwood Box by Abraham Sutzkever: Part poem, part prose, dark and evocative, but over-reliant on similes. So short that there’s not much to say. 3/5

Movie Thoughts:

Reminiscence (cinema) – I enjoyed Reminiscence for the most part. It has an interesting near future sci-fi dystopia noir feel, and the plot is suitably twisty. It’s written and directed by Lisa Joy, one of the minds behind Person of Interest and Westworld, and you can see some of the same themes there, minus the ai present in both those series. Having said that, the characters lack depth, and there was no real standout element to the movie. Oh, and I did not like the ending! Not a bad way to spend a couple hours all told it you don’t mind watching a movie that’s a little bit more style than substance.

Next Week’s Posts:

I’ve finally finished my House on the Cerulean Sea review, so that will be going out on Thursday. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to put up any more reviews, but if I do, it’ll probably be the joint Patternmaster/Africanfuturism anthology review. There’s a good chance one of my SPFBO reviews will go out as well.

Next Week’s TBR Shortlist (Not including SPFBO books):

This week I picked up Blade of Tyshalle from the top row of my TBR shortlist.

Here’s a link to my last Weekly Roundup, if you wish to compare the two.

As usual, let me know if there’s anything there you’d recommend!