Weekly Roundup

This week I finished two books, started one more, and read two short stories from The Big Book of Modern Fantasy. I also posted a review and a top ten series list! Read on to find out more.

This Week’s Posts:

Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite Series (2021) – So, uh, this post blew up, apparently. Maybe I should do top ten lists more often!

Thursday: Quick Book Review: Cryptonomicon – A difficult review for a book I enjoyed, without completely knowing why.

This Week’s Reading:

This week I finished The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater. It was a pretty good read, although I found its structure veered more towards a typical Urban Fantasy mystery than I would have liked. Some great revelations at the end, and a setting I wouldn’t mind coming back to again.

I finished up Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson, and it’s a really compelling sci-fi that revolves around a locked room style mystery in a failing ship, and yet is so much more than that. I really, really enjoyed it, although the latter third is probably the weakest.

I’m still reading Priory of the Orange Tree. It’s a chonk of a book! I’m finding the pacing is getting in the way of my enjoyment somewhat, where too much time is spent on things that don’t really go anywhere, and not enough time setting things up that I need to care about for the book to work. It’s still keeping mye ticking along though, so I’m hoping to finish this one next week.

I dipped a little more into The Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover. I don’t want to be right in the middle of two chonky books at the same time, so I won’t be making much progress here until I finish Priory.

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.

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: An oddly mundane story about what happens when the titular character falls into the garden of a married couple. Great prose and characterisation that kept me going through a stort I didn’t quite understand. 4/5

The Anything Box by Zenna Henderson: This one was great. A teacher discovers that the imaginary box her young student uses to see anything she likes us real, struggles with how best to help the child from obsessing over its contents. Very nuanced and genuine. 4.5/5

Movie/TV Thoughts:

Shang Chi (in the cinema): The latest character to be added to the Marvel movie pantheon, Shang Chi definitely feels like a love letter to Chinese martial arts. Altogether it was an enjoyable movie, but I couldn’t help feeling that I wanted more from it. More interactions between Shang and his family, More development of his sister and his friend, more time spent in Tah Lo before the final climax. It’s not a top tier marvel movie, but I think it sits firmly in the mid tier, with solid action, decent characters, and a good sense of humour.

Next Week’s Posts:

Next week, I will post my Africanfuturism anthology/Patternmaster reviews, and I’ll also probably post my Hexarchate Stories review too, unless I finish my Liar of Red Valley review by the time Thursday comes around. It’s also getting close to the end of the month, so my monthly roundup post should be up towards the end of the week.

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

This week I picked up Far From the Light of Heaven from the top row of my TBR shortlist.

Here’s a link to my last Weekly Roundup, if you wish to compare the two. The book in the second row Dow to the right is In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire, and the book in the third row down to the left is The Outside by Ada Hoffman. Well, I never got that hotly anticipated arc I was expecting this week, so who knows when/if I will. I’ve tried to design my tbr as if I’ll get it next week.

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