Book Review: The Book Eaters

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds. 

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean is a strange but grounded tale that exposes the darkest side of humanity through a species not quite human. I was often off kilter while reading it, but some themes are well delivered through some powerful lines, and I’ve never been quite so hungry at the idea of eating a book before.

Book Review Roundup: He Who Fights With Monsters Sequel Special

Where I round up some quick reviews of books I don’t have the time or inclination to give a full review for.

Book Review: XX

The battle for your mind has already begun.

At Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, a radio telescope has detected a mysterious signal of extraterrestrial origin—a message that may be the first communication from an interstellar civilization. Has humanity made first contact? Is the signal itself a form of alien life? Could it be a threat? If so, how will the people of Earth respond?

Jack Fenwick, artificial intelligence expert, believes that he and his associates at tech startup Intelligencia can interpret the message a find a way to step into the realm the signal encodes. What they find is a complex alien network beyond anything mankind has imagined. 

XX by Rian Hughes is a curious beast – a typographical sci-fi that deals with aliens, personified ideas, and just how dangerous an alien idea might be to the human race. It’s one of those rare books that only really works in print, and has a level of self indulgence that gives it both its strengths, and its weaknesses.

Book Review Roundup: Paint, Ships and Steel

Where I round up some quick reviews of books I don’t have the time or inclination to give a full review for.

Book Review: Ship of Magic

On the northernmost point of the Cursed Shores lies Bingtown, a bustling hub of exotic trade and home to a proud merchant nobility famed for its extraordinary vessels.

Only Bingtown liveships can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River and plunder the riches found upstream, but such vessels are made from the most precious commodity in the world – a material with the ability to become sentient – and so are extremely rare.

The fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. But the fate of Vivacia – and the Vestrits – may ultimately lie in the hands of the dark and charming pirate, Kennit, who lusts after such a ship and has plans of his own . . .

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb is a slow moving start to the beloved epic Liveships trilogy, full of complex characters, foreboding events, and nautical endeavors. Hard to get into, but hard to put down once you do.

2022 Goals Update – May/June

Where I look at my goals for this year and tally up the books I’ve read in the last two or so months. Considering I’ve had several SPFBO books to read, I’ve done pretty well since the last one of these!