Spoiler alert: Lily is going to break your heart. This is something the book lets you know in the first few pages, so I don’t feel too bad revealing it. But she is going to keep breaking your heart for all the hundreds of pages with her deeply dachshund (aka doxie) ways of being. The deep bond with her person, the intelligence and stubbornness, the territorial barking, and the exuberance are all deeply endearing. Rowley captured that unique, persistent doxie bark so that hearing Lily’s “voice” was […]
We’re Nigerians. Just Nigerians. And one Ghanaian.
Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon was my pick for the Cannonball Read Sci Fi Book Club selection. The description of Lagoon grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I listened to the Audible version narrated by Adjoa Andoh and Ben Onwukwe. I highly recommend it. I did like Doomsday Book more than most of you, so take that into consideration. From Amazon: It’s up to a famous rapper, a biologist, and a rogue soldier to handle humanity’s first contact with an alien ambassador—and prevent mass extinction—in this novel […]
I Feel Like I’m Taking Crazy Pills
It’s a terrible feeling to hear praise heaped upon a new book, read it yourself and…not get it. Your mind starts playing games with itself: Everyone else liked this book, what’s wrong with you? Do you just not understand it? Is that it, you idiot? You focus on the book a little harder, maybe if you squint at the freaking book, all of this praise will make sense. But still…it’s just not there for you. That was my experience with Kelly Link’s collection of short […]
I loved all these crazy birds
This is a deliciously weird book, and if people have love-it or hate-it reactions to it I could not be less surprised. There are often very pretentious and meta conversations among geeks regarding the differences that delineate (with very fluid, hazy borders) fantasy and science fiction. Sometimes, this happens because of “bad” sci-fi, that doesn’t actually explain its science very well, and gaps in the world building may as well be explained by magic. All the Birds in the Sky deliberately takes this idea and […]