The Churn “To go from an unregistered birth such as his to having any power and status at all was an achievement as profound as it was invisible.” Before he was the engineer on the Rocinante, Amos Burton lived in Baltimore. A product of prostitution himself, he spent his childhood in sexual slavery, before being rescued by the woman who would essentially become his step-mother. This novella takes place about twenty years before the main events of the series, during a time when the organized […]
Perfect little historical romance novella.
A couple of weekends ago some friends and I had a girl’s weekend at a hotel and I spent the morning reading at the pool. My friends all made fun of me when I busted this out, but I don’t even care. It was really cute. (None of them read romance novels, so I’m really not sure what they thought when they saw this sucker. Probably lots of things that were mostly wrong.)* *Oh my God. I just had the weirdest urge to interview all […]
Two novellas and a short story.
I really, really like Diana Gabaldon’s Lord John Grey novels, but this collection of shorter stories fell a little bit flat for me. I think what I like most about these books is the character work she does alongside the various mysteries, and there really just wasn’t room for any of that in this short of a format. I think there’s a reason she normally gravitates toward longer books as a writer. (Sidenote: I’m currently reading the second LJG novel and I think it’s hilarious that it’s considered […]
Multiple personality disorder as a superpower.
Stephen Leeds is a truly unique individual. There are forty-seven people (and counting) living in his house, each of whom specialize in different things, like botany, biology, security, psychology, handwriting analysis, etc. These people have personalities and talents and fears and all come from different cultures and religious backgrounds. And all of them are hallucinations. Stephen doesn’t really have multiple personality disorder, because he is completely aware of and actively participates in the maintaining of his aspects. He uses them as a sort of extension […]