The Middle Shelf @themiddleshelf@mastodon.social

The Craft Sequence is a series of six loosely related and very entertaining #fantasy novels. Even if the beginning can be awkward on some aspects, it goes from strength to strength and also benefits from a great rep of female characters, characters of colour and QUILTBAG characters. http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/max-gladstone-the-craft-sequence

Who killed the clones? You'll know it if you read Mur Lafferty's closed door mystery set on a space ship: http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/mur-lafferty-six-wakes

Currently reading: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Solomon. In a sense, it's excellent: scifi, generation ship used as a metaphor for slavery and racism, with very good QUILTBAG representation. But at the same time, it is very frustrating because as I read I see a thousand little details that are snags that shouldn't be here. As I said, very frustrating: it feels like a badly polished diamond.

Just read or currently reading:
- Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five by Gladstone. Good, solid & entertaining #fantasy in a very original world. Plus point: books can be read independently. Will review in a couple of weeks.
- Pseudotooth by Holloway. Weird, Gothic, sometimes slightly nauseating because of the awful characters but very engrossing despite a disappointing last line. Will review in October.

Now starting An Unkindness of Ghosts by Solomon & I have high hopes.

Review of Leila, a dystopian novel written by Prayaag Akbar. Set in India, it tells of a mother trying to find her daughter in a city where the walls between communities aren't metaphorical. Highly recommended.
http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/prayaag-akbar-leila
Might be difficult to find: please check with your favourite indie bookstore, I'm sure they could order it or you can get it from Amazon via a seller in India.

Currently reading:
- The Vagrant by Newman was just a constant stream of "nope, nope, nope" and I gave it up. As I said the word "half-breed" felt like an aggression to me (used a lot in the first chapters) & it felt like Iron Dream by Spinrad without being a parody.
- Satan's Reach by Brown. The character showed the survival skills of a dodo before an improbable escape from a formidable foe within the first 3 chapters. Nope.
- Three Parts Dead by Gladstone. Definitely enjoying that so far!

Currently reading:
- The Vagrant by Peter Newman. Nope, nope, nope. I'm at page 41 and it seems to be so far a mix between The New Sun by Gene Wolfe (which I hate) and Iron Dream by Spinrad (though it's definitely not a parody). The word "half-breed" on the first page definitely raised my hackles & it kept on this way. I'll give another 20 pages or so before giving it up. It's very weird considering he's the spouse of E. Newman & she's definitely not into that cr¨*p.

The Rift by Nina Allan: is it an alien abduction story or just a disappearance story? The story of a con and a delusion or the story of an alternate world? What it certainly is, is a story about sibling relationships.
http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/nina-allan-the-rift
#review #scifi

My updated #review of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, now that I've finished The Stone Sky, the last volume of it. Entirely spoiler free: http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/n-k-jemisin-the-fifth-season

Currently reading and recently read:
- The Stone Sky by Jemisin. A little less good than the previous two but still head & shoulders above a lot of what I've read recently.
- Leila by Akbar. Excellent, will review it by early September.
- Six Wakes by Lafferty. Very enjoyable murder mystery in space. Will review it in September too.

On my TBR next:
- The Vagrant by Newman. Heard excellent things about it.
- Tomoe Gozen by Salmonson. Yeah, I'm just 2 decades late for this one, but still!

A classic apocalypse novel, but with a nice concept and great intertextuality games: Nod, by Adrian Barnes.
http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/adrian-barnes-nod

The essential scifi and fantasy books since 1960 - A collaborative list.
http://www.themiddleshelf.org/while-we-were-reading/the-essentials-scifi-fantasy-books-since-1960-a-collaborative-list
Elaborated with the help of followers on Twitter (oops! Sorry, yes I'm also still there!) here are ten books per decade to catch up on the best #scifi and #fantasy classics.

A successful blend of #scifi and #fantasy in The Prey of Gods, an action packed novel, set in South Africa, by Nicky Drayden.
http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/nicky-drayden-the-prey-of-gods#
#Review

#Review A unique blend of political, racial and gender #satire in this #fantasy novel shortlisted for the first Nommo Awards: Blackass, by A. Igoni Barrett: http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/a-igoni-barrett-blackass

- Borne by J. Vandermeer. In the end, it was a lot déjà-vu and I honestly couldn't give a care for the characters' relationships.
- Infinite Ground by M. McInnes. More a study than an original novel, but a great take the deconstruction of character. Not really scifi though.
- Nod by A. Barnes. A classic apocalyptic novel but that reaches a very good level thanks to intertextuality & good characters.
- Three Parts Dead by M. Gladstone. Unfinished but I'll come back to it.

- If Then, by M. De Abaitua. Cool idea but f. characters are generic, two lines are micro aggressions against QUILTBAG persons & too many unchallenged fascist tirades. And in the end, it falls flat.
- All our wrong todays, by E. Mastai. Poor rich white boy can never be as good as his dad wishes him to be & ends up breaking the world bc of time travel.
- Belt Three, J. Ayliff. Debut novel w/ some flaws but not too bad.

Review for the wonderful #fantasy #books series, The Split Worlds, by Emma Newman. I loved it so much I read the five books in five days and I urge you to try it. Basically: tea, faes, multiverse and fight against patriarchy with amazing characters & great writing that just flows: http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/emma-newman-the-split-worlds

... And Women spots. Sure, I do have to triage a bit, some things are better than others. But usually, I need to tries before I get a hit. These past 10 days, I had to read 7 books (seven!) before finding something. I think that publishers really allow a lot of mediocre works to be published just on the basis that because it's written by a white male, it'll pass. Guess what? With me, it doesn't and I'm tired of it.

These past ten days, I've been desperately trying to find a book to review for the blog, for the white male spot (yes, I do quotas). Can you guess at the number of mediocre, when not right down cr*p books I read? And all trad. published! Whether it was just awkward to the one that had so many micro-agressions to QUILTBAG persons and/or women. The white male spot is always the hardest to fill. So. Many. Mediocre. Books! I don't have the same problems with the PoC &