Bookish Thoughts

In the third volume of Lumberjanes , the cast gets split up into two different stories. Mal and Molly head out on a picnic while April, Jo, and Ripley stay at camp and try to collect some easy badges. Unfortunately, April's competitive streak makes it difficult for her and her friends to complete any badges. Meanwhile Mal and Molly's picnic is interrupted by another weird adventure, this one involving dinosaurs, inter-dimensional portals, and a stolen pair of glasses. These comics are so much fun, and I'm really excited for my kids to be old enough to start reading them. They deal with all the problems of growing up against a backdrop of scary, supernatural adventures. It's like Buffy for a younger audience. I've fallen way behind on this series, but I'll have to start collecting them again. They make for excellent summer afternoon reads.

VE Schwab is a master story-teller. Her books are always fun and twisty and unexpected. Everyone in this book was a monster in one way or another. I barely knew who to root for. But I loved reading about all of them and the havoc they wreaked. The sequel to Vicious once again has Victor and Eli locked in competition, but with a few new twists. Eli is trapped in a prison cell reminiscent of Magneto's in the X-Men movies. Victor is slowly dying from his power and looking for a cure. And there's a new EO on the scene: Marcella. She starts out seeking revenge on her husband for killing her, then decides to take over his position in the local crime syndicate before her insatiable ambition has her climbing ever higher. Everyone wants to stop her, but everyone has their own idea about how to do it. This book also introduces June, a shape shifter assassin who comes to care about Sydney and is trying to extract her from Victor's influence, which is a whole lot harder than it sounds....

The fourth and final Murderbot novella brings the story back full circle. Murderbot reunites with the team from the first story, saving their leader and delivering some much needed information about their enemies. This book ends in nearly the same place as the first book, but now Murderbot is a little more knowledgable and a little more hopeful about what the future holds. I think I may have read this series too quickly, because by this book I was a little bit bored by the formula. I should have spaced them out a little more. But I've been eager to start Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, which is similar enough to this series that I was having trouble reading them at the same time. So I sped through this one in an effort to finish it and ended up tainting my enjoyment a little bit. The story was still fun and fast-paced, and it was nice to see some familiar faces again. I just generally need a little more variety in what I read. That said, I am really excited to read the nov...

I think Graham is getting better at titles as he goes. This one actually worked with the book, the four swans being the four main women whose lives are in upheaval: Demelza, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Morwenna. Actually, Caroline is barely in this book, which is a shame. Her story takes place mostly on the fringes, but it ends in a place that has me very excited for the next part of her life. Demelza and Ross once again find themselves looking outside their marriage for comfort and companionship. But it's almost boring at this point. The two of them are so solid that I can't imagine what it would take to break them up. So Demelza's whole affair with Hugh never seems that serious or threatening. But I really loved getting more of Morwenna's story. And even though it doesn't really end with her in a better place than where she started, I absolutely loved the addition of her sister, Rowella. Rowella reminded me of the main character in Alias Grace . She's so good at ...

Sometimes, when you're dealing with the imminent death of a loved one, the thing that helps most is reading about death. Granted, the deaths here are fantastical and involve vampires, mad scientists, sea gods, and the sort of intense rivalry reserved for blood relatives. It was just far enough removed from reality to make it easy to read and become immersed in while still helping me to process all the emotions I've been rapidly cycling through lately. This book marks the triumphant (sort of) return of Jack and Jill, who are such great characters that they have now improbably returned twice and once more just might make the series jump the shark. But for now it was great to see them and spend a little more time in the Moors. But now McGuire has suitably built up the rest of the cast, and I'm excited to learn more about some of the other characters.

Vicious is a classic superhero origin story. Victor and Eli were college roommates who discovered how to give themselves super powers. Then they had a falling out. And ten years later they're circling back towards each other for an epic confrontation. The only thing this super hero story is missing is a superhero. Because Victor and Eli are both very much villains. It's a fun twist that lets the story go to some dark and outlandish places. Since Victor and Eli both have such skewed moral compasses, they're both capable of some pretty outlandish things. And since both believes that the other one is much worse, they're determined to come out on top. The jumping timelines and complete cast of morally compromised characters made this a really fun read.

The third installment in Murderbot's story has Murderbot slowly discovering that robots can be friends. Friends with each other and friends with humans. But when I say slowly, I mean slowly. Murderbot isn't ready to put all the pieces together yet, even by the end of the story. But the reader can start to see how this is all falling into place. This was another thrilling adventure that circled back to some of the unanswered questions from the first book. I really like the way Wells is structuring this series, and I could honestly see it working really well as a television show. Things are building on each other well while everything remains exciting and fast-paced.