This strange, COVID-filled year was the year WorldCon was local to me, so I figured it was the best time to check it out. I didn’t need to pay for a hotel or flight, just a few days of parking and metro line fees. Overall, I thought it was fine. I enjoyed the panels I attended, especially when Scalzi read from his upcoming book, Kaiju Preservation Society. But I didn’t become a convert like the folks at the First Time Attendees panel who have been attending for decades. Outside of that, I had a few thoughts about my experiences this year:

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got this book for free twice: Tor.com ebook club and Hugo Award nomination

This book was very, very hard to read. It ripped open so many of the psychological wounds from the past decade in which I finally, truly understood the injustice of being black in the 2010-2020s. That we STILL haven’t healed past the original sin of this country. This book force-feeds you the pain of the lived experience. It takes place in our world until it splits off into a 20 minutes into the future - a future that seems all too likely to happen. Where we continue to give up more and more to algorithms and surveillance. I’m in the tech industry, I’ve seen the tech that’s coming. There are some folks trying to help, but we still keep making unbelievable errors. It’d be so funny if it wasn’t so (bleeping) sad.

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free as part of 2021 Hugo voting process.

Also, a reminder that I use the Goodreads tooltips for ratings - 3/5 means “liked it” - it’s not a bad rating. Let’s use the whole scale, guys!

I have been following Lindsay Ellis on Youtube for a few years now - both with her older videos that originally appeared on some other website (and no longer exist on YT as of mid-2021) and her newer stuff. I love her deep dives into various story-telling concepts and it’s pretty clear she definitely understands what she’s talking about. So I was pretty excited when I found out she released a book.

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading Lords and Ladies

Throughout this re-read I have asked a question in my reviews: Is this a good jumping on point for The Discworld. I have tried to give justifications for an answer in either direction. This is the first book where, at least in the version I have - American Paperback - Sir Pratchett himself mentions that to really enjoy this book you need to have been following the last few Witches books. In fact there’s even a potential reference made by Weatherwax to the seemingly retconned Equal Rites. Mostly the book is an almost direct continuation of Witches Abroad, picking up where the previous one left off as the Witches arrive back home in Lancre.

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, that was quite the trilogy! Scalzi took all that he had been building up over the three books and used them to create a satisfying ending. If this isn’t your first Scalzi series you won’t be surprised by the ending. Don’t get me wrong, it had all kinds of twists and turns that surprised and delighted me. But I mean Scalzi is the kind of author where the protagonists aren’t all full of plot armor. Brandon Sanderson is often (although not always) like this too. I prefer the higher stakes compared to, say, X-Men where any death is temporary annoyance.

Django 2 by Example: Build powerful and reliable Python web applications from scratch by Antonio Melé

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you want to learn Django, definitely get the newer version of this book that covers Django 3. That said, this book was VERY helpful in getting me started with Django for the first time. My brain tends to work better with “by example” or project-based books because it shows how the pieces come together. Whenever I’ve come across programming languages and/or frameworks (Django, Rails, Flask, etc) that only have toy examples I’ve often had a hard time moving from there to a real application. (or at least a harder time than when I have those project-based examples)

Network Effect by Martha Wells

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got this book for free by being a World Con member for the 2021 convention. It’s part of the review packet.
So, that was really flippin’ good. I wasn’t sure how well Martha Wells would do at transitioning from novella length Murderbot to full-length Murderbot. Not because I doubt her skills - she’s been writing for a long while (mostly in fantasy, I believe). But we all know that what works in a short-form doesn’t always work long-form. But this book rocks. I would say there was only a very small section - maybe 1 or 2 chapters that seemed to drag a little bit. Otherwise, the scope was just increased to keep a similar pace.
Wells also introduces a lot of new potential directions for this series to go. If nothing else, there’s a big difference with (view spoiler)[ the introduction of SecUnit 3 (hide spoiler)]. We get the return of ART who indeed seems to continue to deserve the moniker that Murderbot has given it. Wells also does a good job of moving everything forward with Murderbot, Dr. Mensah and the others rather than remaining static. Overall, it’s a huge triumph and I need to get to the next Murderbot book after I’m done reading for the Hugos.
Right now, between this series and The Interdependency, this one edges out the win. I still have a few other series to read for the series category, but I REALLY love this Murderbot series. If you liked the Novellas, I think you’ll like this one a lot.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading this book. I dropped the rating from 5/5 to 4/5.

As usual, Terry Pratchett uses the fantasy of Discworld to shed light on reality. This book is less whimsical than other Discworld book although it does have its humor and does get a bit silly with the philosophers in the Discworld equivalent to Ancient Greece. He takes the same concept as (future?) collaborator Neil Gaiman’s American Gods- a god’s power is relative to the amount of believers it has - and uses it to provide a withering look those who go along with the excesses of the church without even truly believing in their god. Om, god of the Omnians has been reduced in power because he has only one believer left. This despite Omnia being a theocracy with enough pilgrims to keep the Omnian Dibbler working and a large Inquisition that everyone is afraid of. People are essentially operating out of fear (of the system) and habit. Even more than when I first read this 10ish years ago, this just makes me think of the American Christians who are super Christian when it comes to hate and yet forget Christ’s own words when it comes to caring for the poor, sick, defenseless or turning the other cheek or giving up all your riches to follow him (looking at you, Prosperity Gospel Preachers).

Lightspeed Magazine, June 2014: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue by Christie Yant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of my favorite collections of stories and one of the best anthologies/magazines I’ve read so far in 2021. A lot of the stories in here a phenomenal. There are also a lot of authors in here who, in the past 6-7 years have become quite a bit more famous. That’s fun. The essay section was a little sad in the repetition of negative situations the women found themselves in. There were rays of hope in there, too. And I hope things are getting better. I’m certainly trying with my kids to raise them without gender limits.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Scalzi continues to kick butt in the second book of The Interdependency. I’m used to the second book of a planned trilogy to be all setup for the third book which can mostly be climax. Yet, within this book Scalzi continues to have mini-climaxes and story beats and surprises.

The story continues to be a sort of updated Dune/Game of Thrones type story with multiple families vying for control of the Emperox. Some of them want to manipulate her and others want to unseat the Wu family from their position at the top. There’s also what seems to be a throwaway line involving some simulated folks that isn’t paid off in this novel, so I assume it’s going to turn out to be a huge plot point in book three. The big difference is that Emperox Cardenia is coming into her own rather than being sideswiped by the events and deaths in book 1.