Pretties by Scott Westerfeld My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the middle book of a trilogy (I think….maybe a quadrilogy? Because there’s another book called Extras). Therefore, not much happens narratively. I think it continues to have pretty good metaphors for teen life revealed via this dystopia, but it was slightly disappointing to…

Singular Irregularity: Time Travel Gone Terribly Wrong by Kimber Grey My rating: 4 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I was a Kickstarter backer on this anthology. As usual for an anthology, here’s what I thought of each story. “Standing Still – A police psychologist confronts someone that looks liek he’s going to blow people up. The…

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey My rating: 5 of 5 stars When I first added this book to my To-Read list on Goodreads about 3 years ago, I thought it was another take on the Akira concept – some kids being experimented on by the government and it turned out they…

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman My rating: 5 of 5 stars This version of The Forever War contains an intro by Scalzi. In it he basically talks about how he somehow avoided reading TFW when it first came out and it’s a good thing because he would have done Old Man’s War differently. He…

Absolute Power: Tales of Queer Villainy by Erica Friedman My rating: 5 of 5 stars disclaimer: I kickstarted this anthology Before I get to my usual anthology review in which I collect all my status updates into one place, I wanted to mention a bit about why I kickstarted this book and how I like…

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein My rating: 4 of 5 stars I never saw the movie that came out in the 90s (or was it 2000s) and it seems like that’s a good thing. From everything I’ve heard from others it has about as much to do with this book as World War Z…

Tampa: A Novel by Alissa Nutting My rating: 3 of 5 stars I am too young to have experienced it first-hand, but for a minute there in the 70s pornography went mainstream. Everyone was talking about it. It was “in” to see it. Regular theaters (as opposed to shady sex theaters) were showing movies like…

Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan by Nick Mamatas My rating: 4 of 5 stars Got this as part of a bundle at Storybundle.com and I have to say that it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Frankly, some of the stories are scary in that the…

The Emperor’s Agent by Jo Graham My rating: 3 of 5 stars And so my first book of 2017 is done, although it’s a bit of a cheat as I started it at the end of 2016. I purchased this book as part of a book bundle – I think it was on StoryBundle.com. The…

CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics by Betsy Gomez My rating: 4 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I backed the Kickstarter on this book I’d like to start off with my one big criticism of this book – not enough images! I understand why they had to do it. When you’re printing a book, each page is…

Both weirder and not as weird as you’d think

Steampunk in a modern world

A look into the world of video games journalism that isn’t quite as fictional as you’d think

Start off 2017 with some of your worst nightmares