It's A Binary World 2.0

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 144, September 2018 by Neil Clarke My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Study in Oils (Kelly Robson) – a neat blend of science fiction and fantasy, I love how the author evokes the setting. I can really picture it in my mind. Although not entirely unique, I like the idea of…

Apex Magazine Issue 138 by Jason Sizemore My rating: 4 of 5 stars Original Fiction The Relationship of Ink to Blood (Alex Langer) – I world have interpreted the actions this story very differently had it not been in a SFF magazine. But in Hebrew we have different expectations about what’s real and what’s not.…

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars On the Cosmere subreddit there’s always a debate on how the eventual Cosmere films should be made. Some of us think it would work best as an anime. There are certain things like the Mistborn jumping around that might look better…

Apex Magazine Issue 105, February 2018 by Jason Sizemore My rating: 4 of 5 stars FICTIONA Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies (Alix Harrow) – The whole reason I got this issue was because of this story, which won some awards. Andrea Johnson writes, in the introduction to an interview with…

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars Without giving away the plot or meta-spoilers, I can say that Seanan McGuire has continued to find a way to keep these novellas fresh. All these books have been deconstructions/reconstructions of the Portal Fantasy trope, but I feel this one is…

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 109, June 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONBetween the Dark and the Dark (Deji Bryce Olukotun) – the story starts off with the common trope of generation ships and leaving a ruined Earth. I’ve even come across it a bunch of times during my current…

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher My rating: 4 of 5 stars Butcher brings together all the storylines from the previous five books in this larger mystery. It’s a much bigger story than the previous books, but it works very well. I’m glad that Murph and Harry are continuing to develop their relationship. The opening caper…

Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart My rating: 4 of 5 stars In a short time I’ve read 2 Reinhart bread books (and am working on another). It’s interesting to see his bread techniques evolve. Although, he’s careful to say that the techniques in this book aren’t necessarily better than what he…

The Frame-Up by Meghan Scott Molin My rating: 3 of 5 stars I got this book free as a Kindle First Read – or whatever they’re calling it nowadays This book sits at the intersection of a lot of genres and sub-genres. It’s a mystery, but it’s not told from the point of view of…

The Everyday Athlete Cookbook: 165 Recipes to Boost Energy, Performance, and Recovery by America’s Test Kitchen My rating: 4 of 5 stars ATK teams up with a dietitian and nutritionist to create a series of recipes for “athletes”, defined in the book as people who do vigorous exercise at least 3 times a week. So…

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book. Keeping the score of 3/5 stars Another mystery staring Samuel Vimes. This time he’s been sent by Vetinari to Uberwald as Ambassador. Vetinari purposely chose him because he thinks like a cop and isn’t the…

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 108, May 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONCocoons (Nancy Kress) – This story could very easily have gone to a horror place. But instead it ends up being about the complexity of humanity, the perils of colonizing a new world, and hope. This Way to…