Reading Goals Finally Back on Track
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 177, June 2021 by Neil ClarkeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This review is only for "The Secret Life of Bots" by Suzanne Palmer. This is the first in a series of novellas that follows Bot 9, its friend 4340-H, Ship, and the human crew they serve.
Ship is the last hope of humanity to save Earth, and Bot 9 becomes the last hope to save Ship.
I love all the robots in this novella, but especially Bot 9 who is clever, kind, and prone to improvisation.
If you like Murderbot, I think you will love this series.
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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132, September 2017 by Neil ClarkeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This review is only for "Bots of the Lost Ark" by Suzanne Palmer. This second installment of novellas featuring Bot 9 is wonderful.
Bot 9 and its compatriots face down danger in an effort to finally bring their crew home.
Funny and suspenseful, this is a must-read.
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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 200, May 2023 by Neil ClarkeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This review is only for "To Sail Beyond the Botnet" by Suzanne Palmer.
In this final installment (but hopefully just final for now) of the novellas featuring Botnet, Bot 9, Ship, 4340, and some new friends band together for one last stand against their enemies.
This is funny and sweet, and I really hope that Palmer writes more in this universe.
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Bot 9 is wee and mighty, and I am 100% requesting this for Yuletide!
Read the stories here: The Secret Life of Bots, Bots of the Lost Ark, and To Sail Beyond the Botnet.
Thanks to
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melagan for introducing me to Bot 9.
Seventeenth-Century English Poetry: Modern Essays in Criticism by William R. KeastMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
On the plus side, I didn't know much about 17th-century English poetry before reading this collection of essays, and now I know more than I did.
I enjoyed reading C. S. Lewis's essay about John Donne even if I don't agree with many of the conclusions he draws; Lewis has an engaging and entertaining critical voice that feels like it belongs to the 21st century. I also enjoyed the rebuttal essay that followed his by Joan Bennett whose conclusions I largely agree with.
On the negative side, OMG is early 20th-century literary criticism just bad. An utter slog to read. And half the time, I don't have any idea what they're going on about; these articles are especially mysterious in the poems they praise for being good and those they criticize for failing in some way. They basically all sound one and the same to me. At least most of these essays cite their sources unlike a lot of lit crit from that era.
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Ambergris by Jeff VanderMeerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an omnibus of the three books VanderMeer sets in the world of Ambergris.
The first story--"Dradin in Love"--of the first book--a collection of short stories--is completely missable. In fact, I would advise skipping it. I am a huge fan of VanderMeer's work, have enjoyed all this novels I've read to this point, and this story is Not Good in my opinion. Fortunately everything else in this omnibus is absolutely wonderful, each story and novel building on those which came before in clever and delightful ways.
In this trilogy, VanderMeer explores ideas that will be familiar to readers of his more recent work: body horror, ecological strangeness and disaster, and a couple other tropes I don't want to mention because they spoil part of the plot.
After I got past the first story, I had a hard time putting this down (even though I had to from time to time because 800 pages gets heavy LOL).
Highly recommended.
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Bot 9 is a delight. 💗
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makes a noet of the Bot
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I think you would adore Bot 9!
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I really would recommend skipping that first story, "Dradin in Love," though. Or else not letting it put you off the rest of the works.