lunabee34: (reading by tabaqui)
lunabee34 ([personal profile] lunabee34) wrote2024-05-29 06:46 am

Reading Goals Finally Back on Track



Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 177, June 2021 (The Secret Life of Bots #2)Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 177, June 2021 by Neil Clarke

My 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 2017Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132, September 2017 by Neil Clarke

My 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 2023Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 200, May 2023 by Neil Clarke

My 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] melagan for introducing me to Bot 9.


Seventeenth-Century English Poetry: Modern Essays in CriticismSeventeenth-Century English Poetry: Modern Essays in Criticism by William R. Keast

My 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 (Ambergris, #1-3)Ambergris by Jeff VanderMeer

My 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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melagan: Coffee cup with Atlantis in the rising steam (Default)

[personal profile] melagan 2024-05-29 12:55 pm (UTC)(link)

Bot 9 is a delight. 💗
minoanmiss: A detail of the Ladies in Blue fresco (Default)

*

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2024-05-29 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)

makes a noet of the Bot

gloss: young man wrapped in blankie looks up suspiciously from his book (Books: Antoine sus)

[personal profile] gloss 2024-05-30 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
These all look so good! Thanks for the head's up about Bot 9 and the nudge to check out Ambergris. I have one of the Ambergris books but still haven't read it.
kore: (Default)

[personal profile] kore 2024-05-30 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
Okay i NEED this bot series.
nyctanthes: (Default)

[personal profile] nyctanthes 2024-05-30 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you need to read the Ambergris works in order? I've had Shriek on my bookshelf for years, but I don't think the others (maybe Finch?)