The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh, 2023 Hugo Winner - 2024 Premise: It's not easy being the last outpost of humanity. You have to give up a lot. You have to be committed to the cause. You have to not listen to the propaganda that says that maybe you're actually in a cult... What a book! It might have first gotten on my radar for winning the Hugo, but I had forgotten that by the time I read it, so I was unexpectedly delighted with this.  At least a few SPOILERS must follow here, but before we get there, I'll say that I recommend this for anyone who likes complex/morally messed-up protagonists and some heavy topics in your sci-fi adventure.  I've seen it recommended for fans of the Locked Tomb (not just for the blurb from Tamsyn Muir on the cover), and I agree with that. It starts from a place where you don't know what the protagonist doesn't know about the world they live in, and discovering the truth behind their home is incredibly compelling. (The author's n...

Previous Bookshelf Update post The continued adventures of reading and rereading books I'm not sure I want to keep on my bookshelves. The Robots of Dawn Isaac Asimov, 1983 Whoops. This has sat on my shelf for a very long time, and I think that when I bought it (on a dollar rack, surely), I thought it was one of the collections of Robot stories (I read some of those many years back and remembered enjoying them). Instead, this is an odd novel. This is the third in a series I haven't read any other book in, written decades after the others, and serves as one of a few pieces written around this time that were clearly meant to directly connect the Robot series with the Foundation novels. The characters are fine, if nothing all that special now. The mystery plot is okay, but a bit slow. The book ends with an extremely awkward reveal/twist that's a big part of the aforementioned tie-in with Foundation and I really could have done without it. Overall an ok book, but not one I'm...

Assassin's Apprentice Robin Hobb, 1995 Premise: The life of a royal bastard is always complicated, but it's even more so when certain powers might run in your bloodline.  I tried a different book by this author many, many moons ago and was put off by it enough not to try another. But this one was chosen for a book club, so I decided it was time to give her another try.  Verdict? It's fine.  The characters are fine - nothing too exceptional, nothing badly done about them, except maybe that most are a bit obvious from their first appearances. There's a bit of a Shakespearean feeling to them which is enjoyable, but (again) makes them a bit dramatically predictable.  The plot has moments of real cleverness and tension alongside stretches where I had trouble convincing myself to pick the book back up, which averages out to... fine. I did really like the way the book handled what is effectively a confusion spell being cast on the viewpoint character - that's a fine line ...

Midnight Beverly Jenkins, 2010 Premise: Despite her father supporting the British, Faith Kingston is secretly supporting the rebels in revolutionary-era Boston. Her determination is only increased when the son of her father's long-time rival comes back to town - and he's cute. I have been reading more romance lately (partially for a book club) and when this one turned up on the list of possibilities for last month, I decided to take the opportunity to read one from this prolific author. And it was charming and well-written as expected, but not exceptional. Faith's struggle to work with a father who will never respect or care for her was complex and sympathetic. Her love interest, Nick, is too good to be true, but not more so than is typical for romance.  My biggest criticisms are two-fold. I read this partially for the pitch that she's a secret spy for the Rebel army, but although that is a secret in the beginning, she only does a few things during the action of the bo...

Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, Book 1) Olivia Waite, 2025 Premise: Investigating a potential murder on a spaceship is tricky enough. Now try doing it in someone else's body. A sci-fi murder mystery by one of my favorite romance authors? Sign me up! I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but I'm hesitant about the idea of it being a series. The sci-fi technology and setting which were integral to this particular puzzle seem unlikely to hold up to scrutiny through more stories.  Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. I would love a great series of cozy-ish detective in space stories. But I have so many questions about the setting. Dorothy is a detective on a spaceship that has sidestepped the problem of the generation ship (the idea that if humans were to travel to another livable planet, it would take so long that it would be the great-(some number of great)-grandchildren of the original crew who would actually arrive). On this spaceship, once your body dies, you simply downloa...

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution R. F. Kuang, 2002 Premise: Robin was rescued from death in China as a boy, and he loves so much about his new life in England, especially the chance to study, to perform the translation that underpins the magic that runs the world. But what is the cost of the system? What if Robin isn't willing to pay it anymore? I'll admit that this book first got on my radar as "the book that should have won the Hugo for Best Novel" if not for bad behavior on several fronts. [ https://www.npr.org/2024/02/23/1233355111/the-hugo-awards-scandal-has-shaken-the-sci-fi-community] And it would have been a worthy winner. A tour de force combining fantasy and history to focus an intentionally painful spotlight on the global and personal impacts of colonialism and privilege, it was both compelling and horrifying. In the character of Robin, the tension and inner moral struggle between accepting som...