lavaturtle's 2021 Category Challenge

Hi! I'm Grey, and apparently I've been doing the category challenge since 2016? I live in New York State, and I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. I'm a firm believer in reading for enjoyment, so I've been honing my categories to guide me to books I'm excited about reading.

I'm using the following categories in 2021:
- 2021 Hugo Nominees
- Sequels & Series
- Short Fiction
- Nonfiction
- Recently Published Fiction
- Recommendations and Impulse Reads
- Grab Bag

Additionally, I'm going to participate in two group challenges:
- GeoKIT
- BingoDOG

To avoid swamping the thread with comics, I'm splitting off my comics reading into a separate thread this year.

2021 Hugo Nominees
Goal: 15 works

This category is for works nominated for the 2021 Hugo Awards (once the ballot is announced). I usually try to read the novel, novella, novelette, and short story categories.

Works read:
1. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
2. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
4. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
5. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
6. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
7. Finna by Nino Cipri
8. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
9. Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
10. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
11. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
12. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Sequels & Series
Goal: 12 books

This category is for ongoing series I'm following, and sequels to books I loved.

Books read:
1. The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
2. Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
3. Machine by Elizabeth Bear
4. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
5. The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
6. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
7. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
8. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
9. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
10. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
11. Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire
12. Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire
13. The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross

Short Fiction
Goal: 12 stories

I'd like to read more short fiction, which I'm defining here as vaguely "things shorter than book length" -- short stories, novelettes, etc.

Stories read:
1. Bookburners Season 2, Episode 6: Incognita by Max Gladstone
2. Bookburners Season 2, Episode 7: Fire and Ice by Amal El-Mohtar
3. Bookburners Season 2, Episode 8: Present Infinity by Brian Francis Slattery
4. The Flower of Arizona by Seanan McGuire
5. One Hell of a Ride by Seanan McGuire
6. No Place Like Home by Seanan McGuire
7. Stingers and Strangers by Seanan McGuire
8. Married in Green by Seanan McGuire
9. Sweet Poison Wine by Seanan McGuire
10. The First Fall by Seanan McGuire
11. Loch and Key by Seanan McGuire
12. We Both Go Down Together by Seanan McGuire
13. Oh Pretty Bird by Seanan McGuire
14. Bury Me In Satin by Seanan McGuire
15. Snakes and Ladders by Seanan McGuire
16. Broken Paper Hearts by Seanan McGuire
17. The Star of New Mexico by Seanan McGuire
18. That Story Isn't the Story by John Wiswell

Nonfiction
Goal: 4 books

What it says on the tin.

Books read:
1. Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
2. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner

Recently Published Fiction
Goal: 12 books

There's a lot of amazing new fiction being published! This category covers anything published in 2020 or 2021.

Books read:
1. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
2. Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas by Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells
3. Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

Recommendations and Impulse Reads
Goal: 6 books

This category will cover books people recommend to me, or that I hear about and immediately think "I've got to read that right now!"

Books read:
1. When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
2. Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
3. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Grab Bag
This is the catch-all category, for anything that doesn't fit in the other categories.

Books read:
1. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
2. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
3. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
4. Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
5. The God Engines by John Scalzi

GeoKIT
Goal: 1 book in each category

Africa

Asia

Europe
1. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
2. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
3. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
4. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
5. The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross

Central and South America (includes the Caribbean)
1. Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas by Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells

North America (includes Mexico, Canada, and USA)
1. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
2. The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
3. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
4. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
5. When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
6. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
7. Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
8. Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire
9. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Oceania (includes Australia and New Zealand)

Polar (includes Antarctica and tundra regions)

BingoDOG



1. Arts and recreation: Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
2. Book with the name of a building in the title: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
3. Dark or light in title
4. One-word title: Machine by Elizabeth Bear
5. Book with a love story in it: Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
6. Book you share with 20 or fewer members on LT: Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas by Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells
7. Classical element in title
8. Set somewhere you’d like to visit: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
9. Book with a character you think you'd like to have as a friend: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Book about history or alternate history: Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
11. Suggested by a person from another generation
12. Author you haven’t read before: Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
13. Read a CAT or KIT
14. Book with or about magic: The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
15. Book with a title that describes you
16. Impulse read!: When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
17. Book by two or more authors: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
18. A book that made you laugh
19. Book less than 200 pages: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
20. Book you heartily recommend: Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
21. A book about nature or the environment
22. Time word in title or time is the subject: A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
23. By or about a marginalized group: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
24. Senior citizen as the protagonist
25. Set in or author from the Southern Hemisphere

Running totals
Total books read: 37
Total short works read: 18

2021 Hugo Nominees: 12/15
Sequels & Series: 13/12
Short Fiction: 18/12
Nonfiction: 2/4
Recently Published Fiction: 3/12
Recommendations and Impulse Reads: 3/6
Grab Bag: 4

This thread is now fully set up and ready for comments!

Hurray, welcome back! Good idea to include a category for impulse reads :)

Good luck with your 2021 reading!

Glad to see you here! Looking forward to seeing the Hugo books.

Happy reading in 2021! It's my goal to read more short stories, too, but somehow I find it difficult to do so.

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

Wishing you good luck with your reading challenges, especially BingoDOG.

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

Have a good reading year in 2021.

Welcome back and good luck with your categories!

Welcome back, Happy New Year and best wishes for your 2021 reading!

Thanks for the good wishes, all! I'm looking forward to an exciting year of reading.

Bookburners Season 2, Episode 6: Incognita by Max Gladstone
Category: Short Fiction

I liked how this episode paired Grace and Liam, each facing down their own complicated past and looking for answers. Grace is easily my favorite character, Liam usually not so much, but his confusion and yearning is well written here. The Bizarre is really great, and what happens at the end with it collapsing into Shanghai and being attacked by snipers is shocking!

Bookburners Season 2, Episode 7: Fire and Ice by Amal El-Mohtar
Category: Short Fiction

I liked the library/parliament setting, Grace vacationing, and seeing more of Asanti's life outside work. The plot twist was great, and fits into the building questions about whether the Bookburners are really on the right side of this whole thing...

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
Category: Sequels & Series

This book does a good job bringing the trilogy to a close: The major plots are resolved, and the characters left standing at the end all get fitting endings. I really liked what the story did with Kiva Lagos, and with the relationship between Marce and the emperox. The scenes on the smuggling ship were great, as was the detail about the cathedral's code updates.

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Category: Sequels & Series

Jack is one of my favorite characters in this series, and I'm glad we got to see her again. This is a good ending to her story. The Moors are nice and evocative, and the supporting cast of students is pretty great too. For a very unforgiving setting where unkind things happen, there's a kindness to this story.

Bookburners Season 2, Episode 8: Present Infinity by Brian Francis Slattery
Category: Short Fiction

I didn't find the main adventure that interesting, although it is notable that they finally found Team 4 and they weren't all that helpful. The ending with Grace was really good, though.

Machine by Elizabeth Bear
Category: Sequels & Series
BingoDOG: One-word title

I really, really like this protagonist -- a story about someone who routinely jumps out of space ambulances to rescue people is extremely my kind of thing. The setting is great, both the immediate setting of Core General (the multi-species space station is delightful and reminds me of Babylon 5) and the larger setting of the Synarche. I love that the complexities of the Synarche and how it works are taken seriously by the story and the characters, and not allowed to just fade into the background. I look forward to where the series seems to be going.

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
Category: Grab Bag
GeoKIT: Europe
BingoDOG: Contains a love story

This book is a lot of fun. It definitely reminds me of Connie Willis's work, while taking things in a different direction and tone. I loved the eccentric academic atmosphere, the characters, the setting, even the intrigue. My only complaint is that all the characters seem to be aggressively heterosexual: there's lots of romance, but all very straight, and the possibility that anyone might be gay is only mentioned as a one-time passing joke. Maybe we meet some LGBTQ time-traveling academics later in the series? I hope so!

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
Category: Grab Bag
GeoKIT: North America
BingoDOG: Book you heartily recommend

I really love this book! It delivers on the premise from Cat Pictures Please, and then does so much more. The central plot around the protagonist and her parents is scary but nuanced, and well-grounded in reality. The teenagers sound like actual teenagers from the modern world. A whole bunch of real-world issues are incorporated into the story, without it ever feeling didactic or like a Very Special Episode. And the AI character is great, of course. Between the teens, the politics, and the focus on computer security, it reminds me positively of one of my other favorite books, Little Brother.

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: Europe
BingoDOG: Book with or about magic

I really like Mo as a character, so it was exciting to get a book from her perspective, delving further into her world both violin-related and not. The plot twist at the end was totally unexpected, and I liked how it was resolved.

The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: North America

I have really mixed feelings about this book. I loved the choice of Flora as the narrator/POV; her voice and experiences are so different from those of Eddy or the Unnamed. And there are multiple trans characters! Which is especially great in this highly gendered post-apocalyptic society. But I hated the ending, and the way allusions to the ending were woven through the book really didn't work for me. Also, the resolution to the mystery of "frags" felt weirdly tacked on at the very end.
Finally, the blurb on the back of the book was incredibly misleading -- I was promised "a ship where gender is fluid"! And some of the other stuff in the blurb also doesn't really fit the actual book.

Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
Category: Nonfiction
BingoDOG: Arts & Recreation

This was an interesting read about the history of vampire fiction and how it has changed to reflecting shifting social mores and anxieties. Since it was published in 1995, it pretty thoroughly covers pre-Buffy history, which is a different angle from most of what I'm familiar with. I liked learning about things like the origin of the "pulling down the drapes to burn the vampire with sunlight" trope (a 1958 film). The author's point was pretty well argued, although the references were a little overwhelming for me since I'm not intimately familiar with many of the older works. The discussion of queer takes on vampires, in the final chapter, is super dated but not as offensive as I feared it would be. I kind of wish the author had published a second edition or followup covering the last 25 years of vampire fiction; I'm so curious to know what she would have thought.

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
Category: Sequels & Series
BingoDOG: Book less than 200 pages

I really liked this thoughtful story, the latest entry in the Wayward Children series. The "pre-portal" childhood stuff feels authentic to what being a child is like, and establishes well who Regan is as a person. The Hooflands strikes a good balance of whimsy and sense in its worldbuilding, and the final reveal & resolution is really satisfying. I loved seeing the characters grow and develop over the course of the narrative, and I'm looking forward to what's next!

Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
Category: Nonfiction
GeoKIT: North America
BingoDOG: Book about history or alternate history

This book is long, and reading it was definitely a time commitment. But it was worth it to gain a much better understanding of the Reconstruction era and why things happened the way they did. Overall, the author does a good job laying out his arguments, although the non-linear approach makes it a little hard to keep track of the order of events. In addition to the political events directly involved with southern Black people, the book deftly ties in economic developments and other political movements of the time period. I appreciated that the ending included a discussion of Reconstruction's ongoing legacy.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Category: Grab Bag
BingoDOG: Book with a character you think you'd like to have as a friend

I really enjoyed this story. Cordelia is a great character, and a perfect POV to introduce this world and the supporting characters. The plot was exciting, there was a level of "scheme-iness" that was fun without overshadowing the characters, even the romance was compelling, and the ending was satisfying.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

I have really mixed feelings about this book. I loved the previous book in the trilogy, so I was excited to read this one. But the first ~2/3 of the book are just... utterly confusing, like, I don't know what's going on and the protagonist doesn't understand what's going on either. Once it becomes clear what's going on, the rest of the story is pretty great and compelling! (Although the ending is a bit... ambigious.) Some questions from the first book are answered, but there are some more I would very much like answered, hopefully in the upcoming third/final book...

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees
GeoKIT: North America

This book is awesome! The premise from the original short story explodes into an exciting novel with a bunch more characters. I loved the diverse cast and the strong grounding in New York City. The ending was unexpected and worked really well. I look forward to seeing where this series goes next!

A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: Europe
BingoDOG: Time word in title or time is the subject

This was another fun adventure in the exciting time-travel world of St. Mary's! The pacing felt a little odd in the latter half, but it was still a good story. I was glad to see all my favorite characters again!

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
Category: Sequels & Series

A well-written story that mixes space adventure/disaster, politics, and personal drama in a well-researched alternate history setting. I love the cast of characters. I also really like how this series compassionately portrays a protagonist who tries to do the right thing, messes up a lot, recognizes that, and then tries to do better.

The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: Europe

I really like the new POV character, and the main plot was pretty good. The enemy-side interludes didn't work that well for me -- they felt a bit too repetitive, or there were 2-3 too many of them.

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

I loved this book, set concurrently with The Fated Sky but focusing on a different set of characters and situation. The spy/intrigue stuff was great, and Nicole is an excellent character. Loved the ending!

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Category: Sequels & Series

Like all the books in the Wayfarers series, this book has a rich setting and wonderful characters. I love the thoughtfully-designed multi-species civilization and how all the characters interact with their own cultures and each other. The protagonists were all really interesting, and I was happy with the endings they got.

>46 lavaturtle: I enjoyed this too, and every positive review I see reminds me. :-)

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
Category: Impulse Reads
GeoKIT: North America
BingoDOG: Impulse read!

I saw this book on Instagram and knew I wanted to read it right away! I love the diverse cast of characters and the way they relate to each other. The plot is compelling and the ending is satisfying.

The Flower of Arizona by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

This was a fun little adventure with some of the older characters in the Healy-Price family tree.

One Hell of a Ride by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

I liked the concept of how trains interact with the boundaries between realities.

No Place Like Home by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

Not a lot happens here, but it's good to meet more of the family, and advance Fran's story a bit.

Stingers and Strangers by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

I liked this short adventure, which looks like it might be the introduction of cuckoos?

Married in Green by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

This story is so sweet! And it really resolves some things for Fran.

Sweet Poison Wine by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

A fun adventure in Chicago, meeting the friendly local cryptid community and seeing more of the ecological side of cryptozoology.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

I really liked the gradual reveal of what's going on, and thought it worked really well. Also, the House is a really fascinating and evocative setting.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees
GeoKIT: North America
BingoDOG: New-to-you author

I've heard good things about this book, and I really wanted to like it, but unfortunately I think it's just not for me. I was expecting more of a plot or characters with some agency. Instead, the entire book is "Many horrible real-life things happen to a Black family, against a backdrop of the ceaseless real-life violence Black people face in America. Meanwhile, a character with some psychic powers occasionally appears and has visions." We don't see enough of Ella as an adult to understand what she's doing at all. Kev is more fleshed-out, but because of the inevitability of the system that's stacked against him, nothing he does really seems to make any difference. And sure, maybe that's the point? But by the abrupt ending, it still felt like we were just floating through this ocean of trauma, without really going anywhere.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees
BingoDOG: By or about a marginalized group

I loved the setting of this book, with the rich geography and different peoples and magics. All three of the POV characters are super compelling, and I look forward to finding out what happens next!

Hi Grey! Just catching up on your thread.

>58 VictoriaPL: ::waves:: Hi!

Finna by Nino Cipri
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

This was a really fun quick read, with a great blend of action, cosmic horror, and super relatable characters.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

An interesting story structure that gradually reveals the central mystery, while giving us an intriguing character in the framing device.

Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire
Category: Sequels & Series

I really enjoyed this story, getting to know Sarah better and having some more cuckoo-related plot. The situation and setting made for an interesting set of complications. I love the ever-developing Incryptid ethos of "no one is too weird or dangerous to be a person or worth trying to save".

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees
GeoKIT: North America

Cool, original idea. Great protagonist and supporting cast. I liked the mix of historical horror and fantastical elements.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

Some cool characters and an interesting magic system, set against the background of a brutal, violent conflict. I liked Rin and Altan and the various people around them, and the story does do a good job of setting up why Rin does what she does, but it's a harrowing read.

>64 lavaturtle: I've had this series on my radar for a while. The cover art is wonderful.

>65 JayneCM: It is!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Category: Recently Published Fiction
BingoDOG: Set somewhere you’d like to visit

This is a really kind story about figuring things out, with a neat sort of post-apocalyptic utopia and an interesting religion. And there are robots! And a lot of non-binary people! And tea!

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

I liked the two POV characters (Nahri and Ali) and Jamshid, and the setting was interesting. The pacing felt kind of uneven -- the first half of the book dragged on with little happening, and the ending felt rushed and didn't resolve anything. There is a lot of political intrigue, which isn't really my thing, and little time spent on the oppressed shafit themselves as opposed to how they fit into everyone's schemes. I also have little patience for Nahri's continuing infatuation with Dara as he continues to demonstrate just how awful of a person he is.

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
Category: Recommendations and Impulse Reads

I got this book via SantaThing, so I'm counting that as a "recommendation".

This is a super original and different setting! I liked the different cultures within the beast and gradually learning more about what was going on. There's a lot of brutality, and sometimes Seske makes terrible decisions, but the ending was ultimately satisfying.

Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: North America

A great story with the always-awesome protagonist Rose Marshall, the ghost. I loved how this tied into recent events in the InCryptid series. The ending was great and I'm intrigued by what might be next for Rose.

Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas by Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells
Category: Recently Published Fiction
GeoKIT: Central and South America
BingoDOG: Book you share with 20 or fewer members on LT

I loved this story of a diverse group of women and non-binary people fighting to defend their piratey way of life from the various powerful government figures who want to destroy them. The characters, with their various backstories and relationships, are wonderful. The art does a great job making each character distinctive.

The First Fall by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

Devastating, from start to finish.

Loch and Key by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

A fun little adventure, and the lake creatures are great.

We Both Go Down Together by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

An interesting take on an Innsmouth-type situation. And it was exciting to get to the birth of Alice!

Oh Pretty Bird by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

This was a satisfying resolution to a couple of plot threads from earlier stories. And it was also cool to see a little more development of Enid and Alexander, with their different backgrounds and relationship with the Covenant.

Bury Me In Satin by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

I've heard so much about Mary Dunlavy in other Incryptid stories, but this story really filled in some of the blanks around how her situation happened.

Snakes and Ladders by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

This is quintessential InCryptid: a snake cult, subverted expectations, and the Healy family kicking ass and making friends.

Broken Paper Hearts by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

From the first sentence it's clear something terrible is going to happen, and it certainly does. This story is tragic and brutal, but also beautifully poetic.

The Star of New Mexico by Seanan McGuire
Category: Short Fiction

This story ties up various loose ends as we finish saying goodbye to Fran. So much sadness!

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Category: 2021 Hugo Nominees

This book was a lot of fun, an exciting adventure with nuanced things to say about heroism and duty.

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
Category: Grab Bag

Picked this up since I really enjoyed one of the author's other works, and the hook is super intriguing. Jack is a great character, and I loved her cohort of counterculture friends and associates. The worldbuilding is central to the story, and does a good job tying together disparate threads about bots and slavery and capitalism and drug companies. Paladin is also a really interesting character who reminds me a bit of Murderbot, and an interesting POV given that until late in the story her perceptions are altered by software. I kept waiting for Eliasz to realize he's on the wrong side, or Paladin to realize that she can do better than someone who fetishizes her body and doesn't understand her at all... but he didn't get there until maybe ambiguously at the end, and she didn't get there at all. The ending was variously ambiguous, frustratingly realistic, and hopeful.

The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
Category: Sequels & Series
GeoKIT: Europe

At this point the series has really moved beyond the "one-off mission" type format, and is hurtling towards some kind of endgame as our heroes keep leveling up and all the plot threads come crashing together. Schiller's faction is a super-creepy antagonist, although at this point they're less right-wing Christian cultists and more weird body horror. It's great to see Mo in action again, and I'm happy with where Bob & Mo's situation landed. Given where this book ended, I'm intrigued to see where things could possibly go next!

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
Category: Recently Published Fiction
BingoDOG: Book with a type of building in the title

I really loved the crew of misfit characters at the heart of this story. The worldbuilding is also really cool, and Kennedy Liu's sub-plot is compelling as it slowly twines around the main plot.

That Story Isn't the Story by John Wiswell
Category: Short Fiction

This is a harrowing, but ultimately empowering, story about escaping an abusive situation and finding community. The fantastical elements are used sparingly and to good effect. I liked the ending.

The God Engines by John Scalzi
Category: Grab Bag

This is just... super weird. Weird premise, weird setting. A lot of brutality and gore. The "twist" at the end, that the protagonist's god is actually horrible? Not really a surprise, and the ending is just meaningless.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
Category: Recommendations and Impulse Reads
GeoKIT: North America
BingoDOG: Book by two or more authors

I love time travel, and books about quirky time time travel organizations, so this seemed right up my alley. There's a neat concept about how it all works, and the gradual reveal of what's going on is exciting. In the late middle it bogs down a bit, and I found some of the parts with Blevins pretty harrowing to read (because he's just a skin-crawlingly awful, manipulative dude). But then the plot picks up again, and it's got a nice satisfying ending. The main romance reminds me a bit of The Chronicles of St. Mary's, actually. There's a bit of weird vintage sexism here and there, but for the most part the protagonists are a great bunch of people and I always want them to succeed.