Raven Cursed, Audio Book (2012) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock #4) Listening to it all made me wonder why no blood-meal ever tasted like bacon or shrimp or a really good beer. I do my best thinking when I’m not actively pursuing a thought. Ideas are like small prey, scuttling into corners […]

The Shadow Pavilion (2008) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #4) Mhara is about to be coronated as Emperor of Heaven, but his changes are making people unhappy. Mhara went on, “What is the essence of our relationship to the human world?” “Compassion?” someone ventured after a moment. “Sanctuary, after the spirit’s travails upon Earth?” “Love?” […]

Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #3) Detective Inspector Chen and Zhu Irzh are taken from their current cases and sent to Hell to escort the Celestial, Miss Qi. “Miss Qi will be coming with us, then?” Chen asked, more to stave off yet another difficult discussion than out of any real attempt […]

Mercy Blade, Audio Book (2011) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock #3) Here we meet Gee, see Reach for the first time, learn of the vampire-witch negotiations, become suspicious of Evangeline, and, yeah, the were-creatures come out to the public. Pretty much all of this is bad for Jane. “You are goddess born,” […]

The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #2) “I’m here about an irregularity in your feng shui dowsing license,” the demon said. “My name’s Seneschal Zhu Irzh. Want to see my badge?” At this point he had produced a piece of paper which, to Paravang’s horrified gaze, had proclaimed him to […]

Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #1) It’s been more than half a decade since I last read this series, and I’d forgotten how much SF and horror it has. Probably because both are far less important than the fantasy and mystery, and neither the SF or the horror is written in a […]

System Collapse (2023) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #7) (According to Martyn, ART is of course capable of doing its own accounting, but it always ends up with extra numbers that no one can trace. So now Turi does it and has to keep a hardcopy ledger because otherwise ART would alter their data. No […]

Blood Cross, Audio Book (2010) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock #2) Jane has another contact, to rid New Orleans of the rogue maker, but Leo blames her for the death of his son and wants her gone. Molly and her kids are visiting and get caught up in the vampire political upheaval. […]

Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #6) “What controlled circumstances?” I said, “Isolated work installations.” Her expression turned even more grim. “Corporate slave labor camps.” I said, “Yes, but if we call them that, Marketing and Branding gets angry and we get a power surge through our brains that fries little pieces of […]

Shifting Shadows (2014) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson/Alpha & Omega) Silver Fairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City) Gray (previously published in Home Improvement: Undead Edition) Seeing Eye (previously published in Strange Brew) Alpha and Omega (previously published in On the Prowl) The Star of David (previously published in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe) Roses in Winter In […]

Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5) “What is that thing?” Target Leader demanded. “What are you? You’re a bot?” Thiago said, “It’s a security unit. A bot/human construct.” Target Leader didn’t seem to believe him. “Why does it look like a person?” I said, “I ask myself that sometimes.” Over the comm […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) Listening to the SecSystem’s audio, I heard a crew member in the corridor say, “I’ve never seen one out of armor. They really do look human.” I made a gesture in that direction that I had only seen in the shows that were rated high on […]

Rogue Protocol (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) Pretending bad things aren’t happening is not a great survival strategy in the long run. I was getting an idea. It was probably a bad idea. (When most of your training in tactical thinking comes from adventure shows, that does tend to happen.) Or Miki was […]

Artificial Condition (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #2) I didn’t care what humans were doing to each other as long as I didn’t have to a) stop it or b) clean up after it. Constructs sometimes fall under the same category as bots, sometimes under the same category as deadly weapons. (FYI, that is […]

All Systems Red (2017) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) This is why I prefer wearing the armor, even inside the habitat where it’s unnecessary and can just get in the way. Human clients usually like to pretend I’m a robot and that’s much easier in the armor. But the company would access all those […]