espeon's reviews
39 reviews

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Islamicates Volume I: Anthology of Science Fiction short stories inspired by Muslim cultures by Nora Salem, J.P. Heeley, Peter Henderson, Alex Kreis, R.F. Dunham, Marianne Edwards, Gwen Bellinger, Jehanzeb Dar, Nick 'Nasr' Pierce, Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Sami Ahmad Khan, Sazida Desai, Niloufar Behrooz

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.75

this anthology sucked. i liked exactly one story in it and disliked all the others to varying degrees
Tongtong's Summer by Xia Jia, Ken Liu

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hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

i loved this story soooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

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funny lighthearted mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 85%.
i didn't like it
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

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emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu

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  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

overall i recommend the anthology, but i will note some stories are hits and some are definite misses for me. my ratings of individual stories range from 5 starts to 1 star. but the overall anthology is mostly on the better end. so 4 stars from me
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

i thought the book was overall good, but the way dialogue is written is like...i know for aster it's supposed to be awkward, because she's awkward at talking, but for people like flick it took me right out. it felt like everyone basically had the same voice in their speech, which meant everyone talked awkwardly just like aster.
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99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai

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adventurous challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

i deeply appreciated this book. that being said, i don't necessarily recommend it - because i feel like unless you are from the region or have put a lot of work into understanding it, you cannot get out of this book what i got out of it? many reviews describe it as impenetrable - and it is. ultimately however it's very clear that the impenetrability was the point, with even the final story being in untranslated pashto. this is not a book that caters to people

so yeah, loved the book, could not ask my friends who arent from the region to read it
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Provenance by Ann Leckie

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0