Books and comics read in October 2019

[usuallyhats]

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe - Alex White
The Thirteenth Doctor: Hidden Human History
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing - Anya von Bremzen
Die: Fantasy Heartbreaker
The Mortal Word - Genevieve Cogman
Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction - Alec Nevala-Lee
Doctor Who: The Dimension Riders - Daniel Blythe
A Duet for Invisible Strings - Llinos Cathryn Thomas
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? - Temi Oh
Ms Marvel: Time and Again
Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk - Christina Hardyment
Otherbound - Corinne Duyvis
Strangers at Court - Seanan McGuire

A Duet for Invisible Strings
I was lucky enough to read an early version of this novella back in March, and both versions I read in one glorious sitting (both on the tube, weirdly enough*). It's gorgeously written and completely absorbing: Heledd and Rosemary felt like real, rounded people living in a world with depth and history to it. The magical elements are seeded beautifully, the orchestra setting is so well drawn, and the romance is lovely and very satisfying - romance often doesn't work for me, but this one really did. Highly recommended.

*ok, technically first time round I didn't quite finish it in one go, but only because my stop arrived faster than expected

Do You Dream of Terra-Two?
I mostly only ended up finishing this because a) space and b) I wanted to find out if the girl who has a moment of sex-repulsion towards the beginning was in fact ace (spoilers, she wasn't). It was basically fine? It felt more than anything else like a decent but slightly dated YA novel, despite being published this year: it's about six teenagers who form the crew of a twenty year mission to colonise an Earth-like planet; en route, angst ensues. (Half of them are brown! \o/ All of them seemed to be straight. /o\ (There is a suggestion that one of them might be bi, but it never really goes anywhere.)) The prose is very readable, and to be fair did eventually explain the issues I was having with the plausibility of the premise, but I didn't feel like any of the characters were particularly well characterised, and overall it just didn't really work for me.

(content notes: suicide, brief depiction of sexual assault, various mental health issues that I didn't think were amazingly handled but ymmv)

I also really loved Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, but couldn't seem to muster up any words about it? I recommend it though. Die: Fantasy Heartbreaker was also extremely good, but I'm reluctant to fully recommend it without knowing more about where it's going: five issues is really not a lot. Fully recommend Stephanie Hans's art though.

Comments

[raven]

I also had that reaction to Soviet Cooking! So compelling but I really couldn’t express why,

[usuallyhats]

It's so odd and so interesting, it's hard to explain why it's so good! I can definitely list things about it that I liked, but I can't sum up the whole of it satisfactorily.