Thanks for all of your support since my return.

My Week

I began my past Sunday exhausted because I was up late on Saturday. Yes, I was having trouble getting tired enough to sleep and that is entirely my excuse, but I also found myself unable to stop reading Grady Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism which I read in 3 sittings, super duper fast for me! I can’t wait to review this one… it receives the honour of being the first book, to my memory, that made me actually cry. So naturally, I need to get my hands on the rest of Hendrix’s work now, somehow. Next up, I started reading The Liar of Red Valley which I talk about a little more below under ‘Incoming’.

While on the topic of reading, I really can’t decide what to choose for my Prime First Read this month. It feels like a lot of contemporary fiction and thrillers which aren’t usually my thing, but I like to grab at least one because well – free book! What did you all choose this month? I’m open to ideas, else I’ll end up choosing at random and I’ll probably choose wrong, haha. Plenty, A Quiet Place to Kill, and All Our Darkest Secrets are least interesting to me, at least.

On Sunday, we played D&D. The Lost Mines of Phandelvar group had to save their kidnapped friend which they managed to do so without killing the two guards in the jail room… although one is currently injured at the bottom of a pit trap and the other is facing death by monster chomp as the party met a maddened creature deeper into the cellar of the place they’re in who has them quite unsettled. Excited to see how the next part goes in a week’s time!

Honestly, I feel like I just spent a lot of time mindlessly browsing for horror book recommendations, horror content creators and communities, and resources for sniffing out solid indie fiction, this week. It’s been one of those weeks where you blink and you find several hours missing.

That said, I have finally settled on a host for the blog and I am now in the process of getting my hosted blog set up so I can import this one and open it up so keep an eye out for that! I’m very excited to redesign the place and have much more functionality.

On the Blog

I’m pretty proud of myself for managing to kick out some content on the blog! We’ve got the usual weekly memes, a little introduction to Blaugust, and some ponderings about my love of Brandon Sanderson I’ve been having recently. And I have drafts for many more discussion posts and two reviews, plus some other bits as well. We love to see it.

Here’s what you may have missed this week:

• Weekend Wrap-Up: 31/07/2021
• Blaugust 2021 Kick-Off
• Yet to Read… Stephen King
• Maybe I’m Not As Big a Brandon Sanderson Fan As I Thought

Incoming

I came across a few free ebooks this past week! I’m most excited about the Emaneska series which I’ve been meaning to read for a few years now.

I pretty much reloaded my Kindle Unlimited list when I found myself in a big horror mood. I have this feature until September and I haven’t actually read anything on it yet so here’s what I grabbed. I’d particularly like to get around to A Head Full of Ghosts and perhaps The House of a Hundred Whispers.

Found both Green Rider and Skyward on sale for 99p on Kindle.

I also took a chance this week and requested 2 NetGalley books, not really expecting either to come back with approvals, so imagine my surprise when one of them did. When I was reviewing back in the early 2010’s I made the mistake of requesting and requesting but never really getting through anything, so I need to fix my ratio.

I’m super grateful to Solaris for taking a chance on me and I promise I am now older and wiser and have already started on reading it!

Next Week

It’s hard to say what next week holds for me. My sleep schedule is all out of whack so I’m super exhausted. I have a couple appointments, hopefully my D&D games will run so long as I’m not too wiped out to run them, I’ve got plenty to work on getting my hosted blog set up, and it’d be nice to get through The Liar of Red Valley. I also have some posts to get written up, but we shall see how things go!

How have your weeks been? Been reading anything interesting? Let me know in the comments!

Do I actually not like Brandon Sanderson?

That’s silly, I thought. I loved Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, Rithmatist was a joy, and I had a great time with Mistborn 1-3, of course I like Brandon Sanderson. He’s a master of worldbuilding, his magic systems are unique and the way he pulls out a book’s climax always leaves me desperate for more. So naturally, he’s been on my favourite authors list on Goodreads for years, for good reason.

However, those things don’t necessarily mean you love the work itself. They are just my opinions of his writing. And so I got to thinking: I have definitely *liked* Sanderson’s work in the past, but in hindsight, what did I *really* think? Did I actually love it or was it something else?

So we head back a decade to the time when I read the original Mistborn trilogy. I was reliably informed that this trilogy was amazing and everybody on Twitter I spoke to adored it, so of course I would too, that’s how this works, right? Everybody loves a book in the genre you love so that makes it amazing? So I read The Final Empire and adored it, ordered Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages and read those as well, except they were slower going. I can honestly say that in hindsight, I really didn’t like either book until they ramped up to their respective grand endings and I believe my ratings for both of them was based solely on the endings and not the journey. But the journey is so important.

I used to force myself to read through books I wasn’t enjoying because “they get better” and sometimes the payoff was good, but as I get older I realise that it’s not really worth it. If you’re reading a book and not enjoying it, or at least getting something out of it, what is the point? It’s possible to read through slow books or books you’re not totally into to get to the next in a series or whatever, but if it’s making you not enjoy reading then it’s an issue. That’s how I feel anyway, and I’m coming at you from the other end of a big old reading slump so your mileage may vary but for years I read this way, pushing through prose that made me want to sleep because “it got better” or I’d get a review out of it, at least, and then I’d end up in a slump and ignore the feeling, continuing reading the same way. That’s how you end up not reading for years.

Fast forward a few years and I finally picked up The Way of Kings, book one in the Stormlight Archive. This whole series is full of 1,000+ page doorstoppers and that was not going to slide when I was aiming to get out a book review every 1 or 2 weeks, I’m much too slow a reader. However, once I left book blogging I dove in.

Now, the Stormlight Archive is interesting to look at because it’s a whole lot of building. I loved it back when I read it. Worldbuilding fascinates me and I enjoyed following the unravelling lore of the world through books one and two.

Thinking about it several years on, however, I wonder if my reading tastes have changed? I still love rich worldbuilding and a solid climax, who doesn’t? But I think in a post-reading slump world, things have shifted for me. I’ve had mental health crises since then, I was unable to read much at all for years and the way my brain functions is not the same as it was. I think I need faster-paced books and stronger characters these days and you know what? That’s cool. It makes me a little sad, I suppose. The joy of tucking into a thick tome is something special indeed, but there are plenty of books in the sea, and plenty of doorstoppers that may still fit what I need from a book, and to be clear I am still very much reading for pleasure, if I don’t have a review out for a month then that’s okay, it’s not the only content I have to offer.

I guess what I can conclude is that I’m just not as big a Brandon Sanderson fan as I thought I was. It doesn’t mean I’ll never read his books again or Elantris is done for, I think I just need a little more time. I’m basically starting my reading journey from scratch at this point and I need to be more conscious of my book choices for a while longer, make sure I don’t slip back into the slump and the I’m not slowed down too much by the brain fog. I just have to remind myself that my finding Elantris and Tigana a struggle doesn’t mean that I don’t like high fantasy anymore because come on… this is me we’re talking about. Just because I’m off exploring other authors and other genres doesn’t make me any less of a fantasy head nor does it mean Brandon Sanderson is off-limits.

Now, that’s quite enough from me. If any of this vibed with you then I encourage you to think a little deeper about your reading habits and choices and consider switching things up a bit! Websites like The StoryGraph can help us explore more of what we’re actually in the mood for (their recommendations are truly wonderful) and it’s worth not letting ourselves stagnate if we want to really enjoy this hobby of ours.

Returning to the Yet to Read series this week (having taken last week off) with a little more Stephen King. I’ve been reading My Best Friend’s Exorcism which is the first horror book I’ve read, in my adult life at least. I did have a dalliance with Goosebumps and Point Horror in my youth! Anywho, if I’m to be getting into the horror genre, I better be giving “the master” a chance, no?

From the Shelves

I realise I’m not 100% sure where my copy of Misery is or which edition I have exactly… I actually feel like I have 2 different copies, perhaps? It doesn’t matter, this book has been on my shelf for over a decade and I’m holding myself accountable.

Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. Annie Wilkes, Sheldon’s number one fan, rescues the author from the scene of a car accident. The former nurse takes care of him in her remote house, but becomes irate when she discovers that the author has killed Misery off in his latest book. Annie keeps Sheldon prisoner while forcing him to write a book that brings Misery back to life.

From the Wishlist

As I’ve already mentioned, I want to investigate King from the beginning. I’ve been looking at grabbing Carrie, The Shining, or Salem’s Lot first, and I’m still unsure but today Salem’s Lot is winning. What can I say? I love me some vampires whether they’re seducing maidens or tormenting a small town.

‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of strange happenings – but not more than in any other town its size.

Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed – nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow.

Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror . . .

Have you read either of these? Where would you recommend starting with Stephen King? What’s on your list this week? Let me know in the comments!

Now… I will neither be blogging daily (I know my limits) nor blogging about gaming (exclusively, at least), but this is the community I got my start in and they are my people so I plan to give my Blaugust a little bookish spin, perhaps other topics if they come to me, I’m pretty easy.

What will I be blogging about? Frankly, the usual. I have drafts for a couple of book reviews, we’ll see a continuation of the Buffyverse Project and my first steps into horror fiction, which I’m really enjoying. I made a whole bunch of drafts when I first came back to book blogging, honestly, just to make sure I always had ideas for posts. I have yet to actually use any of those drafts but it could be fun to pull some of those out. Those are mostly book related, though there are some Dungeons & Dragons and cross stitch ideas in that pile, along with some video games but really, my focus has not been on gaming for a very long time. That is unless you ask me to play Phasmophobia with you, then I will pull my headset on, load up Steam and yell obscenities at digital ghosts who just want us dead. I would also really like to resubscribe to Final Fantasy XIV but I have limited funds and limited horror books right now and I need to save up for a Glastonbury (town) trip and I’m looking into getting my blog hosted, you understand.

We shall see!

August is my oyster. It could be fruitful, it could be relaxed, we’ll just have to see how I go. Regardless, Belghast has a list of all the participants this year and I’m sure it’s not too late to sign up and join us. I even had some ideas for the suggested prompts Bel listed.

• Week One: Welcome to Blaugust Week (pretty universal)
• Week Two: Getting to Know You Week (again… universal)
• Week Three: Developer Appreciation Week (rather than game developers, this could give thanks to publishers, editors, writers, marketers, cover artists… or whatever your focus is – the people behind the things we love)
• Week Four: Staying Motivated Week (perhaps more intended for daily bloggers but this could be any form of motivation, maybe you struggle with reading slumps or just really need to tidy your shelves)
• Week Five: Lessons Learned

These are, of course, just ideas to help you along. You can write about anything and I absolutely plan to do that, but if a day goes by when I’m sure I want to get a post up but feel a little unsure on what to write, we have a baseline to go from. And if you need any more ideas, Naithin has a nice post about “bouncing ideas” around which is a really nice way to get involved in the community and boost each other.

Welcome to Blaugust!

My Week

I spent the first part of my week in a really witchy kinda mood. I was watching lots of Youtube and thinking about reading some books from my pagan/witchcraft shelf, and from there I started planning a trip to the West Country to visit Glastonbury town and Stonehenge and Cornwall. I need to do some saving for that, and my friend is most likely going to join me too! So we both need to save and work out how much things are going to cost, so we’re looking at maybe September 2023. I hope you don’t mind if I start reading some of these books though. Where the mood reading takes us, you know? For this week, I started on The Book of Hedge Druidry by Joanna van der Hoeven. It’s going to take a while, I’m not sure if it’s her writing style or if reading non-fiction just takes more spoons for me but I can only do a little at a time.

In fiction, I wrapped up reading Coyote Moon by John Vornholt, my first of the Buffy books. I certainly have enough thoughts on this one for a review. In short: certainly not great, the characters felt a tad “off” and there were some problematic elements, and the final battle felt kinda anti-climactic, but it was an easy read. I’m now starting on Grady Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism which I’m excited about.

On Wednesday I had my first appointment with a therapist to see where my mental health is at and what they can do to help me. This will be CBT, not talking therapies, but we shall see where it goes. He seems nice, at least. I liked talking to him and the worst that can happen is I end it exactly where I am now. I’m confident I’ll get something out of it, at least.

On Friday we played Dungeons & Dragons. This was my homebrew group and they went immediately into battle with a “Debased Faun” who didn’t get his cool thing off, but that’s more the better for the party. And then made their way to the Desecrated Temple where they came across a very out of place statue and met with a suspicious cloaked lady who sent them down below. And thus begins the first dungeon I’ve put together. I’m so excited for them to explore it!! Here are the maps we used this week, made with Inkarnate.

On the Blog

Blogging was a struggle this week. Dealing with the remains of my depressive funk from the previous week mixed with the fatigue and a couple other worries, I just didn’t want to write. I couldn’t think, so I didn’t. I read instead.

• Weekend Wrap-Up: 24/07/2021

Incoming

Claimed a few free ebooks this week, all fantasy and I believe Deck Matthews’ stuff is still on offer.

Next Week

So about this post on the Buffy books reading order: I’m struggling. I still want to do it but it may end up being a series and it might not be right away. I started this week and realised it will be a larger undertaking than I gave it credit for.

I will also have another appointment with the therapist about goals and perhaps an ADHD… not full assessment but just seeing if it’s worth getting on a waiting list for.

I’m hopeful I’ll get a couple posts out this week as well but we’ll see how I go. I may also start another Buffy book alongside My Best Friend’s Exorcism because they’re such quick reads.

How have your weeks been? Reading anything good? Got up to anything interesting? Let’s chat in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re all getting up to!

My Week

It has been an odd week for me. It’s been so hot, and I guess being on my own and stuck indoors triggered my depression so it’s been tough to get myself reading or doing much of anything. One moment I’m crying over how much “everyone hates me” and the next I’m singing and dancing around the place… haven’t had mood swings quite like this in a long time.

On Wednesday and Friday, we had some good news. I finally got a call back from the local mental health group on Wednesday. I’d been on the waiting list since the end of October last year. The waiting list is usually several months long but apparently the pandemic just threw everything out of whack. I’ll have my first appointment with them next Wednesday to go over where I’m at. I also received my letter inviting me for my second Covid vaccine on the 30th! With all of that in mind, a Chinese takeaway and some time spent playing Phasmophobia with my best friend, it was a good day. I can’t actually say what Friday’s good news was, but it’s good enough to get a vague mention.

Dungeons & Dragons

My Sunday Dungeons & Dragons game ran this week! I’m fairly sure our fifth person is permanently out at this point as I haven’t heard from them, and I don’t think it’s any fault of theirs. We also missed our Druid so it was a three-person session. They gained some decent information and went seeking their kidnapped friend in the ruins of the old manor house. It was so good. We postponed my Friday game for another week because a couple of us weren’t in the right headspace but believe me, the next session will be *chef kiss*.

Reading

I’ve been trying to read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson but realised it’s not doing it for me right now. Some of the dialogue feels so forced, the Raoden chapters are intriguing but really slow going, and the religion angle is putting me off big time. I really don’t think it needs the Hrathen perspective at all. Sarene is cool though. I think I just need to set it aside and come back to it when I’m in a better mood, for now I’ve picked up my first of the Buffy books. I’m beginning with Coyote Moon, which also has a few issues but it’s a little faster-paced and a lot shorter. I also pulled out Hedge Druidry by Joanna van der Hoeven, it’s about time I tucked into some of my pagan/witchcraft books as well.

Watching

I finished watching Never Have I Ever, which was a joy. I really liked Ben, Fabiola, and Kamala as characters. I also continued with the new season of Drag Race AllStars. It was a fun challenge this week: RuMerican Horror Story: Coven Girls. I adore American Horror Story so watching their drag parody take on it was delightful. I did get a bit uncomfortable when the queens had a little conversation in the workroom about witchcraft and how they “don’t mess with that devil shit.” Frankly, I respect people’s opinions but this is people’s spirituality and it’s constantly hated on, I don’t think they needed to air that. And then I continued with my Buffy rewatch. I should only have a couple episodes left of season one and then I’ll be happy to take a break while I read through the season one books.

Gaming Culture

Trigger Warning: Workplace Sexual Harassment, Suicide –

A lot of my energy this week also went into the news that came out about the court case filed against Activision-Blizzard for “frat boy culture” that allowed sexual harassment and disgusting misogyny to fester for years in the company, ultimately leading to the untimely death of one woman who took her own life. The whole thing is disgusting and a lot of people are swearing off Blizzard games and products for good, as a result.

World of Warcraft was a massive part of my life for well over a decade, I wouldn’t have met my husband without it. I’m reeling from how bad the report is, how terrible Blizzard’s response has been, and how much so many women have suffered and are suffering. And I hate that the thing that made me quit and swear off of Blizzard products wasn’t even close to the worst thing they could do. As the days go by, Blizzard and the people who used to work there continue to ignore the disgusting things that happened under their watch, continue to make shitty decisions and it’s not going well for them. They deserve every ounce of the response they’re getting and we don’t even know the half of it right now.

On the Blog

I managed to get my review written and posted for Artifact Space by Miles Cameron this week. Pretty proud of this review, definitely recommend it if you’re interested in science fiction at all.

• Weekend Wrap-Up: 17/07/2021
• Artifact Space Review
• Yet to Read Horrifically Haunted Buildings

Feedspot

Tangentially related, I received an email telling me that Dragons and Whimsy got featured on Feedspot’s top 100 UK book blogs list this week! I often find myself browsing those lists to find new people to check out so it’s pretty exciting to find myself right here.

Blog Hosting

I’ve also been looking into hosting this past week. I know that the free WordPress platform works just fine for me, but I miss having the freedom that hosting offers with themes and customisation and plugins and all sorts of things. I can’t exactly afford much, which makes BlueHost not really an option, I just can’t afford to pay such a big upfront cost, it has to be a pay monthly situation, and something that fits within my low budget. So I was looking at the upgrade options for wordpress.com, DreamHost, HostGator, and HostPapa. I’m still undecided, though.

Incoming

A few different books for the ebook collection this week, all 99p or free.

The Wolf Den is a story of a woman in Pompeii sold into slavery in a brothel. I’m always interesting in historical fiction set from ancient-to-medieval times and the opportunity to look into Pompeii’s culture somewhat, especially from the perspective of its women sounds great to me.

Troy is book 3 of Stephen Fry’s retellings of Greek mythology. I still haven’t read the first two but I’ll be getting around to it once the brain fog allows.

The Rage of Dragons is one I’ve seen mentioned among fantasy lovers a fair bit, it’s an African-inspired high fantasy set within a generations-long war.

The Starless Sea has been on my wishlist for a few years, I believe. I adored Erin Morgenstern’s writing in The Night Circus and this one become a must-read for me as a result, whatever it’s about. Luckily, we have a story about a book that unveils a world of magic and I’m so in.

Then we have a non-fiction book in The History of Magic. I’m a pagan witch so of course I’m always looking for interesting books about magical beliefs and practices throughout history. This one is on the historical side of things and it claims to look into magic from the Ice Age up to the present day.

And finally, Elvish. This one was free when I picked it up, it’s a story about a human in a world where elves and humans are mortal enemies, but of course he starts falling for an elf woman. I love me some elves, so it could be good, perhaps.

Next Week

Honestly, my main plans for the upcoming week are to continue doing my best to prevent myself from slipping into a depression. It’s hovering overhead like a big black cloud and I don’t want it. I have my appointment with the mental health group on Wednesday to talk about where I’m at, which I suppose came at a good time, and my vaccine appointment for Friday.

I also hope to run my Friday and Sunday D&D games next weekend. I hate when they fall in the same weekend but sometimes games get postponed and it’s just how they fall. I’m excited for the games themselves. And I need to push myself to read more. My struggles with Elantris and the heat and my mental health this week have let me lapse into my slumpy behaviour, so we’re still not out of the woods there, but I know it doesn’t have to be that way. Perhaps I’ll start reading something new, we’ll see!

How have your weeks been? Reading anything good? Got up to anything interesting? Let’s encourage each other in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re all getting up to!

From the Shelves

I’m not sure I’ve seen anybody talking about Wakenhyrst but to be fair, it released when I was firmly not paying attention the the book world. I grabbed it cheap on Kindle at some point because the premise intrigued the hell out of me.

“Something has been let loose…”

In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father.

When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened.

Maud’s battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father’s past.

From the Wishlist

I’ve been getting back into horror in recent years. Loved it as a kid and just got too anxious for it in my twenties but now I’m back into it and I haven’t read a single Stephen King novel. Whether he will or won’t be my cup of tea, I don’t know yet but I’d like to start from the beginning and those who know me should know how much I love a haunted hotel.

Everybody knows The Shining. If you haven’t read the book (like me), you’ve at least heard of the absolute classic movie featuring Jack Nicholson, and perhaps the more recent sequel, Doctor Sleep.

Danny is only five years old but in the words of Old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner,’ aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control.

As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive?

Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that too is beginning to shine.

Have you read either of these? Are you a Stephen King fan or find him overrated? What’s your favourite story about a haunted building? Let me know in the comments!

Out in the darkness of space, something is targeting the Greatships.

With their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city, the Greatships are the lifeblood of human occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume – and value – of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.

It has always been Marca Nbaro’s dream to achieve the near-impossible: escape her upbringing and venture into space.

All it took, to make her way onto the crew of the Greatship Athens was thousands of hours in simulators, dedication, and pawning or selling every scrap of her old life in order to forge a new one. But though she’s made her way onboard with faked papers, leaving her old life – and scandals – behind isn’t so easy.

She may have just combined all the dangers of her former life, with all the perils of the new . . .

Series: Arcana Imperii #1
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 576
Content Warnings

Marca Nbaro grew up on City, “the greatest orbital in Human Space.” Her life up until this point has been traumatic, to say the least, growing up in City’s Orphanage as a ward of the state, a place for kids orphaned by their parents who died in service and we fast learn that its being run by a crook who gives them the bare minimum. Nbaro is able to escape by the skin of her teeth, though she has angered somebody very powerful and it’s her hope that out in space, they can’t get to her. And so she gets onto the greatship Athens, one of 9 magnificent and very old spacefaring vessels that exist to ensure the mercantile nature of the DHC can continue, particularly with its most important cargo: xenoglas, a mysterious and highly valuable materiel traded with the only other aliens that humans have come into contact with, the Starfish, a non-bipedal squid-like species that live in ammonia rich atmospheres who nobody has ever communicated with.

At first glance, I assumed Artifact Space would be about a stowaway trying to flee her past life while trying to remain undetected among the lower tiers of the spacecraft, but ultimately becoming a part of the ship’s ecosystem as pirates or a mysterious alien race threatened their existence, and while I was wrong with my assumptions, as I often am, I wasn’t disappointed with what the story did provide.

Nbaro is a black woman dealing with her past trauma as she pretty much tries to “fake it ’til she makes it” on the Athens, and very quickly is taken back by how welcoming and kind the crew really are. She’s used to being surrounded by dirtbags. In fact, her skipper, Trueknor, tells her that she is part of the Athens now, so long as she gets to work and does as she’s told. The crew itself is militaristic, and Nbaro understands that. We get the joy of watching her grow from this frightened, downtrodden girl who escaped the Orphanage and always felt the need to watch her back, to a smart and confident woman able to lead. In doing so, she finds her family among the crew of the greatship and her friendships with them all were for sure my favourite thing in this book.

I did have a few issues with Artifact Space, however, I will admit that I’m unsure if some of this is my relevant newness to the science fiction genre, especially as a reader. Case in point, the first few pages were like torture for me and I couldn’t tell you if I was struggling because I’m just generally not used to “sci-fi jargon” or if some of the terms could have been explained a little better. My husband informed me it was worldbuilding to get you into the mindset of the world and that’s something I can certainly get behind. Regardless, it was only the first few pages before I was hooked, even if some of the quantum physics (and other such things) descriptions went way over my head. I still barely understand how ‘insertion’ (this book’s term for ‘hyperspace jumps’) works, but it’s okay.

However, there are a lot of pages wherein Nbaro is learning things and going through the motions that felt a little lethargic. I felt these could have been condensed somewhat, though they were not a deal breaker for me because when chracters interacted and the action happens, Artifact Space really shines.

I loved how much “life on the ship” there was throughout the book. You get a lot of time to know the characters, and see the bonds forming between them, and understand why the greatships are so important. So when things begin heating up, and believe me they sure do, you understand the stakes and heck, there were moments in the story that brought me to tears. That is really rare for me. All I want is to spend more time with these characters!

The book also handles LGBTQ+ people pretty well, in my opinion. People are gay or asexual and it gets just as much attention as the straight people get. There are also “androgynes”, who are androgynous people, as you may be able to guess. I was a little bit confused over whether they were born as a result of living upon the orbitals within Human Space or if it’s part of the gender spectrum as we know it, but either way it was neat to see a lot of gender neutral language for a few of the characters.

If you pick up Artifact Space, expect a lot of subterfuge and unknown forces working from all angles, as well as an interesting look at capitalism and class divisions from the perspective of people around 700-800 years in our future. Or, just a really neat space opera story about merchants working hard and working together to make sure they don’t get destroyed.

Reading this book, I’ve learned that Mile Cameron is a great storyteller with some fantastic worldbuilding chops, and I can’t wait to read the follow-up and get into his fantasy books.

Goodreads • The StoryGraph • Amazon UK* • Book Depository • Blackwell’s • Bookshop.org

*denotes affiliate link

My Week

This week I started working on a new project. I’m going to write a book! It isn’t the book I expected to be writing (my epic fantasy, which is still on the cards) but I’m very excited about it, so I began doing some worldbuilding and research and stewing on some ideas and themes, and hopefully once I’ve worked out these parts, the characters and stories will fall into place. I’ve only spent a few hours on it so far but I’m already liking what’s there.

On the sleep front, obviously the fatigue is still there but I’m currently back around to human hours again. This only usually lasts at most a couple weeks, a couple days if I’m unlucky, but it’s really nice to see the morning and sleep when it’s dark and cool! Even if I don’t have the energy to get much done, it finally getting to the mid-20s heatwise doesn’t help, I’m really bad in the heat… I’m lowkey enjoying it for once, though. It forces me to get dressed and I need the Vitamin D.

I put some solid reading time into Artifact Space by Miles Cameron and finished it this week. Really solid science fiction read right there, and hoping to have a review for it sometime next week. I then started reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, this starts my readthrough (and reread, in some cases) of the Cosmere universe.

The Buffy rewatch continued, reminding me exactly how creepy the Buffy/Angel romance was… she was 16 when they fell in love. Ack! I also started watching Never Have I Ever on Netflix, season 1 got me through a low day yesterday so that was nice.

And then I came across this stunning acoustic cover of ‘As the World Falls Down’ from Labyrinth by Violet Orlandi that I’m a little obsessed with and really needed to share. It’s so beautiful.

On the Blog

Had a fairly productive start to the week! I finally got my City of Glass review out, the extra time to stew on it helped a lot, I think.

• Weekend Wrap-Up: 10/07/2021
• City of Glass Review
• Yet to Read Some Badass Women Written Sci-Fi

I’ll also be taking part in Blaugust next month, a blogging community event run by a friend of mine in the gaming blog community. I’ll do my proper introduction post when we get to August but not too much will change here. I don’t have too much to say about video games right now but I do have some ideas on other topics!

Incoming

Mmmm look, there was a sale on and it was ending and things were cheap or free. Don’t judge me, you do the same!

So I grabbed Tyrant’s Throne (still need to grab the third book but I need to reread this series from the beginning anyway so no rush there) and Reamde in the Amazon sale while that was on. Schooled in Magic and Love in Lockdown just piqued my interest and weren’t too pricey so I yoinked those as well. Devil’s Deal is actually by a friend of mine who had it going for free for a couple days so I had to add that to my pile as well!

In the physical pile, I won a couple books on Twitter which arrived Monday: House of Styx which is about a family living on Venus, that alone instantly intrigues me, I’m fascinated by the surface of Venus. And Anna, a dystopian novel about a near-future that’s not so great for women. These are both books I’ve heard nothing about but they sound super interesting.

Next Week

I doubt I’ll be able to finish Elantris in the next week as it’s a 600 page novel and I’m very slow, but I’ll hopefully get close to finishing it!

I’ve got my Sunday D&D game tomorrow. One of our players seems to be dealing with some personal stuff, and another has life things going on, but we decided to play on and I know exactly how this is going to play out, but I’m saying no more because at least one of them reads the blog.

On the blog, I still need to get that post about the Buffy books “reading order” set up and posted, and the Artifact Space review. It’s going to be a hot one though so let’s hope I’m cognizant enough to manage it!

How have your weeks been? Reading anything good? Got up to anything interesting? Let’s encourage each other in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re all getting up to!