Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

We Will Prescribe You a Kitteh

Posted on July 3, 2024 by smellincoffee

Exploring Japanese literature has been a thing for me this year, and We Will Prescribe You a Cat is the latest in my explorations. It’s easily the strangest of the Japanese literature I’ve read this year, with an increasing level … Continue reading →

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Recoding History

Posted on June 29, 2024 by smellincoffee

A few years ago I read Broad Band, a history of women in early computing, which blew my mind. I’d taken for granted that computers and the early internet were wholly the domain of socially awkward dudes with glasses wearing … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

ST: Pliable Truths

Posted on June 28, 2024 by smellincoffee

After a half-century of vicious occupation, the Cardassian Empire is finally cutting bait and withdrawing from Bajor, pushed by aggressive resistance movements. The Federation has been asked to meditate the terms of a peaceful withdrawal and settlement and has asked … Continue reading →

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A Daughter of Fair Verona

Posted on June 27, 2024 by smellincoffee

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was a cautious tale about the dangers of pride and unbridled passion. A Daughter of Fair Verona says phooey on that, tweaks Shakespeare so that our teenage lovers prove too incompetent to actually do … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade

Posted on June 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

France, 1918: the Great War is almost over, but it doesn’t feel like it for civilians close to the lines, where the threat of a German resurgence hangs as close to the battered ground as the dust from the constant … Continue reading →

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A Thousand Ships

Posted on June 24, 2024 by smellincoffee

Sing, muse, of the confusion of Croseus, and of the anguish of Penthesilea! A Thousand Ships collects stories about the women of the Illiad — mostly of Troy, but of Achaea, too, across the wine-dark sea — and framed by … Continue reading →

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Fan Fiction

Posted on June 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

First up: do not read this. Do not read this. Listen to it. Reading this is the equivalent of getting your knowledge of War and Peace from a Wishbone classics edition. Fan Fiction is an audiobook that’s transcended to the … Continue reading →

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Dune

Posted on June 21, 2024 by smellincoffee

For as long as I’ve been online, I’ve heard of Dune, have heard expressions like “The spice must flow” and seen the “I must not fear / fear is the mind-killer / fear is the little death (etc)” recitation embedded … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Mythos

Posted on June 21, 2024 by smellincoffee

This book will hold a record for the title it took me the longest to complete, as I’ve been listening to it off and on since fall 2021, attracted by both the premise and (chiefly) the narrator, Stephen Fry — … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Zero Days

Posted on June 20, 2024 by smellincoffee

Jack and her husband, Gabe, are professional security analysts — pen-testers, red-teamers. Their job is to test the security measures of companies, both digital and physical, to find weaknesses. After one case goes a little sideways and Jack is briefly … Continue reading →

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