LRRC Week 37

I have officially lost all control of my library holds list, if you're wondering where I'm at this week.

Also, even though Can*Con isn't happening in its usual capacity this year, I still feel a distinct need to actually read the books I bought at last year's Can*Con before the weekend that would normally host the end this year. So like, mid-October.

Wish me luck on trying to balance that goal with also reading through the books I've gotten from the library!

#73: NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells

I feel like very little needs to be said about Murderbot stories at this point, particularly since this is #5 in the series. You like Murderbot? You'll probably like this book!

This is the first novel-length book in the series, though even at that, it only clocks in at around 250 pages, so it's not a massive departure in length. Which, by the way, is not a criticism, I love very few things more than a book that knows how to get in and out efficiently. Like a good burglar.

Without giving anything away, I liked the addition of new characters (including Mensah's daughter), and I liked to see more of Murderbot getting to be Murderbot around people who knew it. I also really enjoyed the return of several characters, and how that enabled the connections developed in earlier books to deepen.

I kind of wish that the series would tackle more directly the android situation in a general sense, by which I mean looking at the broader plight of bots within the world, and what it would mean for more of them to be acknowledged as people. This book probably goes the furthest towards doing so, and maybe that's something they're looking to build towards, I'm not sure, but each book makes me want more and more.

#74: THE MYTHIC DREAM edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolf

Really, who doesn't enjoy a Parisien/Wolf edited anthology?

Reviewing anthologies is always a little odd because they're made up of so many composite parts, and there's always going to be stories you like more than others. As a whole, though, this newest anthology succeeds in much the same way that this pair's previous anthologies have as well.

The Mythic Dream, in addition to having one of the prettiest covers on my bookshelf, is an anthology of folklore retellings. Similar but fundamentally a little different than the previous collaboration on fairy tales. This, perhaps more than that, really allowed the authors, all coming from different cultural backgrounds, to expand on the stories that they grew up with.

My favourite stories in the anthology were Phantoms of the Midway by Seanan McGuire, Kali_Na by Indrapramit Das, Live Stream by Alyssa Wong, and Florilegia; Or, Some Lies About Flowers by Amal El-Mohtar.

NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA
#75: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
#76: Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher