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Reviews from November 2018 (21)

All Your Dreams Are On The Way

The Man Who Bridged the Mist

By Kij Johnson  

30 Nov, 2018

Miscellaneous Reviews

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Kij Johnson’s 2011 The Man Who Bridged the Mist is a standalone secondary world fantasy. 

A river divides the Empire’s Nearside from Farside. Bridging the wide river would be challenge enough. The challenge is doubled or tripled by the mist that covers the river. The mist is caustic; it burns. Things live in the Mist, some vast enough to swallow boats and their contents whole. Boats can cross the Mist, but it’s a perilous crossing. Boats disappear; passengers die. 

Kit Meinem of Atyar has been tasked to build a bridge over the river. 


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Meet at a Post Apocalypse

Eat Your Heart Out

By Dayna Ingram  

29 Nov, 2018

Miscellaneous Reviews

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Dayna Ingram’s 2011 Eat Your Heart Out is a standalone zombie apocalypse novella. 

Devin has it all: a postage-stamp sized apartment over what’s almost certainly a meth lab, an increasingly aloof girlfriend, and a new position as shift-leader at Ashbee’s Furniture Outlet (where the odd smells and stains are thrown in for free!). All this in a town that is a backwater even for a flyover state. The only possible way Devin’s slice of heaven could go wrong is if zombies attack. 

Zombies attack. 

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A Killer in Their Eyes

D.Grayman, volume 1

By Katsura Hoshino  

28 Nov, 2018

Translation

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D.Gray-Man volume one collects the first seven issues of Katsura Hoshino’s on-going manga series. 

Lost a loved one? The Millennium Earl is here to help! Simply provide the Earl with the relevant details and he will raise the spirit of your loved one, installed in a wonderful robot body. The robot is an Akuma, a self-evolving homicidal killbot bent on the destruction of all humanity. Think of it as a more genocidal version of Pokemon. 


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Like a Bird in a Nest

The Serpent  (Atlan, volume 1)

By Jane Gaskell  

25 Nov, 2018

Because My Tears Are Delicious To You

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1963’s The Serpent is the first volume in Jane Gaskell’s Atlan series. 

Long, long ago, before Atlan and Mu sank, when humanity still lived alongside the brontosaurus, Cija was raised in an isolated palace by servants of her Dictatress mother. Now seventeen, Cija chafes at the restrictions under which she must live. 

The Dictatress descends upon the palace and Cija’s life changes in an instant. 

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Wildfire

The Wild Dead  (The Bannerless Saga, volume 2)

By Carrie Vaughn  

23 Nov, 2018

A Variety of Vaughns

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2018’s The Wild Dead is the second volume in Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless Saga. 

The Estuary isn’t even a formal town; it’s more of a collection of households that happen to be in close proximity. With no council to settle disputes, the townsfolk request a pair of Investigators, hoping that they can to resolve an ongoing conflict between the Semperfi household and its neighbours. Investigators Enid and Teeg arrive in the Estuary expecting to resolve a straightforward argument over resource allocation. They soon find themselves dealing with murder. 


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A Neighbor Just Like You

Steel Rain

By Woo-Suk Yang  

21 Nov, 2018

Translation

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Steel Rain is a Korean thriller movie, written and directed by Yang Woo-suk. It is based on the webcomic of the same name. 

Retired North Korean agent Cheol-woo Eom is covertly contacted by his former boss, Chief Ri. Ri informs Eom that two senior functionaries (Park and Kim) are plotting a coup. Since the two men are highly placed and can keep Ri from alerting the Great Leader to the plot, Ri has no choice but to have both men killed. 

Ri cannot use one of his subordinates for the job because if the operative fails, the assassination attempt could touch off an inter-service civil war. If Eom is caught, he can be thrown under the bus. Eom agrees to work for Ri one last time. 

On a certain fateful day, Eom is in position, ready to kill Park and Kim. There are two problems. The first is that Park is not at the rally where Eom is waiting hidden with his rifle. The second is that agents unknown detonate several hijacked cluster bombs, bombs that kill most of the people attending and leave the Great Leader badly injured, perhaps dying. 

Luck and skill get Eom through the attack unscathed, as well as the massacre of the few survivors that follows. Realizing a coup is underway, Eom and helpful cheerleaders Kwon and Song flee with the Great Leader into South Korea. Behind them, North Korea descends into chaos. 

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Looking Down on Creation

Riding the Torch

By Norman Spinrad  

18 Nov, 2018

Because My Tears Are Delicious To You

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Norman Spinrad’s 1974 Riding the Torch is a standalone science fiction novella. 

Mistakes were made. Earth is a lifeless cinder. Before the planet was seared, a small fleet of interstellar ships managed to escape. Surely somewhere in the sky, there must be a second Earth. 

A thousand years later, the torchships are still looking. On and on they travel, harvesting the materials they need to survive and prosper from the interstellar void. 

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Go Ask Alice

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

By F. C. Yee  

17 Nov, 2018

Miscellaneous Reviews

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2017’s The Epic Crush of Genie Lo is F. C. Yee’s debut novel.

Bay Area high school student Eugenia Genie” Lo is highly motivated and hard-working, determined to earn her way into Harvard. She’s going to claw her way to the top, despite all her equally motivated, hard working, and better-connected rivals. Harvard is not just a top-ranked school. It is as far from Genie’s well-meaning, interfering mother as it is possible to be without leaving the United States. Genie does not need distractions on her journey to the east. She gets a major distraction in the form of brash transfer student Quentin Sun. 

Also known as Sun Wukong. 

Also known as the Monkey King. That Monkey King.

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