Hello there! What have you been reading this week? I've felt like I've had a little less time and concentration for reading this week, but I've still read some excellent things and made progress on a couple of my reading goals.
I'm really getting into short fiction more at the moment, and the below are two wonderful examples. I'm also half-way through listening to an audio version (at Escape Pod) of the excellent, Hugo-nominated That Game We Played During the War. Can't wait to listen to the rest.
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman.
This week I started my re-read of His Dark Materials (in preparation for the release of the first volume of The Book Dust in October). I'm nearly half way through this first book in the trilogy and really loving it, both for the story itself and the chance to re-discover all the little details I forgotten since the last time I read it. I love the world-building in this book, the creation an intriguing "universe like ours, but different in many ways." That's one of the things I enjoyed most about this book the first time round, and that hasn't changed for me since.
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu (writer) and Sana Takeda (artist).
My goodness, the artwork in book this is gorgeous! The story is also very dark and intriguing. I'm about two-thirds of the way through and on the whole enjoying it, though I have found it a little dense to get into. Takes a lot of concentration, and time to absorb the story and details properly, but feels worth it.
Owl Vs. The Neighbourhood Watch by Darcie Little Badger.
I listened to the podcast of this story earlier in the week. It's a pure and honest depiction of depression, mania and fear of catastrophe. I loved the use of the Owl mythology, it created a visceral impression of the depth of the narrator's fear, and also something very real to confront. Overall, I found this to be a moving, magical, and ultimately (I think) hopeful story of living with mental illness.
A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers by Alyssa Wong.
This is a bewitching, breathtakingly raw story of two powerful sisters, "apart and together". There is a real sense of fierce desperation threaded through this story. The looping timelines carry the reader with them, circling and weaving around a story that is rich in its telling yet cleverly holds back the specifics. Beautiful.
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