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Reading Diary: Catch-Up Post
Nov. 24th, 2024 04:17 pmThis is just a brief roundup of things I’ve read that I really liked. I’m not going to do the normal link and synopsis thing because I don’t have the energy. I trust that if any of these pique your interest, you’ll look them up.
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera — I picked this up on a whim at the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore. It’s a middle-grade science fiction novel about a girl, Petra, whose family is chosen to be part of a group of humans leaving Earth to start a new life. A massive comet is headed towards Earth, so these people represent the hope that humanity will live on. The settlers are meant to live in stasis until they reach their new home, which had been found by previous explorers. As Petra and her family are boarding their ship, they hear explosions. A group intent on stopping the mission has attacked. Petra and her family get into stasis and out into space. However, Petra wakes up early to learn that a group called The Collective has taken over the ship and killed all the adults. They’ve kept the children as fodder for exploration. I won’t say more (partly because it’s been a few months since I read it), but this is an absolutely gripping novel. It’s quite dark, and I think more kids books need that darkness. It does have a hopeful ending. Honestly, I think you all should just read it. I tried to read Higuera’s novel Alebrjias earlier this year, but I didn’t have time to finish it before I left for China. As it turns out, that novel is something of a sequel to TLC, so I’ll definitely go back to it.
Sha Po Lang/Stars of Chaos, vol 4 by Priest — I’m so glad I kept going with this story when things were rough with volume one. I love the world building and the character relationships (not just the main romance). Chang Geng is such a dork, I love him. I’m sad that the series will be over as the final volume is due out in January, but I’m looking forward to seeing how the Empire fares.
Winter’s Gift by Ben Aaronovitch — this is a novella in the Rivers of London universe, featuring Agent Kimberley Reynolds, the American FBI agent who paired up with Peter Grant in a previous novel. It was fine. It features some Native American myths and creatures, and I thought it was handled more or less respectfully by the white British author (but I’m a white American, so there may be things that others would ping that I missed). As a novella, the plot does feel a bit thin. I read most of it while on the metro, trekking back and forth from my home to downtown. It’s a nice kind of book for a commute. I didn’t love Kimberley as a character the way I like Peter, but it was fine overall.
I’ve been working through some of the manga I’ve acquired. I read My Dearest Patrolman by Niyama. The author mentioned they wrote this with some specific tropes they love (size difference, age gap), and to be honest, I don’t really love those tropes, but the first two volumes were cute enough. The age gap is between someone in his late twenties and someone in his late thirties (although they did meet when the younger man was in his teens, but nothing happened between them until they were well into adulthood, which I prefer in an age gap story). I like to read some of these BL manga to get ideas for AUs for my fics. Overall, fluffy and easy to read while I was home sick.
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera — I picked this up on a whim at the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore. It’s a middle-grade science fiction novel about a girl, Petra, whose family is chosen to be part of a group of humans leaving Earth to start a new life. A massive comet is headed towards Earth, so these people represent the hope that humanity will live on. The settlers are meant to live in stasis until they reach their new home, which had been found by previous explorers. As Petra and her family are boarding their ship, they hear explosions. A group intent on stopping the mission has attacked. Petra and her family get into stasis and out into space. However, Petra wakes up early to learn that a group called The Collective has taken over the ship and killed all the adults. They’ve kept the children as fodder for exploration. I won’t say more (partly because it’s been a few months since I read it), but this is an absolutely gripping novel. It’s quite dark, and I think more kids books need that darkness. It does have a hopeful ending. Honestly, I think you all should just read it. I tried to read Higuera’s novel Alebrjias earlier this year, but I didn’t have time to finish it before I left for China. As it turns out, that novel is something of a sequel to TLC, so I’ll definitely go back to it.
Sha Po Lang/Stars of Chaos, vol 4 by Priest — I’m so glad I kept going with this story when things were rough with volume one. I love the world building and the character relationships (not just the main romance). Chang Geng is such a dork, I love him. I’m sad that the series will be over as the final volume is due out in January, but I’m looking forward to seeing how the Empire fares.
Winter’s Gift by Ben Aaronovitch — this is a novella in the Rivers of London universe, featuring Agent Kimberley Reynolds, the American FBI agent who paired up with Peter Grant in a previous novel. It was fine. It features some Native American myths and creatures, and I thought it was handled more or less respectfully by the white British author (but I’m a white American, so there may be things that others would ping that I missed). As a novella, the plot does feel a bit thin. I read most of it while on the metro, trekking back and forth from my home to downtown. It’s a nice kind of book for a commute. I didn’t love Kimberley as a character the way I like Peter, but it was fine overall.
I’ve been working through some of the manga I’ve acquired. I read My Dearest Patrolman by Niyama. The author mentioned they wrote this with some specific tropes they love (size difference, age gap), and to be honest, I don’t really love those tropes, but the first two volumes were cute enough. The age gap is between someone in his late twenties and someone in his late thirties (although they did meet when the younger man was in his teens, but nothing happened between them until they were well into adulthood, which I prefer in an age gap story). I like to read some of these BL manga to get ideas for AUs for my fics. Overall, fluffy and easy to read while I was home sick.
