Author: Tim Scheidler

Kat: I read two books by C.J. Cherryh this week: Merchant’s Luck and Forty Thousand in Gehenna. These were released in audio format by Tantor Audio in a combination pack called Alliance Space. Last night I watched all five episodes of Wandavision. I didn’t like the first episode at all but by the time I finished the fifth, I was hooked.

Marion: I finished my ARC of Exiles of Tabat,

Kat: I finished R.J. Barker’s Call of the Bone Ships which is the sequel to The Bone Ships. It was better, I thought, but I didn’t like it as much as others do. It’s beautifully written, but I just didn’t connect with the characters. Today I’m starting C.J. Cherryh’s Merchanter’s Luck which has recently been published in audio format. This book, first published in 1982, has been on my TBR list for decades, so I’m pretty excited about it.

Kelly: I’m currently in the middle of my ARC of Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife. I’m not sure what’s more chilling, the science or the interpersonal dynamics. And there’s a lot of overlap between the two, of course. Good, and unsettling.

Bill: This week I read the excellent The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, the good On Fragile Wavesby E. Lily Yu, and the somewhat disappointing Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore,

Jana: This week I’m reading Nghi Vo’s When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a stand-alone novella in her SINGING HILLS cycle (which begins with The Empress of Salt and Fortune). It’s delightful and intricate, and I love the ways Vo uses interwoven texts to examine the story-telling process itself. I’ve also been listening to Sheldon Allman’s 1960 album Folk Songs for the 21st Century, a strange and darkly humorous collection of songs about atomic bombs, robots in love,

Kat: I re-read the first two books in Brandon Mull’s FIVE KINGDOMS series for kids (Sky Raiders and The Rogue Knight). I read them years ago but I’m ready to read and review the final three books (which have been sitting on my phone for a long time), so I needed to give them a re-read in preparation. I’m now on book three, Crystal Keepers. I got some reviews done this week, too,

Kat: I’ve been busy with holidays and planning for the spring semester, but yesterday I managed to read the two most recent PENRIC & DESDEMONA novellas by Lois Mcmaster Bujold: The Orphans of Raspay and The Physicians of Vilnoc.

Bill: Since our last status, I’ve read the following, unfortunately none particularly strong:
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
The Fictional Man by Al Ewing
“The Only Living Girl on Earth”,

Marion: Last week, most of my “reading” involved recipes  and grocery shopping lists. I did, however, finish a romance novel (a genre I almost NEVER read). I finished up Deception by Selena Montgomery, better-known to politics-watchers as Stacey Abrams. It’s not my go-to genre, but I did enjoy it. And I managed to browse the most recent issue of Clarkesworld, which had a couple of interesting stories. A.C. Wise’s “To Sail the Black” was  like Giedeon the Ninth  light, and I loved the fractured first generation-North-American family in Brazilian writer Clara Madrigano’s “Lost in Darkness and Distance.”

Sandy: Moi?

Kat: This week was the last week of my semester and I was busy with grading and other end-of-the-semester stuff. I didn’t get anything finished, but I’m working on Bob Proehl’s The Somebody People which is the sequel to last year’s The Nobody People. I like this one better.

Bill: This was a great week, as I read four excellent works: Remote Control, a novella by Nnedi Okorafor; The Mask of Mirrors,