Sunday Status Update: February 24, 2019

Plenty more books on the docket this week!

Jana: This week I’m reading Ann Leckie‘s upcoming fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, which pairs an intriguing story (a young highborn man returns home to find his father has mysteriously vanished and his uncle has taken the seat of power for himself, but there’s so much more to it than what I just described) with the insightful ruminations on society, language, and culture/ritual that I’ve come to expect from Leckie. There are some unexpected stylistic choices framing the story itself, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. Meanwhile, I continue to dig myself out of the pending-reviews-pit I’ve dug for myself, am drooling over all the shiny new books I’d love to buy/read (but refuse to, due to said pit), and am thinking about springtime planting, though right now spring seems awfully far away for Colorado!

Marion: I’m about halfway through Katherine Arden’s The Winter of the Witch, the third book in the series that started with The Bear and the Nightingale. Vasya is a believable, compelling character and Arden’s prose is beautiful. The use of Russian folklore is a bonus.

Tadiana: This last week I read and thoroughly enjoyed John Scalzi‘s The Collapsing Empire, and I’m now on the wait list for the second book at my library. My other interesting read was After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress, which won the Nebula and Locus novella awards a few years ago. I enjoyed it, though not quite as much as Terry did. The unanswered questions bothered me more than they did her, I think. I’m also slowly making my way through a couple of short story collections,  Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and Evening in Paradise, (non-SF/F) literary fiction by Lucia Berlin.

Terry: I’m enjoying Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas. While the THRONE OF GLASS series has some problems, there is no denying that they are propulsive reading!