Reviews and Comments

Ian Sudderth

suddzzjr@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 2 months ago

Wears plaid on the weekends.

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reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (The Southern Reach Trilogy, #1)

Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (Paperback, 2014, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 4 stars

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …

Not sure what I just read but couldn't stop

5 stars

I'm not sure if I'd call this one of my favorites, but there was something gripping about the way it was written and the slow burn of revelations. The utter unknowableness of everything was crushing, and the mysteries never fully unraveled, but I couldn't put it down.

Annalee Newitz: The Terraformers (Hardcover, Tor Books) 4 stars

From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration …

A mixed bag of great ideas

4 stars

The world building and theorycrafting are excellent but the plot does feel uneven. The first third has great pacing but the latter thirds are slow or jumpy. Enjoyed it but found it hard to finish as it felt like it lacked momentum through the second half.

Paolo Bacigalupi: The Tangled Lands (2018) 4 stars

"A fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of …

So Bleak. Slog.

2 stars

I did NOT enjoy this. There is some interesting world building, but it kind of stops developing for the second half of the book. Everything is so droll and dark and hopeless and bleak. The characters are mostly awful, the people are mostly awful, so bleak.

There's some interesting allegory for climate change, but again, just kind of doesn't develop for the second half of the book.