A Jungle of Tales

  This book surprised me several times. First, I was startled to realize that, despite the “ecologist wanders out of the woods to discover that global pandemic has destroyed civilization” premise, this wasn’t a new book, nor even written since the late 1980s (when the persistent power of viruses was becoming common knowledge again). No, it is from 1949, when most people were probably assuming new drugs and vaccines were on the path to conquering disease forever! The depiction of the ecological shifts that would result from the fall of modern civilization is unusually good, and I was really enjoying the contemplative nature and subtle humor of the first third of the book, where our protagonist "Ish" is just wandering around with his dog. Then he starts interacting with other humans and some very distasteful ideas about people start to emerge: the more-or-less subtle racism and misogyny you’d expect from a trying-to-be-progressive person of that era, plus s

  This Chinese web novel has a deliberately silly premise: There’s a war going on between the Vast Alliance and the Demonic Creed, when a spy for the former supposedly discovers that the new Creed Lord, Ji Han, is gay and has a crush on the Alliance’s champion, Zhao Jiangui. So, the Alliance begs Jiangui to go and seduce the opposition's leader and save his people. The training for this does not go well; Jiangui has zero understanding of or talent for coquetry. So the desperate leaders just give him a full script of pickup lines and send him on his way. Of course, as it happens, the whole thing was a misunderstanding…but will Zhao somehow end up charming the Creed Lord anyway? I snorted out loud when our hero delivers his first line, because both it and the whole situation were so awkward. But Zhao is a Hero and therefore cannot back down from a quest, so he is going to seduce this dude even if both of them claim not to like men, and neither of them is feeling

  I was intrigued by the premise of this book: A story about a young woman who was a sort of “Joan of Arc” to the Mexican revolution, extensively researched and written by one of her modern-day relatives. ‘The Hummingbird’s Daughter’ has a lot of the features I love in Latin American magical realism, including a big cast of varied and quirky characters and a mix of darkness, humor, and lushly sensual descriptions. I very much enjoyed it! However, if you are looking for a story about the Mexican revolution…this isn’t it! The conflict is barely starting in the last few chapters. The focus is instead on Teresa Urrea’s childhood and the world she grew up in and exploring what it might be like to become a “saint”, somewhat against your will! Even if it doesn’t focus on the revolution, per se, the book does have opinions on what Mexico and The People are, which begin to be explained on page 8: “On that long westward morning, all Mexicans still dreamed the same dream. T

              I had been looking for a manga that was “ ‘Seraph of the End’ or ‘Heaven Official’s Blessing’, but with girls’” – meaning fantasy action/adventure, but with female protagonists and Sapphic vibes (preferably without fetishizing) – and it seemed a futile search…until now! Premise: Sorawo is an introverted, nerdy college student who is excited to have found a hidden world - at least until she encounters a bizarre-looking creature that seems to mess with her mind. She is rescued by a distractingly pretty girl who seems to know this world even better. The two start exploring together, since Toriko wants to find a vanished “friend” and Sorawo is curious about both the “otherside” and her new companion. So this is both a story with a lot of genuinely creepy/horrifying stuff, and a lot of cuteness as the (very) slow-burn romance between Toriko and Sorawo builds.              The monsters remind me a lot of the ones in Junji Ito’s short stories , but I actua

              I’m surprised I hadn’t run across this 1995 sci-fi novel before, because it is very much the kind of book I would have latched onto when I was in high school – and which I still very much enjoy! Premise: Biological surveyor Juna is stranded on an alien planet. It is inhabited by an amphibian-like species who live in the rainforests and seas. They are hunter-gatherers but have highly sophisticated bioengineering skills via spurs on their wrists that can secrete all sorts of chemicals. They use these to save Juna when she is having a severe allergic reaction, in the process giving her many of their own characteristics, like color-changing skin! The POV moves back and forth between the aliens and Juna, and seeing their reactions to each other’s cultures is fascinating and often funny!             The Tendu are great. I kind of pictured them as child-sized bipedal axolotls , only with fan-shaped ears instead of frilly gills. We get plunged into their cult

                  This little cosmic horror novella is dense , in the best way. While I’d normally breeze through something this length (114 pages) in a day, I found myself wanting to pause and chew over each section like it was a chunk of flavorful rye bread…at least up until page 91, at which point I didn’t dare put it down! Premise : Homeless woman Monique is looking for her girlfriend Donna, who disappeared without a trace. She’s heard rumors that other women have gone missing around an old abandoned subway tunnel, so she goes back there and witnesses a person actually being snatched by something clearly not human. She follows the monster down the maw of the tunnel, and things only get weirder from there.                  Monique’s back story and relationship with Donna are revealed slowly, in little snippets of her thoughts. While you can’t help but root for Monique to save the woman she loves, I started to have some niggling doubts early on. Donna, in Monique’s

            I am not really a romance novel reader – no shade to those who are, it just usually isn’t my thing! But how could I resist one that is about women in STEM in a historical setting?  Setup: Lucy Muchelney is feeling really low because her lover jilted her for a man and, due to her father’s death, she’s not sure she’ll be able to continue her astronomical work. But then she gets a letter from her dad's former patron, Lady Moth, looking for a translator for a French astronomy text. Lucy shows up in London to request the job, and she and Lady Moth (Catherine) end up falling for one another. I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed this, with just a few nitpicks.             Lucy and Catherine’s relationship is well-written. They each have psychological wounds – Lucy the rejection by her first serious love, Catherine the abusive behavior of her deceased husband – that impact them and their interactions in believable ways. This slows things down enough to not feel too