My review: Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novella category. I have previously read and enjoyed work by this author, hence I was quite eager to read this one.
Thornhedge is a modern fairy tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways. There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story. Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? But nothing with fairies is ever simple. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold… (★★★★)
Started: Apr 07 2024 Finished: Apr 16 2024

My review: This review is for The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I have previously read and enjoyed work by this author, hence I was quite eager to read this one. I was blown away: such a great story.
The story is set in today's U.S.A., where people are going through a semi-apocalyptic event, including pandemic, civil unrests, and a climate event that is taking away the sun. It is a story of how people react and community comes together, with the signature solar optimism of the author.
This is a great story that I recommend to everyone, especially to people that are a little down and needs their faith in humanity to be boosted a little bit. It's, so far, my #1 choice for the Hugo award in this category. (★★★★★)
Started: Apr 06 2024 Finished: Apr 07 2024

My review: This is a review of Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition by Gu Shi. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category.
I had never previously read or heard of this author, hence I really did not know what to expect. It turns out this is one of the strongest among the Hugo finalists in the Novelette category, and quite a remarkable story. The story is set in the near future, when a technology has enabled humans to hibernate for long periods of time. The first half is a very hard science fiction exploration of the many legal and ethical implication of the technology. The second part moves away (seamlessly) from hard science fiction to a more emotionally powerful exploration of the implications of the technology on human lives.
This is a great read that I recommend to everyone. I hope more work by this author will be translated into a language I can read. (★★★★★)
Started: Apr 07 2024 Finished: Apr 07 2024

My review: I read the stories separately at different moment in times, but goodreads keeps merging them into the magazine where they first appeared.

One Man's Treasure by Sarah Pinsker. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I had previously read and liked a few stories by this author, and I was curious to read this one. It turns out to be the most interesting and enjoyable story by this author I read so far.
One Man's Treasure is set in a world quite like ours, but where magic exists and... it is very expensive. Using this premise the author waves an interesting story that is a reflection of the inequalities of the real world we live in.

How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub by P. Djèlí Clark. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Short Story category. I had previously read and loved quite a lot work by this author, and I could not wait to read this one. I was not disappointed.
The story is set in the Victorian England, and it features a misogynistic, xenophobic protagonist that unhappy of his unearned wealth, decides to prove his worth without much effort since he believes he is entitled to it. The tone is often funny and light, and that tempers the horrors of colonialism and "white burden" thinking of the era. A great book, one of my favorites among the finalists this year.

Bad Doors by John Wiswell, a finalist for the 2023 Nebula Awards in the Short Story Category.
I previously read some other short fiction by this author, and I really loved his D.I.Y. Hence when I heard he wrote another short story, and that it was short-listed for the Nebula, I could not resist.
The premise of the story is relatively simple is relatively simple: a mysterious door keeps appearing wherever the narrator goes. What makes the story interesting though is the world where it takes place: it is set in the America of Covid-19 pandemic, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. It reads a little like a dystopian story, yet it is 100% the world we did (and still do) live in.
(★★★★)
Started: Mar 17 2024 Finished: Apr 07 2024

My review: Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I have previously read and enjoyed work by this author, hence I was quite eager to read this one. This turned out to be the sequel to St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid, that I had enjoyed quite a lot.
This is set ten or twenty year after the previous instalment: the young girl we met in St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid is now grown up and has taken the role that used to be the one of her mother. This time she is the one presented with a mysterious orphaned and powerful girl girl to raise into witchcraft. And the time could not be better, since Hurston Hill is threatened by a suspiciously powerful urban development firm. Miss l'Abielle steps up to protect her community with the help of the new girl.
This is a great story and worthy finalist for the Hugo awards. (★★★★)
Started: Apr 02 2024 Finished: Apr 06 2024

My review: This review is for The Mausoleum’s Children by Aliette de Bodard. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Short Story category. I read a lot of reviews praising the work of this author, and I read a couple of good short stories by her, so I was quite intrigued to read one more.
The story is part of a series of loosely connected stories, that form a mosaic that strengthen each of them. Unfortunately I have not read any of the other stories, and I am left wondering if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous ones.
Despite that, the story is quite good, an interesting exploration of trauma, and the different ways people deal with it. (★★★)
Started: Apr 02 2024 Finished: Apr 02 2024

My review: I have previously read and enjoyed work by this author, hence I was quite eager to read this short story, the prequel to the 2024 Hugo Award finalist novelette "Ivy, Angelica, Bay". It turns out to be quite good.
The story is set in today's world, but for the fact that magic exists, even if it is rare and common people don't really know about it. The protagonist, a young girl given away by her mother in return to magic, is raised by somebody that does know how to use magic.
But the protagonist will soon learn that all magical requests comes with a price. And a girl with witchcraft, no friends, and only her mother’s bees to confide in will pay whatever’s necessary to keep the girl she loves safe. (★★★★)
Started: Apr 02 2024 Finished: Apr 02 2024

My review: Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I had previously read quite a few stories by this author, so I was thrilled to read one more. I was not disappointed.
In this story a young unnamed narrators find herself running away from justice with some bank robbers. She end up learning the ropes of the job, including how to access the mysterious Fox Road.
The style is beautiful, and both worldbuilding and atmosphere creation are great... but not exactly my cup of tea somehow. I am sure many will love it though. (★★★)
Started: Mar 31 2024 Finished: Apr 01 2024

My review: This review is for The Sound of Children Screaming by Rachel K. Jones. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Short Story category. I do not believe I had previously read anything written by this author, and I was quite curious to give it a try... and what an incredibly powerful story it ended up being!
Sometimes the most horrifying, scary, and tragic stories do not come from the fantasy of writers, but from the real world. This is the case for mass shooting in schools, that is at the heart of this short story. I will not say more, to avoid spoiling it for you. I will just say it is a deserving finalist for the Hugo and a likely winner.
This is a must-read that I recommend to everyone. (★★★★★)
Started: Mar 31 2024 Finished: Mar 31 2024

My review: This review is for Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer. Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Short Story category. I have read and enjoyed previous work by this author, and I was looking forward this new one. I was not disappointed.
In the near future, a new app become viral. It is a wellness app, that helps you improve your life, and be happier. It sounds too good to be true but... it seems to work? I won't say more to avoid spoiling it, but it is a quite remarkable story, full of the optimism that I learned to expect from this author, even when speaking about the shortcoming in the human nature.
A great story and a strong contender for the award. (★★★★★)
Started: Mar 31 2024 Finished: Mar 31 2024

My review: I had previously read and loved Legends & Lattes, and when I learned there was a prequel I could not wait to get my hands on it. I was not disappointed.
In this prequel Viv is a young orc, and her career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.
What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
This was a great book, I do hope the author will take us back to this fictional universe soon! (★★★★★)
Started: Mar 12 2024 Finished: Mar 28 2024

My review: What a sweet and touching story! I am glad there are such wonderful books available to this generation of young adult readers. It is very important to have realistic portrayals of adolescence, as diverse as the real world is.
In this volume Nick and Charlie and their classmates go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship AND learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private… Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?
By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper is about friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us. (★★★★★)
Started: Mar 10 2024 Finished: Mar 22 2024

My review: Since I work for a data and metrics driven company, I thought it was healthy to read a book critical to this approach, at least to better understand its limitations and shortcomings.
This book focuses on how the "obsession with quantifying human performance" threatens business, medicine, education, government, and the quality of our lives.
Today, organizations of all kinds are ruled by the belief that the path to success is quantifying human performance, publicizing the results, and dividing up the rewards based on the numbers. But in our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigor, according to the author we have gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself, and this tyranny of metrics now threatens the quality of our organizations and lives.
Jerry Muller focuses on the damage metrics are causing and shows how we can begin to fix the problem. Filled with examples from business, medicine, education, government, and other fields, the book explains why paying for measured performance doesn't work, why surgical scorecards may increase deaths, and much more. But Muller also shows that, when used as a complement to judgment based on personal experience, metrics can be beneficial, and he includes an invaluable checklist of when and how to use them. The result is an essential corrective to a harmful trend that increasingly affects us all.
It's an interesting book, I found it useful, even if it could have been probably condensed to 1/3 of its length without losing anything. (★★★)
Started: Mar 04 2024 Finished: Mar 11 2024

My review: What a sweet and touching story! I am glad there are such wonderful books available to this generation of young adult readers. It is very important to have realistic portrayals of adolescence, as diverse as the real world is.
Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie is gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn’t.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family … and himself.
By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper is about friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us. (★★★★★)
Started: Mar 03 2024 Finished: Mar 09 2024

My review: I had never read anything by this author, and I was quite eager to try given all the good reviews I read about his work. I was not disappointed. What a remarkable book!
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? (★★★★★)
Started: Feb 14 2024 Finished: Mar 03 2024

My review: I heard a lot of good reviews for this graphic novel, hence I decided to give it a try. I really liked it. And the graphics quality is quite remarkable: the artist is able to conjure deep emotions with a very small number of strokes.
This is the story of Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player. They meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more...?
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him.
They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner... (★★★★★)
Started: Feb 19 2024 Finished: Feb 21 2024

My review: I had previously read previous work by this author and I was eager to read this one when I heard it came out. I was not disappointed.
Grimace is a homeless man on a holy mission to free Black Americans from emotional slavery. His empty soda cans told him as much. Then he meets Kim, a transgender runaway who joins Grimace on his heroic quest. Is Grimace receiving aluminum missives from the gods, or is he a madman? Kim will find out soon enough on a strange journey they’ve been destined to share. (★★★★)
Started: Feb 12 2024 Finished: Feb 16 2024

My review: A past struggle for racial equity could achieve a profound future victory in this audacious short story about technology, hoodoo, and hope by a Nebula Award–winning author. Burri is a fashion designer and icon with a biochemistry background. Her latest pieces are African inspired and crafted to touch the heart. They enable wearers to absorb nanorobotic memories and recount the stories of Black lives and forgiveness. Wenda doesn't buy it. A protest performance artist, Wenda knows exploitation when she sees it. What she's going to do with Burri's breakthrough technology could, in the right hands, change race relations forever.
This is a great story, even if I believe it would benefit to be extended into a full size novel. (★★★★)
Started: Feb 10 2024 Finished: Feb 12 2024

My review: I have heard about James Baldwin in the context of the struggle for racial equality, but I had never read any of his work. I am ashamed to say I did not realize he wrote fiction (I wrongly assumed his work was focused on non fiction). I read this book thanks to my work book club and... wow what an incredible work of art. He is clearly among the best of the best in American literature.
Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.
I strongly recommend this book to everyone. (★★★★★)
Started: Jan 29 2024 Finished: Feb 11 2024

My review: I had never read anything by this author before, and I am quite glad I did, because he is extremely talented. I need to read more of his work!
The story is set in the future. Two humans are sent to the far side of a star gate... but accident happens sometime at the wrong time: Copilots Msizi and Tariro are testing a newly constructed wormhole jump that presumably leads to unsettled habitable worlds. Then an explosion sends them off course, far from where they started and with little chance of ever making it back. Now they’re stranded on their new home for the diaspora. It’s called Malcolm X-b. But they’re beginning to wonder how many light-years from civilization they really are.
Great book, my only regret is that it's way too short. This should be expanded into a full length novel. (★★★★)
Started: Feb 06 2024 Finished: Feb 08 2024

My review: 2043 is set in a neat feature where African-descended "USians" are obtaining their overdue reparations... underwater. They can get their body modified to live underwater and receive land to develop. Five miles off the South Carolina coast, Darden and Catherina are getting their promised forty acres, all of it undersea. Like every Black “mer,” they’ve been experimentally modified to adapt to their new subaquatic home, and have met with extreme resistance from white supremacists. Darden has an inspired plan for resolution. For both those on land and the webbed bottom-dwellers below, Darden is hoping to change the wave of the future. A good story that I enjoyed quite a bit, but maybe less strong of the other instalment of the Black Stars series. (★★★)
Started: Feb 04 2024 Finished: Feb 06 2024

My review: This review is for Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (goodreads keeps merging the story with the magazine where it was first published, even if it is available separately).
I had previously read and enjoyed this author's sci-fi work, but this is the first time I read one of her fantasy stories. There are clearly some of her signature themes mixed in, for example the exploration of gender roles, but it reads very different from her usual work. It's an enjoyable and good story, with an original "monster". Who needs dragons when you have giant acid snails? (★★★)
Started: Jan 29 2024 Finished: Jan 31 2024

My review: Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story was a finalist in the Novel category a few years back but I did not managed to read the book before the voting deadline, and I am finally catching up now. The book won the award and I heard tons of good reviews about it, hence I was very eager to read it.
Despite some reading trouble along the way (I paused reading the book when I lost my kindle while traveling to Mexico, and resumed when I got my kindle back when it was found more than a month later), I really enjoyed and loved it.
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.
I strongly recommend this to everyone. (★★★★★)
Started: Nov 23 2023 Finished: Jan 28 2024

My review: I enjoyed every single book I read by this author, but Who Fears Death is the one book that stand out above all other. I was afraid she would never reached the same heights (even iof, as I said, all her books are great), but I did not need to fear: The Black Pages is amazing. I really do hope she expand it into a full length novel, because it's really incredible. It touches religious extremism, colonialist cultural erasure, cultural identity within an original and entertaining story that you cannot put down.
By fate and fire, a being four millennia old is reborn in Mali in a short story of contemporary African life and ancient secrets. Issaka has returned home to Timbouctou and a devastating al-Qaeda raid. His only hope for survival is Faro, a stunning, blue-beaded supernatural entity who rises free from the flames of her imprisoning book as it burns. Compelled to follow Faro, Issaka is opening his eyes to their shared history and the ancestral wisdom of his own past. (★★★★★)
Started: Jan 28 2024 Finished: Jan 28 2024

My review: I really enjoyed the previous instalments of the Murderbot Diaries and I could not wait to read this one. I was not disappointed.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast. Yeah, this plan is... not going to work. (★★★★)
Started: Jan 10 2024 Finished: Jan 27 2024

My review: I previously read and liked quite a lot We Should All Be Feminists, a non-fiction book on feminisms, written by this author. When I saw she had written a sci-fi short story I knew I had to give it a try. I did not know what to expect.
The premise is simple: the story is set in the current world with a single difference: the genre roles are reversed. Matriarchy is the standard. In this world, two men—old friends—confront the past and future.
One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon upsets the balance in Obinna’s life. In a world where men are constantly under surveillance and subject to the whims of powerful women, more than Obinna’s ordered and accustomed routine might be on the line.
This is a great short story, that reminded me a lot of The Power. It's quite short, so perfect to read while commuting or during a short break from your chores. (★★★★)
Started: Jan 27 2024 Finished: Jan 27 2024

My review: Despite her numerous awards, I had never read anything by this author, but I came across a lot of good reviews for this book, and I could not resist. The story was described as an epic fantasy fable about the pursuit of obsession at all costs. I enjoyed the book, but probably because of its relatively short length, I would not exactly describe it as epic.
This is the story of Ester. Her family was torn apart when a manticore killed her mother and baby brother, leaving her with nothing but her father’s painful silence and a single, overwhelming need to kill the monsters that took her family. Ester’s path leads her to the King’s Royal Mews, where the giant rocs of legend are flown to hunt manticores by their brave and dedicated ruhkers. Paired with a fledgling roc named Zahra, Ester finds purpose and acclaim by devoting herself to a calling that demands absolute sacrifice and a creature that will never return her love. The terrifying partnership between woman and roc leads Ester not only on the empire’s most dangerous manticore hunt, but on a journey of perseverance and acceptance. (★★★)
Started: Dec 20 2023 Finished: Jan 09 2024

My review: I really liked this author's Machineries of Empire and Thousand Worlds series. I was eager to read this short story by the same author. It was good!
This is the story of Commander Niaja vrau Erezeng, up against an enemy that doesn’t just destroy all the beings, ships, and planets in its path, but also consumes their greatest arts, somehow scratching them from existence everywhere.
It is a fun short read, but if you have not read anything by this author, start somewhere else, this is good, but their other work is even better. (★★★)
Started: Jan 03 2024 Finished: Jan 05 2024