I can’t decide if this is the best episode so far this season or the worst. On the one hand, “The Broken Man” is relatively well-constructed and most of its storylines are halfway coherent, which is a nice change. On the other hand, it’s incredibly boring (very little actually happens, and there’s no action to speak of) and contains some pretty horrendously offensive messaging in multiple storylines. This week, in the interest of clarity (and, with any luck, brevity) because there were so many short scenes as the show shifted between characters and locations, I’m going to just cover each storyline separately. I think this is going to be the new normal for these recaps, too, as the shift, in the first few episodes this season, towards longer sequences instead of lots of moving around in short choppy segments doesn’t seem to have stuck, in spite of the fact that it helped significantly with the show being able to convey passage of time and in general made for a more pleasant and less disjointed viewing experience.
Last week was a bit of a nightmare, with the trip to Huntsville and all, and I have to admit that it took a bit more out of me than I thought it did when I got home. What that means, unfortunately, is that I’ve spent much of the last week recuperating, physically and emotionally. The good news is that I’m much better now. The bad news is that I didn’t really get as much done as I would have liked this week. On the bright side, I’m feeling pretty recharged now, and I am finally making some headway this weekend on catching up with book reviews and getting back on track with the Dune readalong. I’m not thrilled with my lack of productivity, but I’m happy to finally be settled back in at home and getting to work now.
I’m also happy to have some links to share this week, even if it’s not as much as usual. I rather thought there would be a ton of stuff to share after a full week away, but there’s really only about as much as normal. I’m still getting used to the absence of SF Signal, to be honest. I read a ton of blogs and stuff, but it turns out that I relied on them a lot for keeping track of reviews, author interviews, and SFF-related pieces on some sites that I don’t habitually read. I always knew SF Signal was a treasure, but I thought I’d get over the loss. Instead, it’s turned out to be a resource that I miss on almost a daily basis. I have some ideas for how I can find more content without spending hours a day on it, but I can’t help but hope that someone with the time steps in to fill that void.
This week also saw my first bout of mid-season Game of Thrones ennui, as I struggled to find the energy to write extensively on the show’s latest episode. I’m hoping that most of this can just be chalked up to exhaustion from last week’s trip, but no small part of my frustration with writing about the show is due to the fact that there’s just not much left to say about it anymore. Marveling at the terribleness of it all only takes one through so many thousands of words, you know?
I’m always on the look out for nonfiction to read, even if I don’t get around to reading as much of it as I’d like. This list of 17 genre-related essay collections and biographies added several new things to my Amazon wishlist.
I don’t know if this is the last trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence, but it’s the last one I’ll be watching before the film comes out. I’m sufficiently excited. Also, Jeff Goldblum is like a fine wine.
So, last year, I didn’t manage to make it through my whole summer reading list, so this year I’m going to do something a little different since there’s even more this year than last year that I want to get through. So, instead of pretending as if I’m definitely going to get through everything, I’m just going to treat this as a sort of long list that I’ll be pulling from for my reading over the next three months or so. There are definitely a few must-reads here, but there’s many more nice-to-reads that I don’t know if I’ll get to. It’s just going to depend on how much time I’m able to spend reading and writing, to be honest.
Summer and Summer-ish Books I’ve Already Finished, With Reviews Coming Soon
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde
Runtime by S.B. Divya
Return of Souls by Andy Remic
Pride’s Spell by Matt Wallace
Rat QueensVolume 3: Demons
Lumberjanes (comic)
Faith (comic)
Tor.com Novellas
I generally read all of these either through NetGalley or as they come out, but I’m thinking of relaxing on that after this summer, particularly in regard to series that I don’t care much for. That said, I do plan to finish reading all of this summer’s titles at least.
The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde (already read)
Runtime by S.B. Divya (already read)
Return of Souls by Andy Remic (already read)
Pride’s Spell by Matt Wallace (already read)
The Ghoul King by Guy Haley
Nightshades by Melissa F. Olson
City of Wolves by Willow Palecek
Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
Science Fiction Must-Reads
Infomocracy by Malka Older
I’m not super into near-future stuff, but I’ve been making a real effort to read outside my comfort zone in the last couple of years and I got an ARC of this one through NetGalley.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Yoon Ha Lee’s short story collection, Conservation of Shadows is one of my favorites in recent years, so to say that I’m super excited about this novel is something of an understatement. It’s definitely one of my most anticipated books of 2016.
Lightspeed’s POC Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue
Rewards were just delivered for Kickstarter backers the other day, and I can’t wait to dig into this over the weekend.
United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas
I feel like this is going to be a perfect summer blockbuster of a novel.
Fantasy Must-Reads
Necessity by Jo Walton
The first two books in this trilogy were some of my favorite reads last year, and I am very much looking forward to this volume.
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin The Fifth Season was hands down my very favorite novel of 2015, and I fully expect this one to be every bit as good.
An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
Foz Meadows’ “Coral Bones” was a wonderful read, and this book has people riding kangaroo things on the cover, so I’m excited for this novel-length work.
A Blade of Black Steel by Alex Marshall
Second in a series. I loved the first one, so I can’t miss this one.
Black Wolves by Kate Elliot
I’ve never managed to really fall in love with anything by Kate Elliot, in spite of it her work, objectively, ticking off basically all my boxes for favorite book criteria, but I’m still going to give this book a go because it’s so highly recommended and often suggested by literally everyone else who likes the same stuff I do.
Miscellaneous Must-Reads
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley
ODY-C Volume 2 Sons of the Wolf by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Books I Really Want to Read, But Am Not Sure I Realistically Will Be Able To Because I’m Only Human
The Devourers by Indra Das
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
The Dinosaur Knights by Victor Milan
The Vagrant by Peter Newman
The Cupid Reconciliation by Michael R. Underwood
Strangers Among Us edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law
Invaders edited by Jacob Weisman
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
The Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
If I could only use a single word (instead of the thousand I likely will use) to describe “Blood of My Blood” it would be “predictable.” This has been increasingly true of the show for some time now, and I know I’ve mentioned in the past that it’s gotten extremely easy these days to extrapolate nearly all the events of each episode from just the “previously on” reel at the beginning. There were a couple of “twists” this week, but none of them were particularly interested, and all have been heavily, ham-fistedly foreshadowed either in earlier seasons or, sometimes, simply in the involved characters’ previous scene in this very episode. Alternatively, said “twists” come with no warning at all and make basically no sense if you think about them for more than a moment or two, which may make the “twists” somewhat unpredictable but is pretty much par for the course for the show. I’m never less surprised than when the show has a completely unearned and nonsensical plot twist thrown in to season the pot of badness it’s become.
Science Fiction Must-Reads
SF Bluestocking 