Finished Der Trafikant by Robert Seethaler

Finished The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

A sandwich of a crime mystery and a fantasy book about opera, death and religion. Very different from The Goblin Emperor, but still very interesting. I would have liked a glossary, but there may be a point to having none.

Finished Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig

Great novella about chess, psychology and the Third Reich. Very insightful, especially for being written in 1942. I feel very lucky for standing in front of a shelf of classic books and picking this one basically at random a few days ago.

Finished The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

This is an exciting imaginative novel. I think it is very successful in having a series of alternate slow and fast scenes. A significant part of it is an epistolary novel where sender and receiver of the letters are kind of the same person.

Finished Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

This is a demanding novel. It is really not for everyone, but it is really great for the people it is for. It tells a military sci-fi story (which I usually don't care for) with a wide reach from a relatively grounded perspective. The world is completely alien and recognizable at the same time. I was very confused for the first half of the book if it is nonsense or great and I think it is great.

Finished A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Finished The Nova Incident by @dmoren@zeppelin.flights

Very thrilling, great set of characters. I read the second half in a very short time. A important character decision that confused me in a previous book was recontextualized perfectly. This volume got a little more philosophical, which is great. Sadly the series theme is quite topical in the real world again.

Hopefully, there will be more books! At least there are still some short stories in this world I will get to eventually.

Finished Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Finished The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

It is a great novel with great characters. Most characters could have been in novels that stand on their own. I thought historic events in the background, like the Titanic and the World War, were handled very well.

Finished Das Ministerium für die Zukunft (orig: The Ministry for the Future) by Kim Stanley Robinson

Finished Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Great book. Many interesting sci-fi ideas. Maybe even too many for one book.

Finished Die Farben der Magie (orig: The Colour of Magic) by Terry Pratchett

Finished The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

Finished The Kaiju Preservation Society by @scalzi@mastodon.social

This is a silly, fun and sometimes overindulgent book, but it knows exactly what it is and what its audience is. I liked it very much. I would love when more great writers would take a break and write a popcorn flick like this.

It is also the first book clearly influenced by the pandemic I have read that is mostly fun and optimistic instead of depressing or bittersweet.

Finished Der Oberst hat niemand, der ihm schreibt (orig: El coronel no tiene quien le escriba) by Gabriel García Márquez

I liked it and to me (without knowing Spanish or the original) the translation by Curt Meyer-Clason seems very good.

Finished A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Finished Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Interesting novel about bargaining of souls, space aliens, gender, donut shops and violin repairs. Sometimes it's as weird as Douglas Adams fiction and sometimes it's more bildungsroman. Very experimental book overall.

Cleaning up a dried date that got into a robot vacuum is much more unpleasant then I would have expected.

Finished Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Very good world building and many creative ideas. I liked the pacing, the characters and how the ending resolved it all. The horror aspects were not for me, but it was ok.

finished Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

I don't care much for coffee, but this was a fast fun read.