Publisher: Tordotcom

A Scifi epic about identity, loyalty, and trust across time, space, and alien race, Some Desperate Glory is an ambitious book that covers an impressive amount of narrative material within its sub four‑hundred‑and‑fifty pages. A solid novel on its own, it’s even more impressive being Emily Tesh’s full length debut novel on top of winning a Hugo award and earning a Locus award nomination. At first glance, it appears to be a simple space‑opera story, but it quickly becomes much more, incorporating dystopian concepts, reality‑distorting twists, and excellent queer representation and feminist themes. Yet for how refreshingly modern its story is, this book’s character writing is what leaves a lasting impact. While I was hesitant about the book until the halfway point, I’m thrilled to say it absolutely lives up to its accolades and hype. Some Desperate Glory is one of those books that is difficult to review without spoilers, as its major twists are integral to the reading experience. Without mentioning its heavier content, the book risks sounding generic and far less interesting than it truly is. The story follows Kyr, the top cadet‑in‑training of her female cohort on Gaea Station, until she receives a shocking assignment that undermines…

Masquerading under the guise of a cute and innocent story of sentient robots starting a take-out noodle restaurant, Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle is brilliant satirical novella that is full of creative and imaginative metaphors. Part start-up company business story and part reflection on human experiences and rights, Automatic Noodle is a smart scifi themed exploration of many prominent and hyper-relevant social, political, and cultural topics, its charming robots serving as potential proxies for a wide variety of disenfranchised groups in a post war torn San Francisco. A timely book appropriately written for the US, minus certain conservative readers who may take issue with the thematic messages, Automatic Noodle is a unique and quirky story best suited for those that like their scifi stories to have intellect and substance. Before I get into the book’s creative success, I think it’s important to address a common misconception I see with this book and quite a few past reviews of it. For those interested in reading this book, Automatic Noodle is NOT a cozy scifi story. While the story has an inherent cozy feel to it due to the lack of fast-paced action and an almost whimsical feel to it at times, there’s…

Ethereal poetry paired with a simple yet elegant fantasy story, Amal El-Mohtar’s novella The River Has Roots is an enchantingly read akin to a modern fairytale. Beautifully written with an air of sophistication, what this novella lacks in world-building detail given the book’s length it makes up with in poetic metaphors that are both dreamy as well as intelligent; notably a long-running comparison of the rules of grammar compared to the powers of magic being both creative and effective. (On Goodreads, a 4.5 star rating rounded down) Presented in a hybrid second- and third-person perspective, the tone of the narration paired with the reflective and introspective nature of El-Mohtar’s tale makes this a noteworthy book unlike anything I’ve read in quite some time. The strategic shifts to second person tense and the whimsical sense of wonder really pulls you into the story as if it’s being told by a bard or philosopher. Besides the well-balanced and beautiful prose, the book is filled with poetic stanzas and clever wordplay riddles that would make an English literature or grammar student thrilled; this novella has brains behind its beauty. As far as the story is concerned, it’s one that is appropriately detailed in…