My May Wrap-up

Four rainy, but nice days in Dubrovnik. Finally the weather is picking up, I had a very nice and relaxing long Pentecost weekend. My balcony is turning into wilderness, I have all kinds of wild and bee-friendly stuff sprouting—pansies, forget-me-nots, daisies, purple tansies and last but not least some parsley, coriander and three tomatoes… I barely fit… on the downside work is infuriating and I have had an acute rheumatoid arthritis attack in my right ring finger that has been a bitch for the last two weeks. Getting better though. The nice temperatures and sunshine have definitely made life better! Reading…

Novels
– The Last Astronaut | My review 🚀🚀🚀🚀¾, ebook, TBR pile, alien spaceship turns out to be more than that. Creepy, but great.
– Planet of the Apes | My review 🦍🦧🙈🙊, audible, free with subscription. The classic SF that sailed the whole merchandize.
– The Unsettling Stars 🚀🚀½, paper, ST:AOS, set after the first Abrams movie. Meh.
– Ascending | My review 🚀🚀🚀¼, old Netgalley, first contact (light edition), linguistic and cultural struggles.
– Bright Shards 🚀🚀🚀½, KU, direct sequel to Ascending, similarly light on SF, but I enjoyed the third part planetside. The third book is MIA so far.
– Lords of Uncreation (Final Architecture #3) 👁️👁️👁️½, audio. Thank goodness, I am done. Too long. Bittersweet ending. Did I mention that this whole trilogy was too long?

Graphic novels/comics
– Fables Vol. 6: Homelands 👺👺👺👺, eComic, Hollywood interlude with unlikable MC and then some Snicker-Snack in the Homelands… I miss the big bad wolf!
– Fables Vol. 7: Arabian Nights 🧞‍♀️🧞‍♂️🧞🧞‍♀️🧞‍♂️ eComic, Sinbad brings a Djinn on his visit. Things go downhill fast. And a great additional short story about wooden soldiers, a forbidden love and the consequences.
– Fables Vol. 8: Wolves (Fables 🐺🐺🐺🐺, Mowgli channels Tarzan, the kids learn to be human kids, Cinderella is the comic relief.
– Fables Vol. 9: Sons of Empire 🍭🐺🐁🎅, the short stories threw off my flow… War, winter, scary plans…
– Fables Vol. 10: The Good Prince (Fables 🐸🤴🏻🧌⚔️¼, the good fight, peacefully…

Shorts stories, novelettes, novellas
– The Puppetmaster by Kemi Ashing-Giwa 👹👹👹👹👹, short, of revenge and demons from another universe. Best guess, inspired by Japanese culture. Short, grim and good. For free here: https://www.tor.com/2023/05/10/the-pu…
– TO SAIL BEYOND THE BOTNET by Suzanne Palmer, 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 with a 🍒 on top! 21920 words, 72 pages. My favourite little bot is back. For free here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palm…
– BETTER LIVING THROUGH ALGORITHMS by Naomi Kritzer, 📱✍️🚌💐. 5610 words, 18 pages, about a lifestyle app. For free here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/krit…
– THROUGH THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Harry Turtledove 🐙🦑🐙🦑. 6220 words, 20 pages, story told by a tentacled and shelled mollusk. For free here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/turt…
– LOL, SAID THE SCORPION by Rich Larson 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹. 2680 words, 10 pages. Near future SF, holiday trip to Portugal, wearing unusual suits. For free: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lars…

currently reading:
– Call of the Reed Warbler, audio, non-fiction, regenerative agriculture in Australia, ongoing, but struggling…
– Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 200, May 2023, eMagazine, ongoing
– Bear Head (Dogs of War #2), KU
– Fables Vol. 11: War and Pieces (Fables, eComic

On the small screen:
– Wild Isles, 🐦🦭🦉🐁🐝, Prime, nature documentary, David Attenborough—enough said! Ongoing… The puffins in Ep. 1 were priceless.
– Still: A Michael J. Fox movie, 🛹🛹🛹🛹🛹, apple TV+, excellent! 
– AntMan and the Wasp: Quantumania 🐜🐜🐜½☆, entertaining, but forgettable. 

April 2023 Wrap-up

My April 2023: (links lead to goodreads)

Novels
– And Put Away Childish Things 🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️🧚🧚‍♀️☆ Netgalley, a wardrobe and an unhappy Underhill.
– Antimatter Blues (Mickey7 #2) 🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛 ebook, popcorn fiction with creepy crawlies on a colony planet. Things go Boom!
– Pretender (Foreigner #8) ★★★★☆ audio
– Pacific Storm 🌀🌀🌀🌀☆ overdue Netgalley, near-future SF cop thriller.
– Dogs of War 🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕 KU, Rex is a good dog. Loved it. Rex had such a great voice. 
– Swordheart 🦡🦡🦡🦡🦡 audible freebie with the subscription, entertaining sword and sorcery with a slightly clueless widow and an enchanted barbarian.
– Prophets of the Ghost Ants DNF at 48% 💣, very old Netgalley. Dystopia, insect-sized humans with an ant army, too much cruelty, racism, gratuitous violence, no meaningful development.
– Ocean Grave, KU, DNF after 140 pages 💣. Swim the other way, quickly! Seriously, this was bad. 
– Chicks Kick Butt, paper, from my TBR pile. DNF after 86 pages and 23% 💣. Anthology of stories that are part of longer series. Realized that I really do not enjoy most UF anymore. 

Graphic novels/comics
– Southbound! (Les Beaux Étés #1) by Zidrou ☀️☀️☀️☀️☆ eComic, family story, pretty artwork.
– Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile 🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️🧚½☆, fairyland characters in exile in New York and a murder case.
– Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm (Fables 🧚‍♂️🧚🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️🧚 I had fun and liked the story, although the artwork was not a highlight.
– Fables Vol. 3: Storybook Love 🧚🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️☆☆ collection of romance-themed stories, mature content. It was ok. 
– Fables Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers (Fables 🧙‍♀️🧙🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙, backstory and a battle.
– Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons (Fables 💨💨💨💨½, a look back at Bigby. Flying babies and murder.

Shorts stories
– THREE CUPS OF GRIEF, BY STARLIGHT by Aliette de Bodard | Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 100, January 2015 ★★¾☆☆
– Salt Water by Eugenia Triantafyllou | Tor.com | 🐙🐙🐙🐙☆ | https://www.tor.com/2023/04/12/salt-w…

Non-fiction
– Strange Animals 🦒🦓🦔🐸🦅 Netgalley, coffee table book with photos of quirky animals.
– Food: A Cultural Culinary History, audio, The Great Courses, non-fiction, DNF after 10 hours, at 55%. 💣 

currently reading…
– Call of the Reed Warbler, audio, non-fiction, regenerative agriculture in Australia, ongoing, but struggling…
– The Last Astronaut, ebook, TBR pile
– Fables Vol. 6: Homelands, eComic, KU

Specfic on the small screen:
– Picard S3, done, thank goodness. It wasn‘t bad, but… 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️🤷 
– Carnival Row S2, abandoned in the penultimate episode. The last part didn‘t do anything for me.
– Mandalorian S3, done. That was fun! ★★★★★ (No Grogu emoji, sadly…)

It‘s a shocking amount of DNFs. Not my usual style. But I am finally working on my backlog—old Netgalleys, my TBR pile, KUs that I have been meaning to read for ages… Time passes, tastes change… in the process I did kick some books off my shelves right away, without even trying to read them. Let‘s see how long the cleaning mania lasts.

Despite the many DNFs I also had a nice amount of 5-stars and finally started Fables. Good month!

Oh, and I took part in Dewey’s April readathon this weekend. Well, kinda, I was out and about for part of it. Still, I managed:
326 pages of eye reading
8 h 44 minutes of audio.

Total pages and minutes in April 2023:

I hope I can keep it up in May… First I need to finish The Last Astronaut, then I will tackle my buddy reads, Lords of Uncreation, The Unsettling Stars and Planet of the Apes. And then my backlog…

March 2023 Wrap-up

April already, goodness me… I am on holiday now until after Easter. I might go walking with a friend today, if her dog doesn‘t refuse — it is wet and windy and the dog is small and stubborn and hates „weather“. 

Tomorrow I‘ll go to a small exhibition with another friend at the local town museum, something about shopping, change of the inner city etc. since the 1950s. Followed up by a chinese restaurant she wants to try where they fry your stuff on demand, like a mongolian buffet…. Never been, we‘ll see. 

Monday or Tuesday will be a spa day. Sweating in a sauna with this weather is a nice option. The rest of the week is family time. Back to work the day after Easter Monday. The less said about work at the moment, the better… 

Finally got a new kindle as an Easter present to myself. Still getting used to how reactive it is. Got the leather cover yesterday. Looks a bit too much like plastic for my taste, my old one had a natural look and I prefer that. Thought about returning it and getting the cork cover after all, but I am lazy and it is quite nice to the touch, so I am keeping it.

Anyway, reading!

March 2023:
– The Immortality Thief ☀️☀️¾, ebook, haunted space ship, fast paced, lots of tight spaces, did not grab me.
– Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt #1) 🐝🐝🐝½, paperback, steampunk sword-and-sorcery with human/insect hybrids. Kinda epic fantasy-ish.
– SHIP’S BROTHER by Aliette de Bodard, Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 88, 🚀🚀🚀 online short story
– The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel 🚀🚀🚀 Audible, non-fiction
– In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant 🐙🐙🐙🐙 4-hour audible freebie, haunted house at the seaside. Something fishy is going on.
– Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant 🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠 3-hour audible freebie, about an epidemic, vaccinations and survival.
– A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking 🥖🥖🥖🥖 audible freebie. 14-year old wizard has to save the city with baked goods.
– 30 Days of Night, Vol. 1 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️ eComic, vampires & bloodshed in Alaska, not a lot of plot, I prefer the movie.
– 30 Days of Night, Vol. 13: Ongoing – Book 2 DNF 💣, eComic, missing too much context and ugly artwork.

Pages and minutes in March 2023
1,505 pages, 28.67 hours

currently reading…
– Food: A Cultural Culinary History, audio, The Great Courses, non-fiction
– Call of the Reed Warbler, audio, non-fiction, regenerative agriculture in Australia
– Southbound! by Zidrou, eComic

Specfic on the small screen:
– Picard S3, ongoing
– Carnival Row S2, ongoing, 2 more episodes, lost interest though.
– Der Schwarm, TV adaptation, Eps 4-8, done. Drawn out and unsatisfying ending.
– Mandalorian S3, ongoing
– not specfic, but I enjoyed it a lot: Shrinking on Apple TV+

planned for April:
– Pretender (Foreigner #8), audio, downloaded, ready to go.
– And Put Away Childish Things, Netgalley, buddy read started early, will finish this weekend.
– Antimatter Blues (Mickey7 #2), not owned yet. Audio?

February 2023 Wrap-up

– Blackfish City 🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️☆ ebook, SF, Dystopia, floating city, crime syndicates, LGBTQ+, nanites, family, Neuromancer meets The Golden Compass.
– What Abigail Did That Summer (Rivers of London #5.3), 🦊🦊🦊🦊☆ Novella set parallel (I think) to Foxglove Summer, no Peter, instead Abigail with a posse of foxes.
– The Red Scholar’s Wake 🚀🚀🚀½☆ Netgalley, LGBTQ+, space pirates, marriage of convenience.
– Destroyer (Foreigner #7) 🚀🚀🚀☆☆ audio, Bren et al coming back to the Atevi homeworld. Dramatic things happened while they were away. Bren worries. A lot.
– Gier (Kickback) 🔫🔫🔫☆☆ , paper, crime noir in Australia, read in the German translation.
– Jack West Jr and the Hero’s Helmet ★★½☆☆ Short story, thriller/adventure/violence
– Gravitation, Volume 01, Manga, DNF 💣 at page 57 & 28%, Older Teen 16+, not my thing.

carry-over:
– Ship of Destiny, ebook, ongoing read from 2022, I will still finish this, but right now it‘s in a bit of a hiatus.

Specfic on the small screen:
– Stargate Atlantis rewatch, about half of the episodes of S1-4, still love it.
– Picard S3, Eps 1+2, ok so far.
– Carnival Row S2, only watched a small bit, will continue.
– Der Schwarm, TV adaptation, first 3 episodes, ok so far.

Planned for March 2023:
– Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky, paperback
– maybe Antimatter Blues (Mickey7 #2), pub date March 14

January 2023 Wrap-Up

Books read in January 2023:
– To Each This World ★★★¾☆ Colony SF, first contact, aliens.
– The Sea in the Sky ★★★☆☆, Audible Original, SF, exploration on Enceladus.
– And What Can We Offer You Tonight ★★½☆☆ Dystopia, murder, revenge, overloaded prose.
– Magic Tides (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #1) ★★★★★ UF, Kate fails at keeping a low profile. Novella.
– Beneath the Dark Ice 🦑🦑🦑🦑☆ Milfic, Antarctica, caving, speed, action, creature feature, high body count — fun!
– Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures ★★★★☆ audio, Stephen Fry narrates, Greek mythology..
– Icehenge ★★★☆☆, 2nd novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, exploring Mars for the first time.

Ongoing:
– Ship of Destiny, I will still finish this, but right now it‘s in a bit of a hiatus.

Pages and minutes in January 2023
1,710 pages eye reading & 14.67 hours of audio

Moving pictures…
– Strange World ★★★★☆ animation, Disney+, nice one! Center of the Earth stuff.
– Babylon 5, season 1-5 ★★★★☆ I rewatched some of my favourite episodes. It was fun.
– Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ★★★★★ Fabulous! Old Trek lives again… I‘m still laughing about the episode where Spock and T‘Pring attempt a soul joining.
– Dexter New Blood ★★★★☆ Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
– Dexter, S1-4, ★★★★★ re-watch, still great.

February 2023 plans:
– The Red Scholar’s Wake, Netgalley, read the first two chapters. SF, Universe of the Xuja, sentient ships, pirates, LGBQT+.
– Destroyer (Foreigner #7), audio, listened to the first 4 hours. Oh boy.
– Blackfish City, SF, maybe end of the month.

December 2022 Wrap-up

Books read in December:
– FBR Children of Memory ★★★★★ audio. The zoo is growing. And there is more to it than animals.
– GR Thistlefoot ★★★★★ Netgalley, sweet and creepy, magical realism and folklore, Baba Yaga goes West.
– Something to Talk About ★★★★☆ ebook, f/f romance, LGTBQ+, accidental romance, slow burn, rumours, Paparazzi. Fun!
– FBR Even Though I Knew the End ★★★★☆ NG audio, LGTBQ+ Crime Noir with demons and magic. Good!
– Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome ★★★★★, epistolary companion novella to Lock In by John Scalzi.
– The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion ★★★½☆, ebook, novella, demon deer, anarchists, creepy birds, LGBTQ+
– Hospital Station ★★★☆☆, part of the omnibus Beginning Operations, ebook, medical SF, hospital in space, catering to many different aliens, from 1962.
– Little Fuzzy ★★★★★, ebook, novella, colony planet, are the cute fuzzies sentient/sapient or not? And what will Big Business do about it? Another 60s, a classic…
– To Be Taught, If Fortunate ★★★★☆ ebook, novella, space exploration, exoplanets.
– Dying Earths: Sixteen Stories from the Ends of Times ★★★½☆ ebook. I backdated the finishing date, just to tidy it all up nicely. I actually finished this on New Year‘s Day.

Currently reading, carrying over into January:
– FBR Ship of Destiny, ebook, still moving along really slowly…
– BR Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures, audio, made it to Jason and the golden fleece.

Moving pictures…
– Moonfall, too bad the makers take this movie seriously, otherwise this could have been fun. Pretty hammy acting, too.
– It Chapter Two, it was ok, I had hoped for more.
– A Quite Place II. Good! Surprisingly I really liked Cilian Murphy in this, he is usually not really my cup of tea.

November 2022 Wrap-up

My November 2022:
– The Stand-In ★★★☆☆ audio, romance, slightly more diverse than the usual fare.
– Wolfsong by T.J. Klune ★★★★★ ebook, gorgeous! What a great take on werewolves and found family.
– A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers ★★★★★ ebook, novella, roadtrip in the pursuit of meaning and comfort.
– Explorer (Foreigner #6) by C.J. Cherryh ★★★★★ audio, conclusion to the second trilogy. Fun!
– How the Earth Works ★★¾☆☆ audio, non-fiction, The Great Courses, exhaustive lectures on everything from the Big Bang to plate tectonics, volcanoes and more. DNF after 10.5 hours and 13 more hours to go.
– The Nox ★★½☆☆ full-cast audio, horror in the arctic circle. Meh.
– The Drowned World ★★★☆☆ paper, StoryGraph #1, anachronistic climate fic, post-apocalypse. Dated, but with some good imagery.
– Neanderthal Seeks Human ★★★☆☆ audio, romance, nothing special.

Currently reading:
–  Ship of Destiny, ebook, moving really slowly… for a while now. I like it, I just have Liveship overload.
– Thistlefoot, ebook, sweet and a little creepy…
– Children of Memory, audio, odd, but good. The zoo is growing.

Pages and minutes in November 2022
1,142 pages, 49.05 hours

October Wrap-up

Reading was a very mixed bag this month. End-of-the-year tiredness, maybe? At this point I am trying very hard not to commit to any buddy reads, to leave myself open for more mood reading next year. I only read about 50 pages of Ship of Destiny so far. Although I like it, I‘ve read so many pages of the Liveship Traders, that I need a little break. I will definitely read and finish the book, but it will take a little more time than planned.

This weekend was a holiday weekend for me, as All Hallows’ Day is an official holiday in the South of Germany. I took Monday off and a friend and I went to Hamburg for four days, for a little sight seeing and to visit the Elbphilharmonie for a concert. Oh my goodness, the acoustics in that concert hall are amazing! It was so much fun! And I am not even into classic music all that much. I would be, if I could listen to it at this level of excellence and sound! Here is a link: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/

Books read:
– Polaris Rising, ebook, DNF at 27%, after chapter 7. Not in the mood for this silliness right now.
– From Below ★★★¾☆, Spooktober read with Dennis, horror at the bottom of the ocean.
– Braking Day ★★★★¼ audiobook, coming-of-age space opera, mystery.
– Memnoch the Devil, paper, dropped out of this BR, lost interest.
– Redshirts ★★☆☆☆ ebook, too dialogue-heavy, too little of everything else.
– Impact Winter ★★★½☆ Audible Original with a full cast, dystopian vampire story.
– The 392 ★★★¼☆ audiobook, full cast, Londoners riding a bus and their stories.
– How to Date Your Dragon, audio, DNF at 40%, romance in shapeshifter town. Nothing interesting happened until this point, couldn‘t be bothered to continue.
– Chosen (Alex Verus #4) ★★★★★ ebook, Alex finally confronts his past.
– Alien: Sea of Sorrows ★★★☆☆, audio, full cast, more Alien franchise. Forgettable, just ok.
– short story anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six ★★★★☆ ebook, good anthology, recommended.
– Into the Riverlands (Singing Hills #3) ★★★★★ ebook, Netgalley, cleric Chih travels the riverlands and collects stories.

Comics:
– Midnight Sun (Moon Knight 2006, Vol. 2) by Charlie Huston ★½☆☆☆ eComic, very disappointing after a strong 1st volume.
– Sin City 1: Stadt ohne Gnade DNF after 70 pages, eComic, unlikable all around.

Currently reading:
– Ship of Destiny, paper, started
– The Stand-In, audio, romance, started

Pages and minutes in October 2022
1,751 pages, 39.05 hours

Specfic Movies & TV watched:
– The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, S1, Eps 5-8, finished ★★★¾☆

September 2022 Wrap-up

My first two weeks of September I spent with hideous headaches and nausea. I finally went to see my doctor and she leaned towards what I has suspected already: my new night brace was too tight and made my bruxism worse. Not wearing the brace at night obviously didn‘t help. I had my brace redone, got pretty heavy pain medication for my headache and aching teeth and face. The right side of my face still hurts, but I‘m doing some exercises and I hope that I can stop with the pain killers soon. I am supposed to get manual therapy for my jaw muscles, neck and shoulders, but none of the local therapists have free slots until January. Oh well. We have a great manual therapist at work who did some work on my neck and stuck me under an infrared lamp. That helped a lot.

I was on a conference in Bremen for four days and my Corona App turned dark red for all of those days. Fabulous. So far I feel fine, disregarding my other pain…

Despite feeling pretty crap for most of September, I still managed to get some reading done…

– Sword Dance ★★★¾☆ ebook, m/m romance and mystery in a greco-roman fantasy world.
– Eversion ★★★★¼ audio, Gothic steampunk time-travel space-exploration mystery.
– Ruby Fever (Hidden Legacy #6) ★★★★☆ ebook, another one with Catalina.
– The Mad Ship (Liveship Traders #2) ★★★★★ ebook, great continuation of Ship of Magic
– Defender (Foreigner #5) ★★★★½ audio, blast-off!
– The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ★★★½☆ audio, finally finished this one. Some known stories, like The Speckled Band, some more obscure ones as well.
– The Cool Aunt (Hidden Legacy #5.1) ★★★★☆, short, online, set after Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy #5)
– The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles #4), DNF at 45% in August. Finally decided to dump it.
– The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit #1) ★★★¼☆ audio, police diver with treasure-hunter dad chases down drug traffickers in South Florida.

Short story anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six: (ongoing)
– TUNNELS by Eleanor Arnason. This was a pretty wacky story. Lydia is in a pickle and needs to rescue herself… I loved the alien and the world was definitely interesting. Hoot hoot hoot! ★★★★½ For free here: https://www.asimovs.com/assets/1/6/Tu…
– TEST 4 ECHO by Peter Watts. AI and illegal propagation? ★★★★☆ For free here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi…
– UMA by Ken Liu. Our hero uses an avatar to save some people… This one was fun! ★★★★★ For free here: https://web.archive.org/web/202009251…

Comics:
– Lunatic (Moon Knight 2016-2017) by Jeff Lemire ★★★★★ eComic. Wacky! Loved it.
– The Bottom (Moon Knight 2006, Vol. 1) by Charlie Huston ★★★★★ eComic. Much darker and grimmer, a lot of blood and gore…

Currently reading:
– Midnight Sun (Moon Knight 2006, Vol. 2) by Charlie Huston, eComic

Carry-over:
– How the Earth Works, audio
– Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection, narrated by Stephen Fry

Specfic Movies & TV watched:
– She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, S1, Eps 3-5 ★★★☆☆ it‘s ok, I don‘t feel compelled to continue.
– The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, S1, Eps 3-4 ★★★½☆ nicely done, but leaving me untouched so far. Meh.
– Jurassic World Dominion ★★½☆☆ Oh my, what were they thinking? The plot was a mess and so much stuff was regurgitated.
– Day Shift ★★★☆☆ vampire action comedy with Jamie Foxx, entertaining enough.

August Wrap-Up

August 2022: …stop it for a moment… August already, goodness me, wasn‘t it just January?

– Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders #1) ★★★★★ paper, I unexpectedly really liked this. Took me 4 weeks to read it, but the characters and the world really came to life! Enjoying the sequel so far. Seamless continuation.
– Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson #13) ★★★★¾ ebook, entertaining brain candy with werewolves, vampires and fae. Maybe getting a little tired now, Ms Briggs?
– Inheritor (Foreigner #3) ★★★★☆ Audio, my second try and this time I had fun. Yay!
– Precursor (Foreigner #4) ★★★★½ audio, Atevi in space! Even better!
– When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (Singing Hills #2) ★★★★☆ ebook, our cleric Chih has to narrate themself out of a prickly situation with three tigers.
– The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Engineer‘s Thumb / The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor ★★★☆☆

Ongoing short story anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six: 
– TEXTBOOKS IN THE ATTIC by S.B. Divya — climate change has flooded towns, antibiotics are rare for those less privileged. A mother searches for a way to save her son. ★★★★★ More on tor.com: https://www.tor.com/author/s-b-divya/
– SEEDING THE MOUNTAIN by M. L. Clark — I am definitely not a fan of sentences running pages long, stuffed full of superfluous adverbs and adjectives. Hard pass. ★☆☆☆☆
– KNOCK, KNOCK SAID THE SHIP by Rati Mehrotra — Deenu works on a trading ship with a slightly disturbed AI. When the ship is attacked, she has to decide where her loyalties lie. ★★★★★
– STILL YOU LINGER, LIKE SOOT IN THE AIR by Matthew Kressel — Gil is a priest of Muu, a alien intelligence, who has „abilities that seem to defy known physical laws of nature.” In other words, Muu is a god. Gil lost his pupil and lover and struggles to come to terms with his loss and his entrapment by Muu. ★★★★☆ Can be read for free here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi…

Comics:
– All Out War Part 2 ★★★★☆ The Walking Dead 21, eComic, StoryGraph #1 October
– The Walking Dead: All Out War AP Edition ★★★★☆ Done in raw pencils, without the ink. I like it a lot, it shows the artist‘s skill much better.
– Redlands Vol. 1, eComic, DNF after the first 2 issues (54 pages). Witches take over a town of misogynistic racists. Didn‘t like it.

Currently reading:
– The Mad Ship (Liveship Traders #2), ebook. Going slowly, as I keep reading shorter stuff in between. This will take me most of September for sure.

Ongoing:
– The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles #4), paper, on hold, not enjoying it.
– How the Earth Works, audio, it‘s so-so. Sometimes very good, then again a bit slow and drawn out. It‘s lectures though, not a coherent book, which might be the problem.
– Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection, narrated by Stephen Fry: #3) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the rest. Long book is long.

Specfic Movies & TV watched:
– For All Mankind, S3, Eps. 4-10, completed ★★★★★ Mars!
– The Sea Beast, animation ★★★★★ Excellent swashbuckling adventure with sea monsters. So much fun!
– Prey (Predator) ★★★★☆ 
– The Sandman, S1, Eps 1-5 ★★★☆☆ I massively disliked episode 5, not sure I‘ll continue. Not really my cup of tea.
– Morbius ★★★☆☆ No big surprises, pretty predictable. Made me discover Leto’s band 30 Seconds to Mars though, which I love.
– Westworld, S1 ★★★★☆ Slow start, but developed nicely. Might continue, if I can get S2 at a reduced price.
– She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, S1, Eps 1+2, ongoing. Fun so far.