Nettle and Bone, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)

This is really a strong book, very character-driven and the protagonist, Marra, is truly relatable.  The book starts in the middle of Marra performing the three impossible tasks the dust-wife asks of her in exchange for her help dealing with the abusive Prince of the North.  The story in its way is pretty familiar--Marra, the dust-wife (a keeper of cemeteries who can speak to the dead) and her demon-possessed chicken go on a hero's journey to save Marra's sister Kania.  They pick up an unwillingly evil godmother and a heroic knight along the way.  All of these characters are fully developed in the book, and I was attached to them by the time it was finished.  She also scores some solid points on the patriarchy and the pain being imposed.  It's a cozy yet powerful read.  Good stuff.

My Goodreads Review

Defekt, by Nino Cipri

The world really needed an anti-capitalist Ikea parody, and we knew it, and Nino Cipri really delivers. I thought the first book was a good try, and worthy of encouragement. This one is pretty darn solid, though I'm a little confused by it. I'll come back to that.

Here we revisit Derek, the LitenVarld employee who has totally drunk the Kool-Ade and has no life outside the store. This book explains why he is living in a shipping container in the LitenVarld parking lot. He meets many versions of himself (herself/themselves) working for LitenVarld as Special Employees, charged with wrangling/eliminating defecta--experimental furniture that has gained consciousness and mobility.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it builds on the first one without really depending on it. I would recommend reading Finna first, in part because if you read Defekt then Finna will suffer a bit by comparison, and it doesn't deserve to. But they don't depend on each other, which is weird. Finna definitely ends with several plot points untidied--it absolutely reads like a first book in a series. But in Defekt's acknowledgements Cipri says he never intended to write a sequel. Really? Maybe he meant it--he still hasn't written the sequel to Finna because Defekt is not that. It's set in the same LitenVerse and builds on the foundation of Finna, but those dangling plots are not continued. Derek has moved on. So now I don't know what he does with that first one.

These are tremendously fun and trenchant books to read, am looking forward to more as long as Cipri has ideas to explore there.

My Goodreads Review

Favorites: Life On the Moon, by Tony Daniel

One of my favorite discoveries on Free SF Online is Life On the Moon, by Tony Daniel. This is probably Daniel's best work, and it's a finely crafted story. Nell is an architect, and Henry a poet, and their professional pursuits intertwine in a fully complex and satisfying way. It would be a really good romantic movie, but too hard to film. The stories on Infinity Plus vary widely in quality, and it's no longer an active site, but as of today it's still around. Read this one before it goes away. A four star special

Recent Reading

Just finished Lion Loose by James Schmitz. I haven't read much of Schmitz, though he wrote quite a bit in the 60's and 70's. Probably the most famous books are the Witches of Karres set. This story is a very straightforward action tale, and though it's well put together it just didn't hold my interest. It had a Hugo nomination in 1961, but not all award nominees are created equal. 2 stars.