woodwardiocom | Books: Clearing The Deck, Part IV

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Conclusion to the Machineries of Empire trilogy, in which a fascist interstellar empire is riven to its core by disparate, odd revolutionaries. A very different take on space opera, highly recommended.

Frankenstein and Foreign Devils by Walter Jon Williams

A nice collection of short stories, several of them being alternate histories featuring Elvis, Mary Wollstonecraft, and others. Recommended.

Chicks Dig Gaming, edited by Brozek, Smith?, and Pearson

A fine collection of essays by women gamers, often touching on the sexism rampant in the hobby, but always speaking of the joys found in it. Recommended.

Hide Me Among The Graves by Tim Powers

A fine occult tale of pseudo-vampires and ghosts in Victorian London. I like Powers a bit better when his setting is the 20trh century, but this was still a fun read. Recommended.

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

A mostly-episodic tale of a small spaceship crew tasked with "digging" wormholes through space. It's primarily about relationships intimate, friendly, strained, and other. Comparisons to Firefly are obvious. It doesn't quite hold together as a novel, but you're mostly there for the characters. Recommended.