Tag: bookbingo

Panic with the Bingo!!!

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This is one of the reasons why I purchased a screaming goat.
They are totally worth the money!!!

ARRRRGH!!!

RIGHT IN MY GODDAMN EAR!

Here’s a re-cap…

So, in 2024, I discovered Reddit. Yes, I know, but as I always say, I’m always late to parties (and when I’m there you can find me in the kitchen.) When I discovered Reddit, I discovered r/fantasy and then the yearly book bingo challenge they run there. Which is awesome!!! I have to get this out there – this is a really, really good challenge – it’s organised well, the categories are varied, the recommendation threads are amazing (and very enabling – my TBR list is about 50 times longer now!)

I can’t do anything the easy way, and it’s a challenge, so I challenged myself. Not only did I decide to do the Hard Mode for each category, but I also decided to choose all authors that I’ve never read before (easier than it sounds because I was very limited, even though I was quite well-read) – go me!

Anyway, I’ve said most of this before in my intro post to the 2024 Bingo review section, so I’m not going to repeat everything, BUT, and this is a BIG but, I’m having a BIT of a panic, because I’ve still got SEVEN books left to read, and it’s already the end of February! In fact, there’s only FIVE weeks until the challenge closes. And a couple of them are BIG books (a lessons learned post will be forthcoming at the end of the challenge) and I’m trying to stop worrying – ’cause hey, it’s supposed to fun, right? It’s not going to be fun if I STRESS about it, so I’m just have this little worry-rant, so I can stop doing that!!

This screaming goat is coming in really handy!!!!

A Long Way for Cozy Sci-fi

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Fleeing her old life, Rosemary Harper joins the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer as a file clerk, and joins them on missions throughout the galaxy. Looking forward to a simpler life, she soon discovers it’s not what she was expecting; everyone has secrets, and there’s more than enough to keep her busy.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Published 2014 via Kickstarter
Bingo Category – Space Opera (Hard Mode)

This comfy, cosy, Firefly-esque space opera hits the spot in terms of an easy going, character focused novel. The plot is good, the writing is good, the characters are fully fleshed out and feel real, and plot arcs get resolved. It’s all very satisfying. I enjoyed it, but it almost felt too cosy. The stakes were relatively small, everyone was polite and nice and friendly and mostly everything was resolved in a nice, polite, friendly way. I know there is loads of love for Becky Chambers and I’m not surprised, because what she writes is great, but this book and most likely the rest of the series, is just not for me.

Saving Grace – Project Hail Mary

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Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mision – if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

But right now, he doesn’t know that. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time, and he’s just woke to find himself hurtling through space, millions of miles from home.

It’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery, and he’s got to do it all alone…

This is the first Andy Weir book I’ve read. It’s also one that I decided to listen to the audiobook of – for which I’m very glad because the audiobook just adds to the experience. I’ve listened to it more than twice. I’ve joined communities about this book. I am looking forward to the movie that’s upcoming (although I’m not a Ryan Gosling fan, I hope he can pull off the role.)

I don’t do science. Or maths. Or anything like that to be honest; and I was worried when all of the scientific aspects came into play that I wouldn’t be able to follow what was happening – turned out it wasn’t an issue, and the accuracy (or lack thereof) would have made no difference to me anyway, but, I got caught up in the narrative and felt Grace’s excitement about it all, and felt like I was learning stuff, even though I can’t remember the ins-and-outs of it all! I think I may have even enjoyed science lessons with Mr. Grace.

But I digress.

I’ve read plenty of things about Project Hail Mary since I finished it – some positive, some negative – but I can say I’m definitely in the positive camp for this. I absolutely love Grace, I both love and hate Stratt at the same time, and Rocky is by far one of the most interesting characters I’ve met.

From the first 2 plus 2 equals, I was hooked. Weir’s writing style just clicked for me straight away and I tore through the book like a mad-woman. I could not put it down. When I listened to it, I didn’t want to stop listening. It was that compelling, I re-read and listened almost immediately after finishing.

The plot, the stakes, the characters, the awkward situations – the togas, the mechanical hands, the flashbacks – all of it just came together amazingly and I rode the journey with Ryland all the way through. Stratt was frustratingly annoying, amazing and awful all at once and was extremely believable given the circumstances. But I connected with Grace more. I mourned his losses, fist-bumped at his achievements along with him, was frustrated when he was. I adored his relationship with Rocky and the friendship they built regardless of the boundaries of language and race, light years upon light years away from their own homes; believing and hoping even when all belief and hope seemed lost. I was right next to Grace when he realised what was really important. I was with Rocky when he realised what Grace had done. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions.

I love character driven stories, and PHM is no exception to that. Weir created a scenario where success was minimal, stakes were ridiculously high, and where above all, friendship and love were proven to be the ties that bind. The ending was extremely satisfying.

This is a tale that will stay with me for a long time, and I will most definitely re-visit it again, probably regularly. Andy Weir most certainly did his job well, and I, for one, am most definitely a fan.

This is in my top reads of 2024.

Rated 5 stars.

Hauntingly Evocative

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Welcome to Area X. An Edenic wilderness, an environmental disaster zone, a mystery for thirty years.

The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic.

Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown…

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Southern Reach #1
Published 2014
Book Bingo: Eldritch Creatures (Hard Mode)

This is a ridiculously difficult book to review.

I picked this book up as part of the Bingo 2024 challenge for the Eldritch Creatures category. I’m a little ashamed to say, especially given that I read a lot of horror, that I didn’t realise these odd entities/creatures had a categeory of their own. Anyway, Emily, another lovely member of staff at my local Waterstones, assured me that I would love this book and that it definitely fitted what I was looking for.

Told from the point of view of “the biologist” although the tale includes others, including her own husband’s experiences, her perspective leads us beautifully through this unique, eerie tale of an exploration team (the 12th expedition according to the text) in a place called “Area X.”

The imagery in this deceptively small-looking novel is just beautiful, although not technically traditional. It lulls and lures the reader into a lyrical dance that undulates in the bizarre, and it stays with you. It’s incredibly immersive, and so odd that it’s difficult to define just how effective it is, because I can see how devisive it could be – the interpretation is completely up to the reader, and the content reflects this in the interpretation given by “the biologist” – there are no correct answers, just mystery.

There are plenty of secrets in this book and as the answers are slowly revealed, the story draws you in to its surreal and distorted and disconcerting sense of reality. You are left stranded in the in-between, a kind of limbo, yet there is a feeling of fulfillment. Still there is a sense of needing to dig deeper, to eke out the mystery, to find the reasoning. You know there is more, just not where to find it.

Atmospheric is an almost perfect descriptor, ominous is another.

Personally, I like hauntingly evocative.

“It was as if I travelled through the landscape with the sound of an expressive and intense aria playing in my ears. Everything was imbued with emotion, awash with it, and I was no longer a biologist but somehow the crest of a wave building and building but never crashing to the shore.”

4/5 stars