Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Singing Hills Cycle, Book 1) by Nghi Vo — Book Review

I was very surprised by how much I liked this novella, because I had a challenging time and didn’t understand it. This is a layered tale of a royal consort (named In-Yo) exiled from the imperial court. The story is being told by an old, former servant, named Rabbit, to a wandering cleric, named Chih,…

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers – Book Review

This novella from one of the proponents of “cozy” sci-fi was impressive in both scope and fullness. We follow the perspective of Ariadne, an engineer/scientist who’s part of a 4-person crew of explorers being sent by Earth to reach and study distant planets. As we get to know the four scientists waking up from the…

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle – Book Review

I have a long history with The Last Unicorn, even though I’ve only just finished reading it for the first time. As a child, I won tickets to the animated movie based on this novel and fell in love with the story of a unicorn who leaves the safety of her magical forest and sets…

Murder at Spindle Manor (Lamplight Murder Mysteries, Book 1) by Morgan Stang — Book Review

Lately I’ve been reading a number of books fitting into the category of magical murder mystery, or fantasy detective story, and I’m really enjoying them. That’s not surprising, since I love fantasy fiction, and ever since watching BBC’s Sherlock, I’ve been a fan of Victorian detective stories. Starting last year, I read The Tainted Cup…

The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh — Book Review

Since I have a history with Chinese folktales from my childhood, I am always interested in reading new retellings of Asian stories. It’s also cool how they have kind of become a subgenre of their own recently. Because The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (I’m not going to keep repeating this charming yet over-long…

The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty, Book 1) by Ken Liu — Book Review

I picked up The Grace of Kings because everyone raves about this series, and I was interested in exploring more Asian fantasy novels (especially during Asian Heritage Month). The first time around, I found the plot difficult to follow (it’s the epic history of an empire being torn down by a rebellion) and the many…

Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, Book 3) by Martha Wells – Book Review

This is the third novella in a series about the adventures of a security cyborg (self-nicknamed “Murderbot”) who freed themselves from their restrictive programming and are able to find their own way in the universe. It’s a bit challenging to discuss this third book, not because it’s part of a continuity of stories throughout a…

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer — Book Review

What a coincidence! I just finished reading Into Thin Air — the first-hand account, by journalist Jon Krakauer, of the harrowing and tragic 1996 climbing expeditions to summit Mount Everest that cost a dozen lives — only a week before the publication of the anniversary edition of the book, 30 years later. I inadvertently acquired…

The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue, Book 0) by Christopher Buehlman — Book Review

Having just finished reading The Blacktongue Thief, I was excited to read The Daughters’ War. This prequel novel is the good kind of prequel, one that doesn’t spend all its energy backtracking the original story and telling us how everything got set up, how everyone became the characters that we knew, how they all just…