More Clever Things Below

Because of the state of the world and Our AI Overlords, I'm thinking more and more of just pulling my stuff into fewer and fewer places.  My TF stuff is still up on fanfiction.net, as when I switched to AO3 (when it started lol) it was the main fandom I was in.

Now, ff.net mostly seems to be a source of random spam PMs, and I'm thinking of just taking down the stories and leaving a profile that points to AO3.  Does anyone see any downsides to this plan?

I am amazed to see that some folks are still, evidently, actively posting to ff.net.  God, that thing is an UNDEAD Pit of Voles.

Hiya all.  Not dead yet!  Still TRYING MY BEST here.  Not a whole lot to show for it, but TRYING!  :insert that determined kiddo making a fist gif here:

Anyway, books!

Stuff I've Read:

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove - A ship and a medicbot try valiantly to get past their programming and forge an alliance because monsters keep KILLING THEIR HUMANS!  I loved this so much.  Highly, highly recommend.  The beginning wobbled a bit for me because I wasn't sure what tone it was going for (there's some aspects of humor, but it was unclear how serious/feelings this was supposed to be).  Once I got my footing though?  Mwa, perfect.  Actually went and bought a copy.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones - A very, very slow horror book that was dragged down by my dislike of two of the three main POV characters.  Still, a very interesting take on vampires I'd never seen before.

The Art of Solitude and Alone With Others by Stephen Batchelor - Went through a bit of an introspection kick.  TAoS was a solid book on Buddhist philosophy with some personal experiences with hallucinogens thrown in.  Kind of slow, but interesting reading it with AWO, which was a much more "advanced" and philosophical take on some of the same themes.

City of Stairs and City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett - I really like this series, even more than his newer one.  Fun, smart characters, enough mystery to keep things interesting, and some very thought-provoking takes on colonialism and its associated ills in a somewhat faux-early-1900s kinda-AU world.  Have picked up the third book in the series already.

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White - Oh this was fabulous in all senses of the word.  Far-future alien kaiju mecha invasion space opera with a heavy MUSIC focus.  It also got points for making me like the very entitled and shallow rockstar character DESPITE those characteristics usually putting me off, because they actually are also quite charming and smart.  I am SAD that this has not gotten more attention (and that none of my libraries have ordered the second book....)

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell - Solid "meh".  I liked Someone to Build a Next In well enough, but this just didn't click with me, for two reasons:  it was very Greek mythology (bug or feature?), in that the gods were just terrible people, and yet you're forced to be in Hera's entitled and self-sabotaging POV for half the book, while in the other half you're forced to be in Heracles oblivious high tragedy POV.  Neither really appealed.  Also, though the idea of a found-family-inflected trials of Heracles structure was neat, said trials and said found family were just never really fleshed out and felt shallow.  :shrug?:

Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher - Fun!  A squad of goblins get teleported off a battlefield and have to figure out where they are and how to get home.  This had a bit of tonal whiplash in that Kingfisher way, where it's fluffy and funny but then takes a hard turn into dark and disturbing (while trying kind of awkwardly not to be so realistic that we have to worry about things like executing POWs), but it was funny and didn't overstay its welcome.

What I'm Reading Now

Fiction:  Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee and the above-mentioned City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett

Nonfiction:  Stories Are Weapons by Annalee Newitz and The Technological Republic by Nicholas Zamiska and Alexander Karp