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Book Review: EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE by Sarah Maria Griffin

Cover of Eat the Ones You Love, by Sarah Maria Griffin, with an odd-looking plant with one blue eye, and a brown eye within a Venus flytrap-looking leaf.

The synopsis for Sarah Maria Griffin’s Eat the Ones You Love would understandably invoke thoughts of Little Shop of Horrors for most people. I also kept thinking about Sue Burke’s Semiosis trilogy, not in terms of the plot, but in the sentient plant character and point-of-view perspective.

Book Review: Death on the Caldera

Cover of Death on the Caldera, by Emily Paxman. Features an elaborate art deco-style border, with a black train traveling through clouds of steam, with a headlight shining, against a red background.

I liked how grounded this book felt. The details of train service, survivors trying to recover after the wreck, the squabbling among various factions of train passengers, the differences between types of magic — all of these felt thoughtfully explored.

Book Review: COLD ETERNITY by S.A. Barnes

Cover of Cold Eternity, by S.A. Barnes, featuring a cryochamber in a dark medbay, with the shadow of an odd-looking hand reaching over it.

Following up on Dead Silence and Ghost Station, S.A. Barnes continues to solidify herself with Cold Eternity as a leading voice in SF Horror, particular within the theme of isolation in space.

Book Review: Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite

Cover of Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite, featuring a woman sitting in an armchair with her back to us, with her hair in a bun, amid shelves and shelves of books, plus some books floating in space.

The novella starts when Dorothy Gentleman wakes up and discovers she’s been uploaded off schedule and into the wrong body, and she finds out soon that someone else is dead. As one of the ship’s detectives, she shelves her personal feelings (that’s my little in-joke) and immediately starts investigating.

Book Review: The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar

Cover of The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar, featuring colorful flowers springing from a very winding green-and-brown stylized river.

The novella is a retelling of a reasonably well-known fairytale murder ballad, so alert readers may anticipate some of the story beats. There are two sisters, and a suitor, and a warning from beyond via music. But even if a reader has an idea of where the story is going, there are bends in this river of a plot.

Death of the Author: A Novel, by Nnedi Okorafor

Cover of Death of the Author: A Novel, by Nnedi Okorafor, featuring a mostly silhouetted dark-skinned woman whose hair is in locs, against an abstract red, green, and blue pattern (rivers? blood? computer chips?).

I love the vivid characters in it, the way they face their challenges, the fiercely exuberant explorations of personhood and choice and negotiating relationships, and the sheer joy of life apparent in how Okorafor plays with ideas.