I was a little bit worried that things had gotten just a tad bit too...expansive...to wrap up tidily enough to feel satisfied, but I really enjoyed how things culminated here and the overarching threats of the series finally presented themselves. For a series about limitless space and connection between humanity across that space, turning that connection into something sinister was a great touch, I felt. I was also surprised that by the end of a nine-book series across galaxies, I was both extremely satisfied and eager for more. Again, the natural manifestations of human connection shone brightest here, and saying goodbye to these characters hurt. A real achievement in this genre, and I'm excited to see what the authors try next as Corey.

Reviewed on Monday, December 18th, 2023, 11:09am.

This would probably not normally be my thing, but the prose and dialog are so rich and alive that I have probably never felt more transported to the setting of a piece of historical fiction. I'm not the biggest history buff, so I think being kind of a blank slate on most of these people and circumstances helped matters, but you can tell it's so well-researched and planned that it could be all true, down to every royal word behind closed doors. The writing is dense and challenging, so ultimately very rewarding of the attention required to keep up with the mind of Cromwell, where each paragraph comes at you, almost like a riddle to be solved.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 19th, 2023, 6:30am.

Woof. Really tough, but rewarding, to read this. Ultimately I am very glad to have done it, as it paints a much fuller picture than, I guess what you could call the caricaturization of the Donner Party, where you can really see the humanity, heroism, and toughness of those involved. The book itself is engrossing and well-written, doing a great job of delicately walking the reader through the events in the Sierra Nevada, but also the chapters leading up to the party being snowbound paint a detailed picture of generally how brutal life on the frontier was, and how closely we modern Americans should be holding our loved ones, automobiles, and wireless routers.

Reviewed on Sunday, October 29th, 2023, 9:00am.

Can't think of a more aptly-named book! I'm not sure if this was a stylistic choice, but the way that the middle bulk of the book, once the Dust Bowl starts, continues to batter you with despair and just the worst things you could possibly imagine, begin to kind of mirror what these people were going through. Egan is as unrelenting in telling this story as the dust was itself. I definitely learned a lot, and it was a really interesting read to see how everything came to be. Rather than finding much human triumph in this story, it really just paints a picture of people reaping what they sow, and some managing to either hold on long enough to stay there and not really see things improved markedly, or get outta dodge, often into a situation you could only call better because there were no literal tons of dirt pouring through their walls.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 26th, 2023, 12:14pm.

Even if you remove the historical context of this novel, the fact that Némirovsky wrote this from exile, as the war was happening, and is still such a pragmatic and human view of the events, it's a remarkable accomplishment. I think it's important if only to understand that everyone has their own point of view, and in the case of war, are driven often by not even their own points of view but those of the ruling class from within the borders that they happened to be born, so to see some of the humanity taking place was very powerful. I really liked the first half, though I do wish we had slightly more characters of the Michaud variety, the working class, "regular" people versus the upper class, but the second half is quite masterful. So much complexity and tenderness covering a really tough subject.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:55am.

Reading this, I found myself quite aware of how out-of-practice I am when it comes to quality reading and comprehending. Banville often left me in his dust with the need to backtrack and make sense of what he was saying, and it made me wish I had put this off a little bit as I steadily exercise the ol' brain back up to game shape. My reading has slowed down over the years, especially from the years of reading for study, and I felt kind of exposed here. Having said that, the book is wonderfully written, constantly poetic, frequently funny, even more frequently sad, and most of all impressive in capturing the way our memories bounce from topic to topic, how things can solidify in our memories, how "Memory dislikes motion, preferring to hold things still" like a preserved "tableau". Those well-articulated descriptions of the narrator's memory resonated with me.

Reviewed on Thursday, November 30th, 2023, 9:50am.

A very strange story and atmosphere, but as I've found with other Ishiguro novels, the way he simply and meticulously lays everything out is incredibly engaging.

Reviewed on Thursday, September 29th, 2022, 12:00am.

Honestly kind of a slog to get through. It was surprisingly humorous, especially just seeing how this utter alien child is interacting with the world around him, but somehow it never quite grabbed me.

Reviewed on Saturday, July 23rd, 2022, 12:00am.

This is a very beautiful and moving story that feels really relatable. Reading it and seeing how she recounts some of the ways she and her husband chronicled their child growing up was inspiring to me as Leo was in the near horizon. I ended up taking some ideas and expanding on them, making an email address for Leo to check in with him periodically and let him know how he's growing and what he's saying/doing so he can see it when he gets older. This book had some beautiful, simple passages around this topic.

Reviewed on Monday, February 7th, 2022, 12:00am.