Big thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for the ARC. This was such a fun read. I flew through it and kept thinking, yep, this is exactly my kiBig thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for the ARC. This was such a fun read. I flew through it and kept thinking, yep, this is exactly my kind of chaos.
The premise alone hooked me immediately. A group of twenty-something farmers banding together to protect their land and their elderly neighbors, all while relying on an outlawed AI with a very earnest schoolmarm personality. It is ridiculous in the best way, and somehow also grounded enough that you really care about what happens to these people. The characters are genuinely likable, the banter works, and the found-family vibes are strong.
Yes, the book can be a little heavy handed with its messaging about AI, the darker corners of the internet, and the way everything eventually gets commercialized into something ugly. But it never tipped over into annoying for me. The pacing stays brisk enough that you are always having too much fun to get too bogged down.
If you enjoy John Scalzi style sci-fi with humor, heart, and a slightly unhinged premise that somehow works, I would absolutely recommend this. I have not read the Dungeon Crawler Carl series yet, but this book convinced me I probably should. I am very glad I picked this one up....more
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher William Morrow for the audiobook ARC.
Upfront, this was quite the ride and had me regularly at the edge of my seaThank you to NetGalley and publisher William Morrow for the audiobook ARC.
Upfront, this was quite the ride and had me regularly at the edge of my seat.
This book is an intense dark sapphic romance. The romance is almost entirely the point of the book. While I enjoyed the book a lot, and the steamy scenes, I didn’t ever feel like Miriam and Harding had real love for one another. They absolutely tear one another apart. To be fair, Miriam is a demon. So I suppose that’s to be expected. But I think the character development was a tinge thin.
The magic system was excellently drawn and the atmosphere was perfectly pitched. I would say fans of Our Infinite Fates, Someone to Build a Nest In, and Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil, will enjoy this book quite a bit....more
