roach's reviews
269 reviews

 

A while ago, I was looking around for speculative fiction about a world where Christianity never existed or became as popular as it is, expecting people to have explored how a world with less or no influence from that religion might have developed. An incredibly interesting subject to me, considering how deeply rooted Christianity is in the world's history and how much it shaped our cultures and way of life, especially throughout the West, even outside of the church and its believers, often in ways that we don't even recognize anymore as stemming from Christianity.
Many people recommended me Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt because of that and the basic premise of this alternate history novel sounded like a perfect match. Here is a world where the black plague kills almost all of Europe and with it Christian beliefs, leaving more space for other beliefs to grow and shape the world.

Reading this book was a lot of ups and downs for me. The initial thought experiment is super interesting and the reincarnation theme of following the same souls throughout different bodies and different times is a very cool concept. It makes for quite a lot of variety as this book basically ends up being an anthology of different short stories or novella sections with some connecting details and a couple of scenes in the bardo space between lives. And these stories are populated with quite a lot of interesting characters.
But these individual stories also felt more isolated from each other than I would have hoped and there were definitely some settings and situations I would have much preferred to spend more time with while others didn't engage me at all.
Additionally, while I loved all the dialog of different characters discussing life and death, and criticizing or philosophizing about different religions and beliefs, I had some big gripes with the author's lengthy expository sections that completely ignored the "show, don't tell" rule and turned potentially interesting developments into dry walls of text.
But making it through those dry sections, I was always eventually greeted by another section that suddenly made me excited to read on. Like feminist movements challenging patriarchal religious systems or exploring the Americas in a world that never had Europeans invade and colonize it. It's also very satisfying to meet characters close to the end of the book that now, many decades past the initial black plague situation, get to look back at, study, and ponder about this alternate version of world history.

In the end, The Years of Rice and Salt is a mostly engaging reflection of what the concept of history even is, what we do with the knowledge of the past, and where beliefs and sciences lead us. As well as being a general love letter to all the little, undocumented things people do that don't become part of the general world history despite being part of it just like every other action and reaction is.
I was hoping for the reincarnation theme to have a bit of a more palpable development and pay-off, and wished the author would do less "telling" and more "showing. But overall this was a book I'm glad I read and stuck with. Some parts of it were genuinely awesome. 

 

[Quote translated from German.]

The first volume of this drew me in very strongly and I think I enjoyed this second volume even more. I'm still very engaged in this Men in Black-esque story with conspiracy theories instead of just aliens. The chaotic, smeared art is still amazing and I'm very curious where this story will go in the remaining two volumes. I really hope it won't fall off towards the end and finish with a disappointing mess.
I gotta say though, the Bigfoot hunting chapter in this volume was really great. I never thought I'd get this engaged in a Bigfoot story. 

 

I read books about sexuality quite often but I'm not usually one to read this kind of romantic smut. Though when someone brought this up to me in a conversation, my morbid curiosity got the better of me and I figured this might as well be the one to dip my toes into this whole world of literature. Plus, with it being available as an audiobook, it was a pretty easy listen while doing other things. Which also makes this the first full audiobook I ever listened to. So, that's neat.

The world of smut lit obviously hasn't been news to me and I've heard plenty of content creators talk (or joke) about all the different flavors and fetishes that they cater to. It's not really something that would engage me for very long though.
But Morning Glory Milking Farm sounded kinda fascinating and I was curious to see how the author would fill the story centered around this setting. The title makes it pretty obvious what it is about. A human starts working at a minotaur milking facility for a medicinal company and, of course, catches some feelings for one of the clients.
The first half actually had me pretty engaged with some decently interesting fantasy world-building and neat exploration of this fictional sort-of sex work industry with its own professional quirks and ethical questions. Reading a lot of non-fiction about sex work and the adult entertainment industry, it was actually really neat to see this exploration of a fictional parallel.
The second half of the story focuses more on the relationship of the two main characters and loses a bit of those interesting fantasy elements as it leaves behind the initial gimmick for larger parts. The two main characters aren't that interesting to me, so the more or less vanilla romance and smut parts weren't as engaging.

As for the erotic element, I think there is the usual "problem" with books like this where the dramatic storytelling and exaggerated writing made me laugh out loud more often than anything else. Which isn't necessarily to its detriment since I'm assuming that's where the entertainment lies for a lot of the readers. This is lightweight and openly ridiculous entertainment after all. The relentlessly horny monologues and descriptions of things had me cackling pretty frequently throughout the entire book.
There is a stretch somewhere after the halfway point though where the most mundane detail throws the protagonist into lengthy wet daydreams every couple sentences or so and that did get a bit tiring.

I don't have much to compare this to but I think it's a decent read if you're into this genre. It was a fun curiosity for me with some genuinely neat bits and pieces here and there like I said before, but overall not something I'd call great past the funky gimmick setting.
If you just wanna laugh at the musings of a woman who is maximum horny for minotaur dick, you'll probably get your fill here. No pun intended. 

What a title though. That name deserves some awards. 

 

[Quote translated from German.]

Picked this up without knowing much about it but I'm very interested to see where this goes now.
The premise seems like a very interesting way to use real-world conspiracy theories in story with some fantasy elements without dismissing the very real dangerous aspects of conspiracy theories. It feels a little bit like Men In Black but with conspiracies instead of aliens and a darker tone.
There is a lot of potential for interesting uses of the conspiracies that swirl around these days and I'm looking forward to how they'll be used throughout the series. The first impression is quite strong.
I also love the smeared, dream-like art.

Here is hoping that it can keep up this engaging vibe throughout and doesn't end up losing itself in a muddled plot. 

 

[Quote translated from German.]

I don't remember how I heard about this comic series/graphic novel. I probably stumbled over it online at some point and thought the title sounded cool.
The first volume makes for a decently engaging introduction. The premise gives me strong Netflix show vibes in a way. A little bit of a Stranger Things feeling with a potential monster-of-the-week aspect. The story plays with a lot of tropes, I think. The small American town... the mysterious danger... the sad kid that wants to redeem himself... the mysterious organization...
If one is in the mood for that sort of story, all of that makes for some good light entertainment and the art is very good. But I don't know if this will be something I'll remember for very long after I'm done. I am down to see where this goes though. 

 

South of Forgiveness is a unique non-fiction book by an author who experienced sexual violence and decides to meet the perpetrator to work through the trauma together.
For Thordis, forgiveness is the only way forward and understanding is the only way to work on a problem effectively. Rape is one of those crimes that is so immediately polarizing that it's hard to talk about it and the systems that enable it in a nuanced and constructive way. It's too easy to shut out the details underneath the victim and perpetrator stereotypes because we don't dare to actually engage with the complicated reality.
Thordis and Tom want to break through that with this book. Tom acknowledges what he did as a young man was awful and wrong, and he actively wants to work on the problem together with Thordis. Which gives us a rare, genuine and vulnerable glimpse into the personality and mind of someone who did, in fact, do that crime. A perspective we shut out way too often, even though it's just as important to listen to as is the victim's perspective if we want to understand and improve the problem of sexual violence. Additionally, it takes off the weight we put on the victims of these crimes who more often than not get the burden of answering all the questions while the perpetrator is left out of the conversation.
Here, both parties effectively and successfully manage to work through their trauma without harboring malice. Which is honestly incredible and inspiring.

I think a book like this can not only be helpful for people who have experienced sexual violence themselves but also people who have been on the other side but don't know where to go to escape it. Which is just as valuable as a step to work against this problem. 

It's always exciting to get glimpses of places you'd usually not get to see. Be it the liminal spaces in remote areas or the places certain authorities don't want the layman to enter.
Taryn Simon's photography captures those places well and makes for an engaging collection of fascinating and sometimes transgressive peeks into exclusive spaces.

When George Miller decided to leave behind his edgy, offensive YouTube persona Filthy Frank, he wrote this novel as a final send-off of the character, stringing together loose pieces of the nonsensical lore, before moving on once and for all to a more dignified passion with his music as Joji.  
Past-me was definitely into the problematic humor of the Filthy Frank videos at the time and so I bought this book back in 2017 when it came out, all hyped up for the final hoorah. But I never actually finished it.  
Curiosity got me to dig it out of the shelf recently and see how it would be to read this thing way past the material's prime.  
  
I can definitely see why I didn't get too far into it in 2017 because the first 50 pages or so are really not very interesting with its rather annoying story of Frank's origin during an alternative WWII setting. But once that's finally over and the character begins to meet more of the characters of the show, travelling through different realms of the omniverse, it became much more engaging. The story is never very convincing or effective, but there is some creativity in the worlds and situations Frank experiences. Additionally, it's neat to recognize elements from the old videos that have found a spot in the storytelling of the novel somehow.  
  
The writing is done in a purposefully overly flowery prose to give it that tongue-in-cheek tone of an epic legend. Though it can get a bit annoying at points as that includes using unnecessarily big words and elaborate descriptions very often.  
On the other hand, this had much less offensive language than I expected it to. Yeah, there are the occasional ableist and racist slurs or misogynistic language, as that was an inevitable part of the humor in the original videos as well. But it actually shows up not nearly as frequently in this book. I was bracing for worse going in. lol  
  
In the end, this wasn't anything I'd remember in the long run or ever call a great read. But it was pretty entertaining for parts of it and reading it now, so long after Frank welcomed viewers to the rice fields the last time, was an interesting stroll down memory lane as well.  
That being said, I'm glad Joji found something else that's much more worthwhile to pour his talents in.

 

This was a very interesting read about the weaponizing of female sexuality, specifically in the context of US military torturing methods.
Coco Fusco obviously talks about patriarchal systems that exploit feminist ideals, which is not very surprising. But the author also talks about the skewed and difficult way we culturally perceive (or don't) sexual violence from female perpetrators, and the way we generalized and gendered the concepts of victim and perpetrator, which is a fascinating subject.

I don't know if I agree with everything Coco writes here, but it nonetheless was a very engaging and pretty thought-provoking short read. 

Saward's book gives a really interesting and candid insight in the aftermath of rape.  
Her experience after the actual attack - confronting the trauma in different ways, dealing with unexpected reactions from press and acquaintances, going through several stages of the legal system to eventually reach the trial of the criminals, looking for some sort of conclusion to it all - showcases so well how much more there is to a crime like this other than the act itself. Add to that Saward's occasional questioning of her own beliefs as a devout Christian, which makes for a good showing of what religion can actually mean to someone.  
  
Saward was very open about her personal struggles in this book but she also carried a lot of strength which comes through the text right from the get-go. Her pragmatic and confident personality makes for very matter-of-fact writing that doesn't shy away from any detail if it's important.  
Clearly, this book genuinely aims to be a helpful companion for anyone who might be going through a similar situation because Saward herself was wishing she could have access to someone else's experience for reference and preparation at the time, and I think this book probably accomplishes that by being both educational as well as emotionally open about the pitfalls.  
Walking someone through what it might be like to wade through the ripples and waves that an impact like this can cause, which are probably seldom considered by people that haven't experienced them.