#seanan mcquire

[strixhaven-star]

The Dance of Undeath

Wilhelt wanted nothing more than the hand of glorious Lady Gisa, so he clawed his way back from the grave to win her over. Will she accept h

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt - Side Story

The Dance of Undeath

by Seanan McGuire

[peachyteabooks]

2018 top 9 - book edition

[cat-boy-tits]

A new startup wants to upload your brain to a server, but with one very small catch

Ghost In The Shell made digitally uploading your brain seem pretty cool, especially if you can eventually drop your memories into a badass cyborg body with purple hair. Even if you can’t do that, though, being able to ditch your fragile meat body so you can live forever among the memes in the cold embrace of cyberspace has some kind of weird appeal, and it’s no wonder that it’s a staple of countless sci-fi stories. Finally, a startup co-founded by MIT graduate Robert McIntyre might finally be able to make that crazy dream a reality, with Technology Review reporting that the startup, Nectome, has found a way to chemically preserve human bodies so the brains can eventually be uploaded to a computer (once that technology is available).

Seanan McGuire has done it again. Now not only does her science fiction predict the future, her urban fantasy does as well. 

My partner started reading this article out loud to me and I was immediately screaming “DOES THE UPLOAD KILL PEOPLE!? BECAUSE THAT’S A SEANAN MCGUIRE BOOK!” Spoilers

It totes kill people

[the-forest-library]

My birthday bookhaul featuring my new octopus friend (see any favorites @bookcub?)

[shesamreads]

Starting this one instead of listening to The London Seance Society, because it's due back to Hoopla in a few days. I check things out and then forget about them. Yay ADHD!

I love the plaque, "No solicitation, no visitors, no quests." I should post that at my house.

References I have caught so far:

Peter Pan

Alice in Wonderland

Jack and Jill

The Wizard of Oz

[madamreviews]

Thoughts on “In Other Lands” by Seanan McGuire

Let me begin by saying I had some pretty high hopes for this book. I had it heard it mentioned several times by quite a few people, and they all raved about it. Maybe my high hopes led to my feelings of disappointment, maybe not. Either way, this book left me feeling unsatisfied.

The premise was incredibly interesting, but the storyline didn't deliver. There was so much that felt left out, and so much that could have been expanded on, that the book itself almost felt like some sort of teaser for something bigger to come.

The characters were interesting, but there was not an especially large cast. That being said, the characters that were involved were diverse, with different interests and personalities. However they, like a lot of the story, could have been expanded upon more. There was not much time to get to know the characters very well, and it felt like we, the readers, were simply skimming the surface of who they were. It almost felt as if they became tropes of themselves. Where there was not enough time to expand on who they really were, they tended to stick to the basics of who they were. Nancy was the still, creepy girl who did not like movement. And that was about it. Sumi was the fast-moving, quick-tongued girl who never held still. And...that was it. Jack was the brusque scientist with no time for niceties and no patience for idiocy. And, again, that was it. There were a few instances where the characters opened up, where they almost seemed to become something more, and then the story moved on to something else.

While it certainly felt like there was much more potential to them, and as if McGuire had come up with more story for each of them, in some many cases the characters fell a little flat. It felt like being shown a photo of some elaborate sculpture, with the expectation of being brought to see the sculpture for yourself and inspect it from every side, only to be told that the trip has been canceled. The view in the photo is quite nice, but there is so much more your missing from the other angles, and you know it.

The plot itself was somewhat one-dimensional, as well. There was really only one plot thread, without the subplots that fill a story out and makes it come alive. What plot there was felt predictable and obvious, without any unexpected twists and thrills. Again, it felt like there was something lacking. Frankly, the whole story felt like it was only a prelude to a story, like it was the very first rough draft, though very well-written, of a story that was intended to be much larger. It was like everything was a placeholder, a reminder to add this or that or expand here, but none of that every got done.

A lot of the book felt like a tease. The reader was enticed with the mention of other worlds, and secret doors, but none of this was elaborated on in any depth. On a personal note, I would have loved to hear more mention of the kids’ other worlds or their doors, or even to have them visit one or more of these places. That was clearly not the point of this book, but I feel the kids could have talked about their worlds more. The vague idea of the cardinal directions of these worlds, and the minor directions, was very briefly touched on, but never explained in any satisfying sort of way. There was little to no explanation of what any of these directions really meant, or what other minor directions there were or how they fit into the grand scheme of things.

In the end, this book left me feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. There was great potential for this book to be among my favorites, but it set itself up to be something bigger than it was. There was an intense feeling of something missing throughout the entire book. It seemed like it was still in its opening stage when it was already beginning to wrap itself up. If the book had been longer, it could have had time to expand on everything, but as it was the book felt like a few assorted pieces of a puzzle put together to form a tiny part of a whole.

[09tilinfinity01]

Tor.com Publishing Ebook Giveaway

Tor is giving away a free (electronic) copy of @seananmcguire‘s incredible book Every Heart a Doorway for 24 hours. I love this book so much that I would absolutely push it on anyone and today you can get it for free! You do have to sign up for Tor’s mailing list but it was absolutely worth it for me. 

[suspendedsafinations]

You know what I’d like to see

Seanan Mcquire doing the weather on Welcome to Nightvale