Learning to DNF || Reading the Nebula Short List || FRIDAY READS 

"Witch King" was my first work by Martha Wells and I really loved it. I took extensive notes so maybe that helped. Glad you DNFed the books that did not worked for you. I was really excited for "The Outlaws" (I read an eARC), but you were right, it was a 3 star read.

Ahhh so glad Translation state worked for you!! The Imperial Radch is one of my fav worlds/series 🫶

“Weird in a way I didn’t find engaging” - very aptly described my experience with Witch King too!! Its nominations this year feel like a slap in the face to us readers, since it really seems like it got nominated by people who didn’t read the book.

I am intrigued by Shigidi. It maybe sounds like something I might like lolol

What a surprise about Translation State! So cool that you liked it so much. And way to go on all the DNFing!🎉

Just pointing out again that there's a huge tone shift between Justice and Sword and I think it might be worth picking up in the future if you're ever contemplating going back to that trilogy. I'm so glad Translation State was such a surprise win for you!

SOOOOO PUMPED for the Ursula K Le Guin Award !!!

I am loving your videos!

Yeah, I get you on "The Terraformers" - I finished it and enjoyed it but felt the same to some extent. So i'll state upfront that I think a lot of books today are too long (plenty could lose even hundreds of pages and be as good or better IMO) - plenty of SF&F novels widely held as "classics" are around 250 pages. That said, _generational_ stories, by their nature, justify more pages and in "The Terraformers", just as I was starting to click with one "generation", we moved on. It's too short for its own structure IMO. ( :)

Oooh Translation State sounds like a winner and worth checking out for me even if I haven’t read the trilogy-glad you found an engaging read in this project!

I dnf-ed Terraformers too. It was disappointing. I liked Autonomous so much, so I had hopes. Oh well.

Nice to hear that Translation State was a win 🏆 I finished Ancillary Justice last week and it was a surprise five star for me although slow to get into

I'm so glad you enjoyed Translation State.. I was also super surprised by it!!!

Since you liked Translation State, if your not up for trying the Imperial Radch trilogy again, you might look at Provenance next. It’s a standalone too, in the same universe and has a similar smaller problem set with the scale of larger events vibe .

I’m with you on Witch King! I DNFed Shigidi but I could see it working for other people. This makes me think I should try Ann Leckie.

I am currently working my way through the HUGO novels and now am looking forward to Ann Leckies novel which I had previously expected to be a struggle. I have read and enjoyed Shigidi though it was not particularly memorable it was a good unknown novel to me on the list. Anyway thanks for the video.

Definitely interested on your takes on the Nebula novels. I have finished the short stories, almost finished on the novelettes and working on the novellas currently.

I'm still sad that alot of people didn't find the witch king to be enjoyable and I was so surprised when I was reading the reviews on Goodreads 😢😅 but I'm glad that I read it and I'm so excited to pick more of Martha wells work and I'm adding translation State and shigdi and the brass head of obalufon to my tbr 😊😊

I’m also one of those people who DNF’d Terraformers. I could not connect to the writing or the characters. I have a copy of Translation State on my shelves, and I have high hopes I will enjoy that - even more so after watching your video.

Proud of you for dnfing. ♥️♥️♥️

I also DNFed The Terraformers and I had a similar experience with it. I kept giving it a chance because I knew it wasn't a bad book, but after 150 pages of just not caring about any of the characters or the world, I finally decided to quit.

Gosh I wish I had DNFed The Terraformers, here's to being better at letting go! Bummer about The Water Outlaws tho, I was nervous about that one. And yay for Translation State, I am adding that to the TBR!! 🤩

I have Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi I need to read.

Mythopoeic finalists aren't until May I think, but I'm always curious about those. 🚀

Angela: There's also this nefarious thing in the north, it's always something in the north Me, squinting at my Norwegian friends: SUS 😂 On a more series note, I kinda got into the rabbit hole of SPFBO 9 in the last few days, while trying to find a book for my self-pub/indie-pub square for Reddit Bingo and I think that one is a really cool award because it promotes small authors 💖

I've read the Radch trilogy (which I liked more than you did but that's neither here nor there), and while some of the same species come up (and their translators), I don't think there is any character overlap at all, and this isn't even in the Radch empire, just adjacent, and the whole AI ship/avatar thing that is so central to the trilogy doesn't even figure in to this book at all. It could easily be read as standalone.

I should have DNF'd Terraformers honestly. I think I liked each part less than the one preceding it.

✨️ growth✨️

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I read Terraformers and wished I DNFed it, then immediately picked up Witch King and could not DNF it fast enough. I gave it 100 pages. If I don’t know what is happening in 100 pages I’m out!

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't vibe with the terraformers 🙈

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Watching this and realizing I hadn’t even looked at the nebula shortlist this year. 🫣 Yay, for Translation State! This makes me more motivated to pick up Ancillary Justice.

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