czedwards | Network

I picked this up knowing nothing about it except that it was science fiction, and I spent the entire book trying to figure out where it was going, but in a good way. It starts out with a raid, so I was thinking military SF, but then it quickly transitions into a mystery, and from there we go through some spy shit, a bit of romance, a Mission Impossible-style heist, a miner's strike, and, finally, cyberpunk. It's quite a ride. It's got unremarkable queerness (people are queer! it goes unremarked upon!), the protagonist is a woman of color of........complicated origins, and there's a fascinating relationship between her and an AI. Cohen, as he calls himself, is hundreds of years old, controls dozens of networks, and has expensive tastes.

In part, this book is about memory, what your memories make you, and who you are without them, and at times I felt like it was messing with my memory because it seemed to be skipping over important things in the investigation and in the spy shit. Like how did Li get her Beretta back? They took her knife, but left her with that gun and the ammo for it? No. It's also the kind of science fiction that comes with a ten page bibliography at the end in case you want to read up on quantum entanglement, but just tosses you into the world, dumps a bunch of new terminology on you, and lets you figure things out on your own. Which I mostly did, but it's a bit of an uphill trudge at the beginning.

This is the first in a trilogy, a fact I discovered when I was 82% through this one, and happily my library had the other two ebooks, as well, so I checked out the second book as soon as I was done with this one.

Contains: sexual assault, attempted rape—brief and not lingered upon; (sexual?) slavery—underpins a side relationship in the book.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: rejuvenated

duckprintspress

I read 684 titles in 2025, from stand-alone short stories to long novels, from mini-comics to 30+ volume series. To keep my List Challenge reading lists sane, I split it into three lists – one for prose, one for graphic novels, and one for manga/manhua/manhwa. For the manga/manhua/manhwa list, I also only included the first volume of series I read, even if I read way more than volume 1, even if I didn’t actually read volume 1 in 2025 (but read subsequent volumes in 2025). With that in mind – tell me how many we’ve read in common in whichever of the three categories you feel like doing the challenge for!

NOVEL LIST

GRAPHIC NOVEL LIST

MANGA/MANHUA/MANHWA LIST

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: ecstatic

oursin

What I read

Finished Pointed Roofs - gosh, how bizarre is that German girls' school? It seems more like somewhere that parents send their little darlings to until marriagable age, and actual education is not a priority.

Simon R Green, Which Witch (The Holy Terrors #3) (2025), enjoyable popcorn read.

Which could also be said for Simon Brett, Death in the Dressing Room (A Fethering Mystery, #22) (2025), phoning it in a bit perhaps.

I thought Janice Hallett, The Killer Question (2025), was doing the opposite of phoning it in and straining too hard. This might be the thing one sees when a writer has done Something Fresh and Exciting but there comes a point when that is hard to sustain and there is a feeling that they have scurried around a bit and it feels kinds of effortful.

Matt Houlbrook, Songs of Seven Dials: An Intimate History of 1920s and 1930s London (2025) (which is, I may point out, well after the epoch of Seven Dials in which I have shown interest....). It's very good, very readable, if I had been sent it for review I might have made a few quibbles - e.g. on the basis of the evidence he adduces about the changes going on in the area, even if the mixed race couple the Kittens hadn't brought a libel suit against entrenched wealthy interests, wouldn't their cafe have had to close eventually anyway? Also was reminded of those lecture by Gayle Rubin on the leather community in San Francisco and how very specific local contingent factors meant that certain phenomena could arise, also very much within a specific time. Also that cities (if they are places where things are still happening rather than historical relics) tend to see changes all the time and there is a fluidity around spaces.

On the go

Still on the go, Diary at the Centre of the Earth, which I am enjoying a lot.

Exasperatingly, because of the e-reader issue and because Some Men in London 1960-1967 alleged it was not properly authorised I had to reauthorise my reader via Adobe Digital Editions, as a result of which a large number of my books have been removed from the ereader, including that one, removing my place markers when I reimported it.

Up next

Should probably get on to Anthony Powell, Hearing Secret Harmonies (A Dance to the Music of Time #12 (1975) for the final meeting of the book-group next month.

newredshoes

The plan for this morning involved a lot more tidying up, but Gingko has decided she's sleeping on top of me on the couch, so plans have rightfully changed. I keep meaning to write more — this has been my sparsest year ever with an online journal, which I've been keeping regularly since 2000 (holy shit). ( End-of-year navel-gazing )

I don't know — all these sentences are starting with I, but I don't really know if I have much to say right now! I read you all every day, though, and I am trying to get better about actually replying to comments and commenting on your posts, because online journaling like this has been an important part of my life for *whisper-screams* twenty-five years. I'm not going to try a graceful sign-off; here are the first sentences of each month in 2025, minus March, which apparently I just skipped, and honestly, given March, who wouldn't?

On the flight back from Jamaica, I was randomly selected for an incredibly thorough drug testing. Miss Ma'am has been FULL OF BEANS the past week or so; I keep trying to give her a predictable schedule and peaceful environment, but that can be difficult when she's just so big and so curious. I got hailed on this weekend! It has to be shared, it has to be recorded: My newest ride-or-die c-ent blorbo has a tragicomic history of style felonies, including big Cyrillic calligraphy tattoos (since lasered off), a bellybutton piercing, innumerable hair crimes and a pink handcuffs scandal!!!

That I got Juneteenth off work was a surprise yesterday around lunchtime, so I am very glad to have a recovery Thursday. I AM 41. I've now become a person who commutes to work by bike, and the thing that annoys me most, it turns out — is dudes on e-bikes. After a WHOLE bunch of teeth-gnashing and angst about an entirely unrelated thing, I am now asking myself: After many years away, should I sign up for Yuletide? I am a professional; I should know better than to wake up and immediately check the news. I kept wanting to write up entries and being too tired to do so; so much has happened. Okay, I really thought my crafting hyperfixation of the month was going to be beading on a loom.

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/hey-all-these-lyrics-i-forgot-2025

Should all baking skills be forgot?
And never brought to mind?

Could all that schooling be for naught?

For all
dang
time.

For allll da-aang tiiime, my dear
For old brain wine!

La DAAAA da daaaaa da
something, something...

For bald hang(over) time!

*****

Hey. You. Yes, you.

I LOVE YOU, MAN.

And you, too, lady.

Have fun tonight, guys, but please remember to always decorate responsibly.

Thanks to Anthony B., Lori D., Dimitra S., Cynthia P., & Jenny C. for helping us sing in the new yar.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/hey-all-these-lyrics-i-forgot-2025

trobadora

I've been a bit slow reading this year, but I couldn't let the year end without a batch of recs! Here are some stories I really enjoyed in the Yuletide collections this year.

17 recs in 22 Fandoms: Amadeus (1984), Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Alias (TV), Ancient History RPF, The Angel of the Crows - Katherine Addison, British Airways "May We Haveth One's Attention" Safety Video, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Coldfire Trilogy - C. S. Friedman, FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns, Hamlet - Shakespeare, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie, Jorinde und Joringel | Jorinde and Joringel (Fairy Tale), Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie, Mulan (Disney Animated Movies), 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV), Numinous World Series - Jo Graham, Der Ring des Nibelungen | The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner, The Philosophers Series - Tom Miller, Stargate Atlantis, Stealing Fire - Jo Graham, Troades | The Trojan Women - Euripides

( Roughly in alphabetical order by fandom )

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: enthralled

duckprintspress

1. What are you currently reading?

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault: I finally started! only two months behind our read-along, lmao. I read three chapters yesterday, and so far it's fine though it hasn't particularly grabbed me.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle: pretty in line with his other two horror novels. I liked it well enough! The existential themes spoke to my own struggles with the nature and importance (or lack there of) of existing.
Girl Friends vol. 2 by Milk Morinaga: I didn't like this one either; I've decided not to keep reading this. The mc is just so insanely insecure and bad at communicating.
The Glass Scientists vol. 3 by S. H. Cotugno: grabbed this the instant I saw it was available on Libby ~~on Christmas morning~~ and read it about as fast. I wish that the short story at the end had been more graphic novel instead, but other than that I'm pretty satisfied with this conclusion.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime manga vol. 3 by Fuse
The Way of the Househusband vol. 14 by Kousuke Oono
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua vol. 12 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Never Let Go vol. 3 by Saki Sakimoto: cute conclusion to this omegaverse bl.
铜钱龛世 manhua vol. 1 by Mu Su Li: oh man all the weird Buddhism and Fengshui related vocabulary made this harder than it shoulda been. I'm glad I've read it before.
Dinosaur Sanctuary vol. 6 by Itaru Kinoshita
Gachiakuta vol. 1 by Kei Urana: latest in my "what shounen is popular these days" reading. Interesting start.
Dandadan vol. 5 - 7 by Yukinobu Tatsu: I've also been watching the anime and my daughter keeps coming in to see what I'm watching and so I'm like, "are you wondering what it's about?" and she nodded, so I told her, "it's about a girl who believes in spirits but doesn't think aliens are real, and a boy who thinks aliens are real but doesn't believe in spirits, and how they both find out they're wrong because both things exist, and both want to steal the boy's penis" and the look she gave me and the way Lisa laughed.
Inside Mari vol. 1 by Shuzo Oshimi: I didn't realize til I was done with the volume that this was by the same author as Welcome Back, Alice which I found iffy enough that I didn't keep reading after vol. 1 but it was. interesting. Especially the author's afterword, which pretty clearly indicates "he" is actually a trans woman who just hasn't quite come to terms with it yet (I'm not projecting, I actually find "egg" discussion really uncomfortable most of the time, but the author literally says things like "have you ever wished you were a woman? not dressing like one or acting like one, but actually being one? I wish that all the time and it'll never happen and that's so depressing." I hope he's able to transition sometime.)
Sakamoto Days vol. 16 by Yuto Suzuki
Sweet or Bitter Love by Conro: weird and uncomfortable modern BL that didn't see like any of its plot threads to logical conclusions. Do not recommend.

3. What will you read next?

Novels: I ended up requeueing for A Drop of Corruption because I didn't think I could finish it in time, and now I'm 5 weeks back in the hold line again. I did a little reorganization on my physical novel TBR pile; I expect to (f.i.n.a.l.l.y.) read The City We Became and The World We Made by N. K. Jemisin next.

Physical library loans: none at the moment!

Libby loans: Failed Princess vol. 1 by Ajiichi is due in six days, so definitely that. Otherwise, I've got some leeway, I'll pick whatever of these catches my eye.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Rose Landry, Yuna Hollander, David Hollander
Rating: Teen
Length: 6 gif sets
Content Notes: some flashing lights.
Creator Links: ilyarozanovs on tumblr
Themes: canon LGBTQ+ characters, enemies to lovers, mutual pining, slow burn (romantically)

Summary: None given. Six gifsets, each containing 12 frames.

Reccer's Notes: These are especially good gifsets, one for each episode. They include split-screen gifs across frames, which I always find very impressive. A set of gorgeous montages for the episodes of season one.

Fanwork Links: Heated Rivalry season 1 gifsets, or backup link, or a direct link if not logged into tumblr (thanks, punk!) direct link

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: enthralled

andrewducker

Watching A New Hope with Gideon for the first time*, and while we were watching Ben Kenobi fight Darth Vader he kept saying "I really hope Darth Vader loses". I didn't say anything, but I couldn't help feeling bad...

*We started playing the Lego Skywalker Saga over Christmas. I thought he might enjoy seeing the movie and so far he's riveted. Sophia has refused to join us. Mostly on the grounds of "Not enough girls", which was her main objection when she tried watching it with me about two years ago.

icon_uk posting in

scans_daily

As has become traditional, we'll have two posts for the New Year. The old today, and the new tomorrow.

As the fires of 2025 becomes embers, we are reminded that it has seen us lose visionary creators including: Robert Orci, Jackson Guice, Peter David, Jim Shooter, Nancy Burton, Marie-Mad, Drew Struzan, Dave Taylor and David Lynch.

We may not have always agreed with some of the choices made, but these were influential figures. We honour their passing and thank them for their contributions to the art form we love.

And, in the spirit of remembering;

1) What were your favourite new comics this year?

This could mean:

Single issues?
Storylines?
Imprints?
Favourite new character(s)?

These can be new titles, or long established ones having a new breath of life blown into them?

(We don't want to know your least favourites, lets keep this positive)

Also

2) What were your favourite scans posted here on S_D, be they new or old?

Tomorrow we look to the future, but today, as we balance between the new and the old.... we look back... as long as we don't look down!

andrewducker

1. Study explores wellbeing impact of board games: (tags:boardgames mentalhealth happiness )
2. Disability charity chief condemns UK government as she rejects MBE: (tags:disability UK )
3. AI water use is complex (video, 24 minutes long, wide-ranging, lots of info): (tags:ai water video )

dolorosa_12

The last day of 2025 dawned clear, freezing, and frosty. I've spent the morning curled up in the living room, watching the sun rise, drinking Christmas spiced coffee, and reflecting on the year that was. I've been enjoying seeing everyone else's thoughts on their own 2025; mine are behind the cut.

( And the only sound is the broken sea )