Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

First sentence:

"Nobody ever believed murders 'just happened' around Mallory Viridian."

Description:

"From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn't make you a charming amateur detective -- it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. Her new existence is peacefully quiet at first. . .and markedly devoid of homicide.

But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime--and fast--or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board. . .." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book in The Midsolar Murders series. I liked how Mallory learns why murders happen around her and how important she is in solving them. I also liked the various aliens on the sentient ship, Eternity, particularly the Gneiss. I look forward to reading the next book, Chaos Terminal.

Date read: 7/24/2025
Series: The Midsolar Murders, #1
Genres: SF / Mystery
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 059309811?
ISBN-13: 9780593098110
Imprint: Ace
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Year: 2022
# of pages: 453
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Deadspawn by Brian Lumley

First sentence:

"'Harry,' Darcy Clarke's voice of twitchy on the phone, but he was trying hard to contain it. 'There's a problem we could use some help with. Your kind of help.'"

Description:

"There's a maniacal murderer on the loose, brutally slaughtering young women with a ferocity that rivals that of the vampires Harry Keogh has spent his life combatting. The Necroscope's been asked to solve the crimes. . .asked by the dead spirits of the madman's victims.

Harry cannot turn down a request from the dead. . .even if it costs him his soul. In the climactic battle with the vampires, mankind prevailed and purged the vampires from earth -- thanks fo Harry, his team of psychically-gifted spies, and Faethor Ferenczy, long-dead 'father' of the world's vampires, who betrayed his own kind.

But Harry's alliance with Faethor has a terrible cost -- Harry's very humanity is under attack from the vampire evil coiled in his mind!" -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

It was a long time since I had read this series, so I was glad to read an extensive recap at the beginning of this book. I enjoyed this book about Keough and how he's changing and I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Blood Brothers.

Date read: 6/26/2025
Genre: Horror
Series: Necroscope, #5
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0812508351
ISBN-13: 9780812508352
Imprint: Tor Book
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
Year: 1991
# of pages: 602
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The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman

First sentence:

"Ethan died of a burst appendix."

Description:

"Jason is having a bad day. The kind of day when you just don't feel like yourself. Only, for Jason, it's not just a feeling. He really isn't himself. Not anymore.

Who is he? That's the problem. Jason isn't sure. And it's not just him. Everyone in town is acting weird. His friends. His parents. Everyone. Billington is usually such a normal town. As Jason is about to discover, nothing will ever be normal again." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book about teenagers who discover that their town isn't as ordinary as they thought and neither are they nor their parents. While it seemed to be a bit rushed at the end, it was still a fascinating and enjoyable read.

Date read: 5/1/2025
Genre: SF
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 1442422815
ISBN-13: 9781442422810
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 1997
# of pages: 230
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Revisions of by Goodloe Byron

First sentence:

"The following passage he read aloud."

Description:

"Nathan First is a childlike biography, making barely enough from his writing to survive. His only source of contact with the outside world is his sister, whose recent marriage has left Nathan to his own devices. 

Moved by a paltry obituary that he reads in the paper, Nathan sets out to compose his masterpiece; a biography of an ordinary man. But this will be no ordinary book, as Nathan becomes increasingly ambitious, the project blossoms into a study of dark matter, and appears to contain the abandoned history of the world." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This is an interesting book about a man whose self-consciousness gets in the way of his work and relationships. I liked how Nathan wanted to write a biography, but not how he interacted with others.

Date read: 4/13/2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

Publisher: Brown Paper Publishing
Year: 2009
# of pages: 238
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

 First sentence:

"'In animal life the weak are quickly disposed of'"

Description:

"In 1936, the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and imaginative daring, ingenious self-invention, and, in the end, a bittersweet--but very 'American'--triumph. 'You are born her, they will not hurt you'--so the grave digger has predicted for his daughter, which will turn out to be true.

In The Gravedigger's Daughter, Oates has created a masterpiece of domestic yet mythic realism, at once emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative: an intimately observed testimony to the resilience of the individual to set beside such predecessors as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys." - from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a book that will probably stay with me for a long time. I admired Rebecca and the way she found strength and purpose in her life. Despite, or maybe, because of her early years, she made sure she was always there for her son, and, most importantly, knew when to drop back as he found his own way in the world. 

Date read: 4/4/2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5*/5

ISBN-10: 0061236829
ISBN-13: 9780061236822
Imprint: Ecco
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2013
# of pages: 582
Binding: Hardcover
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Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

First sentence:

"Five hours' New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm."

Description:

"We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition. . .

Cayce Pollard is a new kind of prophet--a world-renowned 'coolhunter' who predicts the hottest trends. While in London to evaluate the redesign of a famous corporate logo, she's offered a different assignment: find the creator of the obscure, enigmatic video clips being uploaded on the Internet--footage that is generating massive underground buzz worldwide.

Still haunted by the memory of her missing father--a Cold war security guru who disappeared in downtown Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001--Cayce is soon traveling through parallel universes of marketing, globalization, and terror, heading always for the still point where the three converge. From London to Tokyo to Moscow, she follows the implications of a secret as disturbing--and compelling--as the twenty-first century promises to be. . ." -- inside the front cover

My thoughts:

This is an interesting book about finding meaning in the real and virtual worlds. Cayce Pollard navigates both worlds as she searches for the creator of a set of digital footage which may or may not be a finite piece of art. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Spook Country.

Date read: 3/19/2025
Series: Blue Ant, #1
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0425192938
ISBN-13: 978042519293
Imprint: Berkley Publishing Group
Publisher: Penguin Group
Year: 2004 (this edition)
# of pages: 356
Binding: Trade Paperback
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High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver

First sentence:

"A hermit crab lives in my house."

Description:

"Barbara Kingsolver has entertained and touched the lives of legions of readers with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novels The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Pigs in Heaven.

In these twenty-five newly conceived essays, she returns once again to her favored literary terrain to explore the themes of family, community, and the natural world. With the eyes of a scientist and the vision of a poet, Kingsolver writes about notions as diverse as modern motherhood, the history of private property, and the suspended citizenship of humans in the animal kingdom. Her canny pursuit of meaning from an inscrutable world compels us to find instructions for life in surprising places: a museum of atomic bomb relics, a West African voodoo love charm, an iconographic family of paper dolls, the ethics of a wild pig who persistently invades a garden, a battle of wills with a two-year-old, or a troop of oysters who observe high tide in the middle of Illinois.

In sharing her thoughts about the urgent business of being alive, Kingsolver the essayist employs the same keen eyes, persuasive tongue, and understanding heart that characterize her acclaimed fiction."  -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir. Kingsolver gives the reader a glimpse into her life and the many aspects that inspire her writing. 

Date read: 2/17/2025
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 5*/5

ISBN-10: 0060172916
ISBN-13: 9780060172916
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 1995
# of pages: 270
Binding: Hardcover
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