Category Archives: Awesome

On the Calculation of Volume III – Solvej Balle (tr. Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell)

Posted on 10/03/2026 by Roseanna

Recently, Ada Palmer had an essay published in Strange Horizons, talking about how writers within SF are also historians. I disagreed with several things in the essay, but have to admit it has been a great conversation starter. Especially as … Continue reading →

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On the Calculation of Volume II – Solvej Balle (tr. Barbara J. Haveland)

Posted on 16/02/2026 by Roseanna

I didn’t review the first book of On the Calculation of Volume, and that was a mistake. It was exceptionally good, following an antiquarian bookseller called Tara Selter as she finds herself trapped in a timeloop, reliving one November day … Continue reading →

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Hav – Jan Morris

Posted on 14/02/2026 by Roseanna

Did I write a whole ass essay on genre for Strange Horizons? Perhaps. But that hasn’t stopped me thinking about it. And only more so since I read Hav by Jan Morris, for which any decisions I make about genre … Continue reading →

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Things to read if you loved Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman

Posted on 26/10/2025 by Roseanna

First up, congrats on your amazing taste in books! High five. But alas, assuming you have already burned through Fellman’s back catalogue (if you haven’t, why not, fix that, and then come flail at me about The Breath of the … Continue reading →

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When There Are Wolves Again – E. J. Swift

Posted on 08/10/2025 by Roseanna

The new novel from the author of The Coral Bones, When There Are Wolves Again follows two women in Britain from the present, stretching out across the years into the future of the late 21st century. One of the women … Continue reading →

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Private Rites – Julia Armfield

Posted on 29/12/2024 by Roseanna

My overwhelming impression of this book is rain. Constant, undramatic, pervasive, it haunts the margins of the story so effectively that it has overwhelmed my memory of it, forming a damp sheen over the foregrounded aspects of the story. It’s … Continue reading →

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Three Eight One – Aliya Whiteley

Posted on 22/12/2024 by Roseanna

Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley is the story of Fairly, a young girl setting out on a quest away from home for the first time, on something called the Horned Road. The story comes with annotations by a reader … Continue reading →

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The Breath of the Sun – Isaac R. Fellman

Posted on 30/11/2024 by Roseanna

One of the questions on the little slips of paper through which our book club runs asks: Was the author better at describing the concrete or the abstract? Did the use of description affect your reading of the book? Obviously, … Continue reading →

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Posted on 21/09/2024 by Roseanna

When you say of a book “oh it’s doing a lot of things”, that’s normally at least a subtle burn, a mild sass. The implication is one of too many balls juggled, and thus at least a couple dropped. But … Continue reading →

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These Burning Stars – Bethany Jacobs

Posted on 05/09/2024 by Roseanna

It says something about where we are in SF, that an author can just say “jump gates”, never explain them, and expect the reader to follow along just fine. It also says something about what the author is – and … Continue reading →

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