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nightingaelic.bsky.social
✨️Night of Wands✨️
@nightingaelic.bsky.social
83 followers 210 following 420 posts
Adult, bi, very into Fallout, currently into Red Dead Redemption 2, The Sopranos, the evolution of feminism, my cats, and running a book club
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nightingaelic.bsky.social
My 3.25-star review of Neon Leviathan by T.R. Napper — This book taught me that Australians (and also extra-dimensional aliens) are just as into gambling as Americans
Text: As a debut book, T.R. Napper's anthology of short stories set in the same cyberpunk future triumphs more than it stumbles. Its settings feel lived-in, touchable, and its examination of a history where human memory loses all reliability before becoming a controlled resource is brilliantly claustrophobic. Napper's characters, however, feel incomplete. Some of this we can attribute to the various things their literary environment has taken from them, such as memory, purpose, opportunity, or safety, but much of it comes down to how their personalities are given a backseat while that environment and its injustices take center stage. This isn't to say that Napper can't write good characters: One of the best stories in the anthology is "The Weight of the Air, The Weight of the World," when much more time is given to the main character and the way she relates to the totalitarian regime she lives under. All in all, a decent start for this author, and I am keen to see what more he might conjure when given the time and space to do so. Cover of the book Neon Leviathan by T.R. Napper.
November 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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My 4.75-star review of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi — 🍉
Text: If something's bothering you about the way Palestine is vilified by Israel's government and its allies, Rashid Khalidi has created a very thorough starting point for anyone in need of information about how the conflict began and how it has endured. This book is a frank, disheartening description of how Zionism was co-opted by the great military and colonial powers of the day, from 1917 to 2017, to produce a nation intent on stamping out the native people of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It understands the major players and their motivations beyond religious belief, and it details the many governments that are at fault for the oppression and genocide that continues today. The text is also packed full of references to other works, many of them from Khalidi's ancestors and relatives that were preserved in the Khalidi Library. This does lend a noticeably-privileged perspective to the history within, as it is apparent that Khalidi's family and sources came from enough wealth and power to shield them from the worst atrocities, but it does not distract from the overview of inequality that emerges when the full picture is formed. Cover for the book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi.
November 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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My 3.75-star review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1 by Kanehito Yamada — I like Frieren well enough, but why are Himmel and Heiter so gross in the flashbacks
Text: A light, airy start to an elf's journey to understand her companions too late. This opening volume has a good sense of scale, a smattering of hooks, and a warm, fantastical tone that hints at a deeper world to explore ahead. Cover for the manga Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1 by Kanehito Yamada.
November 19, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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My 3.5-star review of Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson — Who the fuck is Hoid and why is he here stealing the spotlight
Text: Fans of The Princess Bride will like this one, as it pulls at many of the same heartstrings and Brandon Sanderson openly admits in his acknowledgments that his book was inspired by it. Tress is a sweet, lovable protagonist, even if she is supremely lucky beyond realism - but if she wasn't, this book wouldn't be as fun. That said, I hadn't read any of Sanderson's other works when I started this, so the narration being handled by a judgmental wizard of renown from outside Tress's world who becomes a MacGuffin that saves the day in the end was a strange decision. I'm sure Hoid is a great important somebody elsewhere in the Cosmere, but he's a baffling point of view for a newcomer to this setting, and a wild narrator for a cozy little story about a girl becoming a pirate who can literally manipulate the seas. I almost don't want to recommend this to anyone else unless I know they've read more from the same literary universe. However, I admit that I'm a bit older than the target audience, and younger readers probably won't mind Hoid's silly asides - they may even see him as a hook into a larger world. Cover for the book Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson.
November 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
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My 2-star review of Cold War Wisconsin by Christopher Sturdevant — I went to a meet-and-greet for this author and he spent half the presentation talking about competing in the 2015 Pyongyang Marathon, which is admirable but not super helpful if you're trying to write a Fallout TTRPG campaign
Text: Informative, if a little dry. I was hoping for some more details in Chris Sturdevant's book about day-to-day life and how it affected the people of Wisconsin, but he chose to focus on the individuals (and military machines) who left the state or traveled to the state or resided within the state to mark the 44 years of geopolitical tension. More of a tour through the highlights of Wisconsin's contributions than an immersion in the world of Cold War America. Cover for the book Cold War Wisconsin by Christopher Sturdevant.
November 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
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With a taste of a poison paradise
November 16, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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My 3.75-star review of The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley — Gripping, flawed, and squishy, just like a... no, I shan't say
Text: The first, and most obvious, adjective to describe Kameron Hurley's space epic is "visceral," and it's no wonder that critics have leapt to use it. This novel does not shy away from layering blood on top of desire on top of mucus on top of betrayal on top of entrails on top of ecological collapse on top of unidentifiable, cancerous goop. Main characters Zan and Jayd have to claw and crawl their way through fleshy landscapes, gut-wrenching space battles, sticky sex, and political intrigue toward an unknown, uncertain future. It's an odyssey in tandem: The women trade the spotlight, and the reader squirms and cheers and internally debates which of the two has the worst of the whole affair. Also? No men whatsoever. The second adjective I would apply to the story is "insufficient." Zan and Jayd's mysterious, taxing journeys build to a final reveal that does not meet the moment of triumph at all. It feels completely removed from the mountains the characters climbed, lacking in both context and weight. What could have been clues about the setting are instead packaged into exposition, telling us about the cool things that happened to lead up to this novel rather than showing them. Obviously, this is completely fixable. Hurley just has to write another book explaining why the tentacle planets are developing cancer, how the Mokshi managed to break away from the Legion, and how Zan and Jayd met and became inextricably linked in the first place. But perhaps those mysteries will remain mysteries, floating among the fleshy stars. Cover for the book The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley.
November 13, 2025 at 9:23 PM
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My 3.75-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 7 by Mokumokuren — Mama, a frog ghost behind you
Text: Mokumokuren's landmark monster boy manga is now shifting into the typical tale about teenagers saving the world, but that doesn't mean it's any less enthralling or endearing. His characters are earnest, vulnerable, flawed, and they smash against each other in ways that leave scars. The adults in the rural Japanese villages withhold information, ostensibly for the kids' own good, but to the detriment of those who feel obligated to fumble around in the dark anyway. Shapes move on the other side of a dimensional divide, and you get the sense that wherever this story is going, it will be painful, but worth it. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 7 by Mokumokuren.
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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My 3.25-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 5 by Mokumokuren — Great things happening in this one for people who know what a serow is
Text: Having grown up in rural America, it's an aching feeling to see the same small-town issues plaguing rural Japan, even under paranormal fantasy layers constructed by Mokumokuren. The thoughtfulness of incorporating tight-knit communal secrets; beautiful, odd, ancient traditions passed on without context; and self-sustaining practices that once kept villages alive in near-isolation becoming a yoke around the necks of non-conforming youth, who are now connected to a wider world they long to join, make this manga a bittersweet read. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 5 by Mokumokuren.
November 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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My 3.75-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 5 by Mokumokuren — If Guillermo del Toro hasn't read this manga yet, he should
Text: Mokumokuren's decision to depict "Hikaru" with a reading list composed of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and the Japanese folk tale Tsuru no Ongaeshi is really giving the game away. That said, it's about damn time that a manga about a relationship between a boy and an unfathomable creature that looks more like a Lovecraftian splash of paint than a sexy fish man got popular enough to warrant millions of circulating copies. I am looking forward to the rest of these crazy kids' adventures in small-town Japan. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 5 by Mokumokuren.
November 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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My 3-star review of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea No. 1) by Rebecca Thorne — Cozy fantasy is way better when there's actual stakes involved and not just, "What if the barista serving you a scone and latte was a tiefling?"
Text: I picked up this book as a second attempt at enjoying the cozy fantasy genre, and overall I'd say it was a success. Rebecca Thorne has written a cute, inviting, feel-good romance between a runaway palace guard and the most powerful mage in the realms, in which they settle down in some provincial town to start a tea and bookshop. It's sweet, it's gay, it's charming, and it's a comfortable read. There's just one problem for me: The best bits of this novel are the uncomfortable, thrilling parts. I had the most fun when Kianthe was fighting dragons, when Reyna was ignoring her own injuries, when the politics of the small town of Tawney or the court of the Queendom or Shepara's Magicary were interfering with the lives of the two lovebirds on the lam. The many obstacles between the women and their happily ever after are by far the best parts of the story, so much so that I found myself rushing through every page of barn renovations, tea selection, and patisserie baking in search of the next plot hook. I don't want to pick apart whether or not this book fits the cozy fantasy genre — given how often it dips into typical adventurous fantasy, I'm sure that's an ongoing debate among fans — but I do know that I gave zero shits about the tea shop. Reyna might be a genius baker, but she's way more fun to read about as a self-doubting, treasonous swordswoman. Kianthe might want to escape the responsibilities of being the magically-gifted Arcandor, but that give-and-take between selfishness and selflessness can't ever be completely balanced. If the book is going to split the time between tea and thrills, I prefer the thrills. Cover for the book Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea No. 1) by Rebecca Thorne.
November 5, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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My 3.75-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 4 by Mokumokuren — Featuring everyone's favorite possessed creature, a haunted hamster!
Text: The mysteries of Kubitachi begin to unravel as Yoshiki and Hikaru pick at them, and in turn, the ghosts of the village come out to play. Mokumokuren adds depth, intrigue, and the pain of responsibility placed on youth to this beautifully-drawn manga. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 4 by Mokumokuren.
November 4, 2025 at 3:24 PM
nightingaelic.bsky.social
Also, thoroughly enjoying the umbrella morphology discussion in NPR's replies
November 4, 2025 at 2:43 AM
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My 3.5-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 3 by Mokumokuren — Hear me out, what if Yuuki and Asako are going through the exact same thing as Hikaru and Yoshiki, but they got over the terrifying responsibilities of having a monster best friend way faster because they're hardened teenage girls
Text: Finally, the girls get to do something! Mokumokuren deftly introduces the dynamics of Yoshiki and Hikaru's friend group to the questions raised by the narrative: What makes a person, a person? What does life mean, to a monster that can straddle the divide between life and death? What would you do, if the thing that replaced your best friend was dangerous? And what would Yoshiki look like with cornrows? Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 3 by Mokumokuren.
November 3, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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Somebody is having fun with the weekly ship arrivals schedule in Duluth
November 1, 2025 at 3:24 AM
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My only instance of "number go up" fascination is periodically checking my place in line for ebooks on Libby
October 31, 2025 at 9:11 PM
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My 3.5-star review of Space Opera (Space Opera No. 1) by Catherynne M. Valente — Maybe if I watched Eurovision, I'd get more of the in-jokes, but this was still a fun read
Text: Catherynne M. Valente must have been an enormous fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as the tone and adventures of her own novel resemble that book so closely, but she has thoughtfully made the humans of her story just as colorful and outlandish as the alien species they are thrust among. They glow, they quiver, they don't conform to gender norms, they're washed-up has-beens, and they have to save the world in a singing contest while dealing with crushing guilt over past tragedies and assassination attempts from zombified red pandas. All in all, a heartwarming first contact story. Still, the overindulgence of a glittering space Eurovision spills over into the structure of the text in a bad way. Near the beginning, I found myself needing to re-read sentences up to three times in order to fully grasp what was written. If you can power through the first few chapters of this book's horrendous run-on sentences, it stabilizes into something easier to parse and get lost in. Cover for the book Space Opera (Space Opera No. 1) by Catherynne M. Valente.
October 29, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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My 3-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 2 by Mokumokuren — Why do Japanese teens get to learn how to fry chicken in class, but American teens don't?
Text: The stifling atmosphere of the Japanese boondocks surrounded by dark forests returns in Mokumokuren's second entry in this manga, chock-full of adolescent longing, new ghosts, and fried chicken. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 2 by Mokumokuren.
October 28, 2025 at 8:51 PM
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My 3-star review of The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1 by Mokumokuren — What if your favorite guy died and came back wrong, but he had a massive crush on you
Text: An intriguing opening to a manga about the visceral, goopy messiness of a first love arrested. I am looking forward to the depth promised by Mokumokuren's mystery hook and unsettling art. Cover for the manga The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1 by Mokumokuren.
October 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
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My 2.5-star review of Neuromancer by William Gibson — That Apple TV adaptation is going to have to pour Case into a slow cooker with some bay leaves and put him on low heat for 9 hours before he resembles anything worth watching onscreen
Text: William Gibson may have adapted and invented many of the tropes that the cyberpunk literary genre is known for, but after reading this book, I can't say that's necessarily a good thing. In fact, if you're familiar with the genre already and are smitten enough to want to read its progenitor, I can't even bring myself to recommend this novel - it feels too cliché, 40 years later. The familiar story beats about AI developing personalities and desires, a computer-generated parallel world to manipulate, a layer of Cold War anxiety about Japanese industrial supremacy, a hustler from the gutter who is raised from obscurity to take on the elite, the razorgirl who's going to help him do it and sleep with him when she's not busy, the heist, the commodification of humanity, the body modifications, the love interest who was fridged early so the main character can ponder her loss with a cigarette while his new girl does things infinitely more interesting than he ever could - it's all there, and none of it is in service of a story good enough to warrant any of its trappings. It just didn't age well. My main question for Gibson is this - why is Case necessary to the plot at all, when huge chunks of his story are spent inhabiting the mind and eyes of Molly, the real main character who was shunted to the side in favor of this guy? Cover for the book Neuromancer by William Gibson.
October 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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My 1.25-star review of Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks — The most horrific part of this book was when the IDF showed up
Text: Max Brooks has hopped from writing about spooky zombies to writing about spooky Sasquatch. Rather than unpack the interesting background premise he sets up about Mount Rainier erupting and cutting off Seattle and surrounding communities from aid, Brooks strands his reader in an affluent, purportedly-green energy mountain town and sics a family of Gigantopithecus descendants on them. Setting aside the laughable idea of Gigantopithecus surviving unnoticed in some form to the present day, the constant references to Halo Top ice cream, Mission: Impossible, Archer, and the Muppets, and the fact that every one of the diverse characters in the book has the same voice regardless of background, this novel makes the truly heinous decision to directly compare the Sasquatch-besieged residents of Greenloop to the state of the nation of Israel, takes a pit stop to scold anti-Zionist Jews, and then follows that up with the imperative for Greenloop to defend itself and "kill them all." I guess Bigfoot is Arabic, and therefore deserves to die. Sure, Max. Cover for the book Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks.
October 20, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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My 5-star review of A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning No. 1) by Ava Reid — You wanna move to a house on a cliff that's crumbling into the sea, you wanna move to the seaside SO BAD
Text: I am afraid that Ava Reid's first entry in Young Adult fantasy fiction may never lose its relevance. It's an odd thing to say about a dark academia mystery/romance, I'm aware, but the themes captured in this book feel timeless — however unfortunate that timelessness may be. Every few months, there's a report about another writer who used his popularity and power to abuse women and girls. Victims are put on pedestals, torn down, ransacked for parts, relegated to the infantilized role of the "muse," or simply tossed aside. It's wrath-inducing. It's exhausting. It's dehumanizing. And it feels like tenderness, to see that same story told in a way where the deception is uncovered and the cycle of harm is halted. It feels cathartic to read about an escape. The book isn't perfect. The predators in this have their actions softened by magical fate, though perhaps this was intended to show that something beyond innate flaws can create monsters. Effy, the main character, has biases that she never confronts, but she may get around to them in the sequel. Love interest Preston is a tad flat. The whole story ends on a peaceful, anticipatory breath, before the consequences of the plot arrive. That's alright. It feels good to live a little while in that moment before the leap. Cover for the book A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning No. 1) by Ava Reid.
October 15, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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My 4.5-star review of Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood (Persepolis No. 1) by Marjane Satrapi — Particularly love the use of black and white space in this graphic novel, it's a real classic, and also ژن، ژیان، ئازادی
Text: In portraying her youthful years in Iran, Marjane Satrapi finds the power within her own powerlessness as a girl growing up during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Satrapi deftly depicts the choices her family made to stay alive, well, and together, and the choices she made to push at the walls she was confined to. This graphic novel is a warm, bloody reminder that there are real people beneath the bullet points of Middle Eastern conflict, below the power players that take up all the air, and behind the struggle for Iranians' personal and religious independence. Cover for the book Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood (Persepolis No. 1) by Marjane Satrapi.
October 13, 2025 at 4:37 PM
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AAAAAAAA
October 8, 2025 at 9:12 PM
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Help???
October 8, 2025 at 9:11 PM