Month: September 2025

Book Review – A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

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A Closed and Common Orbit is the second novel in the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. During the events of the first book, the spaceship the Wayfarer suffered damage after an attack, compromising the ship’s AI. The crew failed to reboot her with her memories intact, so “Lovey” effectively died, leaving only Lovelace, the AI operating at factory settings. Lovey’s crew, alongside her human lover Jenks, were too grief-stricken to keep Lovelace with them, so they uploaded her into the android kit they had illegally intended for Lovey to use, and she left under the care of a close friend of the crew. Lovelace, giving herself the new moniker of Sidra, must now navigate living incognito as a human being, an existence far outside of the remits of her programming (and comfort) and one actively dangerous for herself and her new friends, should her true nature be uncovered.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – September 24, 2025

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www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’ve got a little bit left, but I’m almost finished reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. I started out enjoying this book quite well, but I really didn’t expect to end up loving it as much as I do. Despite the “children’s book” label, it feels as deep as any other novel in the series, just a little more streamlined and shorter, and I’ve been really enjoying how richly it has been exploring the rats’ emergence into sapience and how they must navigate thinking of themselves and others as people and what that means for who they are collectively going forward. The only thing I feel a little stuck on is it felt like the story had its climax and was ready to wrap up, but there were still 40 pages left. I’m hoping it still ends on a strong note and doesn’t feel disjointed.

Recently Finished

Nothing new this week.

Reading Next

Very soon, I’m going to start reading a selection of books I’ve chosen for the Halloween season, but as a primer this week and perhaps into next week, depending on how long it takes me, I’m going to start reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu. Unfortunately, I didn’t find Strange Houses to be all that great, though it wasn’t without its intrigue, so I’m trying to remain optimistic that I’ll like this one. Strange Pictures was the first of his books to catch my eye, and I’m more drawn in by the idea of unusual pictures being the focal point rather than rampant speculation over bizarre floor plans, so maybe it will work out. If I find this one to be lackluster as well, I probably won’t pick up anymore of Uketsu’s work in the future.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – September 17, 2025

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www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

This week I started reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, the 28th novel in the Discworld series. As a series first, if memory serves, this book is apparently more of a children’s novel. So far, it reads more or less like any other book in the series, except it is perhaps more straightforward in its approach and more concretely divides things up into chapters (a change I really welcome). I’m just in the early phases so far, but I’m enjoying its take on the Pied Piper folk tale by shifting the focus to sentient talking rats and a cat. Already I’m especially enjoying Pratchett’s exploration of beings that previously couldn’t think like people suddenly being able to and how they come to grips with that.

Recently Finished

Over the last week I read through The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, a book containing the author’s essay on absurdist philosophy. I’ve got to say, this book was a real struggle for me. Part of it was the writing style, which had syntax I found awkward (no doubt due to it being a translation), and a lot of it was just fully trying to process the ideas he was laying out. I used a number of tricks to help keep myself focused on the text, including reading along to an audiobook until that became annoying, as well as watching videos breaking down what certain chapters are getting at and then rereading them. I’m glad I put the effort into really understanding what this philosophy was all about rather than letting the words wash over my brain and fall away like droplets off a duck’s back. I believe I left with a decent grasp of the core ideas, but this was an unfortunately arduous reading experience.

Reading Next

I’ve started to compile books that I want to read for the Halloween season next month, though I haven’t decided on which will start things off.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – September 10, 2025

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www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

This week I started reading The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, and despite its short length, I’m definitely in for a challenge. It’s not often that I read philosophy as it is, and so far I have found this a little difficult to digest, with me currently at about 30 pages in. After finishing one of the early chapters, in fact, I looked up something explaining it more plainly and then reread the entire thing; if I’m really going to do this, I ought to be as steadfast about understanding it as I can. Despite my issues, I am finding it legitimately fascinating, and I’m hoping that I will have to seek secondary sources for clarity on meaning less and less as I get further into it. I’m especially intrigued by the notion, as I understand it, that the absurdity in absurdism is not the inherent nature of the universe but an experience human beings have when their need for unified meaning from the universe clashes with its uncaring inhumanity.

Recently Finished

Last week I finally finished reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. I really liked this book, but I feel like Pepper’s upbringing kind of stole the spotlight away from Sidra and her experiences coming to terms with living in a humanoid body. It still made for a really interesting book, and the two plot lines ended up coming together really well, but the more interesting aspect was Sidra figuring out how to be a person with bodily autonomy, not the story of a discarded waif living in a junkyard being raised by a ship’s AI and wanting to get off-world. Despite this, I have a much greater impression of the latter situation and all that she went through than the former, which is a shame. They never cleared the air on holding the crew from the first book accountable in some way either, which is a pity. There’s just so much untapped potential over what to explore with Sidra as a character.

Reading Next

I’m not sure what I’m going to read next, as The Myth of Sisyphus is commanding all of my attention.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

New Books & Novel Discoveries (August 2025)

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August was almost a month of significant note, as it was very close to becoming the first month since January 2018 that I hadn’t bought a single new book. This is on the heals of having gone to Fan Expo again this year, a destination that used to be a guarantee of buying new comics but sadly is hardly worth it for that anymore. However, at a moment of feeling low, late into the month, I found myself browsing a bookstore. During my browse, I found something I’d been looking for, and me with a bit of Expo spending money left over. So, the streak continues.

Let’s see what I picked up.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – September 3, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m still in the middle of reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, though I’m within the final 100 pages, so I’m hoping I can get it done this week. It’s a solid novel so far, I am really liking it, though it’s still hard not to compare it to the first one and how much I liked it. However, this novel has given me a bone to pick with the crew of the first novel, though I’m inclined to hold back a little because the totality of their rationale is not fresh in my mind. Nevertheless, I really think the crew of the Wayfarer did Sidra dirty by sending her off in the kit. I get that they were grieving the loss of Lovey, but couldn’t they have modded Lovelace (Sidra) to have a difference voice? She’s ostensibly a new person and the ship is going to need a new AI anyway, surely, so why did they send this poor being off in a body she didn’t want, that she struggles to feel comfortable in on a daily basis? I’m really hoping this novel addresses this problem eventually, because it’s honestly an elephant in the room and they need to be held accountable at least a little.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week. Work has been rather busy and I’ve been singularly focused on what I’m still currently reading.

Reading Next

No new plans this week, and I’m still planning to start The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus next. This is normally a week I would perhaps skip, but I had a lot to say about what I’m currently reading.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.