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It’s very satisfying to learn more about Sigurd, and I’m impressed with how well Bennett wove his backstory and exposition into a genuinely exciting action sequence.

I’ve been enjoying this throughout, but it’s really ramping up in a very fun and satisfying manner now.

I’m intrigued after one chapter. Bennett’s writing is crisp and fluid and sparky, and the world he’s created feels original, at least in the early going.

Read Susan Palwick’s tender, compact “Windows”

Read “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back,” an enjoyable little trifle of a tale by the now-known-to-be-very-problematic Neil Gaiman

Finished Part Two. It’s gotten satisfyingly more and more emotionally complicated for our characters as it’s gone on.

Finished Part One. It’s refreshingly intimate with closely observed, authentically drawn characters.

Read and enjoyed the first chapter. It’s pleasantly zippy and feels alive. I will say it’s a bit jarring to read something as peppy as this after being in the presence of Ursula K. Le Guin’s restrained poetry for the past few days. But it’s also a refreshing contrast.

I’m finding myself slowing down a bit as I near the end of this masterpiece, mostly because I’m wanting to savor and immerse myself in one of the most surprisingly magnificent sequences of writing I’ve ever encountered in any novel: the depiction of two people on a harrowing, lonely trek across hundreds of miles of ice.

Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the most innovative thinkers and masterful crafter of language of anyone who’s ever put pen to paper.

I’m rereading this masterpiece 7 years after my first encounter with it. Only chapter in and I am once again awed by Le Guin’s rich and complex approach, and her incredible skill at crafting beautiful, evocative sentences.

Read Jo Walton’s intriguing “Sleeper”

Read Theodora Goss’s fascinating, haunting “Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology”

Read Sofia Samatar’s evocative, inventive anti-colonization story “Ogres of East Africa”

Read Seanan McGuire’s mermaid tale “Each to Each.” This is my second encounter with her work, and I’m once again pretty allergic to what she offers. I recognize that she has intriguing ideas and that her voice is distinctive in its own way. But I have bounced off of caring about any of her characters, and I don’t find myself buying into the worlds she creates.

Read two more brief but distinctive glimpses into lost souls’ lives: “Teenage Punk” and “Steps”

Read “How to Get Back to the Forest” by Sofia Samatar, “Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead” by Carmen Maria Machado, “Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable” by Cat Rambo, “The Bad Graft” by Karen Russell, and “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. All are vividly written, featuring bold ideas. Of these, I most enjoyed Machado’s darkly funny and sad story.

Glad to re-enter the Expanse universe with this novella, which is so far a satisfyingly intimate character study.

Read the amusing “Electric Car, El Paso” and the disturbingly frank “Sex Appeal.”

Read “Friends” and “Unmangeable,” both excellent mini stories. The first was a touching portrait of an elderly couple, and the second was a harrowing glimpse into the life of a severely alcoholic mother of two.

Read “Melina,” a wonderfully compact tale of an intoxicating beauty.

Read Lucius Shepard’s fascinating, poetic, and wholly original novella “The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter.”

Read 4 very strong, distinctive stories: Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Skin Deep,” an affecting exploration of colonists misunderstanding native peoples; D. Alexander Smith’s “Dying in Hull,” a touching portrait of a stubborn elderly woman surviving in a flooded town; Kathe Koja’s cyberpunk “Distances,” which featured wonderfully inventive writing; and Kim Newman’s wryly amusing “Famous Monsters”

Read Pat Cadigan’s enjoyably hallucinatory, sensual, and crisp “It Was the Heat.”

Read Stephen Kraus’ “Emissary.” Kraus took an intriguingly fresh approach to inventing the circumstances surrounding a man’s first contact with aliens, but his choice of having a character speak in a long monologue rankled.

Read John Kessel’s “Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner,” which I had read as a teenager, and remembered loving. It wasn’t quite as excellent as my memory held it to be, but it was a solidly effective character study and cautionary tale.

Read James Lawson’s “Sanctuary,” which was the rare cyberpunk story that features richly drawn characters whose emotional lives matter to the plot; and Michael Swanwick’s fascinating “The Dragon Line,” which showcases an unusually dark portrait of Merlin.

Read Kim Stanley Robinson’s excellent, subtle, and quietly moving “Goacier.”

I’m enjoying the atmosphere of the setting Barnes has created, but man oh man her quirks as a writer are really grating on me.

After rereading a couple of amazing and dense masterpieces, I’m in the mood for some popcorn. This was selected by the SFF Book Club so I’m curious to see how enjoyable it is. Aside from one of my last two rereads, I haven’t read one of the monthly selections in some time.