Tag: sci fi

Book Review | Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Posted April 27, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he’s pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―”for the algorithm”―Misha discovers that it’s not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what’s right―before it’s too late.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

A bookclub friend recommended this book and author very highly, and I finally got around to reading it!

The Quotes

“On a long enough timeline, endings are inevitable. Tragedy is inevitable. Fortunately, so is joy.”

“It’s not just about telling queer stories… It’s about telling all kinds of queer stories. Yes, there can be tragedy and death and darkness. There’s an important place for that. But don’t forget about queer beauty and queer catharsis and queer joy. Every gay character doesn’t need to die in the first scene, or in a third act blaze of glory to save everyone else. Support queer heroes, not just on screen, but off screen, too.”

“This is how scary stories work, how horror works. We’re all still here, safe and alive. We’ve had that primal rush and exercised those muscles to remind us death is eventually coming for everyone, but not today.”

The Narrator(s)

André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, Georgia Bird, Liz Kerin, Mara Wilson, Mark Oshiro, Sarah Gailey, Stephen Graham Jones, T. Kingfisher, TJ Klune. I loved the narration and it all felt very seamless.

My Thoughts

I pretty much went into this blind and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! It came highly recommended but I had no idea what to expect because the author has written several books with risque titles and while I was open to trying new things, I was also prepared for maybe some NSFW content within the story.

It turned out to be quite an interesting sci-fi futuristic horror story, and I absolutely loved how creative it was! I also love the commentaries about how queer characters should be represented more without needing queerness to be a part of their identity in the stories, and the one about why we love horror stories and how they often serve as cautionary tales to make sense of why certain bad things happen.

It was all very thoughtful and well-written, humorous and yet also thrilling. I got really anxious near the end. There was also a reference to Camp Damascus, another book written by the author which I haven’t read but is on my TBR. He’s got a couple of other books with “normal” titles I’d like to read, but if I’m feeling brave enough I might try his risque titles one day.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Posted June 30, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity’s battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Long ago, Earth’s terraforming program sent ships out to build new homes for humanity among the stars and made an unexpected discovery: a planet with life. But the scientists were unaware that the alien ecosystem was more developed than the primitive life forms originally discovered.

Now, thousands of years later, the Portiids and their humans have sent an exploration vessel following fragmentary radio signals. They discover a system in crisis, warring factions trying to recover from an apocalyptic catastrophe arising from what the early terraformers awoke all those years before.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #42: Non-human antagonist)

The Reason

The next book in the Children of Time series. I enjoyed the first book, so I thought I’d read this one too.

The Quotes

“We’re going on an adventure.”

“Advance science as far as you like, the human mind continued to place itself at the centre of the universe.”

“An inclination to play God was part and parcel of wanting to go out and terraform other worlds, but good practice was to at least play nicely with the rest of the pantheon.”

“Senkovi’s personal theory was that the pressure of being in the middle of the food chain was an essential prerequisite for complex intelligence. Like humans (and like Portiid spiders, had he only known), octopuses had developed in a world where they were both hunter and hunted. Top predators, in Senkovi’s assessment, were an intellectual dead end.”

The Narrator(s)

Mel Hudson. I continue to enjoy her narration.

My Thoughts

This book went simultaneously faster and slower than I expected, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like so many things happened, but they happened slowly, and most of it was anticipation waiting for things to happen than things actually happening.

There are new sentient organisms in this book, in addition to the spiders from the first book; octopuses and slime parasites. The slime parasites were scary and the octopuses were mysterious, and I feel like we still haven’t gotten to know either of them well yet. There seems to be a continuity with the books though, so I am curious to see what happens with them in the next book. I’d love to see their adventures and everything they learn and whatever comes out from that!

I am also happy to see the way the humans and spiders work together in this book, two species evolving together and learning to live together, work together, etc. I loved seeing it on the page. These books span centuries and generations of life, so we don’t always have the same characters from the start of the story, but the stories and characters really bury themselves into your heart, even so! I’m excited to read the next book and see what happens next!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Posted August 14, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

A race for survival among the stars… Humanity’s last survivors escaped earth’s ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?

WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I have heard so much praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky but I haven’t read any of his books. People say this is a good one to start with, so I started with this.

The Quotes

“That is the problem with ignorance. You can never truly know the extent of what you are ignorant about.”

“A life lived entirely at the whim of another is no life at all.”

“This will be the first of a thousand worlds that we will give life to. For we are gods, and we are lonely, so we shall create.”

“Sometimes all it takes, to crack a problem, is a new perspective.”

“The elegant and sophisticated way of life that the spiders have built for themselves has always been strung over a great abyss of barbarism, cannibalism and a return to primitive, savage values. After all, they are predators at heart.”

The Narrator(s)

Mel Hudson. No complaints, she was great!

My Thoughts

I went in not knowing what to expect. The book description doesn’t really give away any specific details so it was mostly just an abstract idea for me going in. I ended up really loving it! I love that it features spiders as an evolutionary species, and that they are a matriarchal society. It was so interesting seeing the way their culture and beliefs evolve, it was so interesting to see them evolve into sentient beings!

To be clear, a whole lot of nothing happens until the end, but the during all the “nothing” that happens, we see a lot of subtle learning, growth, evolution, change. It’s so fascinating! I am very curious about the next books and where the story will go from here.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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