Time to vote for the short stories...

1. Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather, Sarah Pinsker. A fun, creepy story, excellent use of unusual form.
2. Mr. Death, Alix E. Harrow. A nicely told tale, good twist, plenty of heart without getting mushy.
3. Unknown Number, Blue Neustifter. I read this when it appeared on twitter, and it obviously spoke to a number of people; nicely executed.
4. Proof by Induction, José Pablo Iriarte. There's a lot going on in this, but somehow it didn't quite land for me.
5. Tangles, Seanan McGuire. A lot less bleak than much of what I've read by McGuire, but I think I wasn't invested enough in the world for this to appeal.
6. The Sin of America, Catherynne M. Valente. An angry, and necessarily horrible tale.

I read (and reviewed) these a while back, but didn't get round to ranking them.

1. A Desolation called Peace, Arkady Martine.
2. Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki.
3. A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark.
4. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers.
5. She Who Became The Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan.
6. Project Hail Mary Andy Weir.

Again, I'm quite sure about places 1, 2, and 6, but found ranking the middle ones rather difficult.

Voting deadline is 11 August, so I should get the shorter fiction done too, and maybe the Lodestar also...

This book is a queerer retelling of events preceding the reign of the Hongwu Emperor in 14th-century China. The first viewpoint character we meet is the daughter of a peasant family who are slowly starving to death in the famine. Early on, she chooses to take up another's destiny, whatever the cost.

The plot is twisty and compelling (though I thought it lost focus a bit in the middle), and there's a very satisfying level of political machination going on. Very few of the characters are likeable, though: some of the antagonists are simply arseholes, but even those we are more sympathetic towards rarely show much in the way of kindness. Which I guess is making a point (echoed by the characters) that desire is the cause of suffering, but towards the end I found myself wanting to know how everything would turn out, rather than really rooting for any of the main characters to succeed...

The fantastic elements of the setting make little difference to the plot. ( mild spoiler ).

This is one of those books that's a real page-turner, and you want to keep reading, but if you stop and think about it too much you go "hang on a minute...". Also, a bit "one smart man is all you need". It's hard to say much more without serious spoilers; we start with the narrator waking up with no idea where he is nor any recollection of how he came to be there.( Major plot spoilers )

I thoroughly enjoyed A Memory Called Empire, although I read it long enough ago that I'd forgotten much of what went on; so I was looking forward to the next Teixcalaan book. It didn't disappoint :)

It's difficult to adequately describe everything that's going on in this book (particularly while avoiding spoilers), but some of the themes of Memory around colonisation and language return, alongside questions of identity and personhood. There's a lot of intrigue, some pretty alien aliens (though I picked up on the nature of the aliens quite early in the book), a number of plot twists, and still time for some delightfully funny moments.

Highly recommended, but do read Memory first if you haven't already!