Yumanea

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Book Reviewsthis really should go on its own properly formatted page
but probably won't get updated much, so just leaving here for nowA Canticle for Leibowitz review
Eisenhorn #1: Xenos review

Book Review: A Canticle for Leibowitzthis review is way too long, sorry... just read up to before the Part 1-3 summaries for the tl;drI originally wanted to read this book after hearing that it inspired the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout, and it does capture some of the tone of the original Fallout game. But it's also just a great piece of writing in terms of strength of worldbuilding, characterization, and overall thoughtfulness. Would recommend if the premise sounds interesting to you!Canticle follows the monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz, whose mission is to preserve scientific texts and knowledge after the world undergoes a nuclear apocalypse, or Flame Deluge, as they call it. It's laid out in 3 parts set in 3 periods of time, with different protagonists. These were originally written as separate short stories before being combined into the Canticle novel. It's neat to see how the events of each part shape the next one (part 1 leads to a more successful and well-known Order in part 2; part 2 leads to the full return of technology in part 3).By the way, this book has a lot of Latin... I kind of regret not looking it all up as I went along, but there are websites with translations of all the Latin parts if you search online.Part 1 has the most dry humor and an immediately charming protagonist, and I loved how it slowly introduces more details to draw you into the post-apocalyptic world. It's a much more personal story than the other 2 parts, covering the life of Brother Francis as he grows from a naive young novice to a... naive less-young monk. His life will come to be closely entwined with the canonization of St. Leibowitz. I enjoyed the silly aspects like unearthing an old shopping list, imagining the word 'Fallout' as a scary monster, and confessing to eating a lizard. It's hard to move on from this part after finishing it.Part 2 is about a grumpy (but still cool) old monk, his friendship with another grumpy old guy who is mysteriously still alive six centuries after Part 1, and the arrival of an up-and-coming scholar who wants access to the Order's scientific texts. The world opens up a lot more in this one compared to Part 1. It's fun to read about the different factions and how they interact (e.g. the scholar going to visit a tribe with a tradition of blood drinking, or the younger monks reacting to the arrival of the scholar) as well as the conflict between different forces and perspectives, with the shadow of war cast over everything.Part 3 is about a future where technology has completely returned, featuring text-to-speech machines and Monks in Spaceships. I was initially a little disappointed with this section - the setting feels underdeveloped, and I wasn't a fan of the protagonist. But the final scenes are haunting and a certain scene with a mutant especially gives some food for thought.
Ultimately, with the book having such a heavy focus on cycles, in which the end of each part is symmetrical, it could only ever end like this. At least after reading parts 1 and 2 with the bit of light and hope for humanity they did have, I wasn't feeling completely empty after the ending. But did need some time to just stare into space. so yeah, good book!

Book Review: Eisenhorn book #1 (Xenos)This was a very solid dark scifi thriller/detective story! I enjoyed the writing and will definitely get to the sequels, and maybe more Abnett books if I have time (disclaimer: I like prose of the purple variety).I don't have a ton to say because a lot of this book felt like setup for future events, although it doesn't end on a cliffhanger or anything; it tells a cohesive story centered on the pursuit of an alien artifact.In general, it's neat to read something in the 40k setting for the first time, with inquisitors and rogue traders and chaos cultists and servitors and astropaths and so on (No tech-priests though, booo) Oh yeah, and there were a few Space Marines too - the Deathwatch seem really cool! I think the writing definitely does the setting justice.
Also worth mentioning are the titular (heh) xenos, which are properly eerie and alien. There were some hints at horror here as well (non-Euclidean geometry!!)
Also x2, I really liked the short story included as a prologue with its combination of a dark detective story and a hostile universe, and some very evocative setpieces. I think Eisenhorn makes for a good protagonist for these kinds of episodic stories and totally wouldn't have minded if the book was just a collection of 40k detective stories (although I'm pretty sure 40k short story collections do actually exist) though the novel itself was still plenty hard-boiled enough for me!
There's another short story included in the omnibus before the 2nd book, so I'm looking forward to reading that.Also x3 they're making a Dark Heresy cRPG game!!! it's relevant to this review ok