Oil field jobs

Hello, again! Surprise! I'm back. Well, not really a surprise. I still have a few books left to read, and they all complete their own rows and cards. So, here we are again. This completed row is a Row #1, and it completes my Indigo Color Cover Card.
As with my previous posts with a completed card, I'll start with the completed row and the reviews for those books. After that will be a pic of my completed card with all the book covers smushed up against one another to get the full effect of the color covers, and then a pic of my actual bingo card. I'll also include links to the posts of the others rows on the card in case you missed one or you see a book that looks interesting and want to read my review of it.
For this row, I read An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon for the LGBTQIA List Book (Hard Mode) square, The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin for the Weird Ecology (Hard Mode) square, Arianna & the Spirit of the Storm by Robbie Ballew and Stephen Landry for the Two or More Authors square, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu for the Historical SFF (Hard Mode) square, and A New World by Susan Draper for the Set in Space (Hard Mode) square.
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An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - 5/5
Aster is a young woman who is socially awkward but has a great deal of value to those around her, if not above her (more on that in a moment), due to the medical knowledge she has gained over the years. She uses this knowledge to help her fellow workers - slaves, really - to survive in the harsh realities that are the USS Matilda - a spaceship that has been traveling through space for over 3 centuries in search of a promised utopia.
Unfortunately for Aster and her fellow workers, who live on the lower decks of the ship and work in the fields, they are considered subhuman by those who live on the upper decks of the ship. The characterization is very similar to that of the plantation south, complete with overseers who punish those who don't do their work or who violate one of the many rules the low-deckers live under.
Aster has lived her 25 years trying to keep her head down and just get through, especially with the power rations and blackouts that have been occurring on the ship. But when the ship's sovereign dies, an autopsy reveals information that links his death to Aster's mother's suicide 25 years earlier, she begins investigating her mother's suicide, following her mother's footsteps from all those years before. In the process, Aster begins sowing the seeds of civil war among the other lower-deckers.
This book was both amazing and terrible. It was amazing because of the characters, character development, plot, story-telling, and world-building. It was terrible because of the emotion it evoked - but it was terrible in a great way. This book is one that is tough to read because of its realism, but it is absolutely worth the read.
First and foremost, I have to give major props to Solomon's ability to give us a story told from the point of view of a neurodivergent main character who is so relatable. I have read many stories with characters who are neurodivergent, and many authors will lean into the differences but the characters fall flat and end up being relatable as a result, almost as though the characters have become caricatures instead of real people. That is absolutely not true here. Aster not only reads like an actual flesh-and-blood character but by bringing the reader into the mind and her thought processes, she becomes a character with whom one can not only understand but also identify. Aster works as an assistant to the Surgeon and learns a great deal from him. His actions and beliefs stand in stark contrast to the actions of the other oppressors onboard the Matilda, and his slowly-revealed history was one of my favorite parts of the book. Not only did Solomon develop fantastic protagonists, but they gave that same careful attention to the antagonists - Lieutenant was an almost perfect villain for the story, and Solomon didn't relax their character development with his creation either. He was a simple yet complicated character. He wasn't just the bad guy for the bad guy's sake; there were reasons for his terribleness, reasons which made it easy to understand why he was the way he was - even while hating him for being that way. Simple yet complicated.
In addition to absolutely fantastic characters, the world-building Solomon provided was amazing. While I would like to believe that our society has moved beyond slavery, I also know that it wouldn't take much pressure on society to start the oppressive behavior back up that led to slavery the first time. We're partway there in the US as it is. As such, the idea that the people who had been put on a spaceship for an undisclosed, many-generations-long trip toward a new home would use slavery and oppression of those that are seen as subhuman doesn't require very much suspension of reality. Combined with the societal base, Solomon adds a fantastic understanding of how humans respond to mental and physical abuse and generational trauma that creates a very realistic society living aboard a spaceship hurtling through space.
For those of you who are saying "how can it be realistic? It's a science fiction novel!" let me assure you that the science fiction of the novel is only in the setting - the spaceship hurtling through space or Baby, the "sun" used to power the ship - not the actual story. The story itself is one of the human condition, of society and how it controls and is controlled by its people.
The only real complaint I have with this book is the ending. I didn't like where it ended, but that's only because I wanted it to keep going. I wasn't ready to leave the world Solomon had created, and I wanted to continue getting to know the characters they had created. In a lot of ways, the ending of this book reminded me of the ending of The Giver by Lois Lowry. It is an ending to the story, but it is ambiguous enough that it could also be a continuation. There is room for a sequel, should Solomon decide to return to this universe, but it is not required. The selfish part of me hopes they decide to return to the universe, though.
As a final note for this book, I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, which was narrated by Cherise Booth. She did a great job with the narration, giving a very compelling performance. Though this was the first time I had listened to her, I would absolutely listen to another novel narrated by Booth just based on this performance. If you listen to audiobooks, I definitely recommend this one. If you don't listen to audiobooks, I suggest giving this one a try; you might find yourself opening up to the idea of more audiobooks having done so.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin - 3/5
I am conflicted about how to rate this book. On the one hand, I can truly appreciate the absolute epic story that this book is, encompassing the story of 3 women as they struggle to survive and thrive in a world that, by all rights, should kill everyone on the surface nearly every day. On the other hand, the story never grabbed me. I continued with it only because I needed to finish it for a Bingo card and I had no other options readily available.
That's not to say that I didn't like it, because I did. Rather, it was a book that I probably would have put down to return to at a later point in time if I'd had another option for my bingo square. As a result, I know I didn't get nearly as much enjoyment from the book as I likely would have otherwise. I also know that if I were to read it again, when I'm in a different frame of mind, I know that I would enjoy it - Jemisin is a fantastic writer and her skill with word and story are on full display in this book. But I don't know if I will reread it. And that's what has me conflicted about the rating.
I can't even really tell you much about what the book is about beyond what I stated simply above because, though I experienced the entire book, it didn't stick with me. I listened to it and appreciated it in the moment, but then let it go. Nothing seemed to really stick, to grab me and make me remember. There wasn't anything actually wrong with the story. It was a great story, and I've read other books of a similar style that I enjoyed. So the fact that I can't remember details from this one, that it didn't stick with me, annoys me.
I will say that the narrator, Robin Miles, did a fantastic job with the narration. I definitely enjoyed listening to her tell me the story, even if I didn't remember the details later.
Arianna & the Spirit of the Storm by Robbie Ballew and Stephen Landry - 5/5
Arianna has struggled her entire life with the lightning magic she has inside of her, always seeking to suppress the anger and destruction that the voice seems to want to inflict. She has not had an easy life thus far. Her mother died giving birth to her, and the day she was born marked the beginning of a drought that has cursed the land ever since. As a result, many blame Arianna for the curse. When her father, who has been investigating the curse ever since in the hopes of finding a way to end it, is found killed - supposedly be a satyr - suddenly the situation for Arianna changes very rapidly. Not wanting to leave her village, Arianna plans to work in the mines. However, on her first day of work, two knights try to kill her when she shows up. She is able to escape, and she and her best friend leave the village on a quest to end the curse.
This was a really good book and I really enjoyed listening to it. The author did a wonderful job with the characters and the world-building that it was easy to visualize what was happening. I also really liked the way the author handled Arianna's struggles with how she views the satyrs, which has been greatly influenced by propaganda put out to increase the tensions between the fauns (satyrs) and the elves. The cunning of the bad guys was very well-done, and by the end I was moving him up my list of most hated villains. He did not surpass Professor Umbridge as my most-hated character in a book, but he did get pretty close. (Also, I'm avoiding naming the bad guy so I don't give away any spoilers).
Finally, I was able to listen to the audiobook version of this book and loved it. The narrator, Shannon Hobby, did a wonderful job. Indeed, she's one of the few narrators that I have found I do not have to speed up in order to have them approach a normal speaking speed. LOL. The only issue I had with the audiobook was that there were a few places where parts of sentences were repeated in sequence, most likely as a result of a mistimed pick-up. A quick run-through with an audio-proofer would fix that. That being said, it didn't happen often and didn't interfere with my listening. So don't let that be the reason you avoid the audiobook.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu - 5/5
Set during the time of the cultural revolution in China, when anyone who was suspected of being a dissident or against the Communist Party was punished and either "re-educated" or killed. Ye is an astrophysicist whose physicist father was killed during a struggle session. When she will not sign a statement regarding her father's guilt, continually stating that she had no knowledge of any of the things they were accusing him of despite her mother and sister already having signed the statement, she is caught up in the accusations. She is later betrayed by a journalist, who set her up as a fall person for dissident beliefs.
Sentenced to re-education, Ye is "recruited" by two scientists in the Chinese Military to work on a project at a military base with the understanding that she would likely never leave the base again. It is when she finds out that the actual project underway is an attempt to contact extra-terrestrial life that a plan begins to come together for Ye.
I had begun reading the book but had found myself getting bogged down by the language, so I began listening to the audiobook. Luke Daniels did a wonderful job with the narration, and listening to him read the book helped me pay more attention to it and actually follow the story a bit more. Even still, I will likely end up either reading or listening to it a second time because I know I still missed things. In a lot of ways, it was a feeling similar to when I had read Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. The science was so far above my head that it was not understandable, so it became a fluid foundation upon which I rested my understanding of the story. I was able to do that fairly well with Ninefox Gambit, and somewhat well with The Three-Body Problem, but I feel like I will understand more should I read it again - and it was a compelling story so I would like to read it again.
I will say that Ye's view of things, her approach, is so rational and so logical that I find it difficult to even fault her for many of her actions. I'm not sure what that says about me with respect to some of her actions, but with all of the irrationality of the prosecutions that were occurring, her rationality was almost like a breath of fresh air.
A New World by Susan Draper - 4/5
Picking up where Survival left off, Hecate is in great danger, having been taken by the sirens. Artemas and her friends are able to save her, but it reveals to them some weaknesses in their defenses. Back on Earth, the feline virus has been defeated, but it is decimating the human population and nothing seems to slow it down. Khan and Donovan travel back and forth between Kapteyn b and Earth as they aid the scientists at NASA in studying the transforming technology, as well as the intellisensors that allow the felidors to understand all languages. Khan has also formed a bond with one of the felidors and they have decided to try and have a kitten, hopeful that their two species are close enough to allow for crossbreeding. Things seem to be going well. But, of course, Zahra is not content to play nice. He and his minions, Orion and the three orphans, have plans to stoke the anger of the sirens who survived the attack on the Zone and try again.
Will Cassini be able to discover a vaccine for the virus attacking the humans? Will the crossbreeding be successful? Will the Council be able to withstand whatever Zahra has planned? And will the felidors be able to find another planet to inhabit, or will they be forced to endure the continued asteroid strikes on Kapteyn b?
As with the first two books, the short length of this one means that things happen quickly. This is especially true with all the things happening in this book. There is still a great deal of telling instead of showing, as with the first two books, and I am hoping that Susan Draper will expand these stories to full-length novels in the future. There is so much here, and the foundation is good, but the books are over before I'm ready for them to be.
For those of you deciding whether or not to read this book, if you read the first two, you already know what to expect from the writing and storyline. If you haven't read the first two books, let me say this: Talking cats from space. If that sounds interesting, go grab Virus Attack (Book 1) and read it. If that doesn't sound interesting to you, well, then, I don't understand you but not every book is for everybody. But still, how could you not be interested by talking cats? From space?!? So cool.
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And now we come to the completed card! First up is the smushed-together image.
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If you want to revisit (or visit for the first time) any of the reviews from the earlier rows, here are the links:
Row #2
Row #3
Row #4
Row #5
And, here is the final Bingo Card. As a reminder, the stars on this card are different from the star ratings that I gave each book. The star ratings on this card are related to how likely I was to read the book before the Book Bingo started. 1 star means I was going to read the book whether it fit a square or not, so YAY, it fit a square! 2 stars mean that the book was on my TBR list and would have most likely been read sometime this year even without the bingo cards. 3 Stars means the book was on my TBR list, but likely 2-3 years out (My TBR list is, at the moment, about 4 years long given my current reading speed of 450-550 books/year. No, I don't have a problem. Why do you ask?). 4 stars means that I found the book while searching for books to fill squares, but I most likely would have read it or at least put it on my TBR list had I discovered the book in a different way. 5 stars mean that I found and read the book specifically because it fits a bingo square.
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If you've reached this part of the post, thank you for your time and attention. With the completion of this row, I have now completed 298 of 300 books and have only 2 left. 2 more rows and 2 more squares. Here's hoping I can get those books read and finish the last 2 squares in the next 5 days.
Until next time, Happy Reading!