Night Watch (Discworld)★★★★★
Terry Pratchett Time travel, barricades and a mix of humor and darkness in a rebellion with good cops, bad cops and time monks.
Parable of the Sower★★★★★
Octavia Butler Hard to put down. And hard to pick up again. It’s certainly not a fun book, but it’s extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.
Planet of Exile★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin A tighter story than Rocannon’s World, with better-drawn characters, and more ambitious in its worldbuilding and themes.
Semiosis★★★★★
Sue Burke A fascinating take on space colonization, intelligence, and language, following multiple generations of humans on a world dominated by sapient plants.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi★★★★☆The performances are way better than most of the prequel trilogy, and the story is the first theatrical Star Wars to break new ground in ages.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking★★★★★
T. Kingfisher A fun and original take on the teenage wizard genre. With an immortal carnivorous sourdough starter named Bob.
