Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

"When you say 'What story?' to a chronicler, you ought to know you are asking for it. Ariel trudged onward, and I told him the whole history of Earth.

Rocky spheroid develops taste for life (soup, lighting). Pale purple dot. A billion boring years. Oxygen revolution. A really great party, crashed by an asteroid. Disaster."

This is all very cool!

Mysterious and delightful already, and I sure did smile at the inter-book reference in: "My core is a hearty fungus onto which much technology has been layered, at extraordinary expense. 'Sourdough starter with a mech suit,' one critic complained--but I like the description."

Still really enjoying the bonkers developments to the story, and the rivalry between the characters.

"Jhanvi could make her own actions sound very fair and well merited: they were rich, I had nothing; they were selfish and turned the world into their playground, and I took some well-merited reparations; I caused them a brief discomfort, and in return they changed my life and allowed me to live for the first time." This is the central premise, and it's compelling, but often buried under too much meandering.

As ever, Kanakia is portraying the conflicting emotions and doubts of a complicated protagonist.

"It felt like we'd each started writing our own story about Irena now, each in the genre that suited us best. Alexis was writing a mystery novel, Chloe an illustrated psychodrama taking major cues from true crime, Freddie Nordic autofiction, more understated and more boring. I wondered what kind of story mine would be."

This is so weird and wonderful. I love the meta aspects and can't wait to see how it all develops.

"We treated her every word as sacred, even though our whole task was to replace her every word." Excited to read this novel about translation that's already set up to be wonderfully mysterious!

Looking forward to seeing how everything works out (for the best, I trust)!

A lot of suspense about how this is going to turn out!

Really enjoying this. A quiet but thrilling speculative tale!

"To claim poverty when one was rich was very different than to be actually poor." Lots of good observations about the class distinctions between the characters!

Intriguing speculative world. Can't wait to see where the story is going!

As always, Simonson invents wonderful characters while portraying the stark realities of a time and place. I had no idea that in World War I, German residents in the UK (even citizens) were subject to internment and deportation!

This is just delightful!

Now in the future section, one of those dystopias that's only a shade or two off from current reality. Curious where all this is going, if anywhere.

Plot is moving right along, bringing all the characters together.

Excited about reaching the section of the character who's into computers, and reading about her experiences with the early internet.

Enjoying getting to know the octopus and the humans, and starting to see how the pieces will fit together.

Setting up such an interesting character and style of art, and I have no idea what the rest of the book is going to do.

So far it's an early 80s coming of age story about a girl and her friends, with hints that the three of them are going to go on and do something big in the world. Intriguing!

"Oakland is always trying to be better. Even if it doesn't get there. And people are always messing with it. But it never stops trying."

As in "There There", I love getting to meet each new character and watching what they add to the story.

Kind of a weird rambling story about people's weird lives, but I'm digging it.

"Personality-wise, she reminded Greta of one of those exotic vegetables she was drawn to at the farmer’s market but didn’t know how to cook. Kohlrabi, maybe, or a Jerusalem artichoke. Not very approachable. Not sweet or overly familiar. Not easily boiled down or buttered up. Not corn on the cob. Greta felt an instant kinship with Sabine, since she, too, was kohlrabi."

Really interesting what characters are appearing, and how their stories are told.

"It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to."

Intense and fascinating!

The narrative is doing a good job of conveying the rollercoaster of emotion the family went through during this time.