Book review: The House of Sundering Flames

I reviewed the third book in Aliette de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, The House of Sundering Flames.

The review is over on Wordpress, and you can comment here or there:

Atmospheric and dark, this is a book by an author at the top of her game. It’s tricky work, balancing explosions, intricate political manoeuvrings, several love stories, and the fierce, communal will to survive of a downtrodden but determined group of dispossessed people, but de Bodard pulls it off brilliantly.

Has anyone else read this book yet?

Worldcon planning post

Now that the programme is out, I thought it would be a good idea to organise a post for people to discuss their Worldcon plans.

I know a number of people here on Dreamwidth are going to Worldcon. I am too, along with my husband (who loves SFF books, TV, films and so on, but is not in fandom per se). I have spoken to a couple of you already about making plans to meet up, but I would love to see any Dreamwidth people who would like to meet up.

Other than the Hugo Awards ceremony on the Sunday night, and a couple of other events that I'm definitely planning on attending, I've got pretty flexible plans. I'm happy to go to panels or events with you if they sound like something I'd be interested in, or I'm planning to attend them already, I'm happy to meet up in or around the convention centre or one of the hotel bars for coffee or a drink, or I'm happy to meet up in some other context that you can think of.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

We're not going to be completely joined at the hip, but I may or may not have my husband Matthias with me during certain panels if they're things he's also interested in;

I drink alcohol, so am happy to be included in meet-ups that involve alcohol, but if you don't drink or don't want to be in a bar/around people who are drinking, I am perfectly happy to meet up in a context where this won't happen (and obviously no need to explain your reasons for not drinking -- just suggest meeting for coffee/tea/etc);

I get really stressed if I think I'm going to be late for something, so I'd prefer not to arrange to meet you prior to an event if I'm going to be rushing there to another panel/signing/reading. I'm not doing any back-to-back events for this reason.

So with that in mind, who wants to catch up during Worldcon? Matthias and I get there on the Wednesday morning, and will be there until the Monday evening. It's likely I'm going to be going into central Dublin to meet up with a couple of Irish friends (who aren't attending Worldcon), so I'm not sure if I'll be free on Wednesday night, but other than that, and the specific events I'm planning to attend (which I will put behind a cut below and edit as I make decisions about what to attend), my time is pretty free!

( Rough list of stuff I'm planning to attend, constantly being edited )

What looks good on the programme? What are you most looking forward to seeing/doing? If you want to meet up, let me know. If you don't want to discuss your plans in public, but would still like to doing something with me at Worldcon, please send me a DM on Dreamwidth and we can arrange things there.