Welcome to Litsy!

The cozy small business story of Legends & Lattes meets the progressive sci-fi of Becky Chambers, with a flavor entirely its own, in this fresh, heartwarming tale about a motley crew of robots launching a restaurant amid PTSD, prejudice, and review bombing in a future post-war San Francisco. I ATE this UP and already miss the team at Automatic Noodle and the friendship, pride, and love found at the bottom of a bowl of their biang biang noodles!

Just wonderful. I love that it was thoughtful and emotional and clever as well as hilarious. I love that it was an ensemble piece, almost more of a connected series of short stories, and yet tied in so well, repeating characters every once in a while and well-framed by the lunar cycle format. Certainly 'cheese moon' is sci fi (or in other hands pure farce) territory, but as Scalzi does so well, this was mostly humans 1/?

In a dystopian future, a bloody war recognizes California as an independent nation away from the U.S. From the wreckage, a group of robots are reactivated and decide to rebuild by starting a successful noodle shop in the Bay Area. As their popularity grows, so do their detractors as negative reviews, xenophobia, politics, and anti-robotic sentiment attempts to tank their restaurant as they continue to persevere in this cozy sci-fi novella.

(1984) It's a collection of three interconnected novellas, about a failed revolution on Mars and what happens after, set in the 23rd-27th centuries. The “icehenge“ of the title is a megalithic structure on Pluto, which may have been constructed by Martian rebels, or by aliens ancient or recent, or something else. I quite liked the premise and the epistemological themes, but found it difficult to engage with the story.

What if the moon suddenly turned to cheese? What are all of the plausible scenarios that would occur within the government, NASA, the church, etc.? How would that impact the average person? Complications and hilarity ensue, and it is a wonderful whimsy. 5 stars!

I was sad when this book ended. I loved all of the characters and, especially Brawne. Funny how this book was written 3 decades ago and, yet, seems apropos. I‘ll definitely continue the Hyperion Cantos by reading the next book, Endymion.

The weapon shops are the only recourse against the tyranny of the Isher empire although the weapons they sell can only work as self-defence for their owner.

I was a great fan of the author as a teenager - especially the Null-A books - so I must have read this before, but I had no memory of the story. I expect I enjoyed it then, mainly because I was unaware of certain controversies it seems to be playing into. Now, not so much.

#coffeeandabook

#ClassicLSFBC
@RamsFan1963

38/100 I love books like this, written in 1977, envisioning the world of 2000, but looking back from 2025 and seeing how off the author's vision came to be. Sadly, no hovercars or helio-jets for the police, no Universal Credit Cards to replace money, no instant purchases delivered to your home by vaccum tube. It's still a fun read, although too short for any character development. 3 ⭐⭐⭐💫 #Read2025

free book from my recent order from Thrift Books