sakushamishou

Hammered by Elizabeth Bear - Scifi, space exploration, first contact, etc. This is a 3 book series that has aged really well and challenges a lot of character stereotypes. Maker/Casey is an old war dog who's retired to mending kids for a warlord and staying under the radar. Her service left her with an advanced prosthetic, burn scars, and a chip on her shoulder. Her war wounds are catching up with her and her past has come knocking. An absolutely superb near future scifi. Trigger warnings include death of several main characters including a child, addiction, survivor's guilt, terrorism. This is a generally hopeful series with a positive ending, but it has some pretty dark moments.

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne- This is set in the Iron Druid universe and features a older MC tasked with keeping the gods off earth, upholding treaties with various pantheons, and generally helping to keep the secrets of those creatures that belong in myth and legend. Al is cursed and this is the story of how he unravels the mysteries of his curse and ultimately is able to rebuild his life in the aftermath. This is a humorous fantasy series that you won't want to put down that will leave you feeling immensely satisfied. It asks questions about destiny and making one's path in the world and how that changes as you age.

3. A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne- This isn't really his usual urban fantasy fare, but perhaps more interesting for it. This is told from a number of perspectives including the old and young. The chronicler is an older scholar recording the perspectives of a number of key figures in an invasion of mysterious giants from across the seas. Prepare for politics, scheming, and human ingenuity, all tied up with an incredibly interesting magic system. The inhabitants can risk their lives to gain blessings that consume life force as the price for miraculous power over the natural world. This is set during wartime with all the usual warnings that that implies, some body horror, and suicide (?). The first book is generally hopeful and deals thoughtfully with the main narrators loss of his wife, aging, and a rapidly changing world.

4. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds- Tom Dreyfus is a prefect in the aptly named Panoply, which is responsible for monitoring polling equipment and maintaining democracy in its myriad of forms across the Glitterband. This series deals with rogue and possibly insane AI, criminal investigations, and some truly weird worldviews. It also deals with issues of memory, personality, isolation, and technology. Dreyfus's wife is presumed dead at the beginning of the series and the circumstances around her death leave some questions. This is a pulse pounding series about space detectives that has no qualms about toeing the line of an uncomplicated cop thriller and questioning the means and motives of the panoply operatives.

5. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison- While the first book is non-linear, this spins a story of a post-apocalyptic earth where earthquakes are common and cold-hearted practicality are key to survival. The story opens with the death of Essun's son and the disappearance of her daughter and the destruction of the world as she knows it. This is a dark mystery that unravels the secrets of the shattered earth through Essun's past and present. Essun has the power and training to potentially save the world or destroy it. Her past will come back to her and she will have to face it to have any hope of finding ending the season, saving the world, and finding her daughter. This is a dark fantasy and not an emotionally easy read, but it is fantastic. Trigger warnings include children's death/murder, abuse (including of children no sa iirc), body horror, depression, etc. If you're sensitive, you may want to find a more specific list of warnings or forgo this altogether, it is not an emotionally easy read.

6. First Contact by Kim Harrison- A portal opens and demonic beings come through. Renee is drafted by a secret government project to do research on these mysterious new beings that yields decidedly interesting results. A blend of scifi and fantasy, this first contact is not what anyone expected and may spell the salvation or downfall of the "neighbors" who are desperately hoping to find a way to save themselves from an ecologically ravaged world.

I work for a large firm that offers anti-money laundering services to banks and fintechs, pretty specialized, right? Because of the size of the firm and the business niche, once they train analysts there aren't THAT many outside jobs in the field or those that do exist require professional certifications (ACAMS) and many years of experience. And while there are a few competitors, they're more generalized firms, smaller, or not based in the same country (legislation varies by country and requires different training/certifications). What this means is that there are limited competitors where a junior employee could go and they can set the price for labor without any external pressure for competitors to offer a good wage for skilled labor.

I've gotten consistent 2% raises for the past 3 years (2021-2024, inflation in my state has averaged ~7% per year over that period and housing costs have increased significantly), which has not offset the increased cost of benefits year over year. Benefits are a part of your total compensation package and an increase in cost or a decrease in 401K compensations without a large enough pay increase to offset these, is a cut in total compensation, even if it appears you're getting a raise. You can see this by looking at the change in take home pay after paying for benefits (or calculating the increase in cost in benefits per pay period/year vs the increase in pay).

Further, my employer has limited the automatic pay increase for analyst 1 to analyst 2 to approximately $2K USD or a 5% increase (which still doesn't offset the year over year increase in the cost of benefits). The roll requires at least 2 years of experience, good performance, and taking on additional roles such as doing quality control on other analysts work or working on other admin-type tasks that are outside of the roll, but expected of higher level analysts. A college degree is required for you to be hired. We are remote and all pay increases are handled by HR, which I think makes negotiation much more difficult, probably on purpose.

I posit that if there were more competition, we would see more of a push by the company to better compensate their employees so they don't go to a competitor.

What I suspect is that because there are limited similar roles without 5+ years experience and ACAMS certifcation, they have no incentive to maintain a competitive rate of compensation (both pay and benefits). Further, because there are limited competitors, employees either have to change fields or suck it up, which limits employment opportunities, decreases competition for skilled employees, and makes it more difficult for an employee to leave because they (are not quite struggling) in a tighter financial position, thus driving the overall rate of compensation down and effectively creating an oligopoly/monopoly in employee pay.

We can see the reverse is also true in jobs with a variety of opportunities. They must remain more competitive with their wages or their employees will seek work elsewhere. This is demonstrated by the increase in pay over the past few years in jobs that are traditionally considered "low skilled" such as fast food and retail, where pressure from competitors has forced them to raise wages higher than the state/federal minimum wage they have previously paid in order to attract and keep employees. My state's minimum wage is around $9/hr, but many McDonald's and similar employers are advertising that they are hiring starting at around $15/hr, ergo market conditions have forced them to increase pay in order to get and keep employees.

Arguably, this is why unionization/organization can be important in places where a single factory or employer has dominated. Company towns in coal mining Appalachia or similar locations are an extreme example of what happens when a single company maintains a monopoly on labor in an area. Wages do not meet the cost of living which creates a form of debt bondage, quite literally in the case of company towns where they frequently were not paid in US currency, but scrip. When unionization occurred in these areas, workers were able to counteract the companies monopoly by creating a labor shortage (a strike). While outside labor could be brought in at increased costs, it frequently is not a practical long term solution. Thus, we see people who work specialized jobs where it might be difficult to change positions, i.e. specialized factory work or coal mining, can force what would otherwise may be a monopoly to pay a fair, livable wage.

Davi is plucked from Earth into a fantasy world where she basically respawns on the day she manifested in the world whenever she dies. And she's died. A. Lot. The dark humor is strong with this one and there are moments when Davi says something and you have to take a moment and stare off into the distance for a few moments because it's seriously fucked. And yet in this "playthrough" she still manages to find some hope and will to live. This is the one where she's gone off on a hair brained scheme to become the dark lord, after all.

It both fulfills the expectations of the genre, in that Davi has a tendency to treat things as a game where you can always go back to the beginning if you die or if things don't go the way you want them to. And it also subverts the expectations of the genre by forcing her to treat the wilders (monsters) as human and not disposable game pieces. And I think a good isekai should make you question the nature of reality a little bit. Which world is real? How do you know? If the MC is the creator of the world in their own world, are they a god or merely trapped? How does the narrative of the world handle someone trying to change events? It would be far less interesting if Davi wasn't forced to face the consequences of her actions in the world, particularly as they relate to the people around her, as she's come to see them as sort of expendable as she can always reset the clock back as needed.

As probably indicated by the indication that this is a seriously dark book above, it comes with a slew of trigger warnings including suicide, suicidal ideation, death of the main character, death of romantic interests, torture/bodily harm, warfare, and adult content. Adult activities occur primarily off screen. Davi is a bisexual queen who does have both male and female partners throughout the book. As someone who identifies as Bi, she's a pretty decent representation, except for the whole can't always treat people as real because she keeps respawning thing.

Tinkered Starsong series by Gail Carriger (seriously great, cute OTP and OT3)

Really cool take on the music industry. I know Gail is a fan of Kpop and it clearly influenced the divinity system. I also think it's a great commentary on the behind-the-scenes control of the music industry that we don't see or think about. Really media in general is so focused on image and creating a brandTM that I think it's a good reminder that it's not necessarily the whole picture. There's also an argument that the control of the producer over the artist is a theme of the work.

This is a fucking masterpiece on what it means to love and grieve and be human. ~Themes~

Emotional support ladles are a motif/symbol that show up at times of great change and stress for Phex. Blue curtains are out, emotional support laddles are in.

Mass pacifism through music may not be possible, but there are studies on things like pain reduction through the use of music which is rad. Also a potentially strange take on cultural colonization (that's maybe not quite the right word for it, but close enough) and definitely asks some questions about the ends justifying the means.

I don't really know how to express all my feelings about how it makes me feel beyond being seen as someone who has these hobbies for enjoyment and self expressions. It's sort of deeply feminist, simply because it's centering pursuits primarily seen as women's work or hobbies and the women who make these little pieces of art in their spare time or as a means of income. It discusses history in a way that centers the women who made and designed these tiny pieces of art and sees them as deeply important in ways women of history seldom get to be.

In a lot of ways, Piecework is a love letter to all these different little arts that might not merit their own magazine, but are deeply fascinating in their own right. It sees these things as art worthy of being discussed, means of income and fundraising, and important reflections of life in different time periods. It reminds us that many of these arts are still being practiced, even if they aren't common. And I think it reminds us why we do what we do, because it brings a little bit of beauty into our everyday life.

Everyone in history sewed to some degree, if only to mend their own clothes. However, women frequently elevated it into decoration and expression that makes it more than just functional, but into an art form that we're only now starting to appreciate on an institutional level.

-Senshi isn't an original party member, he's just a weird little guy who shows up and attaches himself to the party because there's one weirdo who wants to eat monsters and Senshi is happy to help

-There's only one party member (Laios) who wants to eat monsters and he's into it a disturbing amount, like even more than Senshi who lives in the dungeon

-Marcille hasn't gotten stuck in a mimic once, but it's possible I'm mixing her up with Frieren

-The entire reason they're in the dungeon and foraging as they go in the first place. They might rescue the mage that gotten eaten by a dragon someday and when they do, she's going to be confused, but probably accepting of her brother's desire to eat all the weird stuff in the dungeon

So the major credit bureaus would absolutely love it if you spent your money on a credit report or score monitoring or whatever. That's absolutely not necessary, although they do like to hide such things, so you think you have to pay for it to varying degrees. They also try to sell you credit locks, all of these things are lies.

You can access your report for free (once a year for all 3 sites, doesn't have to be at the same time. staggering pulls is an option for monitoring). They just make it a pain in the ass, so you think you have to purchase it. Experian and Equifax also have regular score reporting/viewing, which does not have the details included in the report, but can help with monitoring for any issues.

On equifax, create an account and it will make it look like you have to pay for something on the first screen, tell it no and from there you can access the free options. You can also opt to link bank accounts through credit boost and it will monitor for regular bill payments (utilities, rent, etc), which is an absolute boon if you have little in the way of previous credit or a poor score. You do have to re-link it periodically, but it's worth the hassle to build a better score.

On Transunion, I believe you go in through the service login option as there are three (at least that's how I have it set up and it allows me to manage my credit freeze as well).

Experian is the most straightforward and you can just log in.

Disputing items on the score is possible and free through all three sites.

You can also FREEZE your credit for free with all three bureaus, Lenders can't make hard pull on your account, when you have an active freeze. Generally, they say it's for cases of identity theft, etc. However, you can use it preemptively like you would a paid credit lock product. You can unfreeze it at any time and while they make it mildly annoying, it's free. You have to do it individually with each of the bureaus, although some allow you to schedule the dates of a thaw. It's almost instantaneous, so you don't have to worry about planning to thaw it before getting a card or loan.

Both equifax and transunion keep freeze information towards the top of the page. Just click into it and go from there.

The author read the audiobook and I've got to say, did a pretty damn good job. Frankly, I love Tchaikovsky. Every time I pick up a book by Tchaikovsky, I have to question something that's taken for granted and am taken on a delightful adventure. It is never time wasted and I'm always pleasantly surprised by the next offering.

A.C. Wise's Out of the Drowning Deep is a prime (and fabulous) example of this. To read it as only a murder mystery would be to miss the deeper truths of the characters and the world that the author presents us. It's a murder mystery, sure, but the themes of divinity, addiction, and growth are the real driving forces of the story.

I wouldn't necessarily classify this as eldritch horror, but maybe as eldritch horror's little brother, despite the presence of beings that in another novel would be eldritch horrors (drowned gods, anyone?). Gods are real and they are terrible things, but they are ultimately what belief has made them. The divine is a key theme as it weaves through the characters lives as both a wonderful and terrible thing. And at the same time, it will always be somewhat human, dreamed up in our image.

And the divinity ties into the theme of addiction, as Murmuration and Quin are drawn together time and again. They're both addicts, although it might not seem like it at first. And I think it manages quite well to underscore the why of addiction. Why does someone keep going back to something that is terrible for them? Why would someone do that to themselves? And while it answers the question with divinity and fairy dust instead of drugs, it's perhaps more enlightening because of it.

And that brings us to the final point of growth, which is a lynchpin for the main characters as all of them have grown or will grow past what they were in the course of the novel. Scribe IV is no longer just an automaton, but something beyond what it was made to be. Quin's sister has to grow beyond her own anger and prejudice to confront their own path.

This is my favor flavor of queer novel, where the queerness just exists on page with no conflict around it. The neo-pronouns use for Angel fit beautifully and I really appreciate how it reflects the concept of an angel as an ungendered, unknowable being. I'd honestly like to see more sci-fi use them in this way, breaking the gender binary (which is a human construct) for non-human beings. While it certainly has been applied in the past, it's not as common as it could be.

It also features some casual lgbtq rep, so yay (I haven't finished my re-read, but I'm pretty sure nothing too terrible happens. But if that would upset you greatly, maybe consult another source). I will however give it explicit warnings for OCD (the legit disorder), alcoholism, and eating disorders, as they occur on page and are discussed in some detail. The character with the eating disorder is in recovery at the beginning of the book (again, check on the ending, I haven't read it since it came out and am just re-reading it).