Sci-Fi Archives - The Litertarian

Book Review:: The Book of Lost Hours | Hayley Gelfuso

A big idea can change the world, for what is the world as we know it, but ideas? It starts small, inside the mind of one person, who grapples with it, tries to fully understand it, articulate it into words to share with another mind, who will poke and it, test it, expand it. Some of them wither and die under scrutiny, and others balloon with importance and have the power to change the world as we know it. Democracy. Germ theory. And in the case of The Book of Lost Hours, the manipulation of time.

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso Book Cover

This book is a wonder. Any book about time is going to bend our ideas of a timeline, and this one plays with the strings of time beautifully, skillfully, coherently, it will have you enthralled. This is a page turning thriller with so much heart and intellectual stimulation it will grip you and not let go until the final dang sentence.

It’s also the kind of book with twists and turns and the simple joys of small discoveries. With that, I don’t want to spoil one detail of the plot for those of you who go on to read this, which I very much recommend you do. It is marketed as a mashup of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library and I could not come up with a better description of this impressive novel.

Hayley Gelfuso, you are a genius and I think I will pick up anything you put down. Also, what do you mean this is a debut novel. Masterful work. Thank you, sincerely, for writing this fascinating book.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Book of Lost Hours
Author:: Hayley Gelfuso
Genre:: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Romance
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 400 pages
Audio Length:: 13h 41m
Audiobook Narrator:: Carlotta Brentan
Published:: August 26th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Ministry of Time | Kaliane Bradley (review coming soon)
The City in Glass | Nghi Vo
The Gravedigger’s Almanac | Oliver Potzsch

Book Review:: A Psalm for the Wild-Built | Becky Chambers

What is it that drives us?
What is our purpose?
What happens when we actually achieve what we set out to do?

What comes next?

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Book Cover

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a unique experience of a book that I highly recommend. It is set in a futuristic world where robots in the long-past “Factory Age” became sentient, and an aspirational-level society decided to split the world territory in half and let them pursue their own desires. This is all in the past when we meet Sibling Dex, a genderless monk with a seed of discontent sprouting within themselves. They change their vocation from a garden monk to a tea monk who travels the land with an ox-cart listening to the troubles of others over a well-made cup of herbal tea. It suspends the growth of discontent for a while, but eventually it resumes its invasive presence, rooting down deep. Just when it becomes impossible to ignore, a chance meeting with one of the robots, who hadn’t been seen or heard from in generations, disrupts their plans and the two of them contemplate philosophy on the trip of a lifetime.

The languid prose of this novel (novella?) gives the impression of an idyllic future where humans have made decisions for generations on the basis of morality and impact rather than efficiency and greed. The culture contemporary to the characters seems to be mostly one of leisure and desire. Currency is exchanged for goods and services, but neither the shop keepers nor the consumers are in any hurry. There are still traditional jobs somewhere, but we aren’t shown any examples outside of some complaints of visitors to Sibling Dex’s tea-wagon. I’ve heard this book referred to as both cozy and as a ‘hug-in-a-book’. I would have to agree. Both the setting and the language used to describe it is almost meditative in its attention to detail.

Where the book really shines in on the philosophy. When you give yourself space in your day/routine/life to think, thought usually occurs. It is a lesson we could all take away from it.

Sibling Dex is both curious and reflective. They have ambition; not for the sake of it, but because they feel it is their work is their calling and hope that if they succeed, their feelings of inadequacy might dissolve. They wonder about the good of the world and of nature and of people (past and present), sometimes almost in a way that sounds as if was prescribed to them in their early education. They have opportunity to ponder some foundational topics surrounding personal actions, moralit, consciousness, existence in general, and the motivation behind decisions made by figures long lost to the sands of time. It is an incredibly thought-provoking book I think is valuable for any reader.

My one complaint is with some of the jarring language choices surrounding Sibling Dex. At one point they are referred to having ‘hooked up’ with someone. They occasionally curse and say things like ‘my mom would be pissed’. It felt out of place among such an otherwise lullaby style writing. Then again, perhaps that was the point; an occasional reminder that humans have some sharp edges, no matter how hard we try to smooth ourselves out.

Details

Title:: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1)
Author:: Becky Chambers
Genre:: Cozy Science-Fiction
Publisher:: Tordotcom
Length:: 151 pages
Audio Length:: 4h 8m
Audiobook Narrator:: Em Grosland
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: July 13th, 2021
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Whale Fall | Elizabeth O’Connor
All the Water in the World | Eiren Caffall
Libby Lost & Found | Stephanie Booth

Book Review:: Awake in A Floating City | Susanna Kwan

Awake in the Floating City is a story of a woman torn between two choices: to stay in the city slowly being engulfed by water, where her mother disappeared during a storm, or move abroad with what remains of her family to try to find a more successful life.

Awake in a Floating City by Susanna Kwan Book Cover

The story is based in a reality not far off from our own but stretched by science fiction. The biggest difference is the human longevity. It seems to be quite normal for a person to live well into the mid-hundred ages in the world of the floating city. 130, 160, not unheard of.

This novel is quite brilliant. There are many almost abstract ideas layered into a very straightforward story.

Bo is a caregiver for the very young or very old. She finds a new client just as she’s about to leave the city for good, looking for any excuse to stay in case her mother miraculously returns. She is also an artist, but stopped her art long ago. Through this client, Mia, she is confronted with humanity in a way she’s almost forgotten. In a way, her broken spirit begins a renewal process. She finds a level of acceptance for herself, and the world around her.

Through Bo’s experiences in this story, you will find yourself pondering the deeper ideas of family bonds, tradition, culture, aging, immigration, relationships with others, adapting to climate changes, art, and the meaning of life itself. It’s not that the story has its own ideas on these topics, it somehow skillfully evokes the hard thinking from the reader, seemingly without effort.

I’m quite impressed with Susanna Kwan, and will be looking forward to her next novel.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Awake in the Floating City
Author:: Susanna Kwan
Genre:: Speculative Fiction
Publisher:: Pantheon
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 9h
Audiobook Narrator:: Catherine Ho
Published:: May 13th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The City in Glass | Nghi Vo
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife | Anna Johnston
All the Water in the World | Eiren Caffal

Book Review:: All the Water in the World | Eiren Caffall

You like reading about life post-apocalypse? How about a double apocalypse?

All The Water In the World by Eiren Caffall Book Cover, New York Underwater

Nonie is born after the end of the world as we know it. Weather patterns have changed, and the water levels have risen. Which has led, apparently, to the downfall of civilization. Her parents decided to stay in New York City (somehow there were flood gates installed…all around Manhattan, to keep it mostly unflooded?), and they lived and worked at the American Museum of Natural History (what they would come to call the Amen) to preserve human knowledge during this time of reckoning. But then a hypercane comes and destroys what very little was left of the museum, and the survivors must try to get out of the city to (relative) safety.

This one takes a big suspension of disbelief, and to be honest, I wasn’t quite there. Hypercanes are a theoretical caliber of storm – you can look them up – and from what I’ve read, it doesn’t really seem to fit into the narrative the author weaves here. The fallout of a storm like that would be far more widespread than she seemed to account for. Already I was stretched thin being asked to believe rising sea levels would have destroyed all civil and federal order (I guess the spread of disease was also a big factor, but still), and this theoretical storm was a little too much for me. I literally don’t believe a world like this is possible the way it is implied (but I get it is fun to imagine). There would obviously be issues around the modern coastline but…um, there’s a lot more world out there than that (seriously though, there are more museums in the world, why didn’t they just move inland)? Not to mention it’s essentially impossible for ALL the ice to melt. I feel like readers have a high probability of misunderstanding the real world because of this book, and I don’t like that.

However, it is full of little philosophical snapshots and provokes deeper thinking about human concepts, which I could appreciate. Nonie’s parents were intellectuals and had dedicated their entire lives to preserving as much history and human knowledge as they could. They sacrificed the chance at an easier life to this end and were raising their girls to carry forward as much knowledge as possible, too. Once they leave the Amen, there are the studies of base human nature in the encounters they have with others, which, really, is why we love reading post-apocalyptic fiction, right? We see humanity in its rawest form. On the positive end of the spectrum, our ability to bond to one another and cooperate, and on the other, what a thin line stands between civilization and becoming wild again.

In many ways it reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy (which is wonderful), I just wish it had stronger legs to stand on so I could better immerse myself.

I was provided an advanced copy of this audiobook through the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: All the Water in the World
Author:: Eiren Caffall
Genre:: Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
Publisher:: St. Martin’s Press
Length:: 304 pages
Audio Length:: 8h 42m
Audiobook Narrator:: Eunice Wong
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: January 7th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars