Spear, by Nicola Griffith

I've seen a lot of hype about Nicola Griffith's new short novel, Spear. It's a take on the Arthurian cycle, highlighting some Celtic (Welsh and Irish) aspects. It tells the story of a young woman, who is evidently magical in some way owing to her (mysterious, for most of the book) parentage. She leaves her mother (a single-parent) and ranges about Wales as a (male) knight-to-be, and thus journeys to the court of Artos in Caer Leon, romancing women there and along the way. The story is well-written (much better than the off-putting blog-style found in most Tordotcom books), and the queer take on the Arthurian court is interesting. However, the book does have some problems--the start-up is too slow, and at times the actions and motivations of the characters don't jibe precisely with the narrative, pulling the reader out of the story to wonder what is happening and why. Sometimes, too, the depiction feels a bit like a Mary Sue novel. It's still pretty good overall, but it could have benefited from another deep critical look at the structure and the expression of character motivations.

Serpentine by Philip Pullman

Serpentine is a very short tale by Pullman, written for a fundraising concern in 2004, and finally published in 2020 as a small book with illustrations by Tom Doxbury. It basically fills in a small gap of the story of Lyra Silvertongue after the events of the three-volumed His Dark Materials. As a story it is even less substantial than the similar small books Lyra's Oxford (2003) and Once Upon a Time in the North (2008). But it has a pleasant epilogue-styled feel, and whets one's appetite for further tales in the same universe.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red (2017) by Martha Wells is the story of a security bot (a murderbot, in this case) who is hired to protect some scientific explorers on an early expedition to a new planet. The conspiracies multiply: is the (cheap, corner-cutting) corporation behind the sabotages and attacks on them?  Or is it a competitive expedition?  Or something even more subversive? It's a moderately engaging tale, though I wouldn't have suspected it capable of winning (as it did) a Nebula Award for Best Novella.  It's also the first of several related novellas that comprise The Murderbot Diaries. While I enjoyed this first one, I don't feel at all compelled to continue the series. Too many other things to read that look more enticing.