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A messy but enjoyable book about robots, grief, and memory set in a post-war unified Korea.
The plot, pacing, and characters meandered a bit too much for my taste, but it was made up for by the texture in the world and its threads of philosophy. I do also love a story that is engaging with both disability and transness through the lens of robots and robotics.
The robot understands that how we love isn’t divine. It is meager, selfish, exquisitely cruel. Think of any time a war erupts—who among us would not sacrifice the lives of many to save the one person we love?
— Luminous by Silvia Park
Like robots, grief came with a bewildering manual.
— Luminous by Silvia Park
Luminous: 100/100
Luminous is a book about death, loss, and self-loathing, told via the universal medium of robots.
I love the way the connections between the lives of the different characters are gradually revealed as the story unfolds. I also really appreciate the complexity and depth of the characters, even when they seen stereotypical seen from one angle.
The author wrote in the acknowledgements that she started out to write a children's book and kind of got derailed by personal circumstances into this thing that is much darker and more complex, but I'm very glad she did, Luminous is extremely good.
Luminous: 100/100
Luminous is a book about death, loss, and self-loathing, told via the universal medium of robots.
I love the way the connections between the lives of the different characters are gradually revealed as the story unfolds. I also really appreciate the complexity and depth of the characters, even when they seen stereotypical seen from one angle.
The author wrote in the acknowledgements that she started out to write a children's book and kind of got derailed by personal circumstances into this thing that is much darker and more complex, but I'm very glad she did, Luminous is extremely good.
I have many names and many selves, and more ghosts than anyone.
— Luminous by Silvia Park
updating my linkedin
I picked this one up because it was from an old #SFFBookClub I didn't join for some reason. There's some interesting stuff here, but the whole narrative is very shooty-oorah in a way I found offputting.
I picked this one up because it was from an old #SFFBookClub I didn't join for some reason. There's some interesting stuff here, but the whole narrative is very shooty-oorah in a way I found offputting.
Content warning the navigating fox plot discussion / spoilers
@[email protected] Reading between the lines, my conclusions were: Quintus was (probably) made by Toosa who taught Quintus about the roads, since multiverse Toosa is there right at Quintus's first moments of self-consciousness. I think it's possible that Quintus was traveling the roads prior to meeting Toosa as well. Toosa also made Cynthia promise to save Quintus (which happens off-page, right?), which also makes me feel like Toosa was in the know about the future (which lines up with the old/young Toosa appearance earlier). Maybe I'd guess that the "why" of Quintus was something around sabotaging the resurrection plan to thwart the incursion of the empire somewhat? That's what I got.
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
Content warning the navigating fox plot discussion / spoilers
I respect that so many things were left ambiguous: Quintus's origin, what's happening with the Empress, how did Quintus and Cynthia's crew come to their understanding, etc. - but maybe some of them could have been resolved? just one?
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
Whew, the ending felt so sudden I think I hurt something.
The Navigating Fox is like a thousand-page fantasy epic crammed into 150 pages. It's super well written, and the setting is great and I want more, particularly the Northern Membership - although I could stand to go a few days without reading the word "knowledgeable". Now give me the thousand-page edition. 😀
Whew, the ending felt so sudden I think I hurt something.
The Navigating Fox is like a thousand-page fantasy epic crammed into 150 pages. It's super well written, and the setting is great and I want more, particularly the Northern Membership - although I could stand to go a few days without reading the word "knowledgeable". Now give me the thousand-page edition. 😀
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
"I am curious as to how one ends a concept," she replied.
Scipio Aemilanus was standing next to the little fire of dried dung some humans of the Membership had built. Shadows and light played across his features.
"By force," he said.
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
The Navigating Fox is a novella that feels like a piece of a larger novel that's been extracted, loose threads and all. Or, maybe it's just uninterested in filling in all the details and giving explicit answers. I wish this story had been a novel to give it space to stretch its wings.
The best part of this book is all of the worldbuilding details. I love the idea of animals that have been given voices and are now knowledgeable (and self-conscious). I love the various societies and their interactions with an overseas empire that has started extending into the land of this novella. I loved the ideas of how a society that treats animals as people would need to operate. There's just so much going on here in the margins of this book over a core parallel telling of two journeys.
One thing my partner always says …
The Navigating Fox is a novella that feels like a piece of a larger novel that's been extracted, loose threads and all. Or, maybe it's just uninterested in filling in all the details and giving explicit answers. I wish this story had been a novel to give it space to stretch its wings.
The best part of this book is all of the worldbuilding details. I love the idea of animals that have been given voices and are now knowledgeable (and self-conscious). I love the various societies and their interactions with an overseas empire that has started extending into the land of this novella. I loved the ideas of how a society that treats animals as people would need to operate. There's just so much going on here in the margins of this book over a core parallel telling of two journeys.
One thing my partner always says about writing is that he doesn't need every detail spelled out, but he has to believe that the author knows these things. This is all to say that this not a book to read for a strong sense of closure, even if you can read between some lines. It feels coherent overall to me, but with a lot more loose threads than I had expected going in.
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
A faraway look came to the wiry man's eyes. "My most important role, good navigator, is to march to the entryway to the underworld, close the gates of Hell, and end death forever."
So, this time, he was to accompany me. This time he wanted me to take him to Hell.
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only navigating fox. He's also in disgrace after leading an …
"And where did Quintus Shu'al come from? Of all the foxes in the known world, he alone is knowledgeable? He could not have been born knowledgeable. So, someone gave him voice! But he has always refused to answer questions as regard to his origins!"
A young girl's disastrous first foray through the multiverse cleaves her from her family and …
There's a lot of neat things going on in this book, but there's also a number of things that didn't quite land for me. I'm struggling to have a solid opinion, so here's a mishmash of drive-by thoughts.
I do love this book's thematic mantra of fixing broken things. It's clear that many characters in this book are broken (emotionally), and it's clear that the Boston timeline is broken (structurally, via capitalism largely), but it's less clear to me what sort of fixing is truly going on, especially in a multiverse sense.
Obviously Martin, Stirling, and Melissa are putting in work for their community, but the rest of it just seems like talk (or something a future book in the series will get to). I wish there was more clarity about how Jace had broken his oath to repair the broken parts of the universe, and what that …
There's a lot of neat things going on in this book, but there's also a number of things that didn't quite land for me. I'm struggling to have a solid opinion, so here's a mishmash of drive-by thoughts.
I do love this book's thematic mantra of fixing broken things. It's clear that many characters in this book are broken (emotionally), and it's clear that the Boston timeline is broken (structurally, via capitalism largely), but it's less clear to me what sort of fixing is truly going on, especially in a multiverse sense.
Obviously Martin, Stirling, and Melissa are putting in work for their community, but the rest of it just seems like talk (or something a future book in the series will get to). I wish there was more clarity about how Jace had broken his oath to repair the broken parts of the universe, and what that oath actually means to Jace and Corinne. (Has Harnett sworn this same oath? Also, what is this oath as compared to the Network's "greatest good" motto??)
I think the pacing of the end of the book is also a little harmed by this being part of a series. There's clearly a climactic confrontation, but it largely feels unresolved, leaving lots of pieces for the future.
This sounds like a lot of complaints, but I enjoyed my read here. I do love a telepathic dog. I love the idea of talking to a therapist about portals to other worlds. I love Jace and Corinne working together for a shared goal while also being so misaligned. I love Martin still working to care for Reina even when Reina is not his sister. Overall, my favorite part of this book was all of the characters.
(This was the #SFFBookClub book for March 2026.)
A young girl's disastrous first foray through the multiverse cleaves her from her family and …
I really enjoyed the setting, and particularly the humanization of the unhoused characters. I do feel a little like… not much happened, plot-wise, and the cutoff for the next installment felt very abrupt to me.
