A cheese detective, an academic witch, and a planetful of sentient spiders

I've read a few new books recently, mostly fiction, so it's time for another set of reviews. I've also done a lot of comfort re-reading. Since the last review roundup I re-read the entire Locked Tomb series (again) and the entire Starship Teacup series. I only finish books that I like, and I only review books that I finish, so generally speaking you can consider the existence of a review from me to be at least a mild endorsement.

Shadow Ticket #

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (2025)

Shadow Ticket is a detective story (sort of) that starts in 1930s Milwaukee and follows a private eye who is trying to locate and return a cheese heiress. I wanted to love this book but I only liked it. I'm fond of classic detective fiction and Pynchon, especially his last few novels, so I came in with high expectations. The specific setting didn't grab me, and the point of view character wasn't enough to make up for that. The language and humor and high weirdness were strong as you would expect from Pynchon. I would recommend Shadow Ticket on the strength of that alone. I think many other people will find the setting and main character more compelling and will love this book. Bleeding Edge remains secure as my favorite Pynchon.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster #

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders (2025)

A graduate student in present-day New England teaches her mom magic and things get weird. I felt like this book was written personally for me with all the things I want in a contemporary fantasy novel. First off, there is no way to say this without sounding like an incredible weirdo but: this is the most accurate portrayal of magic as it actually works in real life I have ever read. Modern hedge witches, this one's for us. IYKYK. Second, did you know that Anders spent a bit of time as an erotica writer? I sort of knew, because she talks about it in her newsletter sometimes, but it faded into the background. So, there are a few, short, and not super-explicit but very hot sex scenes sprinkled through this book. These sex scenes include characters quoting philosophers and economists as part of foreplay and look, again, if this is for you, it's for you, and you know. It probably sounds too conceptual to be hot, but, and this is why I mentioned Anders' background in erotica writing, she has the skill to pull it off. Third, OK, you know, this is starting to escape the bounds of a mini-review. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough if you like magic, academia, nested narratives, strangely satisfying family drama (I didn't know I like that until I read this book), and New England academia vibes. Also, seriously, I'm so glad Anders returned to adult fiction because her continued growth as a writer shows in this book with a more complex structure, versatile voice, and depth of character.

The AI Con #

The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna (2025)

This book was a fucking breath of fresh air amidst all the AI hype I'm subject to in my industry. I don't know what it's like for people who work outside of Silicon Valley. Maybe it's this bad everywhere. My favorite part was the explanation about how the human act of interpreting language assumes a mind and thus the language generating models will tend to get anthropomorphized. For people who know Dr. Bender's work online, including her many essays, posts, and podcast, some of the material in this book will be familiar. It was to me. Still, I liked reading it all organized into a structure.

Children of Time #

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)

Children of Time is a generation-spanning space opera half from the point of view of a rapidly evolving society of spiders, and half from the point of view of humans escaping a poisoned earth on a degrading sleeper ship. It's an very genre-savvy work with lots of allusions to other science fiction so if you're well-read in the genre, you'll enjoy those. I read it because a colleague recommended it for its excellent world building. I found the spider side world building more interesting and robust than the sleeper ship (turned accidental generation ship) side, because Aurora has permanently spoiled me for generation ships. The story slows down a bit, because the spiders--who are honestly way more interesting than the humans--are not one character whose lives we can get attached to but rather a series of generations of spiders who are referred to by the same set of names for narrative continuity. There was one scene, when the spiders first go beyond the atmosphere, that made me tear up.