the monster baru cormorant by seth dickinson

this book was mainly about showing off worldbuilding. which is fine, but nowhere near as compelling as the first one. also comes across as, if i didn't know better, tv-series bait, with the goofy new characters, banter dialogue over inner monologues, and the lavish descriptions of place and people. the pacing is weird but that's supposedly because 2 and 3 were supposed to be one book. 

my dreadful body by egana djabbarova (trans. lisa c. hayden)

 I haven't read anything with such a poetic aspect in a while. The diaspora stuff wasn't, in my view, overdone. Other than that, it wasn't super memorable.