About

Tsana is an astrophysicist and a science fiction writer originally from Melbourne, Australia who travels a lot. When not writing, reading or blogging, she studies dying stars.

Review policy

I generally only review books that I want to read anyway. If you think I’d like your book and want me to review it, you can get in touch via email. Please be aware that sending me your book without any prior discussion is unlikely to yield a review.

I am mostly interested in various subgenres of science fiction, fantasy and YA renditions thereof. I may also read a little bit of horror from time to time. I do not read “mainstream” or “literary” novels, unless those labels are marketing ploy to disguise what would otherwise be termed SFFH. I am also unlikely to read self-published novels by writers who have not otherwise established themselves.

Also, please note I will not review books which are only available in Kindle format.

Star Ratings

I give out star ratings for almost all the books I review. The ratings depend a bit on genre: I value different things in fantasy than I do in science fiction or YA versions of both. I expect different things from different types of stories. In general, a 4 star YA book means something different to a 4 star fantasy book. However, some general trends about how I assign stars:
  • 5 stars: One of my favourites, which doesn't mean it was perfect, mainly that it particularly resonated me on some level. These books might still be flawed, but they get 5 stars for making me happy (for a given value of "happy"). They also get listed in "My Favourite Reads" sidebar.
  • 4.5 stars: Very good book that I consider to have very few flaws and liked a lot. Usually, the reason these books didn't get 5 stars is purely subjective and potentially dependent on my mood/health/time availability while reading.
  • 4 stars: A good book, which I recommend, but usually there's some flaw (as discussed in the review) which downgraded it from 4.5 stars.
  • 3.5 stars: A good book which probably had more than one flaw. It's a balance between how much the flaws bothered me and how good other aspects were that determines whether a book gets 3.5 vs 4 or 3 stars.
  • 3 stars: A book I didn't like but which had some redeeming factors. Again, see the actual review for details.
  • Less than 3 stars: It was terrible and might have also made me angry. I probably had difficulty getting all the way through it. See the review for details.

Published Stories
(Title links to story where available.)
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)