Really short and focused compared to previous Tchaikovsky reads. It starts out feeling like a fantasy novel, with a princess running away to seek the help of an legendary wizard… but then you find out that the wizard is actually a hapless anthropologist, stranded when he came to study a far-flung space colony, and his fabled magics are really just Clarke’s third law in action. The characters were thoughtfully created and beautifully executed, and their internal, interpersonal, and external conflicts were all brilliantly woven together, with the narrative giving each time to develop and grow. Really solid piece.
Author: librarykat
Fevered Star, by Rebecca Roanhorse
It’s been long enough since I read the prequel (Black Sun) that I wasn’t sure I’d remember anything that led up to the climactic cliffhanger, but this one was really good at summing up the events of the first book without being boring. Even though this one was mostly about politicking, as opposed to the action that drove the prequel, it still felt dramatic and tense. Roanhorse takes a very show-don’t-tell approach to world establishment, letting the characters’ interactions with one another establish the salient features of each clan or gang or other organization, which is great but also confusing; there were many players with different affiliations, and I could have used a crib sheet. If I had to nitpick, it would be to say that this felt a bit characters-in-service-to-the-plot instead of the other way around; some previously forceful characters were weirdly passive as events shoved them about. Still, great reading; I’ll just have to remember to reread the prequels before the third one comes out.
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
Lamott’s advice to her creative writing students, gathered in book form. Written with attitude, but also with heart and kindness; Lamott endorses writing as a kind of therapy, encouraging her students to explore their pasts and their fears, and mine those experiences for inspiration. She also warns students to temper their expectations regarding glamor or fame in publishing. Warm and self-deprecating in tone and very enjoyable to read, but mostly it’s Lamott talking about herself and her experiences, only thinly disguised as advice to new writers.
Realm of Ash, by Tasha Suri
Sequel to Empire of Sand; the first book was good, and this one is even better. Arwa’s sister shook the foundations of the empire in the previous book, and in this one, Arwa is left trying to pick a safe path through the crumbling Empire. Arwa and her sister Mehr are very different people: Mehr rebelled and embraced her status as a low-caste tribesperson, whereas Arwa tried to hide her past and blend in. Like her sister, she finds herself in a position to use her background for the greater good, but her relationship with her heritage is fraught. I loved her journey, and how it illustrated the impact of cultural erasure on the descendants of persecuted peoples.
Bitter, by Akwaeke Emezi
Prequel to the amazing novel Pet, but unfortunately I think it’s not as strong or as focused. Narrator Bitter has survived trauma to find solace in art, but finds it hard to justify being an artist in a world full of injustice, corporate greed, and police brutality, especially when practically all of her friends have joined an implausibly well-organized resistance movement in which teens demonstrate against societal racism. Much of the book is spent on Bitter’s self-doubt; it makes the otherworldly spirits and fast-paced action that dominate the last quarter of the book seem jarring. Lots of really piercing commentary on social injustice and human nature, but unfortunately the book doesn’t come together smoothly for me.
The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells
It’s been awhile since I read a fantasy world this fearlessly inventive. Moon can shapeshift into something with scales, wings, and talons, but no one else in the village can, so he hides it. However, when he’s banished and encounters his own species, he finds himself a misfit among them as well. Pretty standard trope, but before you know it you’re drawn deep into an incredibly detailed and alien ecology and culture, where very different rules apply and like Moon you have to figure out how things fit together. Moon is a very relatable hero, someone who hates bullies but also hates fights, who just wants to be left alone but also needs other people. Like Murderbot (Wells’ other hero that I’ve read), he prefers to process his emotions quietly, on his own, rather than talk to anyone about them, and as his history unspools you come to understand why. Great character work alongside really cool worldbuilding.
Point of Hopes, by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
I think I got this off a list of LGBT-friendly fantasy novels, but if the two leads show any kind of romantic interest in one another… it’s not in this book. It’s not even a slow burn love story, but more of a slow burn friendship story growing out of mutual respect. Policeman (or “pointsman”) Rathe is trying to investigate a spate of missing children across the city, while retired soldier Eslingen is just trying to find a job under trying circumstances. The mystery is high stakes but low urgency; it feels like the authors’ focus is more on establishing the world and its magical timekeeping structure, rather than actually chasing down the criminals. The plot doesn’t pick up until the last quarter or so of the book, after all kinds of unnecessary fiddling around by the main characters.
The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard
One line summary: fallen angel turf wars in war-torn Paris. We start with an angel literally falling from heaven, reentry burning up her feathers, the landing breaking her bones; then we shift to the viewpoint of street gangs hurrying to harvest her body parts for magic; then abrupt shift again to another fallen angel, one who heads up one of the Houses of fallen angels and gifted humans which exist in a tense standoff with other similar Houses. The book is heavily atmospheric, with gorgeous passages lingering on the postwar ruin of Paris and the otherworldly beauty of the angels; unfortunately, the plot is confusing and opaque, and the constant viewpoint shifts don’t help. The main character is Phillippe, a former conscript from Vietnam whose powers came from the Jade Emperor; he unwillingly aids the angels in figuring out a murder whose repercussions threaten to bring down one of the main Houses (and also wraps in figures from Greek myth, because why not). I think the major weakness in this book is the lack of character development; de Bodard creates some beautiful characters (one might say too many) but their personalities are static, grating off one another in the same way throughout the entire book. In the end, even though literally earthshaking events have taken place, you don’t really get the feeling that anything has really changed.
Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, by Natalie Haynes
Incredibly enjoyable deep dive into Greek mythology, with the overtly stated goal of returning women to the fore. As the Greek myths have passed down to us filtered through the eyes of generations of male Western classicists, female characters like Pandora, Helen, Clytemnestra, and Medea have been reduced to paper thin one-liners: disobedient child, mute beauty, bad wife, bad mother. Meanwhile the men get to be the stars, with the women little more than character development notes in their journeys. Haynes brings an indignantly feminist viewpoint and a wealth of knowledge of the original sources, quoting Euripides as well as other playwrights and poets to mine out meaning and depth for the female characters that had gotten lost (one might even say deliberately papered-over) along the way.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, by Kim Fu
The first short story of this collection just crushed me. “Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867” is about a person who recently lost their mother and just wants to see them again in a simulation. Unfortunately, company policy is to not show clients dead people, lest they get addicted to the experience and confuse reality with fantasy. It’s all in dialogue and the tone is handled brilliantly. The rest of the stories were perfectly good, with themes of normalcy shading to insidious creepiness with societal commentary on the side, but in my opinion none of them matched the first one for sheer punch. Still, a really impressive collection overall; will definitely be keeping an eye out for other works by Fu.