Novella, fantasy with court politics. Thanh was raised in the royal court as a political hostage; she is now back home, but her old flame, Princess Eldris of the neighboring predatory kingdom, is visiting with an eye towards alliance by marriage, or conquest, the same threat under a different name. Thanh eventually also makes friends with a fire spirit, whose history turns out to be tied closely with her own. Beautiful writing and a satisfying ending, but very flat characters.
Category: quick reaction
Spirits Abroad, by Zen Cho
This is a collection of short stories full of Zen Cho’s sardonic characters, who encounter creatures out of Malay myth and still manage to be dry and ordinary about it all. I love all the stories, but especially the ones about the dragon who fell for the girl who is more focused on getting her university degree; the lion dance troupe whose side gig is to exorcise ghosts; and the high school pontianak (female vampire) who just wants to go to school without worrying about her interfering aunts. Absolutely delightful collection.
The Library of the Dead, by T.L. Huchu
I love books that don’t try to explain too much. Edinburgh native Ropa dropped out of school to eke out a living as a “ghostalker,” someone who brings messages back and forth between the dead and the living. Her cynical practicality keeps her from taking on charity cases; however, a desperate mother ghost eventually nags her into searching for her lost son. Ropa goes straight down a rabbit hole involving an occult organization, a hidden library, and more secrets than anyone should have to handle. I love that she just puts her head down and deals with things without ever expecting rescue. First in a series.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors, by Kawai Strong Washburn
A good read but a tough one, mostly because there’s no easy way out of racism and generational poverty, even when you’ve been touched by Hawaiian legends. As a child, Nainoa falls into the water and is magically rescued by sharks; he comes out of the experience bearing supernatural gifts that he cannot quite figure out how to use. His siblings, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, also struggle to make their own way in his shadow. The book is brilliantly written, each viewpoint distinct, and the overall work just seethes with pent-up frustration and thwarted ambition, alongside gorgeous descriptions of Hawaiian landscape. It’s amazing.
Pumpkin Heads, by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks
Super light and super cute, as sticky and sweet as a PSL. Friends who work a seasonal gig at a pumpkin patch try to drink in as much autumn joy as possible before saying goodbye to this stage of their lives. Full of the poignant endings of leaving high school and going to college. Love the characters’ unbridled joy in all things fall, and their unhesitating support for one another.
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho
This has probably one of the best beginnings of any book I’ve read recently: a bandit comes reluctantly to the defense of a mouthy waitress at a coffeeshop; a totally avoidable brawl ensues. The book then proceeds to unfold in layers: the barmaid turns out to be a nun; the bandit has his own secrets; the bandits’ mission is not quite what it seems. The characters are hilariously sarcastic to one another but also thoughtful and tender; the wuxia/fantasy element is fantastic as well. I really enjoyed this book. I also loved how the Malaysian turns of phrase weren’t presented as an exotic English accent, but simply the language of the characters; all too often dialect is used as a way to set characters apart from the main, but here it is acknowledged as normal.
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, by Max Brooks
It’s as if Brooks wanted to recreate the magic of “World War Z” but on a much smaller scale, with a much smaller pool of interviewees. Basically Mount Rainier erupts, stranding a group of unlikely yuppie caricatures (and one even more unlikely Eastern European siege survivor) in a remote wooded location. The eruption also unbalances the local ecosystem, which brings a group of violent sasquatch types into conflict with the bumbling humans. The majority of this book is directly quoted from the diary of one of the stranded individuals, which makes the book weak mostly because she is incredibly weak, and also eye-rollingly naive. That said, Brooks is a more than competent writer and the prose was easy enough that I still had a pretty good time.
A People’s Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
A short story collection from a great group of speculative fiction writers. Like Howard Zinn’s book, it concentrates on historically marginalized groups, except here the theme is possible near futures of the US. Some of them are cautiously optimistic. Many, extrapolating from the recent past, are less hopeful. As with any collection, some stories landed better than others. I was particularly haunted by “Read After Burning” by Maria Davana Headley, in which books are banned, so a defiant group of readers tattoo works of literature onto their skin (and turn the skins into leather after death), in order to keep them for posterity.
Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A Mexican fairy tale in which Casiopea plays a wary, cynical Cinderella. Doomed to serve her casually cruel rich relations, Casiopea accidentally frees the Mayan God of Death, and he enlists (demands, really) her help in defeating the brother who wronged him. Their journey through Mexico and deep into the land of the underworld, as seen through Casiopea’s suspicious naivete, is delightful; the character of the God of Death gets surprising depth as well.
Radiance, by Catherynne Valente
This is a hard book to encapsulate. It’s about the daughter of a filmmaker who has lived her life on camera; it’s about how we choose what stories to tell in order to control our own histories; it’s about losing yourself in the vastness of space in order to find yourself. It switches styles at a dizzying pace, from screenplay to interview to gushing magazine feature. It’s the Golden Age of film, except on an interplanetary level. It’s crazypants and beautiful. Oh, and humans are able to survive in the harsh conditions of space because they drink the milk from vast, dreaming Venusian whales; this is important later.