In which some Ku Klux members are made literal monsters by their hate; in response, their quarry arm themselves with both spiritual and literal weapons to fight back. The ring shout is actually a musical call-and-response percussion-and-dance tradition from the Gullah-Geechee region, and plays a critical role in the book; likewise, the pace and language of the book is fast-moving, rhythmic, and energetic. I loved the characters, who had been through trauma but were not defined by it, and their absolute trust and support for one another.
Tag: genre-fantasy
The Song Rising, by Samantha Shannon
This book spends a lot of time sending the main characters off on harebrained schemes without much forethought, but we do get a bit of background on how the Irish people were completely hosed during the lead-up to how the current political players gained power. A few years ago I would have called it unrealistic how the majority of the populace just turns a blind eye to the suffering of a huge minority, but… oh well. I STILL don’t really buy the overall premise of interdimensional psychic alien vampires, but obviously I’m enjoying this series enough to keep going.
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, by Nisi Shawl, ed.
Really great anthology. There was no unified theme to the stories, except that the main character’s viewpoint was not that of a white Western person, which was incredibly refreshing. They were all good, no duds, and I think the one that might stay with me the longest was Anil Menon’s “The Robots of Eden” – the tone is almost boring to start, but the subtle wrongnesses add up to creeping horror at the end – really well done.
Vengeful, by V. E. Schwab
Sequel to Vicious and just as well-paced and violent, this novel continues to really dig into the gray areas between good and evil. No one gets to escape; characters who had previously been certain of their moral standing find themselves forced to make compromises.
The Seventh Sun, by Lani Forbes
This book was suggested based on the magic system and its callouts to Aztec mythology, but sadly that was the only good thing about the book. Otherwise it felt like the cool magic system was grafted onto a story about modern teenagers, complete with contemporary turns of phrase in their dialogue. Much of this story is literally The Bachelor where a bunch of hot, catty girls (ok, their magic powers are pretty cool) participate in meaningless contests to impress the eligible prince. The central character is a Sailormoon-esque clumsy goodhearted princess, whose defining character trait is that she selectively reads scripture to suit her personal preferences and arbitrarily chooses which to follow, which for me hit a little too close to home given all the “I did the research! By which I mean I looked for corroborating evidence on the internet and ignored everything that said otherwise!” nonsense going on these days. Nearly everyone in the story is a hot teen and the supporting cast is suuuuper two-dimensional. Maybe this is more YA that I’m too grumpy to read, but again, I don’t think I’d be complaining this much if it were done better.
The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden
I should have read this book in the winter; the imagery of bone-chilling cold and starving frost is really well done. it’s set in medieval Russia, with familiar characters from Russian fairy tales. There’s just enough of familiar politics and religion to set the scene, all of the characters are beautifully put together, and the pacing of the story is excellent. Also, I liked how heroine Vasilisa’s efforts to save her village were complicated not only by evil spirits, but also by traditional gender roles and family dynamics. Gorgeous writing, wonderful story.
The Bone Season and The Mime Order, by Samantha Shannon
I kind of feel like these would have been better books without all the invented vocabulary, but I did like the quasi-Victorian? Cockneyish? language of the street dwellers. In an alternate future dystopian London, people with extrasensory abilities (clairvoyants, or “voyants”) are hunted down by the government; because their very existence is illegal, voyants band together in street gangs and mobs to survive. Our heroine Paige has powers that put her pretty high up in her gang; however, when she is captured by the government, she finds out that captured voyants actually become enslaved in a crazy medieval prison (it’s the old Oxford campus) run by – wait for it – aliens! The aliens are using the psychic energy of the voyants to fight a war on another plane of existence entirely, with the government’s cooperation. The insanity just keeps ratcheting up. The first book has plenty of action but honestly feels mostly like setup, introducing mad amounts of vocabulary alongside crowds of characters and doing its best to convince you of the multiple layers of weird that comprise this world; the second book was a little more focused. Two books in I’m still honestly not sure I completely buy the premise, but at least Shannon’s writing is smooth and the characters are well-crafted.