The kid read Dragonsong and liked it, so I went looking for more Pern material that might be suitable for young adults. This short story collection isn’t it; the stories cover bullying (The Smallest Dragonboy), reinforcing traditional gender roles (Ever the Twain), and deep dives into the series and society of Pern which I don’t feel like dragging the kid into (The Girl who Heard Dragons, Runner of Pern). Pern was a huge part of my adolescence but I feel like it might not be aging well; certainly there’s better stuff out there these days.
Tag: genre-scifi
Lords of Uncreation, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I was so excited to read this conclusion to Tchaikovsky’s Final Archtecture trilogy and it absolutely did not disappoint (except when I reached the end and realized that I wouldn’t be spending any more time with these characters). It’s classic space opera with an extremely existential threat to humanity (and humanity’s various alien sometime-allies), with plenty of facets looking out only for themselves. As usual with Tchaikovsky’s novels, no matter how weird things get, it’s the beautiful character work that pulls the reader along; most of the arcs end well, and some end excellently.
Translation State, by Ann Leckie
Set in Leckie’s Radch universe, this starts out as a missing-persons mystery and ends with an impassioned argument over one’s right to determine one’s own destiny. I love how Leckie uses truly inventive alien biologies and philosophies to investigate very human questions of identity, self-determination, and found family. Slow start, tense finish, great read.
The Impossible Us, by Sarah Lotz
Epistolary alternate-universe romp. After struggling author Nick and sassy dressmaker Bee make accidental contact through a misdirected email, they continue to correspond, finding in each other kindred spirits. They eventually make plans to meet… which is when they figure out that they actually live in different universes. Their respective actions after this discovery really do take this book into a new level. Even though things get super weird, the chemistry between Nick and Bee, and their snappy email conversations, keep the book going. Enjoyable plot and shenanigans, though if you start thinking too hard about the ramifications there are some iffy consent issues.
Children of Memory, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Radically different from other books in the series, this book is basically an extended meditation on Descartes’ “brain in a vat” thought experiment, but it’s Tchaikovsky, so of course there are aliens involved, as well as humans fighting desperately to survive. One interesting aspect of this is the inclusion of the entities previously established in the series: sentient spiders and octopi, as well as a very opinionated and extremely old AI. The book starts out straightforward, but then seems to jump in time and branch into various scenarios, which starts to clue the reader into the fact that something is obviously going awry. I liked it quite a lot as a standalone thought experiment, but I don’t think it actually moved the series forward as much, in the long run, as the previous books did.
To Each This World, by Julie E. Czerneda
Earth is uninhabitable, and the surviving humans now live on New Earth with the technological assistance of the alien Kmet. One day, a message from a faraway human “sleeper” ship throws both human and Kmet into a frenzy; the humans are delighted to reunite with their long-lost family, but the Kmet seem to have problems. Henry, the arbiter between humans and Kmet, must turn all his faculties to understanding the Kmet while preserving humanity; his pilot, Killian, turns her natural suspicion into a mission to understand what makes the Kmet tick. The book unfolds very slowly but speeds up as you go, as the humans gather more clues against the clock of their species’ destruction. Extremely inventive alien biologies and life cycles; great exploration of scenarios where one must make morally problematic decisions. The characters were really well fleshed-out and kept the book from being too much of a thought experiment in places; the secondary characters and relationships were fantastic as well. Fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky would like this, I think.
The Seep, by Chana Porter
On the surface, this book is about alien invasion; the Seep is an alien entity that introduces itself into the very bodies and minds of humanity, attempting in its alien way to fix humanity’s problems. In order to stop humans from misusing resources and destroying the world, it gives people the ability to sense the entire life cycle of plants and animals by mere touch, globally increasing empathy and collective responsibility. Humans also become able to enact extreme physical changes on their bodies, and it’s the decision of Trina’s wife Deeba to do so that sends Trina into a spiral of doubt interrogating herself, the Seep, and the utopia it claims to provide. I liked the fact that Trina was trans, which meant that she’d already made her own decisions about her body and her fate long before the Seep showed up, and gave her a good foundation to be cynical about its promises.
Nyxia, by Scott Reintgen
This is basically the Hunger Games, but in space. A bunch of desperate teenagers are recruited by an unscrupulous corporation to mine nyxia, a magical substance on an alien planet whose properties stretch the limits of credulity; during the space journey over, they are subjected to deadly competition with one another for the limited number of spaces available. I almost put this down quite a few times because the corporate overlords were so evil, the teens so tortured, and the magical nyxia so nonsensical that I couldn’t keep from rolling my eyes at everything. Still, the writing and characterization were just good enough that I made it to the end, where of course even more plot twists left plenty of issues for the sequel.
The Fallen, by Ada Hoffman
Sequel to The Outside, this novel deals with the reality-warping fallout from Yasira’s actions at the end of the previous book. In her effort to fight off the powerful AI gods and their cybernetic angels, Yasira contaminates an entire world with the chaotic randomness of “the Outside,” changing both the landscape and inhabitants in various ways. Nevertheless the gods and angels still maintain an iron grip on the planet, reducing Yasira, Tiv, and their few friends to a tiny resistance movement. Compared to the first novel, this one has a lot less action and a lot more character study, but I think it’s actually stronger for it; the characters become much more fully-fleshed both as individuals and as a unit. I love the treatment of neurodiversity in this series, and how the various characters consciously adjust their methods of communication to whatever will work best for the listener. The conflicts are by no means resolved at the end of the book, but it’s still a very satisfying read.
The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories, ed. Mahvesh Murad, Jared Shurin
There are some big names in here (Nnedi Okorafor, Neil Gaiman) and some that I love but may not be so famous (Amal El-Mohtar, Claire North, Saad Z. Hossain), but for me the standout stories were by authors I hadn’t previously encountered. “Reap” by Sami Shah is written from the viewpoint of a drone operator who is surveilling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and who begins to witness some freaky supernatural goings-on. It’s brilliant, combining frightening djinn behavior with the weird disconnection of war at a distance, and the feeling of being under threat by forces you can’t comprehend. I’d give second place to “The Congregation” by Kamila Shamsie, a gorgeous and spiritual piece about longing and brotherhood. Honorable mention to “Duende 2077” by Jamal Mahjoub, in which an exorcist is called to visit a haunted spaceship. Mostly a strong collection, put together in a way that started out whimsical and got really creepy towards the end.