I love Becky Chambers and I’m familiar with her Wayfarers series, so I knew I would have to switch rapidly between multiple characters with multiple points of view… but I still found the beginning of this book rough. The viewpoint characters have little to do with one another (at least at first) and the reader is forced to juggle multiple locations, conflicts, and cultural issues for quite some time before things come together. At that point, though, we’re safely back in Chambers’ warm universe where people are all just trying to do their best to understand one another and figure out one another’s needs. The society of a completely spacefaring race and the self-sustaining ecology of their vessels was also really interesting. Good book, eventually.
Tag: genre-scifi
Bannerless, by Carrie Vaughn
I liked this image of the future, which was postapocalyptic but not precisely dystopian. Following the collapse of civilization, survival is precarious and resources are limited; people must organize themselves into demonstrably productive households before they can earn a “banner,” which gives them license to bear a child. Any children born “bannerless” reflect their parents’ lack of community feeling and responsibility, a shame that carries into adulthood. Main character Enid’s job is to mediate conflict and investigate crimes; when she is called in to investigate a suspicious death, she is startled to discover that someone from her past might be involved. The pacing of this book was a little uneven, bouncing back and forth between Enid’s past and present; however, it did a good job communicating both the challenging climate and the sociopolitical structure of Enid’s world. I liked the contemplative tone but thought that for an investigator, Enid took way too long to figure things out that were already made obvious to the reader.
Archangel, by Sharon Shinn
#1 of the Samaria series, recommended to me by E and such an amazing read. The angel Gabriel has been tapped by Jovah to be the next Archangel, and must find his angelica (spouse) before the people of Samaria gather together to sing the Gloria. Gabriel dutifully goes to the oracle, who consults Jovah (by typing at a computer terminal!) and points him to a human woman named Rachel. Gabriel is startled to find Rachel enslaved; once freed, she is less than enthusiastic about the concept of marrying him at all, much less singing the praises of a god that allowed her people to be slain and herself to be sold into slavery. Though there are tantalizing hints that the world was originally engineered by technologically advanced settlers, the heart of the story is in the characters: Gabriel is righteous and impatient, whereas Rachel is stubborn and proud, and you really feel for both of them. I loved the worldbuilding too, which features a multi-racial, multicultural landscape full of political and economic tensions, which also reflects the tension between the two main characters. I really liked the ending, which brought resolution to the relationship without compromising either character. Looking forward to the rest of the series (and also further explanation of how this world came to be).
Wicked Wonders, by Ellen Klages
Short story collection. Klages’ narrators are often (but not always) children, and she is absolutely aces at a child’s narrative voice: authoritative, secretive, with an eye for details often missed by adults; The Education of a Witch is a prime example. The stories don’t always have fantastical elements, but they often feel as if they could, even the ones firmly grounded in fact. I loved Mrs Zeno’s Paradox, which clearly grew from watching someone help themselves to just half of whatever piece of food is left, as well as Amicae Aeternum, in which two girls find a way for their friendship to survive separation and reach into eternity.
Someone in Time: Tales of Time Crossed Romance, ed. Jonathan Strahan
Short story collection, all about time traveling and falling in love. Some authors took the assignment literally (Theodora Goss’s A Letter to Merlin, in which time-traveling agents, sent to influence the behavior of historical figures, try to communicate with one another); others take a more roundabout route (Zen Cho’s The Past Life Reconstruction Service, in which people get to relive their past lives in search of answers for their present lives). Other standouts were Sam J. Miller’s Unabashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse, a poignant and unforgettable wail of pain; and Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages, which creates one of those beautiful perfect cause-and-effect time-travel loops while also pulling in themes of feminism, gay rights, and found family. Really great collection overall.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers
Second in the Monk and Robot series: Tea monk Dex and their robot buddy Mosscap continue their journeys together, both through human villages and through their internal motivations. The first book was about the characters but also worldbuilding; with the worldbuilding established, the second book concentrates almost entirely on the characters. Mosscap’s quest is to ask what humans want, but begins to ask itself: what information is it really looking for? And what role can Dex find for themselves along the way?
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
This is the third book of Muir’s amazing Locked Tomb series, which is actually kind of impossible to summarize… I was waiting on this forever, and I was almost afraid to open it lest it let me down, but thankfully it was a breath of fresh air after the incredibly angsty and dense second book. Narrator Nona presents everything matter-of-factly, no matter how weird (and with this series, everything is inevitably weird). Her narration is interspersed with monologues from John Gaius that revealed the crazy birth of their universe, and as an extra bonus John’s New Zealand turns of phrase felt super familiar to me now that I’ve been Down Under for a couple of months. Nona’s self-absorbed ignorance actually echoes Gideon’s from the first book, which works really well. I absolutely loved Nona’s conversations with her chosen family, and her very innocent yet piercingly insightful observations about them; like other books in the series, this one begs to be read again immediately once the many mysteries reveal themselves. Definitely curious where the series goes next.
Eyes of the Void, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Sequel to Shards of Earth, though a little less focused and more fragmented in the plot. Here Tchaikovsky, having created a huge host of alien cultures and many worlds, seems to want to dig into them and explore them even as his interdimensional space monsters are tearing everything down around them. His characters are pulled in different directions, running from enemies, chasing various leads, and following shadowy cabals, while the interstellar factions stumble (or are perhaps directed) towards war. The whole thing ends on a cliffhanger promising even more action; there is so much going on that I may have to re-read both books before the third is published next year.
Blackfish City, by Sam J. Miller
This is a post-apocalyptic (or more accurately, during-apocalyptic) cyberpunk novel, which focuses so much on humanity that as a reader, I almost stopped seeing the cyberpunk altogether. It’s almost the opposite of William Gibson type novels, in which the humans are cyphers and the tech is cool; Miller’s humans’ emotions are deep and raw, and the fact that they live in a futuristic city run by mysterious AIs is just another part of their daily lives (though it’s also a huge part of the story). The geothermal city of Qaanaaq, an arctic refuge for those escaping the wars and chaos of a warming world, is visited by a mysterious woman who may or may not be bonded to an orca through exotic and secret technology; meanwhile, ordinary citizens are afflicted by a disease called “the breaks,” which bombard them with glimpses of strangers’ lives. Miller weaves these disparate threads together in a fast-moving and urgent story that also becomes a commentary on how those in political or economic power can dehumanize others, and the importance of family and community in a world being torn apart by climate change.
LaGuardia, by Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Tana Ford
Written by Okorafor after a bad experience with the TSA, and after the Muslim ban was put in place, this graphic novel explores a world in which aliens have come to Nigeria and integrated into society, and in response the US puts a travel ban in place to block any immigration from Nigeria or other countries with alien citizens. As human and political xenophobia clash against protesters pleading for tolerance, a Nigerian-American doctor named Freedom is affected on a very personal level as she travels back to the US while smuggling a leafy alien refugee called Letme Live. None of the messaging is subtle, but the artwork and coloring are lush and beautiful and the story moves along nicely.