maharetr

Finished reading:
Black sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Having finished it, and having had a day or two to digest it, I like it more and more. It was well structured, and everything wove together well. I was slightly peeved that ( spoiler ), which somehow made it feel like not enough things were resolved to justify ending the novel when it did. An even more minor peeve was the use of xie/xer pronouns instead of they/them, which, after someone pointed out it makes gender neutral characters sound like literal aliens, I cannot unsee.

Her writing style—distanced and somewhat heavy on the telling—isn't my favourite, but it got the job done. The worldbuilding is evocative and interesting and new, and I ended up liking or at least being interested in a bunch of the characters. I'm interested enough in them and their new world order to consider picking up the sequel, which is an achievement in and of itself. It might even be new and fresh enough to bump Piranesi off the top of my ballot. Maybe.

Currently reading:
Cemetery boys by Aiden Thomas. mmm. This is published through Swoon Reads, a 'submit your manuscript for public voting! Most popular gets published!' outfit, which, oh boy. It feels like it, too, and that's not a compliment of its opening pages. I am extremely here for a Mexican ghost (a la Coco) romance story with a trans MC. Like, so very yes please. But I'm hoping very much that it smooths out.

Up next:
The city we became N. K. Jeminsin. I (re)read the first few pages (again) and FUCK, they're good. Hits the ground running with character and place and voice. So, so good.

General Hugo musings, for what they're worth
I liked Calculating Stars well enough, but reading Fated Stars somehow just feels like homework. Goodreads says I can jump straight to giving The Relentless Moon a go, which honestly is attractive.

Harrow the Ninth. I bounced so fucking hard off Gideon the Eighth, I can't even. I'm very here for orphan outcast, including orphan outcast raised entirely in a society that grinds her into the ground for being different. But one that somehow maintains a sense of defiant self, and a self of self so apparently outside the culture, really, really threw me. That said, skimming goodreads and opening the sample…I like this. I really fucking like this. FINE. I'll give Gideon another go.

Murderbot. I expected the first novella to grab me, and it just…didn't. I want to give the series another go, though. Goodreads says to read the second one, and then it's safe to jump to the novel, so I'm going to try that.

Finished reading:

The good thief by Hannah Tinti. I really enjoyed her writing style, but then ending sort of wobbled for me. I'd interestedly pick up something else by this author, though.

Piranesi by Susanne Clarke. Oh man. This really is a book I want to reread so I can watch it unfold with my newfound knowledge. Not that Clark did anything startlingly unexpected or novel, but there feels like an immense satisfaction knowing ….ugh. All of it. Trying to put it into works feels like diminishing it into simplistic concepts, but that doesn't help when you're trying to describe it to someone else. As someone who likes books where not much happens? It's good, it's very good. It's not perfect (heads up for not-great queer rep, and also a single paragraph of entirely unnecessary fatphobia), but despite those flaws, it still managed to make me feel immensely peaceful and more secure in the world, so there is that.

Silver in the wood by Emily Tesh Argh. I want to like this so much! This is exactly the sort of story I want to have written! Forest spirits, and forest protector! Multiple types of masculinity, and a queer relationship! But damn. It desperately needs another edit (it's readable! But *makes face*), and the first part of it feels so rushed. I know it's a novella so probably had word count limits, but I really wanted another thousand words to be able to settle into the setting, and then a few more thousand to establish the antagonist properly. I've just started the second half. I love Mrs. Silver already, but idk if she's going to be enough to negate the fact that the first half was a lot of manly-man walking around the forest using a crossbow to kill explicitly-female dryads, and an off-screen human woman described as an ogress for being allegedly overbearing. I'm still reading, but I'm grieving what could have been, and not yet planning to pick up the sequel.

Having now finished it: I rescind the ogress complaint: Mrs. Silver was the GREATEST! But I was left so frustrated and grieving what could have been if the narrative as a whole had been given enough words to breathe. All of it just felt too rushed. :( Not getting the sequel.

“A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Short story finalist for this year's Nebulas, which was how I stumbled over it, and now Hugo finalist too! This was laugh out loud funny, and still makes me smile. Robots and their robot mentors.

Finna by Nino Cipri (novella) Recced by fredmouse <3. I was utterly charmed by this. I wanted (and still want) more relationship grounding—I know they just broke up, but I wanted to feel what they'd lost—but the ending felt more and more right the longer I sat with it, which is a kudos in its own right. I'm glad it made the Hugo shortlist. I'm expecting something else to be better than it, honestly, but it's a worthy contender.

Klara and the sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I read Never let me go after seeing the trailer for the movie, which means that I went into that particular book not even realising there was a twist to be slowly, horrifyingly revealed. Of all the books I wish I could (re)read cold for the first time, that book is on the top of the list. So I went into Klara very interested and as cold as possible. I read this over a weekend, ( general, mostly feelings-based spoilers )

The murders of Molly Southborne by Tade Thompson. Holy shit. Passed on to me from fredmouse via chaosmanor. chaosmanor also passed on that it was full of gore and body horror, and confusing, but if I could make it through the first chapter I'd be fine. I knew starting this at night was not a great idea, but I did it anyway, absently picking it up this (Tuesday) evening and started reading the first few pages curiously, on my feet. I figured I could stop should it start to get too creepy. I read it straight through in one sitting, and okay, it helped that it was only 117 short pages, but STILL.

( One tiny detail that I wish had been addressed ) Regardless, I was entirely willing to roll with both the opening and the premise, and still wasn't quite sharp enough to twig to how it pulled together, and goddamn, that was an EXCELLENT use of a novella, and the ending was fucking great. Thinking about it, the writing style/voice feels like The queen's gambit, and it works really, really well for it: that tight third person of someone who's outside the mainstream world but also knows shit.

Epic heads up for body horror and gore and violence, tho. I don't know that I'd want to consume a steady diet of said, and I'll…probably be okay sleeping tonight, but I can see how other people wouldn't be.

The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. In 1901, the word 'Bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. This was both excellently written and frustrating in tiny, sharp, specific ways. This was so cosy in a white, middle-class British way that I kind of squirm at how much I enjoyed it, but I did. I did keep muttering 'where are the queers? Where are they?' Once I realised the live-together-forever sisters were fictionalized takes on actual historical real people, I relaxed a little, but still, a narrative that included positive feelings towards (former) sex workers, and the stories of working-class people of colour, the silence around queers felt…loud.

The author wanted to tell the stories of women and the women's words that had been excluded from the literal record of the dictionary, and she did a good job there, using a fictional woman to channel that, including several common grief-experiences that hit really well and hard, like, the author is good at this, but the author also for some reason intentionally dodged several moments of emotional impact. Like, it feels very distinctly like the author didn't feel like her fictional character was allowed to make active choices. The story of her life still works, but as a writer, I was left blinking that a few scenes were missing crucial sentences that would have allowed the character to be a fully rounded person, and been immensely emotionally satisfying for (this) reader, and argh. I critique because I liked? I guess? And am also taking notes for my own writing.

DNF:

When rain turns to snow by Jane Godwin. Australian YA. A boy turns up on a girl's doorstep with an infant child. I was tempted into this one by the lyrical writing (for lovers of Fiona Wood indeed <3) and the authentic teenage-Australian voice. I rage-quit at page 50-70 or so when I realised that most of the book was going to be these very young teenagers ineptly not-properly caring for an ill infant and actively not telling an adult (MC's mum is Right There, to be told and for administering life-sustaining care, jfc) for a hundred plus pages and fuck no. Tween/teen me probably would have liked it, but apparently adult-me Cannot. Will Not. Nope.

Currently reading:

Homesick by Nino Cipri. (also from fredmouse) I'm two and half short stories into this collection, and holy shit, it's GOOD. The third story—a ghost? Who-knows-what's-going-on!? Story was so good/unsettling that I stopped reading before bed and was epically unsettled for sleep. Highly recced daytime reading!

Up next:

Genuinely want to re-read Piranesi, doubly so now that it made the Hugos.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Public service announcement: I have been informed that one of the heroines is a bisexual mermaid sea captain, at which point this book goes from "This author's first book was solid, but I didn't grab its sequel, and I'm not really running to pick this new series up, even if it has been Hugo-shortlisted" to 'holy shit, keen library reserve, yes pls!'

General thoughts on:
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Tess of the road, by Rachel Hartman
The cruel prince by Holly Black
The Call
Children of blood and bone

Now with Dread nation by Justina Ireland

( Some emotional beat spoilers for the Belles, and there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

General thoughts on:
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Tess of the road, by Rachel Hartman
The cruel prince by Holly Black

Now with The Call and Children of blood and bone.

( Some emotional beat spoilers under a second cut for the Belles, and there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

Under here are reviews of:
Beneath the sugar sky
The black god's drums
Gods, monsters, and the lucky peach

( No actual spoilers under here, but there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

(Rolling update: have now finished and reviewed Space Opera, with only Calculating Stars to find and read)

( No actual spoilers under here, but there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

SUPER late, but I was also out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights, so it goes.

Finished reading/put aside:
Crash Override: how Gamergate (nearly) destroyed my life, and how we came win the fight against online hate by Zoe Quinn. Now finished, and everything from my last review stands x2. Highest possible rec.

Provenance by Ann Leckie: I got the book from my local library to give myself longer than the excerpt to see if I settled into it, and only after reading whatever-chunk longer and waiting for the character to get over her birthright/fighting for inheritence thing did I think to read the blurb (I know, I know. Just, starting my reading from a PDF download does that sometimes, apparently), and realised that the whole book is about that and I am so not interested in that narrative. There’s very good odds the narrative is about her actually learning to disregard her ‘birthright’ and forging out on her own, but it feels like it’s going to take way too long for it to get there.

Iain M. Banks by Paul Cincaid. (Read the first two-ish chapters) This is clearly deeply researched, and I imagine an abosolutely fascinating read if you’ve read Banks’ works. I’ve only read a handful, and they were long enough ago that I don’t clearly remember them. I want to be the sort of person who has done the background reading to justify purchasing the rest of this, but alas I’m not. Strong rec, for people who have, though. It looks like a good book.

The art of starving by Sam J Miller. Oh boy. I inhaled the first …fifty pages? And mega, huge trigger warnings for anyone who’s ever had an eating disorder of any kind, pretty much. I’ve not had one, and I also read a fair number of anorexia/ED angsty books as a teen and… thinking back, all of those books were clear enough in their ‘while the character is deep inside their eating disorder, the author is pointing out this is Bad Idea’. There was a level of distance, even while you were inside a sufferer’s head. This is…the author is drawing on his experiences of his own past eating disorder, and it’s SO assured it’s genuinely headfucky, even to someone who’s never actually been there. I’d definitely read more of this author, but I don’t think I can do it myself.

Currently reading
No time to spare by Ursula Le Guin. A compilation of the last decade or so of her blog posts. As always (and now eternally I guess) her turn of phrase is so seemly perfect and effortless. I abruptly want to find like, there’s an archive full of famous authors’ hand edits of their drafts, and I would sell a…something, to be given access to her versions of that. Reading it is still as immensely comforting, laced with bittersweet.

Up next:
I might dip into Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Liz Bourke, or back into fiction with In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan

Finished reading:
A skinful of shadows by Frances Hardinge. This was a really satisfyingly crafted and resolved story. It felt like a very moral and human tale, and I appreciated it keenly for that. Also the ending was immensely satisfying to me. Now I’m in the voting conundrum of: “I was more emotionally engaged with La belle sauvage, but Shadows was an infinitely better book”. *angsts at the YA ballot*

The collapsing empire by John Scalzi. I’m loving this. Scalzi’s writing is assured and fucking funny – it’s making me laugh out loud several times a chapter. And then something awful happens, and it’s making me catch my breath and bite my lip to ward off the emotional wallop. I feel like it could be… deeper? I’m fumbling for words. Perhaps I’m used to fat fantasy rather than space opera, but it’s only 300 pages long, and while it’s getting its point across well, I keep expecting something more complicated, or more depth from somewhere. But it’s still a very good read.

[Having now finished] I figured out what was bugging me: this is 3/4 of a novel. It’s a really good three quarters, I loved it, but it’s missing a chunk of worldbuilding and depth that was supposed to make me care about the point of the novel. (That sounds more dire than it actually is). But when there were [character deaths] I felt them viscerally, one so intensely that I read it that first time and then turned the page so I didn’t re-read and cry in public. But that …not even a twist, a pivot point – that didn’t feel earned, because the depth of this world felt as deep as “as much as was needed to write these particular set of characters” rather than ‘fleshing out a living, breathing world’ and that’s a damn shame.

Currently reading:
All systems red by Martha Wells. I’m a couple of pages in, and I cautiously think I’m going to like it.

Up next:
ALLLL the rest of the novellas (well, the four I haven’t read yet).

Finished reading
La Belle Sauvage Huh. Reading this page by page was an utter, wonderful joy. Pullman is a freaking master here of measured, comforting storytelling, and it’s pitch-perfect for the story and the character he’s telling. On that level, I adored it, and I’m so glad I read it. On a narrative level, it sort of wears its prequel mantel a bit too obviously (the narrative and the story just ends hard, leaving our protagonists abruptly in favour of the all-important ‘baby character who’s central to the next books’, without giving the children characters I’d grown to like an actual ending. So from a narrative and writing perspective it was really interesting to observe, and I’m glad I read it. Actually, I’m interested enough based on how good this was, to give the original trilogy another go, and that’s much higher praise than I was expecting to give!

Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher (pen name of Ursula Vernon) oh god, now that I’ve finished I can say with utter certainty that this is damn near perfect and the denouement damn near actually made me cry. Fuck. Having only read two of the six finalists, mind, I’d been planning on leaning towards Pullman at the top of my ballot just because Vernon’s won several times now, but I just can’t go past this work. *clutches it*

[Amazon excerpt] In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Um. Huh. The world building and even the scene setting in this is schlocky. Probably this is intentional! I mean, the dialogue is legit laugh out loud hilarious, for example, but the rest of it – including the pacing – is giving me whiplash in comparison Again, it’s probably intentional! But, welp. I’m super, super here for main character being a bi guy, and I’m really looking forward to what I’m hoping is an OT3 (IN A YA BOOK! Oh my god I am so pleased), and I legit want to read it for that. But based on this excerpt I’m not at all sure what it’s doing in the Hugo finalists.

Currently reading:
Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Jee. The general of Faction A forcibly and pleasantly takes command of the space warships of Faction B to go fight their common enemy. I think. I got this as an eBook loan (public library system ftw!), although I’m keenly missing the ability to highlight passages for later, which is apparently a Kindle function but not an Overdrive function. I really want the ability to flag “Oh, man that info dump is going to be really useful later”. Format whining aside, I am adoring every word that I understand of this. Which is probably about two-thirds of the book, which is a much higher ratio than the first book. The bits that I understand are sharp, amazingly sharp and tight and often really fucking funny. There are women everywhere, and equally unremarked is at least one gender-neutral person. Are there people out there who have read these books and understood the whole calendrical warfare thing immediately? Is it a maths thing that I’m missing? Regardless, I am loving it, to the point where I’m veerry tempted to buy a Kindle version for the highlighting.

Up next:
I've just about given up on the voters packet coming in reasonable time, and have ordered The collapsing empire by John Scalzi on interlibrary loan. Excite!