What a lovely novel, a real genre-buster that brings in so many elements to form a patchwork that is somehow challenging and cozy.
So much to sink youWhat a lovely novel, a real genre-buster that brings in so many elements to form a patchwork that is somehow challenging and cozy.
So much to sink your teeth into. So much I enjoyed. I loved the almost anti-worldbuilding approach Anders takes here, where the magic is intuitive, unexplained, more about feelings and instincts than anything else. It feels a lot like, well, just being a person. Trying to figure out who you are and what you want just as much as it is trying to do a spell. Magic is often a metaphor, but it's not always such a mess and I loved it.
There is also the 18th century literature of it all. I purposely did not look up all the books Anders referenced because I wanted to act as if they were all absolutely real. So imagine my surprise when nearly all of them actually are. (There is one, central novel that Anders invents.) She's done such an impressive job of creating this novel, of tying it back to many other works and events with real people, that it all feels so deep and tangible and full of research you can get lost in along with Jamie.
But what Anders does best here is dive all the way into the messy relationships at the core of the novel. Between Jamie and her mother Serena. Between Jamie and her partner Ro. Between Serena and her wife Mae. None of these relationships are simple. They involve conflicts and secrets and struggle. They are also fun and sexy and comforting. Love stories are all well and good, but I am a sucker for a story about people who don't know if they are falling out of love, who are struggling to figure out if love is worth saving. These are not questions with easy answers. And these are not characters facing straightforward decisions. Jamie is pulled between Serena and Ro, a mother she feels obligated to care for and a partner who is a safe and reliable refuge. Why would Jamie jeopardize her incredibly wholesome relationship to help a mother who may not deserve her help? Why can't she stop herself? And does that mean that her relationship isn't as healthy as it seems? The flashbacks to Serena and Mae, Jamie's parents, help us see how Serena got to be who she is and explain more about who Jamie is, too. Ultimately this is actually, despite all the other genres involved, a coming of age novel.
A heavily queer cast (maybe a straight character popped up here and there? who's to say), this book felt really rooted in reality for being a fantasy novel. I felt like these were people I knew, people I see in real life.
I'm not much of a Fantasy reader, but I think this is a book that could work for readers of many different genres. Hand it to any queer nerd, and you'll have a happy reader....more
This takes a while to get going. If I hadn't taken a quick peek at the reviews to see that it would eventually devolve into a really messed up bacchanThis takes a while to get going. If I hadn't taken a quick peek at the reviews to see that it would eventually devolve into a really messed up bacchanal of horror, which is absolutely my jam, I probably would not have kept reading.
It's hard to classify this but I suppose if you must it is a fantasy in the historical style, something sort of Arthurian, with knights and nuns and magic. A castle is under siege, those inside are on the verge of starvation. And here we meet our three protagonists--all very queer, naturally. Phosyne has managed to magic clean water but isn't sure how she did it and is now under pressure to magic food. Ser Voyne is the king's closest knight, struggling to keep order. And Treila is pretending to be a servant while she waits to take revenge. It takes a while for these three to get their plot lines intertwined (like I said, this takes too long to get going) but this is not going to be a cozy little story of how they all become friends and/or lovers. These three are always in tension, but they often find themselves temporarily aligned. Because, well, there are the Saints to deal with.
The Saints are spectacular villains, very creepy, and Starling very deftly weaves us through their arrival. Even before we see what is really going on, we know this is not going to end well. There is no really big secret here, from the minute they become the castle's saviors you can make a fairly good guess of what they are doing. We don't need to reveals. Because what is happening is grotesque and the thing we don't know is who these Saints are and how to stop them.
Once we get into full fever dream territory, the book is at its best. Though the part that really got me was the monster that is also just a crack in the wall. Shivery goodness....more
I knew going in that Semiosis and Interference were two very different books. This initially frustrated me about Interference, I'd expected us to onceI knew going in that Semiosis and Interference were two very different books. This initially frustrated me about Interference, I'd expected us to once again move quickly through the development of Pax from generation to generation but much of that book took place within just a few months. I knew I should expect a change with Usurpation, and I got one. It just wasn't the kind of change I liked. This time we are not on Pax. Not even for a single minute. Once you line up all three books it's clear that Burke isn't writing about the development of a new planet, about the growth of a planned utopia. She isn't even writing about the ways different alien species come together. Ultimately these books are all about the bamboo.
The bamboo is what everyone remembers about Semiosis. And it's such a fabulous invention of fiction. Following the interaction of Stevland and the Pacifists was my very favorite thing about these books. I just didn't feel like this third book brought much that was new or interesting.
In Usurpation we are back on earth with the plants that grew from Stevland's seeds. We follow Levanter, one of the first three plants. But once again most of the book takes place over a short period. Levanter is deciding whether to reveal herself to humans. The humans are involved in elaborate wars and conflicts. We follow the perspectives of several humans, but the earth itself is so vast, it's impossible for us to get all that invested in an entire planet. The story works best when it's much more limited, but it keeps expanding outward.
The truth is I never really cared. There were a few subplots that really held my attention, but often just when it would get interesting everything would change. All the pieces are there again, we have the bamboo learning to communicate with other plants on earth, tapping into the human network, establishing contact with wild robots, many different forms of life tenuously trying to connect. But it's actually really nice to have specific characters to know well and latch on to who can take you through these larger plots. No one besides Levanter ever really connects.
Disappointing, but also it's one of these times when Burke is shooting for something different than what I most enjoyed from the series. We just have different things we care about here. And that's fine! But I enjoyed Interference much more on a second read, whereas I doubt Usurpation will grow on me in the same way. ...more
It's very exciting to get a book that is a totally different flavor of weird from Samantha Allen in her second novel. Can she do anything? Maybe!
As aIt's very exciting to get a book that is a totally different flavor of weird from Samantha Allen in her second novel. Can she do anything? Maybe!
As a fellow queer ex-Mormon this book was extremely relatable except for the ghosts lol. But the weirdness is where this book excels, remaking the ghost who needs to make peace with himself trope into something very different with a lot more... electronics.
I know that sometimes we are over coming out narratives, but there are still a lot of reasons people don't come out! Especially public figures and people who feel like it's too late or they're too old. Allen is ready to grapple with this through fictional movie star Roland Rogers, who before his unexpected death hadn't just given up on coming out but fully being himself. It's a perfect team up with Adam, the frustrated ghostwriter who's entirely defined by his coming out memoir that he wrote so long ago that he's not sure what else he has to say.
I think the weirdness and the sex (yes there is sex!) are the real highlights here, keeping the story from getting too bogged down by the big emotional beats. But my biggest note is honestly that I think we could be weirder!
Always excited to see what Allen will do next.
(Note: Allen and I are online mutuals, sorry there are only so many of us queer ex-Mormons out there!) ...more
I have read a lot of novels that attempt to be their own version of IT, stories of adults brought back to their childhood to once again defeat an unspI have read a lot of novels that attempt to be their own version of IT, stories of adults brought back to their childhood to once again defeat an unspeakable evil. Most of them have felt like ripoffs, pale imitations. This is the first one I've found that actually has some magic to it. It's also one of the better Horror/Fantasy combinations I can recall. (Only Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House series comes to mind, they're similar in theme but pretty different in tone.)
I do not always take a lot of pleasure from the worldbuilding of Fantasy, the explanations of elaborate magical systems. And yet this book never bothered me, even though it has its own complex system of magic. It always feels organic, especially as we see how the different characters relate to it. This is, perhaps, the best thing about this book. Our primary protagonists--Hal, Erin, and Athena--all have profoundly different relationships to and experiences with the power known as The Dissonance. The shifting perspectives always serve a bigger purpose, not only to move the plot forward but to give us really different thoughts and experiences from the different characters. Multi POV can be done very badly but here it functions just as it should.
There are some weaknesses here that are not really weaknesses, but part of the intention of the whole package. Especially the central friend group who don't really make any sense together as a friend group, this is one of the required conceits of what the book wants to do so you just have to go with it. The romantic plots could be annoying but thankfully stay in the background until they become important for the plot or an emotional payoff. You do need to suspend a lot of disbelief here, especially imagining what would have happened right after 1999 and the destruction of an entire school and everyone in it, which the book never bothers to envision and once we have the full backstory it makes the future timelines feel like they're missing some pieces between the teen characters and the adults, but again, this is pretty typical of this type of story!
There are a lot of things I really enjoyed, that I thought this book did quite well. Even if I started with a lot of skepticism, I was very won over. I liked the movement through time, the flashes back to the past that fleshed out the backstory but are really the central story. Hamill lets us sit in them for long stretches. (The only time this book felt like it was too long or dragging was the desert stuff, I could never figure out why it had to go on for so long.) The book is great at holding on to a crucial piece of information until just the right time. And it's really good at not just making you wait, but having the reveal feel satisfying. They are not smack you over the head WTF reveals, sometimes you're not even sure exactly what is happening and why, but emotionally they hit the necessary beats. And one of this book's other strengths is it doesn't need to explain everything! I like the unexplained stuff, the missing perspectives, it leaves us feeling like everything isn't all wrapped up with a bow.
I liked Hamill's debut fine but noted that it suffered in its depiction of female characters. He's much better here, Athena and Erin are well drawn and interesting. I had just a slight quibble with the way Hamill writes about Athena's worries about her weight--it felt tacked on and not as fully realized--but these are quibbles and the gist of it all worked.
Mostly I just found this book really fun to read. I never found myself profoundly disappointed or annoyed, which is pretty impressive in a book this long. I was excited to come back to it and see what would happen. It made me wish that other people could execute this little subgenre competently instead of most books like this just not working for me at all because when they work they are fun! Hamill is one to watch, for sure, a lot of imagination, strong character development, real emotional investment, a solid work....more
Winters' last novel, The Quiet Boy, was truly fantastic, but it was also a very long and often slow burn and I think I may have been the only person wWinters' last novel, The Quiet Boy, was truly fantastic, but it was also a very long and often slow burn and I think I may have been the only person who really loved it (or read it). This time around Winters is running at full speed, almost always sprinting, with a book you can tear through and be satisfied by. It's his most appealing book for a general audience yet, and it has time travel to boot. Sometimes Winters can be more than a little depressing or cerebral, but this one is really just fun. Maybe it will really catch on and then everyone will discover his Last Policeman series, one of the best crime series around that is also the most bleak ever. There's a reason I like him so much.
This is a straight up thriller with multiple points of view, quick chapters, and constant action. It starts more disjointed but eventually it all comes together. Structurally it is smooth as silk, beautifully done. The book follows Allie, who has just been kidnapped; Desiree who did the kidnapping; and Grace, who at first seems totally removed from all this as a single mom caring for her aging mother, parenting her nonbinary teen, and doing it all on top of her super boring job at the FDA. Eventually Grace gets roped in and she's a great everywoman proxy for the audience, it's particularly fun to watch Winters make this very dull work into a pivotal plot point. Grace is a classic thriller protagonist who sees trouble and steps in to try and stop it even though she is in no way equipped to do so.
It also has a joke title that isn't totally clear at first, which also gets extra points from me.
A great airplane book, a funky little page turner, one I feel comfortable recommending to pretty much anyone. ...more
3.5 stars. The basic hook here is smart and well executed. Through the eyes of Annie, a robot who is designed to have emotional intelligence and learn3.5 stars. The basic hook here is smart and well executed. Through the eyes of Annie, a robot who is designed to have emotional intelligence and learn from her surroundings, we get to experience a larger female experience of manipulation, misogyny, and even abuse. To the reader Annie never feels like a robot, she is an interesting character, one we get to know well. Even Annie knows that her systems are programmed around her partner's wants, needs, and pleasures, so this does not play out like a typical cishet relationship. But by looking through these extremes, and seeing them through Annie's clear eyes, we get a different lens on it.
The only real issue I had was that we keep hearing how Annie's owner/partner Doug is such a good owner, how well he has helped Annie grow. And it was never clear to me if this was actually true, if other owners are such absolute garbage people that Doug's treatment of Annie is comparatively humane, or if Annie herself is different.
A great argument for the short novel, you can't play with this concept for too long and Greer takes just enough space here to explore several iterations of Annie's situation in ways that feel mostly novel and compelling. Would be a good one for a book club, assuming your group won't be prudish about the sex. (It's one of the really interesting elements of the book.)...more
I do recommend going into this entirely cold. I did, and I truly enjoyed the experience of discovering the world Howard has built. It is both a genre I do recommend going into this entirely cold. I did, and I truly enjoyed the experience of discovering the world Howard has built. It is both a genre novel and "literary," meaning, I guess, that it is a little slow and reads more like a traditional novel than the speedy prose of genre that tends to draw attention in particular ways with particular rhythms and tropes. But I know that most people will probably read the jacket copy so if you do want to know how well it does at what it does, read on.
I love time travel stories but only the very good ones. I do not like anything boring, anything I have seen before a hundred times. This book certainly met those criteria, its unusual premise is very simple but quite novel. The world it builds is similar, very simple, as is the prose. But like the good time travel stories the novelty is the pleasure, the way it makes you consider time and regret and possibility.
I thought, as I neared the end of this book, that I knew what it was doing. And I was okay with it but I was disappointed. All this interesting stuff, I thought, just to have a very by the book ending. But! I was wrong. I was surprised. And I was very, very pleased.
It is not that this book reinvents an entire subgenre. But Howard has clearly thought deeply about how to construct his plot and what it all means for his characters. It creates a really fantastic experience for the reader.
It does, as these stories do, have a tendency to make you question flaws or loopholes in its rules. I found one in particular quite obvious but I was willing to let it go and not worry about it. The thing that actually bothered me was a piece of Howard's world, making the gendarmes a low status position, which doesn't make much sense at all in the society he's built. But, again, I let it pass because he made good use of it in the story and I would rather have that then everything line up perfectly....more
If you are thinking you would like to get back into Murderbot but it's been a long time since you read the first book you could read it again but I caIf you are thinking you would like to get back into Murderbot but it's been a long time since you read the first book you could read it again but I can also tell you the Wikipedia summary will do in a pinch. This was just what I wanted it to be.
Except that I really expected more of the audio. The reader is fine. But I would have thought they would really do something cool with Murderbot. I suspect they just didn't prioritize it and gave it the usual audio treatment instead of seeing the opportunity to do more. Always a bummer when they have a potential audio gem on their hands and don't know it....more
Short but lovely, takes the story of the Crane Wife and twists them all around into a knot of something quite different. Speculative near future settiShort but lovely, takes the story of the Crane Wife and twists them all around into a knot of something quite different. Speculative near future setting. There's a looseness to the metaphor that I appreciated. Still I wished there was a bit more meat to it, the protagonist feels a bit too much like a character that's repeated often in these stories and I wanted more for her....more
This has a slow start, especially given the ending of book 1 which felt like it was going to dive us right in, but it's worth letting it all play out.This has a slow start, especially given the ending of book 1 which felt like it was going to dive us right in, but it's worth letting it all play out. Bardugo is very good at this, you can tell that she has really refined her craft. Multiple plots that all come together beautifully, characters that may fit into a simple box but not a box you've seen a thousand times already, and lots of snappy dialogue that is its own pleasure. Definitely not too complicated to do on audio, I read this so fast I couldn't believe it was as long as it said it was....more
3.5 stars. This is a not-exactly-for-me book in all the fantasy and the prose, which is luscious and sometimes dense. I can admire those things but no3.5 stars. This is a not-exactly-for-me book in all the fantasy and the prose, which is luscious and sometimes dense. I can admire those things but not get all the way lost in them. But I am a horror reader and oh boy is there some horror in here, body horror in particular, and I was happy to stay along for the ride. It is VERY dark and quite intense, including the on-page and quite violent deaths of children for those who are sensitive. I am really impressed by the way Khaw shapeshifts from book to book....more
After Porter's previous novel, THE SEEP, I was excited to see what she did next. Again she has an unusual take on a dystopia, not one that follows theAfter Porter's previous novel, THE SEEP, I was excited to see what she did next. Again she has an unusual take on a dystopia, not one that follows the normal rules or restrictions. Here the biggest social taboo is eating, food is for sustenance only, not to be enjoyed. Whereas sex is seen as a normal and public part of life. It is not completely turning society as we know it on its head, but it is a look at appetite and physical pleasure all skewed from the way we usually see it.
That world is an interesting one, with plenty of additional commentary around class. It's enjoyable to watch as Porter builds it through two separate storylines set in very different parts of this world.
For me, sadly, it didn't end up as a cohesive whole. The end felt muddier, less clear on what Porter was trying to say, and less personally connected to the characters and the world. Which was a bit of a bummer since Porter's imagination is so unique, you want to see something substantial come out of it. But I think this was too long, trying to do a few too many things. Not that it'll stop me from reading her in the future, she still has a unique imagination that truly does stand out in speculative fiction....more
I enjoyed the first third of this book enough to finish the whole thing. It is playful, erotic, poignant, and gruesome all at once. It is certainly unI enjoyed the first third of this book enough to finish the whole thing. It is playful, erotic, poignant, and gruesome all at once. It is certainly unlike any other book I can think of, which makes it worthwhile for me. It could use a stronger plot, especially in the last half where we get the idea of what's happening but need some momentum. The illustrations were a lot of fun....more
I admit I was skeptical when I found that Emily St. John Mandel's new novel was about a pandemic again. But she truly won me over. What makes this a gI admit I was skeptical when I found that Emily St. John Mandel's new novel was about a pandemic again. But she truly won me over. What makes this a great pandemic novel, perhaps the first, is how it captures something so specific to how I feel right now. Somehow she has spread over hundreds of years, complete with moon colonies and time travel, a story that reflects the truth of the present: that we keep living variations of this same cycle, whether it's a new wave or a whole new virus, and we never get any better at it.
I know that's a pretty bleak thing to say, but I feel like the world in Spring of 2022 is a pretty bleak place to be. Where we choose to let millions die rather than imposing simple, straightforward public health measures that could save most of those lives. Where we see that it is coming but it hasn't hit yet, it hasn't hit me, so it can't be all that serious.
She also writes well about the feeling right before it all kicks in, a nice little throwback to February 2020 vibes. Time after time you see feelings you recognize. It isn't just that it's validating, it's also something to see a feeling you recognize through Mandel's novels, because she is so very good at them.
This is also a time travel book and I do love a time travel book. It is not trying all that hard to moralize (I was a bit worried about the central time travel hook but thankfully that played out just as it should) and it does what time travel stories need to do: it has some fun but it absolutely must surprise you. If a time travel story does not surprise you, then it is the worst kind of failure. They are very hard stories to end, and this has a nice ending.
My review is all about the broad strokes, but of course part of the joy of reading Mandel is the specifics. There is something about her prose, about her characters, that sticks. It feels cerebral and yet it is never difficult, never unaccessible, never talking down to you.
If you are hesitant to read a pandemic novel, I will tell you that only a small portion of the book takes place during any actual pandemics. There is a lot of before and a lot of after and a lot of between, pandemics are a recurring theme for a long time until they become a larger focus. There is a section set during lockdown, if that is a delicate topic for you, and there is a lot of death off page.
And, of course, Mandel gives us the pleasure of having one of her primary characters be a novelist who has written a novel about pandemics just as a new pandemic appears on the horizon, an experience that cannot help but make you think of Mandel and how many of us talked about or re-read Station Eleven at the beginning of the pandemic, how pandemics seemed to be everywhere all of a sudden.
I did this on audio, it has several readers, all of them classics you've heard several times if you're a regular listener. I liked this approach and while the book is choppy and has lots of sections, the different narrators made it very easy for me to follow....more
There are going to be people who do not like this book because the central metaphor is too general. I can see where they're coming from. And yet, the There are going to be people who do not like this book because the central metaphor is too general. I can see where they're coming from. And yet, the looseness of the metaphor worked really well for me because I just kept thinking of one thing after another after another that it could apply to. It started to feel like it applied to everything. And really, how can you satirize just one thing in our present climate when one thing inevitably ties in to another and then another? In a way, this kind of broad satire hits so strongly because Johnson has managed to encapsulate so many things at once.
Johnson has a great balance between serious and fun, having a variety of characters who are more extreme and more sensible. The first third of the book is just weird, it's unclear exactly what is going on, and that is right up my alley. I was so happy to go along for the ride. And then once it was clear what was going on, there were a mountain of other questions unanswered. I will spoil none of these. But I have to say that an element of absurdity in political satire is important and Johnson gets that just right, I think.
This is more accessible than Loving Day, though also not quite as sharp. As I said, it takes a very broad aim, but it also has a lot of fun with its sci-fi elements. ...more
I found Straub's last book ALL ADULTS HERE a bit too schmaltzy for me but I am a sucker for time travel so I picked this one up. But I forgot when I dI found Straub's last book ALL ADULTS HERE a bit too schmaltzy for me but I am a sucker for time travel so I picked this one up. But I forgot when I did so that the Schmaltzy Time Travel story is a thing (Quantum Leap, for starters) because time travel can make you get all nostalgic about how things used to be/could have been.
I could have forgiven a lot of the schmaltz of the second half if the first half was more cohesive. We start off laying the groundwork, showing us where Alice is in her life. On paper Alice's life doesn't look like much, but that actually bugged me! Alice seems pretty cool! She may not have the best job, she may not have a perfect romantic partner, but she also doesn't seem to be plagued by anxiety about what she doesn't have. The big problem for Alice is her father's illness, he is in the hospital close to death. This is where the book will end up taking us, to this father-daughter relationship, but it's weirdly not where it spends most of its time in the first half.
When we do get the time travel, it's super weird how Alice doesn't seem all that worried about it. (If I had to potentially relive my life starting from the age of 16 I would be deeply deeply depressed! Having to redo school sounds like absolute torture!) Instead we move into nostalgia world. Some of this is sweet as Alice gets to spend time with her dad and appreciate his younger self in a way she couldn't then. Some of it is very oh isn't New York amazing??? (but only because this takes place almost entirely above Central Park South) and I have very low tolerance for that.
I know this isn't a mystery but also I knew exactly where all of this was going from pretty much the beginning. Which is why I was so confused as we meandered through a whole different book before it got to what it was actually about. Alice's choices after she's gone back in time often don't make much sense, they don't feel rooted in who she really is or some idea of who she wants to be. And the book is better when it gets to its center, even if the center is the schmaltziest bit. Because at least that felt true and grounded.
There are lots of long observations here, some of them sharp and hilarious, others that don't hit at all. So much of it is very much wanting to just sit and look around and consider how different things were 25 years ago. This will probably work great for a lot of readers, but for me it often didn't land. ...more
3.5 stars. For me this one took too long to get going, it wasn't until we were halfway through that I felt like we were in the meat of the plot. Glad 3.5 stars. For me this one took too long to get going, it wasn't until we were halfway through that I felt like we were in the meat of the plot. Glad to see it'll continue as a series because I think the way Lee intertwines Korean mythology and science-fiction is really impressive, from the characters to the technology. Kids enjoyed this one, though I don't think we had quite as much urgency around it, took us longer to read than usual by a longshot....more
3.5 stars. THE WANDERERS with a little bit of THE CIRCLE thrown in. I do like a space book, not just for the space stuff but because the close quarter3.5 stars. THE WANDERERS with a little bit of THE CIRCLE thrown in. I do like a space book, not just for the space stuff but because the close quarters inevitably gives some interesting drama and this book is that in a nutshell. The interpersonal dynamics between our characters and the way they interact with the corporation that put them in space is the real heart of this book.
It gets impressively messy in ways that feel true to life. There are multiple points in the book where you don't know how things can get messier, and then they do!
Our characters are all tied to the space station Parallaxis, funded by Sensus, a massive corporation owned by the Son sisters. In this near future story, Sensus created a new kind of phone that implants in your ear to let you see your screen constantly. Parallaxis is one of their other projects, imagined as a retreat for those who can afford it. But before the billionaires can get there, a small crew has to get it ready, and for good measure they've thrown in a few scientists whose work they think will be beneficial and that is where our cast of characters comes from. But on top of that we also have Tess, a sociologist, brought in secretly to develop a new algorithm to read and even anticipate human behavior by observing the crew through their phones. It's a lot of interesting pieces and Scherm handles both the science elements and the near future elements well.
It wasn't quite 4 stars for me because there were a few things that just didn't gel all the way. I have read several books about science in a row where the scientist works alone which is really not how any of this works, so I am a bit peevish about it right now. And the ending felt loose, whereas so much of the rest of the plot felt tight and meticulous. ...more
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