3.5 stars rounding up for now. This wasn't a perfect read for me, but it was pretty enjoyable. I wanted more science, though. And the pacing was a lit3.5 stars rounding up for now. This wasn't a perfect read for me, but it was pretty enjoyable. I wanted more science, though. And the pacing was a little off. Full review later.
Betrayal. Just, betrayal. That is the main feeling I have at this point. Well, the main feeling in like 75% of my brain. The other 25% understands logBetrayal. Just, betrayal. That is the main feeling I have at this point. Well, the main feeling in like 75% of my brain. The other 25% understands logically why what happened in this book happened, but that 75%, it is PISSED.
Just, how dare you.
Maybe it is a good thing that Vaughan and Staples are taking a year-ish hiatus on this series, because my main impulse right now is to go over to their houses, knock all the books off their bookshelves in a righteous fury, and maybe like, kick some things aggressively while yelling.
[image]
I'm not even hyperbolically reacting here. I am genuinely very angry about the last few pages of this book. I believe they know what they're doing, but I am not happy about it. (view spoiler)[Marco was my favorite character, and I don't think I will ever fully accept that they thought he needed to die. (hide spoiler)]
Perhaps when the year hiatus is up I will feel differently, but I don't think so....more
Much to my surprise, I didn't really like this all that much. I will probably list some reasons down below, but bottom line ultimately is that somethiMuch to my surprise, I didn't really like this all that much. I will probably list some reasons down below, but bottom line ultimately is that something about it just never gelled with me.
To elaborate, I didn't really like any of the characters, except Elliott. The world-building makes no sense. (Or, there is no world-building?) (view spoiler)[Oxygen, where is it? How are they dealing with all the background cosmic radiation? Why are all these random fucking buildings floating in space? When is this set? Men? Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the idea behind a female run society, but there are children present, and where are they coming from? If females can reproduce now, fine, but can you please explain it? Also, how can someone be non-binary if there is only one gender??? There is no other side to the binary to be non-binary about. I also had an unbelievably hard time buying into the premise of the Staircase. It seemed like a fairy-tale creation someone was trying to get me to take seriously. (hide spoiler)] Maybe it's just me, but I like my sci-fi to make logical sense, and this reads more like a fantasy dream sequence than sci-fi to me. The dialogue didn't work for me. It felt very rote and bland (except for Jules, who had character coming out her ass). Also, the art kept me at a remove from the characters, even while the landscapes were visually very stunning. It was hard to distinguish which character was which sometimes.
And the big one that really did me in, the stakes always just seemed very artificial. At points, I just kept thinking to myself, this is dumb. (Specifically (view spoiler)[ when all the people start in trying to murder Elliot--once again, they were the only character I liked-- (hide spoiler)] I just gave up on the book. What was there didn't do a good enough job establishing the context for any of it, and because I never connected with the characters, I was just fed up with the whole thing.
I also don't think the book did a good job of selling me on the love between Grace and Mia, you know, the central story in the book. In theory, their arc is solid, but I never felt any of it.
All in all, I'm very sad I didn't like this very much, because it seems like I should love it. Giving it 2.5 stars, rounded up, because there were elements I did like (mostly Elliott, except for their half-assed, overly dramatic backstory, but that's more a function of the other stuff I didn't like than it is of Elliott). And I can tell that it's probably a "just me" thing, so it doesn't really deserve two stars.
[2.5 stars]
Read Harder Challenge 2019: A comic by an LGBTQIA creator...more
I feel like just making that one word and its accompanying symbol my entire review, but that would be doing a disservice to the book and Murderbot <3.
I feel like just making that one word and its accompanying symbol my entire review, but that would be doing a disservice to the book and also to anyone potentially reading this review who has not yet let Murderbot into their lives.
Murderbot is life. Murderbot is love.
Just kidding. If Murderbot saw me talking about Murderbot like this, Murderbot would be appalled. Murderbot is all about not dealing with feelings at all costs. Which is too bad, because as a newly free individual (albeit a rogue one), dealing with feelings (including those of other people) is kind of a necessary part of being alive in the world.
(I feel bad misgendering Murderbot, whom I persist in visualizing as male but who is in fact gender neutral and asexual, happily so. I used "he" and "him" in my first review, because that's how I picture Murderbot. But I also don't want to refer to a living, thinking, lovely being like Murderbot as "it." It seems demeaning. So I'm just going to type Murderbot one thousand million times.)
The progression of these novels seems to me to be tracking Murderbot's development into personhood. The first novella ended with a sort of freedom being obtained, but Murderbot has no experience actually living as a person in the world. This novella finds Murderbot traveling back to a pivotal moment, before Murderbot's memories were erased. When Murderbot earned the name Murderbot by murdering the people he* was supposed to protect. Murderbot needs to know why this happened, and by finding answers, hopes to find some sort of revelatory path for the future.
*It's so hard not to use pronouns, you guys.
This really reminds me a lot of Breq in the Ann Leckie Imperial Radch books, except these books are a lot more funny, and much more accessible (not to mention shorter). But it's the same discovery of personhood, and making decisions on how to be and do things. Murderbot is too kind for Murderbot's own good, and the world Murderbot lives in isn't one that's super conducive to the person Murderbot seems to be becoming, but it makes for good conflict.
Plus, in this one Murderbot makes a friend! It's name is ART. I won't say what that stands for :D
I am very excited that the last two books in this series are coming soon, the next in August, and the one after that in October....more
These books are so good. This one was the slowest to get started, but it finished up just as poignant as the other two.
For those of you who haven't rThese books are so good. This one was the slowest to get started, but it finished up just as poignant as the other two.
For those of you who haven't read the first two books, first of all you probably should, but know that they aren't sci-fi adventure books in the classic sense. They are slow burn character studies, for the most part. Interesting things do happen, but unlike a lot of sf, they aren't driven by their plot. The first book does have the supposed backbone of the journey to the titular small and angry planet, but it's really a series of interconnected stories about the crew on the Wayfarer, and they are the point, not the aliens or the journey or whatever (though there is some really cool stuff there). In the second one, which I have liked more and more the further I get away from it, and have even been contemplating raising my rating to five stars, the main arc is the parallel journeys of Pepper (by flashback) and Sidra to learn how to be people in the world. This one has the least plot of all.
In the first two books, we learned of the Exodans, those humans who left Earth and the Sol system behind on a fleet of ships, intent on discovering a new place for humanity to live. What actually happened is that after hundreds of years, they had first contact with the Aeluons, and were eventually after a long period of debate, allowed to enter the Galactic Commons. Humans from the Sol system (who colonized Mars, the moon, Jupiter's moons, etc) now mix equally with the Exodans in galactic society, who are more and more leaving their stationary fleet for planetside. So what this book is, is a portrait basically of Exodan life, and through it we get this lovely examination of humanity (because this is Becky Chambers' thing).
We follow several characters that give us insight into different facets of Exodan life. We've got Tessa, who is Captain Ashby's sister (from the first book), a young mother who has been a content Exodan all her life; Sawyer, an aimless and rather lost young man from planetside whose ancestors left the fleet several generations back; Eyas, a caretaker whose job it is to care for the fleet's dead (a position that is so respected, she often feels isolated by only being seen as a symbol instead of a whole person); Isabel, an Archivist whose job is to preserve humanity's history; and Kip, a sixteen year old kid who is embarrassed by the fleet and is experiencing an intense desire to leave it. We also get interlude sections where an alien (a Harmagian) cultural anthropologist (or, the alien version of that) has come to the fleet to study it. Her perspective ties the whole thing together.
The worldbuilding here is phenomenal. And it's not just how the Exodans live that we learn about, but why, and Chambers always makes it relevant in a global sense, even as we're learning about something so specific and made up. All of the characters struggle with questions. What is the purpose of a fleet designed to find a new home for humanity, after humanity has outgrown that need? How do you find purpose in a life with so many options? How do you balance the desire to remember the past with the desire to experience new things? How do you cope with change? And she really nails the ending, which brings the whole book into focus, and makes the slow to start nature of it make sense.
I read most of this book in a day. It was so charming and lovely.
In the vein of Uprooted, Spinning Silver is another loosely inspired retelling of a fI read most of this book in a day. It was so charming and lovely.
In the vein of Uprooted, Spinning Silver is another loosely inspired retelling of a fairytale, this time Rumplestiltskin. I'm honestly not sure which book I liked better. It's been a while since I read Uprooted, and this book is one of those that gets better in your head the longer you sit with it after you finish.
Our Rumplestiltskin is actually one of our heroines, Miryem, the daughter of a moneylender (a historically Jewish profession, as usury was against Christian beliefs, though that didn't stop them from borrowing money). Her father is too softhearted for his profession, letting his borrowers walk all over him and never pay him back, so one day Miryem takes it upon herself to do the money collecting, and soon they go from being incredibly poor to pretty well off. She gains the reputation of being able to turn silver into gold, and so catches the ear of the Staryk, a Russian folklore inspired sort of elven society, who are greatly feared.
The book also follows two other female protagonists, a drunkard's daughter, and the daughter of a boyar who wishes her to marry the cruel tsar.
The result is an empowering and magical trip through a wintery world that's half folk tales, half historical fiction. You root so hard for all three ladies, and the atmosphere the writing creates is so immersive. I read this at the height of summer, and I could practically feel the cold from inside the pages.
As usual, I'm finding myself at a loss for a book I really loved, because all I want to say basically boils down to, SO GOOD I LOVED IT.
Loading...
