This is another fascinating, strange, absorbing work by the fiercely intelligent Arkady Martine. She once again displays some quirks that are perhaps This is another fascinating, strange, absorbing work by the fiercely intelligent Arkady Martine. She once again displays some quirks that are perhaps a bit too ubiquitous — a prevalence of both a lot of italics and many parenthetical interruptions — but I also can’t help but admire her commitment to her idiosyncratic style. Her characters are vividly drawn — although sometimes her dialogue feels a bit too hyper articulate, a la Aaron Sorkin — especially, in this installment, the child Emperor-in-waiting Eight Antidote and the second-in-command Swarm. And she is able to dramatize in very convincing fashion the complex, horrible truth that the fates of entire civilizations rest on flawed, lonely individuals and their whims.
I know folks who bounced off of A Memory Called Empire, and I can understand why, but I’m glad to have read these two novels, which I found to be quite satisfying and evocative....more
This is a dense, fascinating, strange exploration of diplomacy and otherness and culture clash that is packed to the gills with ideas and richly-conceThis is a dense, fascinating, strange exploration of diplomacy and otherness and culture clash that is packed to the gills with ideas and richly-conceived details. It is alternately vividly entertaining & somewhat obtuse, but I found myself more or less swept along the whole way. There is a tremendous amount that happens to the protagonist of this tale, and I can’t say that the cumulative emotional and physical effects of her jam packed adventures — some of which are downright traumatic — are always convincingly drawn. And there are probably a few too many words and phrases in italics throughout this novel, which seems to be a particular quirk of Martine’s, but that’s a relatively minor quibble.
This was one of the most celebrated SFF novels of 2019, and I can see why; it’s ambitious, confident, bold, and adventurous, much like its intrepid heroine, the naive but courageous ambassador sent into the middle of an empire on a very difficult assignment. I can also see why some of my bookworm friends weren’t as fond of it as I am; there’s something a bit distancing in the style Martine has used. But overall I’m impressed, and I will definitely continue reading this saga as its future volumes are released. ...more
This is a tough-minded, beautifully-written, multilayered exploration of the ways in which male-dominated human societies’ attitudes toward the rightsThis is a tough-minded, beautifully-written, multilayered exploration of the ways in which male-dominated human societies’ attitudes toward the rights and privileges and so-called “mysteries” of women have affected them, and by turns all of us.
It does bear mentioning that it is entirely a cisgender and (almost entirely) heterosexual novel, which is probably an indication of the era in which it was written and published as much as anything else. Although, at the same time, it’s not like trans or queer people weren’t also being talked and written about in the late-1980’s.
This is the first work of Sheri S. Tepper’s that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. I found her writing to be utterly compelling, surprising, provocative, and deeply felt. ...more
Charlie Jane Anders writes prose that is infused with imagination, compassion, heartache, and a deep exploration of what makes us human. The City in tCharlie Jane Anders writes prose that is infused with imagination, compassion, heartache, and a deep exploration of what makes us human. The City in the Middle of the Night is a huge departure from her first novel, All the Birds in the Sky, in almost every way: tone, rhythm, subject matter, milieu; but what the two novels share is Anders’ transporting, invigorating confidence as a storyteller. Anders trusts her audience to follow her as she spins a tale that unfolds with precision, presenting wholly original ideas, new and beautiful life forms, and chillingly extrapolated and corrupt societies. Her vividly drawn characters travel into the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of human experience, teetering on the brink of despair and almost succumbing to trauma, but somehow always struggling to survive, to find connection and love. Anders’ wild and brazen and dire visions of what life on a desolate and doomed planet could look like at times mix the anarchic violence of Mad Max with Ursula K. Le Guin’s humane and complex anthropological inventiveness. There’s a tremendous amount of darkness, real and metaphorical, suffusing this novel, but there is also an abiding hope that maybe, just maybe, the deeply flawed and damaged people who inhabit it can find their way into the light. ...more
A beautifully compassionate, intimate portrait of the inner lives of a small group of keenly-drawn characters as they navigate their way through theirA beautifully compassionate, intimate portrait of the inner lives of a small group of keenly-drawn characters as they navigate their way through their lives and find a way to connect and survive and thrive even after trauma and heartbreak. That description isn’t often likely to refer to a science fiction novel, but it’s to Becky Chambers’ great credit that it works all the better because it’s a science fiction novel, allowing her to delve deeply into questions of autonomy, consciousness, cultural differences, and found families by inventing AI characters and fascinating aliens, and grounding it all in clean, effortless, unsentimental prose.
I enjoyed her first novel — A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet — very much, but this novel feels more assured, mature, emotionally complex, and personal. It moved me greatly....more
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