This is the third installment in The Dispatcher series but can be read as a standalone. A relatively short audiobook original, the concept is a weird This is the third installment in The Dispatcher series but can be read as a standalone. A relatively short audiobook original, the concept is a weird change where when people are murdered they come back to life, naked and in a safe place. Dispatchers are professional killers who kill people to save them, for example if surgery has gone wrong. It reads like a hard boiled detective novel set in this slightly alternative present--in fact the pandemic setting with masks, no handshakes, and people hospitalized on ventilators made it feel like the ancient past. A perfectly fine way to spend a few long car rides with children....more
A reasonably entertaining and relatively speculative thriller, I listened to this together with my son on a series of long drives. It begins with a woA reasonably entertaining and relatively speculative thriller, I listened to this together with my son on a series of long drives. It begins with a woman escaping from her kidnapper and waking up in the hospital not knowing who she is. Thus begins a race against time as she struggles to figure out who she is, the bad guys try to get here, and another character is riding to the rescue. Nicely amusing characters, some clever turns of phrase, and the speculative reveal is a very interesting concept I won't ruin in this review....more
I listened to this with my children on two long drives to and from Thanksgiving. It was classic Scalzi, a bit worse than average, with a combination oI listened to this with my children on two long drives to and from Thanksgiving. It was classic Scalzi, a bit worse than average, with a combination of plot, humor, ultimately heroic characters, silliness, pastiche (including of some of his previous books), all unpredictable enough to keep it interesting and enjoyable for all of us....more
I was really looking forward to this book from the date I saw it announced about nine months ago. Golden Age Spain, court intrigue, conversos, a bit oI was really looking forward to this book from the date I saw it announced about nine months ago. Golden Age Spain, court intrigue, conversos, a bit of light magic, a fantastic cover, what is not to love? I bout it the day it was released. And it was... fine.
It is the story of a scullion maid whose mistress discovers she can do magic (things like making burnt bread unburnt or repairing a broken glass). She starts showing her off to others to advance her social position which results in her getting a patron who is connected to the court and enters her in a series of magic tournaments that are supposed to produce a holy champion for the King. The scullion maid seems mean and uneducated but actually has sharp wits and meets her match and also her eventual love in the patron's fixer, a man named Santángel--The Familiar from the title.
At times there are too many characters with too many names each. The procession through rounds of the tournament feels a lot like the standard formula. But a lot of it was distinctive and it all came together really well in the end....more
The four best short stories in this collection are truly outstanding, the other three range from OK to boring. It also has two “essays” which are inteThe four best short stories in this collection are truly outstanding, the other three range from OK to boring. It also has two “essays” which are interesting first person accounts of Olivia Butler’s life and writing advice but are not written in any particularly artistic or elevated manner. And a fine introduction by Jesmyn Ward
The four best stories:
Bloodchild: The only Olivia Butler short story I had read before. The first time I was blown away by the world building—humans are protected by a bug-like alien creature that can only reproduce by putting their larvae into the humans where it grows and is born in the most revolting fashion. This time I better appreciated the moral ambiguities of this symbiosis. Butler’s afterward was especially useful in putting it in this context rather than that of a more obvious didactic, moral denunciation of exploitation.
The Evening and the Morning and the Night: A fascinating description of a horrible genetic disease and the ways in which the people with the gene are, and are not, affected by it.
Speech Sounds: A post apocalyptic Los Angeles where people have mostly lost the power of speech and, with it, their ability for self control and to avoid escalation. The story is more about one woman caught up in this, just a fragment of her story, than any particular plot with all the world building in the background.
The Book of Martha: God comes to a woman and lets her make one change for humanity to make it better for everyone. As she contemplates different options he helps her to worry through some of the unintended consequences. Both God and Martha are fantastic characters and their dialogue is both psychologically and imaginatively and philosophically interesting....more
I read Old Man's War (the first in this series) by myself and quite liked it but didn't feel like I needed more of the universe. My son pressured me iI read Old Man's War (the first in this series) by myself and quite liked it but didn't feel like I needed more of the universe. My son pressured me into reading the rest of it (skipping Zoe's Tale which retells the events of the third book from a different perspective), with each book seeming to get less interesting and more frustrating than the last. But under pressure I persisted and was glad when the final book in the series was actually very good, and made me look back on the parts that were weak and like them more in retrospect.
The final volume is four different novellas from four different perspectives that take place sequentially and create a resolution of the tensions and conflicts that animated the series. I appreciate that this volume gives you the perspective of the humans from earth, from the colonies, and the aliens--and does all of that by moving from the perspectives of generals to common soldiers to people caught up in everything.
The dialog is snappy, the action is riveting, the intrigue is palpable, and the world building remains fresh....more
A beautiful graphic novel set in a near future where a huge war has led many people to take refuge in an island that becomes a home to old sorts of miA beautiful graphic novel set in a near future where a huge war has led many people to take refuge in an island that becomes a home to old sorts of misfits and traditional traditional sin (it seems sort of like Venice). The story centers around two telepaths and their journey to the mainland. It was all very beautiful but also had very little explication so it was hard to really know what was happening or care that much. Still, is a fast read (not much text) and is, indeed, beautiful....more
My son and I listened to this audiobook over the course of about five months. It is the fifth in the Old Man's War series and the worst so far (the fiMy son and I listened to this audiobook over the course of about five months. It is the fifth in the Old Man's War series and the worst so far (the first book was excellent and each successive one is a bit worse). It is thirteen stories that share many of the same characters, move chronologically, and have a collective plot--but with lots of tangents, different voices, and exploring different aspects. This all felt disjointed. Some of them were fantastic and absorbing but others were much weaker and the whole was less than the sum of the parts. That said, we immediately went on to the last book of the series....more
Kim Stanley Robinson doesn’t understand central bank balance sheets. Like, not missing some nuances but complete and total ignorance of them. NormallyKim Stanley Robinson doesn’t understand central bank balance sheets. Like, not missing some nuances but complete and total ignorance of them. Normally I would not bring up an issue like this about a novelist, I suspect most of the novelists I read do not understand central bank balance sheets and are probably the better for it. But Kim Stanley Robinson has written a “nonfiction novel” that purports to be a highly accurate and detailed account of the near future, both the ways in which climate catastrophes play out and how the world responds to them and ultimately triumphs—after a lot of pain and suffering. And central banks plays a big role in this account—with the words “central bank” appearing 80 times as compared to a mere 18 times for the phrase “climate change”. (In fact, 30 percent of the time the word “carbon” appears in the book it as part of the phrase “carbon coin,” which Robinson invents as a new central bank currency.)
Given the novel claims to be a new form of detailed realism, more like a series of opeds than a novel, it seems reasonable to judge Ministry of the Future at least in large part based on the cogency of these opeds. And in making that assessment I’ll start with central banks.
The hero of the book repeatedly meets with central banks to get them to subsidize carbon reduction, with Robinson at one point writing, “When Mary reminded them that they had quantitatively eased trillions of pounds into existence when needed to save the banks, they nodded; their job was to save the banks. To quantitatively ease trillions of pounds into existence to save the world: not their job.”
A few problems with this: (1) quantitative easing entails buying interest paying bonds with interest paying reserves at market prices, it is not a giveaway or a net increase in the amount of wealth but a transaction that simultaneously expanded the assets and the liabilities of the central bank, (2) quantitative easing didn’t save the banks, in fact the banks generally opposed it because it lowered their profit margins by lowering the interest rates they got on loans ore than the interest they paid on deposits, and (3) if you want to buy carbon there is no reason at all the central bank would or should do it.
Robinson seems transfixed by central banks having some magic money ability that the fiscal authority does not have. And that this ability would allow the expenditure of enormous resources while sequestering other resources all while avoiding any inflation or other tradeoffs.
This is not a small issue in the book which has a number of genuinely small issues (Robinson misunderstanding discounting and infinite sums in a five page chapter solely devoted to the subject and confuses the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund).
All of this was as part of an intersectional approach to climate change that for reasons I did not fully understand included discussions of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), student loan debt relief, new social networks that make micropayments for your data, and a melange of other left issues that are either orthogonal to addressing climate change or even actually competing in resources or attention with addressing it.
I found an awful lot of that highly irritating (in case you didn’t notice), and it made me nervous that Robinson’s discussions of the consequences of climate change and geo-engineering were similarly inaccurate.
That said, I did find something intriguing about the book and the way it was constructed. A series of short chapters told from different perspectives in a nonfictional, historical report type of way, the polyphony of voices was engaging and moved along. The opening depiction of mass death due to heat in India was powerful. The emphasis on geoengineering is important because that should be part of our climate solution (he also has a strong emphasis on mitigation, through extremely abrupt and damaging reductions of carbon use, especially in transportation, but is much lighter on the third aspect to the solution—adaptation).
I’m not sure if I regret reading the book or would recommend to others, but it was unique and memorable—but it was also badly flawed and to the degree it is presented as an actual manifesto for policymakers it will send them down a bunch of rabbit holes related to central banking, student loan debt relief, social networks, and more that will not help solve this problem....more
I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did like his book. The Brontë siblings (Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell) are making an unwI wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did like his book. The Brontë siblings (Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell) are making an unwelcome trip on their own by train to boarding school when a fantastical person made of books and newspapers shows up at the station. They can see him but no one else can. Then a train made of leaves and branches shows up, again no one else can see it but they get on. They are greeted by life-size, living versions of Branwell's famous toy soldiers that, in reality (and in the book) inspired the children to create their own fantasy world--the fantasy world that they now enter in The Glass Town Game, including their imaginary creations Gondol, Angria and Glass Town. They then get in the middle of a battle between a child version of Napoleon riding a giant rooster and Wellington. Eventually they go through all sorts of adventures, end up teaming up with writers like Byron and Shelly, meet some of their characters and scenes from their novels, and ultimately meet an alternative Queen Victoria who resides in the imaginary world they created where she imagines a fantasy land called "England," and eventually have to figure out how to get back. When they do a certain amount of the cold, hard reality of their lives returns--but with the lingering fantasies and leaps of imagination that they enjoyed in the interim.
All of the above is why I really wanted to like it and in some ways it really did. But I also felt like it was a bit of an orphan book. It was pitched to middle grade readers and had a middle grade sensibility of foregrounding the plot and keeping the characters relatively simple and static. But it also was very long, sometimes it felt like one new invention after the next without exploring them. It had its wonderful moments but also long stretches with a "oh, yet more of this" feeling. And, if you lack context I think it would be even harder for readers to engage with it--and I have some context but suspect I missed an awful lot (like did characters from Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey show up at some point? I think so but that book is still on my TBR.
If you have particularly niche tastes in the Brontë's and a certain type of metafictional fantasy this may be the book for you, but hopefully you'll start with lower expectations than I did....more
A Spy in Time is a brilliant, thought provoking, engaging time tale spy saga by Imraan Coovadia that is a wholly original book that draws on afrofuturA Spy in Time is a brilliant, thought provoking, engaging time tale spy saga by Imraan Coovadia that is a wholly original book that draws on afrofuturism and more cerebral spy fiction like Graham Greene, Anthony Burgess, and the best of John Le Carré.
Enver Eleven is a new member of the Agency, a covert organization devoted the preservation of the timeline—with everything good and bad that happened in history. He is heading back in time from post apocalyptic times where a supernova wiped out most of Earth except people living in mines deep below Johannesburg—all of them Black (but some albino). His first mission, to Marrakesh in 1955, goes badly wrong from the very beginning.
Thus begins a time and place spanning novel that moves between Marrakesh, Rio, Johannesburg to Jupiter, the destruction of the Earth and as far forward the year 100,000. All the time it is not clear if Enver is on the right side of history or the wrong side, if the shadowy enemy Board is really the enemy, or who is on what side.
The moral ambiguities and shadows concern race, history, conservativeness (in the sense of conserving even what is bad), and more.
The epic saga—in a book that is actually on the short and compact side even if it conveys an almost infinitely voluminous feeling—culminates in a nicely drawn together resolution....more
My son and I listened to this one and off for about two months on Audible. It was fine, not among my favorite Scalzi but perfectly enjoyable. The storMy son and I listened to this one and off for about two months on Audible. It was fine, not among my favorite Scalzi but perfectly enjoyable. The story is about a human colony that is at risk from the "Conclave," an association of alien races that intend to destroy any new colonies in an effort to keep space more peaceful. A number of twists and turns follow along with humorous banter and a deep sympathy for humanity. Its is the third in the Old Man's War series and fits in perfectly well with the previous but didn't "need" to be written, likely more add on to a series than a fully integrated whole....more
I listened to this audiobook with my son (I read the first book a while ago, he just read it). I quite liked it--a good suspenseful plot, some interesI listened to this audiobook with my son (I read the first book a while ago, he just read it). I quite liked it--a good suspenseful plot, some interesting characters, great world building (people can shift their consciousness into new bodies, a manageable set of intragalatic fights and alliances between different species, etc.). None of the writing was particularly spectacular, John Scalzi gets much better with later books (particularly The Collapsing Empire trilogy), but it was enjoyable....more
I liked but did not love this book, the second in Naomi Novik's planned Scholomance trilogy. The world building is spectacular, a school without any tI liked but did not love this book, the second in Naomi Novik's planned Scholomance trilogy. The world building is spectacular, a school without any teachers or set rules set in a void surrounded by mysterious monsters that kill roughly half of the students every year, but that itself is better than what happens in the world itself. The characters are decent and got a little better in this one. The plot dragged for much of the book but picked up in the last quarter or so. And when I say it is dark, it is genuinely so without any sappy anything underneath. And some surprising twists and turns. And the ending will definitely send me to what should be the concluding volume, whenever it comes out....more
I started Dune when I was a teenager but then grew bored and stopped reading it. I've been meaning to read it ever since but kept thinking I might as I started Dune when I was a teenager but then grew bored and stopped reading it. I've been meaning to read it ever since but kept thinking I might as well wait another year. The impending release of the movie finally got me to read it.
It is hard for me to evaluate or share thoughts that separate it from the vast amount of myth that surrounds the myth. It is an impressive feat and much of the world-building science fiction and fantasy that has come since then clearly owes a big debt to it. The world is striking and one that I'll never forget with the harsh deserts, the worms, all playing out against and intergalactic empire in the wake of an ancient war against AI to establish the superiority of actual humans. The way it is told with small bits of revelations and hints, no long exposition but a lot of showing, is very effective. But much of the story itself can be quite cringy, especially the female characters and their relationship to the male ones and their lack of agency despite being powerful witches. Moreover, while the plot keeps you going from beginning to end it does not really have twists and turns--the few that might count are heavily foreshadowed--and it is basically one triumph after the next after the next for Paul Atreides. Finally, the characters lack much in the way of complexity, there is no real growth or change for any of them, and they are pretty much either good or bad.
That said, the world and even some of the characters are as epic, sweeping, detailed, unique, and memorable as most any other speculative fiction and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it....more
Much to my surprise, this collection of ghost-story comics from the early 1950s was almost uniformly phenomenal. The stories mostly had twists and turMuch to my surprise, this collection of ghost-story comics from the early 1950s was almost uniformly phenomenal. The stories mostly had twists and turns that kept them engaging, some of premises were fascinating, the sensibility and language was interesting, and I loved the artwork. The book has about 20 stories averaging about 6 pages per story, I would say 5 were truly outstanding, 13 were excellent, and only 2 were clunkers. It also has about a dozen covers of classic comic books which are also amusing.
The public started to get bored of superhero comics in the post-World War II years and a new strain of horror comics started to emerge. It flourished in the early 1950s but was abruptly ended when public controversy and Congressional hearings led to the 1954 comic book code which, among other things, banned titles that included the words "crime," "terror," or "horror" and also comics that depicted vampires, zombies, or other monsters. This episode is well told in the overall excellent Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente.
I had never actually read any of these "scandalous" comics but now that I have it is impossible to understand what the fuss was about. First, these comics are all morality plays with villains who commit murder, robbery, adultery or other sins being punished (perhaps overly punished). And they don't have any blood or much genuine horror.
Instead they are genuinely clever ghost stories, often told more from the ghosts perspective in a sympathetic manner than traditional written ghost stories. Also unlike traditional ghost stories (think M.R. James), these ghosts don't dwell in ambiguity, uncertainty and the psychological--they are real and active agents acting in a clear manner.
Perhaps my favorite story was "Smoke Spirit" which begins with a ghostly woman appearing out of a man's pipe, we eventually learn that she was murdered on a tobacco plantation and appears whenever its tobacco is smoked. In the end the man tricks the killers into burning all of their tobacco, leading the ghost to grow so large she can consume them in the fires.
Another great story was "Me, Ghost" about a man who sacrifices a woman's life in an effort to protect himself but ends up shunned and ignored by everyone, leading him to think he also died and is a ghost--and to prove it he steps in front of a truck and actually kills himself.
Yes, pretty much all of the stories end with the villain killing him or herself--except the one about a "hanging judge" who is punished with the inability to die but instead has to live with a painful, untreatable, unamelioratable illness.
Then there is the ghost from the fifth dimension coming to haunt the one from the forth dimension and they both end up in our dimension.
OK, you get the idea. Read them, they're really fun!...more
Although The House in the Cerulean Sea was sweet and charming and even moving at points, it suffered from having the plot of an adult book (that is toAlthough The House in the Cerulean Sea was sweet and charming and even moving at points, it suffered from having the plot of an adult book (that is to say none) and the moral sophistication of middle grade book (that is to say none). The characters are all amusing types, one of whom grows and develops and changes as he learns, but the others mostly don't. It is also much longer than it needed to be. Part of the issue may have been that I ended up listening to it with my children on and off over the course of two months....more
Great characters, great atmosphere, great world building, some epic twists and turns and cons within cons within cons within cons that were marvelous.Great characters, great atmosphere, great world building, some epic twists and turns and cons within cons within cons within cons that were marvelous. My children and I listened to the audiobook over the course of a month and a half and were constantly enthralled and excited. There was, however, a bit too much of one incident after the next with no overall arc. The incidents were individually cool, I was glad to have more of them, but at points I did not fully know why. The characters were also types, splendidly realized types, and their growth was to make them all increasingly good, smoothing out the rough edges and the complexities. The magic was relatively infrequent and like Six of Crows often had a deus ex machina feel. But loved it. Will try the TV series next and hopefully my children will want to read King of Scars....more
An excellent ghost story by a writer I had never heard of but seems to have been in the same space as Anthony Trollope and George Eliot in her time. PAn excellent ghost story by a writer I had never heard of but seems to have been in the same space as Anthony Trollope and George Eliot in her time. Pretty classic set of tropes--a man returns with his family from India, rents a remote house in Scotland, has ruins on the property, the son thinks he sees a ghost, then more and more people do--until finally the situation is resolved in a kindly manner. But sometimes classic is classic. More of a long short story or novelette, I read it in one sitting.
The Open Door was published as a beautifully bound and illustrated single volume by Biblioasis in a series of ghostly short stories curated and illustrated by Seth. I reviewed this one because it was more than 100 pages but do not plan to review the others separately as they are genuinely short stories, even if published in a single volume. I will, however, add brief sentences on them here as I read them.
12/25/2020: Afterward: A Ghost Story for Christmas by Edith Wharton. A classic of the transatlantic ghost genre as events in America haunt a rich couple that has taken residence in an English mansion. All fits together beautifully.
12/30/2020: The Morgan Trust by R. Bridgeman. Absolutely loved this story of a man who goes to investigate the paranormal in Wales and finds a delightful, but slightly disconcerting, surprise.
7/21/2021: The Sundial: A Ghost Story for Christmas by R.H. Malden. A relatively think pretty standard ghost story about a man who rents a haunted house and frees the spirt of the person who had been murdered there centuries before under a burial place. All predictable.
7/22-23/2021: The Green Room: A Ghost Story for Christmas by Walter de la Mare. I loved the setup: an antiquarian bookstore with a hidden room, an unpublished manuscript, and of course a ghost. But it didn't have any of the satisfying twists or reveals that one might have wanted, still enjoyable.
Reasonably entertaining, reasonably imaginative and suspenseful, but fell short of a lot of other John Scalzi for me and the writing seemed to be weakReasonably entertaining, reasonably imaginative and suspenseful, but fell short of a lot of other John Scalzi for me and the writing seemed to be weaker than some of his other books. It is a police procedural set in the near future the world has a new disease “Haden’s Disease” that locks people into their bodies paralyzed. They can use neural networks to control mechanical avatars or in a few rare cases other people who can receive their signals. What starts as a murder or suicide turns into a larger political story in which the villain (of course) derives from corporate greed.
I listened to the audible recording by Will Wheaton (who does a lot of Scalzi books), was also reasonably good but the notorious Scalzi delimiting all speaking with “said” got increasingly painful as the book went along....more
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