Very interesting, very strange, very unusual. Feels quite magical realism-y; beautiful translation by Le Guin. A series of short stories about differeVery interesting, very strange, very unusual. Feels quite magical realism-y; beautiful translation by Le Guin. A series of short stories about different rulers, their rises and falls to power, in the long life of an unnamed great empire that has lasted for millenia. There's one story that seems to suggest it's a postapocalyptic/far future world, but that isn't fundamental to the book, I think. It's a little bit Gormenghast, a little bit Kipling. Sometimes funny, lots of wisdom....more
I enjoyed this a lot! Not all the stories worked for me - some felt a little rushed, or incomplete, particularly the sci-fi ones - but the urban fantaI enjoyed this a lot! Not all the stories worked for me - some felt a little rushed, or incomplete, particularly the sci-fi ones - but the urban fantasy ones were fantastic, particularly "House of Aunts," "起狮，行礼 (Rising Lion — The Lion Bows)," "First National Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia," and "The Perseverence of Angela's Past Life." Her voice is really fresh; it's funny, sympathetic, and sharp, all the stories are full of women, and there are delightful queer characters. The stories are all written about Malaysian characters. Some are set in Malaysia, some in space, some in diaspora countries (mostly England); some of the stories think about immigration and identity and being an ex-pat, but a lot of them are very settled in their Malaysian-ness, drawing on Malaysian folk tales, ghost stories, culture, and life, and don't explain or apologize to a non-Malaysian audience. There's magic, dragons in suits, grumpy ghosts, elderly woman vampires, and university student exorcists. The stories are largely in Malaysian-English, with lots of Malaysian words sprinkled in with the English. I had no trouble understanding it, although I'm sure someone who understands Malay or Hokkien would get more out of it. I think Zen Cho is a brilliant writer and I'm really excited to see what she does next....more
Ugh, I just couldn't. Gave up on this series entirely shortly into this book - I don't like any of the characters, and I'm so put off by the way the BUgh, I just couldn't. Gave up on this series entirely shortly into this book - I don't like any of the characters, and I'm so put off by the way the Brun storyline is being handled....more
**spoiler alert** I really struggled to get through this book, not because it wasn't well-paced and a good story, but because I felt like the progress**spoiler alert** I really struggled to get through this book, not because it wasn't well-paced and a good story, but because I felt like the progress the characters made in the last books and previous trilogy was reversed for the purpose of plot. I found Brun extremely annoying, but I also found the forced-pregnancy and rape plots really, really upsetting, especially as it felt, in parallel with the plotline about the ambitious lieutenant with her sights on Barin, like the book was about brutally punishing women for enjoying sex and using their own physical desirability. I felt like I was being encouraged to feel like Brun had met her just desserts, which was very upsetting. Also, the obstacles to the romance between Esmay and Barin were REALLY DUMB. JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!...more
**spoiler alert** I generally enjoyed this, but not as much as the first Serrano trilogy. I really liked Esmay Suiza as a character, and I like the wa**spoiler alert** I generally enjoyed this, but not as much as the first Serrano trilogy. I really liked Esmay Suiza as a character, and I like the way it develops the political world sketched out in the first trilogy, but I found the child rape backstory upsetting, and irritated at the way therapy was presented - as something to be avoided for as long as possible, then undergone for a finite period of time to fix all your problems. That said, this is a fun adventure story, with lots of Moon's hilarious love for military supply and stocktaking....more
Okay, everyone was raving about this, and you were right. It's great. Brazilian matriarchal sci-fi post-nuclear bisexual society with really engaging Okay, everyone was raving about this, and you were right. It's great. Brazilian matriarchal sci-fi post-nuclear bisexual society with really engaging YA characters, lots of meditations on what life-extension technologies mean from the POV of very young characters, which is interesting, good worldbuilding (although the politics felt a little unrealistic), great relationship arcs.
SPOILERS:
I found the ending a little abrupt and unsatisfying (what happened with Bebel's song? How is June going to last five seconds as Queen?), and I felt like it could have pushed harder on the meaning and ethics of human sacrifice - I think ultimately the book couldn't decide whether it was behind ritual killing of men or not - but generally I highly recommend this book. ...more
So this was the third of the 'Spin' trilogy. I still stand by my high recommendation of the first two, but I've got to say, I struggled SPOILERS BELOW
So this was the third of the 'Spin' trilogy. I still stand by my high recommendation of the first two, but I've got to say, I struggled with this one. The characterization was still great, and I still really was interested in the elaboration of the theme of posthumanity - in this book, the main character, through some kind of weird quantum effect, became several people who all had their own plots, which I don't think I've ever seen happen before and which she did really well - and there was a fairly cool space piracy/military SF plot - but ultimately I just could not follow what was going on.
Part of that was the way Moriarty went with the AI worldbuilding - I think they* wanted to have their cake and eat it in having these still be code-based creatures but also somehow also inhabitants of this higher mystical plane, and the way it worked out just didn't feel believable to me. I just couldn't believe in the 'cat herders' (great name) who were part coders, part psychoanalysts? and in the AI Cohen's memory palace stuff. I also did not understand what the Datatraps were, which was a big part of the plot. Part of it was the elaboration of the quantum physics stuff from the previous books, which got a bit philosophical and extensive, and I just didn't really understand or care. So, this book was a bit of a disappointment, but maybe on a re-read I'd get more out of it. There's also a lot of memory continuity between the two books (organizations referred to by only their acronyms and not re-explained, for example) which asks quite a lot of the reader. They're very dense, complicated, interesting books, and maybe deserve more energy than I'm able to give them right now.
BUT also I found the ending a bit disappointing; I wanted more resolution for Avery and Llewellyn, I wanted the political stuff to be more clearly explained (I totally couldn't understand what the expected outcome was with the Syndicate and the mine planet), AND I wanted Caitlyn to get with Dolniak, who I thought was sweet. But I thought the resolution of the Catherine/Caitlyn split wrt Cohen was interesting....more
Awesome steampunk YA novel set at the dawn of the first world war. The Allies ('Darwinists') have bioengineered sentient airships; the Axis Powers ('CAwesome steampunk YA novel set at the dawn of the first world war. The Allies ('Darwinists') have bioengineered sentient airships; the Axis Powers ('Clankers') have Star Wars-type walkers and engines. We follow a young orphaned Austrian prince and an English girl disguised as a boy so she can fly in an airship! You obviously have to just handwave all the science, but this is well-written, the tech is fun, great characterisation, and the illustrations are gorgeous....more
The adventure continues! Tons of fun. I wish there was more possibility/openness to queerness and it was a bit more thoughtful about the implications The adventure continues! Tons of fun. I wish there was more possibility/openness to queerness and it was a bit more thoughtful about the implications for Deryn/Dylan's crossdressing for her sense of identity, but this is a really fun adventure....more
I don't know why I haven't seen more people talking about these. Really well-executed science fiction, with some of my favourite things: clones, AIs, I don't know why I haven't seen more people talking about these. Really well-executed science fiction, with some of my favourite things: clones, AIs, artificial reality, cyborgs and augmented posthumans, interesting aliens, and memory-enhancing/augmentic/hacking technology. Lots of great, fairly original explorations on a theme (only annoying thing was that the author has coined new names for a lot of perfectly good old sci-fi concepts, so I didn't work out what they actually were until halfway through the first book, until I was like OH, she means CLONES). Really brilliant protagonist - a tough-as-nails middle-aged, bisexual woman who struggles to conceal her clone origins and the extent of her post-human identity. She has an interesting relationship with an AI, which plays out through the first and second books.
The thing I really love about these books is the way they blend really exciting sci-fi with political thriller plots based around very recognisable, very gritty, realistic, old-school Earth situations. The first book is based around a miner's union; the second is about life on the Israel/Palestine border (I read it just before the recent flare in hostilities in Gaza, but it might be a bit hard to read at the moment, fair warning). The politics in these books are about control of resources at the most basic level, despite the technological levels - water, air, fuel, space. Well executed plots that feel grounded in strong research. Really strong female characters, lots of LGBTQ people, and an interest in race and cultural background. I really recommend these books. Very excited to read the last in the trilogy....more
The memoir of Paul Darrow, who played Avon in the brilliant 1980s cult science fiction series Blakes 7. It's a pretty funny book; totally self-obsesseThe memoir of Paul Darrow, who played Avon in the brilliant 1980s cult science fiction series Blakes 7. It's a pretty funny book; totally self-obsessed, totally luvvie, totally namedroppy, public-school-boy-turns-actor memoirs of the English touring theatre scene, Blakes 7, etc. Featuring a ton of actors, producers, directors, writers and BBC execs who I've never heard of. Seductive in its enthusiasm. Some good B7 filming anecdotes, although less than I'd think. This book could just as well be called "Having An Amusing Conversation with Paul Darrow So You Don't Have To."...more
One of the best books I've read this year. Gets increasingly sci-fi as the book goes on; really riveting and interesting exploration of a concept, whiOne of the best books I've read this year. Gets increasingly sci-fi as the book goes on; really riveting and interesting exploration of a concept, which made me think in new ways about the relationship between humans and the environment, animals in cities, zoos, and animals/sexism. I'd love to teach this one day next to the book "Bear". Wasn't super Londony, was my only complaint; it was very good at being about a city, but it could have been any city. It felt strangely distanced and mythic. That worked for the book, though....more
Really great. Fascinating use of POV and exploration of personhood, identity, empire, colonialism, gender. The only thing I wanted more of was a senseReally great. Fascinating use of POV and exploration of personhood, identity, empire, colonialism, gender. The only thing I wanted more of was a sense of embodiedment - for, essentially, a robot trapped in a human's body, I felt like the main POV was remarkably uninterested in and unaware of the physical feelings of being a human. I was really interested in the differences between feeling a ship's body and feeling a human's body, or feeling multiple bodies. The main character also felt a little flat, and it was a bit tell-not-show about their main emotional motivations. Regardless, I love the concept of this and the execution, mostly, and can't wait for the next installment....more
Eh. You know, I wanted to like this book a lot, and I loved the concept and the voices - Toronto post-apocalyptic dystopia with Caribbean magic - but Eh. You know, I wanted to like this book a lot, and I loved the concept and the voices - Toronto post-apocalyptic dystopia with Caribbean magic - but I just couldn't get into it. There was just something lifeless about it - the worldbuilding didn't feel real, and I didn't like the main characters, which is a pretty big deal for me in my enjoyment of a book. The main woman was annoying, and her grandmother was more interesting but we didn't get enough of her. I think I would have liked more politics, maybe? Idk. Or just a different execution....more
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