A fast-paced scifi horror thriller, with its roots buried deep in both The Thing and Alien. Which are not bad influences to have, whatsoever, but the A fast-paced scifi horror thriller, with its roots buried deep in both The Thing and Alien. Which are not bad influences to have, whatsoever, but the writing (as it was in From Below) is a bit too workhorse for me to be really creeped out by what was going on.
It does have an interesting structure -- it's really a few short stories and two novellas -- but I wish we had gotten more of the characters in the latter half of the book. The atmosphere was tense throughout, sown with distrust and paranoia, and digging a bit deeper into the characters' reactions to this horrific situation would have knocked the book a star higher.
But your mileage may vary! It's well-paced, aside from the protracted opinion to the closing novella (which had the most interesting characters, though we didn't spend a lot of time with them), and so if you're looking for something creepy and tense for a summer read, this may be it for you! ...more
A dense, complex, and demanding story, where the blurb is woefully inadequate -- this is not a science fiction romaWOW this book made me work for it.
A dense, complex, and demanding story, where the blurb is woefully inadequate -- this is not a science fiction romance, along the lines of This is How You Lose the Time War (which a lot of readers seem to go in expecting, and are disappointed when the blurb doesn't turn out to define the work at all), but more of a weird fiction epic, stitched together from many stories that feature (maybe) versions of the two main characters.
And that's fine! That's GREAT. I'm resistant to the idea that a book needs to be easily digestible to be good or worth your time, and while I was frustrated at times with my inability to follow where Chandrasekera was leading (I would give my actual TEETH to how he organized the POVs here), it was fun to challenge myself. Do I wish I'd understood more? Did I need to, to appreciate the scope and the technical ambition of this story? Nope!
I went to a signing for this book right after it was released, and Chandrasekera talked about how while the book is deeply rooted in Sri Lankan mythology, politics, and history, you didn't exactly need to have a background in all of that to read the story. It's true, to a point -- if I was more aware, I think I would have had a much deeper experience with the book -- but now I am very, very curious about those things, and will explore them on my own.
The writing, of course, is wonderful -- so many banger lines, so much clever wordplay -- and there's a great section in which we get to (somewhat briefly) revisit Luriat, the city in which most of The Saint of Bright Doors takes place. I definitely think the second half of the book fits together more organically than the rest, and I do love stories about what happens after the end, and what happens as people try to heal the world (look, Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorite video games for a reason!).
It's a heady experience, and I definitely came out of it feeling like I'd overestimated my intelligence; sometimes I feel like the individual sections, especially at the beginning, didn't cohere from their separate stories as well as I would have liked, and some of the meme-y language fell flat for me (I understand why it was used, but I always feel like that dates a work unnecessarily -- totally a matter of preference!). And it was frustrating at times, when I just wanted a clear demonstration of who was who, or a concrete ending with some of my questions answered...but it wasn't about that, in the end. And understanding that this is more of an experience, a complicated web (heh) of histories laid out like jewels on a tray, rather than a linear narrative, makes reading this far more enjoyable.
I respect Chandrasekera for writing this vivid, tricky, ambitious book -- it's a hell of a second act, and I can't wait to see what he devastates us with next. ...more
A slow, almost ponderous story at times, but one that is also fragile, illuminating, and oddly hopeful. For all that it takes place in a total dystopiA slow, almost ponderous story at times, but one that is also fragile, illuminating, and oddly hopeful. For all that it takes place in a total dystopia (and one that is not as far-future as I'd like to hope), I do think there's a core optimism in this book that shines through all the depressing events and circular philosophical discussions.
I felt some impatience with this book to get on with things -- there are three main plotlines and POVs, which barely intersect; often a shift in POVs happens right when things are getting exciting in a given narrative thread. It's a long book -- over four hundred pages! -- but while I feel like some trimming would have helped, once I gave in and simply let the book happen, I found myself far happier (to be clear, this is a me problem, not a book problem!).
I kept thinking of other titles as I read -- Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, and more relevantly Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Ruin -- but really this book stands on its own. The moment of first contact isn't drawn to an easy or even fraught conclusion; that moment is attenuated, stretched out and unending, because the minds we're trying to reach are forever alien, forever outside our context. It's a humbling, humiliating experience, to be found, and then almost immediately found wanting -- or so our protagonists assume, but even that may not be the whole story.
It's a sad book, in so many ways -- it made me wonder, how many other species capable of self-awareness and culture have we destroyed along the way? Are we really doomed to stay locked in our greed as we make this planet impossible for us to live on? What are we losing by not even looking for these emergent/possible cultures?
Not easy questions, but I was charmed by this book's dedication to its slow progress toward hope. ...more
An intriguing, but ultimately frustrating book. I loved the concept -- god-AIs that get corrupted, and the wreckage that leaves behind -- but after reAn intriguing, but ultimately frustrating book. I loved the concept -- god-AIs that get corrupted, and the wreckage that leaves behind -- but after really enjoying the first third, I was increasingly frustrated by the narrative's tendency to play coy long after things needed to be clarified, and by the confusion of who, exactly, was narrating at a given time.
I enjoy books that take their time unfolding their secrets, and Candon's writing is sly, humorous, and visceral by turns, but for me, this book was unnecessarily convoluted, and weighted down by long sections where a great deal was said or described but nothing HAPPENED or was explored.
The questions pile up -- why do the AIs keep corrupting? What are the characters fighting against, or for? What is Candon trying to say about personhood? I think, if this book had been better executed, it would have been a great story to place in conversation with Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, or with Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series, but it's too opaque about its aims for such things.
As much as I enjoyed sections of it (and I loved Sunai, little gay disaster man), I think it fell prey to what I see as the major fault in The Locked Tomb series: it's a little too concerned with being clever to tell a good story well, from my perspective.
I think this book simply wasn't meant to be for me, but I would be curious about Candon's other writing to see if I had the same issues....more
Once again, I am in awe and extremely emotional -- this book played far more coy with its revelations than the other two in this series did, but I reaOnce again, I am in awe and extremely emotional -- this book played far more coy with its revelations than the other two in this series did, but I really enjoyed the payoff. Almost as much, in fact, as I did Tchaikovsky's continuing exploration of what it means to be sentient, of what it means to be a person.
More thoughts later, after I process a bit more. ...more
This did not go where I expected but it was quite a provoking, enjoyable ride!
Wonderful, solid writing, with a fantastic narrator voice; I love Cara This did not go where I expected but it was quite a provoking, enjoyable ride!
Wonderful, solid writing, with a fantastic narrator voice; I love Cara in all her prickly, closed-off glory, and how she's the most ruthless with herself as she pushes through any and all obstacles that come her way. It's an almost disturbingly prescient vision of what our world could become, even without the speculative element, and doesn't flinch away from exploring the racism and privilege driving the plot from behind the scenes.
My main quibble is that Dell felt rather under-written, and I was never sure of why Cara wanted her so badly. A small thing, when the plot is this engaging, but I wish there had been more emphasis on the romance elements.
And, it did scratch my The Gone World-initiated itch for alternate futures being explored by emotionally-damaged women, so all in all, a win! ...more
Another delight, and just as full of great worldbuilding and earthly invertebrate-inspired aliens as one would expect from Tchaikovsky! It took Well!
Another delight, and just as full of great worldbuilding and earthly invertebrate-inspired aliens as one would expect from Tchaikovsky! It took me a while to get into this book, but it's space opera on the same scale as Mass Effect and the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. Those two pieces of media are definitely the spiritual cousins to this book, in that the plot centers around fighting vast (in both size and concept) aliens who are hell-bent on annihilating any other species they come across, for reasons almost impossible to understand. It's a considerably warmer book than Revelation Space (which is rather flat when it comes to characters, but wondrous in terms of worldbuilding and scope), though much gorier as well -- the Tothiat are pure nightmare. .
I read a quote somewhere that talked about how apocalyptic stories are often really about what we choose to save, rather than what we lose, and I think that's echoed here: Idris, scarred and constantly re-traumatized both from the first war with the Architects and how his work forces him to engage with the horrors moving just below the surface of the universe, continually chooses to put himself between the monsters and the people trying to escape. He's still a scarred, scared man, but he is doing his best, and in that we see what everyone fighting the Architects is trying to save: humanity, both physical and spiritual.
That's a tall order; it's not possible to save everyone, and that burden weighs more and more heavily on Idris and his friends, even before the real battles kick off, but it gives a warm, beating heart to a story that otherwise would have been rendered really cold by the grand scale of its themes. ...more
Look, it's Murderbot, I'm going to love it. The energy here is high -- and there's a LOT of action/plot to get through (and emotions; sorry, MurderbotLook, it's Murderbot, I'm going to love it. The energy here is high -- and there's a LOT of action/plot to get through (and emotions; sorry, Murderbot, but you're having a lot of them), so keeping the energy up is a testament to Wells's talent. This definitely feels like a step into a new section of the Murderbot series, and I'm so excited to see what comes next! ...more
Apparently I'm on a rereading kick, which is not the worst thing when the weather turns chilly here in New England!
I 3.5 stars, rounding up to four.
Apparently I'm on a rereading kick, which is not the worst thing when the weather turns chilly here in New England!
I remember picking this book up on a whim many, many years ago -- probably right when it was first published -- and adoring its vision, while being disappointed at how empty the characters felt, and how the most interesting, emotionally evocative (to me, that is -- it's all subjective!) plot threads dissolved before they were fully developed. That impression hasn't changed, years later, but I'm still in awe of what Bear was trying to accomplish. He tends more toward hard scifi (such as in The Way series), and here it feels like he was aiming for a more new-weird/soft scifi approach. A reach, an ambitious one, but not totally successful.
I'm not trying to tear Bear apart; this book is full of fascinating ideas, and absolutely stunning images (the Necklace Worlds of the Shen, the Kalpa itself) -- they just aren't given enough room to fully breathe, and none of the characters are formed enough to make them feel real. The love story at the crux of the novel is barely a whisper or implication, and the climax of the plot feels rushed and like it comes out of nowhere. Still, the vision is strong enough to overcome most of these issues, and other readers may not feel them as strongly as I did.
An inspiring, if flawed take, on the end of history. ...more
Such an odd, flourishing book; I hadn't read it in years but suddenly had a craving, and now here I am.
It's not an easy book -- "opaque" is the best Such an odd, flourishing book; I hadn't read it in years but suddenly had a craving, and now here I am.
It's not an easy book -- "opaque" is the best word I have to describe it -- but that's where it gains a lot of its power. We glimpse the worlds that came before this one, the tawdry, callous reality the characters inhabit, and we see familiar shapes and figures, but the Washington DC where the story takes place is a lush, overgrown nightmare straight out of Bosch, with its viral rains, the beast-men slouching through the woods, and the hungry flowers lurking along every path.
This is one of those formative texts for me, that said "hey, if you commit, you can do whatever you want with a story", and it teaches me something new every time I come back to it. The use of archaic or obscure language sticks out even more on a reread -- I want to ask Elizabeth Hand if she was inspired by Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, which plays with language in much the same way, and also crosses back and forth between science fiction and fantasy as it dallies at the end of the world -- but that just adds to the book's atmosphere. This is not our world. It belongs to the dead.
As typical of any of The Locked Tomb novels, I just have to say...what the hell did I just read?
This review will be fairly short, since I don't want As typical of any of The Locked Tomb novels, I just have to say...what the hell did I just read?
This review will be fairly short, since I don't want to risk spoilers and I'm still processing, but I do think some of what annoyed me about Harrow is still present here: I think it's overly long, and at times the writing seems more in love with its own cleverness than telling a good story.
To be fair it is a very clever book, with Muir's usual visceral wit, and Nona is SUCH a fun, charming narrator. I am now passionately devoted to Nona.
I do appreciate that a lot of the backstory is filled in, giving concrete answers and expanding on the implications from the last two books, but oof I am very, very afraid of what will come next.
If nothing else, Muir is always ambitious, and while that sometimes doesn't work out, the results are always interesting and admirable -- I'd rather read something by someone who's trying to experiment and take risks than another standard Chosen One fantasy or scifi brick by Generic White Male Author.
I'll be processing this one for a while. A long while....more
I'm guessing Cameron has read a lot of scifi, and taken both the Honor Harrington novels and the Teixcalaan duology very muA very unexpected delight!
I'm guessing Cameron has read a lot of scifi, and taken both the Honor Harrington novels and the Teixcalaan duology very much to heart (those are the series whose DNA I detect in this book, intentionally on the author's part or not!); it has all the trappings of military scifi, though the characters are part of an armed merchant fleet rather than a true military.
There's a phenomenal momentum to this book; I thought about it constantly when I wasn't reading it and so much of that momentum comes from the interplay of the many, varied characters and their many and various goals. I do think this book would benefit hugely from a glossary, both of technical terms and characters, because periodically I would get tripped up, wondering "okay, what does the Tower do and how is that different from the Lioness". Anything to help keep the large cast and all the terms straight would be GLORIOUS.
Marca Nbaro is a lovely, sympathetic protagonist; certainly damaged from her childhood traumas, but without being a stock Wounded Female Character Written By A Man. Some aspects of her characterization fall by the wayside (such as her worries about her cover story falling apart), though I do think some criticisms of how she moves on from certain events can be explained by her trauma (she shuts down emotionally to protect herself), and by the passage of time -- she's on the ship for over a year, in a healthy, supportive environment, and that will help anyone heal.
And she's allowed to have friends! Lots of friends! Fantastic! The various romances among the cast were meh, but not distracting enough to take away from the overall story.
My edition (Kindle) definitely needed another proofreading pass, since there were a lot of mistakes (especially toward the middle section of the novel) that made it past editing.
My major criticism is that the general plot was a bit obscured until a pile-up of reveals at the end, and the combat scenes were a little hard to follow. Nothing story-breaking, but another polishing pass would have really helped.
A fun, immersive read in a brand-new scifi universe -- what a treat! I'm fascinated to see where this ends up, and am really looking forward to the sequel!...more
How much do our miseries and mistakes define who we are, and just how much choice should we have regarding things that will hurt us? Those seem to be How much do our miseries and mistakes define who we are, and just how much choice should we have regarding things that will hurt us? Those seem to be the questions at the center of this gorgeously-written, thoughtful book.
Porter is much more concerned with issues of identity than they are with the alien invasion, or what the Seep actually look like; such things are really quite irrelevant, when it comes down to it. The Seep are just a vehicle for transformation, and a catalyst for change. You could sub in any number of things to achieve the same effect -- which isn't to say the Seep aren't effective! Just that the Seep's role in the story is secondary to how Trina reacts to them.
It really did get me thinking -- would I choose grief, and the old divisions that define who I am, and longing for the past, in exchange for health, happiness, belonging? On the surface it seems like an easy question, but as Trina's journey shows, it really isn't. Those choices, those pains, make us who we are, and I don't know if I could leave it all behind either.
I only discovered Aliette de Bodard's work this year, but it's been such a pleasant experience to slowly go through her writing! The Red Scholar's WakI only discovered Aliette de Bodard's work this year, but it's been such a pleasant experience to slowly go through her writing! The Red Scholar's Wake is no exception, and I'm really excited by the promise of more stories in this universe.
Now, I am always a sucker for love stories between humans and AIs, so as soon as I saw "one of the protagonists is a sentient ship who is also a pirate", BAM. I was sold. The fact that Rice Fish is...kind of a milf, does not hurt at all.
(I'm being partly facetious, but hey! It's also partly true!)
The world of this novel is particularly wonderful: immersive, lived-in, utterly believable. I love how present all of the various sentient ship characters were, and de Bodard has a deft hand with describing the intricacies of the world without spending a lot of time explaining how everything works. She shows us through context, and through the characters interacting with their world, which for a soft science fiction novel like this works quite well.
The story is full of complex relationships, and doesn't hesitate to show the evils of both sides of the equation. No easy or perfect answers are found, but there's hope for something better, and the characters are willing to work toward it. That's good enough for me (and surprisingly realistic; if you've seen Mad Max: Fury Road, you know that there is no Green Place -- it's about fixing the world you have).
I feel like the romance elements get downplayed a bit, in comparison to the various political intrigues and character conflicts, but the love story is very sweet, and I hope Rice Fish and Xich Si are very happy together, wherever they end up. ...more
This a review of an ARC that I got through Netgalley. Thank you!
First up, I'm a dingdong who didn't realize at first that The Light Pirate is by the This a review of an ARC that I got through Netgalley. Thank you!
First up, I'm a dingdong who didn't realize at first that The Light Pirate is by the same author as Good Morning, Midnight, which I really enjoyed. That realization added another level of enjoyment to the reading experience, let me tell you!
I can definitely see where Brooks-Dalton has stepped up her game; this is overall a much tighter story than Good Morning, Midnight (which was already very good!), full of vibrant characters moving through a capricious, changing world.
I have a lot of climate change related anxiety, so perhaps this wasn't the best book to start at 10:00pm at night, when I should have been sleeping, but who's making good choices in this day and age? It's such an engrossing book from the very first page that even as I felt my anxiety spiking -- Brooks-Dalton does an AMAZING job ramping up the tension in that first section, with a hurricane encroaching on the smaller human dramas -- I couldn't stop reading. I finished this book in under 24, despite working a full day, so that should tell you how hooked I was.
The Light Pirate belongs to a subcategory of apocalyptic fiction that also includes Good Morning, Midnight, Station Eleven, and the Southern Reach trilogy (probably many more, too, but I haven't read them yet!) -- there's a wistfulness within the horror and grief, both for the world that's lost and also for what may come. In The Light Pirate, this comes across most strongly in the main character, Wanda's, constant encounters with loss: her school shuts down, her family fractures; her town is literally eroded around her and every day is a new confrontation with life's fragility.
We really only get a narrow view of the apocalypse unfolding; it's never really clear how badly the rest of the country, or world, is doing, and frankly I don't think that's necessary. The implications and hints are bad enough, and Wanda has enough to do just to survive. No time to worry about what's happening in Iowa, or Boston.
It's a terrifying book, because it all seems so plausible. I know the future isn't yet written, but Brooks-Dalton has created a story that feels like it could be our future, if we don't do everything we can to change it.
This book seems to lie somewhere between science fiction and fantasy; a major plot point could have any number of explanations, and there's no solid answer given in the story. I know that may frustrate some readers, but the mystery adds so much depth to the narrative that I didn't mind it at all. Not to mention that figuring out the why quickly falls to the bottom of the characters' priority lists.
A gorgeous story, beautifully written -- my only quibble is a last-minute relationship that feels like it pops up out of nowhere, but it's not poorly executed, just sudden. Overall, I loved this book, and I can tell it's going to stay with me for a long, long time. ...more
A very taut, creepy story that absolutely hums along at a great clip -- I'm a sucker for haunted houses, and for horror in space, and for anything thaA very taut, creepy story that absolutely hums along at a great clip -- I'm a sucker for haunted houses, and for horror in space, and for anything that has a whiff of Event Horizon about it, so I was the prime audience for this book. Such a fun, fast read -- though I wish it had been even longer, because I wanted more of the creepiness!
Also, am I alone in imagining Matthew Modine as Max? ...more
It's tempting to call this book Cloud Atlas fanfic, even though that's doing a disservice to Mandel, who wrote a lovely, if slight and rather coy, novIt's tempting to call this book Cloud Atlas fanfic, even though that's doing a disservice to Mandel, who wrote a lovely, if slight and rather coy, novel.
And I think that coyness is what's throwing me off; I like my science fiction to be proud of what it is, but there's such a self-consciousness in Mandel's writing, like she doesn't want people to know she wrote a story about time travel. As if the worst thing possible was for a writer to end up in the ~genre vortex~.
It's not a bad book by any means. It just never really commits to its premise, and never does more than skim the surface of the great implications of its themes. Why do we spend such a chunk of the novel on characters who are never present again? Why are such gaps left in the worldbuilding?
I personally loved the central idea the novel is built around -- it's both humbling and freeing, and made me very emotional when I applied it to my own life -- but Mandel is afraid to fully commit, and that certainly hampers the experience. ...more
A total mindscrew, a genre-bending pile of horrors -- and I mean that in the best way! The writing was lovely, and I love tWhat...the heck was that?!
A total mindscrew, a genre-bending pile of horrors -- and I mean that in the best way! The writing was lovely, and I love the obvious work that went into designing the time travel mechanics, but the horror is what sold it for me. I'm a bit meh on the epilogue, but only because it feels a bit trite after how hard the author stuck to the uglier parts of the story.
I'm definitely going to need to reread this to see how much I missed the first time, but I BLAZED through this book -- on the day Horizon Forbidden West dropped, so you KNOW it was good. ...more
Bethany Bee
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