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Genevieve Valentine, Persona: In this if-this-goes-on thriller, diplomacy and reality TV have merged so that national representatives are Faces. Our protagonist, Face of a rainforest (though increasingly deforested) nation, barely survives an assassination attempt due to the timely intervention of a snap, a young man who’s snuck into the country to become a member of the new paparazzi. She has to use her political savvy, and he has to use his acute understanding of his vulnerable situation and of the public’s demand for “candids” of Faces, in order to survive, even as his survival may require him to betray her. Understanding myself as someone on the autism spectrum really helped me think about this book, which reminded me of the Lymond Chronicles. It goes like this: Character: *uses small verbal and physical clues to figure out the motives, emotions and intentions of someone she doesn’t know very well*. Me: Okay … that sounds fake, but okay. It’s not that I don’t believe that such people exist, I just can’t imagine what it’s like to be one of them. So all the half-articulated calculations and inferences were obscure to me. If you’re more in tune with those kinds of characters, you might enjoy this.
Daryl Gregory, Raising Stony Mayhall: Right after the zombie outbreak that was only suppressed after thousands of deaths, a single mother finds a dead young woman who’s just given birth … to a zombie baby. Stony doesn’t eat, but somehow he grows, hidden away from the government that would destroy him without hesitation. Full of mordant wit, this story focuses successfully and closely on Stony’s desires for freedom, for understanding of his condition, for friendship and family; one can almost ignore the zombie apocalypse that threatens if anyone else starts turning. Best line, out of many choices: “Give a man a stick and he will beat you for a day. But give him a uniform, and he will beat you every day, then complain about how tough it is on his rotator cuff.” I still think We Are All Completely Fine might be my favorite of Gregory’s works, and I’m not a huge zombie fan, but this was a very good read.
Sarah Maas, Throne of Glass: Our protagonist is a teenager who’s the best assassin anyone’s ever heard of, who survived a year in a slave labor camp skinny and out of shape, and with permanent scars, but otherwise basically ok, having made friends with the members of an ethnic minority who were also imprisoned there and having learned their language, which others in her ethnic group often scorn to do. She’s also surprisingly attractive, in a quirky way, and both main male characters—a prince and his captain of the guard—fall for her. Did I mention that she loves books and can converse learnedly with the prince, although she starts off hating him because he’s (a) coercing her and (b) heir to the kingdom that destroyed her family and her city? So, it’s palace intrigue (the prince has chosen her as his champion in a competition organized by his father, who doesn’t like him much) with eldritch magics. If you enjoy a good power fantasy, this is indeed a good power fantasy. And I was half convinced that it was heading for a polyamorous romance, though it didn’t get there and sadly might not ever. There is one threat of sexual violence (not from any of the main characters).
Rainbow Rowell, Carry On: Simon is the strongest magician anyone’s ever seen, even if he can’t control it, and he’s the prophesied savior of magic; no one knows his origin, but they’re sure he’ll be able to defeat the force that’s creating magic dead zones all around England. At his magic school, he’s forced to be roommates with the one person he hates most of all and who hates him, Baz—scion of one of the leading magical families, who are opposed to the Headmaster’s progressive plans to open up magic schooling to those of lesser power, and probably a vampire too. Ok, it’s a Harry/Draco rewrite, and that’s the pleasure of it. It’s not directly critical of the Harry Potter canon, not exactly, but there is a hilarious bit about why, if Simon is the target of the most dangerous threat to magic there could be, every summer the Headmaster nonetheless sends him back home (which in this case is foster care). Rowell writes with a light touch—self-aware, but also invested in the happiness of these kids who are way too young to be asked to save the world.
Daryl Gregory, Raising Stony Mayhall: Right after the zombie outbreak that was only suppressed after thousands of deaths, a single mother finds a dead young woman who’s just given birth … to a zombie baby. Stony doesn’t eat, but somehow he grows, hidden away from the government that would destroy him without hesitation. Full of mordant wit, this story focuses successfully and closely on Stony’s desires for freedom, for understanding of his condition, for friendship and family; one can almost ignore the zombie apocalypse that threatens if anyone else starts turning. Best line, out of many choices: “Give a man a stick and he will beat you for a day. But give him a uniform, and he will beat you every day, then complain about how tough it is on his rotator cuff.” I still think We Are All Completely Fine might be my favorite of Gregory’s works, and I’m not a huge zombie fan, but this was a very good read.
Sarah Maas, Throne of Glass: Our protagonist is a teenager who’s the best assassin anyone’s ever heard of, who survived a year in a slave labor camp skinny and out of shape, and with permanent scars, but otherwise basically ok, having made friends with the members of an ethnic minority who were also imprisoned there and having learned their language, which others in her ethnic group often scorn to do. She’s also surprisingly attractive, in a quirky way, and both main male characters—a prince and his captain of the guard—fall for her. Did I mention that she loves books and can converse learnedly with the prince, although she starts off hating him because he’s (a) coercing her and (b) heir to the kingdom that destroyed her family and her city? So, it’s palace intrigue (the prince has chosen her as his champion in a competition organized by his father, who doesn’t like him much) with eldritch magics. If you enjoy a good power fantasy, this is indeed a good power fantasy. And I was half convinced that it was heading for a polyamorous romance, though it didn’t get there and sadly might not ever. There is one threat of sexual violence (not from any of the main characters).
Rainbow Rowell, Carry On: Simon is the strongest magician anyone’s ever seen, even if he can’t control it, and he’s the prophesied savior of magic; no one knows his origin, but they’re sure he’ll be able to defeat the force that’s creating magic dead zones all around England. At his magic school, he’s forced to be roommates with the one person he hates most of all and who hates him, Baz—scion of one of the leading magical families, who are opposed to the Headmaster’s progressive plans to open up magic schooling to those of lesser power, and probably a vampire too. Ok, it’s a Harry/Draco rewrite, and that’s the pleasure of it. It’s not directly critical of the Harry Potter canon, not exactly, but there is a hilarious bit about why, if Simon is the target of the most dangerous threat to magic there could be, every summer the Headmaster nonetheless sends him back home (which in this case is foster care). Rowell writes with a light touch—self-aware, but also invested in the happiness of these kids who are way too young to be asked to save the world.
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