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Reviews: fiction
Lauren Beukes, Slipping: Mostly cyberpunkish stories, with a few nonfiction essays on similar themes (living in a globalizing, multicultural South Africa where poverty and violence can either be around every corner or almost invisible). I enjoyed the stories a lot and they would make a great introduction to Beukes; sometimes the cyberpunkish vibe can get wearing in a longer book.
Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm: Alina and her true love Mal are on the run from the Darkling and his plans to conquer the world using Alina’s power. But the Darkling doesn’t take that kind of thing lying down, and after more machinations, Alina ends up back at the alt-Russia court, participating in palace politics and trying to deal with the way she’s changing as she accepts her power and the necessity of hurting at least some people in order to save the world. Worthy sequel to the first volume.
Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising: Alina and Mal are once again struggling to fight the Darkling, who controls most of alt-Russia. In order to gain ultimate power, Alina has to find and kill the firebird, a mythical creature, but there are many barriers—including the fact that it starts to seem as if this will actually require Mal’s death. It’s nice to see people love their fellow humans enough to sacrifice even romantic adolescent love for them—pretty rare in this genre for heroes, in fact—even though the ending turns rather conventional.
Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky: Patricia is a witch; Laurence is a computer genius. They meet as bullied kids and aren’t able to help each other as much as they’d like. Later, when they reconnect, it may be because one or both of them is going to destroy the world. A lot of absurdist imagery—an absurdist apocalypse, really, since this is set several decades from now when the world is falling even more apart. I wish Laurence had been the witch and Patricia the tech genius. Other than that, every individual element is well-done, but the totality left me cold.
Courtney Milan, The Countess Conspiracy: Violet is a countess and secretly the scientific mind behind the scandalous research of Sebastian Malheur, noted rake, who’s actually been in love with her since they were kids. Violet fears showing any kind of emotion because she had a traumatic upbringing and a more traumatic marriage, while Sebastian can’t seem to get anyone to take him seriously even though he always gives Violet love and support (other than a few well-justified fights). Unlike the others in this series, this book just left me cold and I don’t know why.
Charles Stross, The Nightmare Stacks: Out and about with a young vampire initiate into the Laundry, instead of Bob and Mo. He’s pretty gormless, except for being a math wizard—and that’s literal, with the Laundry. The plot is essentially: superpowered elvish princess comes to prepare the way for her people’s invasion, then falls in love with this minor functionary who is everything she’s ever wanted in a man. Does it help that Stross lampshades this very clearly as Stockholm Syndrome? I can’t decide, but I’m still reading Stross, so I guess that’s a decision in itself.
Max Gladstone, Four Roads Cross: In Gladstone’s world, law is magic is higher math, so magic flows through contracts and their loopholes can be deadly. I no longer read this for the plot—palace politics are less interesting when I don’t connect emotionally with any character—but for the worldbuilding and Gladstone’s awesome turns of phrase that pop up every once in a while, like how insects wear their shells on the outside but humans only reveal their structure under pressure. (The insect comparison is plot-appropriate.) Also I like the description of the harried associate life which turns out to be not very different than it is here, even if the bosses are actual living skeletons.
Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm: Alina and her true love Mal are on the run from the Darkling and his plans to conquer the world using Alina’s power. But the Darkling doesn’t take that kind of thing lying down, and after more machinations, Alina ends up back at the alt-Russia court, participating in palace politics and trying to deal with the way she’s changing as she accepts her power and the necessity of hurting at least some people in order to save the world. Worthy sequel to the first volume.
Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising: Alina and Mal are once again struggling to fight the Darkling, who controls most of alt-Russia. In order to gain ultimate power, Alina has to find and kill the firebird, a mythical creature, but there are many barriers—including the fact that it starts to seem as if this will actually require Mal’s death. It’s nice to see people love their fellow humans enough to sacrifice even romantic adolescent love for them—pretty rare in this genre for heroes, in fact—even though the ending turns rather conventional.
Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky: Patricia is a witch; Laurence is a computer genius. They meet as bullied kids and aren’t able to help each other as much as they’d like. Later, when they reconnect, it may be because one or both of them is going to destroy the world. A lot of absurdist imagery—an absurdist apocalypse, really, since this is set several decades from now when the world is falling even more apart. I wish Laurence had been the witch and Patricia the tech genius. Other than that, every individual element is well-done, but the totality left me cold.
Courtney Milan, The Countess Conspiracy: Violet is a countess and secretly the scientific mind behind the scandalous research of Sebastian Malheur, noted rake, who’s actually been in love with her since they were kids. Violet fears showing any kind of emotion because she had a traumatic upbringing and a more traumatic marriage, while Sebastian can’t seem to get anyone to take him seriously even though he always gives Violet love and support (other than a few well-justified fights). Unlike the others in this series, this book just left me cold and I don’t know why.
Charles Stross, The Nightmare Stacks: Out and about with a young vampire initiate into the Laundry, instead of Bob and Mo. He’s pretty gormless, except for being a math wizard—and that’s literal, with the Laundry. The plot is essentially: superpowered elvish princess comes to prepare the way for her people’s invasion, then falls in love with this minor functionary who is everything she’s ever wanted in a man. Does it help that Stross lampshades this very clearly as Stockholm Syndrome? I can’t decide, but I’m still reading Stross, so I guess that’s a decision in itself.
Max Gladstone, Four Roads Cross: In Gladstone’s world, law is magic is higher math, so magic flows through contracts and their loopholes can be deadly. I no longer read this for the plot—palace politics are less interesting when I don’t connect emotionally with any character—but for the worldbuilding and Gladstone’s awesome turns of phrase that pop up every once in a while, like how insects wear their shells on the outside but humans only reveal their structure under pressure. (The insect comparison is plot-appropriate.) Also I like the description of the harried associate life which turns out to be not very different than it is here, even if the bosses are actual living skeletons.