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Holly Black, Book of Night: Charlie is a thief trying to go straight, with her inexplicably solid boyfriend Vince and her resentful teen sister Posey, who wants to learn magic instead of going to college. Charlie stole from and for magicians but doesn’t want anything to do with magic, but when she encounters the aftermath of a shadow murder, her inveterate curiosity and her history mean that she gets in way too deep. Props for the infodumps, both in quality and quantity—the way Black repeatedly gets Charlie into position to plausibly overhear instruction on basic elements of life after magic became public knowledge (twenty years ago) is worth reading for all on its own. Figured out the twist (the one that would elude Charlie until much nearer the end) about halfway through, which is where I suspect I was supposed to.
Max Barry, The Twenty-Two Murders of Madison May: An intrepid reporter stumbles on a serial killer who is pursuing a particular woman across multiple timelines, and gets unwittingly dragged along with the people who are half-heartedly trying to stop him. Felt very 1990s (turns out I’m not much into serial killers any more, even in fsf).
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Eyes of the Void: Second in the series about the remnants of humanity and other species trying to survive the Architects, superpowered entities that like to turn inhabited planets into weird sculpture. Lots of events and alliances in this entry, with some more insights into the unknowable mysteries of the Architects and unspace—unspeakable colors, lights that melt you instantly, etc. If you liked the first volume you will probably like the sequel.
Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility: Pandemics, a writer touring just before one of them, time travel, time loops, and time jumps. I think it’s about existentialism?
James S.A. Corey, Memory’s Legion: Collected short stories from the Expanse universe. Shows some parts of the story that the TV series incorporated, like how the aliens took over those two kids, and some it hasn’t gotten to/might not, like what happened to Filip Inaros, making the point that people’s stories aren’t over just because a story ends.
Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light: Edwardian England with hidden magical families. Sir Robin, a baronet with very little money, accidentally takes a job as liaison between the government and the magical world, but is immediately cursed by people who think he might know the location of the Last Contract. Working with his magical counterpart Edwin, whose very difficult family makes further difficulties, he has to fight the curse, deal with the strange power it seems to have awakened, and navigate his unwanted attraction to Edwin. Fun.
Casey McQuiston, I Kissed Shara Wheeler: Chloe, whose lesbian parents and origins in California have always made her stand out at her conservative Christian Alabama school (they moved back when her mom’s mother got cancer), is locked in desperate competition for high school valedictorian with Shara Wheeler, the most perfect girl at school who’s heading to Harvard in the fall and doesn’t even need it the way outcast Chloe does. Then Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. Then Chloe finds out that Shara also kissed loser-type Rory right before that, not to mention her actual boyfriend/football hero Smith. The three follow Shara’s teasing clues to unravel the mystery, but what they find is not what anyone expects. The expected homophobia/racism, including some internalized homophobia, crossed with “almost all the kids who have speaking parts are welcoming and/or queer in some way themselves.”
Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful: Gatsby retelling with Jordan Baker POV. Jordan is a Vietnamese adoptee of the wealthy Baker family, and that (more than her queerness) gives her a particular view on Daisy and Tom’s privileges. There’s also magic and demons—demons supply demoniac, which gives visions, and make deals with people like Gatsby to bring a little more Hell to Earth. Magic seems more varied but Jordan practices a variant associated with Vietnam that she doesn’t entirely understand; when she encounters other Vietnamese practitioners she feels both seen and isolated, in a reversal-but-replication of her status among white rich people. I thought it was a good reading of Gatsby but would’ve liked more paper magic.
Ben Aaronovitch, Amongst Our Weapons: Our intrepid hero is preparing for the birth of his children and investigating a new potential magical threat. Lesley shows up and is moderately evil but willing to collaborate, sort of, when a more dangerous evil is on the loose. At this point, it’s either more of what you like or you don’t like it.
Stephen King & Richard Chizmar, Gwendy’s Final Task: Third/longest in this series which has two novellas before it. As a US Senator, Gwendy goes to space to dispose of the button box so that it can’t be used to destroy the world. It’s good solid King (+ whatever Chizmar added, which is not easy for me to distinguish), though he is really committed to bringing all his writings into the Dark Tower universe and I don’t care as much as he clearly does. Warnings for usual grisly deaths plus suicide prompted by fear of worsening dementia.
Max Barry, The Twenty-Two Murders of Madison May: An intrepid reporter stumbles on a serial killer who is pursuing a particular woman across multiple timelines, and gets unwittingly dragged along with the people who are half-heartedly trying to stop him. Felt very 1990s (turns out I’m not much into serial killers any more, even in fsf).
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Eyes of the Void: Second in the series about the remnants of humanity and other species trying to survive the Architects, superpowered entities that like to turn inhabited planets into weird sculpture. Lots of events and alliances in this entry, with some more insights into the unknowable mysteries of the Architects and unspace—unspeakable colors, lights that melt you instantly, etc. If you liked the first volume you will probably like the sequel.
Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility: Pandemics, a writer touring just before one of them, time travel, time loops, and time jumps. I think it’s about existentialism?
James S.A. Corey, Memory’s Legion: Collected short stories from the Expanse universe. Shows some parts of the story that the TV series incorporated, like how the aliens took over those two kids, and some it hasn’t gotten to/might not, like what happened to Filip Inaros, making the point that people’s stories aren’t over just because a story ends.
Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light: Edwardian England with hidden magical families. Sir Robin, a baronet with very little money, accidentally takes a job as liaison between the government and the magical world, but is immediately cursed by people who think he might know the location of the Last Contract. Working with his magical counterpart Edwin, whose very difficult family makes further difficulties, he has to fight the curse, deal with the strange power it seems to have awakened, and navigate his unwanted attraction to Edwin. Fun.
Casey McQuiston, I Kissed Shara Wheeler: Chloe, whose lesbian parents and origins in California have always made her stand out at her conservative Christian Alabama school (they moved back when her mom’s mother got cancer), is locked in desperate competition for high school valedictorian with Shara Wheeler, the most perfect girl at school who’s heading to Harvard in the fall and doesn’t even need it the way outcast Chloe does. Then Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. Then Chloe finds out that Shara also kissed loser-type Rory right before that, not to mention her actual boyfriend/football hero Smith. The three follow Shara’s teasing clues to unravel the mystery, but what they find is not what anyone expects. The expected homophobia/racism, including some internalized homophobia, crossed with “almost all the kids who have speaking parts are welcoming and/or queer in some way themselves.”
Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful: Gatsby retelling with Jordan Baker POV. Jordan is a Vietnamese adoptee of the wealthy Baker family, and that (more than her queerness) gives her a particular view on Daisy and Tom’s privileges. There’s also magic and demons—demons supply demoniac, which gives visions, and make deals with people like Gatsby to bring a little more Hell to Earth. Magic seems more varied but Jordan practices a variant associated with Vietnam that she doesn’t entirely understand; when she encounters other Vietnamese practitioners she feels both seen and isolated, in a reversal-but-replication of her status among white rich people. I thought it was a good reading of Gatsby but would’ve liked more paper magic.
Ben Aaronovitch, Amongst Our Weapons: Our intrepid hero is preparing for the birth of his children and investigating a new potential magical threat. Lesley shows up and is moderately evil but willing to collaborate, sort of, when a more dangerous evil is on the loose. At this point, it’s either more of what you like or you don’t like it.
Stephen King & Richard Chizmar, Gwendy’s Final Task: Third/longest in this series which has two novellas before it. As a US Senator, Gwendy goes to space to dispose of the button box so that it can’t be used to destroy the world. It’s good solid King (+ whatever Chizmar added, which is not easy for me to distinguish), though he is really committed to bringing all his writings into the Dark Tower universe and I don’t care as much as he clearly does. Warnings for usual grisly deaths plus suicide prompted by fear of worsening dementia.
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