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I’m enjoying listening to Nessa Barrett’s “Tired of California”—“I keep saying that I’m leaving/But it doesn’t work that way” seems genuinely creepy to me.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, City of Last Chances: New fantasy of politics, with magic but relatively few bugs (an insect god plays the largest bug role). A city that has been conquered by fascists who aim to eliminate everyone else’s culture, language, and religions has been chafing under that rule, especially since it was already full of refugees from places they’d previously conquered. But the city has a curse—maybe more than one—that make ruling it complicated. Divisions among the conquered, meanwhile, make fighting back even more complicated. It’s a complex world, including some intrusions from apparently completely different places and magics (the bouncer character searching for his wife has, with excellent narrative results, wandered in from a place that is very much elsewhere). But it cries out for more, so don’t expect more than minor arc resolutions.
John Scalzi, Old Man’s War: Old people (from the USA) are given a chance to get young, new bodies if they fight aliens for the space colonies, which are largely settled by people from South/East Asia (something that’s basically ignored after a racist rant from a character who is quickly dispatched). The rest is basically Starship Troopers with some updates; Scalzi’s done much more interesting stuff since, but if you like “go faraway places, meet interesting aliens, and shoot them,” that’s this book.
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades: Scalzi manages to complicate his world a lot in this book, in which the Special Forces clone of a traitor is made to try to figure out what the traitor gave away about human tech. As the clone becomes a person of his own, albeit a superhumanly enhanced one, he starts to question whether he’s truly on the side of right.
Alexandra Rowland, A Taste of Gold and Iron: Kadou is a prince with an undiagnosed, untreated anxiety disorder (and a magical talent, like a number of others in his country, for assessing the purity of metal). Evemer is his new bodyguard, assigned after an interaction with his sister the sultan’s lover went terribly wrong. He initially misunderstands Kadou’s anxiety as cowardice, but soon learns better. They fight crime! And fall in love. AO3 tags include: hurt/comfort, there was only one bed, mutual pining, and forced to marry (through circumstances that make it imperative that they not consummate their attraction).
Jason Pargin (previously David Wong), If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe: A John, Dave, and Amy Novel: Fourth book in the series and just as gonzo. A horrible force from outside our dimension is getting people to summon it via a kid’s toy, turning virtual feeding times into times to feed it very real human parts. But the real fun is the narration, which is entirely fearless and willing to skip to the good parts or even past some things I’d really like to have seen to make the point about how out-of-control and marginally competent these folks are. Also, Dave gets a little closer to embracing his true nature, I guess? Comparing it to another, less weird ordinary-schlubs-fight-horror book I read at the same time, it’s clear that Pargin’s willingness to try anything serves him well here.
Edgar Cantero, Meddling Kids: A Novel: The less-weird book of which I spoke.Fifteen years ago, in 1977, four adolescent kids and their dog revealed that the lake monster in their Pacific Northwest town was just a criminal looking for gold. But now, their lives have disintegrated, and the Velma analogue (Andy) becomes convinced that they have to return for the real mystery—those of them who are still alive, because the Fred analogue became a Hollywood star and then died by suicide. It’s overwritten, especially in the use of cutesy verbisms in place of “said” (e.g., she second-fiddled), but not a bad Chthulhu-lite yarn otherwise.
Simon Stephenson, Sometimes People Die: Not so much a murder mystery as a story about how the practice of medicine affects humans, the book is set in 90s London. Narrated by a doctor struggling with recovery from opiod addiction at a hospital struggling with everything, it follows his relationships with colleagues and the investigation into excess deaths that suggests that one of the providers might be killing the occasional patient. It’s interspersed with quick summaries of historical medical murderers from various countries. Not my usual thing but I thought it was pretty enjoyable, if fairly clear whodunnit relatively early.
Nghi Vo, Siren Queen: A Chinese-American girl wants to be a star in 1930s Hollywood (plus magic), but the opportunities for a nonwhite star are limited, even for those willing to make deals with dark powers. Even when she embraces the opportunity to play a monster, there are risks, especially given her taste for other women. I never really got into the magical worldbuilding but fans of magic-ized historical settings might enjoy it.
Frances Hardinge, Unraveller: Another richly imagined world in which people can, under the right circumstances, become “cursers,” capable of destroying others’ lives. Others get different gifts from the Wilds, such as a bond with a marsh horse that requires only the sacrifice of an eye—and a commitment to wildness. A young boy who can unravel curses, with a girl he rescued from being cursed into a bird, lives a peripatetic life trying to save people and then move on. But when they are sucked into an apparent conspiracy to assemble cursers and use them to assert power, they have to go deeper into the meaning of curses and the question of whether cursers can be trusted to walk free. It’s very well done.
Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves: Satisfying conclusion to the Scholomance series, reflecting Novik’s interest in (1) very powerful people who (2) choose to exercise that power in ways that empower others despite the difficulty of that choice, which includes the desire of many people to be governed, along with (3) building things. El wants to rescue Orion, but needs to find the power to do so. Unfortunately, it turns out that Orion’s mother is not a worthwhile ally. Meanwhile, enclaves around the world are being attacked and destroyed, though not by El, and she’s the only one they can get to come kill maw-mouths. As one would expect, the plots converge. Also El is maybe poly, though that is a bit less clear.
R.F. Kuang, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution: Set in an alternate world where Britain rules the seas and much of the land in part because of its near-monopoly on the magical powers of silver through its near-monopoly on translation. If properly inscribed and activated by a translator, silver can perform wonders based on nearly-matching pairs of words with slightly different meanings in different languages. Robin, a young Cantonese boy whose mother dies of illness, is taken by a British scholar to train as a translator at Oxford, the heart of silverworking and translation. He learns to love translation but also experiences discrimination and discovers the oppressive foundations of the world that makes him mostly happy. Because it was Kuang, I was desperately worried for the fates of the characters I grew to care about, and many do come to unhappy ends. The magic system and associated discussion of translation is fascinating; the politics are both pessimistic and fiery, a bit crude like real political arguments are.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, City of Last Chances: New fantasy of politics, with magic but relatively few bugs (an insect god plays the largest bug role). A city that has been conquered by fascists who aim to eliminate everyone else’s culture, language, and religions has been chafing under that rule, especially since it was already full of refugees from places they’d previously conquered. But the city has a curse—maybe more than one—that make ruling it complicated. Divisions among the conquered, meanwhile, make fighting back even more complicated. It’s a complex world, including some intrusions from apparently completely different places and magics (the bouncer character searching for his wife has, with excellent narrative results, wandered in from a place that is very much elsewhere). But it cries out for more, so don’t expect more than minor arc resolutions.
John Scalzi, Old Man’s War: Old people (from the USA) are given a chance to get young, new bodies if they fight aliens for the space colonies, which are largely settled by people from South/East Asia (something that’s basically ignored after a racist rant from a character who is quickly dispatched). The rest is basically Starship Troopers with some updates; Scalzi’s done much more interesting stuff since, but if you like “go faraway places, meet interesting aliens, and shoot them,” that’s this book.
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades: Scalzi manages to complicate his world a lot in this book, in which the Special Forces clone of a traitor is made to try to figure out what the traitor gave away about human tech. As the clone becomes a person of his own, albeit a superhumanly enhanced one, he starts to question whether he’s truly on the side of right.
Alexandra Rowland, A Taste of Gold and Iron: Kadou is a prince with an undiagnosed, untreated anxiety disorder (and a magical talent, like a number of others in his country, for assessing the purity of metal). Evemer is his new bodyguard, assigned after an interaction with his sister the sultan’s lover went terribly wrong. He initially misunderstands Kadou’s anxiety as cowardice, but soon learns better. They fight crime! And fall in love. AO3 tags include: hurt/comfort, there was only one bed, mutual pining, and forced to marry (through circumstances that make it imperative that they not consummate their attraction).
Jason Pargin (previously David Wong), If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe: A John, Dave, and Amy Novel: Fourth book in the series and just as gonzo. A horrible force from outside our dimension is getting people to summon it via a kid’s toy, turning virtual feeding times into times to feed it very real human parts. But the real fun is the narration, which is entirely fearless and willing to skip to the good parts or even past some things I’d really like to have seen to make the point about how out-of-control and marginally competent these folks are. Also, Dave gets a little closer to embracing his true nature, I guess? Comparing it to another, less weird ordinary-schlubs-fight-horror book I read at the same time, it’s clear that Pargin’s willingness to try anything serves him well here.
Edgar Cantero, Meddling Kids: A Novel: The less-weird book of which I spoke.Fifteen years ago, in 1977, four adolescent kids and their dog revealed that the lake monster in their Pacific Northwest town was just a criminal looking for gold. But now, their lives have disintegrated, and the Velma analogue (Andy) becomes convinced that they have to return for the real mystery—those of them who are still alive, because the Fred analogue became a Hollywood star and then died by suicide. It’s overwritten, especially in the use of cutesy verbisms in place of “said” (e.g., she second-fiddled), but not a bad Chthulhu-lite yarn otherwise.
Simon Stephenson, Sometimes People Die: Not so much a murder mystery as a story about how the practice of medicine affects humans, the book is set in 90s London. Narrated by a doctor struggling with recovery from opiod addiction at a hospital struggling with everything, it follows his relationships with colleagues and the investigation into excess deaths that suggests that one of the providers might be killing the occasional patient. It’s interspersed with quick summaries of historical medical murderers from various countries. Not my usual thing but I thought it was pretty enjoyable, if fairly clear whodunnit relatively early.
Nghi Vo, Siren Queen: A Chinese-American girl wants to be a star in 1930s Hollywood (plus magic), but the opportunities for a nonwhite star are limited, even for those willing to make deals with dark powers. Even when she embraces the opportunity to play a monster, there are risks, especially given her taste for other women. I never really got into the magical worldbuilding but fans of magic-ized historical settings might enjoy it.
Frances Hardinge, Unraveller: Another richly imagined world in which people can, under the right circumstances, become “cursers,” capable of destroying others’ lives. Others get different gifts from the Wilds, such as a bond with a marsh horse that requires only the sacrifice of an eye—and a commitment to wildness. A young boy who can unravel curses, with a girl he rescued from being cursed into a bird, lives a peripatetic life trying to save people and then move on. But when they are sucked into an apparent conspiracy to assemble cursers and use them to assert power, they have to go deeper into the meaning of curses and the question of whether cursers can be trusted to walk free. It’s very well done.
Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves: Satisfying conclusion to the Scholomance series, reflecting Novik’s interest in (1) very powerful people who (2) choose to exercise that power in ways that empower others despite the difficulty of that choice, which includes the desire of many people to be governed, along with (3) building things. El wants to rescue Orion, but needs to find the power to do so. Unfortunately, it turns out that Orion’s mother is not a worthwhile ally. Meanwhile, enclaves around the world are being attacked and destroyed, though not by El, and she’s the only one they can get to come kill maw-mouths. As one would expect, the plots converge. Also El is maybe poly, though that is a bit less clear.
R.F. Kuang, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution: Set in an alternate world where Britain rules the seas and much of the land in part because of its near-monopoly on the magical powers of silver through its near-monopoly on translation. If properly inscribed and activated by a translator, silver can perform wonders based on nearly-matching pairs of words with slightly different meanings in different languages. Robin, a young Cantonese boy whose mother dies of illness, is taken by a British scholar to train as a translator at Oxford, the heart of silverworking and translation. He learns to love translation but also experiences discrimination and discovers the oppressive foundations of the world that makes him mostly happy. Because it was Kuang, I was desperately worried for the fates of the characters I grew to care about, and many do come to unhappy ends. The magic system and associated discussion of translation is fascinating; the politics are both pessimistic and fiery, a bit crude like real political arguments are.