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Entry tags:
Fiction etc.
(1) I wrote a Yuletide pinch hit that is completely obvious but means I can't talk about the thing I'm currently enjoying.
(2) Why hasn’t someone developed Steven Brust’s Dragaera for the screen?
Sascha Stronach, The Dawnhounds: In a corrupt city-state, an officer who’s on the outs for being bisexual tries to uphold the law, and gets murdered for her trouble. Then she comes back and finds herself part of a greater struggle. I found it dreamlike and entertaining.
Peng Shepherd, The Cartographers: Wow did I not like this. Saw it described as “magical realism” whereas I might’ve said a kind of urban fantasy. Nell is a cartographer whose cartographer father ruined her career and destroyed her relationship with a fellow cartographer over an argument about valuable maps found in a box labeled junk, which he insisted were fake. When her father dies, she finds he’s held on to one of the very maps at issue—and might have been murdered over it. Eventually she finds that some special maps can give people access to places that don’t otherwise exist, and that’s a secret someone is willing to kill for. Every person in this book makes terrible decisions, reasoning that they have to to avoid Reaction X from alternate decisions, where Reaction X is a reaction that essentially no one would ever have to the situation. I will accept that in this world, ordinary people care a lot about maps, cartography, etc. and/or that the cartographer characters are in an obsessed world of their own and literally do not notice that others don’t share their views, but that doesn’t change the other ordinary rules of human behavior (what makes people angry, scared, jealous, etc.). Because of this, the book’s central problems would almost all have been fixed by people actually talking and expecting other people to behave like people. The magic system crumbles immediately under its own weight (does the map have to depict details for them to exist? What does it mean to have a “complete” map in terms of what magic lets you do with it?), after only entering a full third of the way into the book. There was more but I should already have stopped!
C.M. Waggoner, Unnatural Magic:In a world where trolls and humans get along uneasily and sometimes intermarry, a young man running from soldiery encounters a troll reig and is bowled over by her strength and dominance, while a brilliant young wizard shut out of education in her homeland by sexism tries to find a better place to learn. They both become entangled in a series of murders of trolls, trying to solve the mystery in different ways. It’s engaging.
Fonda Lee, Jade War: The trilogy continues as political (and occasional physical) battles between the two main Kekonese clans heat up, while both struggle to find a vision for Kekon’s place in the wider world. Fittingly for a middle book, this is very much about how outside constraints can affect inside politics, as both sides recruit, and sometimes betray, allies in other lands, trying to turn a clan into a modern political entity while controlling the supply of bioenergetic jade (which gives some people magic powers, but some need devastating drugs to tolerate it while many Kekonese don’t). Very good at showing how clan politics are both personal and not.
Kai Butler, The Heart’s Blood Arrow:The old gods return, which causes some trouble for private detective/fae peacemaker Parker Ferro and his cop boyfriend. Also he’s trying to figure out how to propose and his boyfriend’s mom is in town being scary. It’s exactly what you want from a series like this, with intrigue/bigger boss fights and complicated-by-fantasy-life romance.
Nancy Kress & Robert Lanza, Observer: A sf novel of ideas: if consciousness/observation creates the universe, does that imply that we can create different universes by observing differently? I wasn’t super persuaded about the science, but then again I don’t have the scientific chops to evaluate the claims about uncertainty/observers at the macro level. The story involves a neurosurgeon struggling against a vicious online campaign against her after she reported being groped by a more senior surgeon, who joins an out-there project in a lightly regulated jurisdiction in order to get enough money to take care of her sister and her sister’s children. She doesn’t believe that the brain implants she’s working on actually allow recipients to create new universes, but it’s interesting work anyway. The plot point where they really want to go on 60 Minutes to create a successful counternarrative to various online theories about what they’re doing seemed a bit dated, and “online” was just shorthand for trolls, racists, and abusers, but if you like novels of ideas then this one might work for you.
David R. Slayton, White Trash Warlock: His mother and brother didn’t believe in his magic, so they committed Adam Lee Binder to a mental institution. Years later, he’s scraping by, still resentful, when his brother calls, asking for help with his wife. The journey will force both brothers to confront the bitter legacies of their childhoods, and also expose Adam both to a former lover and a potential new one—a handsome cop whose life he saves. It was fine but didn’t grab me.
Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit: Cozy sf. In this sequel, a ship AI illicitly in a humanoid body tries to adjust to the resulting dysphoria, while helping a friend on a quest to save the ship that once upon a time saved her.
Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: Another “ordinary sf,” where some aliens stuck together at a rest stop after an accident have to figure out how to wait for repairs, which involves a lot of making food and a bit of interpersonal conflict, including dueling perspectives on colonization. It was cozy but the best bit was when all the aliens were appalled by the human practice of eating cheese—solidified milk from another mammal! Meanwhile, the kid I take in carpool explained a few days ago that he would definitely eat a me-burger made from his own cultivated skin cells. Humans: space orcs or space teenagers?
Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built: A monk having an identity crisis meets a robot—the first one a human has seen in generations since they gained sentience and left humanity. In a kinder world, individuals still may struggle for purpose—but it matters that other people want to help.
Becky Chambers, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy: A monk and a robot explore their world; the robot is an emissary from robots in general, who left humanity behind after their shared planet almost collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Now things are better and the monk and the robot face the universal human question of what they should be doing with their lives. Not much happens, and that is what you are reading for!
(2) Why hasn’t someone developed Steven Brust’s Dragaera for the screen?
Sascha Stronach, The Dawnhounds: In a corrupt city-state, an officer who’s on the outs for being bisexual tries to uphold the law, and gets murdered for her trouble. Then she comes back and finds herself part of a greater struggle. I found it dreamlike and entertaining.
Peng Shepherd, The Cartographers: Wow did I not like this. Saw it described as “magical realism” whereas I might’ve said a kind of urban fantasy. Nell is a cartographer whose cartographer father ruined her career and destroyed her relationship with a fellow cartographer over an argument about valuable maps found in a box labeled junk, which he insisted were fake. When her father dies, she finds he’s held on to one of the very maps at issue—and might have been murdered over it. Eventually she finds that some special maps can give people access to places that don’t otherwise exist, and that’s a secret someone is willing to kill for. Every person in this book makes terrible decisions, reasoning that they have to to avoid Reaction X from alternate decisions, where Reaction X is a reaction that essentially no one would ever have to the situation. I will accept that in this world, ordinary people care a lot about maps, cartography, etc. and/or that the cartographer characters are in an obsessed world of their own and literally do not notice that others don’t share their views, but that doesn’t change the other ordinary rules of human behavior (what makes people angry, scared, jealous, etc.). Because of this, the book’s central problems would almost all have been fixed by people actually talking and expecting other people to behave like people. The magic system crumbles immediately under its own weight (does the map have to depict details for them to exist? What does it mean to have a “complete” map in terms of what magic lets you do with it?), after only entering a full third of the way into the book. There was more but I should already have stopped!
C.M. Waggoner, Unnatural Magic:In a world where trolls and humans get along uneasily and sometimes intermarry, a young man running from soldiery encounters a troll reig and is bowled over by her strength and dominance, while a brilliant young wizard shut out of education in her homeland by sexism tries to find a better place to learn. They both become entangled in a series of murders of trolls, trying to solve the mystery in different ways. It’s engaging.
Fonda Lee, Jade War: The trilogy continues as political (and occasional physical) battles between the two main Kekonese clans heat up, while both struggle to find a vision for Kekon’s place in the wider world. Fittingly for a middle book, this is very much about how outside constraints can affect inside politics, as both sides recruit, and sometimes betray, allies in other lands, trying to turn a clan into a modern political entity while controlling the supply of bioenergetic jade (which gives some people magic powers, but some need devastating drugs to tolerate it while many Kekonese don’t). Very good at showing how clan politics are both personal and not.
Kai Butler, The Heart’s Blood Arrow:The old gods return, which causes some trouble for private detective/fae peacemaker Parker Ferro and his cop boyfriend. Also he’s trying to figure out how to propose and his boyfriend’s mom is in town being scary. It’s exactly what you want from a series like this, with intrigue/bigger boss fights and complicated-by-fantasy-life romance.
Nancy Kress & Robert Lanza, Observer: A sf novel of ideas: if consciousness/observation creates the universe, does that imply that we can create different universes by observing differently? I wasn’t super persuaded about the science, but then again I don’t have the scientific chops to evaluate the claims about uncertainty/observers at the macro level. The story involves a neurosurgeon struggling against a vicious online campaign against her after she reported being groped by a more senior surgeon, who joins an out-there project in a lightly regulated jurisdiction in order to get enough money to take care of her sister and her sister’s children. She doesn’t believe that the brain implants she’s working on actually allow recipients to create new universes, but it’s interesting work anyway. The plot point where they really want to go on 60 Minutes to create a successful counternarrative to various online theories about what they’re doing seemed a bit dated, and “online” was just shorthand for trolls, racists, and abusers, but if you like novels of ideas then this one might work for you.
David R. Slayton, White Trash Warlock: His mother and brother didn’t believe in his magic, so they committed Adam Lee Binder to a mental institution. Years later, he’s scraping by, still resentful, when his brother calls, asking for help with his wife. The journey will force both brothers to confront the bitter legacies of their childhoods, and also expose Adam both to a former lover and a potential new one—a handsome cop whose life he saves. It was fine but didn’t grab me.
Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit: Cozy sf. In this sequel, a ship AI illicitly in a humanoid body tries to adjust to the resulting dysphoria, while helping a friend on a quest to save the ship that once upon a time saved her.
Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: Another “ordinary sf,” where some aliens stuck together at a rest stop after an accident have to figure out how to wait for repairs, which involves a lot of making food and a bit of interpersonal conflict, including dueling perspectives on colonization. It was cozy but the best bit was when all the aliens were appalled by the human practice of eating cheese—solidified milk from another mammal! Meanwhile, the kid I take in carpool explained a few days ago that he would definitely eat a me-burger made from his own cultivated skin cells. Humans: space orcs or space teenagers?
Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built: A monk having an identity crisis meets a robot—the first one a human has seen in generations since they gained sentience and left humanity. In a kinder world, individuals still may struggle for purpose—but it matters that other people want to help.
Becky Chambers, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy: A monk and a robot explore their world; the robot is an emissary from robots in general, who left humanity behind after their shared planet almost collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Now things are better and the monk and the robot face the universal human question of what they should be doing with their lives. Not much happens, and that is what you are reading for!