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Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind: Jasmyn, a passionate legal defense attorney married to King, who’s hit it big in finance, moves into Liberty with her about-to-grow-further young family. Liberty is an all-Black enclave (except for the occasional caterer who comes in for the day) that promises safety amidst Black excellence. But this is a horror novel, so that’s not what happens, and Jasmyn becomes concerned about the eerie indifference of most of her fellow residents to the anti-Blackness outside, especially among those who spend the most time at the spa at the center of town—a group that includes her husband. If you believe that white supremacy won’t be beaten in your lifetime or the lifetimes of your children, what would you be willing to do, when white supremacy is both ongoing harm and potentially life-ending at any given moment?
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay: Lots of body horror! Rebels against an authoritarian human government are exiled to an alien world where they will die as manual labor supporting scientific investigations into the incredibly complex biology of that world. But the alien biome wants to colonize its human invaders as much as the humans in charge want to dissect and control the biome. Can people who’ve never succeeded at rebellion—because they were betrayed or afraid of being betrayed or just too isolated among compliance—find a way through? Can you truly understand anything of which you are not a part? I sort of wonder if the current vogue for fungi in sf influenced this book as well.
Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola: The pampered son of the richest and most powerful banker in a fantasy version of an Italian city-state grows up trying to match his father’s expectations, but he is always too gentle and trusting for the city’s politics. A very slow start as he is educated in the ways of the world, falls in love with his hostage-sister, and prepares to take his place. Then a lot of violence happens, including mutilation and enslavement (it’s an enslavement-supporting society). The fantasy element: a dragon’s eye, preserved from the dragon, is one of his father’s prized possessions and has a dangerous/possibly helpful link with our protagonist, if he can seize it.
T. Kingfisher, A Sorceress Comes to Call:Apparently based on The Goose Girl, but I didn’t remember the fable well enough to make links. A young girl is used to being “made obedient”—puppeted—by her sorceress mother. When her mother decides it’s time to leave and find a wealthy husband, she has to navigate her first extended exposure to other people who aren’t horrible abusers. Meanwhile, the target’s sister, a woman in her fifties with bad knees, has to figure out what to do about the sorceress, who—if she succeeds in enchanting the brother—can do basically anything she wants as the new mistress of the house. But at least there are also some friends to help. Body horror, including a version of Kingfisher’s now-standard bone horse.
Sara Wolf, Heavenbreaker: In a horrifically unequal space station above a slowly terraforming planet, the circuses keeping the masses entertained are mecha battles fought by nobles. But when one bastard survives an assassination attempt and steals a mecha as her way of avenging her mother’s death, she’s recruited into a much larger scheme trying to take down the noble house that first rejected and then tried to kill her. Not quite the Hunger Games because the mecha battles don’t usually end in death. As she grows in understanding, though, the strangeness of the things inside the mechas starts to affect her—whether they’re AI or something else related to the aliens who destroyed Earth and sent humanity out to the stars. It neither annoyed me nor deeply grabbed me; there is clearly a sequel on the way.
Django Wexler, How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying: Davi has been trying to defeat the Dark Lord for thousands of lives; every time she fails, the situation resets. One time she decides to try something different, and become the Dark Lord instead. Lots of wisecracking and pop culture references even though Davi’s been transported to the fantasy realm for so long she says she doesn’t remember her life on Earth. I liked that she woke with skills she’d learned but not the body trained to use them. If you like flippancy and playing with D&D tropes, you might like this.
Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time: A Novel: A young woman gets a job as a “bridge,” a guide to the 21st century for one of a handful of people the government has snatched from different time periods (surely an attempt to weaponize something, though she’s not high enough in the hierarchy to know what). She falls in love with her time traveler, a man thought dead in an 1850s Arctic expedition. I have a bad track record with time travel romances and this was no different, though I thought it was quite interesting to contrast her refugee heritage (her mother escaped Cambodia; most of her family did not) with the unwilling time traveler’s situation.
Victor Manibo, Escape Velocity:At an elite reunion in space, where the attendees will get valuable points towards emigration to Mars, one woman seeks to solve the mystery of who killed her twin—she knows it wasn’t the convicted woman who died in prison. Meanwhile, the employees of the space resort, who in a cruel and sadly realistic twist don’t earn points from space travel because they got their practice on behalf of an employer, are planning some kind of takeover. Perhaps the condescension and worse that the mostly white, all-rich folks inflict on the mostly brown crew will be repaid. As both narratives head towards their climaxes, how will they intersect? The answer might annoy you; I didn’t like it although I think I see and respect what Manibo was trying to do. For guillotine fans.
Ben Aaronovitch, The Masquerades of Spring: Augustus Berrycloth-Young, a Bertie Wooster type, is living in Prohibition-era New York and far from the magic of his youth when Nightingale comes to call, looking for information on a cursed saxophone. Augustus, our narrator, enlists his lover and his knowledge of Harlem to figure things out. Slight and reflective of Aaronovitch’s interest in exploring the corners of his universe rather than continuing with the characters we know.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay: Lots of body horror! Rebels against an authoritarian human government are exiled to an alien world where they will die as manual labor supporting scientific investigations into the incredibly complex biology of that world. But the alien biome wants to colonize its human invaders as much as the humans in charge want to dissect and control the biome. Can people who’ve never succeeded at rebellion—because they were betrayed or afraid of being betrayed or just too isolated among compliance—find a way through? Can you truly understand anything of which you are not a part? I sort of wonder if the current vogue for fungi in sf influenced this book as well.
Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola: The pampered son of the richest and most powerful banker in a fantasy version of an Italian city-state grows up trying to match his father’s expectations, but he is always too gentle and trusting for the city’s politics. A very slow start as he is educated in the ways of the world, falls in love with his hostage-sister, and prepares to take his place. Then a lot of violence happens, including mutilation and enslavement (it’s an enslavement-supporting society). The fantasy element: a dragon’s eye, preserved from the dragon, is one of his father’s prized possessions and has a dangerous/possibly helpful link with our protagonist, if he can seize it.
T. Kingfisher, A Sorceress Comes to Call:Apparently based on The Goose Girl, but I didn’t remember the fable well enough to make links. A young girl is used to being “made obedient”—puppeted—by her sorceress mother. When her mother decides it’s time to leave and find a wealthy husband, she has to navigate her first extended exposure to other people who aren’t horrible abusers. Meanwhile, the target’s sister, a woman in her fifties with bad knees, has to figure out what to do about the sorceress, who—if she succeeds in enchanting the brother—can do basically anything she wants as the new mistress of the house. But at least there are also some friends to help. Body horror, including a version of Kingfisher’s now-standard bone horse.
Sara Wolf, Heavenbreaker: In a horrifically unequal space station above a slowly terraforming planet, the circuses keeping the masses entertained are mecha battles fought by nobles. But when one bastard survives an assassination attempt and steals a mecha as her way of avenging her mother’s death, she’s recruited into a much larger scheme trying to take down the noble house that first rejected and then tried to kill her. Not quite the Hunger Games because the mecha battles don’t usually end in death. As she grows in understanding, though, the strangeness of the things inside the mechas starts to affect her—whether they’re AI or something else related to the aliens who destroyed Earth and sent humanity out to the stars. It neither annoyed me nor deeply grabbed me; there is clearly a sequel on the way.
Django Wexler, How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying: Davi has been trying to defeat the Dark Lord for thousands of lives; every time she fails, the situation resets. One time she decides to try something different, and become the Dark Lord instead. Lots of wisecracking and pop culture references even though Davi’s been transported to the fantasy realm for so long she says she doesn’t remember her life on Earth. I liked that she woke with skills she’d learned but not the body trained to use them. If you like flippancy and playing with D&D tropes, you might like this.
Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time: A Novel: A young woman gets a job as a “bridge,” a guide to the 21st century for one of a handful of people the government has snatched from different time periods (surely an attempt to weaponize something, though she’s not high enough in the hierarchy to know what). She falls in love with her time traveler, a man thought dead in an 1850s Arctic expedition. I have a bad track record with time travel romances and this was no different, though I thought it was quite interesting to contrast her refugee heritage (her mother escaped Cambodia; most of her family did not) with the unwilling time traveler’s situation.
Victor Manibo, Escape Velocity:At an elite reunion in space, where the attendees will get valuable points towards emigration to Mars, one woman seeks to solve the mystery of who killed her twin—she knows it wasn’t the convicted woman who died in prison. Meanwhile, the employees of the space resort, who in a cruel and sadly realistic twist don’t earn points from space travel because they got their practice on behalf of an employer, are planning some kind of takeover. Perhaps the condescension and worse that the mostly white, all-rich folks inflict on the mostly brown crew will be repaid. As both narratives head towards their climaxes, how will they intersect? The answer might annoy you; I didn’t like it although I think I see and respect what Manibo was trying to do. For guillotine fans.
Ben Aaronovitch, The Masquerades of Spring: Augustus Berrycloth-Young, a Bertie Wooster type, is living in Prohibition-era New York and far from the magic of his youth when Nightingale comes to call, looking for information on a cursed saxophone. Augustus, our narrator, enlists his lover and his knowledge of Harlem to figure things out. Slight and reflective of Aaronovitch’s interest in exploring the corners of his universe rather than continuing with the characters we know.
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Thanks for the write-ups - I want to see if my library has the Nicola Yoon one particularly!
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