So far -- one novel, two short stories.
These are x-posted from my personal journal, but I hope that they're OK here. I'm mainly interested in sci-fi and fantasy, so I'm starting the year with three sci-fi works...
Dawn, Octavia Butler
Finished Octavia Butler's Dawn, which is part of my new omnibus edition of Lilth's Brood. I really, really, really liked this story. I liked Lilith, I liked the aliens, I loved her developing human culture, and Butler's incredibly painstaking attention to characterization. Some of it lagged a little, especially at the beginning, but Butler is an incredibly astute observer of the human condition, and I really cannot say enough about how fucking awesome this book is -- fantastic world building, engaging, interesting characters, aliens that are eerie and sympathetic and halfway-human, and anthropologically interesting. I think that what I mainly took away from the novel was a complex discussion of what does and does not constitute 'consent' on a variety of levels -- there are two attempted rapes in the novel; the aliens in the basically force themselves sexually on their male/female partners, which is both repellent and engrossing,; and, on the broadest level, the colonizing aliens are imposing their own vision on humanity, basically without the consent of the colonized. Butler is pretty amazing because she somehow manages to simultaneously squick me the hell out with these descriptions, and to empathize with the alien's motives, drives and desires. It's a very interesting book, and I'm probably going to let it sit in the back of my brain for a while, before I tackle the next two.
"Bloodchild," Octavia Butler
I really loved this story. This is a beautiful and disturbing parable that addresses questions of consent, female sexuality and power imbalance. It's also got what is essentially a parasitoid as a main character, and since I'm a biologist, this was an absolutely awesome touch. It's also quite graphic and maybe even horrifying in places, but what do you expect from The Ichneumon and the Hornworm: A Romance? Weird as it sounds, it resonated for me on a very personal level, since the story is pretty much an almost exact description of my relationship to my biological sex.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," Ted Chiang
This is an amazing story. It reads like a lovely, soft sort of fairy tale, and is beautifully narrated. The characters' motivations for travelling in time, and the consequences of their time travel are interesting, and I loved the way that Chiang dealt with time travel paradoxes, etc. Really, it was charming and awesome; I don't know if it was particularly thought-provoking, but sometimes, it's good to just read a lovely story for its own sake.
Dawn, Octavia Butler
Finished Octavia Butler's Dawn, which is part of my new omnibus edition of Lilth's Brood. I really, really, really liked this story. I liked Lilith, I liked the aliens, I loved her developing human culture, and Butler's incredibly painstaking attention to characterization. Some of it lagged a little, especially at the beginning, but Butler is an incredibly astute observer of the human condition, and I really cannot say enough about how fucking awesome this book is -- fantastic world building, engaging, interesting characters, aliens that are eerie and sympathetic and halfway-human, and anthropologically interesting. I think that what I mainly took away from the novel was a complex discussion of what does and does not constitute 'consent' on a variety of levels -- there are two attempted rapes in the novel; the aliens in the basically force themselves sexually on their male/female partners, which is both repellent and engrossing,; and, on the broadest level, the colonizing aliens are imposing their own vision on humanity, basically without the consent of the colonized. Butler is pretty amazing because she somehow manages to simultaneously squick me the hell out with these descriptions, and to empathize with the alien's motives, drives and desires. It's a very interesting book, and I'm probably going to let it sit in the back of my brain for a while, before I tackle the next two.
"Bloodchild," Octavia Butler
I really loved this story. This is a beautiful and disturbing parable that addresses questions of consent, female sexuality and power imbalance. It's also got what is essentially a parasitoid as a main character, and since I'm a biologist, this was an absolutely awesome touch. It's also quite graphic and maybe even horrifying in places, but what do you expect from The Ichneumon and the Hornworm: A Romance? Weird as it sounds, it resonated for me on a very personal level, since the story is pretty much an almost exact description of my relationship to my biological sex.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," Ted Chiang
This is an amazing story. It reads like a lovely, soft sort of fairy tale, and is beautifully narrated. The characters' motivations for travelling in time, and the consequences of their time travel are interesting, and I loved the way that Chiang dealt with time travel paradoxes, etc. Really, it was charming and awesome; I don't know if it was particularly thought-provoking, but sometimes, it's good to just read a lovely story for its own sake.