I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN (SEPTEMBER 2021 EDITION)
You’d think I’d get a lot of reading done on a 12-day road trip and 25-hour flights each way. Oh well.
March by John Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a three-volume autographic novel about John Lewis and his seminal work in the Civil Rights movement. Volume 1 covers the period from his childhood to his theological education, the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the successful boycotts and sit-ins in Nashville in 1963. Volume 2 covers the period from the Freedom Riders to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Volume 3 covers the Selma and Montgomery marches and the Freedom Ballot, and concludes with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The overall narrative is also framed within the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama.
It's a story that Lewis has told before in his autobiography Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, but the story really comes alive in the graphic novel format, with good writing from Lewis’ collaborator Andrew Aydin and great artwork by Nate Powell. It’s also a stark reminder of just how ingrained racism was at the time, how dangerous it was for black people to challenge the status quo, and what they had to endure to accomplish what they did. The violence feels overdone at times, and yet it’s very much a part of the story. And while the book was published before the resurgence of white supremacy under Trump, reading it now provides some serious and disturbing historical context to current events.
And not just in the US - reading about the protests and marches of the Civil Rights movement also invites some parallels to the 2019 protests here in Hong Kong in terms of police violence and the weaponization of law to deny people the right to peaceful assembly, which of course we’ve also seen in the US with the #BLM protests. In that sense it’s a universal story of resistance to state oppression and social injustice, and the hope that eventually justice will prevail if you’re willing to fight and suffer for it. I’d recommend this to anyone, although we already know that the people that need to read it most probably never will, and may even go so far as to try to keep schools from assigning books like this. Which, of course, just goes to show.
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the middle book of Scalzi’s Interdependency space opera trilogy, in which a thousand-year empire of planets is connected by a cosmological force called “the Flow”, which enables faster-than-light travel and thus interstellar trade. But not for much longer - the Flow is collapsing one segment at a time, which will result in the demise of the Interdependency and humanity in general, as no colony is capable of surviving on its own.
Naturally, this instalment takes up more or less where the first book left off. Grayland II, the newly crowned emperox, is trying to convince Parliament and the megacorporate houses that hold most of the political power that they need to take action to mitigate the effects of the Flow’s collapse - partly by sending scientist Lord Marce Claremont out to explain the scientific data, and partly by claiming to have had prophetic visions about the collapse in line with her role as head of the state-run Interdependent Church. This results in plenty of political intrigue, plots and assassination attempts, especially from Countess Nohamapetan, who is keen on revenge for the events in the first book, as is her daughter Nadashe. Meanwhile, Lord Marce - with the help of rival scientist Hatide Roynold - discovers some new data and a secret, lost history that could change the game.
I said in my review of The Collapsing Empire that Scalzi was riffing more off Asimov than Heinlein this time out. Upon reflection, it's a bit more like Game of Thrones in space, with lots of political skulduggery, court intrigue, power plays and power sex. Whatever his inspirations, Scalzi characteristically spins a fun, page-turning tale that also is not-so-subtly informed by current events, particularly the spectacle of the rich and powerful refusing to believe inconvenient science that threatens their riches and power. I’m still not entirely convinced a state church is necessary for the Interdependency to work (despite a more detailed explanation this time round), but it’s not affecting my suspension of disbelief, so okay. The middle book of any trilogy is always tricky, as it’s essentially a bridge for the other two books. But Scalzi pulls it off by building up established characters and throwing some new elements into the mix that are a nice set-up for the final chapter - so, you know, well played.
View all my reviews
Light my fire,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1661860.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
March by John Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a three-volume autographic novel about John Lewis and his seminal work in the Civil Rights movement. Volume 1 covers the period from his childhood to his theological education, the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the successful boycotts and sit-ins in Nashville in 1963. Volume 2 covers the period from the Freedom Riders to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Volume 3 covers the Selma and Montgomery marches and the Freedom Ballot, and concludes with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The overall narrative is also framed within the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama.
It's a story that Lewis has told before in his autobiography Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, but the story really comes alive in the graphic novel format, with good writing from Lewis’ collaborator Andrew Aydin and great artwork by Nate Powell. It’s also a stark reminder of just how ingrained racism was at the time, how dangerous it was for black people to challenge the status quo, and what they had to endure to accomplish what they did. The violence feels overdone at times, and yet it’s very much a part of the story. And while the book was published before the resurgence of white supremacy under Trump, reading it now provides some serious and disturbing historical context to current events.
And not just in the US - reading about the protests and marches of the Civil Rights movement also invites some parallels to the 2019 protests here in Hong Kong in terms of police violence and the weaponization of law to deny people the right to peaceful assembly, which of course we’ve also seen in the US with the #BLM protests. In that sense it’s a universal story of resistance to state oppression and social injustice, and the hope that eventually justice will prevail if you’re willing to fight and suffer for it. I’d recommend this to anyone, although we already know that the people that need to read it most probably never will, and may even go so far as to try to keep schools from assigning books like this. Which, of course, just goes to show.
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the middle book of Scalzi’s Interdependency space opera trilogy, in which a thousand-year empire of planets is connected by a cosmological force called “the Flow”, which enables faster-than-light travel and thus interstellar trade. But not for much longer - the Flow is collapsing one segment at a time, which will result in the demise of the Interdependency and humanity in general, as no colony is capable of surviving on its own.
Naturally, this instalment takes up more or less where the first book left off. Grayland II, the newly crowned emperox, is trying to convince Parliament and the megacorporate houses that hold most of the political power that they need to take action to mitigate the effects of the Flow’s collapse - partly by sending scientist Lord Marce Claremont out to explain the scientific data, and partly by claiming to have had prophetic visions about the collapse in line with her role as head of the state-run Interdependent Church. This results in plenty of political intrigue, plots and assassination attempts, especially from Countess Nohamapetan, who is keen on revenge for the events in the first book, as is her daughter Nadashe. Meanwhile, Lord Marce - with the help of rival scientist Hatide Roynold - discovers some new data and a secret, lost history that could change the game.
I said in my review of The Collapsing Empire that Scalzi was riffing more off Asimov than Heinlein this time out. Upon reflection, it's a bit more like Game of Thrones in space, with lots of political skulduggery, court intrigue, power plays and power sex. Whatever his inspirations, Scalzi characteristically spins a fun, page-turning tale that also is not-so-subtly informed by current events, particularly the spectacle of the rich and powerful refusing to believe inconvenient science that threatens their riches and power. I’m still not entirely convinced a state church is necessary for the Interdependency to work (despite a more detailed explanation this time round), but it’s not affecting my suspension of disbelief, so okay. The middle book of any trilogy is always tricky, as it’s essentially a bridge for the other two books. But Scalzi pulls it off by building up established characters and throwing some new elements into the mix that are a nice set-up for the final chapter - so, you know, well played.
View all my reviews
Light my fire,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1661860.html. Please comment there using OpenID.