intrigued
I am currently trying to avoid clicking on any blog posts with titles like -- oh, here are some examples than I would have been tempted to look at -- “5 Feel-Good Books of 2021 That Will Brighten Your Summer” and “The 30 Most Anticipated SFF Books for the Rest of 221” and “5 SFF Books Featuring Makeovers and Transformations”. Because I have enough books to read already.
I don’t want to stop reading reviews on blogs, nor stop checking the library catalogue to see if they have the latest from a favourite author. But I can easily stop reading lists like this.
Maybe this means I’ll miss hearing about something wonderful; maybe it means I won’t read as widely. I don’t think this will cause me to retreat into some sort of hegemonous and sheltered comfort zone -- but, honestly, even if it did, even if I just spend the next six months only rereading old favourites from my bookshelf, I don’t think that would be a terrible choice.
• The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho: Tet Sang is part of a group of bandits who run into trouble after a nun from the Order of the Pure Moon insists on joining them and uncovers the truth of their mission.
This was intriguing. Definitely intriguing. Occasionally amusing. A well-constructed story. I wouldn’t mind reading more about these characters.
• Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer: Sequel to Catfishing on CatNet. When Steph and her new schoolmate Nell are encouraged to join a social media app, Steph becomes suspicious about how much the app may be monitoring her, while Nell notices similarities to an app used by members of a cult.
As a near-future story about social media apps and AIs, this was tense and really interesting! And I enjoyed seeing more of Steph’s uncomplicated friendship with the AI CheshireCat.
But there’s not a lot of depth to the relationships. There’s just not enough room for it, with three POV characters and Nell’s situation being so complicated. (Her mother brought her up in a religious cult but she’s gone missing and Nell has moved in with her father, who lives in a polyamorous (and non-religious) household, and she trying to find a way to keep in contact with her girlfriend).
Objectively, I don’t think it matters -- this is a successful story without exploring some of the characters’ relationships in greater depth, but nevertheless, my personal preference is for more depth.
• The Book of Firsts by Karan K Anders: Andrea K. Höst is one of my favourite authors but I was not planning on reading her non-fantasy story about high-schoolers’ sexy shenanigans. I read this on an impulse. Am still surprised how it made me care about the characters.
Mika plans to spend her final year of high school focused on getting into university. When she overhears three beautiful boys discussing their plan to find a girl willing to judge which of them is the best kisser, she decides such an arrangement wouldn’t disrupt her studies -- and so begins a series of secret lunchtime trysts.
It could easily descend into ugliness -- coercion, scandal or even just a morass of hurt feelings. And it doesn’t, even though the challenges are ostensibly a competition. In part because all four participants care about communication, consent, ensuring others’ comfort and keeping things confidential. They care, a lot. (They also consider practicalities such as contraception and cleaning up.)
The arrangement also works because the boys, a trio of second-cousins, are uncommonly committed to each other. While unusual, it’s believable that Rin, Kyou and Bran have such a tight bond, given the pressure they are under -- demanding expectations from their very wealthy families, and intense scrutiny from their peers. Like celebrities, they’re the subject of gossip, fan art and, in a few notable instances, sabotage. It makes it risky to let others get close.
They come to trust Mika, because she demonstrates early on that she will keep secrets and also, she’s as invested as they are in keeping her relationships with them secret.
I think all four of them are more used to making adult decisions than your average student, too. Mika’s parents are supportive but travel a lot for work and so she’s living independently. All of the boys are at great pains to keep their career plans from their unsupportive families -- but they’re able to take steps to put those plans in motion, because they have serious financial resources most people simply don’t have, and the intelligence to make use of them. They have shared investments. They have an employee.
It occurs to me that this is, in spite of the setting and the sex, such an Andrea K. Höst story. She’s still writing about characters who are exceptionally intelligent, talented and attractive! It’s just that none of them have magic.
(Also, while the conclusion wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I’ve reread most of Höst’s novels; I can’t say I was surprised that she might consider that particular development.)
There are various ways in which this could be a stronger novel, and other ways in which it could be more my cup of tea -- but it made me care about, and believe in, the characters and their relationships. And I like that, even though the story is about Mika’s interactions with three boys, both she and the narrative value her female friendships.
Would read a sequel. Bran smirked. “Their toes were all curled up in horror. Those branches of the family are so caught up in image.” He glanced at me. “So are mine, just a different image.”
“Which one is going to react worst to game development as a career?”
[...] “Rin’s. Not that Kyou’s father won’t be furious, but Kyou’s shown signs of straying off the ‘right’ path for the last few years, while Rin has basically kept his mouth shut for the last decade [...] he’s got two sets of parents who are going to go apocalyptic on him. We’ve been preparing for anything up to and including the police being called ever since they wouldn’t let him sign up for music camp.”
“I need to put this into perspective. The employment terms they want me to agree to aren’t even full-time. I like finance, and could still work with Rin and Bran. Going along with them isn’t the end of the world.”
Having reached this point, he picked up his teacup and drank, full of shaky resolve.
“Ultimatums are always enlightening,” I said, slowly. “I’ve not met your family but I don’t think they’d be great people to work for.”
“I’m not going to sacrifice my friends because of a part-time inconvenience.”
He’d gone so quickly from meltdown to arguing for servitude that I almost laughed. “You three are so close you’ve signed powers of attorney for each other, but you keep doing this ‘not telling’ thing. Have you forgotten the year you spent trying to stop Bran from tearing himself apart, all because of an ultimatum you didn't know existed? If only you’d give this life-changing decisions the same amount of discussion time you apparently do the sounds I make [...]”
As far as I recall, in her novels published as Andrea K. Höst sex scenes occur off-screen. But in several of her stories, there’s a line about how the couple falls into each other’s arms and doesn’t say anything more until morning.
Once I noticed this pattern, I was like, “Really? You are all going to leap into a sexual relationship without any further conversation???” In isolation, this behaviour is neither unbelievable nor concerning, but it’s a pattern not just limited to Höst’s stories… I think more stories should at least acknowledge that some people need to talk about their boundaries and expectations, even if those actual conversations are not necessarily going to be interesting enough or relevant enough to the narrative at hand to actually show them.
So I guess I appreciate that Höst’s characters in this particular story ask each other things like Are you okay with this? and Were you okay with that? Originally @ Dreamwidth.
I don’t want to stop reading reviews on blogs, nor stop checking the library catalogue to see if they have the latest from a favourite author. But I can easily stop reading lists like this.
Maybe this means I’ll miss hearing about something wonderful; maybe it means I won’t read as widely. I don’t think this will cause me to retreat into some sort of hegemonous and sheltered comfort zone -- but, honestly, even if it did, even if I just spend the next six months only rereading old favourites from my bookshelf, I don’t think that would be a terrible choice.
• The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho: Tet Sang is part of a group of bandits who run into trouble after a nun from the Order of the Pure Moon insists on joining them and uncovers the truth of their mission.
This was intriguing. Definitely intriguing. Occasionally amusing. A well-constructed story. I wouldn’t mind reading more about these characters.
• Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer: Sequel to Catfishing on CatNet. When Steph and her new schoolmate Nell are encouraged to join a social media app, Steph becomes suspicious about how much the app may be monitoring her, while Nell notices similarities to an app used by members of a cult.
As a near-future story about social media apps and AIs, this was tense and really interesting! And I enjoyed seeing more of Steph’s uncomplicated friendship with the AI CheshireCat.
But there’s not a lot of depth to the relationships. There’s just not enough room for it, with three POV characters and Nell’s situation being so complicated. (Her mother brought her up in a religious cult but she’s gone missing and Nell has moved in with her father, who lives in a polyamorous (and non-religious) household, and she trying to find a way to keep in contact with her girlfriend).
Objectively, I don’t think it matters -- this is a successful story without exploring some of the characters’ relationships in greater depth, but nevertheless, my personal preference is for more depth.
• The Book of Firsts by Karan K Anders: Andrea K. Höst is one of my favourite authors but I was not planning on reading her non-fantasy story about high-schoolers’ sexy shenanigans. I read this on an impulse. Am still surprised how it made me care about the characters.
Mika plans to spend her final year of high school focused on getting into university. When she overhears three beautiful boys discussing their plan to find a girl willing to judge which of them is the best kisser, she decides such an arrangement wouldn’t disrupt her studies -- and so begins a series of secret lunchtime trysts.
It could easily descend into ugliness -- coercion, scandal or even just a morass of hurt feelings. And it doesn’t, even though the challenges are ostensibly a competition. In part because all four participants care about communication, consent, ensuring others’ comfort and keeping things confidential. They care, a lot. (They also consider practicalities such as contraception and cleaning up.)
The arrangement also works because the boys, a trio of second-cousins, are uncommonly committed to each other. While unusual, it’s believable that Rin, Kyou and Bran have such a tight bond, given the pressure they are under -- demanding expectations from their very wealthy families, and intense scrutiny from their peers. Like celebrities, they’re the subject of gossip, fan art and, in a few notable instances, sabotage. It makes it risky to let others get close.
They come to trust Mika, because she demonstrates early on that she will keep secrets and also, she’s as invested as they are in keeping her relationships with them secret.
I think all four of them are more used to making adult decisions than your average student, too. Mika’s parents are supportive but travel a lot for work and so she’s living independently. All of the boys are at great pains to keep their career plans from their unsupportive families -- but they’re able to take steps to put those plans in motion, because they have serious financial resources most people simply don’t have, and the intelligence to make use of them. They have shared investments. They have an employee.
It occurs to me that this is, in spite of the setting and the sex, such an Andrea K. Höst story. She’s still writing about characters who are exceptionally intelligent, talented and attractive! It’s just that none of them have magic.
(Also, while the conclusion wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I’ve reread most of Höst’s novels; I can’t say I was surprised that she might consider that particular development.)
There are various ways in which this could be a stronger novel, and other ways in which it could be more my cup of tea -- but it made me care about, and believe in, the characters and their relationships. And I like that, even though the story is about Mika’s interactions with three boys, both she and the narrative value her female friendships.
Would read a sequel. Bran smirked. “Their toes were all curled up in horror. Those branches of the family are so caught up in image.” He glanced at me. “So are mine, just a different image.”
“Which one is going to react worst to game development as a career?”
[...] “Rin’s. Not that Kyou’s father won’t be furious, but Kyou’s shown signs of straying off the ‘right’ path for the last few years, while Rin has basically kept his mouth shut for the last decade [...] he’s got two sets of parents who are going to go apocalyptic on him. We’ve been preparing for anything up to and including the police being called ever since they wouldn’t let him sign up for music camp.”
“I need to put this into perspective. The employment terms they want me to agree to aren’t even full-time. I like finance, and could still work with Rin and Bran. Going along with them isn’t the end of the world.”
Having reached this point, he picked up his teacup and drank, full of shaky resolve.
“Ultimatums are always enlightening,” I said, slowly. “I’ve not met your family but I don’t think they’d be great people to work for.”
“I’m not going to sacrifice my friends because of a part-time inconvenience.”
He’d gone so quickly from meltdown to arguing for servitude that I almost laughed. “You three are so close you’ve signed powers of attorney for each other, but you keep doing this ‘not telling’ thing. Have you forgotten the year you spent trying to stop Bran from tearing himself apart, all because of an ultimatum you didn't know existed? If only you’d give this life-changing decisions the same amount of discussion time you apparently do the sounds I make [...]”
As far as I recall, in her novels published as Andrea K. Höst sex scenes occur off-screen. But in several of her stories, there’s a line about how the couple falls into each other’s arms and doesn’t say anything more until morning.
Once I noticed this pattern, I was like, “Really? You are all going to leap into a sexual relationship without any further conversation???” In isolation, this behaviour is neither unbelievable nor concerning, but it’s a pattern not just limited to Höst’s stories… I think more stories should at least acknowledge that some people need to talk about their boundaries and expectations, even if those actual conversations are not necessarily going to be interesting enough or relevant enough to the narrative at hand to actually show them.
So I guess I appreciate that Höst’s characters in this particular story ask each other things like Are you okay with this? and Were you okay with that? Originally @ Dreamwidth.