Fiction!
Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due, Domino Falls: Accidentally picked up book 2 in this series about a zombie apocalypse, with a mostly-PoC cast that begins the book tightly bonded together, having survived various horrific traumas as the world around them degenerated. In this book, they find a refugee community led by a charismatic figure who believes in the “Thread” that links everyone together-which may have something to do with the strange dreams one of our protagonists has been having, and may also have something to do with the red vines that start to grow out of the zombies if they stay in one place long enough. Although all the elements are familiar, the execution is engaging, so if you like zombies this one would be worth a try.
Ben Winters, World of Trouble: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. This is the third and final book in the Last Policeman trilogy. Detective Hank Palace is still searching for justice-for truth, at least-six days before the asteroid that’s going to destroy the world is scheduled to show up. This time he’s looking for his sister, who believes that there’s a last-ditch way to save everyone through a spectacular act of science. Hank is the perfect protagonist for this scenario; his commitment to maintaining his own form of order in a completely disordered world seems like one perfectly understandable response among the many others he encounters. He’s perfectly aware of the futility of his search, but he does it anyway because he can’t do otherwise. There’s really only two ways a book like this can end, and I don’t want to spoil it, but the ending feels properly earned.
Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl: Cath and Wren were fanfic-writing twins, BNFs in a Harry Potter-esque fandom who wrote the equivalent of Harry/Draco. Now they’re in college and Wren is moving on, while Cath isn’t. I really enjoyed the way in which being immersed fanfic was a valuable part of Cath’s life, even as it also insulated her from other experiences that she didn’t want to have-sometimes insulation is worth having. Cath has other issues-boy trouble, professor trouble, a father who doesn’t treat his bipolar condition until things go wrong, a mother who abandoned her and Wren when they were young-and that makes for a readable YA. There’s also some wonderful dialogue. Probably my favorite:
“… I hope she never forgives herself.”
“Don’t say that.” Wren’s face was red, and there were tears in her eyes. “I’m not broken.”
There weren’t any tears in Cath’s eyes. “Cracks in your foundation.” She shrugged.
“Fuck that.”
“Do you think I absorbed all the impact? That when Mom left, it hit my side of the car? Fuck that, Wren. She left you, too.”
Recommended.
Lia Silver, Laura’s Wolf: Werewolf Marines! Laura, reformed con artist recovering from a traumatic experience after trying to go straight, meets Roy, newly turned werewolf escaped from the facility that was experimenting on him, who can’t stand the presence of anything electronic. They help each other and fall in love. This book reminded me of an essay by Deborah Kaplan on the Harlequin Romance challenge in SGA, which was in a collection about critical approaches to romance: fandom, and the slash I read in particular, caters to the tropes I really like, and I don’t think that mainstream romance particularly does. Here, there was a lot of instant attraction and instinctive love and even trust. And that’s cool! If you like narratives in which the obstacles are largely external-and the internal ones are founded on serious trauma rather than serious disagreements-then this would probably be more up your alley. A lot of attention in this story goes to caretaking, each of the other; admitting love does not magically fix their traumas, though it makes them easier to bear. Oh, and there’s also a werewolf terror compound where Roy and Laura have to make a stand to save themselves and others.
Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls: I really liked Beukes’ earlier books. This one is about a serial killer who preys on “shining girls”-young women with a spark that encourages them to strive for better things in various ways-in Chicago throughout the twentieth century. He’s connected to a house that lets him travel through time, preventing detection that he is a serial killer, but in the 1990s a victim who barely escaped him starts putting the pieces together. Other than being a portrait of misogyny, I wasn’t sure I got the point.
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind: For various reasons, I came to this book dubious. The protagonist, Kvothe, is the platonic ideal of a Marty Stu-he learns languages in less than a day! He saves people and doesn’t understand why they look up to him! Women love him but he doesn’t know his own appeal! There is definitely a sense that Rothfuss knows this and is trying something subtle, where Kvothe deconstructs his own story as he narrates it, making clear that what seems like heroism in retrospect was much messier and often less interesting than the stories that grew up around him--even assuming that Kvothe can be trusted as a narrator. (An interlude in which he fights a dragon, extensively and for the most part by trying not to fight it, is probably the best example.) At the same time, even in the deconstruction, he's still that genius Marty Stu, just more of a performer about it. Ultimately I did enjoy the story, but basically I will side-eye anyone who likes this but not power fantasies starring women. When you strike at a king trope you must kill it (or embrace it).
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
Ben Winters, World of Trouble: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. This is the third and final book in the Last Policeman trilogy. Detective Hank Palace is still searching for justice-for truth, at least-six days before the asteroid that’s going to destroy the world is scheduled to show up. This time he’s looking for his sister, who believes that there’s a last-ditch way to save everyone through a spectacular act of science. Hank is the perfect protagonist for this scenario; his commitment to maintaining his own form of order in a completely disordered world seems like one perfectly understandable response among the many others he encounters. He’s perfectly aware of the futility of his search, but he does it anyway because he can’t do otherwise. There’s really only two ways a book like this can end, and I don’t want to spoil it, but the ending feels properly earned.
Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl: Cath and Wren were fanfic-writing twins, BNFs in a Harry Potter-esque fandom who wrote the equivalent of Harry/Draco. Now they’re in college and Wren is moving on, while Cath isn’t. I really enjoyed the way in which being immersed fanfic was a valuable part of Cath’s life, even as it also insulated her from other experiences that she didn’t want to have-sometimes insulation is worth having. Cath has other issues-boy trouble, professor trouble, a father who doesn’t treat his bipolar condition until things go wrong, a mother who abandoned her and Wren when they were young-and that makes for a readable YA. There’s also some wonderful dialogue. Probably my favorite:
“… I hope she never forgives herself.”
“Don’t say that.” Wren’s face was red, and there were tears in her eyes. “I’m not broken.”
There weren’t any tears in Cath’s eyes. “Cracks in your foundation.” She shrugged.
“Fuck that.”
“Do you think I absorbed all the impact? That when Mom left, it hit my side of the car? Fuck that, Wren. She left you, too.”
Recommended.
Lia Silver, Laura’s Wolf: Werewolf Marines! Laura, reformed con artist recovering from a traumatic experience after trying to go straight, meets Roy, newly turned werewolf escaped from the facility that was experimenting on him, who can’t stand the presence of anything electronic. They help each other and fall in love. This book reminded me of an essay by Deborah Kaplan on the Harlequin Romance challenge in SGA, which was in a collection about critical approaches to romance: fandom, and the slash I read in particular, caters to the tropes I really like, and I don’t think that mainstream romance particularly does. Here, there was a lot of instant attraction and instinctive love and even trust. And that’s cool! If you like narratives in which the obstacles are largely external-and the internal ones are founded on serious trauma rather than serious disagreements-then this would probably be more up your alley. A lot of attention in this story goes to caretaking, each of the other; admitting love does not magically fix their traumas, though it makes them easier to bear. Oh, and there’s also a werewolf terror compound where Roy and Laura have to make a stand to save themselves and others.
Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls: I really liked Beukes’ earlier books. This one is about a serial killer who preys on “shining girls”-young women with a spark that encourages them to strive for better things in various ways-in Chicago throughout the twentieth century. He’s connected to a house that lets him travel through time, preventing detection that he is a serial killer, but in the 1990s a victim who barely escaped him starts putting the pieces together. Other than being a portrait of misogyny, I wasn’t sure I got the point.
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind: For various reasons, I came to this book dubious. The protagonist, Kvothe, is the platonic ideal of a Marty Stu-he learns languages in less than a day! He saves people and doesn’t understand why they look up to him! Women love him but he doesn’t know his own appeal! There is definitely a sense that Rothfuss knows this and is trying something subtle, where Kvothe deconstructs his own story as he narrates it, making clear that what seems like heroism in retrospect was much messier and often less interesting than the stories that grew up around him--even assuming that Kvothe can be trusted as a narrator. (An interlude in which he fights a dragon, extensively and for the most part by trying not to fight it, is probably the best example.) At the same time, even in the deconstruction, he's still that genius Marty Stu, just more of a performer about it. Ultimately I did enjoy the story, but basically I will side-eye anyone who likes this but not power fantasies starring women. When you strike at a king trope you must kill it (or embrace it).
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.