Fiction
Saad Z Hossain, Djinn City: Centered on Bangladesh, the story follows members of a family of emissaries to the djinn-humans who know about and negotiate with the djinn, who look down on humans and some of whom plan to exterminate a substantial portion of humanity. One child is kidnapped, believing himself betrayed by the rest of his family, and becomes an apprentice to a very dangerous djinn, while his older cousin finds a new purpose in trying to fight the extermination plot. The ending involved a lot of betrayal and unfinished business; there is as yet no sequel, so it was kind of a downer.
Seanan McGuire, Dying with Her Cheer Pants On:Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins, a California cheerleading team responsible for saving the world from the myriad dark things that want to eat it, or at least its people. McGuire’s signature style is on display aimed at a group of Buffys, including a vampire, a zombie, and a number of other superpowered cheerleaders who could probably win national titles if they weren’t busy fighting evil.
Charles Stross, Escape from Puroland: Laundry Files novella from when Bob was still just the replacement Eater of Souls and the stars hadn’t yet come right. He’s sent to Japan to help out his counterparts there, which causes a bunch of tension especially since his predecessor was a racist ass, and he fights Hello Kitty.
Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne: Excellent new series starter about a fantasy world in which a conquered nation suffers under both the conquerors and the rot destroying people and crops, without the temple children who used to use magic to protect them. But there are a few survivors, and when the emperor’s disgraced sister is exiled to the former temple, there to die of poison or to submit to being burned alive, one of the former temple children finds herself increasingly torn between her own wants and duties and her attraction to the princess. They are not good, but they may be great. I look forward to the next book!
Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This: Unsurprisingly poetic, stream-of-consciousness novel about a woman who is embedded in the “portal” (social media) to the exclusion of other parts of life, and whose consciousness starts to stream off into nothingness while she is filled with rage and love; then, a family tragedy rips her from the portal and back into a different kind of time than internet time. Beautifully done if the constant paragraphs and half-paragraphs and quotes of real and made-up memes won’t annoy you exceedingly.
C.L. Polk, Soulstar: Conclusion of Polk’s trilogy about a fantasy England where the aether got shut off because the lives powering it were freed, and how the revolutionary democrats struggle with freeing the witches, securing broader democratic representation, and navigating both political peril and personal drama with estranged family and long-lost spouses. It’s got a lot of happy ending but there’s clearly been a lot of work to get there, so if you enjoyed the rest of the series, this will probably satisfy.
Danez Smith, Homie: This book of poems has another name, but Smith doesn’t want white people to say it. It’s a modern Whitman in stream of consciousness and investment in the body and the body’s selfhood-here the Black body very specifically, often a male body. Smith is seropositive and writes about the drug regimen keeping him healthy when so many have not been, and about the friends he’s lost as well as about the joys of staying alive.
Linden A. Lewis, The First Sister: This was pitched as space opera with The Handmaid’s Tale, and that’s not inaccurate though it is aspirational. One main character is a silent Sister (they are silenced so that they can just listen to and support the soldiers who use them for confession and sexual access), while another is a fighter on the opposing side, whose own regime turns out to have its share of horrific tortures and injustices. It was a bit too crapsack world for me even though there is clearly some hope at the end.
C.S. Friedman, This Virtual Night: A sf book about farflung humanity with very of-the-moment concerns: a hacked game convinces people that they’re seeing unreal things, manipulating them in order to destroy human space stations. A scrappy bounty hunter type and a game designer who’s been scapegoated join forces to figure out what’s going on. It’s fun.
Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary: A man wakes up, alone with two corpses, in what he quickly discovers is a spaceship on a last-ditch mission to try to save the entire planet from sun-energy-devouring lifeforms. His goal: Tau Ceti, whose star somehow has fought off the infestation. Much science-and then engineering-follows. Even as he gets his memories back, there’s not much in the way of characterization, but if you like Boy Scouts in Space (in pretty much every sense you can imagine), you will probably like this.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
Seanan McGuire, Dying with Her Cheer Pants On:Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins, a California cheerleading team responsible for saving the world from the myriad dark things that want to eat it, or at least its people. McGuire’s signature style is on display aimed at a group of Buffys, including a vampire, a zombie, and a number of other superpowered cheerleaders who could probably win national titles if they weren’t busy fighting evil.
Charles Stross, Escape from Puroland: Laundry Files novella from when Bob was still just the replacement Eater of Souls and the stars hadn’t yet come right. He’s sent to Japan to help out his counterparts there, which causes a bunch of tension especially since his predecessor was a racist ass, and he fights Hello Kitty.
Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne: Excellent new series starter about a fantasy world in which a conquered nation suffers under both the conquerors and the rot destroying people and crops, without the temple children who used to use magic to protect them. But there are a few survivors, and when the emperor’s disgraced sister is exiled to the former temple, there to die of poison or to submit to being burned alive, one of the former temple children finds herself increasingly torn between her own wants and duties and her attraction to the princess. They are not good, but they may be great. I look forward to the next book!
Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This: Unsurprisingly poetic, stream-of-consciousness novel about a woman who is embedded in the “portal” (social media) to the exclusion of other parts of life, and whose consciousness starts to stream off into nothingness while she is filled with rage and love; then, a family tragedy rips her from the portal and back into a different kind of time than internet time. Beautifully done if the constant paragraphs and half-paragraphs and quotes of real and made-up memes won’t annoy you exceedingly.
C.L. Polk, Soulstar: Conclusion of Polk’s trilogy about a fantasy England where the aether got shut off because the lives powering it were freed, and how the revolutionary democrats struggle with freeing the witches, securing broader democratic representation, and navigating both political peril and personal drama with estranged family and long-lost spouses. It’s got a lot of happy ending but there’s clearly been a lot of work to get there, so if you enjoyed the rest of the series, this will probably satisfy.
Danez Smith, Homie: This book of poems has another name, but Smith doesn’t want white people to say it. It’s a modern Whitman in stream of consciousness and investment in the body and the body’s selfhood-here the Black body very specifically, often a male body. Smith is seropositive and writes about the drug regimen keeping him healthy when so many have not been, and about the friends he’s lost as well as about the joys of staying alive.
Linden A. Lewis, The First Sister: This was pitched as space opera with The Handmaid’s Tale, and that’s not inaccurate though it is aspirational. One main character is a silent Sister (they are silenced so that they can just listen to and support the soldiers who use them for confession and sexual access), while another is a fighter on the opposing side, whose own regime turns out to have its share of horrific tortures and injustices. It was a bit too crapsack world for me even though there is clearly some hope at the end.
C.S. Friedman, This Virtual Night: A sf book about farflung humanity with very of-the-moment concerns: a hacked game convinces people that they’re seeing unreal things, manipulating them in order to destroy human space stations. A scrappy bounty hunter type and a game designer who’s been scapegoated join forces to figure out what’s going on. It’s fun.
Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary: A man wakes up, alone with two corpses, in what he quickly discovers is a spaceship on a last-ditch mission to try to save the entire planet from sun-energy-devouring lifeforms. His goal: Tau Ceti, whose star somehow has fought off the infestation. Much science-and then engineering-follows. Even as he gets his memories back, there’s not much in the way of characterization, but if you like Boy Scouts in Space (in pretty much every sense you can imagine), you will probably like this.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.