Brief book reviews
Now that I finally reset my library card PIN, I can request tons of stuff and pick it up a few blocks from work to read on the bus ride home. Which means I've been reading some neat stuff!
I try not to spoil anything too thoroughly, but there are some hints. Especially for The Book of Phoenix.
Court of Fives / Kate Elliott
Blurb here
It feels odd to say a book is both delightful and bone-chillingly creepy, but there you are. It starts with Jessamy's normal, everyday problem of plotting how to escape the house yet again to secretly compete in a major athletic competition--which she can't allow herself to win, because they she'd have to unmask and this would be Very Bad for her family's reputation. Then the stakes get raised, and raised again, and soon she's competing to keep her family safe from the cruel lord who's suddenly gained the power of life and death over them all. Except if she wins, her friend Kal's life will be ruined. Oh, and that promise of safety for her family? Turns out cruel lords aren't trustworthy and holy shit this just took a turn into Edgar Allan Poe territory this is awesome.
Then there's the literally buried history, and her little sister Amaya's secret, and... look, just check it out already, okay?
Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
Blurb here
And again with the mix of delightful and creepy, starting with the first story, "The Easthound." A band of children play a story game to distract themselves from their horrifying reality: every adult in the world has permanently werewolfed out. And as soon as you grow too much, the change comes for you, too... The story packs a ton into a small space, including powerful relationships between the characters, especially narrator Milly and her just-slightly-older twin sister.
Then there's the Caliban and Ariel story, the alternate history where a Maroon quilombo survives with some magic assistance (at a price), the one about the girl and the cherry tree and dryads and hooded cobras and really awkward high school parties and ladies and tigers...
I won't recap every story in the collection, but it's a great mix of lighter, funnier pieces and darker-edged ones, most featuring Caribbean or Caribbean diaspora characters. Recommended!
The Grace of Kings / Ken Liu
Blurb here
Besides translating the Hugo-winning The Three-Body Problem, Liu has also written a massive epic fantasy novel, and I am jealous of how much energy and focus he must have to get all that done.
Besides the epic epicness of the story, what with all the empires rising and falling and rising anew, the little details in this book are unexpected and fun. Some are based on the nuts-and-bolts administrative concerns that so often get overlooked, like Kuni's clever lottery scheme to get people clamoring to pay their taxes, and the tax official who turns out to be a brilliant general. (Supply lines: he can handle them.) Then there's the neat melding of the influences of wuxia and the Ancient Greek epics with the gods popping in and out of the narrative to meddle. And there's the airships and the giant war-whale submarines. How can you not love war-whale submarines?
I appreciate how well the book sets you up to want to root for and against multiple sides simultaneously (or at least gives you a choice of which you prefer). You really get to see how the different kingdoms might be better off in some ways with their autonomy restored, but then you also see how true it is that they'll just go back to endlessly fighting each other without a central authority. You get people trying to do what they think is right, or at least trying to choose the lesser evil, in all camps. You get Mata's legendary courage and battle prowess and utterly obtuse, black-and-white thinking, and Kuni's cleverness and, er, opportunistic and hedonistic tendencies.
It is unfortunate that the female characters can keep protesting that they're being sidelined even though they could contribute more, only for the narrative to keep on sidelining them instead of figuring out how they can be major players. Though Gin Matiza makes up for some of this. Maybe by the sequel, there won't just be one high-ranking woman who actually gets to run things, and the army's ladies auxiliary will have evolved into something less auxiliary.
The Book of Phoenix / Nnedi Okorafor
Blurb here
I thought the beginning was a little rushed--I never got a feel for what Phoenix's life was like in Tower 7, or much of her relationships with the other characters there, necessitating flashback exposition to tell you who this guy is who can walk through walls. But once the story got going, wow. So much intense and amazingly imaginative stuff going on. Everything from the amazing two-mile-high magical tree that starts taking over its corner of New York to Phoenix freeing cyborgs and other experiments who start rebellions to the small moments of kindness Phoenix receives from strangers who give her food and shelter gets woven into this story-web on love, cruelty, suffering, and justice and vengeance. There are nods to some of Okorafor's other stories with the Anansi robot spider soldiers and the winged man (who I'm pretty sure came out of Akata Witch), and the book is also a prequel to the brutally powerful Who Fears Death.
Which the ending of this book segues into very well. I know Phoenix warns readers several times that she is also a villain of the story, but holy shit. If you want an uplifting ending where all the rebellions succeed in a short time with minimal bloodshed and society becomes kinder and gentler and stopped turning people into scientific experiments by next Tuesday, this is not the book for you. Okorafor doesn't pull punches when it comes to how bad things can get and damaged people making tough choices, and doesn't downplay the anger of the characters who have been oppressed and hurt and murdered. Then the reader stand-in from the frame narrative then throws in his own sexist interpretation of Phoenix's actions and misses almost all of the points, just to really rip your guts out.
But if you're up for that, check out this book.
Updraft / Fran Wilde
Blurb here
The fluffiest of the lot. Which is an odd thing to say when the setting includes near-invisible monsters called skymouths which regularly swoop in unseen and chomp people to death, but it's true. Kirit is a plucky teenager with lots of grit and an unexpected (limited, highly specific) magic power. The secretive Singers who enforce the city's laws are clearly Hiding Things and Up To No Good. Kirit levels up suspiciously fast so she can stand a fighting chance against her new classmates. There's lots of adventure and intrigue and secrets being revealed. It's not as meaty as some of the other books, but it is good fun.
I am impressed by Wilde's restraint. We learn some terrible secrets, but others are left unexplored. What terrible events led to Kirit's people fleeing ever upward into these bone towers? And where did these constantly-growing bone towers come from? It doesn't feel unresolved--we learn everything important for this particular story, and those older mysteries aren't relevant in any pressing way, so we can just enjoy the eerie setting. But there's plenty of room for sequels to delve (pun intended) into them.
I try not to spoil anything too thoroughly, but there are some hints. Especially for The Book of Phoenix.
Court of Fives / Kate Elliott
Blurb here
It feels odd to say a book is both delightful and bone-chillingly creepy, but there you are. It starts with Jessamy's normal, everyday problem of plotting how to escape the house yet again to secretly compete in a major athletic competition--which she can't allow herself to win, because they she'd have to unmask and this would be Very Bad for her family's reputation. Then the stakes get raised, and raised again, and soon she's competing to keep her family safe from the cruel lord who's suddenly gained the power of life and death over them all. Except if she wins, her friend Kal's life will be ruined. Oh, and that promise of safety for her family? Turns out cruel lords aren't trustworthy and holy shit this just took a turn into Edgar Allan Poe territory this is awesome.
Then there's the literally buried history, and her little sister Amaya's secret, and... look, just check it out already, okay?
Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
Blurb here
And again with the mix of delightful and creepy, starting with the first story, "The Easthound." A band of children play a story game to distract themselves from their horrifying reality: every adult in the world has permanently werewolfed out. And as soon as you grow too much, the change comes for you, too... The story packs a ton into a small space, including powerful relationships between the characters, especially narrator Milly and her just-slightly-older twin sister.
Then there's the Caliban and Ariel story, the alternate history where a Maroon quilombo survives with some magic assistance (at a price), the one about the girl and the cherry tree and dryads and hooded cobras and really awkward high school parties and ladies and tigers...
I won't recap every story in the collection, but it's a great mix of lighter, funnier pieces and darker-edged ones, most featuring Caribbean or Caribbean diaspora characters. Recommended!
The Grace of Kings / Ken Liu
Blurb here
Besides translating the Hugo-winning The Three-Body Problem, Liu has also written a massive epic fantasy novel, and I am jealous of how much energy and focus he must have to get all that done.
Besides the epic epicness of the story, what with all the empires rising and falling and rising anew, the little details in this book are unexpected and fun. Some are based on the nuts-and-bolts administrative concerns that so often get overlooked, like Kuni's clever lottery scheme to get people clamoring to pay their taxes, and the tax official who turns out to be a brilliant general. (Supply lines: he can handle them.) Then there's the neat melding of the influences of wuxia and the Ancient Greek epics with the gods popping in and out of the narrative to meddle. And there's the airships and the giant war-whale submarines. How can you not love war-whale submarines?
I appreciate how well the book sets you up to want to root for and against multiple sides simultaneously (or at least gives you a choice of which you prefer). You really get to see how the different kingdoms might be better off in some ways with their autonomy restored, but then you also see how true it is that they'll just go back to endlessly fighting each other without a central authority. You get people trying to do what they think is right, or at least trying to choose the lesser evil, in all camps. You get Mata's legendary courage and battle prowess and utterly obtuse, black-and-white thinking, and Kuni's cleverness and, er, opportunistic and hedonistic tendencies.
It is unfortunate that the female characters can keep protesting that they're being sidelined even though they could contribute more, only for the narrative to keep on sidelining them instead of figuring out how they can be major players. Though Gin Matiza makes up for some of this. Maybe by the sequel, there won't just be one high-ranking woman who actually gets to run things, and the army's ladies auxiliary will have evolved into something less auxiliary.
The Book of Phoenix / Nnedi Okorafor
Blurb here
I thought the beginning was a little rushed--I never got a feel for what Phoenix's life was like in Tower 7, or much of her relationships with the other characters there, necessitating flashback exposition to tell you who this guy is who can walk through walls. But once the story got going, wow. So much intense and amazingly imaginative stuff going on. Everything from the amazing two-mile-high magical tree that starts taking over its corner of New York to Phoenix freeing cyborgs and other experiments who start rebellions to the small moments of kindness Phoenix receives from strangers who give her food and shelter gets woven into this story-web on love, cruelty, suffering, and justice and vengeance. There are nods to some of Okorafor's other stories with the Anansi robot spider soldiers and the winged man (who I'm pretty sure came out of Akata Witch), and the book is also a prequel to the brutally powerful Who Fears Death.
Which the ending of this book segues into very well. I know Phoenix warns readers several times that she is also a villain of the story, but holy shit. If you want an uplifting ending where all the rebellions succeed in a short time with minimal bloodshed and society becomes kinder and gentler and stopped turning people into scientific experiments by next Tuesday, this is not the book for you. Okorafor doesn't pull punches when it comes to how bad things can get and damaged people making tough choices, and doesn't downplay the anger of the characters who have been oppressed and hurt and murdered. Then the reader stand-in from the frame narrative then throws in his own sexist interpretation of Phoenix's actions and misses almost all of the points, just to really rip your guts out.
But if you're up for that, check out this book.
Updraft / Fran Wilde
Blurb here
The fluffiest of the lot. Which is an odd thing to say when the setting includes near-invisible monsters called skymouths which regularly swoop in unseen and chomp people to death, but it's true. Kirit is a plucky teenager with lots of grit and an unexpected (limited, highly specific) magic power. The secretive Singers who enforce the city's laws are clearly Hiding Things and Up To No Good. Kirit levels up suspiciously fast so she can stand a fighting chance against her new classmates. There's lots of adventure and intrigue and secrets being revealed. It's not as meaty as some of the other books, but it is good fun.
I am impressed by Wilde's restraint. We learn some terrible secrets, but others are left unexplored. What terrible events led to Kirit's people fleeing ever upward into these bone towers? And where did these constantly-growing bone towers come from? It doesn't feel unresolved--we learn everything important for this particular story, and those older mysteries aren't relevant in any pressing way, so we can just enjoy the eerie setting. But there's plenty of room for sequels to delve (pun intended) into them.