Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear (2005)
This is the first one of Bear's books that I've read, and I found it to be a solidly enjoyable. Large cast, but not hard to keep straight, and enough twists and turns in the plot that things never flagged.
I realize it's not original, but I was very enamored of the chapter timestamps/location indicators. They made me happy. They're probably also part of the reason why I didn't have any trouble keeping track of everyone and everything going on.
Most interesting for me was that the characterization seemed to function more on the level of dyads than individuals. Characters were fascinating and dynamic when interacting with each other, but weirdly flat when operating solo. When alone, they meditated on the present or the past, but had no major realizations or moments of change - those almost always came during interactions with others. It felt a bit like those 3-D glasses where not much was going on if you only looked through the red lens or the blue lens, but if you had both at the same time then everything leaped out toward you. When two people were on the page together, things were always exciting.
I'm thinking here of The Beautiful and Damned by Fitzgerald, which I recently finished, because his characters, in meditation, often reveal a tremendous amount about themselves. And I have a gut feeling that most books are built by spring-loading the characters when they're alone - elaborating their depths and passions in solitude - and then letting the previously illuminated facets interact when the characters ran at each other for scene and book climaxes. But Hammered packed both the elaborations and the explosions into the character interactions, which meant that the times when the characters were alone were rests, both literally and in terms of characterization. They felt most alive when they were with other people.
And the ending line was very Jenny.
I liked that it was open to nonstandard relationships, though there was kind of a coyness to the reveal with Elspeth and Gabe that irritated me. Maybe it's just because I know enough people whose relationships are nonstandard that when she went for the "we could just casually sleep with each other some" option the emphasis on the leadup seemed a little voyeuristic to me - I could almost here the drumroll go ba-dump in the background when she popped the question to Gabe.
Cool, however, that it was there at all.
Also, go go brief moment of lesbianism! Intended to distract the cameras, I know, but it distracted me as well!
Interesting that Elspeth is the vector for both those moments.
I did like the wroughtness (as I believe Bear called it) of Jenny Casey and Gabe's relationship. They're one of the few relationships in a novel that I was actually more than academically interested in seeing come off well, and I'm glad they did. Though all the French was irritating. I'm usually stubborn enough to grab a dictionary and figure shit out, but I was tired and also had a hunch a lot of it might not be in standard dictionaries. Nabokov pisses me off whenever he pulls that stuff, too.
Other bits:
I am hoping there's a little bit more on Barb and Nell in the second and third books - because right now Barb's just a psychopath who's really in to throwing people off boats.
Fitting, though, that she dies in water.
Nonetheless, I was all ready for a deep and - hm. A deep and wrought history between them. And it kind of comes down to, no, Barb's just a serial boat-thrower kinda gal. I wonder if the wroughtness in Bear's books only happens in romantic love relationships, and not family or friends or other deep links between people? Will have to see.
And the people who I was happiest to see whenever they appeared on-page? The Feynman AI and Elspeth.
Looking forward to the rest of the books in the set. Which I'll have to get my hands on soon. I think I'm going on a paperback binge, after a long, long foray into tpbs.
In the meantime, I'm pissed that none of my local stores have Justine Larbalestier's Magic and Madness trilogy, about which I have heard many good things. I mean, c'mon!
Asses.
I realize it's not original, but I was very enamored of the chapter timestamps/location indicators. They made me happy. They're probably also part of the reason why I didn't have any trouble keeping track of everyone and everything going on.
Most interesting for me was that the characterization seemed to function more on the level of dyads than individuals. Characters were fascinating and dynamic when interacting with each other, but weirdly flat when operating solo. When alone, they meditated on the present or the past, but had no major realizations or moments of change - those almost always came during interactions with others. It felt a bit like those 3-D glasses where not much was going on if you only looked through the red lens or the blue lens, but if you had both at the same time then everything leaped out toward you. When two people were on the page together, things were always exciting.
I'm thinking here of The Beautiful and Damned by Fitzgerald, which I recently finished, because his characters, in meditation, often reveal a tremendous amount about themselves. And I have a gut feeling that most books are built by spring-loading the characters when they're alone - elaborating their depths and passions in solitude - and then letting the previously illuminated facets interact when the characters ran at each other for scene and book climaxes. But Hammered packed both the elaborations and the explosions into the character interactions, which meant that the times when the characters were alone were rests, both literally and in terms of characterization. They felt most alive when they were with other people.
And the ending line was very Jenny.
I liked that it was open to nonstandard relationships, though there was kind of a coyness to the reveal with Elspeth and Gabe that irritated me. Maybe it's just because I know enough people whose relationships are nonstandard that when she went for the "we could just casually sleep with each other some" option the emphasis on the leadup seemed a little voyeuristic to me - I could almost here the drumroll go ba-dump in the background when she popped the question to Gabe.
Cool, however, that it was there at all.
Also, go go brief moment of lesbianism! Intended to distract the cameras, I know, but it distracted me as well!
Interesting that Elspeth is the vector for both those moments.
I did like the wroughtness (as I believe Bear called it) of Jenny Casey and Gabe's relationship. They're one of the few relationships in a novel that I was actually more than academically interested in seeing come off well, and I'm glad they did. Though all the French was irritating. I'm usually stubborn enough to grab a dictionary and figure shit out, but I was tired and also had a hunch a lot of it might not be in standard dictionaries. Nabokov pisses me off whenever he pulls that stuff, too.
Other bits:
I am hoping there's a little bit more on Barb and Nell in the second and third books - because right now Barb's just a psychopath who's really in to throwing people off boats.
Fitting, though, that she dies in water.
Nonetheless, I was all ready for a deep and - hm. A deep and wrought history between them. And it kind of comes down to, no, Barb's just a serial boat-thrower kinda gal. I wonder if the wroughtness in Bear's books only happens in romantic love relationships, and not family or friends or other deep links between people? Will have to see.
And the people who I was happiest to see whenever they appeared on-page? The Feynman AI and Elspeth.
Looking forward to the rest of the books in the set. Which I'll have to get my hands on soon. I think I'm going on a paperback binge, after a long, long foray into tpbs.
In the meantime, I'm pissed that none of my local stores have Justine Larbalestier's Magic and Madness trilogy, about which I have heard many good things. I mean, c'mon!
Asses.