50byPOC: Numbers 4 & 5: The Intuitionist & Zarah the Windseeker
I am behind on my reviews, not least because Palimpsest is out and I promised the wonderful yuki_onna that I'd read and review it before my copy got here if she'd give me an ARC. She did, and then my laptop charger shorted out a-fucking-gain, and meanwhile I am super behind on my reviews, so this is a double 50books_poc review to get me caught up so I can finish Palimpsest tomorrow after I get done with the heaping pile of actual paid work I have to do. :D I have had both these books read for weeks; I just haven't had time to review them. Real life needs to wait its turn, yes?
First up is The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead.
Y'all, I loved this book. I loved this book so damn hard I am having trouble reviewing it. I'm not sure what I can tell you about it that wouldn't spoil the story, either: all the positive reviews that led me to pick it up didn't give anything away, so I guess I'll endeavor to do the same.
What did I like about it? I liked what I perceived as similarities with some of Gibson's less out-there work, how I was never quite sure if I was in my universe's New York or one that was similar but not the same - what do I know from elevator inspection? I liked how, given that, I had trouble placing it within a particular period, because I like things like that. I like Lila Mae. I like her strength and resolve and unwillingness to take a fall. I liked the mystery, which was compounded by the way the book spent almost zero time explaining technical things that its characters would already know. I liked the way the author uses language. I like how the exchanges between Pompey and Lila Mae tell two very different stories, by the time they get around to speaking face to face; I liked seeing this character I loved still be wrong about something. I liked the new (to me, for all I know someone else has used this variation and I'm just ignorant) twist on the old "dress up like service staff to get into the Main Event" trope.
But I can't tell you very much about this book without spoiling the mystery. I can recommend it wholeheartedly, and I can tell you I'm already loaning it out a mere three weeks after I read it. But for once "extensive quoting" is not the order of the day. Just read the damn book, it's awesome.
Next up is Zahrah the Windseeker, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu.
I'm not surprised that all the books thus far that I've read off the DarkFantasy.Org POC in SF/F roundtable list have been friggin' great, because really, why wouldn't they be? But this book was outstanding YA, and as you may or may not know, I love YA like cake and pie and bacon. If this book had been available to me when I was in its grade range, I would have taken it out of the library and paid many, many fines. And now that I look at it on Amazon, I see that an illustrated edition has been released. ZOMG! WANT.
The Ooni people live in only a small kingdom surrounded by the Great Forbidden Greeny Jungle. Among them, people are occasionally born with dadalocks - dreads in which living vines grow. Dada people are considered both wise and unlucky, and Zahrah takes a lot of guff from people who mock her dada hair and tell her to get away before she infects them with her bad luck. Her parents and elders, however, tell her not to worry about it...which is fine, until Zahrah and her friend Dani discover that as part of her dada gift she can fly! Which is amazing, except Zarah is afraid of heights...and gets nervous when she has to visit the fifth floor of the library to research "Windseekers". (As a person whose fear of heights seems to have lessened somewhat with age, I felt for Zahrah when she had to do that...the second floor of the college library used to give me fits if I looked over the railing.)
Dari is obsessed with the Great Greeny Jungle and convinces Zahrah to break the rules and go exploring with him, as well as using the cover of the jungle to practice her new ability. When he is bitten by a war snake, the only known cure turns out to be the unfertilized egg of an elgort - a fierce and mysterious creature that lives deep within the jungle. Zahrah, this being a YA novel and all, of course sets off to find one, and learns lots of Important Lessons about Herself along the way.
I loved this book. I loved its world building, the idea of an entire civilization centered around amazing plant life (although I must admit that my adult brain balked a bit at computer plants, although not at talking toads. Weird). I liked Zahrah as a character: the part of me that remembers being twelve found a lot in common with her. I wish we had seen more of the reaction of the other children to finding out that Dari and Zahrah were friends, and was a little irritated when the "you're my friend, but I don't tell your tormenters that" popular-boy trope reared its head. I like the dada woman in the Dark Market and her idiok. I really loved the planet Ginen and hope that, as one review suggests ,there might be more tales of the Ooni Kingdom, YA or not, in the future. I do plan on picking up The Shadow Speaker, which according to the author is not a continuation of Zarah's tale. I wish I knew more about Nigerian folklore, from which this story apparently took some of its basis; the only reference I caught was the absolutely hilarious throwaway reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the reference to Ile-Ife. To be frank, I liked reading a book that made it clear from the outset that this was not a white-default universe; I think I would have picked it up about as quickly at twelve as I did now, and for all that booksellers seem to think so, I don't think it would have put me off reading it.
This book is good. Read it, love it, recommend it to people, particularly people with kids the right age. This book is absolutely delightful for anyone, as far as I'm concerned. People with no particular fondness for YA may not be able to overlook the admittedly formulaic elements in favor of the sweet world-building, but they should at least give it a shot. ;D
bell hooks is still missing, but I expect Feminism is for Everybody to show up at some point during the great Packing and Sorting of the Books that's currently underway. Next up on the list we have a Virginia Hamilton twofer, but I may just read my purchased-and-immediately-lost copy of Nikki Giovanni's Sacred Cows...And Other Edibles first, not least because I bet you thegreenyear would like to borrow it when I get to Memphis for the train journey. :D Be back soon. With Palimpsest review, no less.
First up is The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead.
Y'all, I loved this book. I loved this book so damn hard I am having trouble reviewing it. I'm not sure what I can tell you about it that wouldn't spoil the story, either: all the positive reviews that led me to pick it up didn't give anything away, so I guess I'll endeavor to do the same.
What did I like about it? I liked what I perceived as similarities with some of Gibson's less out-there work, how I was never quite sure if I was in my universe's New York or one that was similar but not the same - what do I know from elevator inspection? I liked how, given that, I had trouble placing it within a particular period, because I like things like that. I like Lila Mae. I like her strength and resolve and unwillingness to take a fall. I liked the mystery, which was compounded by the way the book spent almost zero time explaining technical things that its characters would already know. I liked the way the author uses language. I like how the exchanges between Pompey and Lila Mae tell two very different stories, by the time they get around to speaking face to face; I liked seeing this character I loved still be wrong about something. I liked the new (to me, for all I know someone else has used this variation and I'm just ignorant) twist on the old "dress up like service staff to get into the Main Event" trope.
But I can't tell you very much about this book without spoiling the mystery. I can recommend it wholeheartedly, and I can tell you I'm already loaning it out a mere three weeks after I read it. But for once "extensive quoting" is not the order of the day. Just read the damn book, it's awesome.
Next up is Zahrah the Windseeker, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu.
I'm not surprised that all the books thus far that I've read off the DarkFantasy.Org POC in SF/F roundtable list have been friggin' great, because really, why wouldn't they be? But this book was outstanding YA, and as you may or may not know, I love YA like cake and pie and bacon. If this book had been available to me when I was in its grade range, I would have taken it out of the library and paid many, many fines. And now that I look at it on Amazon, I see that an illustrated edition has been released. ZOMG! WANT.
The Ooni people live in only a small kingdom surrounded by the Great Forbidden Greeny Jungle. Among them, people are occasionally born with dadalocks - dreads in which living vines grow. Dada people are considered both wise and unlucky, and Zahrah takes a lot of guff from people who mock her dada hair and tell her to get away before she infects them with her bad luck. Her parents and elders, however, tell her not to worry about it...which is fine, until Zahrah and her friend Dani discover that as part of her dada gift she can fly! Which is amazing, except Zarah is afraid of heights...and gets nervous when she has to visit the fifth floor of the library to research "Windseekers". (As a person whose fear of heights seems to have lessened somewhat with age, I felt for Zahrah when she had to do that...the second floor of the college library used to give me fits if I looked over the railing.)
Dari is obsessed with the Great Greeny Jungle and convinces Zahrah to break the rules and go exploring with him, as well as using the cover of the jungle to practice her new ability. When he is bitten by a war snake, the only known cure turns out to be the unfertilized egg of an elgort - a fierce and mysterious creature that lives deep within the jungle. Zahrah, this being a YA novel and all, of course sets off to find one, and learns lots of Important Lessons about Herself along the way.
I loved this book. I loved its world building, the idea of an entire civilization centered around amazing plant life (although I must admit that my adult brain balked a bit at computer plants, although not at talking toads. Weird). I liked Zahrah as a character: the part of me that remembers being twelve found a lot in common with her. I wish we had seen more of the reaction of the other children to finding out that Dari and Zahrah were friends, and was a little irritated when the "you're my friend, but I don't tell your tormenters that" popular-boy trope reared its head. I like the dada woman in the Dark Market and her idiok. I really loved the planet Ginen and hope that, as one review suggests ,there might be more tales of the Ooni Kingdom, YA or not, in the future. I do plan on picking up The Shadow Speaker, which according to the author is not a continuation of Zarah's tale. I wish I knew more about Nigerian folklore, from which this story apparently took some of its basis; the only reference I caught was the absolutely hilarious throwaway reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the reference to Ile-Ife. To be frank, I liked reading a book that made it clear from the outset that this was not a white-default universe; I think I would have picked it up about as quickly at twelve as I did now, and for all that booksellers seem to think so, I don't think it would have put me off reading it.
This book is good. Read it, love it, recommend it to people, particularly people with kids the right age. This book is absolutely delightful for anyone, as far as I'm concerned. People with no particular fondness for YA may not be able to overlook the admittedly formulaic elements in favor of the sweet world-building, but they should at least give it a shot. ;D
bell hooks is still missing, but I expect Feminism is for Everybody to show up at some point during the great Packing and Sorting of the Books that's currently underway. Next up on the list we have a Virginia Hamilton twofer, but I may just read my purchased-and-immediately-lost copy of Nikki Giovanni's Sacred Cows...And Other Edibles first, not least because I bet you thegreenyear would like to borrow it when I get to Memphis for the train journey. :D Be back soon. With Palimpsest review, no less.