What we're reading, the SFF edition

Yesterday I finished “Imprudence” by Gail Carriger, the second Custard Protocol book. Another fun read! A little more action and romance this time, and more about the world.

Brightdreamer said:

The Ruin of Kings

I just felt exhausted by the end.

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Me, also. There was a lot going on in this book. I also felt like there were some inconsistencies with the mimic's POVs - experiences she shouldn't have had. But I was so tangled up I couldn't parse it out.

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan: I've put these off for a long time, as a reader I trust does not speak highly of them. After installment one, I liked it well enough to continue.

The Queen of Sorrow (The Queens of Renthia #3) by Sarah Beth Durst: The writing in this 3rd and final installment was consistent, but I was disappointed by how the story concluded. It just kind of flopped over and resolved itself in an acceptable, but mediocre, finish.

The Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, and Lady of the Lake (Witcher #2, 3, & 4) by Andrzej Sapkowski, translated by David French: I don't think I fully understand what happened at the end of this series. Anyway, this author does the best job of any series I've read of writing a midway book in a series that doesn't seem to advance the plot one bit, but is very entertaining. I've never played the video game, and have yet to meet a person who has, but I'd like to discuss how they are similar/different. Also, if I never see the word 'contempt' in a book again, I'll be happy.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Monero-Garcia: This is a lovely Mexican fairy tale set in the early nineteenth century. It's also a one-off. I enjoy fairy tales, and this was unique.

The Stiehl Assassin (The Fall of Shannara #3) by Terry Brooks: As formulaic as he makes these books, I still enjoy them.

Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) by Rebecca Roanhoarse: This was much better than book 1. I need to look into these books - I'm ashamed to say that I'm not sure if the foundations of these stories are rooted in Native American culture and beliefs or if she made it up, or both and.

The Blood Mirror (The Lightbringer #4) by Brent Weeks: This author is particularly good at beating the heck out of his characters to the point where you can't imagine they'll survive the hardship, if you ever need inspiration.

Skyward (Skyward #1) by Brandon Sanderson: This was an interesting change in what I've come to expect from the author. Told in first person, he did well moving this story along in YA fashion.

First Test, Page, and Squire (Protector of the Small #1, 2, & 3) by Tamora Pierce: I like these better than the Alana series. I think I missed a story in between the two, though. There are definitely some references I'm not understanding.

The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern #1) by Shannon Hale: This was a delightful fairy tale based on a Grimm tale.

I read a few YA books that I'm not even going to mention, reinforcing, yet again, that I need to stay away from those. I try to give them a chance, but it's frustrating. One snuck up on me and got really rapey, and I avoid those if at all possible.

Yesterday I finished The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss, the third book in her Athena Club trilogy. I really enjoyed the book! The characters were as interesting as they had been. The plot moved along quite quickly. There were even some new references to Victorian fiction. It was such a fun read.

Does anyone have any last-couple-years suggestion for books like the Island of Dr. Moreau, ideally fantasy genre? I'm doing something in that vein, but on the scale of the Roman republic, and my efforts to research similar books to read haven't really born fruit.

Not reading fantasy at the moment. I'm slogging my way through The Gulag Archipelago, halfway through the second volume and it is depressing as hell.

I just finished "Interview with a Vampire." Great read, though I feel like I missed the point of the ending. Next will be non-fiction, which I haven't read in ages, but my book club wanted to switch things up. I'm hoping I can find a decent historical topic that might help me with some world building.

"Yesterday I finished The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss, the third book in her Athena Club trilogy. I really enjoyed the book! The characters were as interesting as they had been. The plot moved along quite quickly. There were even some new references to Victorian fiction. It was such a fun read."

These were very enjoyable. I particularly like the the in-universe comments from the characters sprinkled throughout.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown--At first, I was annoyed by another formulaic hero narrative. The way he gets his plot going--intentional martyrdom by protagonist's wife--is pretty extreme. Not as emotionally loud as the child murder that starts Fifth Season, say, but something that screams "look at me and my traumatic origin story." The next section of character learning a new role and being made over into a superhero was also vapid and familiar. Class warfare must really strike a deep chord for many readers because so many writers exploit this theme with no subtlety. Brown makes some effort to explain a la Gramsci why the bottom of the hierarchy accepts its role, for which I give him props. Or maybe he's more of an Althusser fan. Not sure.

I nearly didn't finish the book when it turned into Hunger Games on Mars. But then the story found a deeper current in its retelling of Plato's Republic and I found myself engaged by its philosophical and moral reflections on governance and social development. I'm still annoyed by the formulaic trappings, but that doesn't keep me from admiring a book that is attempting to say something more profound about the human condition.

I belong to a site called Hidden Gems - where I can read ARC's and leave reviews on Amazon. I'm starting a new one tonight call "Rabbit Heart".

Part of the blurb:
Rachel’s parents, Linda and Marcus, have their hobbies: reading Shakespeare, crocheting blankets, and killing people who trespass near their cabin in the North Georgia woods.

Being adopted by killers with a taste for cannibalism shouldn’t be the highlight of Rachel’s life, but for her, it’s a chance to heal and find the love she’s desperately craved. No one has empathized with her more than Linda and Marcus. After losing her biological parents when she was a child and enduring neglect and abuse, Rachel has a family again, and her new parents will go to extreme measures to protect her.

It sounds interesting.

My God. This is YA?

Cobalt Jade said:

My God. This is YA?

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The FMC is young - but I wouldn't consider this novel to be suitable of young readers.

I'm not far enough into the story to be certain, but it seems she's suffered some abuse and her parents were murdered.

I've just downloaded Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones and will start it this evening.

Finally re-reading Malazan Book of the Fallen. Almost done with Memories of Ice. I want to read them all in a row. The first time I read them interspersed with other books over a couple year period and forgot lots of little details along the way. Picking up much more this time.

Yesterday I finished “Competence” by Gail Carriger, the third Custard Protocol book. What a delightful read! It had laugh-out-loud moments and good character bits. It also ramped up the cast diversity. I plan to start on the fourth book soon.

Just finished Neverness by David Zindell, which I had posted about starting a reread something like eight months ago (or more, idk). Gonna talk about it at some length here because, wow, it turned out to be one of my favorite books ever. I liked it a lot when I originally read it but on rereading I'm even more impressed.

Written in the late 80's, the book owes a lot to Dune and has a strong resemblance to both Book of the New Sun and the Hyperions Cantos as well, though very much it's own thing. Like Dune, it features a far-future setting with a censure on technology, hyper-specialized scientific occupations organized like mystery cults, and FTL based on bending space through the amazing power of maaaaaath.

The FTL is by far my favorite system I've seen used. It's not really well explained, ships have 'spacetime engines' that open windows into hyperspaces, and pilots travel to their destination by solving mathematical proofs. I break out in hives even hearing about math, but the way Zindell writes it it manages to be very exciting and credible despite the high amounts of handwavium powering the whole deal. Pilots are chosen for their mathematical ability, with the MC Mallory being implied to be one of the greatest mathematicians within the order. Unlike Paul Atreides though, he not implied to be superhuman or the product of some eugenic experiment to create a god-being; that sorta happens over the course of the book, but we'll come to that.

The book is broken into a number of different parts, and mostly deals with Mallory's rise though the order, his acrimonious relationship with Soli, the head of the pilot's order, and his quest to discover why the stars are exploding. Besides space, where some journeys and battle take place, most of the story takes place in the city of Neverness where the Order is located, or out in the planet's frozen wilderness where, for reasons, the characters have to go live among a group of neanderthal. This middle portions of the book, despite being a huge genre shift and extremely slow-moving, ends up being one of the best parts of the book. Zindell clearly wants us to jive on the natural life-style of these hippy cave people, and there's a strong transcendental streak running through it, but he doesn't over-romanticize the nasty brutality of life so close to nature.

Mallory himself is a great character, not at all a bland godling but rather a young, bratty, and hot-headed, constantly making suck decisions and paying for them. You kind of love and hate him, but he feels real. Other characters are a little less so, with the exception of Soli, who's Mallory's archrival and has pretty much the exact same personality. For reasons. The women characters...eh. There's Katharine, Mallory's cousin and main squeeze (ugh), who's magic and mystical before being fridged in a gruesome manner. There's also Mallory's mother, who's kind of interesting but not likable at all, and to her credit has the best line in the book.

“It’s the nature of my manipulation,” she said, “that to inform him he’s being manipulated will only work to manipulate him into believing he can manipulate the manipulation by manipulating me into believing I’m manipulating him. It’s a complicated thing.”

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So yeah, overall some problems, but this books is dope AF. Maybe not for everyone, but quite the experience. Zindell is extremely philosophical and there are loooooong passages filled with Mallory's musing, they run on. But man can Zindell write. There's a trilogy that follows this, I read the second one and really liked it so I'm looking forward to going back and doing the whole thing.

I just started reading "Furies of Calderon," Book #1 of Codex Aleara. The speech is a wee anachronistic at times, but I like the Roman flavor of the world. Props to Tavi for actually fighting to defend his uncle rather than letting the beast kill him. I like a plucky teen character who at least has some guts.

Last night I finished book 4 of Gail Carriger’s Custard Protocol series, “Reticence.” Quite witty and great fun! There was world-building right up to the end. It featured a rather awkward romance between Victorian geeks. Also got into the head of one of the Custard’s crew. Also action and a wedding full of cameos to start the book.

The Broken God by David Zindell. The sequel to Neverness, or actually the start of a new series Neverness was the prequel to. The book ends up being much more of a ponderous slog, endlessly mired in philosophical digressions and held back by the issues with the MC. I still kind of love it, but there's a frustration factor baked in that you just have to deal with.

The books follow Danlo, son of the last book's MC, from his childhood as an innocent neaderthal through his education in the Order of Pilots and his eventual falling out with his friend's creepy cult before journey outwards on a spacequest.

The setting is the most interesting part, a frozen, ancient city that serves as humanity's informal capital and is run by an quasi-religious order of scientists (I was reminded of the Maths from Anathem, but also Dune obviously). Every detail Zindell drip-feeds us is incredibly interesting, and it all has a lived-in quality as opposed to being overly construct. The tech is aaaaaawwwweeesomee and his jargonese reminds me of someone like Vernor Vinge where it always feels credible and meticulous but is described through the experience of the character, the sense of using it, the design and look, etc. Peppered through are constant descriptions of the city of Neverness itself, and he never fails to evoke a complex, lived in setting. The city is grim and ancient, yet filled with spots of joy and gaiety. Besides the techno-religious order that runs the place, there are groups like harjan, wormrunners, slel-neckers, astriers, and more, and that's before we get to the aliens.

The big problem for me was Danlo himself. He's just kinda, well, there's a term for characters like this but I swore I was gonna stop using. So let's just say that he's the most awesome guy ever. How awesome?

-Danlo is so awesome that he wears an owl feather in his hair, to show his connection with his people's most hardcore and badass spirit animal.

-Danlo is good at everything, but also everyone likes him and he has a perfect eidetic memory and is good at hockey and Kundalini yoga. In fact, when he has sex with a beautiful women who happens to be skilled in tantric sex, she makes a point to comment that he has mystical sex powers.

-Danlo plays a flute, and practices the art of nonviolence and veganism. Did I mention how good at tantric sex he is?

It's really frustrating. The hero of the previous book, Mallory, was an impulsive jerkass who was constantly making mistakes, and that made him interesting. Danlo has his charm, but ends up being a bland übermensch shaped by his caveman hippy upbringing. A lot of the book deals with his relationship with his friend Hanuman, who's a tormented, Steerpike like character. Hanuman kinda sucks, but you like him just for being the person who has to seethe in Danlo's shadow all the time.

So I dunno. On top of all that Zindell gets incredibly philosophical, and it's something you just have to suffer through. I would say Zindell's outlook is decidedly transcendentalist. There are strains of Ken Wilbur's Intregalism, as well as tons of Eastern philosophy and some New Age stuff thrown in. I get the strong impression he respects science, there's no real magic or 'quantum force' thing happen and he seems not to want to break the laws of physics beyond what is necessary. So I appreciate that. Part of me worries that the series is going to end with Danlo discovering that 'Love is the Most Powerful Particle in the Universe', but we'll get there.

So on to The Wild, where Danlo travels to space. I remember reading it before and being really impressed, besides Danlo continuing to be annoying.

Is anyone reading any SFF in the MG category at the moment? Anything good been published recently? Would be a major bonus if they had some humor ala early Rick Riordan. Would love to get my hands on something that doesn't take itself so seriously.

kujo_jotaro said:

Is anyone reading any SFF in the MG category at the moment? Anything good been published recently? Would be a major bonus if they had some humor ala early Rick Riordan. Would love to get my hands on something that doesn't take itself so seriously.

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True Meaning of Smekday! Ask me the five books every SF fan should read and that would probably be on the list. Also check out Last Days of Mars
by Kevin Emerson.

Just finished The Wild by David Zindell. That's right, I going to do all of these because I Have Thoughts. I really, really, really like this series and think it's absolutely groundbreaking, but it's soooo bogged down by the same issues that made the last one so hard to get through. Zindell is intensely philosophical and mystical, and the the whole book (and series in general) is broken up by ginormous blocks of philosophical and mystical speculation. It's punishing, and very YMMV if you're gonna agree with him or not, but I kinda feel like books like this should contain blocks of philosophical claptrap. The humanism and intelligence he brings to these passages are at least worth appreciating. The other problem, which is the big one, continues to be Danlo, who's constant messianic perfectness continues to be grating. It constantly veers into parody, and I get the feeling Zindell worries his whole thesis would collapse if he ever allows Danlo to be anything other than the best guy ever.

Other than that, the book is an awesomesauce space journey with some of the best SF writing I've ever. Zindell excels at describing cosmic landscape and the trippy math hyperspace (that we get tons of) is as fun as ever. We also learn more about two elements of the setting previously in the background, the mysterious AI gods existing at the fringes Civilized Space, and the Architects, a techno-church responsible for blowing up half the galaxy. The worldbuilding goes hella deep and it's got to be one of my favorite settings, but Zindell never gets lost in infodumps and dull minutiae, instead he stringing along small details that are endlessly fascinating. Danlon spends a lot of time in space, all of which is excellent, hangs out with a sexy goddess for much too long, explores the intricacies of the Architects' techno-religion (which is fascinating, and Zindell is generally respectful towards religion, if making it totally clear he really, really, really hates fundamentalists), and generally hangs out passing tests to show how perfect he is. So I dunno, the things Zindell does well he does better than just about anybody, there's so much craft and intelligence and awesomeness, but it's still challenging in ways that it shouldn't be.

Taylor Harbin said:

I just started reading "Furies of Calderon," Book #1 of Codex Aleara. The speech is a wee anachronistic at times, but I like the Roman flavor of the world. Props to Tavi for actually fighting to defend his uncle rather than letting the beast kill him. I like a plucky teen character who at least has some guts.

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Tavi is an excellent character. Have you read the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks? If not, you'd probably like it a lot.

I finished Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series with Lady Knight. I also read the duology Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, which are hands down my favorite books in all of those written about Tortall that I've read so far.

I continued on with The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, books 2-4: The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, and The Shadow Rising. It's obvious how this author influenced Brandon Sanderson. Consider this gem: "...his shirt clinging sweatily." I'm not sure that these can withstand the test of time. However, I am interested in the Prime series. They seem to have made a great effort in diversifying the cast.

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. Someone here recommended this, but I cannot remember who. Thank you, whoever you were. This was a lovely story, and I am looking forward to book #2 and the continuation of the tale.

I needed a remise en bouche after some of these heavy stories, so on a complete whim and for no other reason than the fact that I like margaritas, I picked up The Guild Codex: Spellbound series by Annette Marie: Three Mages and a Margarita, Dark Arts and a Daiquiri, Two Witches and a Whiskey, and Demon Magic and a Martini. I'm pretty good at ignoring obnoxious cliches (ALL of the men are hooooooot , etc.), and these served their purpose: simple, urban fantasy.

Happy reading!

I just started The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. Not far enough along to decide if I would recommend it. The second person narrative is hard for me to get into, but I'm pushing along because I've heard a lot of good things.

I've finished the five books in Pierce Brown's Red Rising series now. It's relentless, violent, formulaic in its addiction to betrayals and protagonists being captured by enemies, and yet it is dribbled through with just enough human kindness to keep me reading. The dialogue in these books is absolutely superb--characters leap off the page by virtue of their distinctive voices. The only times I felt Brown hit false notes was when he cribbed speeches from famous people in history/philosophers/literature. The sequel series (Iron Gold, Dark Age) seems to have woken up to the realities of war as the US has experienced it in Iraq/Afghanistan. A lot of counterinsurgency doctrine gets spouted by characters on all sides of the conflicts. It took four books, but there's finally some acknowledgment that torture isn't a particularly effective interrogation technique. Brown steps up the complexity of the series by adopting multiple POVs in the follow-on series. I don't like being in the situation where I have to wait for the next installment to be written/published, but I wish Brown would take more time on the books. Del Rey should also spend more on copy editors. The first two books were well edited; they've gone downhill since. Not so much that I stop reading, but I fume at simple editorial errors and a few real doozies (sentences mashed together into semantic soup). Brown is brilliant to write at the pace he is--for the $$$ he is getting Del Rey, they should cover his back by competently editing the books.

In some ways, Brown seems to epitomize the trends that make for blockbusters today--multiple twists in every chapter, action and violence galore, emotionally transparent first person narration. I very much enjoy the many nods in names and plot devices to classical literature. But the cruelty . . . . Sure, it's human and common enough in war, but I no longer trust the introduction of any character. Seems like they all arrive with a countdown timer and no sooner are they developed enough for some readers to bond with them than they are gruesomely killed off. The end of Dark Age has an appropriately dark series of murders, so carefully described as to raise questions about the moral sensitivies of readers in the age of viscera packed gaming and movie entertainment.

War In Heaven, final book in that weird caveman/space/math saga I've been on about. Not as much to say since it wraps up the series and has most of the same issues and strengths as the preceding three books. The impossibly perfect MC Danlo has returned to Neverness, home of the various religious/scientific orders that run the galaxy, as well as his frenemy Hanuman's newly minted cult. Danlo has some vague plan for stopping Hanuman, complicated by his vow to never use violence, and things get very, very, very crappy for out hero before the last third of the book is another long-winded discourse on life, the universe, and everything.

Danlo is still very boring, which is too bad because Zindell shows with the other characters that he can write good characters and dialogue, there's just the sense Danlo has to be perfect or else the whole point of the series is lost. His perfectness is tested by the insanely bad things that happen to him over the course of the book, and though he (inevitably) triumphs, the gut-punches come one after another and they are all brutal and affecting. The setting as ever is fascinating and Zindell, though way on about his somewhat New Age hippy philosophy, is rigorous, thoughtful, and open-minded, asking the reader to consider his viewpoint and beliefs in context of the story but never trying to convert you to a particular viewpoint or falling back on plot magic to make everything fit together. So it's kind of admirable, and if you've stuck through this long you'll have already decided if you can take it or leave it. Lotta wasted potential when I feel his philosophical monologing makes everything including an amazing setting and rad space battle takes a back seat, but there's something impressive too about the way he's able to use science fiction to get across these big & sometimes unorthodox ideas.

So IDK, glad I stuck with the series and in some ways I think it still stands as one of the great forgotten masterpieces of sci-fi. I also think that this series, for all it's faults, shows that when Zindell is a master he's the master, and there are a lot of lessons to be learned here in how to write dope SF if you pay attention.

I finished Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher (our own Red Wombat) while I was at Boskone. It's set in the same universe as Swordheart and the Clockwork Boys duology. It appears to be set after the next
Swordheart book, which isn't out yet. Very good. More please.