Entries tagged with fiction: sci-fi/fantasy

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Recent Reading: The Starless Sea

The most recent commute audiobook was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, of The Night Circus fame (although admittedly I have not read that one yet). This is a fantasy novel about Zachary, a young man swept into the drama of a secret underground society and the mysterious figures who surround it.

I finished this book on Sunday morning, catching the last 7 minutes of a whopping 19-hour runtime over breakfast, and since then I've settled into a relative disappointment. On paper, this book has so many things that should make it an ace in the hole for me: Book lovers! Cats! Secret magical societies! Queer characters! Women who are something Other taking control of their destinies! And yet, overall, this book just did not land for me.

As is a risk, I think, with all stories that are about the power of stories, The Starless Sea comes off a little pretentious and self-important. It is a book lauding the unmatched importance of books. I felt aware at various points throughout the book of how hard it was trying to appeal to people like me, who would enjoy the idea of a dark-paneled underground room with endless books and an on-demand kitchen, and this sense of pandering did take away from it at times.

However, it also does some interesting things with regards to what it is like to be the person in a story (such as the fate of Eleanor and Simon, once their part in the story is done) as well as the risks of valuing preservation over change and growth. Without giving too much away, there is a secret society in decline, and a woman so determined to prevent its downfall that she ends up causing significant harm to the organization she's trying to save because she is unwilling to accept that an end comes for all things. I enjoyed this theme and I felt like it was echoed well throughout the story, and in many ways it's easy to sympathize with her ultimate goals, if not her methods.

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Recent Reading: The Spear Cuts Through Water

The great thing about online communities is you can get a lot of book recommendations from a broad swath of people that cover niche books you might never have heard of otherwise. The bad thing is that a lot of these books are simply not good. Nevertheless, I've plowed through quite a few net-recommended fantasy books, and I still think it's worth it for the occasional gem you overturn. I had the chance this last week to enjoy one of those gems: The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.

Upfront, the style of this book is not going to be for everyone. It has an edge of the cerebral, being told primarily in second-person, from the perspective of an unnamed person watching a play performed by spirits in their sleep about the events of the adventure. Perspective can change suddenly and without announcement, and the book occasionally slides in thoughts of random third parties experiencing the events of the text.

I found all of these narrative tools a delight, although I admit I was skeptical for the first few pages. I think Jimenez does a wonderful job of using them effectively and the overall effect adds to the surreal/mythological energy of the entire story.

Jimenez's writing is beautiful and vivid—for good or for ill, as there are some gruesome events that take place—and really sweeps you up in the events of the story. He also does a wonderful job capturing the emotional mindsets of the characters. In particular, I thought the way he handled the relationship of the two main protagonists, Jun and Keema, was very realistic given who they are, and the emotional payoff of his taking the time to work through that was so worth it.

The plot of the novel is pretty simple: Jun and Keema are escorting the empress, the Moon goddess, from point A to point B. But Jimenez shows how a talented author can take a simple quest plot and transform it into something sweeping and epic. The story takes us across this fictional country, which has been laboring under the oppression of the Moon Throne and its emperor, known as the Smiling Sun. We see up close the impact of this emperor and his government, and the various ways that the populace is pushing back or knuckling under, trying to survive.

The empress herself is a fascinating character, and Jimenez handles so well this character who both possesses the power of a goddess who transformed the world, yet is deeply weakened after generations among mortals. She walks a compelling line between a being who wants to do right by the people, but still possesses the selfish impulses of a god.

He blends the truly mythological—the Moon goddess used to be the moon, and after she fell from the sky, the people named the black hole where the moon used to be "the Burn"—as well as the more intimate story beats we expect from modern storytelling, such as Jun's complicated relationship with his father. I thought this intermixing worked very well, allowing for both a grand scale, transformative tale as well as very personal, small-scale stories.

Even the side characters grab your attention, so that their parts of the story never feel like unwelcome intrusions and asides from the main plot, but rather equally interesting stories playing out alongside our protagonists' (I'm still thinking about Uhi Araya).

This story grabbed me from very early on and held on tight throughout the book; I was riveted to the end. A truly wonderful tale; I may end up buying a copy to have to reread later.

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Book Review: Frontier

Frontier by Grace Curtis is a space western, which takes place far in the future after much of Earth's population has abandoned it due to catastrophic climate change.

Then a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet's first visitor in three hundred years. This Stranger is a crewmember on the first ship in centuries to attempt a return to Earth and save what's left. But her escape pod crashes hundreds of miles away from the rest of the wreckage.

The Stranger finds herself adrift in a ravaged, unwelcoming landscape, full of people who hate and fear her space-born existence. Scared, alone, and armed, she embarks on a journey across the wasteland to return to her ship, her mission, and the woman she loves.

I really enjoyed the way this novel revealed its story. Rather than simply track the traveler from place to place, the story shows us the traveler's journey through the eyes of the people who encounter her: a small-town librarian at odds with the local mayor, the young son of a preacher with a nasty secret, a shady woman on a quest of her own. Each chapter opens with setting the perspective of this onlooker before the traveler comes into the scene, and I felt like this was a very fun and creative way of telling her story, as well as giving us a lot more information about the world and culture of Earth in this story's universe than we could get from the traveler's perspective alone.

The traveler herself is an excellent blend of competent and human: as an astronaut among a deeply Luddite population which has technologically stagnated for centuries, she has certain advantages, like her advanced weaponry, which can quickly resolve some situations. However, she can be divested of these advantages without enormous effort: if she loses her gun, if she's facing too many enemies, if she succumbs to bodily weakness like exhaustion or injury, she's no better off than any Earthling in her situation would be.

She certainly possesses a skillset that helps her through her journey, but she's also a person. She feels fear, anxiety, weariness. She has tells when she lies, she has moments of awkwardness, she makes mistakes. She's not Terminator in a cowboy hat blasting her way to victory while the challenges slide off her without a mark.

The romance was fine. Sweet, but unremarkable. I do enjoy more queer fantasy that doesn't center romance though, so that's a win!

Some other reviews felt the ending wrapped up too quickly, but personally I was satisfied. I didn't need a confrontation with the main antagonist drawn out any more; he was such a loathsome character that I simply wasn't interested in seeing more of him. I was content with where the book left things.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book more than I expected. It was just long enough to tell its story satisfactorily without overstaying its welcome. I enjoyed the detours into side characters that gave us colorful glimpses into what life is like on Earth for the locals rather than relegating us merely to the traveler's outsider perspective. It does leave lots of loose threads behind, but it felt realistic and never, for me, unsatisfying. Life goes on after the traveler has moved onto her next goal.

A fun read!

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Book Review: When Women Were Dragons

This week I finished When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, a low-fantasy pseudo-historical novel where women occasionally and spontaneously become dragons.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

I have mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, I think the metaphor does work well and the theme of reclaiming power is rewarding. On the other, I think the book loses the plot partway through and I didn't find the author's prose particularly engaging.

Within the book, "dragoning" as it's called serves as an analogy for basically anything about women that society, historically, has not liked to discuss. This can be brutal things like domestic abuse, sexual assault, and harassment, but it can also be more seemingly mundane yet equally "uncomfortable" topics like ambition, lack of motherly sentiment, queerness, and menstruation/women's bodies generally. One woman dragons because she feels trapped in a marriage to an unpleasant and ungrateful husband. Another dragons because she realized she was in love with another woman. Thus, while dragoning can be analogous to female rage, it can also be analogous to female joy, expressed in a way that society finds unbecoming.

Some spoilers below.

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Ultimately, I agree with the conclusion that this book would have worked better as a concentrated short story focusing only on the Mass Dragoning of 1955. There's just not enough here to fill out the 340 pages in a satisfying way.

Crossposted from

rocky41_7

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A+ Library Review: "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers

A+ Library is my bit where I review books with asexual and aromantic characters. The most recent book I've read was To be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers. The book description is:

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.

A team of these explorers, Ariadne O'Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

The character: Chikondi Daka, asexual

Final verdict: Thumbs up, a new favorite for this exercise

( Full review below )

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"Beneath the Sugar Sky" by Seanan McGuire

This is the third book in the Wayward Children series. The book description is:

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can't let Reality get in the way of her quest - not when she has an entire world to save (Much more common than one would suppose.)

I was relatively disappointed with this entry. It's not bad, but it's also not really interesting enough for me to want to plow through another 7+ books in the series.

Recommend if:

You like isekai adventures
You're looking for some light reading
You like big ensemble casts with lots of different personalities

Do not recommend if:

You're into heavy worldbuilding
You read Every Heart a Doorway and were more interested in the emotional journey of the characters than their fantasy adventures
You want to really get to know the characters in the story

Full review on my main

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"Down Among the Sticks and Bones" by Seanan McGuire

This is the second book in the Wayward Children series (first book: Every Heart A Doorway). This book focuses on Jack and Jill from Every Heart, and what happened to them before they came to Ms. West's school.

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Spoilers below!

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A+ Library Review: "Every Heart a Doorway" by Seanan McGuire

The reviews continue! Although this may be the last one for a while; I recently added about thirty new books to my TBR thanks to a library rec list, so I'll have to dig through some of those. However, I will say that so far, this has been my favorite of my ace/aro book list.

Previous review: The Bruising of Qilwa

The description of this book is:

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

The character: Nancy Whitman, asexual
Verdict: Thumbs up!

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A+ Library Review: "The Bruising of Qilwa" by Naseem Jamnia

Review #3! We're on a roll, and breaking into my favorite genre: fantasy. The book description for this one is:

Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.

But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family.

The character: Firuz-e Jafari, aro/ace

Final verdict: Thumbs up

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The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong

I don't often go looking for books based on representation, but recently I did do a search for books with explicitly asexual main characters. I turned up a few and this was the first one I've actually read. The book jacket description is:

Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon. Here, everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job. When the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him, or face vivisection. With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down together. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.

My ultimate verdict is that while it was passably enjoyable and I did like the ace representation, it was a deeply forgettable book.

Recommend if you:

Really want asexual rep
Like fluffy romances with little conflict
Enjoy found family tropes
Are not looking for something very complex

Do not recommend if:

You want romance to be a main focus of the story
You want interpersonal relationships with realistic conflict or drama
You are not a fan of a YA writing style (this book is not YA, but it reads like it is)

Longer review on my main

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The Priory of the Orange Tree

Last night I finished a behemoth of a high fantasy novel: Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree. Clocking in at 804 pages, I have to say the book did not feel like a slog at all. It actually flew by for the most part, and there was no part of the plot which I thought dragged, which is pretty impressive with this length. The description from Story Graph is:

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

I thought Shannon did a neat thing in working in the mythology of both European and Asian dragons, but having them play wildly different roles in her world accordingly. The various countries and cultures in the novel all feel "real" and the different ways in which they interact (or do not interact) with the magic in their world is interesting.

Also fascinating is the mythology which underlays the world itself. The "present" state of Shannon's world is heavily influenced by quasi-mythical characters who lived and died long before our protagonists, and uncovering the truth of their lives and their deeds is a part of the current protagonists' story. It makes Shannon's world feel very rich, and it appropriately deals with the difficulty over time of separating fact and history from myth and legend.

The characters themselves were layered and nuanced, and while I don't want to give any spoilers, one character has a growth arc I particularly loved because she consciously puts effort into setting aside things she's been told her entire life when she understands they may not click with reality. All of the characters have their good and bad moments, and it makes them so real that I couldn't help but love all of them.

For a quick summary:

Recommend if you:

Want female-focused fantasy
Enjoy a romantic subplot but don't want it to take over the action
Want queer characters in your fantasy
Enjoy multi-POV stories that take time to roll out
Like the tension of "duty vs. love"
Want an epic dragon-on-dragon fight

Do not recommend if you:

Want to have more action than build-up
Prefer low-stakes conflict
Want romance at the center of the story
Do not like violence

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Book Rec: The Burning Kingdoms

As of now, only two books of the trilogy have been released, beginning with The Jasmine Throne, followed by The Oleander Sword. The author is Tasha Suri. The jacket description from The Jasmine Throne is:

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of powerful magic – but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one of several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to attend Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, as long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides. But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled . . .

I covered a more in-depth review on my blog, but TBK is a south Asian-inspired fantasy with a fantastic cast of characters and an interesting leading romance.

The books are ~500 pages each, but the prose makes for pretty quick reading.

Recommend if you:

Want to read some fantasy that is not culturally European/Western
Want a F/F relationship where the characters feel genuinely for each other but struggle with "duty vs. love"
Enjoy multi-POV stories that cover several plotlines simultaneously
Want female-centered fantasy

Do not recommend if you:

Are turned off by in-universe homophobia
Want an action-heavy story (there is action but it usually is not described in depth)
Want an uncomplicated "fluffy" romance

(Crossposted from fffriday)

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Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Summary: While most students at Burtonwood Academy get to kill demons and goblins, fifteen-year-old Emma gets to rid the world of little annoying fairies with glittery wings and a hipster fashion sense. She was destined to be a dragon slayer, but cute and charming Curtis stole her spot. Then she sees a giant killer fairyÑand it's invisible to everyone but her! If Emma has any chance of stopping this evil fairy, she's going to need help. Unfortunately, the only person who can help is Curtis. And now, not only has he stolen her dragon-slayer spot, but maybe her heart as well! Why does she think it's going to be a fairy bad day?

★★★★★ | Not the best written book and pretty straight forward plot wise, but so much fun! I read 2/3 of the book in one day because I was enoying it so much. It's got some interesting world building, and I really do love the magic/warrior high school trope. Definitely recommend if you like that trope too! And if anyon's got similar recs, hit me up ;)

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Up for reading "The Neverending Story"?

Hello! I'm doing a read-along for Michael Ende's famous fantasy/YA book, The Neverending Story. This book was an important part of my childhood and I would love it if some more people could rediscover it with me as adults. More info in the introduction.

I'm going to post one discussion post for each chapter, and created an index for easier bookmarking. Updates are unscheduled, but I intend to post twice a week at least. You can check in at any time, there's no pressure to read at the same pace I do and I welcome comments on older entries.

If you don't own the book, archive.org offers a legal scan in PDF/EPUB format that you can borrow for 14 days after you sign up for a free account.

Current Mood: awake

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Series Rec: by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch: Book 1
description from Amazon:

Tea can raise the dead, but resurrection comes at a price...

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother, Fox, from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha-one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles...and make a powerful choice.

Note: the other two books in the series are The Heart Forger: Book 2 and The Shadow Glass: Book 3. I am not going to post descriptions in case they end up being spoilers. It's a nice fantasy series that gets better with each book, I think.

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Recent Reading: The Starless Sea

Recent Reading: The Spear Cuts Through Water

Book Review: Frontier

Book Review: When Women Were Dragons

A+ Library Review: "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers

"Beneath the Sugar Sky" by Seanan McGuire

"Down Among the Sticks and Bones" by Seanan McGuire

A+ Library Review: "Every Heart a Doorway" by Seanan McGuire

A+ Library Review: "The Bruising of Qilwa" by Naseem Jamnia

The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong

The Priory of the Orange Tree

Book Rec: The Burning Kingdoms

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Up for reading "The Neverending Story"?

Series Rec: by Rin Chupeco

The Last Human

Terrors of Pangaea

The Secret Chapter

Undeading Bells

Cloak of Wolves