4.5 stars — what a great SF series! Final review, first posted today on Fantasy Literature:
A few thousand years in the future, one branch of humanity,4.5 stars — what a great SF series! Final review, first posted today on Fantasy Literature:
A few thousand years in the future, one branch of humanity, comprised of billions of people, lives on a set of planets called the Interdependency. Their star systems are many hundreds of light years apart but tied together by the Flow, a sort of hyperspace river that connects these planets. The problem is that the Flow is gradually collapsing, one stream at a time, and all of the Interdependency worlds except one (called End) are completely incapable of sustaining human life without the constant importing of food and goods from other worlds — hence the term “Interdependency.” In fact, this economic system was deliberately set up a thousand years earlier in order to enrich just a few elite families, each of which have a monopoly on certain key goods and have become immensely wealthy and powerful as a result.
As The Last Emperox, the concluding novel in John Scalzi’s INTERDEPENDENCY trilogy, begins, the nobles in the Interdependency are finally beginning to accept the fact that all of the Flow streams that tie their worlds together are disappearing. (It’s hard to deny given the mathematical proofs … especially after several streams have collapsed as the physicists predicted.) The Interdependency’s ruler, Emperox Grayland II, called Cardenia by those who know her personally, has been pushing for the government and ruling families to acknowledge the flow collapse and start working together to try to save the people of the Interdependency.
It sounds logical enough, but instead the ruling families are mostly preoccupied with two things: First, saving themselves and their families and hangers-on, by preparing to emigrate to the world of End. After all, End can’t possibly assimilate all of humanity, and the wealthy and powerful are determined that they’ll be the ones to actually wind up there, along with as much of their wealth and power as can possibly make the transfer to End with them. The common people that they ruled on their worlds are out of luck, too bad, so sad.
Second, they’re (still) trying to oust Cardenia from power. She’s already survived two assassination attempts, and Nadashe Nohamapetan is determined that a third attempt will succeed. Nadashe is a fugitive but an extremely well-connected and ruthless one, who’s been a constant thorn in Cardenia’s side since Cardenia declined a political marriage with either Nadashe’s brother or Nadashe herself.
The Last Emperox follows the ongoing struggle between Nadashe and the allies she gathers around her, and Cardenia and her supporters, particularly her lover and leading Flow physicist Marce, and her friend Kiva Lagos, a foul-mouthed schemer with enough of a conscience to realize that, with civilization as she knows it quickly coming to an end, some amount of altruism needs to be injected into to a set of rulers used to acting solely in their own self-interest. Kiva is one of the bright lights in the INTERDEPENDENCY series, as long as you don’t mind her over-the-top case of potty mouth.
The basic plotline and the main characters are already familiar to those who’ve read the first two books, The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire (in fact, it’s vital to read those books first, but this trilogy is definitely worth the investment in time). These characters — well, at least the sympathetic ones — are well-rounded and complex. Cardenia has learned to act as a ruler needs to, but sometimes that’s at odds with her role as a normal person and her developing relationship with Marce. Cardenia and Marce have just the right amount of nerdiness, awkwardness and sincerity that you really root for their relationship. Nadashe, on the other hand, is a little over the top as a one-dimensional villain, although Scalzi still manages to have some fun with her conniving character.
There’s a shocking development toward the end of The Last Emperox. To say much about it would get us into spoiler territory, but I wondered (through my tears) whether this event and the decisions that led to it were as necessary as the book posits. I wasn’t convinced, although a subsequent reread of this book did lead me to conclude that it was, if not essential, at least justifiable. (I’m still pouting about it on a personal level, though.)
The Last Emperox is almost prescient in its critical take on a society in crisis, where people act in short-sighted ways, denying and delaying taking action against a looming problem until it hits crisis point, and too many of those in charge are selfishly focused on their own interests rather than on their responsibilities to those they govern. Scalzi has a serious message to share, but it goes down easily, with a fast pace, lots of action, and frequent doses of snarky humor. This is one of the most compulsively readable, intelligent and enjoyable science fiction series I’ve come across, and it gets my highest recommendation.
Content note: Lots of F-bombs, as usual for this series.
Initial reaction: If anyone is looking for me, you’ll find me in a puddle on the floor. There were a couple of twists in this book that I was NOT expecting in the least.
Review to come, when I recuperate.
Initial post: I am DYING to read this book!
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Better yet: who do I have to kill to get a copy?
Update: Personal pleas and throwing myself at the feet of the publicists worked! I now have the ebook ARC!!...more
4.5 stars, rounding up. On sale now! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
[image] A sort of memory chair ...
Recursion begins with a dual timeline4.5 stars, rounding up. On sale now! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
[image] A sort of memory chair ...
Recursion begins with a dual timeline in alternating chapters, a familiar literary approach, but then splinters into razor-sharp time shards as the characters deal with the explosive consequences of a new technology relating to personal memory.
In November 2018, detective Barry Sutton attempts to prevent a woman from jumping from the 41st floor of a New York City tower. The woman, Ann, tells him she has False Memory Syndrome (FMS), a new affliction in which a person remembers an entirely different past for themselves, like their memory branched at a certain point in the past. The memories, though vivid, are in shades of gray. Ann’s conviction that she’s lost a life in which she had a happy marriage and a nine-year-old son was so compelling that she searched for ― and found ― the man she remembered marrying, who said he didn’t recognize her, though Ann is convinced he did. Barry, deeply curious, begins his own investigation of Ann’s past, and it leads him to danger as well as a to a chance to rectify a terrible event in Barry’s own life.
In October 2007, neuroscientist Helena Smith, haunted by her mother’s gradual loss of her memories due to Alzheimer’s, has dedicated her life and career to researching ways to preserve memories. She dreams of building a chair that will incorporate technology to record and project memories. Unexpectedly, Helena is visited by a stranger who offers her millions of dollars in funding if she’ll come to an off-shore research facility (a converted oil rig) to continue her memory studies and technology development. She’s met there by Marcus Slade, a billionaire business magnate and investor, who takes a suspiciously deep interest in Helena’s research. Helena’s research takes a turn toward the ominous, as Marcus pushes her research testing in directions she hadn’t foreseen.
In Recursion, author Blake Crouch stretches the concept of memory preservation into a technology that affects the very fabric of reality, expanding that idea to explore its most chilling, unintended consequences. Barry and Helena’s race against both personal enemies and time itself are gripping. Although I couldn’t entirely suspend disbelief in the pseudoscience, Crouch does a laudable job of giving it a plausible basis in quantum physics.
“You really believe time is an illusion?”
“More like our perception of it is so flawed it may as well be an illusion. Every moment is equally real and happening now, but the nature of our consciousness only gives us access to one slice at a time.… Some other moment, an old memory, is just as much now as this sentence I’m speaking, just as accessible as walking into the room next door. We just needed a way to convince our brains of that.”
The pace of Recursion picks up steadily until terrifying events are occurring at breakneck speed. My other beef with the science is that the final resolution of the plot relies on a particular quirk of the technology that was a just a little too convenient, and doesn’t really stand up to close examination. These are fairly minor quibbles, though. It’s an outlandish plot, but you just need to suspend disbelief and roll with it.
Though the focus of Recursion is on the action and suspense, Barry and Helena are engaging main characters with difficult problems in their lives that motivate their actions. There’s also a brief cameo by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman in Moscow), who seems to have an alternative life and career in the pages of this book, that made me smile (as well as wonder what the connection is between these two authors).
Readers who enjoyed Crouch’s previous techno-thriller, Dark Matter, will probably have just as much fun with Recursion. There are some distinct style and theme similarities between the two books, but the plots are different enough that Recursion doesn’t feel like a retread. It kept me glued to my seat and reading far, far too late into the night.
Thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy!...more
The deadly epidemic started in China. This time it’s ... zombies.
4.5 stars, rounding up because sheer brilliance.
I'm not, generally speaking, a fan ofThe deadly epidemic started in China. This time it’s ... zombies.
4.5 stars, rounding up because sheer brilliance.
I'm not, generally speaking, a fan of horror fiction in general or zombie tales in particular, but World War Z popped up on my radar so many times that I finally decided to give it a go. (I checked it out from the library; I wasn't going to stick my neck that far out for this book that I'd pay actual money for it.)
Anyway. World War Z takes the quasi-historical documentary approach to the zombie apocalypse, as a set of loosely-connected interviews gradually builds a picture of humanity's reaction to the zombie infection that quickly spreads around the world. Max Brooks examines the many ways this kind of a disaster would affect us: socially, militarily, psychologically, and more. The lies that government leaders tell their citizens. The lies that people tell themselves. The determination and heroism of some characters that infuses this otherwise depressing story with hope.
It's definitely not your standard zombie-flavored horror story. The horror is as much in the way some people react to the catastrophe (e.g., profiteering) as in the moaning, grasping and biting (a 100% death sentence if you get bit) of the zombie hordes.
Recommended if you're interested in a more analytical approach to the genre. I thought it was fascinating. VERY different from the movie that it inspired....more
$1.99 Kindle sale for this first book in a new YA SF series, May 14, 2020. The focus is on adventure + snark. The second book (which I'm currently rea$1.99 Kindle sale for this first book in a new YA SF series, May 14, 2020. The focus is on adventure + snark. The second book (which I'm currently reading) just went on sale this month.
A lot of YA fantasy and science fiction works follow teenager characters as they attend magic or spaceflight school (I would take either!), but not nearly as many follow the characters’ lives after graduation. Aurora Rising, a new YA space adventure from Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the authors of the well-regarded ILLUMINAE FILES trilogy, take the latter approach, following a diverse cast of older teens as they graduate from Aurora Academy in the year 2380, are divided into crews of six according to their specialties, and assigned their initial mission for the Aurora Legion.
Tyler Jones, age 18, is at the top of the senior class. A natural leader and stellar student, he’s earned the right to four of the top five picks in the next day’s Draft, where the “Alphas” or team leaders pick the five graduating students, each with a different specialty, who will be their crew. But Tyler can’t sleep the night before the Draft, so he takes off on a solo space flight into the Fold, the weird interdimensional part of space that allows interstellar space travel. Tyler’s about to head back to Aurora when he receives an SOS call from a legendary space ship, the Hadfield, which was lost over 200 years ago.
Tyler (barely) manages to rescue the single survivor of the Hadfield, a cryogenically frozen girl named Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley. (Luckily she goes by Auri, sparing us from an overdose of Auroras.) But rescuing Auri takes too long and Tyler misses the all-important Draft. So his new crew is the rejects and misfits of the graduating class … except not all. Tyler’s twin sister Scarlett (a diplomat) and their lifelong friend Cat (an ace pilot), who were able to hold out from being drafted by other Alphas so they could be on Tyler’s crew, excel at their specialties. Joining them are Zila, a dark brown-skinned sociopathic scientist; Finian, their resentful alien tech who wears an exosuit to compensate for his physical disabilities; and Kal, their alien combat specialist who has a genetic predisposition to violent anger.
Tyler’s crew, Squad 312, takes off on their first mission, but their routine supply run quickly turns odd when they discover Auri stowed away on their Longbow spaceship, and then dangerous as the mission goes south and deadly forces close in. Soon Squad 312 is on the run from their enemies while trying to solve an ancient mystery that may have galactic consequences.
Aurora Rising is a fast-paced space opera adventure, overflowing with thrills and chills, and spiced up with romantic tensions between the various crew members and lots of snarky dialogue.
“But I do know you and I swore an oath when we joined the Legion. To help the helpless. To defend the defenseless. And even though the ―”
“Um, sir?” Finian de Seel says. “We might have a problem.”
“You mean aside from you interrupting my speech?” Tyler Jones asks. “Because I’d been practicing it in my head for an hour and it was gonna be great.”
There are fun if slightly juvenile details that help make the story more memorable for readers, like the color coding for the various specialties at Aurora Academy, the decorative and informative sidebars that bolster the worldbuilding, and the sarcastic voice of Auri’s “uniglass” (a handheld computer device):
“I’m top-of-the-line, new-gen uniglass technology, available nowhere outside the academy,” it shoots back. “I’m seventeen times smarter than him. And three times better-looking.”
Tyler’s crew is divided equally between men and women and includes some sexual diversity (one of the crew is bisexual) as well as racial diversity … not to mention a couple of aliens. The constant shift in point of view with each chapter can get a little dizzying; all seven of the crew members (including stowaway Auri) have multiple chapters from their POVs. Some of the characters are more memorable than others, but a few weeks after reading this I still clearly remember most of the crew members, a tribute to Kaufman and Kristoff’s success in creating distinct characters.
It’s convenient that the half of Tyler’s crew who were considered “the dregs” of their class doesn’t actually include anyone stupid or incompetent. They’re social outcasts with significant personality issues (which has the side benefit of adding interest to the story), but they’re all bright and talented at their specialties. Also suspiciously convenient is the fact that spaceship crews need to be under age 25 to withstand the mental pressures of entering the Fold, but at least there’s a plausible reason given for these youthful crews.
The basic plot elements of Aurora Rising ― a mismatched company of strangers trying to overcome their differences and become unified, an improbable heist (complete with a MacGuffin), and a journey to a destination that turns out to be far more perilous than expected ― will be familiar to anyone who reads a lot of sci-fi, but Kaufman and Kristoff sucked me right in and I couldn’t put this book down. Aurora Rising is a fun, quick read if you like your YA SF with lots of snarky banter. It’s almost guaranteed to appeal older teenagers who enjoy science fiction. It’s the first book in the new AURORA CYCLE series (thankfully its ending doesn’t leave you with TOO much of a cliffhanger). I’m definitely on board for the next book!
I received a free review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. Thanks!...more
Galactic travel is breaking down in this part of the galaxy and human civilization is in grave danger. TheScalzi hit it out of the park with this one!
Galactic travel is breaking down in this part of the galaxy and human civilization is in grave danger. The emperox of the Interdependency is convinced, but she’s surrounded by a lot of extremely wealthy, powerful people who aren’t so sure, and are actively conspiring against her.
It reminds me very much of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, except updated with a more complex plot and better technology. Also more humor, way saltier language, and frank talk about sex.
Full review to come. And now I get to start the ARC of the last book in this series!...more
More time travel fun! Or maybe "woes" would be a better adjective? Or both. :) Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Alice Payne arrives onMore time travel fun! Or maybe "woes" would be a better adjective? Or both. :) Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Alice Payne arrives on the scene in this 2018 Nebula-nominated novella, and it looks like she’s setting up for a longer but welcome stay. Alice Payne is a half-black, thirty-two-year-old woman living in 1788 England in a mansion called Fleance Hall, with her father and a handful of servants; she’s also a closeted queer woman in a secret relationship with her companion, an inventor named Jane Hodgson. Alice and her father have fallen into financial straits, and her father, who is suffering from severe PTSD as a result of fighting in the American Revolution, is unable to support them financially. So Alice has taken up highway robbery, in the guise of a highwayman called the Holy Ghost, choosing as her victims men who prey on women. (Though I found it improbable, apparently there are enough of these men traveling near Fleance Hall to allow Alice to support her household with her ill-gotten gains.)
Meanwhile, Prudence Zuniga, a black Belizean-Canadian woman born in the 22nd century, is desperately trying to prevent Crown Prince Rudolf from committing suicide in the year 1884. Prudence works for a time travel agency, the Teleosophic Core Command, or TCC, and one of the things they’re trying to do is prevent World War I by keeping Rudolf alive. Seventy times before, Prudence, in disguise as a servant, has failed to convince Rudolf’s lover, a dancer named Mitzi, to refuse to participate in Rudolf’s suicide pact. Unfortunately, things go wrong this time as well, and Prudence’s TCC boss finally pulls the plug on the Rudolf Project.
It’s the last straw for Prudence, who kicks into a higher gear her plot to end time travel permanently. She’s seen all the ways that time travelers have changed history, and it almost always ends up worse for our world. (Given that Prudence’s sister Grace is growing plantains north of Toronto, it’s clear that global warming is one of our future issues.) But Prudence needs a helper ― either a patsy or an accomplice ― in eighteenth-century England. She initially set her sights on Jane Hodgson, the inventor, but when her path accidentally crosses with Alice’s, Prudence decides Alice will do.
Kate Heartfield’s Alice Payne Arrives has three bright, unconventional women as the heart of its story. Alice and Jane, both highly intelligent women, are trying to deal with both the difficulties in their own lives ― financial, social and relationship issues ― and the discovery that time travel not only exists, but that they’re being asked to participate in Prudence’s plan, one that will affect billions of lives. The characters are appealing, and realistic with their human flaws.
Alice Payne Arrives is a well-thought-out novella with some intriguing concepts. Time travel is handled in a logical way; I loved the detail that changing the past also changes everyone’s memories of prior timelines, but Prudence and her fellow time travelers are able to keep track of the shifting timelines by keeping their personal journals safe back in the Precambrian era. Some of the details with the elements in Prudence’s scheme and with the competing time travel factions are a little murky. The “Farmers” are in a conflict with the “Misguideds,” but precisely what that means isn’t explained until quite late in the story.
It’s interesting to compare and contrast this novella with Kelly Robson’s Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, also nominated for the 2018 Nebula award. Both novellas have people from the future mixing with people from the past, and altering the past, though in Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach it appears that the change is only temporary, while in Alice Payne Arrives, meddling with the past can have disastrous repercussions. Both novellas also have deeply problem-ridden future versions of our world, with people using the past to try to help solve their problems. Also, both are first books in what look to be ongoing series. I enjoyed both novellas, though Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach is more detailed and, I think, more intriguing and creative in its world-building. Despite these superficial plot similarities, the stories these novellas tell and their main characters are quite different. I recommend both, especially to fans of time travel SF.
The ending of Alice Payne Arrives is quite abrupt (yet another way in which it is similar to Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach), though the ending of this novella is more clearly a temporary stopping point in a longer story arc. Since Heartfield has already published the sequel, Alice Payne Rides, its ending is a reasonable stopping point. Though this novella isn’t entirely satisfying as a stand-alone read, it’s a solid setup for a longer ALICE PAYNE series, and I’m definitely looking to read the sequel as soon as I can.
Heartfield has created a Goodreads page with several of her Kindle notes from Alice Payne Arrives; they’re worth reading along with this novella. The tidbit about the genesis of the name Fleance Hall is especially intriguing, and Macbeth fans will appreciate it.
4+ stars. I have such a soft spot for time travel tales, and this one is so intelligently written! Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Go4+ stars. I have such a soft spot for time travel tales, and this one is so intelligently written! Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach (2018), one of several exceptional novellas nominated for the 2018 Nebula award, combines some intelligent and subtle world-building in the aftermath of worldwide disasters, the future version of project financing and lobbying (with lamentable similarities to our current world), and time travel to ancient Mesopotamia as research for an environmental remediation project.
In the 23rd century, humanity is beginning to rebuild on the surface of the Earth after living underground for many years in “hives and hells.” Life on the surface is limited to specific habitats, and the need for expensive ecological restoration projects to make the habitats livable has led to funding consortiums with time-consuming (and headache-inducing) formal proposal requirements. In the excitement surrounding the discovery of time travel a decade or so ago, nearly all the funding shifted away from ecological restoration to time travel projects. Now Minh, a cynical 83-year-old ecologist with six prosthetic tentacle-like legs, has received a request for proposal (RFP) that combines both time travel and ecological restoration: going back to 2024 BCE Mesopotamia to study the drainage of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as a guide to future river remediation projects.
Minh is determined to win the project (the follow-on work could be extremely lucrative). She puts together a small team of three, roping in her colleague Hamid, a biologist who’s obsessed with horses, and reluctantly accepting her eager young administrative assistant Kiki as the third team member. Fabian, an abrasive “tactical historian” from TERN, the research group that discovered time travel, is their guide to the past.
The first half of Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach focuses on the intricacies and subterfuges involved in grant-writing and lobbying to win the project, which may strike you as either dry and boring or reasonably interesting and richly ironic. Personally I found it more intriguing than tedious, but whether you find it appealing may depend on your literary tastes. There’s enough character-building and world-building to keep this section from getting monotonous, though. We get glimpses of the past disasters, including the plagues that affected Minh’s generation. There are constant references to “plague babies” like Minh and Hamid, who are physically smaller and frailer, as opposed to the younger generation of “fat babies” like Kiki, who are healthier and have much larger bodies (like humans in our day). Technology has taken the tenet of personal autonomy to entirely new levels, with people managing their own physical health and bodies in unexpected and sometimes even alarming ways.
The second half of the novella deals with the team’s time travel adventures in the ancient past in a vessel they name the Lucky Peach, after Minh’s peach orchard hobby. This trip is fascinating and imaginative, with some unexpected twists. The trip ― not surprisingly for the reader but certainly for the team ― turns out to be far more complicated and dangerous than our researchers expected. (The short flash-forward blurbs at the beginning of each chapter, from the point of view of the ancient Mesopotamian king Shulgi, are a broad hint that things are going to go very wrong for our time-traveling team.)
Time travel in this universe is not thought to affect the future; TERN claims that when people travel to the past, a “separate timeline is spun off from ours, and when the time travelers leave, the timeline collapses.” But that’s difficult to for Minh to swallow when people in the past suffer because of the team’s actions. The ancient Mesopotamians take a dim view of the “stars” watching them from the sky, not to mention their monstrous-looking (to them) but powerful visitors. Are they gods or monsters? Or do they have aspects of both?
I found the ending of Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach startlingly abrupt, though I could make the case that it’s actually a befitting conclusion. Still, I was relieved to find out that Kelly Robson is currently writing a sequel, Time, Trouble and the Lucky Peach. It’ll be great fun to see what happens next with these characters.
I received a free copy of this novella from the publisher for review. Thank you!!...more
4.5 stars for this short story, another in the current crop of Nebula award nominees. It's free online here at Uncanny magazine. Final review, first p4.5 stars for this short story, another in the current crop of Nebula award nominees. It's free online here at Uncanny magazine. Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Armed with a doctorate in theoretical physics, you return to the house that haunted your youth since you were a bullied eight-year-old child, determined to wrest the truth and some measure of peace from this menacing house. It’s a place where pocket universes collide: its rooms contain scenes from your past ― a mother who insists on you finishing every bit of an inedible dinner that constantly refreshes itself, a younger brother who is hit by a car crossing the road ― or from alternative worlds where your life diverges from its present path.
“And Yet” is a haunted house story that’s more SF than fantasy, dips into theoretical physics and parallel universes, and went a completely different direction in the end than I expected, but which made perfect sense in the context of the story. The narrator is an intriguing character, with significant difficulties in their past, including difficult parents, a loss of a beloved sibling at a young age, and so-called friends whose cruelty becomes apparent. I had to grin when the narrator tells this horrified group of childhood friends that they “come from a universe that’s banned the internet and the only shows on TV are documentaries.” The narrator used two crutches as a child but now gets by with one walking cane; it’s an apt metaphor for their life. They’ve overcome many obstacles but are still troubled by past events.
I’m on the fence with the second person narration, which the author mentioned (here in her Uncanny magazine interview) gave her inspiration, but which is by far the hardest narrative voice to pull off well. But I did find the present-tense narration highly appropriate for this particular story. My co-review Bill (whose review appears below mine on FantasyLiterature.com) mentions in his review that he found the ending predictable, but personally I found it a gratifying surprise....more
Winner of a well-deserved Nebula award for best novella of 2018. 4.5 stars! Review first posted on Fantasy LiteratureFantasy Literature:
The Tea MasterWinner of a well-deserved Nebula award for best novella of 2018. 4.5 stars! Review first posted on Fantasy LiteratureFantasy Literature:
The Tea Master and the Detective, a novella nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards, is a delightful revisiting of the legendary Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson … if both were Asian women, and Watson was a genetically modified human that is the brains and heart of a transport warship. It’s set in Aliette de Bodard’s UNIVERSE OF XUYA ― also nominated for a Hugo for Best Series ― a “timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration,” per the author’s website.
The Shadow’s Child, a mindship, is suffering from long-term trauma after a tragedy led to the death of her crew and her own near-loss in the “deep spaces.” Discharged from military service several years ago, she’s barely able to support herself by concocting tea blends that contain individualized mixes of drugs enabling humans to withstand the weirdness and unreality of deep spaces, where mindships can travel faster than light. A new client, Long Chau, asks The Shadow’s Child for an unusual tea blend, one that will leave her functional in the deep spaces, so she can find a human corpse ― any corpse ― for her scientific study. The corpse they find (there are a fair number of dead mindships and human corpses floating around in the deep spaces) turns out to have died an unnatural death, and Long Chau’s curiosity is engaged. She begins an investigation, confident that she can achieve better results than the magistrate assigned to the case, and The Shadow’s Child is somewhat reluctantly pulled in as Long Chau’s assistant.
The worldbuilding in The Tea Master and the Detective is stellar. De Bodard has put a lot of thought and imagination into her Xuya universe, which consists of some thirty novellas and short stories at this point. So many of the details are unforgettable: the shipminds’ use of projected avatars to represent themselves in society; tiny, utilitarian bots hanging in a “jeweled cascade” from a woman’s shoulders or crawling on Long Chau’s face to send data back to The Shadow’s Child; a virtual reality display of food on a table where two shipminds are visiting, so they can enjoy the memories of long-ago feasts and friends. These and other vivid details made me feel truly immersed in this world.
I first encountered de Bodard’s mindships in her wonderful Nebula award-winning novelette "The Waiting Stars." The Shadow’s Child sheds a different light on these mindships, her wounded soul underscoring the dangers that face the intelligent mindships themselves as well as their passengers. There are a few nods here to the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet; Long Chau introduces herself as a “consulting detective” and has a drug addiction; The Shadow’s Child is still experiencing pain from armed conflicts in her past (echoing Dr. Watson’s health problems stemming from his participation in the Anglo-Afghan war).
The mystery relating to the corpse Long Chau and The Shadow’s Child find in the deep spaces is less memorable than the characters and the setting; I thought it was the weakest link in this story. A better mystery lies in Long Chau’s shrouded past, which The Shadow’s Child doggedly investigates on the side, especially after Long Chau dissects the shipmind’s psychological trauma with a few brief sentences. Long Chau’s deductions are worthy of Sherlock Holmes, using small scraps of evidence that most would overlook.
I’d love to see what further mysteries and adventures await Long Chau and The Shadow’s Child, but de Bodard has said (in an email to me) that they’re more likely to reappear as cameos than as the main characters in a future story. So I recommend that you get your Holmesian fix here in The Tea Master and the Detective, especially if you enjoy detective fiction or mysteries set in space.
Initial post: I just got a free review copy of this 2018 Nebula award nominated novella! *shoves other reads aside* I've loved some of the other stories Aliette de Bodard has written in her Xuya universe, so I have high hopes here....more
The narrator, an employee of the U.S. state department, is passed a message from his Miao (Hmong) grandmother, who lives in a small, mountainous village in China: “a funny-looking fellow fell from the sky in a giant pearl and was teaching the village’s children odd things.” No one outside of the village is aware of the alien visitor. Alarmed, he rushes across the world to his grandmother’s village to find out what is happening and whether his grandmother is in danger. Less understandably, he fails to tell anyone at the state department where he’s going and what he’s heard.
Once he gets to the village and recuperates from his jet lag and a major bout of food poisoning, he meets the alien, named Foom. Foom is literally unable to see clearly anyone who is immersed in modern technology, whether it be carrying a cell phone, eating processed food, or wearing store-bought clothing. Foom calls these things “unlife,” and requires the narrator to put aside all these artificial trappings of technology and modern society in order to learn from him. Most especially, the narrator learns that he must respect the Rule of Three: you must be no more than three people removed from the one who originally made the food, clothing, method of transportation or anything else.
“Three is the limit. Pass the thing I made on to a fourth person and it can no longer detect me. The connection is broken. Unlife rushes in to fill the void. As a result it cannot be easily perceived. It is dark, inert.”
I swallowed. “You’re describing virtually all manufactured goods. Everywhere.”
The primitive Chinese village Foom is visiting was one of the few places on earth where he could perceive humans. All technologically advanced societies are dark to him.
The Rule of Three is a back-to-nature screed, with a bit of a bite to it. This story was inspired by the author’s trip to Guizhou Province, sponsored by the Future Administration Affairs and a poverty abatement program run by the Wanda Group. I found it rather long-winded and preachy, but readable. And while I appreciate that technology has many dangers, I think it brings countless benefits as well (most modern medicines and treatments would, of course, violate the Rule of Three; food might be manageable, but clothing and transportation would be near impossible).
I can’t say that I found the Rule of Three ― either the credo or the novelette ― particularly compelling or convincing. ...more
4.5 stars. This story gutted me. It will haunt me for a while. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Since I fell in love with Sylvain Neuvel’s S4.5 stars. This story gutted me. It will haunt me for a while. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Since I fell in love with Sylvain Neuvel’s Sleeping Giants, I’ve been curious to see what he would write next. The Test is an excellent novella, quite different from THE THEMIS FILES trilogy, though some similar themes are touched on and there are similarities in the narrative technique.
I went into reading The Test totally cold, without reading even the blurb ― just knowing that Neuvel wrote it was good enough for me to plonk down my $3.99 on the Kindle version ― and I strongly recommend doing that. But if you want a little more information about the novella’s setting and merits, this review does that without, I hope, spoiling its surprises.
In a near-future Great Britain, Idir Jalil, a dentist who emigrated from Iran, is seeking to become a British citizen. The final requirement is to pass the British Citizenship Test, which Idir is taking on behalf of himself, his wife, and their two children, who are watching him from a nearby waiting room. The entire family will become citizens or will be immediately deported, based on whether he passes the test or not.
It starts out like most any test, with historical and cultural questions about Great Britain that have questionable relevance to a person’s worthiness to become a naturalized citizen. Idir is nervously talking himself through the test (“What could anyone possibly do with that information? It would have come in handy in, say, 1485, if one were travelling the country. Darling, perhaps Bosworth Field is not the best spot for a picnic today.”). But then events take a shocking turn, and kindhearted Idir finds himself in an unimaginable position, where there are no good answers … though possibly correct ones.
There’s nothing I can say, no good answer. I might die today, and I don’t know if it was inevitable or if I inched myself into it, one small mistake after the other. Don’t draw attention to yourself. That is what they told me. It’s too late for that.
Idir is a sympathetic protagonist, thoughtful and caring even in the midst of incredible stress. Other parts of the story are from the viewpoint of a young man named Deep, a first-generation British citizen whose parents are from India. Deep is also in a stressful situation, though for entirely different reasons, but it’s intriguing to see how their cultural backgrounds inform the thought processes and values of both Idir and Deep.
The British citizenship test is intended to assess a person’s values, based on the type of ideology that modern society often places a premium on: consideration for others, helpfulness, absence of sexism and racism, environmental consciousness. The irony is that the government’s testing methods and practices contradict these values while paying lip service to them, a point that’s driven home by the story’s epilogue.
The Test is a quick read at 110 pages, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s psychologically complex, sobering and disturbing. It made me think about how things that initially seem like a good idea can go wrong when there are inadequate checks and balances, and about unintended consequences. Highly recommended.
Content notes: violence, very disturbing situations, and quite a few F-bombs....more
Ruby Donaldson, an astronaut stationed on the Neutral Buoyancy Lab or NBL, is nursing a severely sprained ankle, which she twisted while practicing a Charleston Flip in a dance rehearsal, one of her few remaining non-work activities. She’s scheduled for an NBL training run and is planning to just grit her way through it with her sore ankle, but the training run turns unexpectedly serious: a spaceship has had a docking accident that has locked the ship to the space station and jammed the airlock. The ship’s passengers are stuck, and will run out of air in sixteen hours. The NBL and astronauts there are urgently needed to figure out a viable rescue and recovery plan though a development run or “dev run.” Because of time constraints and limitations with their EVA suits, they can’t simply replace Ruby with another person to do this vital exercise. So Ruby doesn’t tell anyone about her sprained ankle, even when things happen during the dev run that make her ankle worse, and worse …
“Articulated Restraint” is another tale set in the world of Kowal’s LADY ASTRONAUT series, and its events occur during that series. It’s a straightforward story, somewhat simplistic in its essential plot. Where Kowal shines here is in the myriad of believable scientific and technical details, and in depicting Ruby’s personality and point of view, especially her fierce determination to see this exercise through to the end. It made this story feel highly realistic, and made me more interested in picking up The Calculating Stars, which has been on my TBR list for a good long while. ...more
The LADY ASTRONAUT series is an alternative history SF series in which a huge meteorite has destroyed Washington DC (along with much of the North American eastern seaboard) in 1952. “We Interrupt This Broadcast” helps set the stage for that world-changing event.
Fidel Dobes is a brilliant computer programmer, back in the days of large computers that use a series of punchcards containing the source code program for the computers. Fidel is suffering from tuberculosis, but is determined to see his personal project through before he dies. He’s carrying deep regrets for his participation in the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And now … the new project. Launching bombs into space and holding them there, ready to rain terror on any country that disagreed with the United States. As if that were a surprise coming from President Dewey, an isolationist president who defeated Truman on the strength of his reputation as a “gangbuster.” His idea of foreign policy was to treat every other country like the gangs of New York.
Fidel has figured out what he thinks is a way to avoid a nightmarish future for our nation and world, but he can’t share his secret with anyone … even Mira, his assistant, for whom who he’s beginning to develop feelings. But Mira is more resourceful ― and more interested in Fidel ― than he had realized.
I don’t know if Fidel and his actions are discussed in Kowal’s The Calculating Stars, the first book in the LADY ASTRONAUT series, which begins shortly after this story ends. I haven’t read that novel (yet), but this story certainly sheds an unexpected light on the events that set up that series. It’s an interesting but somber tale, on several levels....more
3.75 stars for this 2012 Nebula award-winning (and Hugo nominated) SF novella. I have a seriously alarming stack of books to read but I opened this on3.75 stars for this 2012 Nebula award-winning (and Hugo nominated) SF novella. I have a seriously alarming stack of books to read but I opened this one up last night and it was short enough and interesting enough to suck me in until I finished it (around 1 am). It's a combination of worldwide environmental disaster and time travel.
Kress freely jumps back and forth between a couple of different time periods in our day and a grim future, only about 20 years years later. A small, isolated group of people is making excursions to the past, kidnapping children to try to preserve our race in their day.
I had a couple of fairly major unanswered questions that are dragging my rating down a bit, but Nancy Kress is a talented SF author (I don't love everything of hers that I've read, but what I do like, I really like). It's an interesting, somewhat different take on the "humans are destroying our world" genre of SF.
It’s the 22nd century, and North America is divided into several different countries in the afte2.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
It’s the 22nd century, and North America is divided into several different countries in the aftermath of a worldwide disaster. A plague that first hit back in the early part of the 21st century killed ― and continues to kill ― almost every person who get infected with the virus. Those few who survive become “witchings,” developing a variety of magical powers as a result of the virus’s presence in their body.
Noam Álvaro is a bisexual teenage refugee from Atlantia, now living in the West Durham slums of the more well-developed country of Carolinia. He’s the son of a Jewish mother and a Hispanic father (thus ticking as many boxes as I’ve ever seen for diversity representation in a single character). When Noam survives a plague outbreak that kills his father and most of the people he knows, he emerges with unusually potent magical powers over technology that make him highly valuable to the people in charge of the Carolinian government. Noam outwardly accepts his new life as a student in Level IV, the Carolinia government’s elite witching training program, and as the defense minister’s protégé. Secretly, though, he plans to use his new position and power to bring down the government, which has been extremely hostile to refugees.
But then things get complicated, particularly when Noam meets Dara, a handsome brown-skinned fellow student who looks like a magazine model. Noam is torn between his deep attraction for Dara and his fears about Dara’s allegiance to another politician who’s taken anti-refugee positions. Noam is also confused about how much he can trust Calix Lehrer, the minister of defense who has taken such a keen interest in Noam’s development.
The Fever King is an LGBTQIA urban fantasy novel that feels more like science fiction/alternative history. Even the magic has a quasi-scientific explanation, which was appealing and helped to ground the novel. On the other hand, it didn’t seem realistic that not just the main characters, but every single character in the novel, is queer (per Victoria Lee’s blog). It made The Fever King feel like an interesting if unlikely exercise in diversity representation. The politics in the novel and its concerns with refugee rights and the gulf between the haves and have-nots also bear a clear message for our current society.
Lee’s storytelling is a little disjointed and unclear, most noticeably in the first half. She creates an imaginative future society, but it could have used more worldbuilding. For that first half I wasn’t particularly enjoying the story, just plowing through it. But then it gets much clearer, and the final third is exciting and tension-filled, with some solid twists and turns. The Fever King is the first book in Lee’s FEVERWAKE duology, and though the ending doesn’t leave you with a terrible cliffhanger, the overall story is clearly unfinished at this point.
Although the main character and his love interest are teenagers, this is a hard-hitting, R-rated book, with countless F-bombs, a semi-explicit gay sex scene (it cuts from the initial foreplay to the aftermath), discussion of sexual abuse, underage drinking, drug use, violence and murder. That’s quite a list, and I thought it was excessive for what is considered to be a YA book. There’s an audience for this type of novel, but I wouldn’t recommend it for younger teens. I’ll admit to some curiosity about how the plot will be resolved in The Electric Heir, to be published in 2020, but I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll actually read it.
I received a free copy of this book for review from the publisher, Skyscape, and the publicist. Thank you!...more
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
This Nebula-nominated short story is a conversation bet
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
This Nebula-nominated short story is a conversation between two aliens, one of which CANNOT BELIEVE that intelligent beings can be made out of ... meat. It’s very short and funny, but with a bite to it. I love the creativity of the concept.
4.5 stars! Just as good on reread, if not even better. I’m working myself up to reading the concluding book in this trilogy. This is great space opera4.5 stars! Just as good on reread, if not even better. I’m working myself up to reading the concluding book in this trilogy. This is great space opera-type science fiction, kind of like an updated version of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. It’s set in the distant future when humans have settled several planets and moons and lost contact with Earth. They’ve only actually settled one habitable planet, though; all the rest are underground or in space and need a constant inflow of supplies from other places.
In their (dubious) wisdom and (definitely) greed, people set up their civilization, the Interdependency, with various families and groups being granted permanent monopolies over key supplies, and no one world having all vital supplies, with the possible exception of End, the habitable planet. If they get cut off from the other human settlements, they’ll die within a few years at best. And all travel between the 40 or 50 human habitations is dependent on a type of other-dimensional set of paths between a limited set of star systems, called the Flow.
So that’s the setup, and Scalzi follows several different characters’ points of view as it gradually becomes apparent that a major problem is developing with the Flow. There’s lots of adventure, conniving and political scheming, told with Scalzi’s witty (but often coarse) sense of humor.
A lot of this story is setup for the rest of the series, but I still was completely sucked in by this. It has some great twists and kept me up way too late! And the second book, The Consuming Fire, is — wait for it — even better!
Content notes: countless F-bombs (seriously, there’s a ton) and some semi-explicit sex scenes....more
Binti is home in Namibia, hosting her friend Okwu the alien Meduse, and things are ... not going well, to say the least. The Meduse have a tentative pBinti is home in Namibia, hosting her friend Okwu the alien Meduse, and things are ... not going well, to say the least. The Meduse have a tentative peace treaty with the Khouse tribe, but Okwu being in their area has inflamed emotions. Binti's family is still struggling mightily with her life choices (going offworld to attend a galactic university) and Binti is having issues with PTSD and with new revelations about her life and ancestry.
When we left Binti at the end of Home, she had found out that her family and home were under attack and was rushing home as fast as possible. The Night Masquerade deals with what she finds when she gets home, and the fall-out from all of the problems that have been building up. It's up to Binti and her friends to try to prevent an all-out war between the Khouse and the Meduse.
So here's the deal: Binti is an exciting, unusual heroine as a member of the Himba tribe, though I'm getting a little tired of her emotional outbursts and PTSD after two books of dealing with them. And there are the bones of some good world-building here. But other than the unusual minority heroine and Africa setting, this is a VERY standard YA fantasy/SF novel with all of the typical tropes. There's the special snowflake, a love interest, punches pulled(view spoiler)[ people who you're told are definitely, ABSOLUTELY dead turn out to be ... not so much dead. And this happens not just once, but TWICE! (hide spoiler)], and probably several other tropes that'll occur to me if I put my mind to it. The main characters all act pretty juvenile (fair enough; most of them are teens).
The writing is okay but basic, sometimes noticeably amateurish; something I noticed more as I got deeper into the trilogy. But if those kinds of things don't bother you too much, then this is worth reading.
3.5 stars for this sequel to Binti and the middle novella in the BINTI trilogy. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Binti is a gifted 17 year ol3.5 stars for this sequel to Binti and the middle novella in the BINTI trilogy. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Binti is a gifted 17 year old member of the isolated African Himba tribe who has rebelled against family pressure and expectations and sneaked off to attend the galactic Oomza University on another planet in the first book, Binti ... where she found far more adventure, tragedy, stress and personal change than she ever imagined. This theme of personal growth and change continues here in Binti: Home.
Home follows Binti as she leaves the university for a period to return to her home on Earth, with her Meduse friend Okwu accompanying her. Trouble awaits them there, not just from Binti’s choice to attend Oomza University rather than accept the role her family intended for her, but from Okwu’s presence. The Meduse have a long history of war with the Khoush people, and though there is currently a tentative peace treaty, Okwu’s being in their territory has inflamed emotions. Meanwhile, Binti is also having issues with her ongoing PTSD and with new revelations about her life and ancestry.
Binti is amazing and complex, with mixed motivations and emotions that she doesn’t always understand. She felt real to me, though her continual emotional outbursts and PTSD did get tiresome to read about after a while. But it was delightful learning more about her tribe’s culture, including the Himba women’s practice of covering their skin and hair with otjize, a red clay mixture ― a practice Binti follows with dedication, even when she is lightyears away from her home.
At the same time, Okorafor takes on multiple social issues like cultural insensitivity, finding connections with those who are different, and standing up for yourself against social pressure. The Himba are looked down on by the Khoush, the Arab (per Okorafor) people who are the majority, and the Himba in turn look down on the Desert People, or Zinariya, who are actually far more advanced than anyone outside of their tribe realizes. Binti's visit to the Zinariya, what she learns and what happens to her there, are the crux of this story.
Warning: this ends on a serious cliffhanger, one of the worst I've come across. Just consider Home as the first half of a two-part adventure for Binti, and don't pick this one up unless you have the third novella, The Night Masquerade, in hand! And really you need to have read the first novella before this one, so just plan on investing time in the whole trilogy. It's a quick read, though! And worthwhile if you like YA SF.
Starting off on my adventures with Binti, a mathematically brilliant, 16 year old member of the technically advanced but socially isolated Namibian HiStarting off on my adventures with Binti, a mathematically brilliant, 16 year old member of the technically advanced but socially isolated Namibian Himba tribe. Binti decides -against massive family pressure - to accept a full-ride scholarship to the Oomza University on another planet. So she sneaks off in the dead of night, without telling her family. On the spaceship ride to Planet Oomza (or whatever its name is), disaster strikes, and Binti is forced to change and grow as a result.
This Hugo and Nebula award-winning novella has a serviceable SF plot (with several rather noticeable holes in it) but an amazing heroine that, for me, more than makes up for the plot’s weaknesses. She's unusual and complex and feels real to me. Nnedi Okorafor’s writing style is also appealing.
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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