Sable Aradia's Blog, page 37

Book Review: The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro

The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read for the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, the Read the Sequel Challenge, and the Space Opera Challenge.

I have a great story to tell about this book before I can offer the review.

I was putting together a panel on Speculative Romance for a show I’m doing for the SFWA YouTube channel, called #SpecWomenChat, and SFWA President Cat Rambo suggested Catherine Asaro as our “headliner.” I had heard of her, but to my knowledge had never read anything of hers, though I recall being intrigued by many covers. We had never met prior to the panel, but we all had a great time and afterwards, especially since I had a lot of indie authors, I said, “If you ladies ever need a review, let me know.”

I was not expecting Catherine to take me up on it, but she did, and I received a lovely new trade paperback copy of The Bronze Skies in my mailbox, because for some reason Amazon insists on making it impossible to send ebooks to people in other countries. Really, I don’t understand their business practices.

So I caught this horrific cold. One silver lining about being sick (and there are so few!) is that when my sinuses are that plugged I can’t write, so I have an excuse to get caught up on my reading. I powered through this book in a few hours.

First, let me tell you that despite being both a sequel, and the second book in series, this one stands completely on its own and you don’t need to read anything else in the series to grasp what’s going on. As a newb to Asaro’s world, I am the perfect test case, and it passed with flying colours. There was a vague reference to the Trappers, who are the enemies of the Skolian Empire (and, I assume, probably the aliens that originally kidnapped the humans who form the Empire), and I don’t really understand what they are, but it’s not really relevant to the current plot of this book.

Second, I love this world and I want to read more! The Skolian Empire is a parallel evolution of humanity. Egyptian, Indian, and Mesoamerican peoples were kidnapped by aliens in about 4000 BC and brought to an alien world with imperfect terraforming. Then the aliens died (or were defeated) and these ancient people reverse engineered their technology, or created their own based on the tech available, and promptly formed dynasties and an interstellar empire, which later collapsed and had to be rediscovered, and the technology relearned.

During this time they encounter an Earth-based polity, who have now made it to the stars as well. I assume a lot of the early books are about that story. But this one is about an ex-military PI named Major Bhaajan, who has done the impossible and elevated herself out of segregated poverty that has plagued her people, the inhabitants of Undercity, for thousands of years.

Both the aristocratic and impoverished groups have involved cultures that carry elements of those original influences. Yet there’s also a certain cyberpunk element to this space opera, since there is a parallel universe that’s a bit like a cyberpunk cyberspace, which has real-world effects but requires tech (and psionic ability) to tap into.

Into this complex, layered world, at heart this is a simple, action-oriented sci-fi detective story. A soldier who is supposed to be conditioned not to kill anyone without military sanction does so, and Bhaajan has to figure out where they are and why they did it. And the answer is a lovely twist that I sort-of saw coming, but not in the form that it took!

This was a fast-paced novel that felt like a well-written urban fantasy (including romantic overtones, and relationships and people being a primary focus) that took place in a cyberpunk space opera. It’s a sci-fi noir detective novel. I absolutely love it, and Catherine has wisely won herself a brand-new fan. Like Fry said, “Shut up and take my money.”

I would like to add a personal additional kudo: Catherine Asaro says a lot about gender and sexism that I think is really worth reading. This world’s ancient cultures have been militant matriarchies. They’ve grown beyond that now, except among the aristocracy and a few backwards weirdos (somewhat like our own Western culture with the genders reversed). So it’s amazing how she handles the casual, low-grade sexism, which some might refer to as “microaggressions,” that are leveled constantly towards men. If a man and a woman are standing together, the woman is always assumed to be in charge. All the brilliant techs and scientists are assumed to be women; all the especially clever politicians and military strategists are assumed to be women. Women think nothing of checking out an attractive man and thinking somewhat lasciviously, “Yeah, I can see what she sees in him;” EVEN BHAAJAN, our protagonist, who is otherwise very liberal and constantly cautioning her peers and superiors not to assume things due to gender. Men, if you fancy yourself a feminist ally, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read this book, and possibly the whole series, to get a real feel for what women experience in our culture every single day. I’ve never seen it captured better in a way that could make you think about it.

Thank you, Catherine, for seeing I got a copy of this. It was great! I’ll be back for more.

View all my reviews

Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel Online Radio by Pagan Musings Podcast Channel | BlogTalkRadio

Tomorrow night at 5 pm EDT I’m going to be on Pagan-Musings Podcast. (Thanks for making me sound awesome, guys!)

Source: Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel Online Radio by Pagan Musings Podcast Channel | BlogTalkRadio

The Nebula Conference: Livestreamed!

We’re streaming the Nebula Conference LIVE on the SFWA YouTube channel!  All day we’ve got great panels of interest to all science fiction and fantasy writers, whether you’re indie, small press or Big 5! Watch here!

Homefront: Toy Soldier Saga Livestreamed Reading!

Livestreamed reading of Chapter 1 of Homefront, my Toy Soldier Saga novella, which appeared in the limited edition On the Horizon book bundle!

Want the rest of the story? You can get it here or here, or you could sign up for my Patreon at the $2 a month plus level, which will give you the rest of the livestreams (and the archives.)  And it gives you access to my other livestreams and audiobooks as well!

I’ll be reading one chapter a day until they’re done.

Book Review: At All Costs by David Weber

At All Costs by David Weber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read for the Military Spec-Fic Reading Challenge, the Read the Sequel Challenge, and the Space Opera Challenge.

This book is a lot of things at once. The first half of it is a romance novel. Which is excellent; after all, fans of the series have been following Honor’s relationship for maybe four or five books now, so it’s nice to see where it might go. Also, gotta give kudos to Weber; obviously United Methodism is a lot less antiquated than some other forms of Protestantism, because this former lay preacher manages to write an amazing, committed polyfidelitous trio that is ethical, honourable, and works (note for the polyamorous people who might be reading this review.)

The second half is concerned mostly with the politics of the war, punctuated with skirmishes as Honor leads Eighth Fleet (a cobbled-together raiding force) to attack the Republic of Haven and keep them busy in the hopes that it will give the Manticoran Star Kingdom and their allies enough time to build the fleet they don’t have to fight the Peeps. What the kicker is about this is that Haven didn’t really want to go to war, but they felt they had no choice but to resume hostilities; and they now realize that both they and Manticore have been manipulated into fighting each other though the actions of an unknown third power, but since they can’t prove it, they have no way of stopping the war through diplomatic means.

The end result is a lot of escalation, and people being forced into difficult positions that force them to act against their desires or instincts. And I can’t give you any more without enormous spoilers, so I won’t do that to you.

A lot of things remain up in the air at the end of the book. And I will do this much – I’ll warn you that Weber is not afraid to break some eggs to make his omelet. It’s tear-jerking stuff at some points; hard to do in a high-action, military sci-fi novel.

A great edition to the series, and a turning point. The only reason it didn’t get five stars from me is that once again, I find some of the text to be heavily bogged down in the info-dump details; but again, it won’t deter me from reading the next one.

View all my reviews

Rethinking the Blog

Hey everyone, I’m doing an audit of my time versus return for my effort, and I’m beginning to rethink this blog.

For more than a year now, I have published something every single day. I tend to share other articles more than writing my own, but I made a commitment to post daily, and consistently, and it’s all stuff that’s related to my writing. It’s science for science fiction inspiration, or history for historical fiction, or quotes, or tips about the writing process, or book reviews.

I love all this stuff, but the point of it all is to drive focus to my writing. I post about related things because I want you to know that this is the stuff I’m working on or that inspires me.  But I’ve noticed that my writing posts — book trailers, releases, interviews, etc. — get very little actual attention by comparison.

And for me, the point of this blog is to interest a potential readership.  Because it doesn’t seem to be doing that, it’s beginning to feel like an arduous chore, especially as I try new things and take on new projects, many of which are connected to old ones.  I had several posts planned in advance at one point; now I’m beginning to fall behind.

So I guess what I’m asking is, why are you here? What are you getting out of my blog? And how can I make adjustments that meet your needs, while at the same time, meeting my own?

Failing other feedback, my current intention is to start posting once or twice a week instead of once a day, except when I have releases or other announcements to make.  These I’ll post as they come up.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

Evolution, the Ice Age, and Mother’s Milk

By Leslea Hlusko

As biologists explore the variation across the genomes of living people, they’ve found evidence of evolution at work. Particular variants of genes increase or decrease in populations through time. Sometimes this happens by chance. Other times these changes in frequency result from the gene’s helping or hindering individuals’ survival, a phenomenon known as selection. If a gene conferred a survival advantage, people with the mutation would have more offspring and the mutation would become more common in subsequent generations.

Read the full article at The Conversation.

Advanced Space Habitat for Plants

By Morgan Mcallister, NASA

The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a recent addition to the International Space Station, is the largest growth chamber aboard the orbiting laboratory. Roughly the size of a mini-fridge, the habitat is designed to test which growth conditions plants prefer in space and provides specimens a larger root and shoot area. This space in turn will allow a wider variety of crops to grow aboard the station. Thus far, the habitat has been used to grow and study Arabidopsis, small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard, and Dwarf Wheat.

Its monitoring and environmental control systems regulate temperature, oxygen, and carbon dioxide levels, and the system settings can be adjusted for growing different types of plants. Although the system is largely autonomous, the crew adds water to the chamber and changes atmospheric elements such as an ethylene scrubber, carbon dioxide scrubber & bottles, and filters. All systems can be monitored and controlled from a computer on the ground that interfaces directly with the habitat to relay instructions and detailed adjustments to ensure investigation integrity.

Because gravity is a constant downward force on Earth, researchers take advantage of the microgravity environment of the space station to achieve a clearer perspective of plant growth habits. Gravity is one of the major cues plants use to guide their growth, but microgravity can act as a kind of mute button that suppresses the role of gravity, enabling researchers to see what other cues take charge.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-04-roots-space-advanced-habitat.html#jCp

On the Edge of the Unknown

I was recently featured on the Edge of the Unknown paranormal radio show, where I talk about all the stuff I’m doing, my work, being Pagan, and more. You can listen here:

How to Write a Press Release

A press or news release is a statement issued to the media to announce a range of items, including events, awards, or new products or services. It is to generate feature news stories. In light of their aim, press releases need to be two things: accurate and exciting.

Journalists receive loads of press releases every day, and therefore have standards as to what they expect included in each release.

Read the full article at FirstEditing.com.