Justine’s Comments (group member since Jan 27, 2015)

Justine’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

I would like to nominate Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black for SF.

For fantasy, I would like to nominate An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows.

There are some great nominations on here! Life During Wartime was one of my favourite reads in 2015, and Borderline is also amazing and one of my favourite reads for 2016.

I agree Chris:) I liked A Closed and Common Orbit even better.

Christine wrote: "My thanks go to Justine whose book lit helped me find a couple of these digital titles which were available at my library"

You are so welcome Christine! I'm glad you enjoyed most of those. I'm right with you on the ending of Ruin ... dying! I'm so looking forward to reading that final book; I have it on my to-read shelf for December.

I've been busy lately but have read some excellent books this month. Here is what I've read so far this month and how I rated it:

The Swan Riders (Prisoners of Peace 2) - (5 stars)
All Good Children - (4 stars)
Behind the Throne - (3.5 stars)
Anna Dressed in Blood - (3.5 stars)
Steal the Sky - (3.5 stars)
Way Down Dark - (4 stars)
Cloudbound (Bone Universe 2) - (4 stars)
Radiant - Towers Trilogy 1 (5 stars)
Defiant - Towers Trilogy 2 (5 stars)
Towers Fall - Towers Trilogy 3 (3.5 stars)
Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms 1) - (4 stars)
Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows 2) - (4.5 stars)
The Rains - (3.5 stars)

I'm currently reading A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers 2) and it is excellent so far.

There aren't usually emails unless there aren't enough nominations close to the cutoff. The thread usually goes up around midmonth though for a week.

I have some!

The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood for Fantasy.

Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton for SF.

Welcome Leserling and Andrew:)

For SF I would like to nominate Admiral by Sean Danker.

For fantasy I would like to nominate Spells of Blood and Kin by Claire Humphrey.

Phil wrote: "The first person narration is really chummy, which doesn't mesh well with the way Hoa and the stone eaters are depicted in the book."

I disagree on that, Phil. I think Hoa obviously has a special connection to her, which made the more intimate form of address seem appropriate. I think too that at the point at which this book is set, we still don't have a clear picture of when the narrative is taking place. For example, it could be that it is taking place some time in the future when Essun and Hoa's relationship has changed. There has to be reason he is telling her a story in which she features as a one of the participants...so, either she has forgotten and he is reminding her, or maybe he is comforting her by retelling the story of their shared past? It's just a guess though.

Jim wrote: "Joey wrote: "I am still reading Seveneves"

How are you liking it? Compared, say to Snow Crash"


I DNF'd Snow Crash, but I really liked Seveneves. They are pretty different.

Alexa wrote: "OK great! Well in that case I nominate The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for fantasy and The Summer Prince for science fiction."

I just wanted to put in a word for The Summer Prince. It made a number of award shortlists including the Tiptree and the Andre Norton. Here is a book review by Liz Bourke that was published on Tor.com where she has nothing but good things to say about it:

http://www.tor.com/2014/12/30/sleeps-...

For fantasy I would like to nominate All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders.

For SF I would like to nominate Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen.

I finished Parasite by Mira Grant and thought it was pretty good; it dragged a bit in the middle, but overall I liked it enough that I definitely want to read the rest of the series.

I'm just finished Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor and thought it was exceptionally good. I read a lot of YA fantasy, but this one stood out in terms of both the quality of the writing and the imaginative worldbuilding. I've started the second book in the trilogy, Days of Blood & Starlight.

Yes, I've actually forgotten most of the course by now:)

This is such a long book with so much going on that I have just broken up my comments by Part. One of the things I really liked about this book is that there was SO much to think about!

Part 1

I liked the range of characters that were introduced, it made for an interesting and diverse palette. Tekla was an early favourite for me, but I also liked how Dinah and Ivy were truly friends and not cast as competitors, because I would have found that dynamic really tiresome after awhile.

One thing that struck me in this part is that, although on the one hand I understand the idea of having a Cloud Ark Constitution, it seemed to me sort of ridiculous to operate as if the operation is something that permits of voluntary participation at the start. Things are dire, supplies are limited, and they are really not in any kind of a position to run like a democratic operation. I know Marcus gets this because he is military, but why is it such a shocker to the non-military people in the book that things might of have to be different, at least for awhile? And I don't say that lightly, given that I used to argue appeals as a lawyer based on some of the same Constutional principles Sal and Marcus are discussing.

It also seemed to me that the people on the ground were taking things remarkably calmly, although I guess the alternative is that there is no alternative. In that sense though I think Stephenson paints a remarkably mature portrait of humanity to accept its destruction with such equanimity.

Part 2

Honestly when JBF showed up there was something inside of me that just felt like, "oh no, this is going to turn into a horror show now." Maybe it is my inherent distrust of politicians? I don't know. I wasn't at all surprised at all the crap she pulled.

I suppose the question is must people always devolve into stupid political maneuvers? That to me was the scariest part of the equation here, and unfortunately, yes, I think there are always people out there who won't be satisfied to try and work together; will always make trouble just for the sake of...I'm not sure the word I'm looking for...possibly a combination of boredom and also feeling like they are just as smart and capable as "the people in charge"...so, a sense of entitlement?

This is something I wondered about in Part 1. Why all the shock and worry over getting a constitution in place when what really should be the concern is maybe getting a set of rules in place and doing some kind of discipline training with the Arkers on the ground? I found it hard to believe that everyone went up there thinking they were going to continue living in a democracy. And those assumptions didn't work out so well as it turns out.

I was thinking back too about how telling the story of the Endurance juxtaposed with the scheming of JBF and the breakaway group really brought home how petty and selfish all their actions were by comparison. There is the crew of the Endurance not wanting to die (obviously) but certainly willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure the greater good is achieved. In contrast, JBF is sowing seeds of discontent and encouraging the breakaway Mars mission as well as the splitting up of the Arks.

In a way, I could understand the Arkers having some trouble knowing who to follow and what to do; they're supposed to be very young and maybe not as experienced, but I still marvelled at the number of them so easily swayed by the words of a politician - who broke the accord! And sorry, but they are in space! I would be sticking with the so-called "brain trust" no matter what in that case. They have to know this isn't a situation where you can breakaway and make camp on your own, just go out and forage and find supplies. It's outer space! I just really don't think a lot of them understood the gravity of the situation until it was too late.

I also liked the Ymir story arc in this part. I thought that part was pretty exciting, although I could have done with a bit less science instruction there. But the actual story was intense with everyone sacrificing themselves, and it made all the crap going down at Izzy with JBF and the Arkers look really petty by comparison.

At the end when the Seven Eves were supposedly responsible for recreating everything, I really was wondering how they got all that stuff done with all those babies around and no one to help them look after any of them. That part actually seemed the most unrealistic of all out of everything that happened in this book, to be perfectly honest:)

Part 3

I liked this part quite a bit up until I realized that it wasn't really going to be finished in what I felt was any kind of satisfactory way. I do admit to being a rather generous reader in that I like to give the author a lot of free space as an artist to tell a story in the way that he or she wants to, but I felt a bit unsatisfied at the end here.

And, just as an aside, because it felt that way in the book, what was the point of introducing the idea of the Purpose? Was it Stephenson's attempt at introducing the notion that the ideas of something larger existing is somehow so universal that it survives the death of all known human religions? I wasn't clear on that and it was so vague.

Anyway, my take on the end was that it was vaguely unsatisfying, but, I assume that was the feeling Stephenson wanted to leave his readers with, that is, let your own imagination take over.

Overall, though, I’ve read a lot of SF in the past year and this one still stands out as one of the better ones. In my opinion, it is MUCH better than Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson and it certainly gave me a lot to think about.

I also really enjoyed this and I figured out that these were all narratives of a single life pretty early. What made me think it was the same person is that the narrative of at least two were obviously not on concurrent timelines, and I wondered about the choice to have three distinct life stages of characters like that? Which made me think maybe it was in fact all the same person. Because of that, I read the story quite differently than I otherwise might have.

I was seeing from the start a story of convergence of circumstances that would take the child who is ostensibly rescued/enslaved to become the adult who is accepts/rejects her enslavement to the mother who disavows/reclaims her place as a person with power. I was actively looking for the things in the child and the young woman that would lead to Essun becoming who she is.

I didn't see in advance the revelation that Hoa was the narrator of Essun's journey. I suppose that this book represents us seeing Essun's lifelong preparation for whatever role she is to take in the next book? That is essentially what I saw, but I could be wrong about that.

I read this with Viv and also thought it was great!

I read this earlier this year and really enjoyed it.

Christine wrote: "I just finished The Fifth Season and am puzzled by the ending (but have just learned this is the first of a trilogy). Moving on, I decided not to read Throne of Glass..."

The Obelisk Gate is the next book in the series and comes out August 16!

I'm glad you enjoyed Malice, Christine, I thought it was a really solid first book. Valour is even better both in terms of storyline and pacing, plus there is more focus on female characters, which I felt was lacking in the first book.

This month I started with a new release, Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar. It is a YA coming of age tale about family secrets with strong elements of magical realism. I thought it was very good and a quick read.

Now I'm reading Parasite by Mira Grant.

I'm just reading The Fifth Season right now. It's really good:)

I'm glad you enjoyed Malice, Christine. I think I've mentioned that the series improves with each book.

For SF I would like to nominate Dark Run by Mike Brooks.

For fantasy I would like to nominate Steal the Sky by Megan E. O'Keefe.