Fantasy is often frothy like lace. But Iron Dragon's Mother is gritty: transposing real-world problems like sweatshops and slavery on the canvas of faFantasy is often frothy like lace. But Iron Dragon's Mother is gritty: transposing real-world problems like sweatshops and slavery on the canvas of fantasy. So good....more
“The Power” inverts gender to dig up the roots of power. It’s electrifying; dystopic; poetic—a book of big ideas and religion and identity politics th“The Power” inverts gender to dig up the roots of power. It’s electrifying; dystopic; poetic—a book of big ideas and religion and identity politics that can’t fail to challenge you. And for all that, it was a fun read. So hard to pull off, and Naomi Alderman did. Wow....more
In "Landscape With Invisible Hand" a race of aliens introduce technology to human elites, rendering human technology (and the entire non-alien economyIn "Landscape With Invisible Hand" a race of aliens introduce technology to human elites, rendering human technology (and the entire non-alien economy) worthless. The protagonist--a teenage painter--appeals to the alien fascination with 1950-style love and sells his relationship on alien YouTube, making enough to feed his family, but not enough to cure his digestive disease. "Landscape" is a savage satire for our world of techno-inequality--a transposition of the plight of "developing" nations, or even the contrast between Silicon Valley and rural America. I devoured Anderson's well-crafted prose in a single day, and I loved every moment of it. It was a worthy successor to "Feed."...more
In a world where patent companies control the world, Jack pirates drugs for the poor. In the course of cloning a productivity drug, she accidentally uIn a world where patent companies control the world, Jack pirates drugs for the poor. In the course of cloning a productivity drug, she accidentally unleashes a wave of lethal addictions to banal tasks. But did she make a mistake cloning the drug? No. She learns that big-pharma company Zaxy is trying to expand their reach by addicting high-tech workers to a patented drug—and to their jobs. As Jack races to engineer a cure, Zaxy deploys a military bot and a human partner to hunt her down and keep their trade secrets secret.
Newitz has written a solid 4.5 star book that will influence new-wave cyberpunk worldbuilding for some time to come. She throws out technically-sound details that create an immersive world that is absolutely compelling: from indentured humans and bots to smart knives and ropes; from retinal displays to corrupt and distracted senators; from absolutely credible bot dialog to credible daemons and cryptography.
Newitz's grasp on the current political situation is clear from the world she paints; I have no problem believing we would arrive at this world within a hundred years. It's a sharp indictment of our corporate-controlled world, the Silicon Valley worship of productivity, and the wage-slavery of capitalism.
However, her best-realized and most interesting character is not a human, but Paladin: the hunter-bot. And while other reviewers critiqued the character development, I found her characters more human than the everyman laconic and emotion-free cyberpunk protagonist that is my main critique of the genre. Her characters were real enough to keep my interest.
Spoilers will follow.
Other reviewers have critiqued the use of the word "faggot" by the human hunter Eliaz, primarily to express his own self-loathing for his own robo-sexual desire for Paladin, the hunter-bot. It is clear that Newitz is queer-friendly (all of her protagonists are queer) and, just as portraying a murder does not advocate for murderous behavior, use of the word "faggot" as part of an internal conflict is not advocacy, but part of portraying a dark world and conflicted protagonists.
I considered as I read that Paladin and Eliaz love could potentially be read as a mockery of queer sexuality, but I don't think that analysis holds up. The critique of Paladin's switch from use of male to female pronouns as shallow by analogizing it to a human's gender identification doesn't realize how deeply wrought Paladin is. I don't believe Newitz means this as a commentary on trans pronoun use; this analysis represents the projection of human sexuality onto a totally alien bot experience of identity: ironically the thing that prevents the human from encountering Paladin as it is. In the novel's context, the question of gender identity serves as the human's solicitation of consent, circumventing the obedience programs that enslave Paladin to owner-pleasing desires.
In all, I found this exploration of a new type of sexuality between autonomous beings fascinating. I didn't really put a value judgement on it, because it exists in a hypothetical world with a hypothetical being.
I think it is important to critique worlds that have no interest in social justice, but this is not Newitz's world. Hers is a world so well-realized that its as difficult to project our cultural values onto it....more
I put this aside because it was too gruesome, but picked it up on a friend’s advice. So glad I did. This ended up being one of my favorite reads of 20I put this aside because it was too gruesome, but picked it up on a friend’s advice. So glad I did. This ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2017. It’s exciting and fun throughout, and the end reaches a kind of existential poetry....more
Wyldling Hall reaches out to touch the place where music and magic merge. As musicians or lovers of music, we enter this liminal space and feel it priWyldling Hall reaches out to touch the place where music and magic merge. As musicians or lovers of music, we enter this liminal space and feel it prickling our skin, but when we subject it to our rational thinking, it disappears. Many reviewers called Wylding Hall a "ghost story." But it is, instead, a story of faerie—the music of faerie.
I loved Wyldling Hall. I couldn't put it down. There are times when the suspense and the flashes of otherness feel a little much, but in a mostly good way. You just want to kick through the wall that separates the real from the unreal and see what's behind; to figure out why and how what happened happened; to leave behind the hints, foreshadowing, and illusions that mark the first part of the book.
A folk rock band rents an old mansion, Wyldling Hall, for an extended creative vacation that ends in death. Wyldling Hall is old—very old. It remembers the ancient ceremonies and magics that took place there. Julian is an ambitious young songwriter who digs deep into grimoires and graves for music to ensorcell others. But instead, he himself is ensorcelled. His story is the larger story of the English folk rock of the 1960s: while some plunged into the future, others looked to history to find the mystical paganism of faerie.
Wyldling Hall is spread through many perspectives, told in short flashes. It took me maybe twenty pages of thinking to get the hang of the characters, but after that the perspective switches felt seamless and served to kept me engaged. It was fun to see the same scene through several different points of view, and each of the perspectives felt authentic and clear: a distict personality and voice. The slang and expressions felt authentic to 1960's England, but I have no idea. It feels real: like historical research went into it.
It's a funny book to categorize: part faerie, part historical fiction, part horror, part murder mystery, and part ghost tale. Perhaps this is why I liked it so well. It does magic in a way I haven't encountered yet: in a way that's closer to the way we really experience the numinous through music and sunlight and personal charisma:
"This wasn’t like a dream. It was like being lost: not in the dark, but in the light. Blinding sun through the windows and that fug of smoke from cigs and spliffs, motes in the air like something alive, atoms or insects all silver in the smoke."
Or this: "Have you ever noticed how we accord special privileges, almost magical powers, to people who are beautiful? Particularly if they’re beautiful and talented, like Julian."
Of course it goes absolutely hyperbolic and the fantastic is made real. But it's the sort of real that seems more plausible than elves and dragons. It stays closer to the real, and that's why it's such a gem....more
I could read Le Guin forever. These stories are jewels, all of them. "The Matter of Seggri" is worth the price of the collection alone.I could read Le Guin forever. These stories are jewels, all of them. "The Matter of Seggri" is worth the price of the collection alone....more
This was a fantastic read. Norse mythology is the seed that grew into the sword and sorcery genre. Tolkien, especially, borrowed liberally from Norse This was a fantastic read. Norse mythology is the seed that grew into the sword and sorcery genre. Tolkien, especially, borrowed liberally from Norse mythology. Some of his dwarves' names come straight out of the Poetic Edda.
There's a reason for this. Norse mythology is bloody, ribald, inventive, and funny. Some of these aspects of it have been downplayed in prior tellings, but Gaiman loses no opportunity. His prose is elegant and understated, as always. In each of these tales, he captures the spirit of the characters, the spirit of the story.
I read part of the Prose and Poetic Eddas, and they're very interesting, but nothing can hold a candle to Gaiman. He didn't translate from the original Icelandic, but that doesn't matter. He got it.
I'm going to quote at length from the end of the book, because there's a beauty in this that I want to hold onto. It is, technically, a spoiler, so if you have no idea what Ragnorok is and how it turns out, then you may want to stop reading.
"This is the end. But there is always what will come after the end.
From the gray waters of the ocean, the green earth will arise once more.
The sun will have been eaten, but the sun's daughter will shine in the place of her mother, and the new sun will shine even more brightly than the old, shine with young light and new.
The woman and the man, Life and Life's Yearning, will come out from inside the ash tree that holds the the worlds together. They will feed upon the dew on the green earth, and they will make love, and from their love will spring mankind.
Asgard will be gone, but Idavoll will stand where Asgard once stood, splendid and continual.
Odin's sons Vidar and Vali will arrive in Idavoll. Next will come Thor's sons, Modi and Magni. They will bring Mjolnir between them, because now that Thor is gone it will take two of them to carry it." -Gaiman, Norse Mythology page 263-264
I love this because I worry about life after climate change. Yes, we may all be dead. But life will carry on. If humanity destroys itself, intelligence will again emerge. The end is a new beginning....more
In an age where humans live at the edge of a fecund nuclear wasteland and cast out all things mutant, either vegetable, human, or beast, The ChrysalidIn an age where humans live at the edge of a fecund nuclear wasteland and cast out all things mutant, either vegetable, human, or beast, The Chrysalids tells the story of mutants. It's not a work of hard science fiction. Rather, it is literary, and the future setting is more a mythic backdrop than a scientific visualization of a post-nuclear world. It is a story about change and conservatism, ideology and religion. It's about the way we can learn to hate and fear our own kind for being different. And it's about evolution's clash between the old and the new. It does read as slightly dated, but it portrays a primitive future, so there is a certain timeless quality about it that cannot be ascribed to most of the science fiction written in the 1950s. Great fun. The only slow-ish part is when the uncle starts to describe the history of the world. Necessary, no doubt, a fairly well-timed expository lump--there was sufficient interest drawn before the lump was administered. And it was shortish. Modern readers will have their taste for immediacy largely answered....more
Amazing world building and commentary on race, commodification of the conquered, and cultural expropriation. Sometimes the focus is on the world ratheAmazing world building and commentary on race, commodification of the conquered, and cultural expropriation. Sometimes the focus is on the world rather than on characters and you may feel like: "damn, another character?"...more
Uprooted is a beautifully-written page-turner, a fantasy that speaks to the deep places. You can't put it down.Uprooted is a beautifully-written page-turner, a fantasy that speaks to the deep places. You can't put it down....more
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