Rex just wants to be a good dog. He wants to please his Master. If that involves using his seven-foot frame, razor-sharp teeth and attached machineRex just wants to be a good dog. He wants to please his Master. If that involves using his seven-foot frame, razor-sharp teeth and attached machine guns to intimidate, maim and kill then that's what he'll do, leading his multi-form squad of Dragon (lizard), Honey (bear) and Bees (er, bees) in battle. Unfortunately, it turns out that Master is a war-criminal. What happens when Rex and his squad slip their leash and escape?
This book packs a huge number of ideas into a relatively small size. From the culpability of the enhanced animals, to slavery, to artificial and distributed intelligence, Tchaikovsky keeps the pace going, the ideas coming and the characters sympathetic. Not Master (aka Jonas Murry). He's possibly the fictional character I've most wanted to see dead within a page of meeting. But Rex and his colleagues are just wonderful creations. Honey is over-engineered and gains far more intelligence that she was expected to. Rex comes to rely upon and trust her. The distributed intelligence that is Bees is a fascinating idea. And as for Rex himself, he's absolutely adorable. All he ever wants to be is a Good Dog. Even when you realise that he's killing civilians at the orders of Master, he retains your sympathy.
And a definite tip of the hat to Tchaikovsky here, as much of the book is first person from Rex's perspective, and seeing Rex's voice evolve over the course of the book is fantastic. When we first meet him, he's got little vocabulary and limited cognitive capacity, which is reflected in his writing style. As the book goes on, and Rex is forced into more leadership decisions and has to evolve his thinking, his narrative and vocabulary become correspondingly more complex as well. It's very well written.
(view spoiler)[I think the idea towards the end of the book of humans getting hierarchy chips was not entirely unexpected, but the horror for came in those who were arguing that they weren't a bad idea; in effect arguing for the return of slavery. And the idea of the top of the hierarchy being the corporation, and not a single individual was inspired (and terrifying). (hide spoiler)]
Don't let anyone tell you any differently, Rex, you are the best boy!...more
This was an interesting collection of folk- and fairy-tales from across Scotland. Most of them are very short, only a few pages each, which hardlyThis was an interesting collection of folk- and fairy-tales from across Scotland. Most of them are very short, only a few pages each, which hardly leaves any space for characterisation or plot development. There's a lot of repetition within stories as well - the power of three crops up again and again where the hero must do things three times to get the effect. I imagine this works better in the oral tradition than written down. There are also variations on well-known stories (including Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin) and lots of very traditional roles (princess offered in marriage as a prize for the hero recurs often).
But it's interesting to read older versions of some of these traditional stories to see how they've evolved over time and where there are seeds for other stories. It's also nice (if somewhat surprising) to see several stories featuring Finn McCool, who's more closely associated with Irish mythology....more
The country of Iraden has been protected by the god known as The Raven for centuries. Now war is coming to Iraden, the Raven's Lease is dying and theThe country of Iraden has been protected by the god known as The Raven for centuries. Now war is coming to Iraden, the Raven's Lease is dying and the Lease's Heir returns to the capital to take his place. Alongside him comes his aide, Eolo, and their world will crumble and change around them.
This is a really interesting book. It's told in a strange combination of the first and second person. I'm not normally a fan of the use of the second person, but because of the way the narrative is being told here, it's not immediately the reader that is the "you", but the narrator telling a story in the present tense to Eolo. It's interesting and clever and I find it works. I also really like the narrator and their story - they are a god, one of many that roam this world. The magic system of the world is really interesting as well: the gods have magic in that they can only speak the truth. If they say something that wasn't true before, their words will make it so (if they have the power, otherwise it could kill them).
The narrator weaves their own story with that of Eolo and his master; and, I must confess, that I found the epic story of gods across the ages more interesting than petty power-broking and politicking in the present. At least, until the two stories started to converge.
Because it's Ann Leckie and it's expected to be mentioned, there is some playing with gender, although it's limited to Eolo being a trans man, and being pretty universally accepted as such.
I certainly enjoyed the book (I must confess I still don't understand the implications of the turning of the stone) and would welcome an expansion of the universe, although it seems that the story here is pretty self-contained and complete....more
After losing her first love Yugo, Alita abandons her old life and throws herself into the sport of motorball, rising up the ranks pretty quickly. SheAfter losing her first love Yugo, Alita abandons her old life and throws herself into the sport of motorball, rising up the ranks pretty quickly. She challenges the reigning champion, Jasugun, to a match, and in the course of that, she learns more about her past.
I didn't find Alita hugely likeable in this volume. After the fairly bubbly personality from volume one, she goes full emo here, as she abandons Ido (even ignoring him when he comes looking for her), wanting to forget her loss. Ido finds new family with the trusting young woman Shumira and her brother, who he helps when he has seizures.
I've mostly never felt that the characters in this series are sexualised. Even when Alita isn't wearing clothes, she's very clearly more machine than person, and the images (to me) don't feel sexual. Which is why a full-frontal nude scene of Shumira in the shower felt so out of place. As well as feeling unnecessary, it felt entirely gratuitous and not required for the plot at all.
Some of the action scenes are still difficult to follow, and I thought it got confusing towards the end. I'm still not entirely sure how the fight between Alita and Jasugun played out. But there was some tantalising back-story in there, and the art does remain pretty, quite distinctive and very evocative....more
While searching the Scrapyard in which he lives for cybernetic parts, Dr Ido finds the dormant, but still-living, head and torso of a young woman. HeWhile searching the Scrapyard in which he lives for cybernetic parts, Dr Ido finds the dormant, but still-living, head and torso of a young woman. He carries her home and installs her in a new cyborg body. The woman has lost her memory, so Ido names her Alita and she sets about learning more about the world that she finds herself, and the uncanny martial arts ability that she seems to have, even if she has no other memories.
I encountered Alita first in the form of the Hollywood film which I enjoyed enough to look for the manga it was based on. That led me to the beautiful box set of hard backs of which this is volume 1. The plot of the film more or less mirrors this first volume, with mysterious references to the leader of Zalem taken out. The art is very pretty and I really enjoyed the few colour pages at the start of each chapter (although those seemed to peter out towards the end). In saying that, though, sometimes, it isn't always easy to follow the direction of an action sequence. And it's very violent. When the only death that matters is brain death, the body is disposable, and treated as such, leading to various kinds of dismemberment, removal of spinal cords and worse.
We get almost nothing of Alita's history before she falls into the Scrapyard in this volume. I assume that's still to come. We also only get a tiny hint of Ido's history. I look forward to finding out more about both....more
The world in which Irene grew up is in danger of turning towards chaos, and she must retrieve a book from another world to stabilise it. However, thatThe world in which Irene grew up is in danger of turning towards chaos, and she must retrieve a book from another world to stabilise it. However, that book is owned by a Fae who demands that she steal a painting for him in exchange for the book. Irene and Kai now have to work as part of a larger team to steal the painting, as long as they don't kill each other first.
I do love a good heist story, so I enjoyed the painting theft. It involved a classic trope of collecting experts in different fields together who don't trust each other and watch them in a delicate balance of collaboration and betrayal to achieve the objective. Great fun to read.
For me, the stakes were lessened a bit, because this is really the first time that we've really heard Irene talking in any great detail about this world where she went to school, so we aren't as invested in it as she is. But that's more than made up for by the story of the painting, and the secret that it hides. And we do also get to meet Irene's parents and discover just how dysfunctional a family they are, while still loving each other dearly.
Cogman is great at writing action scenes. The chase with the dragon is fantastic, and she obviously has a lot of fun writing Fae who are within their strong archetypes. Mr Nemo is a fantastic character, something between information broker and Bond villain (complete with Island lair) and the other members of the gang have their own charms. I'd love to see more of Ernst, in particular.
The hints thrown in here about dragon back-story, and the setup for the future at the end has me excitedly looking forward to the next book. Almost no Vale in this book, but that's about the only negative I've got....more
A funeral is an occasion for Nightingale to suggest that Peter Grant do some reading in the Folly archives, and what he finds sheds a bit of light onA funeral is an occasion for Nightingale to suggest that Peter Grant do some reading in the Folly archives, and what he finds sheds a bit of light on his governor's mysterious past. This is quite a slight story, but it's nice to see a bit of what went on with the Folly in the years before Peter, when Nightingale was the only official wizard in England. This sheds little light on the time during the War, which is sort of the period that I'm most curious about, but a post-war event.
(view spoiler)[This story, set mostly in 1957, and touching on the Windscale fire that was the turning point of the British love affair with all things nuclear, is interesting and fun, but I'm sort of disappointed that Nightingale didn't get to take on Fischer properly. We've seen magician to magician battles so rarely (the Faceless Man is about the only worthy opponent that we've seen in the books, and he couldn't come close to touching Nightingale in a fair fight) that it felt like a missed opportunity. (hide spoiler)]
The main artist of the series has changed with this volume, losing some of the distinctive "cartoon-iness" of the series. The replacement is decent and workmanlike and, no doubt, I'll get used to it, but I do miss Lee Sullivan's work.
So a fun story, all in all, but not essential, and not as much a delve into Nightingale's psyche as I might have hoped for....more
The First Doctor, Ben and Polly find themselves in a hollowed-out asteroid, along with a group special forces in training - and ten of the EarthThe First Doctor, Ben and Polly find themselves in a hollowed-out asteroid, along with a group special forces in training - and ten of the Earth empire's most wanted terrorists, dead. And then people (and corpses) start disappearing...
This is an interesting adventure with the First Doctor. This edition, part of a set for the 50th anniversary, has a new foreword by the author where he talks about the inspirations that brought the story together. Although he plays up the Agatha Christie connections, it felt like Starship Troopers or Aliens were the stronger elements. It was difficult to keep track of the marines, and some of them didn't have hugely distinct personalities. Some of Ben's comments about the races and sexes of the marines weren't exactly endearing either, and I'm glad that Polly pulled him up on those.
I quite enjoyed the choose-your-own-adventure section. It was unexpected and an interesting way to get into each of the characters' heads. In the end, though, the plot felt unnecessarily convoluted, in a way that Christie's rarely do and I still don't quite understand it. There's also a huge amount of blood and gore. Certainly more than I would have expected from a Doctor Who story (especially the First Doctor). One scene where someone was literally torn limb from limb was especially distasteful.
Volume 7 of Gunnerkrigg Court collects chapters 60-68 of the fabulous webcomic. It starts where volume 6 left off, finishing the story of Jeanne thatVolume 7 of Gunnerkrigg Court collects chapters 60-68 of the fabulous webcomic. It starts where volume 6 left off, finishing the story of Jeanne that ended the previous volume. After that, we have a couple of chapters of fallout, first with the fairies and then with Kat and her father. Anja spends a chapter telling a story of how Annie's mum and dad fell in love. We also have the formal introductions of Juliette and Arthur and the Shadow Men organisation (and, may I say, that these two are a somewhat delightful pair) before the story moves on to what seems like its next phase: Coyote's gift to Ysengrim and the emergence of Loup.
At times, reading the story online, page by page, three times a week you can sort of lose track of its threads. Reading a large chunk in one go not only reminds you of why you love the characters, but helps clarify the story again. And the story is still hugely engaging. I thought that the end of the Jeanne storyline would be the beginning of the end, but instead Siddell has found really interesting new directions to take the comic, and I'm glad of it. It means I get to spend more time with Annie, Kat and all the rest (even Anthony)....more
With the core group separated, Maika finds her way to her father and learns about his plans in the upcoming war, as well as about Zinn. Kippa has herWith the core group separated, Maika finds her way to her father and learns about his plans in the upcoming war, as well as about Zinn. Kippa has her own adventures and while it seems that her gifts are awakening, she has lost nothing of the sweetness and belief in others that make her my favourite character by a mile: "I can't abandon people because they make mistakes - I would have to abandon myself" is an example of what makes her so. Despite all she's been though, all the betrayal, this is still how she thinks, and I love her for it.
The complex storyline does make it difficult to keep track of who's who, who's currently allied with who and who's in the middle of betraying who. I look forward to the story being completed, so that I can go back and read the whole thing in one go.
Takeda's art is still utterly delightful. The manga-inspired style fits the story well and brings the whole thing alive. Roll on the next volume!...more
Riffing off the story of the Pied Piper, here Pratchett has more animals become intelligent after hanging around Unseen University too long. FirstRiffing off the story of the Pied Piper, here Pratchett has more animals become intelligent after hanging around Unseen University too long. First it's the rats, and then Maurice, a cat. The rats may be clever, but Maurice is streetwise. They band together, along with a stupid-looking-kid™ to do the old plague of rats trick on unsuspecting towns, but in Bad Blintz, they find something very unexpected, and very dark.
Maurice is a fun character. While I'm not their biggest fan, Pratchett really gets cats and he writes a good one. The rat Dangerous Beans, on the other hand, is at least partially well named. As Darktan realises, he makes maps of the earth, while Dangerous Beans makes maps for the mind. He thinks the thoughts that the others don't. He's an idealist, and a visionary and a naive young thing. He's a wonderful creation.
In the character of Malicia, Pratchett takes another swipe at those who get too carried away by stories and storytelling. This was a central theme of Witches Abroad and while it's somewhat less subtle here than it was in that book, the point is well made, and the character is very fun to read.
I think this was the first Discworld novel "for younger readers", preceding the Tiffany Aching books. I've put 'for younger readers' in quotes since at times this book can feel very dark, covering, as it does, topics including faith, its gaining and loss, ageing, hate and man's inhumanity to anything it considers 'other'. Despite this, it retains Pratchett's trademark lightness of touch and humour. An older (or less sensitive younger) child will devour this, as will adults.
Ragnarók has come and gone. The Aesir, including the trickster Loki, aren't dead, but are trapped in the Netherworld. It wouldn't make for much of aRagnarók has come and gone. The Aesir, including the trickster Loki, aren't dead, but are trapped in the Netherworld. It wouldn't make for much of a story if Loki didn't escape, of course, and he duly does, straight into the body of a 17 year old girl. Not his ideal body, but it's something to work with, even if his host is neurotic and full of emotions - i.e. a typical teenage girl. The thing is, Loki isn't the only one to escape, and he'll need all his guile and cunning to survive.
I had enjoyed The Gospel of Loki some time ago, which retold the Norse mythology from Loki's point of view. This continues the story after the end of the world, which, it turns out, isn't the end of the Worlds. Jump, the girl that Loki, er, jumps into is a sympathetic character and the rapport that develops between her and Loki is pleasurable to read.
The plot was pretty slow to get going, with a lot crammed into the third act, which sometimes made it a bit difficult to keep up towards the end. I would have liked to see more of the interactions between Loki, Jump and Meg, but the latter was there more to drive the plot than provide character depth.
The book is very readable, with short chapters and Loki is a compelling narrator, if entirely unreliable. There are plenty of hooks for a sequel and I'd certainly be up for more his adventures....more
Like its predecessor, Glasgow: Mapping the City, this book is meticulously researched and does exactly what it says on the tin. It consists ofLike its predecessor, Glasgow: Mapping the City, this book is meticulously researched and does exactly what it says on the tin. It consists of various maps of and around the river Clyde, providing different insights to the river valley and firth. The maps are organised by theme, with early historical maps of the river coming first, followed by sections on navigating and improving the channel, military-related maps, agricultural and commercial maps, those indicating the bridging and fording of the river, tourism and leisure, and finally, mapping around the towns along the Clyde.
Obviously, I'm most interested in those maps that focus on Glasgow (and there's some overlap with the previous book in that regard) and the maps from elsewhere along the river, especially the military ones (which tended to be quite technical) were less interesting. There's also less scope for interesting sociological maps in this book, although it still manages to include maps relating to sewage disposal (I didn't know that for many years, waste would be loaded on to barges in the Clyde and driven out to be disposed of out where the firth meets the sea) and the orchards of Lanarkshire.
There's no skimping on the physical artefact either. Although slightly too large to hold comfortably, the large pages mean lots of detail in the glossy full-colour maps. I'd recommend having a magnifying glass to hand as well, to zoom in on the detail as you're poring over the immaculate reproductions.
So not as personally interesting to me as its predecessor, but still an excellent resource on the cartography of Clydesdale and the firth of Clyde....more
I read this novella immediately after finishing The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With her Mind and the contrast couldn't be more extreme. From the short,I read this novella immediately after finishing The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With her Mind and the contrast couldn't be more extreme. From the short, clean prose and breathless action of the former to the leisurely pace and beautifully crafted letters of this, about the only thing the two have in common is the short chapters.
Red and Blue are agents on opposing sides of a war that rages through time. Against orders and, indeed, common sense, they strike up a correspondence that slowly turns into something more.
The time war is very much a background to the evolving relationship between Red and blue. In the early chapters they taunt each other after after thwarting the other's plans, but the tone of the letters shifts as the backgrounds do and the reader comes to care for these two extraordinary individuals as they come to care for each other.
I loved reading this book. The language is beautiful and is something to savour. Short as it is, it took a while to read it first time round, partially because of a lack of time, and partially because I was reading it slowly. After finishing it, I went back and read it again, much more quickly, which gave me a stronger overall view of it, and the references which had passed me by the first time (as I'd forgotten the details of the earlier chapter by the time I got to the payoff later).
The two sides in the war are mostly stereotypical views of opposing SF worldviews: the technological Agency vs the Garden of bioengineering. While I would love to know more about them and the war, that's not this book. This book is all about Red and Blue and paints them as a microcosm for the wider conflict. If you accept that, this is a very rewarding read....more
I got this book recommended to me by a friend as the opposite of grimdark fantasy. I enjoyed quite a lot of it, but I did have some trouble with it atI got this book recommended to me by a friend as the opposite of grimdark fantasy. I enjoyed quite a lot of it, but I did have some trouble with it at times. For a start, I understand the book was self-published, which is all very well, but I do feel like the author could have done with an editor at times; many passages felt obtuse and I had to read them several times before I had a decent idea of what they meant. Something else that I found grating was the deliberate refusal to provide genders for characters. I have no problem with this in principle, but please use constructs like "they/them" or one of the other sets of adjectives. Repeatedly using the characters' names in a sentence to avoid he/she just felt clunky. It also didn't help that Saunders is very fond of archaic or jargonistic language. I'm really glad that I was reading on a Kindle, so I could consult the built-in dictionary (which I found myself doing more frequently than I would have liked). Expanding one's vocabulary is all very well, but it did start to feel like hard work at times.
Speaking of hard work, Saunders really throws you in at the deep end and leaves you to sink or swim. There's no hand-holding going on here. We start with a military man of some kind expecting (sorcerous) visitors to his area and rapidly go on from there to repealing a military invasion from another country. What the Commonweal is, what a Standard-Captain is, or the focus, or the Shape of Peace are things you're left to figure out for yourself. There's no harm in making the reader work for their story, but this, combined with the editing issues I mention above mean that it took a while for me to get through this book. I still don't know if I'll go on to the others in the series.
But despite that, my friend was right: I did enjoy the shape of this story, in which an egalitarian, democratic nation exists in the midst of its more traditional fantasy neighbours. Where extremely powerful (basically immortal) sorcerers, who used to behave like Dark Lords in the past, agree to bind themselves into the nation for the greater good. In a world filling up with strongmen and "leaders" whose only goal in power is to stay in power, it's good to have examples to look up to....more
Unlike a lot of reviewers here, I didn't pick up this book because of the (admittedly rather eye-catching) title. I'd seen a positive review of it inUnlike a lot of reviewers here, I didn't pick up this book because of the (admittedly rather eye-catching) title. I'd seen a positive review of it in a magazine and was browsing a bookshop looking for something to cheer me up after a visit to the dentist. This caught my eye and I picked it up, and I'm rather glad that I did. It's a lot of fun. Our protagonist, Teagan Frost, is the eponymous girl, and she's working for a shady government agency as the only alternative to being vivisected by said government. She's got a team around her, but as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that everybody in that team has their own secret. She has to navigate that whilst also being framed for a murder that could only be done by someone with her powers. And she's the only one who can do that... isn't she?
This book rarely lets up the pace, with almost every one of the (very short) chapters ending on a cliffhanger, urging you on to see what ridiculous situation Teagan has found herself in now. Teagan's chapters are narrated in the first person, but there is another viewpoint as well, that of Jake - the other psychokinetic[1]. You start off being sympathetic to Jake, who's had a rough life and doesn't know where he came from. But you very quickly see him doing horrible things, all to find out more about his history. He displays a complete lack of any empathy and has no self-awareness. I'm very glad that his chapters are in the third person. I don't think I could bear to spend time closer to him than that.
The team around Teagan get more characterisation than I was expecting in a novel of this nature, although her love-interest doesn't fare quite as well. Teagan herself has a fun narrative voice and is enjoyable to spend time with. I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
[1] the book always calls it psychokinesis, not telekinesis, even correcting someone who uses the latter term, but never explains the difference; and the Wikipedia article suggests what Teagan does is closer to the latter than the former...more
The second volume in K. M. Munshi's interpretation of Sri Krishna's story sees his (mostly) indirect battle with the emperor Jarasandha, whoseThe second volume in K. M. Munshi's interpretation of Sri Krishna's story sees his (mostly) indirect battle with the emperor Jarasandha, whose son-in-law he killed at the end of the first volume, and whose empire is now threatened. In between, Krishna and his brother Balarama have many adventures, make many friends, and forge the weapons that they would become known for.
I mostly knew the structure of the story in The Magic Flute, but this book tells stories of Krishna that I was completely unaware of. That he boards a pirate ship and displaces the captain; his sailing to a city of snake-goddess-worshipping women and freeing his tutor's son from captivity as the princess's husband; his joining the Garuda people and curing the paralysis of their prince. These are rip-roaring adventures and I'm really surprised that I haven't heard of them.
There's also quite deep political dealings, as he has to deal with Jarasandha's attempts to strengthen his alliance and destroy the Yadava people and their city. This mostly has to do with various arranged marriages of princesses, and the desire of Princess Rukmini to marry Krishna, rather than be a tool of her brother and the emperor.
Following on from the first volume, Munshi continues to take a rather naturalistic line with his story, playing down the supernatural elements in other variations of the myth. His Rakshasas are barbarians who don't respect Dharma, rather than literal demons. And his Garuda people are people who claim descent from a giant eagle, but who are just people who wear bird masks. This is an interesting interpretation of a myth that can sometimes be presented as much larger than life.
The treatment of women is sort of mixed. For every Revati (a giantess warrior princess whose country Balarama helps liberate), there are others who are there purely to be symbols of lust and desire and the path away from Dharma. Perhaps not unexpected in a myth this old, but still not pleasant.
If one can leave that aside, however, this is an exciting tale of adventure and politics, with the path of Dharma at the centre of it....more
I'm always a little wary of sequels to books that don't necessarily seem to need them, but I loved this. Audrey Camhurst is Isabella's granddaughterI'm always a little wary of sequels to books that don't necessarily seem to need them, but I loved this. Audrey Camhurst is Isabella's granddaughter and is struggling to overcome her famous family name and make her own mark on the world of philology, so she jumps at the chance to translate some recently uncovered ancient Draconean texts. Of course, it's not as straightforward as that, and soon she, and her fellow scholar Kudshayn, are drawn into a conspiracy that could incite war.
We've jumped forward in time by a couple of generations, (maybe now the equivalent of our inter-war period?) and the technology and social mores have moved accordingly. There are now motor cars and telephones, and people willing to address each other by their first names!
The book is written in an epistolary format, with diary entries, newspaper articles and letters from a variety of different people, although Audrey is our main PoV, with the Draconean Kudshayn the secondary. What they find as they translate the tablets is the founding myth of the ancient Draconean people, and seeing how this shapes the thinking of these two individuals, especially the priest-scholar Kudshayn is fascinating, given that what he learns impacts on his faith.
The characters are all great. I had a soft spot for Cora, Audrey's assistant, as being someone we would recognise as being on the spectrum. Even Audrey's one-time beau, Aaron Mornett has depth, and both Audrey and Kudshayn are painted in some depth. Audrey is driven by her famous family. Unlike her sister, she doesn't want to be involved with Society, she wants to be an academic, in a field which her family have basically created out of whole cloth. She especially worships her grandmother, although she doesn't always take the right moral from her adventures. What Would Grandmama Do is often on her lips.
The keystone of the plot really lies along the lines of attempts to resist the changing of the world, and the ways in which "moderate" bigots can be as dangerous, if not moreso, than the sort who shout their opinions to the world. Very much a lesson for our time. But also a reminder that there will always be people willing to stand up to the bigots and show how we can, together, turn darkness into light....more
I'd heard some good buzz about this book but had known nothing about it when I picked it up. Nahri is a young woman who doesn't believe in magic andI'd heard some good buzz about this book but had known nothing about it when I picked it up. Nahri is a young woman who doesn't believe in magic and makes a living conning the rich in 18th century Cairo. All she wants is to make enough money to get out of Cairo. Well, be careful what you wish for, because when she accidentally summons a djinn warrior to her side, she starts a journey that ends in the eponymous city of the title, and she learns about her family's past and that her conning ways haven't necessarily prepared her for court intrigues.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel of magic, politics and good old-fashioned trickery. Nahri thinks she's world-wise, but she's lost amongst the djinn of Daevabad, relying on her warrior Dara, and later on prince Ali who befriends her. She's an interesting character, strong on the outside, but with the vulnerability of someone who's never been able to rely on anyone or allow themselves to love.
Ali is interesting in a different way. He is sympathetic to those without pure djinn blood in Daevabad (the shafit), who are treated as second class citizens at best, and this sympathy leads him down paths that his more politically astute brother would never sanction. He's also the most religiously devout character in the book, which can sometimes have him seeming like a wet blanket, as he refuses the wine and women that surround the rest of the nobility. This rigidity can sometimes make him difficult, especially in his dealings with the religion of Nahri's people, but his actions, to both the shafit and to Nahri, keep him sympathetic.
The warrior, Dara, is probably the least developed character, falling into the cliche of the mysterious warrior with a troubled past. He is devoted to Nahri from early in their relationship but inflexible in his thinking.
There's a lot going on here, and keeping tribes, races and the various politics clear in my head wasn't always easy. It's going to be some time before the next book is out in paperback, so I imagine I'll have forgotten most of it by the time that comes around, and the same for the final book in the series. This is very much the end of an act though, and not a fully contained story in itself. It's a great story though, and with plenty to hold interest and many hooks for future books....more
A macguffin is discovered in space at just the right time: the world is increasingly united and peaceful. So with resources to spare, a convoy of nineA macguffin is discovered in space at just the right time: the world is increasingly united and peaceful. So with resources to spare, a convoy of nine ships, collectively known as Noumenon, is launched to investigate. Even with FTL, this mission will take several generations to complete, so the crew is carefully chosen and then cloned for the duration of the mission to preserve skills and abilities over the duration.
I really enjoyed this story. We start on Earth, after the discovery of the macguffin (a weird star) and the planning phase of the mission. From then on, we revisit the convoy at various points in its history, as the the society changes in ways both envisioned by its designers and ways that weren't. Throughout, the Inter Convoy Computer (ICC) watches over the crew, and several of the segments in the book are from ICC's point of view.
One thing that I think the book never fully addressed was the idea that we are defined by our genes. This is patently untrue: two identical twins can have very different personalities. The idea that a clone of a person will have their aptitudes and skills, even with education and training being bent in a specific direction, seems dodgy to me. And then we get to a point where several gene lines are discontinued entirely, because one of the clones of the line has done something that the convoy society disapproves of (whether that's mental health issues or attempted mutiny). This seems an odd decision given that there's a closed gene pool to start with, with specifically defined roles, and, as I say, an individual is more than their genes. I do wish the book had addressed this more.
But that's one issue in an otherwise excellent book that spans many human lifespans but still spends enough time at each stop to make us care about each individual, as well as the society of the convoy as a whole....more
I started this book back in the summer, but put it down for a long period because I could see what was coming and it felt "cringe-y". I did eventuallyI started this book back in the summer, but put it down for a long period because I could see what was coming and it felt "cringe-y". I did eventually pick it up again, and I'm glad I did. As much as anything, the writing is poetic and beautiful to read, as much as for the story.
Our protagonist is a young woman of the travelling folk, who travels in all manner of birds and beasts, not tied to anyone or anything. Until she falls in love with a young prince. An inevitable betrayal and revenge follows, but it's the journey that it takes that is worth staying for.
Based on some of the Child ballads, the story is simple enough, and Harris's embellishments and feminist reading make for an interesting interpretation. As I say, the writing is a pleasure to read, and helps raise the fairly simple story to something greater. Also, the art, even in my Kindle edition, is gorgeous....more
This a fun wee story about a Goblin just minding his own business, doing his Goblin-y things (mostly involving being picked on by other Goblins) whenThis a fun wee story about a Goblin just minding his own business, doing his Goblin-y things (mostly involving being picked on by other Goblins) when a group of adventurers come into his mountain, kill the other members of the scouting party and capture him to be their guide further into the mountain.
As other reviewers have noted, there's a strong influence from D&D-style roleplaying involved here (it was, actually, one of the reasons I picked it up - in one of my group's RPGs, we encountered a stray Goblin child and adopted him as our mascot for the party). Jig here is a fun character, a Goblin who is actually competent and refuses to just barge in and try and kill things, while also stabbing his own colleagues in the back (something his fellows despise him for). He grows as a character a lot during his time with his captives and even bonds with one of them. Not being particularly strong or fast, he has to think his way out of situations, and he does so with flair.
A fun wee fantasy story, with a heavy D&D influence that's easy to read, with a sympathetic protagonist. It certainly makes me re-evaluate my actions as a PC in our D&D campaign!...more
Pale Blue Dot starts with an expanded version of Sagan's famous speech and then deconstructs any notion that the Earth, or the human species, has anyPale Blue Dot starts with an expanded version of Sagan's famous speech and then deconstructs any notion that the Earth, or the human species, has any privileged position in the cosmos. From the idea that the Earth is the centre of the universe to the idea that humans were created as its caretakers. In each chapter, Sagan starts with a well-defined thesis and then walks us through his thinking, never straying into technical arguments, but keeping that open, everyman approach that he was so well-known for.
He talks about the planets visited by the Voyagers before turning to the idea of human settlements on other worlds in our solar system. He discusses (and dismisses) a number of possible reasons for human space exploration and settlement, keeping his strongest arguments back for the final chapters. In these, he strongly argues that over geological time, there will be events that will shatter a civilisation based solely on a single planet, and, for the safety of our species, we need to migrate - not only to the rocky worlds, but to near earth asteroids and the Oort cloud - to small worlds that we could learn to move around, to avoid any collisions with the mother world, and, in the final chapter, he lets his imagination soar and imagines a human civilisation that spans the galaxy.
Sagan's ideas, and the words in which he expresses them, are delightful and awe-inspiring. He rightly predicts the idea of robotic explorers of Mars sending back such detailed pictures that you could sit in your bedroom, and virtually travel over its surface. While I sometimes think he thinks better of our species than we deserve, maybe the events of the second half of the 2010s have just made me cynical. And if you want to read something completely lacking in cynicism, and brimming with hope and optimism then this is it....more
In 2050s Oxford, time travel is used to send historians back to observe the past first-hand, confident that they can't alter history. Kivrin is to beIn 2050s Oxford, time travel is used to send historians back to observe the past first-hand, confident that they can't alter history. Kivrin is to be sent further back than ever before, to the Medieval period. But a combination of bad luck and disease means that she's stranded there for longer than she had intended, and she's not in the 1320s, as she expected, but in Black Death-ridden 1348.
In a quirk of coincidence, I had just finished Philip Ziegler's The Black Death just before starting this, which gave me some background and understanding of the disease and made me appreciate Willis' research.
This is a big book. It's nearly 600 pages long, and it runs at a sedate pace for most of that. Split into three parts internally, the first two are really all about getting to know the characters, from Kivrin in the past, along with the villagers that she comes to live amongst, to Dunworthy in the future, as he runs himself ragged trying to sort out the mistake that stranded her. This slow build up is worth it as in the final part, Willis carefully and clinically starts to use the threads that she's painstakingly created in the previous four hundred odd pages to take a hatchet to your heart.
The future Oxford that Willis imagines feels closer to the Oxford of the 1950s, not the 2050s, with quaint independent colleges, fussy secretaries and political bickering and point-scoring that sometimes extends into full-blown warfare. It's also interesting to see how self-absorbed everyone in Oxford is, with Gilchrist's ambition, the Americans' bell-ringing, Finch's obsession with lavatory paper and even Dunworthy's attempts to get someone to read the time travel machine logs after his tech, Badri, fell ill. They all feel myopic, which is ironic, given the nature of what they're doing: travelling in time to understand the broad sweep of history.
Kivrin's adventures are of the small-scale, domestic variety, as she comes to live amongst a family who have been sent away from the city. We get to know them as she does and we get to care for them as she does. And through it all, you've got in the back of your mind where and when she is and you hope, as she does, once she finds out the truth, that the plague will pass her village by and spare those whom she cares about.
(view spoiler)[And as the plague does hit her village, each death is a blow. We find ourselves counting them along with Kivrin, relying on the statistics, that each death is "enough". And as they keep falling, towards the inevitable, we find ourselves as ragged as Kivrin becomes, raging against fate and any deity that would allow this to happen. The clinical description of Agnes' death and the final blow of Father Roche in particular are heartbreaking. (hide spoiler)]
A slow but powerful novel that draws out its characters and doesn't flinch from the brutality of the era....more
**spoiler alert** I found it difficult to engage with this book at all, I'm afraid. I loved the idea of mobile cities (long before Mortal Engines),**spoiler alert** I found it difficult to engage with this book at all, I'm afraid. I loved the idea of mobile cities (long before Mortal Engines), who had kicked out their inhabitants, and yet yearned for citizens to fill their streets and be lived in. I found the characters not hugely engaging, but most of all I found the end unsatisfying.
With the final of the three linked novellas pulling together threads and characters from the previous stories, and the appearance of (a simulacrum of) the architect Robert Khan, who had created the cities, I felt like there would be change. Instead, we're left with stasis. Nothing changes at the end; entropy wins. The living cities all die, religious zealotry prevents the improvement of the lot of the people of God-Does-Battle, and the city part Jeshua is left completely alone on Earth.
I didn't entirely understand the whole thing with the multiple versions of Khan, but it seemed like his plan was to create matter transportation bridges to move the entire population (along with possibly the rest of the human race?) to a giant sphere, where they'll exist in energy form. Or something? But the fanatic Matthew decided that God had decreed that everyone had to stay where they were, so he destroyed two of the cities that were to take part. And what was up with Thule? I still don't understand that at all. Is the moral that gnosticism is bad...?
So some good ideas, but a muddy and disappointing (not to mention pretty bleak) ending....more
In the third volume of the incredibly pretty Monstress, Maika and her pals enter yet another city while looking for answers. This time, Zinn, theIn the third volume of the incredibly pretty Monstress, Maika and her pals enter yet another city while looking for answers. This time, Zinn, the monster living inside her, pretty much manifests itself whole and remains connected to her only by tendrils. By now it feels like the whole world is looking for Maika, and the constant running is getting a bit exhausting (and I'm just reading).
There's a focus on Kippa that hasn't been there before, as she continues to prove that she's the best, sweetest and kindest character in the whole series. I fear that even if she doesn't die, her innocence will. The cat, Ren, here is quite interesting. I'm conflicted by him. He's betrayed Maika in the past, but it's hinted here that he's not entirely acting of his own volition and I'll be interested to see where that goes.
Once again, Maika continues to make poor decisions, and sometimes it feels like she's a sulky teenager. She's got the attitude and the manners, although she does also have the strength to rip you limb from limb (quite literally). This, tied to anger management issues, causes a problem. I don't find her hugely sympathetic, to be honest.
I'm glad that I read the whole three volumes in pretty quick succession, since otherwise I think I would really have struggled with all the different factions, who's currently betraying whom and who or what is currently possessed by tentacled horrors with too many eyes.
The storytelling and panel layout sometimes felt a little muddled and it took a few reads of a few pages to figure out the structure and what was going on. Despite this, the art remains absolutely stunning and the little comic drawing of Seizi cuddling a young Maika at the back is worth the price alone....more
The second volume of Monstress is just as lushly illustrated as the first. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of art. It can also be incrediblyThe second volume of Monstress is just as lushly illustrated as the first. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of art. It can also be incredibly violent and grotesque at times as well, so beware, if you have problems with that.
Maika Halfwolf, the fox cub that she rescued in volume one and the cat, Master Ren, have travelled to the pirate city of Thyria in search of answers about Maika's past and her mother, as well as of the mask fragment that she carries and the monster living inside her. Their search takes them to the Isle of Bones and yet more questions.
I find Maika both inspiringly strong-willed and frustratingly stubborn. She makes poor decisions and fails to make sure of those around her who might offer her aid. And yet, we still feel for her. We learn more about the creature inside her in this volume and we get more of Kippa, who is the innocent caught in the centre of all this. The way things are going, I fear for her, before the series is over. There's machinations between different political factions and war grows ever closer.
For all its unyielding hardness and its violence, the core story here is intriguing, and the world-building remains excellent. Combined with Sana Takeda's incredible art, I look forward to the next volume....more
This novella is a bit more substantial than The Furthest Station and is the first mainstream work that moves away from the PoV of Peter Grant.This novella is a bit more substantial than The Furthest Station and is the first mainstream work that moves away from the PoV of Peter Grant. Looking at the GR series for the Rivers of London I did notice the name of Tobias Winter though, so it turns out that this wasn't his appearance in the series, even if the previous one was a flash fiction piece on Aaronovitch's blog summarising the lead up to Tobias becoming a practitioner.
In this novella, Tobias is well on that journey, and is sent to investigate the potentially magical death of a man in the city of Trier. His local liaison is Vanessa Sommer (and more than one person cracks a joke at the expense of Winter and Sommer) who turns out to be competent, enthusiastic and ambitious.
Although we're not in London any more, the local river goddess does make an appearance and Tobias is a decent enough Peter Grant substitute. I do miss the familiar crowd though. I liked both Tobias and Vanessa, but the former doesn't really have a distinct narrative voice for me, and it did feel like Aaronovitch spent a long time covering basics that readers would really be familiar with by now, after seven novels, six graphic novels and a handful of short stories. Although, to be fair, it is interesting to see the German perspective on things that we think we're familiar with.
That's really the most interesting thing about this story, really: seeing familiar things from a different perspective and seeing how another culture deals with magic. Towards the end of The Hanging Tree Peter Grant muses on establishing communications with other national magical police forces. It's clear from Tobias that this hasn't happened yet (although Tobias keeps tabs on Peter, he doesn't think that Peter knows about him) and that would make for an interesting story....more
Loading...
