"The Wings Upon Her Back" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come talk about your initial, general impressions!

Content warnings for those who want them: (view spoiler)[ drug withdrawal, abuse of children, loss of loved ones, religion, torture (hide spoiler)]

(More about CWs here.)

Please save all discussion of particulars, details from the story, character choices, plot questions, etc. for the full spoiler thread.

[Katy]

Looking forward to reading this one.

[CJ]

I put a hold on this at my library (I was surprised that my library had it). I loved Mills' short story, "Rabbit Test," so I am very interested in reading this books.

[Bella xx]

I’ve just started and am super late to the party but I hope I’m not the only one super annoyed by the authors need to always have things in parentheses e.g. “Zenya wanted to take his hands in hers. (She did not take his hands in hers).” I have to roll my eyes whenever it happens, it feels like it’s at least once a page and stops being clever/funny pretty quickly!! Just my opinion tho :/

[Silvana]

I also just started. I thought this was a fantasy novel but maybe more science fantasy a la Hyperion?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

This is our scifi pick!

And it is quite stylized, in terms of how it's written.

[Silvana]

Allison wrote: "This is our scifi pick!

And it is quite stylized, in terms of how it's written."

Yeah, I totally missed the scifi part lol but it's fine since apparently I already got a copy.
Can you expand on what you meant by stylized?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

It's got some quirks (like parentheses ;)

[Silvana]

Ah, got it. 11% in and I haven't noticed.

[Daniel]

I got a few pages into this book and found an F-bomb.

I hate that! I read fantasy and sci-fi because it doesn't have all the sex and swearing (along with classics, my other favorite genre). Usually, it's kid- or family-friendly.

Is anyone else weirded out by the feel of the f-bomb in these kinds of books? It almost feels anachronistic - for example, why would a dragon, wizard, mech-rider, or alien use that language? It's like seeing Gandalf bust out his cell phone to check the weather. It doesn't fit.

It's also just a cop-out. Instead of expression using real creativity, let's just tug at your emotions using the cheapest means necessary. It feels lazy.

BTW, as soon as I see this kind of thing, I edit the book. If anyone's interested I can share with you how to do it (if you have an eBook). It's opened up a lot more reading possibilities.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Hmm, I do not find the genre to be inherently safe for kids, but it's a big space! I'm not sure how you're doing that but please only share if it is something that is legal :)

[CJ]

SFF, or speculative fiction in the broader sense, as a genre is not "family friendly," either in the present day or historically, and has never pretended to be. As a life-long SFF lover I am honestly offended at the idea that that it ought to be. That would exclude virtually all my favorite works, from Mary Shelley to Martha Wells. If one reader wishes to curate their reading to just the likes of Tolkien and Sanderson, that's their choice, but the idea that some works are less worthy to be included in the genre because they don't confine themselves to one reader's worldview is absurd, especially considering what the genre of SFF represents.

I also wish to note that the phrase "family-friendly" is extremely contemporary and reflects certain contemporary political and religious attitudes that seek to exclude feminist, BIPOC, queer/trans and non-Western/non-Christian perspectives from media and the social sphere in general, so please do not assume that everyone will read such a comment and regard it as a neutral or otherwise not antagonizing notion to throw around about SFF, especially specifically toward female author who recently won both a Nebula and a Hugo for a short story about abortion and reproductive rights.

[Anna]

This is definitely a discussion for the Members' Chat folder! Anyone who wants to continue discussing this, please start a new thread there :)

[Daniel]

CJ wrote: "...please do not assume that everyone will read such a comment and regard it as a neutral..."

My apologies! and thanks for your thoughts, too. Always glad to see into another's soul a little bit :)

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

The library notified me today my hold was available! I am up to chapter three. As I am not religious thus under no censorship obligations to endure religious restrictions about what I choose to read, I can appreciate with great satisfaction the literary realism representations of actual real life and how real people really are as they are realistically represented in my fictional reading. I am very happy I can read this novel, it having been made available for checkout by my democratically principled library, supported by intelligent and educated taxpayers, and not under any religious restrictions from any organized religion to censor books. I hope libraries and GRs stays free of religious censorship. I hope writers can continue to write books representing real life and readers can read them freely if they want to do so without fear of condemnation from any religious person from any of the five major religions or the millions of offshoots with the millions of interpretations of religious books seeking to control society with fascist ideas. This book club pick of the month is very timely, no?

[Daniel]

I see what you did there, April, haha. Enjoy!

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

Daniel wrote: "I see what you did there, April, haha. Enjoy!"

👍

[Bonnie]

(I have written and then deleted about four starts to this post. Suppose if I feel like getting Het Up about my past or the present, I can go check out the Members' Chat!)

There are not a lot of comments about the book in this thread!

Here is the isfdb page for Samantha Mills:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?...

I checked that this weekend and noticed Samantha Mills wrote the "Rabbit Test" story. It can be read in Uncanny Magazine Issue 49: November/December 2022

online for free at
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

(I thought we had discussed it in a thread under Short Story Discussions, but I can't find it so maybe not. I must have felt like I was discussing it with SFFBC folks, spiritually, when I read it?)

[Bonnie]

Silvana wrote: "I also just started. I thought this was a fantasy novel but maybe more science fantasy a la Hyperion?"

I grumped about its being the SF pick when it seems to be Fantasy! (Haven't I been cooperative? Haven't I read loads of fantasy in the past few years, and not complained MUCH? 😁) I probably kvetched in Discord or the noms thread or something. Someone (maybe Ryan, but I can't find it?) told me, ~I know you don't always like fantastical gods in books, but give The Wings a shot, you might like it~

I love the cover. Copper color wing, with feathers on one side and gears on the other, to show it is a bio-mechanoid wing.

So far I like how the story is going back and forth from adult Zemolai to child/teen rebel Zenya, so we learn about her development.

Now of course she is middle-aged, I guess, with the sore back and rickety knees? What a shame that she is being punished so hard for her moment of mercy.

What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!’
‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.

I like the little, not foreshadowing, but hints of possibility, that the whole sleeping gods thing is a sham and Z was gradually growing wise to it.

[Silvana]

Bonnie, I hope you enjoy this one since I dropped it months ago.

[Bonnie]

Well, I put it on hold over two months ago. Since it showed up at the library I probably should try to read it 🫡

The question I had originally, and hoped to find an answer here, I think has been answered in further reading (except it raises another question).

There are five sleeping gods, and five sects. The "idol" that Z found in the kitchen worker's bedroom, is it an "idol" because it is of another god than the five, one the people consider a false god? Or a real god, but one they are not supposed to worship in Radezhda? Or people are not supposed to have physical representations of Gods, keeping that little figure is idolatrous blasphemy? Or (and the Discovery scene sounded like, except it seems silly) the people in each tower are supposed to honor only their sect's God, like a fraternity or a team mascot -- Against The Rules! to honor one of the other four.?!
If you can change sects and careers then aren't the other gods also real, and not idols? I see now that Z's parents were in a Scholar sect and she switched over to "Mecha."

Oh Silvana! Tell more about why you set it down