Book Review: Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente

Title: Silently and Very Fast
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Published: Stirling: Wyrm Publishing, 2011
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 130
Total Page Count: 180,620
Text Number: 532
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Elefsis, a machine intelligence, traces her origin and the history of the family that helped create her. This is a superb work, and one that could only have been written by Valente. Rich imagery and mythic themes are her signature; here, those elements become a literal internal landscape and a tool for approximating—and creating—experience and feeling. This isn't hard scifi, but nor is it as soft or as fantastical as I was expecting: the emphasis is on identity and the interpersonal, but it's also a direct confrontation of the boundaries of intelligence, of how we define and create a self, of when we're willing to confer selfhood; an intelligent, pointed (and convincing, and trope-aware) examination of the concept of artificial intelligence. Valente is one of my favorite authors, but this still exceeded by expectations. It's a dense, beautiful, brilliant work, and I recommend it with enthusiasm. It was published free online by Clarkesworld.


I preserve these quotes both because they sum up the thrust of the text, and because they're perfect:

( Read more... )

Book Review: On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis

Title: On the Edge of Gone
Author: Corinne Duyvis
Published: New York: Amulet Books, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 450
Total Page Count: 181,070
Text Number: 533
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After a comet hits earth, one autistic girl tries to find a way to get her family safely aboard a generation ship. Duyvis's hallmark is diverse casting, and that's particularly true here, from the broad representation in the supporting cast to the protagonist's autism—which, while accessible to uninformed or neurotypical readers, is never rendered simplistic; Duyvis writes with experience and valuable honesty. But I find that Duyvis's other hallmark is unenjoyable plotting, and this is no exception. The setting is apocalyptic, but the scale is local and personal—which often means the plot is repetitive and fueled by short-sighted or foolish decisions. Duyvis's previous novel Otherbound offered compelling emotional bonds to offset its grim content; On the Edge of Gone has no such counterpoint outside of an artificially optimistic ending.

"Whether someone is useful only matters if you value people by their use": On The Edge of Gone is a study of persistence, survival, personal worth—and the issues, both personal and social, that get in the way. It's thoughtful, possessing of an unforgiving gray morality and a necessary undercurrent of optimism. I value and admire those characteristics—but the fact remains that this isn't an enjoyable book to read. I find myself ambivalent, and despite its value can't recommend it.