Book Reviews: Docile, Szpara; Sisters of the Vast Black, Rather; Manfried vol 1&2, Major

I am seventeen chronological years behind in posting book reviews but, like, whatever.


Title: Docile
Author: K.M. Szpara
Published: Tor, 2020
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 485
Total Page Count: 320,235
Text Number: 1124
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: To pay off his family's inherited debt, a man sells himself into a lifetime of servitude—but refuses the drug that other Dociles use to keep them, well, docile. I would call this Captive Prince: capitalist dystopia version, but others have pointed out that slavefic is just an established fanfic trope, which is true. It's not fic I read, but when polished into novel form I enjoy the interplay of taboo, BDSM, ethics, and character growth. Here, the glittering degeneracy of trillionaire society contrasts intimate moments and internal views (despite the bland first person voices); short chapters and erotic elements give it a lighting pace.

But the issues it tackles, of coerced consent and capitalism as the new indentured servitude, are effectively stylistic trappings. It takes place in a post-prejudicial society, and certainly the bounty of queer characters and sex scenes is a delight. But it's incredible to attempt a conversation about newfangled slavery in near-future capitalist-dystopia America without once mentioning America's history of slavery, and the failure to do so is highly indicative. Avoiding race creates a void in the worldbuilding and in the commentary on real-world late capitalism. It's a provocative concept (and tagline!), but empty.

(I'm also not enamored of the way the narrative frames power exchange as the immoral (but sexy) BDSM dynamic, where other BDSM acts and general submissive tendencies are framed as healthy—but this is largely a result of the way these elements line up with abuse and recovery, and frankly it's a less glaring & less important issue.)


Title: Sisters of the Vast Black
Author: Lina Rather
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 320,480
Text Number: 1126
Read Because: reviewed by mrissa, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Bless a super-tropey premise which is fully engaged but not campy in execution: nuns in space, traveling on a giant gastropod-ship. They're a diverse group with unique motives and relationships with faith, and the ship is massive and alive and a generally delightful concept. Given such disparate elements, the plot comes together too neatly; the resolution has a preachy tone that adds to that scripted feel. But I appreciate the bittersweet vibe of the ending: the-powers-that-be can't be stopped in day, but the struggle—against those powers; with faith, and with self—has value nonetheless. It complements the character study, and I wish the plot were content with that; but even if this gets too ambitious, it's a strong effort, particularly for a debut.


Title: Manfried the Man (Manfried the Man Book 1)
Author: Caitlin Major
Illustrator: Kelly Bastow
Published: Quirk Books, 2018
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 225
Total Page Count: 320,705
Text Number: 1127
Read Because: recommended by starshipfox, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review:
Imagine that: a giant anthropomorphic cat with a miniature pet man is just as sweet and silly and wildly bonkers as expected—often in concert. The nonsexualized nudity is endearing, but the men still feel like a happy commune of leather bears. The blithe refusal to worldbuild "why giant cats" or "but where do the men come from?" is charming, but raises unsettling questions like "if the men use tools, what's their comparative intelligence and its ramifications?"

So, is it good? I have no earthly clue. The plot doesn't stray far from predictable crazy cat lady tropes & a cheap ending, and I'm not happy with the suggestion that, while letting your cat outside is bad, a cat outside grows confident, strong, and sociable as opposed to dead, injured, or diseased—but whatever, this isn't meant to be read literally. Is it enjoyable? yes, insofar as it absolutely fulfills its premise. The gimmick of role reversal successfully reframes cat-things, providing a fresh view of both the silliness of life with cats and the domestic comfort of companion animals.


Title: Manfried Saves the Day (Manfried the Man Book 2)
Author: Caitlin Major
Illustrator: Kelly Bastow
Published: Quirk Books, 2019
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 225
Total Page Count: 323,940
Text Number: 1139
Read Because: recommended by starshipfox, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The writing here is just ... not very good. Silly montages and a cartoony antagonist clash with a grinding depiction of over-work which, tellingly, lacks meaningful resolution. But it bothers me more that the men feel less like cats. Sometimes they feel like dogs, which is fine; sometimes they lean into the uncanny valley element of "miniature pet men" (wearing clothes! using tools! understanding language well enough for pep talks and verbal instructions, I guess...?). This could be delightful if it were smarter, more self-aware, or just more humorous (contrast the way Beastars nods at or even centralizes its bizarre/fridge horror worldbuilding elements)—but it's not, and so it's weird without payoff. That's a lot of criticism to throw at a silly comic with a uniquely strange and delightful premise, and much of the pleasure is still present: there's still pet men, the cognitive dissonance is playful and inviting, the art is gently rounded. But this isn't as successful as the first volume.

Book Review: The Crime of the Century, Higdon; We Who Are About To..., Russ; Hexarchate Stories, Lee

Title: The Crime of the Century: The Leopold and Loeb Case (aka Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century)
Author: Hal Higdon
Published: Putnam, 1975
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 321,085
Text Number: 1128
Read Because: reviewed by truepenny, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This has a slow start and a sometimes-tedious level of detail, but more importantly it fails to establish why, in the sea of crime of 1920s Chicago, this case caught public attention before perpetrators or motive were established, and also who Loeb and Leopold were—their similar backgrounds and names, combined with their close relationships and co-conspiracy, made them a single unit within their social circle and in the press, and they're similarly hard to distinguish until the second half of the book.

But this confusion is almost a benefit, and it may even be inevitable. The case is notable for numerous reasons (including the defense's criticism of capital punishment as punitive, rather than transformative, justice), but it's interesting for its lack of motive, and for the extensive psychiatric testimony that tried to answer why two gifted young men would murder without motive. Those psychological profiles (by professionals and the press) are overreaching and biased by bankrolls or even by patient/psychologist rapport, they elide or confuse the perpetrators. The question emerges: can a person be synopsized and known in this way? can their mind be picked out from the morass of affect and infamy? And to some degree, the answer still is yes: throughout the case, and in Leopold's autobiography written decades later, a codependency emerges. The book quotes Dr. Hulbert's testimony:

"Each boy felt inadequate to carry out the life he most desired unless he had someone else in his life to complement him, to complete him. Unless these two boys had the same constitution, which they had, unless those boys had their own individual experiences in life, the present crime could never have been committed. The psychiatric cause for this is not to be found in either boy alone, but in the interplay or interweaving of their two personalities, their two desires caused by their two constitutions and experiences. This friendship between the two boys was not altogether a pleasant one for either of them. The ideas that each proposed to the other were repulsive. Their friendship was not based so much on desire as on need, they being what they were. Loeb did not crave the companionship of Leopold, nor did he respect him thoroughly. But he did feel the need of someone else in his life. Leopold did not like the faults, the criminalism of Loeb, but he did need someone in his life to carry out this king-slave compulsion. Their judgement in both cases was not mature enough to show them the importance of trying to live their own lives."

So if the book is sometimes graceless, it's also thorough, thoughtful, and balanced. It has a well-rounded view of the central figures, and the nuanced conclusions it makes about the question of motive (and identity, personality, and relationship) are fascinating.


Title: We Who Are About To...
Author: Joanna Russ
Published: Open Road, 2018 (1976)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 155
Total Page Count: 321,240
Text Number: 1129
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A small group finds themselves stranded on an alien planet after an emergency landing, and the protagonist sees no outcome but death. This barren, lonely premise subverts the golden age SF trope of impossibly populated/accommodating alien planets—a premise which is now outdated, so the subversion has become less notable. But it's still comparably unalleviated: the protagonist's relationship with death and her long struggle to die hang over the work from its first line; it lengthens a short novel and alters the narrative voice in creative ways. The rest of this is less remarkable, with a near-future which, ironically, now feels outdated in golden age SF ways, and with social devolution to sexualized violence which isn't a caricature but does have a familiar, depressing predictability.


Title: Hexarchate Stories
Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Published: Solaris, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 335
Total Page Count: 321,575
Text Number: 1130
Read Because: reading the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is the first collection I've read that contains flash fiction, and it just doesn't work for me: despite interesting premises or worldbuilding tidbits, they can't but be insubstantial they're so brief that attempts at meaningful endings often wind up hackneyed. The saving grace is of course the longer pieces, all of which I like—particularly "Gloves" (not necessarily for being better, but for appealing to my id), "Battle of Candle Arc" (which doesn't, in retrospect, add a lot to the book series; but as something that was published first, it's intriguing and satisfying), and most notably Glass Cannon, a novella that follows up the book series. Like the flash fiction, the novella's ending makes a clumsy attempt to do much and be too profound, but it's fascinating how the character dynamics and particularly the speculative elements of the worldbuilding are distilled and intensified in short form—it's a compelling follow-up.