juushika: A black and white photo of an ink pen (Writing)
Title: Hellspark
Author: Janet Kagan
Published: Baen Books, 2019 (1988)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 475,415
Text Number: 1678
Read Because: grabbed from this list of five-star books, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In a multicultural interstellar tableau, a translator is tasked with investigating the potential sapience of a newly-discovered alien race. The speculative cultures and the role of translation, language, and taboo are all too cleanly delineated, all very legible and solvable - this is my perennial critique of SF worldbuilding, and it's both better and worse here: it undermines its own fascination with the nuances of language and culture, but the resulting tone is engaging and lighthearted: a nerdy power fantasy; a slew of puzzles neatly solved. Vibrant and fun, but memorable more for the fact that nonverbal communication is a great avenue for speculative exploration than for the text itself.


Title: To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit Book 1)
Author: Moniquill Blackgoose
Published: Del Rey, 2023
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 530
Total Page Count: 482,540
Text Number: 1706
Read Because: reviewed by [personal profile] mrissa, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Bond animal meets magical school: an Indigenous girl is chosen by a rare hatchling, and attends the colonizer's school in order to learn the art of dragon stewardship which her people have lost. Somehow this manages to need more magic school and more bond animal: these are ridiculously engaging tropes that here are just ... fine. Some of that works as a critique of education as a form of institutional power, deromanticizing the magical school. But a lot of it just feels like a missed opportunity. The wider world is more fun: a fantasy of resisting colonization which frequently challenges its own escapism, enlivened by clever-if-infodumpy parallel-world worldbuilding. I liked this. It's energetic and readable and very well-intended. I'll probably try at least the next book in the series. But I'm not as crazy about it as I want to be; it lacks a certain spark.


Title: Confessions of a Mask
Author: Yukio Mishima
Translator: Meredith Weatherby
Published: New Directions, 1958 (1949)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 484,070
Text Number: 1712
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from Open Library
Review: An autobiographical novel: the story of a queer man coming of age in wartime Japan. I'm head over heels for the first half of this, which is sexual awakening explored as queer desire meets violence fetish - vividly realized, inseparably entwined, and #relatable amirite. The second half is ... fine, a young adult trying to fit into normal society by making failed attempts at hetero attraction. It follows naturally from the first half, but necessarily lacks some of that tension, the dark, compelling logic and almost claustrophobic interiority, which make the first half so remarkable.

Anyway, time to go read more Mishima. This may not be a perfect book, but thematically it's highly relevant to my interests, as I suspect his other work is as well.
juushika: A photo of a human figure in a black cat-eared hoodie with a black cat and a black cat plushie (Cat+Cat+Cat)
Title: Zoo City
Author: Lauren Beukes
Published: Angry Robot, 2010
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 323,585
Text Number: 1136
Read Because: bond animal trope, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In a version of our world where murders are marked by their bond animals, one animalled woman takes on an ill-advised missing person case. I care a lot about the bond animal trope and dislike urban fantasy, and this didn't defy those predispositions. Bond animals are typically a wish-fulfillment trope, so this subversion is exciting—but that worldbuilding sits in the background, occasionally alluded to, frustrating unexplored: how do responsibility and guilt effect becoming animalled? is it punitive or reformative; can it be a source of comfort? The encyclopedia exposita is interesting but disjointed; in the body of the text the experience of the animalled is practical, physical. It gives the animals a narrative weight that compliments the trope inversion, but the lack of introspection or emotional bond makes it feel impersonal—and the prickly protagonist have benefited from some humanizing elements.

And all this is buried under the setting—vibrant, diverse, crapsack Johannesburg with some fantasy and near-future additions—and an urban fantasy detective plot laden with the tropes that make me dislike the genre: protagonist doesn't have adequate reasons to become involved; all early plot elements are important and meet in a busy, overly-scripted climax; red herrings and filler action in the middle third explore the gritty, grimdark urban setting. It's readable, but not my style. Angry Robot loves to publish weird books, and they allow that weirdness to run rampant when tighter, more conventional editing would improve the book. (I'm thinking of Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng and vN by Madeline Ashby in particular, but notice it in most of their publications.) And weird is good! it's refreshing, provoking, and I wanted to like this. But it would benefit from a glossary, a rewrite, and (honestly, because of genre) a different reader.


Title: Serpent's Reach
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: Daw Books, 2005 (1980)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 323,885
Text Number: 1137
Read Because: reading the series, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Quarantined from the Union, a group of humans and generations of engineered decedents live alongside alien hive-minds. This is a mirror to Forty Thousand in Gehenna, both narratives about human society evolving alongside an alien culture, but where Gehenna takes a long and distant view of social change, Serpent's Reach is an intimate view of sudden, cumulative change. As an early deep-dive into azi conditioning and personhood, it's also a predecessor to themes in Cyteen. But So much of what's interesting happens just offstage, and while the evidence of it is everywhere—in the protagonist's unsettling comfort in the physical communication of the aliens; in the azi character's complex and evolving PoV—it's overwhelmed by the action and its punishing fallout. Cherryh strikes this balance better elsewhere, like in the Morgaine and Chanur novels; perhaps in a series there's more room for combat and resulting exhaustion to transfer into characterization and relationship progression; here, it detracts rather than enriching. I read this out of Alliance-Union publication order because it was harder to obtain, but I'm glad I didn't skip it entirely. The aliens are great—I would read a thousand iterations of Cherryh's humans-in-weird-intimacies-with-aliens, they are a universal pleasure—and it speaks to reoccurring and interesting themes in her work. It also reads easier than most Cherryh, a little less dense, less terse. But it's not as strong as what she achieves elsewhere.


Title: Stellaluna
Author: Janell Cannon
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018 (1993)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 323,935
Text Number: 1138
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: 1993 was after my time for children's literature, but I recognize the cover and art enough to have an impression of this book's success. And I can see why it succeeded—there's perpetually room for narratives about the fact that we're all outsiders, but can find connections regardless, and will find other places where we fit in, and the densely illustrated browns of the adorable and clumsy protagonist against the rich dark blues of the background is striking (although I dislike the clumsy white-edged transitions between them). But it very much feels like Lionni's Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, but with less magic and a simplified theme—and while I genuinely think that's a better book, it's mostly the bias of nostalgia: this isn't my story of being an outsider, of finding a home. (And that's okay! It can be someone else's.)


Title: Millions of Cats
Author: Wanda Gág
Published: Picture Puffin Books, 2006 (1928)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 323,965
Text Number: 1139
Read Because: this passed my dash on Tumblr on account of the "oldest picture book" detail and I dismissed it out of hand because I hate fictional representations of cats—and then I saw it at on shelves in the classic picture book section of my library the next day, so I took it as fatel hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Stories about domestic animals age rapidly and poorly as twee remnants of evolving ethical standards, but the "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats" is so delightful and ridiculous; it marries well to inoffensive and universal cat themes cat themes: all cats are beautiful, all are conceited; every scraggly kitten deserves love; wanting more cats, all cats, is a perpetual desire but unfortunately untenable. This gets weirdly dark in its climax, which the ridiculous tone can't quite balance. The art style is unremarkable save for some nice detailing, particularly in the millions and billions and trillions of cats. It's always a pleasure to read a book which isn't interesting just as a cultural artifact—this is the oldest American picture book still in print—but also enjoyable in its own right.

(Ratings are a fiction: this is a 3-star book, but it's so rare that I find a book about cats I don't hate.)

(Looking up author demographics, now that I keep more exhaustive records, can feel like everything wrong with the #ownvoices reader movement re: expecting public figures to disclose vulnerable personal details for public consumption, but it also means discovering that an early picture book author was polyamorous, among other things.)
juushika: Painting of multiple howling canines with bright white teeth (Never trust a stranger-friend)
Book #1000! This is an entirely-arbitrary number resulting from "number of books reviews that I managed to write up, for new-to-me or unreviewed books and/or series, posted since I started posting reviews online in college." It doesn't reflect what I've actually read in that time. It's still a neat round number!

When I was a (pre?-)teen I used to write book reviews on index cards, and then stopped all through high school, until I was 20. My old reviews are atrocious & some of them haunt me. Mostly I've made them shorter (despite that the #1000 batch has some longer reviews in it), but I also like to think they're ... yanno, better. I'm glad I write them.

And I appreciate that Cherryh is book 1000, because I love her work a lot and it's pretty indicative of my reading preferences.


Title: Cloud's Rider (Finisterre Book 2)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: Aspect, 1996
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 375
Total Page Count: 300,545
Text Number: 1000
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback from my personal library (purchased used, unsure from where)
Review: The threat of another rogue sends Danny and the Goss kids up the mountain to Evergreen, on the edges of known land. Where the first book was interesting worldbuilding and engaging tropes cascading into a too-neat ending, this is almost the reverse: tedious, mundane social tensions building to a worldbuilding-heavy climax that still relies somewhat on the coincidence that burdened the first book, but which pays off character arcs and the unsettling, unknown setting. I read this for the bond animal trope, and I love Cherryh's id-heavy take on it even more here than in the first book, if only for the presence (and diversity) of new bonds.

But I find myself hung up on the issue of Brionne. Spoilers. )

Two quotes, really great quotes about psychic communication and psychic bonds and bond animals. )


Title: The Raven Tower
Author: Ann Leckie
Published: Orbit, 2019
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 425
Total Page Count: 300,970
Text Number: 1001
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The Raven Tower
The Lease's Heir returns home to find his sacrificial duties usurped by his uncle—a summary which does this book no favors, because its true narrative is in its PoV, an alternating first- and second-person that obscures speaker and protagonist and antagonist. Unfortunately, its secrets are over-explained by the 70% mark, as characters recap the situation to one another ad infinitum—which belies a final development that retroactively makes the rest of the book more successful.

It's difficult to describe without spoilers! (I went in with zero foreknowledge, and am glad of it.)

I always want my fantasy gods to be stranger, larger, less human than they are on the page—and the rules that govern godhood here have strong internal logic but do make the gods feel limited. This is at odds with the awe and fear experienced by the human characters, and I envy them that and wish some were translated to the reader. This could have been a more ambitious experiment—stranger, bigger, less comprehensible; or just dense enough that the recaps didn't grow repetitive. But within the scope it has, as an experiment in narrative voice (how literal and deceptive PoV is; how the reader adapts their expectations to the speaker's) this is clever and sticks the landing. I wanted it to blow me away, but I'll settle for finding it solidly enjoyable.


Title: Alone (Tout Suel)
Author: Christophe Chabouté
Translator: Ivanka Hahnenberger
Published: Gallery 13, 2017 (2008)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 385
Total Page Count: 301,355
Text Number: 1002
Read Because: reading books in translation, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A man lives isolated on a lighthouse at sea. This is about imagination and language and loneliness, and these themes are fine but never developed with particular depth. The dense black and white art and sparse dialog is an aesthetic that doesn't work for me. Its starkness reads a like a Photoshop filter even when it's technically good art, and there's no contrast—no beauty to evoke the themes of imagination; too much repetition within the panels for such a sparse narrative.

(Four of the five speaking cast members are male, and the sole woman is seen explicitly and almost exclusively through the male gaze. Here's what an isolated man misses out on: companionship, diversity, and also boobs. No thanks.)
juushika: Drawing of a sleeping orange cat (I should have been born a cat)
The bulk of rereading Cherryh's Rider at the Gate was full of surreal self-doubt, like: why didn't I love this book the first time? why wasn't it the best of the best, top-tier bond animal trope, favorite Cherryh & favorite book for life? These questions got answers by the end:

[Mild spoilers for CJ Cherryh's Rider at the Gate and Forty Thousand in Gehenna, as well as an extensive conversation about the bond animal trope < that's a TV Tropes link if you'd like a refresher.]

What doesn't work! What really, really does! An enthusiastic essay about the subtext of bond animals! )
juushika: A black and white photo of an ink pen (Writing)
I've recently run into a lot of stories about robots, androids, and artificial intelligence, an umbrella of tropes in which I am ridiculously invested. Here's a few of them, with thoughts about how they explore the trope. Lots of them are short form and super accessible!



"Everyone Will Want One," Kelly Sandoval
Young woman unable to successfully socialize with her peers is given an intelligent artificial pet that analyses socialization and prompts her to act in personally beneficial ways. There's a lot going on here: social normativity (with a sidenote of neuroatypicality), toxic socialization, companion animal tropes, the effect of social media and technology on socialization, and a bit of a cop-out ending; but it's a ridiculously effective combination of companion animal and personal assistant AI feels.

"Eros, Philia, Agape," Rachel Swirsky
Woman purchases an AI companion with malleable programming which is able to adapt itself to her desires as it matures; falls in love with the AI, and gives him the ability to control is own maturation. Intelligent sex robot involved in mundane family drama is well-intended but not always successful—the erstwhile normalcy, while set up as intentional contrast, is so normal as to be boring. But! these AI brains! they're brilliantly imagined. Toggleable malleability is a lovely speculative concept: relatable enough to function as commentary, alien enough to be mind-broadening; the formation and ownership of consciousness is taken to some unexpected places.

"For Want of a Nail," Mary Robinette Kowal
A small technical difficulty with a family's recordkeeper AI snowballs into a family drama. This AI isn't conceptually groundbreaking, but it's so well integrated, from the archaic search for a hardwire to the internet-outage-writ-large metaphor of unconscious dependency. This AI is simultaneously viewed as human and machine, both by character and narrative, and the violation and unreliability of programmable consciousness is at the core of the story.

"Ode to Katan Amano," Caitlín R. Kiernan
Summary is effectively a spoiler, oops oh well: An android in an abusive relationship with a human explores a similar power differential with a life-size doll. The sliding scale from subservient entity to autonomous intelligence is what makes AI so compelling, both as thought experiment and wish-fulfillment—like companion animals, they are intriguing because they have the potential to be the perfect companion, slightly less than us, created for our use; but they carry the threat of sapience. (I've discussed this conflict before.) Kiernan's story is a pointed look at the power imbalance of manufactured companionship; it's intimate and unsettling.

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie [future Juu: and sequels!]
Previously a ship with dozens of subsets and hundreds of potential physical bodies, able to interact independently but forming a cohesive conscious whole, this AI is now reduced to a single human-bodied instance. This is one of the most mind-broadening AI I've encountered, literally: to learn to think laterally, to engage the multi-instanced, tiered-but-united, pseudo-omniscient first person narrative, is a rewarding bit of mental gymnastics. It raises questions of identity and then integrates them into the plot: which level or aspect of a multi-instanced entity is "self"? Is self ever static, ever united, regardless of form?

Wolf 359, Gabriel Urbina
Hera is simultaneously a personality, part of the crew, and a piece of technology, inseparable from the ship as physical object. She's a restricted omnipresence, programmed for availability, vulnerable to physical tampering and injected code; the show's emphasis on communication and interpersonal relations gives voice to that experience. 1.11 "Am I Alone Now?" is one of my favorite first person AI narratives (and reminiscent of the honestly in Cortana's disintegration in Halo 4): "It's so funny when you ask if I can hear you. Every single time. I don't think you've ever fully understood that I hear everything." Her voice gives her personhood, a personhood which her crewmates value and fight to defend.
juushika: Drawing of a sleeping orange cat (I should have been born a cat)
I try to do this every year: here's the best media that I encountered, but which was probably not released, in 2017.


Books

I read 176 books in 2017. My primary reading goal was to prioritize authors of color, ideally making them half of my reading material. This fell apart somewhat in the face of various and intense life stresses, but in the end 40% of the books I read this year were by PoC, up from 10%* from last year, and I'm proud of that. It's something I will continue to prioritize.

* a metric which may be somewhat out of date, as I discovered neato things while looking into Jewish authors!! but I'm too lazy for recalculations, so let's let it stand

Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller. I love this book so much that it took me five months to write a review. Miller wrote it with precise, peculiar inspirations—the identity of a mysterious artist; sessions with a ouija board—and while I traditionally resist the idea that the author is a conduit rather than a creator (yes to authorial responsibility! boo on authorial intent!) I think there can be moments when an author reaches above and beyond themselves. I believe Beagle did this in The Last Unicorn:

A lot of things appeal to people out of their own histories in that story. I feel sometimes like Schmendrick, when the first time he actually casts real magic summoning up the shades of Robin Hood, Maid Marian and the Merry Men...people who never existed, really they’re myths, and yet there they are. And at that point he falls on his face, picks himself up, and thinks: "I wonder what I did...I did something..." Which is very much the way I feel about The Last Unicorn. Finally, fifty years later.
(source)

And I believe that Miller does it here. This is an exceptional novel; its purpose and joy and energy is remarkable, and it may be safe to call it my favorite book of the year.

Graceling series by Kristin Cashore. The books stand alone and are all perfectly good; but it's Bitterblue that won me, and I think it benefits from reading the entire series. This uses a speculative concept to explore trauma and abuse in ways that are simultaneously metaphorical, literal, and unique to the worldbuilding. I admire a narrative that's able to capitalize on the potential of its genre in that way, and there's interesting narrative-in-absentia techniques at play here, and, crucially, it's thoughtful and compassionate.

Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. I adore the companion animal trope, and am dubious of dragons; I did not expect that this would be so thorough an exploration of the former as to totally negate the later. It engages almost every question that surrounds this trope, especially re: sapience, personhood, power dynamics; the long-form adventure allows for a diverse and evolving culture. And it's tropey in every way it needs to be to give its premise emotional weight. Multiple books in this series won a 5-star rating, and as many made me cry. It's as in love and as engaged with this trope as I am. Simon Vance's audio narration makes these an especial delight.

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. I read this in the same year as my first Joanna Russ book (The Female Man)—and neither are perfect, but both are invaluable, and the combined effect has stayed with me. But nothing lingered moreso than this Tiptree collection: so exhaustive, so exhausting; the tension between her profound bitterness and daydreaming, between her (presumed, implicit, assumed) male PoV and persistent feminist themes, elevates this collection beyond the limitations of individual stories.

The Devourers by Indra Das. It would be insincere to say that this is what I wish every werewolf novel would be—I love them all uniquely—but this is what I wish every werewolf novel would be: this visceral, this vivid, this inhuman, this engaged with the concept of the Other.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The only real goal in life is to love or be loved as Virginia Woolf loved Vita Sackville-West; the energy that emanates from this, passionate and playful and irreverent, is incandescent. I always expect historical books about sex and gender to be restrained or dated, and for good reason, but this has aged so well; it's fluid and complicated, but too quick to become heavy. In every page, a delight.

Honorable mentions in books

Ursula K. Le Guin. I read a handful of her books this year; I didn't love them all equally (The Beginning Place is hardly her most famous but it's my favorite so far) but I'm consistently impressed, no matter how minor the work. She's profoundly skilled; she integrates and expands her central theses in ways that capitalize on the speculative genres she writes in, to great effect.

Octavia E. Butler by Gerry Canavan. I hesitate to say that I loved this biography more than Butler's novels themselves, but it reflects how it felt to read this: it summarized, contextualized, and celebrated Butler's cumulative effort and impact in a way that made me appreciate her anew.

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. I read a lot of YA I bounce off of, a lot of magical realism I don't think works; but this I loved, for its specific images, for the way that the fluidity of its style suits its issues of gender, for its beauty and love.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson. The energy in this is infectious, and needs to be, as it's as much about a love affair with a speculative premise and a place as with a person—and all those elements are accessible, distinctive, alive.

Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner. Fairyland which feels truly transporting and fantastic, truly fae, is hard to capture. This is such a quiet book, unassuming in structure and frame, but its depiction of fairyland is one of the most convincing that I've ever seen.




Games

Nier: Automata. I watched this played on release, and called it then, in March: game of the year. I was not mistaken. There's more this could do, further it could go; but what it does, with its androids and tropes, its meta elements and narrative structure and soundtrack, is phenomenal. One of the most remarkable things that a game can do is be profoundly wedded to its interactive medium, because few other platforms have the opportunity to interact with the consumer so directly—and Automata achieves that, to great effect.

Kirby series. I have no particular love of platformers, Nintendo, or nostalgia; but these looked cute, and: they are. Kirby is shaped like friendship, and the softness and colors of level design, the creative gameplay of Kirby's transformations, the sincerely impressive interaction with level elements in games like Epic Yarn, are a complete package. These brought me unmitigated joy; that's not something I often find.

Honorable mentions in video games

Dishonored 2. The plot and setting hasn't stuck with me as much as the first game. But to internalize criticism and then go on to make a more diverse game is fantastic (and it pays off, in Meagan Foster especially), and the small, almost-domestic moments and ongoing lore/religion in the worldbuilding are very much my thing.

Dark Souls III DLC. The base game was on my list last year, so this entry feels like cheating—but these were substantial additions, big worlds and significant narrative and so many new monster designs, all of which compliment the base game. It's an impressive product, and I wish more DLC resembled it.

Closure. A little indie puzzle platformed that exceeds expectations for that genre because the way that its core game mechanic interacts with player, art design, atmosphere, and narrative is so successful. (It even makes up for the sometimes-finicky physics.)




Visual Media

Car Boys. I'm disappointed that Nick Robinson proved not to be the person we wanted him to be, but that doesn't change the profound impact that this series had on me. Not only is it a fantastic example of emergent narrative, it simultaneously embraces my fear of existential horror and my profound longing for a greater meaning. This served a similar function for me as did Critical Role last year, despite dissimilarities in tone and content.

Dark Matter season 3. Devon and I have been watching this together, and with few misstep we've been consistently satisfied with the way this series combines found family tropes and genre mainstays. But season 3 is a cut above. It's still all those things, but the ongoing, consistent character development, particularly of the female characters, most especially of the Android, is phenomenal. There were episodes that made me cry, that I would call legitimately perfect.

Blame! I've enjoyed everything I've seen by Polygon Pictures, including Knights of Sidonia, but this is the best they could be: tropes I love, a perfect setting for their visual style and capabilities; great pacing, writing that does interesting things with its subgenre. Without competition, the best film I saw this year; it looks great and it's just so engaging to watch.

Person of Interest. Found family/AI feels is in essence all I've ever wanted from a narrative, and this delivers, delivers in droves: it has the crime serial format I love but, like Fringe, deviates from format to great effect. But it's the particular combination of themes that sold me: using AI as a launchpad to explore all varieties of personhood and socialization.

Honorable mentions in visual media

Yuri!!! on Ice. There is a need in the world for stories like this; queer love stories, stories about what it means to become one's best self, stories which are funny and sweet and profoundly empathetic. This year started poorly (and just kept on keepin' on, but:) and there was a sense of karmic balance that this existed post-election. It's escapism without being hollow; it's how I want the world to be.

Polygon. Monster Factory goes here. So does Awful Squad. But Devon and I have been branching out and watching almost anything that pops up on this channel; the balance between inoffensive good humor and video game nerdom is really likable.
juushika: Screen capture of the Farplane from Final Fantasy X: a surreal landscape of waterfalls and flowers. (Anime/Game)
Title: In Calabria
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Published: Tachyon Publications, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 226,640
Text Number: 723
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A farmer's prosaic, solitary life is disrupted by the appearance of a unicorn. Beagle has a phenomenal eye for "it is not the same thing, of course, but still it is"—for moments where the specific meets the metaphorical, imprecisely but profoundly. The plot doesn't always live up to that—the intrusion of the modern world is intentional but still unwelcome and makes for a literal, overlarge conflict; the romance fares somewhat better—but there's an abundance of beautiful scenes and the end is strong. It's impossible to avoid comparing this to The Last Unicorn, however unfair; they're different stories and genres, but I've never seen anyone handle unicorn imagery so well as Beagle and In Calabria possesses that transcendence. It's charming and swift and I sincerely enjoyed it, despite niggling caveats.


Title: Roses and Rot
Author: Kat Howard
Published: Saga Press, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 226,960
Text Number: 724
Read Because: this review, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Two sisters, estranged by their abusive mother, reunite to attend a prestigious artists's retreat which seems too good—and too magical—to be real. This is half mythic/urban fantasy (of the de Lint variety) and half a Tam Lin retelling—a ridiculously indulgent combination which cribs a bit from The Night Circus in its styling. But writing about a writing (the protagonist is an author) draws attention to the craft, and this a debut which feels like one, especially in scene structure and character voices; worst of all, the inset fairytale sections are facile and repetitive. There's still some magic here: fairyland has a dangerous allure, and the protagonist's desire for it is compelling. But the contrivances of an ever-changing rulebook and sibling squabbles weaken the plot in the second half. I admire that this prioritizes a sibling relationship, but it lacks the emphasis on communication, faith, and female agency which makes Tam Lin so resonant. This is a fun, quick read, but not a particularly good one—more's the pity, as the premise is hugely relevant to my interests and I wanted to enjoy it.


Title: League of Dragons (Temeriare Book 9)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Tantor Audio, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 227,260
Text Number: 725
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The final Temeraire novel, seeing the war to its conclusion. It has a lot to wrap up, geographically and politically, and does so in a way that's comprehensive but not excessively neat. This means a lot of combat, military theory, and social politicking, all of it engaging if somewhat rushed, functioning as a final exam for the protagonists that returns to their military origins while encompassing their intervening character growth. There's otherwise not much room for significant character development, although there's some lovely personal moments (and one new character, Ning, who has a fantastic voice and whom I adore). This is in itself not a particularly memorable installation, but as a conclusion to the series it's satisfying—and what a series it's been! Insofar as a review of a finale is a review of the series entire: I loved it, loved it immensely; I'm only sorry to reach the end.
juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
Title: Sister Light, Sister Dark (Great Alta Book 1)
Author: Jane Yolen
Published: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 2016 (1988)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 250
Total Page Count: 223,595
Text Number: 711
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The origin story of a prophesied destroyer/savior to a society of female warriors. This is told via straight narration, but also through fictional folklore, ballads, myths, and via modern historical academic analysis, and that meta-narrative is the highlight of the book. It isn't always successful—the modern sections are an academic pastiche with a grating tone—but the cumulative effect functions to contextualize and deconstruct the otherwise unremarkable tropes as well as the story's feminist themes, creating a story about stories, about history, about cultural perceptions and mythic archetypes. The story underneath that structure is only okay—the chosen one is a tired trope, even when reinvented—but Yolen's balance of a private coming of age and a prophetic origin story has a pleasant rhythm. I didn't fall in love with this, and I'm not compelled to read the sequels (especially as I'm under the impression that the direct sequel tones down the meta-narrative), but I found this reasonably satisfying.


Title: Wicked Gentlemen
Author: Ginn Hale
Published: Blind Eye Books, 2007
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 225
Total Page Count: 223,820
Text Number: 712
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A missing woman brings together a clergyman/detective and a disgraced demonic descendant. As the premise implies, the worldbuilding here is indulgent and stylized, something like Fallen London-lite: otherworldly Prodigal and their demonic magics, the strict and corrupt church-cum-police force, a city with its propriety and dirty underbelly. The pair of protagonists almost live up to that; they're ultimately too nice, and their romance resolves too easily, but between them they offer a diverse, ambiguous view of their world. The mysteries that fuel the plot are only adequate, dependent on coincidence and fairly simplistic in fact, but with a moral ambiguity that echoes the worldbuilding. I wish this lived up to its potential (and had stronger editing, especially re: dialog), but it's fun.


Title: Blood of Tyrants (Temeraire Book 8)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Tantor Media, 2013
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 450
Total Page Count: 224,270
Text Number: 713
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: En route to China, an accident leaves Laurence shipwrecked, with amnesia, in Japan. Amnesia is the most cliché of all possible tropes, but it achieves what it's meant to, resetting, and thus recognizing, Laurence's character growth; allowing him to fall in love, again, with Temeraire. It's ill-excused, manipulative, and effective. Politics and battles then transpire, and they integrate the disparate plot points and return the focus to Napoleon and the war at hand, while still engaging issues of ethics and dragon/human society. This is what a penultimate book should be, a coalescing and revisiting; and while it doesn't achieve that with great grace, I'll be damned if I didn't love it anyway.
juushika: Drawing of a sleeping orange cat (I should have been born a cat)
Title: Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children Book 2)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Published: Tor, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 190
Total Page Count: 222,575
Text Number: 708
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A pair of unhappy twins girls discover the Moors, a dangerous portal world which will redefine their characters. This follows their lives from birth and has a slow start: to spend 20% of a portal fantasy within a stifling parody of suburbia is distinctly unmagical. But the Moors are fantastic—not perfect: I wish there were more danger and more moral relativity (especially in Jack's life)—but a Hammer Horror-style world is engaging and atmospheric. And the character growth of the protagonists is sincerely, inextricably tied to their world, which is what this book demands. I loved Every Heart a Doorway for its portal fantasy meta more than its plot, and didn't think I would enjoy the further stories of Jack and Jill when they had been the weakness of the first book. Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a more traditional narrative, but its meta elements remain in a present narrator who speaks directly to the reader and directly about the narrative—reminiscent of Valente's Fairyland series (but toned down), not entirely at home in the modern-day frame narrative, but preserving that focus on portal-as-character-growth, on the relationship between person and narrative. I have technical quibbles about this book (I haven't even mentioned the rushed ending), but it exceeded my expectations. There's so much room in my heart for stories which take a diverse, self-aware, dark approach to portal fantasy while maintaining a sense of wonder and aesthetic.


Title: The House of Shattered Wings (Dominion of the Fallen Book 1)
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Narrator: Peter Kenny
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 222,990
Text Number: 709
Read Because: reading more form the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review:
In Paris, in the aftermath of a devastating war, a vulnerable house of fallen angels is threatened by both a curse and competing houses. The premise is fantastic and atmospheric: aristocratic in-fighting, diverse and present pantheons, dangerous magic within the decrepit homes and cathedrals of Paris. It's at best indulgent, but at worst overwrought and—unexpectedly—cold. There are things that Bodard consistently does well: significant character growth, socially-complex worldbuilding (Philippe and his background is the easy highlight of this book), and big, magical climaxes. But, while present, those elements are unfulfilling because it takes so long to reach them and the journey is tedious: repetitive phrasing, politcking that reads like bickering, plot intricacies that have more to do with bad communication than true complexity. It feels long—not just longer than it needs to be, but longer than it is. I liked it more than the Obsidian and Blood series (although I'm convinced they could exist in the same universe), but, I suspect, for arbitrary reasons; it isn't good enough to recommend, or to make me read the sequel.


Title: Crucible of Gold (Temeraire Book 7)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Recorded Books, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 355
Total Page Count: 223,345
Text Number: 710
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Temeraire and Laurence are reinstated and sent on an ambassadorial mission to the Incan Empire. Another rambling book; it does a better job illustrating the ways that alternate history and world forces are shaping the war, and but much of that is still backloaded while traveling and survival make up the bulk of the book. There's some welcome reoccurring characters, and Incan society provides another interesting take on dragon/human social structures, but this too is familiar to the series. As this series grows longer and its individual installments lose their cohesive plots, it lives and dies on the strength of previous investment in the characters and world—and I have that in droves, and will happily read the daily tribulations of Laurence and crew. But this is late in the game to still be waiting for the plot to coalescence and the pacing to pick up.
juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
Title: Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire Book 6)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Tantor Media, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 214,540
Text Number: 676
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Laurence and Temeraire are exiled to Australia. This is a quiet book, especially so after the previous installment; the action is removed from the war, set on a smaller scale, and consists of little more than a long overland journey. But Australia is a compelling landscape, eerie and inhospitable, and there's room in this smaller novel to develop and introduce minor characters; later plot revelations continue the interesting dragons-as-technology alternate history themes. As a stand-alone, I would find this disappointing; at this point in the larger series, it's more successful (if still not a favorite): a break after the height of the action and before the ramp up to the finale, quiet and bitter but also easing the tension.


Title: Acceptance (Southern Reach Book 3)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Published: FSG Originals, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 345
Total Page Count: 214,885
Text Number: 677
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The narratives of those involved in Area X—its creation, as well as its eventual fate—converge. That makes for substantial PoV- and voice-hopping, including some second person address, and it works surprisingly well—it's distinctive and develops secondary characters and elements; the number of simultaneous narratives also creates a better balance between the conspiracy side and nature preserve/alien phenomenon side of the story. But the conspiracy still bores me, and everything ties together too neatly, a litany of reoccurring, over-explained artifact and images; the ending is small, almost anticlimactic. These are the exact complaints I expected I wouldn't have, as they're the elements VanderMeer has handled best until now—but here, he creates too clear a picture of a subject which is meant to be unknowable. I enjoyed Annihilation; I don't know that any sequels could have held up to such an ambitious, strange beginning, and I didn't expect them too—and, as it turns out, they're okay: just okay.


Title: The Devourers
Author: Indra Das
Published: Del Ray, 2016
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 325
Total Page Count: 215,210
Text Number: 678
Read Because: this post from Penguin's Tumblr, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A professor meets a man who claims to be half-werewolf and charges him with the transcription of documents which tell an unusual story—a story of bodily transformation, ownership, and autonomy; of gender, rape, race, imperialism; of shapeshifters. Das's voice is beautiful, powerful, and distinctly grotesque—an unusual variation of lyrical which is particularly well suited to the themes at hand. The characters and dynamics which emerge are strongly voiced and unromanticized. Cyrah in particular fantastic, and images from her story—specifically, her first two beast rides—have not left me. This book became one of my lifetime favorites while I was still in the process of reading it and, in the nature of favorites, it's difficult for me to do it adequate praise. I'm a sucker for werewolves and shapeshifters, but I believe this works even if you're not; the style is the real determining factor, and it creates an empowered, complicated, visceral narrative. I adored it, of course recommend it, and look forward to my first reread.
juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
Title: Well Witched (Verdigris Deep)
Author: Frances Hardinge
Narrator: Bianca Amato
Published: Recorded Audio, 2009 (2007)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 212,705
Text Number: 670
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When three children steal coins from a wishing well, they find themselves cursed with strange powers and obligated to fulfill the wishes bound to the stolen coins. Well Witched is further proof that there's nothing quite like Hardinge's books. Her initial premises are supremely creepy, and her flexible, creative metaphors render a vivid atmosphere. But the explanations behind these premises, and the resulting plots, are more mundane and occasionally comic—exacerbated here by the middle grade characters/audience, which further lightens the tone. Then again, she's compassionate, insightful, and has a knack subverting tropes, all of which makes for satisfying character growth. Her books are always flawed, if only because that shift in tone from horror to adventure/comedy is inconsistent and disappointing. But I love that she writes them, and especially love the elements that work best in Well Witched: the Glass House, the internal logic of the magic system which unites character growth and plot, the satisfying but unsimplified way that relationships develop; it's so enjoyable, so distinctive, if not perfect.


Title: The Weight of Feathers
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Published: Thomas Dunne, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 213,020
Text Number: 671
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Two teenagers from rival circus families cross paths. It's a beautiful premise, evocative and diverse: Spanish mermaids and French-Romani tree-climbers makes for a romantic but unidealized tableau, engaging race and class and assimilation; beautiful imagery and light touches of magical realism create an immersive setting. But the execution is merely adequate. It's all so predictable, from the nature of the feud to the course of the central romance—and while the protagonists are likable, their chemistry isn't enough to carry the book. I wish there were more going on, in the supporting cast, or larger world, or even more conflict or development in the romance than just the circus feud. As is, this is what it feels like: a first novel, with promising component parts but unremarkable execution.


Title: Victory of Eagles (Temeraire Book 5)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Books on Tape, 2008
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 365
Total Page Count: 213,385
Text Number: 672
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When Laurence and Temeraire are separated, Temeraire assumes a commission of his own. The introduction of Temerarie's PoV is only briefly disorientating; it is, on the whole, a great addition, because this book is all about consequences—of the recent cliffhanger, but also of Laurence's actions throughout the series, and to see them from without, via a character unaware of that complicated social and moral position, is especially effective. It also keeps this book from becoming too dour—so too does the breadth of the action and progression of the war. This is almost too neat a book, in the way that reoccurring characters and ongoing arcs tie into the plot, but that would be my only complaint; I loved it, I found it necessary and well-realized and, if less pointedly feel-good than other series favorites, then perhaps more substantial.
juushika: Screen capture of the Farplane from Final Fantasy X: a surreal landscape of waterfalls and flowers. (Anime/Game)
Title: Annihilation (Southern Reach Book 1)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Published: FSG Originals, 2014
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 195
Total Page Count: 218,840
Text Number: 664
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A biologist joins an expedition into Area X, quarantined after an undisclosed event and now uninhabited. This is akin to the most compelling and surreal parts of the podcast TANIS, or the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise—half terrain, half experience, entirely a revelation, thick with body horror and existential horror. The ending is substantial and convincing, which is crucial to this type of narrative. For better or worse, the bizarre usually needs a counterbalance, both to contrast and distract, so the intrigue isn't lost; here, that's the protagonist and her husband, a relationship which is bland and vaguely unlikeable. But the short length means most of the focus can be Area X itself, and VanderMeer's distant narration, a removed and precise take on New Weird's vivid imagery, is a strong fit. I really enjoyed this; it's easy to come up with this premise, but requires both creativity and discretion to drive it home, to make it profound but keep it on the edge of unknowable. This hit that balance, to satisfying effect.


Title: Empire of Ivory (Temeraire Book 4)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Books on Tape, 2007
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 211,240
Text Number: 665
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Laurence and Temeraire search for a cure to the illness ravaging England's dragons. Unlike the previous installment, this book has a solid throughline. The plot makes for extraordinarily satisfying hurt/comfort—revolving around Laurence and Temeraire, but, unusually, also around other dragons and their captains; it's a welcome broadening of emotional investment, and works beautifully. This book also marks the series's first major departure from history (dragons aside, of course), and it's a telling change that directly addresses the racial issues that permeate the narrative. I was initially skeptical of the tendency to elide historical slavery and the fictional social role of dragons, but the way this development works, combined with increasingly diverse representation, specifically of Africans, goes a long way to resolving that. This series is super tropey, in its tone and relationships, which is what makes it so compulsively readable. But the underlying historical setting, with all its injustice and complication, tempers and enriches that tone. I'm remain in love with the series, but this volume in particular was fantastic. (And, that ending!)


Title: The Summer Prince
Author: Alaya Dawn Johnson
Narrators: Rebecca Mozo, Lincoln Hoppe
Published: Scholastic Audio, 2013
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 211,540
Text Number: 666
Read Because: reading more from the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The kings of Palmares Tres are elected by the public and ritually sacrificed by the queen, a symbolic role disrupted by the election of an unusually popular king plucked from the city's lowest social class. It's hard to introduce this novel's elements—nanotechnology, post-apocalyptic manufactured societies, celebrity, love affairs, art—in a summary; the book does a better job of it, of sinking the reader deeper and deeper into the larger-than-life, vibrantly detailed world of Palmares Tres. In another setting, the romances would be melodramatic; within this appropriately heightened tableau, they're bittersweet and symbolic, and refreshingly non-monogamous.

This is what I hoped for, after I read Love is the Drug and found it unsatisfying but saw potential in the author: I wanted that diversity, that eye for daily detail, that penchant for dramatic romances, explored within a creative and highly speculative setting. And the result is remarkable, grandiose and complicated and sincerely emotional, and one of my favorite books of the year.
juushika: Screen capture of the Farplane from Final Fantasy X: a surreal landscape of waterfalls and flowers. (Anime/Game)
Title: The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home (Fairyland Book 5)
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrator: Ana Juan
Published: Feiwel and Friends, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 215,830
Text Number: 655
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When its previous rulers are revived, September and company must compete in a race for the crown of Fairyland. The cumulative effect of this series is what makes it successful, and the finale is all about culmination: expanding and reuniting the cast, challenging and resolving September's relationship with Saturday, and her relationships with Halloween, Maud, Mallow, and the Marquess, and, finally, her relationship with Fairyland. It's also an especially obvious travelogue, which has become the series's weakness—but here, too much else is going on for the traveling to overwhelm the plot. I've had quibbles with the series entire, and none of the books have lived up to my experience with The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland—but September's cumulative journey through Fairyland has a comparable resonance, and couldn't have been contained in a single book. The Girl Who Raced Fairyland reflects that exactly, and is just how I wanted the series to end.

read last December; still not caught up on belated reviews, pls send help—interestingly, they're all finales of series, and I liked them all; I guess the cumulative feels of multiple books makes writing a review of a good book that much harder, esp. as reviews of finales almost must become reviews of the series entire, a "was it worth it?" judgement


Title: Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas Book #1)
Author: Zoraida Córdova
Published: Sourcebooks Fire, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 216,160
Text Number: 656
Read Because: reading PoC, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Alex believes her family's magic has only ever brought them pain, so she attempts to cast off her own powers with disastrous results. As a premise—Latinx witches with their own customs, pantheon, and hereditary magics; a journey into a dangerous portal world; a bisexual love triangle; novel-length themes of self-acceptance—this is phenomenal. But the writing lets it down. The staccato sentences grow repetitive, and brief visual descriptions deaden the action and the magic; combined with a predictable plot, it all just ... sits there, lost potential. I wanted badly to love this, and probably would have fared better were I a visually-inclined reader, but frankly I can't recommend it.


Title: Black Powder War (Temerarie Book 3)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Books on Tape, 2007 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 216,510
Text Number: 657
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Laurence and company undertake an overland journey, only to encounter hurdles and the war at every turn. This installation begins as a comedy of errors and develops into a tragedy of errors, all without a strong overarching plot. Yet neither the misery nor aimlessness are particularly tiresome, although I did lose the thread the war a bit (my own fault—I let my attention slip while listening and I'm unfamiliar with the history). It works partially because there's still enough action to provide momentum, but moreso because the human element compensates: the precision of the lived, daily detail within the historical and fantastical setting, the way characters's personalities and values are shaped by these experiences, and, at the heart, the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire have pathos and humor and just enough conviction. This series continues to engage and satisfy me, and I can't wait to read more.
juushika: A black and white photo of an ink pen (Writing)
Title: Affinity
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: Penguin, 2002 (1999)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 360
Total Page Count: 209,320
Text Number: 637
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When a troubled woman begins volunteer work at her local prison, she meets a captivating spiritualist inmate. Waters's books consistently offer a dramatic, discomforting tension—they're set deep within their historical contexts, dealing with social/gender roles and queer relationships; they're unromanticized, yet evocative and atmospheric. I found Affinity's social tensions (imprisonment, mental health, suicide within gendered/social context) especially unpleasant for personal reasons, but they have strong thematic synergy. But much of the book's tension lies in the authenticity of the supernatural elements, which means most plot developments are shunted into dramatic revelations in the closing act—and, though both logical and foreshadowed, this still betrays the long, slow engagement that is the bulk of the narrative. This is my least favorite Waters novel so far, which is to praise with a faint damning: it's compelling and sympathetic, but didn't strike me in the way that Waters's other novels have.


Title: Throne of Jade (Temeraire Book 2)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Books on Tape, 2007 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 209,690
Text Number: 638
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After discovering that Temeraire is a Celestial, the rarest and most prestigious of Chinese dragon breeds, Laurence and crew must make a political journey to China itself. I love an extended training montage; as such, this second book in the series lack the immediate appeal of the first. Its focus is politics and culture clash, sometimes in petty ways (which suit the historical setting, but still weary), but improving as themes develop and Chinese dragons are explored. The plot is unremarkable, but what I love about this series is the proactive way it engages the companion animal trope, and here it extends both its setting and purview to explore the social role of dragons across two cultures, while maintaining an emotional center in the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. I may not have loved this as much as the first book, but I remain content with the series so far—it's a satisfying and increasingly thorough take on one of my favorite tropes.


Title: It's All Absolutely Fine
Author and Illustrator: Ruby Elliot
Published: Kansas City: Andrew McMeel Publishing, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 209,945
Text Number: 639
Read Because: personal enjoyment, print book borrowed from Dee
Review:
A memoir and comic collection by a 20-something woman figuring out how to live life as an adult with mental illness. Chapter divisions give the book structure, but grouping the comics makes most of them feel repetitive while leaving a handful of outliers—themselves quite cute!—to stick out sorely. I feel like the comics would be more successful viewed individually, and my experiencing seeing the author's work online supports this. The text sections are honest and have a distinctive informal and self-deprecatory tone. It's all quite relatable, but I'm not sure who the intended audience is meant to be: not an outsider, as everything hinges on relatability; but the lack of detail or productive payoff make it feel too shallow for a fellow sufferer.

I'll be honest: I am the exact wrong audience for this. I find memoirs of this tone wallowy and vaguely triggering; they evoke all the frustrations of female bodies and mental illness, but don't do anything with that except provide sympathy and platitudes. Readers that benefit from a sense of kinship and loving self-mockery will probably have a far better experience.
juushika: Screen capture of the Farplane from Final Fantasy X: a surreal landscape of waterfalls and flowers. (Anime/Game)
Title: His Majesty's Dragon(/Temeraire) (Temeraire Book 1)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Books on Tape, 2007 (2006)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 365
Total Page Count: 207,930
Text Number: 633
Read Because: companion animal trope, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When he captures a dragon egg, a ship's captain must forgo naval service and become part of the Aerial Corps in England's war against French forces. In other words: the Napoleonic Wars with dragon bond animals. I have no interest in that historical setting, but the unusual nature of the Aerial Corps (namely, there are women) is engaging and the corps's outsider status adds narrative intrigue. I don't care much about dragons, but love bond animals—and this iteration is especially tropey. There's a wide variety of human/dragon dynamics on display and some solid worldbuilding, but the perspective is cozily centered on the protagonist pair and their sincere, endearing intimacy. The emotional beats are occasionally predictable, but always satisfying. I'm glad for the sequels, and only regret that it took me so long to start this series.
juushika: Photograph of the torso and legs of a feminine figure with a teddy bear (Bear)
Title: Fire (Graceling Realm Book 2)
Author: Kirstin Cashore
Narrator: Xanthe Elbrick
Published: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, 2009
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 204,240
Text Number: 626
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Fire is a Monster, born with an otherwordly beauty that makes her dangerously compelling. She must decide if she's willing to use her powers to help her country stave off civil war. The plot is adequate but not amazing, and the romance and love interest aren't as engaging as in Graceling (although I continue to appreciate Cashore's portrayal of sexual relationships). But the overall quality is so significantly improved over Graceling as to balance out a number of weaknesses, and the ethical explorations of Fire's abilities are subtle and complex. This is a significantly improved experience, more challenging, better written; I'd enjoy it just for the opportunity to watch Cashore's technical skill improve, but I also appreciate the tropes at play. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.


On Fire's river mare. )
juushika: Photograph of the torso and legs of a feminine figure with a teddy bear (Bear)
Title: Forty Thousand in Gehenna (Unionside Book 1)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw Books, 1984 (1983)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 445
Total Page Count: 201,290
Text Number: 593
Read Because: fan of the author/bond animal trope, purchased used from Powell's (as a gift from [personal profile] century_eyes)
Review: The Union settlers that come to Gehenna as part of a political expansion find themselves abandoned there in the company of the native giant lizards who may have more sapience than it first seemed. This novel chronicles the fall and creation of civilizations, and as such has a strange structure. The first two thirds is an overview of broad swaths of time, seen in glimpses from various denizens; the staccato pacing helps balance the distant narrative. Only the final third introduces characters to appeal to reader investment; it also engages some bond animal tropes and brings to fruition issues of civilization, definitions of sapience, and a truly alien species interfacing with humans. Cherryh's novels are often one part politics and one part id—and Forty Thousand in Gehenna is a particularly pronounced example. It's a slow burn with a too-quick end, but pays off for readers that enjoy Cherryh's style or the tropes at play. I imagine it holds up well to rereads.


On Tumblr: regarding maps, crossposted below:

Read more... )
juushika: A black and white photo of an ink pen (Writing)
Title: The Game of Rat and Dragon
Author: Cordwainer Smith
Published: Galaxy Science Fiction, 1955
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 15
Total Page Count: 189,720
Text Number: 557
Read Because: interested in companion animal trope, ebook from Project Gutenberg
Review: In the future, humans cannot undergo the dangerous hyperspace journeys alone. The short story is more concept than narrative or character piece. The speculative elements and style are dated, and what functions as plot is, at best, bizarre. But the core concept is creative, oddball, and an unusual prototype of the companion/magical bond animal trope, as early examples go. This is impossible to take seriously, but it's a harmless way to spend a few minutes.

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