Novella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was grNovella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was great to see Bobbie again being her Martian Marine bad self.
Merged review:
Novella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was great to see Bobbie again being her Martian Marine bad self....more
I'll start with a mostly-unspoilery assessment: The beginning's a bit difficult, as it's in second person POV (most of the first 3/4 of the book is inI'll start with a mostly-unspoilery assessment: The beginning's a bit difficult, as it's in second person POV (most of the first 3/4 of the book is in second person POV), set in a completely different milieu than the first with mostly unfamiliar characters, and dialogue and flashbacks that seem to contradict basically everything that happened in the first book. But those inconsistencies are hooks that pull you on. I spent most of the first part of the book thinking, "okay, this makes no sense, but there's got to be a REASON this makes no sense," and coming up with various ideas and drawing tentative conclusions, and eventually I was gloriously rewarded. It takes a while, though; the pacing's a bit off, with a perhaps slower-than-needed build and a rushed conclusion, but it's well put-together, with clever foreshadowing that makes you go "aha" when you get to the payoff. If you enjoyed Gideon the Ninth for the necromancy, the odd combination of science fiction and gothic horror, the sheer wackadoodle-iness of the writing, and the lesbian-flavored loyalty kink, you will get all that and more here. (If you were put off by the memes, apparently there are memes here, too; I tend to miss that sort of thing because I'm not super meme-savvy. Also, if reading about dissociation, delusion, and possible insanity will upset you, you may have issues with this book.)
More about this book, slightly and vaguely spoilery but no more than you'd get in a pro review, I think; spoilers for Gideon the Ninth, so don't click if you haven't read the first book: (view spoiler)[I was really happy to see that not only do we revisit (some of) the first book's characters in flashback (from Harrow's POV), there is a sort of afterlife that is accessible to necromancers, which was implied but not shown in the first book, and we meet some of the dead characters in the 'now' as well. . (We learn towards the end of GtN that the reason Abigail Pent was killed first was that she is a 'speaker to the dead' - so that neatly cut off any exploration in this direction. But I am pleased that in a universe with necromancers, death is not necessarily the end of the narrative, since that wasn't clear from GtN.)
A lot of the worldbuilding holes are filled in here; we learn why the Emperor Undying is at war, and what that kind of war entails, and why becoming a Lyctor involves what it does. In some sense it's another highly-bounded scenario, in that most of it takes place on a space station inhabited only by the Emperor and his Lyctors, but we do get glimpses of other worlds and other people. We also learn the answers to questions more explicitly raised by the first book, but of course, many new questions are raised.
But it's a wild and crazy ride, with a lot of angst, pining, conflict, despair, and triumph along the way. Also a lot of modern internet references, most of which I'm sure I missed; but there are some wonderful nods to fandom, including a series of confabulated delusions incorporating AU type scenarios, culminating in, I shit you not, a coffeeshop AU that made me laugh out loud. (To the point that I went into the Locked Tomb discord server, where I had been up until then a lurker, and requested access to the special HtN channel just so I could squee about the marvelous and stupid pun that made me lose it entirely.)
I will say that the tagline "the necromancers are back and they're gayer than ever" is a bit misleading. The LGBTQ content of this book is about on a level with that of the previous book. Also, I thought the structure of Death here remarkably like that of the Old Kingdom books (not calling plagiarism - it's just that they both clearly draw on the same lore); and Ianthe lost her arm at the end of GtN, and in this book she gets a gilded version, so I'm already writing the crossover in my head. (hide spoiler)]...more
Other than "The Battle of Candle Arc" (which is available for free online, and which I recommend to people who were confused by Ninefox Gambit as an eOther than "The Battle of Candle Arc" (which is available for free online, and which I recommend to people who were confused by Ninefox Gambit as an easier-to-understand introduction to this universe) these stories will either make no sense or hold no interest for readers who have not read the Machineries of Empires novels. But if you enjoyed those books, you'll enjoy these stories, which are basically fanfiction of the series (that is, bits of prequel, a sequel, and interstitial explorations) by its author. With the slight disclaimer that Yoon is a friend, I will say that my favorite parts of this collection were not the actual stories, but the afterword to each one in which he talks about the ideas that went into them, the circumstances of writing them, and the bits that are drawn from his life and experiences - an entertaining and down-to-earth peek behind the scenes....more
I liked this better than the first one! It's like an inversion of the "robot wants to be human" trope; Murderbot is reluctantly being more human than I liked this better than the first one! It's like an inversion of the "robot wants to be human" trope; Murderbot is reluctantly being more human than it wants to, and it isn't happy about that. The character voice is delightful, and the plot is really nicely straightforward and at least to me made more sense than the first....more
This near-future dystopia is a mashup of cli-fi and corporatocracy: The world has become a hellish hot desert in which the only employer (if you're luThis near-future dystopia is a mashup of cli-fi and corporatocracy: The world has become a hellish hot desert in which the only employer (if you're lucky enough to get a job) is the company store, a thinly-veiled Amazon called Cloud, where upbeat corporate messaging hides the fact that the workers are essentially slaves with high-tech shackles. Set against this backdrop is a story of three people: Paxton, whose small business was destroyed by Cloud and who applies for a job there as a last resort; Zinnia, a professional industrial spy, whose job is cover for ferreting out Cloud's secrets; and the Sam-Walton-esque Gibson Wells, the dying founder of Cloud, who is visiting all of his company's sites one last time.
It's a bit heavy on the author's message (that is: we did this to ourselves by purchasing the cheap things we could point and click and have delivered) but it's entertaining and easy to read. But the story falls apart a bit toward the end; Zinnia's first discovery is truly shocking, but the climactic revelation is...a bit of an anticlimax. It felt to me as though the various plot bits didn't really line up toward the end, that things happened because the author wanted them to happen rather than because they made sense. But it was a fun ride (and a cautionary tale) up to that point....more
A sort of political SF murder mystery, though the murder is not so much a whodunnit as a whydunnit, and not so much a mystery to solve as a gradually A sort of political SF murder mystery, though the murder is not so much a whodunnit as a whydunnit, and not so much a mystery to solve as a gradually unfolding path. The Lsel Station ambassador to the Teixcalaan Empire has died under possibly suspicious circumstances, and Mahit Dzmare is appointed as a new ambassador, sent to the Teixcalaan capital city with a fifteen-years-outdated "imago" - a sort of memory chip made from the previous ambassador using jealously-guarded Lsel technology - implanted in her head. Mahit reminds me a bit of Ingray in Ann Leckie's Provenance: a clever young woman, a bit out of her depth, but determined to succeed. There is also a similar element of cultural misunderstanding and confusion, which I always enjoy, and a rather lowkey f/f relationship.
Others have complained about the pacing but it didn't ping me at all, and that's something I usually notice. I liked the slow reveal of the wheels within wheels and the evolution of the problem from something small and personal to something that encompasses more than even the sprawling empire. I loved the tiny bits of worldbuilding, the naming conventions and the poetry battles, and the writing style worked well for me. Looking forward to the next book....more
A book about roads not taken, about alternate-universe (AU) versions of one's own life. It's a thriller, which means that a lot of things happen for tA book about roads not taken, about alternate-universe (AU) versions of one's own life. It's a thriller, which means that a lot of things happen for the sole purpose of driving the plot (and poor Jason!) into ever more horrible and desperate situations, but it's a well-constructed plot. I particularly liked the endgame, which I didn't see coming but delighted me, and the ending, which I totally saw coming (and also delighted me). There is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required (for example, (view spoiler)[wouldn't the post-box versions of Jason each have his own post-box world that had also splintered off? wouldn't all the possible realities include way more that had split long before Jason had even been born? (hide spoiler)]), though anyone who e.g. watches Star Trek will have mastered this skill. (I also had to suspend my disbelief that two people could drink two bottles of wine and still be coherent after, let alone have sex. There is a lot of drinking in this book!) There's a strong thread of "the most important thing is family," which is a rather sweet author's message, considering.
Early on, when the reader has already figured out that Jason is in an alternate universe but Jason himself has not yet clued in, I started speculating on the direction the story would take, and thinking that I would be disappointed if it didn't happen that way. It didn't, but I suppose in some AU version of this book it does, and perhaps I'll write that one eventually!
4.5 stars rounded up for the solid narration of the audiobook, which is always a plus for me....more
An odd and depressing mash-up of the true stories of the Radium Girls and the death of Topsy the Elephant, with a side order of Expert Judgment on MarAn odd and depressing mash-up of the true stories of the Radium Girls and the death of Topsy the Elephant, with a side order of Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Bits of different POVs, all which are sharp and distinct (and include elephant POV). Obtained as the Tor e-book of the month a while back....more
A theme running through these books is that that humans are inherently tribal and fractious, and that disparate groups only ever unite to face a commoA theme running through these books is that that humans are inherently tribal and fractious, and that disparate groups only ever unite to face a common threat. In this installment, the Rocinante family face both human (the Laconian empire) and nonhuman (the thing that killed the protomolecule builders) threats, and honestly to me, the former is more interesting than the latter. After all, the struggle against a dictator's oppression is something anyone who reads the news is familiar with; casting it in SF terms puts a novel face on it, but it's still immediately and viscerally sympathetic. In this book the human threat that developed in the previous book (and was foreshadowed in the ones before that) is dealt with by the characters' innate moxie (especially Naomi and Bobbie), but it's not without great cost - which is also viscerally sympathetic.
As usual there are multiple narrators and multiple storylines. Perhaps my favorite was that of Teresa Duarte, the dictator's daughter-and-heir, who slowly realizes the nature of her gilded cage....more
Dystopian cli-fi set on a "grid city" in the north Atlantic, crowded with the mostly-desperate survivors of a post-sea-level-rise world, run by softwaDystopian cli-fi set on a "grid city" in the north Atlantic, crowded with the mostly-desperate survivors of a post-sea-level-rise world, run by software managed by a shadowy elite of wealthy shareholders. The first third of the book is slow and not particularly compelling, with rather more infodump than one would like (though it's presented in a really cool way) and fairly unsympathetic viewpoint characters, but once the separate threads of narrative begin to weave together (and the characters acquire greater depth) it becomes very interesting indeed. I was particularly impressed by the careful assembly, in the later chapters, of all the information given early in the book; not a gun on the wall remains unfired.
The worldbuilding is intricate and inventive. Of the four viewpoint characters, one's gay and one is nonbinary, and there is a significant established f/f relationship. The strongest theme running throughout the book is that of the importance of family; you might have friends and business associates, but blood bonds are the closest bonds....more
A spy novel set in an alternate 1938, where death (provided you have a Ticket) sends you not into the formless void but into Summerland, an extension A spy novel set in an alternate 1938, where death (provided you have a Ticket) sends you not into the formless void but into Summerland, an extension of the British Empire where Queen Victoria still reigns and there is a whole branch of non-living government bureaucracy. There were a lot of elements I liked - the four-dimensional nature of the afterlife, the various ways the dead have of interacting with the living, and most especially the Prime Minister being a thinly-disguised version of HG Wells - but in a way it felt as though there was so much shoved into the story that the characters and their concerns felt less compelling to me than they should have. The beginning's great, the end's great, but the stuff in the middle feels meandery and confusing....more
This book makes me think of Welcome to Night Vale, played straight. (It also has elements of (view spoiler)[
Cuckoo Song(hide spoiler)],which is aThis book makes me think of Welcome to Night Vale, played straight. (It also has elements of (view spoiler)[
Cuckoo Song(hide spoiler)],which is a spoiler for something that is niftier to figure out on your own.) It's fantasy-horror about a former police officer, drifting rootless after a failed marriage and a miscarriage, who discovers her mother's left her a house in the small New Mexico town of Wink, which is mostly unknown but turns out to be the town associated with a mysterious now-closed national research laboratory, where her mother had apparently been one of the leading scientists. As you might expect, in Wink, Things are Not as They Seem. There are mysterious happenings and odd rules, and the moon is always pink.
It took me a while to get into, partly because it's in present tense. Which I dislike, but I have to admit that Bennett does clever things with present tense, here; I find that it feels explicitly narrated, and he does treat it that way, not quite on the "O Reader, this is what she found:" level, but with the effect of making you feel as though curtains are being pulled back to show you bits and pieces of the story. This also has the effect (to me) of making the central character feel somewhat distant from the narrative, as even in her POV I feel like I'm watching her rather than in her head, and that detracted from my involvement as well.
The story itself, well. I really liked aspects of it, and found others off-putting, and others baffling. Bennett's recent books are beautifully constructed, but here I think he was still finding his footing, and the pacing is slow and somewhat meandering, and overall the book is far longer than it should be. I liked it, and I recommend it if the WTNV comparison (and a fairly bad-ass female main) appeals, but ultimately I didn't love it, and was less and less interested in it toward the end....more
I saw a few reviews that characterized this as "Leckie channeling Bujold", and that sounds about right. Space opera with a bit of murder mystery that I saw a few reviews that characterized this as "Leckie channeling Bujold", and that sounds about right. Space opera with a bit of murder mystery that is really about political machinations; I really liked the POV character Ingray, out of her depth but trying to do the right thing, and the bits of culture-clash and worldbuilding: the mechs and the water-dwelling Geck, the hit-and-miss translation software, the hapless Raadchai ambassador. It did feel a bit cluttered to me, though, and while I liked it, I didn't love it....more
As usual with a collection, I loved some stories and was meh on others. My favorites were the ones that started from the assumption that some earlier As usual with a collection, I loved some stories and was meh on others. My favorites were the ones that started from the assumption that some earlier conception of the world was literally true: that heaven and hell (and God and angels) literally exist("Tower of Babylon" and "Hell is the Absence of God"), or that golems and homunculi (the miniature fully-formed humans that were thought to exist in sperm) literally exist ("Seventy-Two Letters"). I felt that all these stories were less emotionally involving than I prefer (other than perhaps "Tower of Babylon", which was probably my favorite), and all of them, except for maybe the three-page "The Evolution of Human Science", were too long.
I really enjoyed the author's notes at the end, especially those for "Seventy-Two Letters"....more
20% in, and I am finally admitting that life is too short to spend trying to read this book. It seems too in love with its own cleverness to bother wi20% in, and I am finally admitting that life is too short to spend trying to read this book. It seems too in love with its own cleverness to bother with a coherent narrative, which I guess only stupid people like me crave. Some of its ideas and elements are kind of cool, but it's too hard to wade through everything else....more
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