Goran Lowie
An early feminist piece of light SF. Nothing particularly special, although it's interesting as a female utopia. Kind of insane that this was written in a time when most women in this country had no access to education. Some parts of its message (people of any sex are equal) are still “progressive” in many areas... The longer I think about it, the more impressive it becomes, despite being rather unimpressed on my first reading.
Read as part of the “Voices from the Radium Age” anthology.
Wonderfully sweet book with some very diverse characters. Lots of queer rep, disability, something different from the usual heteronormative story.
“Bufallo Gals, Won't You Come Out at Night” is a very sweet animal-focused story. Le Guin cared deeply about animals and our relationship with nature (I highly recommend her collection of non-fiction regarding this, “Cheek by Jowl”), and it shows.
“She Unnames Them” was a cool story, but over before I even realized it had begun.
“Sur” is a classic feminist piece of Le Guin's, focused on an all-female expedition to the Antarctic.
Also included is the poem “The Old Novelist's Lament”, a nostalgic piece that feels related to “Sur”.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 ELGIN AWARD
A collection of mostly humor-filled poetry. Not my style of poems, but I enjoyed one every so often. I am also not a big fan of poetry that rhymes, which many of these did, so it really just wasn't my type of thing.
The Sign of the Dragon is a rarity. It's hard to describe what makes it so great, so I will start with just describing what makes it unique: firstly, its structure (an epic fantasy novel written via 300-something poems) and secondly, its content (a story of a mythic figure, yet extremely personal).
I've never heard of a book of speculative poetry with this kind of ambition before. You'd think it would get old after the first hundred or so, but it only becomes more enchanting, immersing you like some epic poem of old. I found myself captivated by the rhythm of it all, the beauty of the words, the magic of its verses. Definitely worked very well for me.
But my favorite part was undoubtedly its story. The tale of King Xau is an inspiring one—in a conversation with Mary Soon Lee, she said people told her everyone is too kind in this book, and this is a sensible statement: nearly every poem, every moment, every fragment of this is saturated with kindness.
King Xau himself is the biggest reason for this: he exudes kindliness with every waking breath! It's a contagious kind of thing, elevating him very quickly to a legendary status, with many tiny examples of his warmth and gentleness. Yet it never feels naïve—he suffers consequences, the good moments feel well-earned, he becomes this strange mix of a very human person yet a figure of myth.
There are some other hints throughout this story of this being a somewhat mythic tale—we are sometimes unsure whether everything truly happened as it is depicted, or whether this is some cultures version of e.g. the Odyssey. At other moments it clearly “breaks the fourth wall”, mentioning stuff which happens but will not be remembered by the historians.
It's a very interesting narrative device. I don't think this story would work as a novel. Neither do I think this will at all appeal to those who cherish grimdark (though it certainly gets dark at times), people who believe all people are fundamentally evil, that lord-of-the-flies crowd.
But if you are one of those Becky Chambers-loving, hopeful people who look for the positive in humanity, if you are someone who wants to read something truly experimental, a kind of multicultural hopepunk story with Guy Gavriel Kay-level emotions... You will love this book as I did. You will cherish the characters, the words and the lyricism.
Highly recommend. One of my favorites of the year. I hope to reread this next year—slowly, perhaps a poem a day, daily invigoration.
Merged review:
The Sign of the Dragon is a rarity. It's hard to describe what makes it so great, so I will start with just describing what makes it unique: firstly, its structure (an epic fantasy novel written via 300-something poems) and secondly, its content (a story of a mythic figure, yet extremely personal).
I've never heard of a book of speculative poetry with this kind of ambition before. You'd think it would get old after the first hundred or so, but it only becomes more enchanting, immersing you like some epic poem of old. I found myself captivated by the rhythm of it all, the beauty of the words, the magic of its verses. Definitely worked very well for me.
But my favorite part was undoubtedly its story. The tale of King Xau is an inspiring one—in a conversation with Mary Soon Lee, she said people told her everyone is too kind in this book, and this is a sensible statement: nearly every poem, every moment, every fragment of this is saturated with kindness.
King Xau himself is the biggest reason for this: he exudes kindliness with every waking breath! It's a contagious kind of thing, elevating him very quickly to a legendary status, with many tiny examples of his warmth and gentleness. Yet it never feels naïve—he suffers consequences, the good moments feel well-earned, he becomes this strange mix of a very human person yet a figure of myth.
There are some other hints throughout this story of this being a somewhat mythic tale—we are sometimes unsure whether everything truly happened as it is depicted, or whether this is some cultures version of e.g. the Odyssey. At other moments it clearly “breaks the fourth wall”, mentioning stuff which happens but will not be remembered by the historians.
It's a very interesting narrative device. I don't think this story would work as a novel. Neither do I think this will at all appeal to those who cherish grimdark (though it certainly gets dark at times), people who believe all people are fundamentally evil, that lord-of-the-flies crowd.
But if you are one of those Becky Chambers-loving, hopeful people who look for the positive in humanity, if you are someone who wants to read something truly experimental, a kind of multicultural hopepunk story with Guy Gavriel Kay-level emotions... You will love this book as I did. You will cherish the characters, the words and the lyricism.
Highly recommend. One of my favorites of the year. I hope to reread this next year—slowly, perhaps a poem a day, daily invigoration.
The Dragon Project (3.5/5)
A delightful slice-of-life story about bio-engineerint dragons. Didn't really feel like it had a proper ending but I'm not sure it needed one. Bonus points for cute dragon pets!!
Saturn Devouring His Son (2.5/5)
An average story, two sons are unable to move on from the death of their father. Set in a vaguely dystopic place ruled by some megacorp.
Rain of Days (3.5/5)
Robots are memory therapists, and much more than that... A poignant story about the Big Fears in life, and dealing with them.
The Memory of Water (2.5/5)
A creepy little story. I enjoyed the worldbuilding but was never able to immerse myself.
Wanting Things (4/5)
Very lovely Wiswellian (but horny) piece about a smarthome and a toaster falling in love.
It Takes a Village (3.5/5)
A group of people living on a generation ship is ruled by an unquestionably right AI. When they land on a planet with others, some slowly start to realise the AI isn't as perfect as they always thought.
Meddling Fields (3.5/5)
Big Blade Runner vibes from this one.
Commencement Address (3.5)
A story about how weak our human bodies are- and always will be, even as we unlock virtual worlds and the rest of our solar system.
Essays and interviews were worth reading, too.
Fragments of a worker's apocalypse. “THE EMPLOYEES” but actually worth a read. Reads a bit like Instagram poetry sometimes, but manages to keep hold my attention all the way through. How do you keep going when you are a poor worker in the capitalist hellscape of a modern fish factory? You write a few lines of prose-poetry, you look for solidarity in your comrades, you recite poems, you reminisce about the past, you sing.
Ponthus uses direct, raw language to depict a harsh reality. Reads like a song.
The stories of C.S.E. Cooney mostly excel in atmosphere. They have a certain feeling to them that I haven't found in many other authors, which slowly draws you in, with characters that feel like fairytale figures yet fully formed people of their own. Sometimes I get a bit lost in the story, but for the most part they're enjoyable reads.
Individual reviews for each story:
The Breaker Queen (2/5)
This one was almost a DNF. Could not wrap my head around the story! I didn't really understand what was going on anymore halfway through and honestly couldn't bring myself to care enough to try. While I loved the prose, I wasn't really reading the actual story, and had to power through to finish it. Maybe a re-read is in order, one day.
The Two Paupers (4/5)
After almost DNF-ing this collection, this story was an absolute joy to read straight from the start. It's a delightful mythopoeic story filled with mystery, intrigue and romance culminating in a fantastic tale of artists and magic. The imagery in this story is beautiful.
Salissay's Laundries (3.5/5)
This one was quite interesting; a journalist tries to infiltrate some kind of institution in an attempt to essentially prove magic exists. She's very sceptical and gets up to a bunch of trouble. Just like the others, it's kind of a slow burn, not much going on, and it had a bit of a middle drag for me.
Longergreen (4/5)
A very sweet story on grieving and a bit of interesting worldbuilding. Becomes much more meaningful after having read some of the previous stories in this collection. I especially liked how it interwove a historical event in the world with the personal story of some characters we got to know earlier.
Susurra to the Moon (3.5/5)
This was a very quick and cute absurd little short story. What I really like about C.S.E's stories is how they are very much myths, with fairytale logic, yet they incorporate hard terms of science, referring to decidedly “real” organisations and facts of science, within this illogical feeling world. It's an interesting paradox, and it works quite well.
Average rating: 3.4, rounded down to 3.
Disclaimer: I receive an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly much too post-modern for me... DNF about three stories in, the very long and abstract LANGDON JONES story.
Didn't work for me, I'm afraid. I tend to be a fan of experimental fiction/poetry, but this was just a bit too much, leaving me unable to connect to it. It felt kind of funny– even though this is supposed to be written from the perspective of an AI, it felt as if I were the robot, desperately trying to understand human poetry, but ultimately just not managing to ‘get it'...
This is a solid YA book. You've got the typical hyperintelligent teen as is common in many of Card's most popular works, mixed with a more down-to-earth urban fantasy story compared to the actual sci-fi we usually get. It's mostly a very twee romance story between two kids, mixed with some superpower (“micropower”) stuff.
It's a fun book for kids, but that's about it. You won't find anything here Card hasn't done better in other books.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.
Definitely the least interesting Butler book I've read so far. Very violent and not as sophisticated as her future works.
This is a bit of a weird one. While I enjoyed it, it definitely had a big slump in the middle. I know Sanderson is trying to get rid of his “Avalanche”, but in this case it hasn't really resulted in a more satisfying book overall, as you'd expect– instead, it just felt like an ending to any other book. I guess this is just because I'm used to it, I wouldn't complain about this with a different author.
In general, this was fairly different from what I was expecting. It felt more like a Skyward 2.5 (even though it's a full-length novel), with the majority of the story being about Spensa just going off on her own adventure and (eventually) learning new stuff about some of the universe. It's fun, but it felt a bit lacking compared to the previous two books. Almost like one of those classic adventure novels. I also read the Skyward Flight novellas leading up to this release, which made this more disappointing... Was hoping to see more of the other characters we're familiar with.
TL;DR it's fun but I think I went in with the wrong expectations!
I hated, hated this collection.
It's the type of poetry I would expect from one of my students—heartfelt, yes, but completely unsubtle and often lacking in substance. It very much reads like “Instagram poetry”, like someone wanted to share a meaningful message but thought just putting it like that would be boring so they inserted some line breaks and called it a day. Easy read? Certainly, but it still felt like a waste of time.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sunrise Press for the ARC.
TEHANU is a masterful read, perhaps the best of the Earthsea cycle. Le Guin does away with power, or the mythical Ged and strong Tenar of the first book, revealing instead their much more human and frail lives. It's a dark booked filled with loss and grief, but also an incredibly angry book; attacking gender roles, attacking power. This book is a complete stunner and easily one of my favorite Le Guins.
As much as I love these feminist retellings of mythology that I've been devouring the past few years, there are some trends in them that I'm starting to get tired of. A common one I see is that most of the men in these stories are just symbols for the patriarchy, often cartoonishly evil. It just feels a bit too much like wish-fullfilment at times, to make the fight more black-and-white for our heroine, easier to justify.
Easy to overlook that, however. I still liked this book overall, especially as it got near the end- the pacing didn't entirely work for me, and it took a LONG time to get going. Once it did, it worked, but maybe it took just a little too long to get there. I liked the way it intertwined many mythological stories together, probably my favorite part.
Will still read the author's next book, Murwood, which is apparently coming out next year.
NOW NOMINATED FOR THE 2022 URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION
A great pick for this award- it embodies much of Le Guin's work and is certainly award-worthy.
Prior review:
What an absolutely brilliant novella... Certainly one of Tchaikovsky's best. This feels like a better executed and more interesting version of THE EXPERT SYSTEM'S BROTHER, exploring similar themes of colonists of old coming into contact with the “natives”. It's partly Planet of Exiles, it's very much Hard to be a God, and it even feels a bit fairytale-esque.
A must-read for Tchaikovsky fans.
I was lost... Not sure how I feel about the twin POV aspect, and how well it was executed, because I only really noticed halfway through.
This is a really great read. An intricately developed world (really the highlight of the entire book) with a fun murder mystery. The concept is great and begs for a sequel (which I will start reading immediately)!
MIT Press.
A fairly dense read, but like most Lems, well worth breaking your head over. Feels pretty cynical and unfortunately all too timely. This packed so many things into it, I almost feel like a re-read will have to be essential to give them all some proper thought...
This definitely feels like one of the most hippie books Silverberg ever wrote. You've got many of his classic tropes: questioning authority, understanding older (primitive) cultures to find enlightenment, drugs, free (and sometimes WEIRD) love, and transformation in some way or other. It's a pretty wild story.
Bit of a weird one. Never really felt like it lived up to its potential. Really enjoyed some parts, struggled at others... Something just felt off about it. Still, it's a fairly interesting premise and especially the first half or so of the novel really held my attention. After that... It felt like the plot got a bit stretched, questions were never answered, worldbuilding was unsatisfying and just too vague to really make me feel for the plot.
Read out loud with some friends. Very fun! Cool play, would love to see the movie one day.
A thought-provoking collection. Much of it is typical Le Guin– the title story is her anthropological exploration of justice for people who don't often get to enjoy it, while the essay on publishing is her anti-books-as-commodity stance as she's expressed in a myriad of ways before. The modesty essay was unexpected and refreshing. I was perplexed by the interview, which contained many plain bad questions (for Le Guin, anyway) met with deservedly snarky non-answers. Sometimes there were hints of wisdom, though.