Valerie

Well, it was better than I thought it would be. As my book club has started talking more about the four doorways of reading (Character, Plot, Setting, Writing), I'm coming to realize more and more that without that Writing doorway, I just have a hard time getting into a book.

This book is extremely cinematic in a way that if it was an anime or graphic novel where I could actually see the Chrysalises and watch the battle scenes, I'd probably be pretty into it. The ruthless female anti-hero is a trope that I'm glad is gaining more traction. In the romance aspects of the book,<spoiler>the pro-poly anti-love triangle take is a great way to turn YA fiction on its head even if the Shimin/Yizhi romance didn't really get enough attention to feel at all believable.</spoiler>

So plot and character-wise, it's pretty good. The world-building is all right too. I think it's just the language including occasional modern phrases that feel so anachronistic to the setting that grated on me. The ending also was pretty abrupt and included so much new information that felt rushed to me. So I don't know. I think it's a good book that just wasn't really for me. It is a shame that it was disqualified in the Hugo debacle this year because as literature aimed at a young adult audience, I think it is making some very important moves and deserved that recognition.

I've been 50/50 on CJA's novels, but I really think she excels at the short story. The range demonstrated in this one collection stretches from whimsically cheerful to violent absurdist to scathing speculation and dark realities. "Captain Roger in Heaven" and "Power Couple" are probably the standouts that were new to me in this collection. I think the only one I really didn't care for was "Fairy Werewolf vs. Zombie Vampire" which just tipped my whimsy scale over the edge. The only other slightly disappointing factor was that I already owned other collections featuring these stories, but it was still a nice excuse to reread them. I think I could read "As Good as New" any number of times and still appreciate it.

The book jacket to this edition calls her "This generation's LeGuin," but I think that's not entirely fair. Yes there's a heavy dose of social commentary and speculation, but CJA's style is distinctively her own and is deeply rooted in this generation here and now

If you would like a master-class in voice, particularly writing the voice of thirteen year old girl, look no further. I don't think I've ever read an early teen thought process that worked as well as this one. I think I generally shy away from "coming of age" stories because they so often feel trite. Eulabee's voice is that perfect intersection of intelligent immaturity that I feel really captures this age. The flash forward at the end is also inspired. Just a fantastic piece of fiction that I'd recommend to just about anyone.

My book club billed this one as "reading Skyrim," and I think that's pretty spot on for better and worse. The characters and setting are all pretty excellent with great world building. I especially enjoy viking warrior mom even if I kept misreading her name as Okra instead of Orka. Honestly, I appreciate everything Gwynne does to subvert the patriarchal norms of historical fiction and saying, this is still fiction. This is fantasy. Let's just make a society where the genders are more or less even because we can.

The plot, however, is meandering and constantly interrupted by random encounter fight scenes. Fun to play as a game, less fun to read. And those fight scenes are gory to a level that I just don't enjoy. It also suffers from being only half a book, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to pursue the sequel right away. We shall see, but overall, a unique piece of norse-inspired fantasy though not entirely my cuppa.

McSweeney's is always a treat, but the Sasha Pearl poetry collection included in this one really made it exceptional. It made me laugh and made my heart hurt and made me want to get back into writing poetry.

Emily St. John Mandel has a gift for writing about liminal spaces. The spaces between countries, time period, social classes, families, strangers. She creates such a web of deep, complicated, flawed characters and takes you on a time-bending journey through their lives. I hadn't read this before I listened to Sea of Tranquility which is really a continuation and honing of the skills (and several characters) she already had nearly mastered in this novel. While there are elements of magical realism and ghost stories, it's not one of her truly speculative works like SoT or Station Eleven, but it is absolutely worth the read if you enjoyed her writing in those books.

One of the best books I've read in a long time. Theres's not one moment (or fingersnap of 65 moments) that hasn't been carefully thought through to create this beautiful exploration of time, entanglement, and a life (or a death) with meaning. The research that went into this book must have been incredible. Everything from the daily life of a Japanese high school student in Tokyo to neighborly mechanisms that keep a British Columbian island functionings to the realities of life as a WWII kamikaze pilot and the magical realism that is quantum mechanics. I care deeply for the characters. I feel like I've lived in the setting, and I savored the prose. I don't know what else you could ask for in a novel. It's my first Ruth Ozeki book, but definitely not my last.

So I've read a lot of books this year, and most of them have been fun. Lots of 4 stars. Very few that actually strike an emotional chord (which is my main crieria for hitting five). The Martian just wiped the floor with all of them and is by far my favorite thing I've read all year.

Let it be said that while I occasionally read hard sci-fi, most of it is way over my head and I'm in no way fit to judge the accuracy of such novels. When I finished this book, I felt better versed in space travel and how exactly humans can get such a thing done. I may not have understood all the physics, but Weir takes a concept people spend multiple doctorates on and makes it comprehensible to the average space fangirl.

And it's not boring! Too often, hard sci-fi spends so much time explaining how such and such is possible, I forget why I'm supposed to care in the first place. I never stopped caring in this book. Every technical detail was directly connected to Mark's survival, and his sense of humor and clever analogies kept the pace moving firmly ahead. Mark is resourceful, entertaining, and entirely loveable. He's like Wash if Wash were stranded on Mars. Alan Tudyk should play him in the movie. I could not stop reading this yesterday and churned through way more than is strictly healthy for my bedtime. I just couldn't sleep knowing something else was going to go terribly wrong at any moment. Don't pick this book up without a solid block of time to devote to it. It's not long, but you won't want to take a break.

So far the book is smart and engaging, but what really got me is the way it balances Mark's mission and NASA. NASA does a lot for Mark, obviously, but the times he is at his best are when all the bureaucratic strings are cut. Mark succeeds partially because of team of people rooting for him to survive, but mostly because the people rooting for him all either trust him to do his job or have no choice but to let him do his job. Same for the folks on Hermes. I felt a real kinship in this book for what humans can do when we are allowed to just do our jobs without anyone babysitting or critiquing.

Of course, Mark also screws up plenty of times because no one is babysitting, but such is balance.

There's a few odds and ends that bugged me. I can't believe a geek like Mark brought none of his own entertainment with him... or that anyone on the ship would have brought no entertainment or only one variety of entertainment, and the world rooting as one for Watney is a bit over the top, but Weir balances that out with the bureaucratic worlds actual discussion of budget cuts and mission safety regulations. Nothing actually hampers my enjoyment of the Story. And it gets a capital Story.

Man vs. the Elements may be older than Robinson Crusoe, but Weir does the archetype proud in this novel. Highly recommended to Space Pirates everywhere.