Sahi

When I first saw the blurb of this book, I was excited for it. It seemed like a promising entertaining rom-com (which I enjoy a lot) with a political/royal backdrop that felt like icing on the cake. However, this has just turned out to be soooooo much more. I don't even have proper words to describe how much I loved it – just know that I have already read it twice in three days because once was definitely not enough. This book has brought me lots of smiles and tears, joy, hope and optimism; so be prepared for a very rambling incoherent mess of gushing words masquerading as a review below.

I will be upfront and tell you all that I am a “The West Wing” (TV Show) junkie. There's just something so hopeful about watching a group of people working so hard in politics for the sake of the welfare of the people, without cynicism, with a lot of positivity and genuine interest in public service. Especially considering the dog whistle politics of our current times and the sh*t show we have been subjected to for more than two years now, I am very much thankful for the escapist/alternate reality setting in this book where a Female Texan Democrat with biracial children got elected as President in 2016 and is now up for reelection. It's probably too unrealistic but it's also something I didn't know I needed and the experience has been wonderful. The people working in the White House, the members of the First Family and everyone around them, the Senators we do get to meet in this book are in it for making the world better in the midst of hate and vitriol and scandals and I totally lapped it up. I sincerely hope we do get to see a President Ellen Claremont in our reality too.

Now coming to the characters. I usually prefer first person dual POVs in romance novels but this story being told in third person from Alex's perspective just felt too perfect. He is such a wonderful protagonist. He is America's heartthrob, charming, attractive, funny with massive approval ratings but that's not all he is. He has aspirations of his own – he is super smart and extremely politically aware, wants to be an active part of the reelection campaign even before he is done with his college graduation, and is already working hard towards his goal of being the youngest member of Congress in modern history. He can also be pretty hyper and over involved in things and forget the whole world around him, but as the story progresses we realize it is more like a defense mechanism that he uses to get past the things that are the root of his anxiety. I completely fell in love with him from the get go and it was great following his story.

Prince Henry of England is pretty much the opposite of Alex, atleast in appearances – beautiful and stoic and reserved and I loved the initial antagonistic nature of their interactions. It's pretty much obvious right from the beginning that their “arch-nemesis” vibe is less to do with not liking each other and more to do with the unresolved sexual tension but I appreciate the author for developing their friendship first. Through his conversations with Alex, we see that Henry is unlike the other royal family members, is very soft-hearted and thoughtful, doesn't want to take the traditional military route and concentrate more on his philanthropic aspirations that he shares with his best friend Pez. There is also an underlying sadness to him due to losing his father at a young age and watching him go through his periods of (possible) depression made me very sad. However, Alex understands and falls in love with all of him and the progression of their relationship from friendship to love was a beauty to behold and completely warmed my heart.

As theirs is essentially a long distance relationship, we get to read a lot of text messages, group chats and emails. And god those long emails.... I've seen a couple of reviewers complain that they didn't like them but I was living for them. They were pure, unadulterated, heartfelt love letters and my sappy heart was just waiting for more and more. Alex and Henry just pour out their hearts into words and they are beautiful to read. And these characters are complete nerds, so they also quote love letters from iconic historical figures and those were so much fun. I actually googled more of these historical (some possibly queer) love letters and it was an amazing experience. And the names and titles that Alex and Henry use to refer to themselves and each other are downright hysterical and I have to commend the author for her inventiveness. Their chemistry is absolutely delicious and the intimate scenes are written in a way I've not read before – very steamy and fun and full of feeling but with none of the usual vocabulary that we are used to in a New Adult book. I was totally impressed by the writing in every scene where they are together.

The advantage of a book with more than 400 pages is that it provides ample opportunity for well fleshed out side characters and I think the author does a bang up job at it. Alex's sister June is the one in the trio who keeps them steady when both Alex and Nora are too absorbed in their work. She is a journalism graduate and it was interesting to see her struggle with being unable to pursue her dream job because of journalistic neutrality and through the book, we see her figure out what other dreams she can pursue and how much she wants to be involved in her mother's politics. Nora, the Veep's granddaughter is the smartest of the trio, the data analysis guru (à la Nate Silver) who is always crunching numbers and may not seem good at emotional bonding, but is actually pretty good at giving pep talks when absolutely required. On the other side of the Atlantic are Bea – Henry's older sister who has her own issues from the past but is an absolute rock in support of her brother. And Pez... probably my favorite of the Super Six. He is like the shining star, charming and absolutely flamboyant and colorful, very comfortable in his own skin and wants to establish his charity organization internationally. All six of them may come from rich, political and royal backgrounds but they all felt so real and representative of the millennials and Gen Z – very aware of the society around them, both the good and the bad, and having a fire in their belly to do something to leave the world a better place than what they started off with.

The author also did a wonderful job in dealing with sexual identity in the book in different ways. Alex has always assumed he was straight but his realization that he may be bisexual, his introspection into all the little things that he may have dismissed before and finally being comfortable with his realization is all done with a lot of sensitivity and I really appreciated it. It also goes to show that sexuality is not set in stone that you have to decide on in your teens, people evolve and understand themselves better and sometimes, you realize things about yourself in your 20s and that's totally okay. And the genuine support he gets from his family is awesome. A female President's half-Mexican son getting outed in an election year is definitely a political hurdle, but it was good to see the family and the staff rally around him and prove that they actually do stand for the principles they espouse. In the case of Henry, he has always known that he is gay but he has to deal with the burden of the monarchy and their extreme regard for legacy and what it means to choose happiness over his birthright and country. Nora is also bisexual but she literally has no time or interest in dating and is too busy with her computers and numbers. We also have a host of other diverse characters and it all felt like a group of people around us in the real world and not tokenism.

Casey mentions in the author's note that she wanted to write a “trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality, a believably f**ked up world, but just a little better, a little more optimistic”. And she succeeds brilliantly in this endeavor. It definitely filled me with joy, gave me some hope that it is still possible to change our ugly reality, defeat the hateful, and maybe finally turn those unwinnable “red” states to “blue”. I love the way the author managed to keep the perfect balance between a swoon worthy love story and the reality of being a public figure with huge aspirations for the future.

I don't know if I have made any sense in the above almost 1500 word rant and I don't think I have truly been able to express everything that I felt while reading it , but to sum it up, this book is wonderful and it made me very happy and I recommend it to everybody. If you love pure, heartfelt love stories, then this book is for you. If you have ever binge watched The West Wing and loved it, then this book is for you. If you have felt dejected and exhausted with politics in the past two years and want to enjoy a little escape from reality, then this book is for you. In the author's own words - “I hope you found a place in here, even if just for a few pages. You are loved. I wrote this for you. Keep fighting, keep making history, keep looking after one another.”

I've been trying to read through some of the novel and novella nominees for the Nebula awards this year, and that's when this collection of stories came onto my radar. I was also quite disappointed in myself that I had never heard of such an accomplished Asian SFF author and immediately decided to read the whole collection, not just the nominated story. And wow was this a revelation. The stories here are written beautifully and they cover such a wide range of topics and I was also impressed by how scientific and technical the author could be in his writing while also raising some immensely philosophical questions which would make us think for a long while. And I was even more fascinated by the reasoning behind why the author chose to tell each story and what was his inspiration behind them. I'm totally gonna checkout his other works and I would recommend you do the same.

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

A very beautifully written philosophical tale about past and future, the importance of forgiveness, repentance and atonement and the joy in following God's teachings. The story within a story within a story format was very intriguing, and while I was confused slightly sometimes, the stories were like parables with interesting lessons and I enjoyed them a lot.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Exhalation

This was very sciency and full of technical jargon, but the idea of an augmented human performing brain dissection on themselves to understand its working mechanism was fascinating to read about. There is a lot more going on here but ultimately, it's about marveling at the life we have and the universe we live, gain knowledge and take joy in all our experiences without worrying about the end which is inevitable.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What's Expected Of Us

This was a fascinating tale about what would happen if humans realize there is no such thing as free will and everything is predetermined, and what kind of consequences can occur due to this shattering of the illusion. And even though I didn't understand it completely, that last line was a master stroke.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Firstly, this was too long compared to the usual lengths of short stories and I won't deny that I got bored quite a bit. It raises a lot of philosophical and ethical questions about creating digital animals in the virtual world and then raising them almost like children, what types of expectations can we have from them, can we apply human growth and cognition standards to them, how much consent can they give, what's the difference between an AI that develops through experience vs an AI that is developed algorithmically etc etc. These are all interesting questions to ponder and kept me engaged for a while, but when the discussion turned towards the morality of humans having sex with actual animals, I kinda lost it. And the ending is also very open and I felt like such a long story deserved a more concrete conclusion.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny

Another intriguing story about how a child's cognitive and physical development depends on the kind of care they receive in their infancy and early years. The implications of the use of a mechanical nanny as described in the story are so fascinating and it definitely makes me think how the use of devices by children since very young is affecting them in our present day and age.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling

Told through two stories - one historical and one in a technologically advanced setting, this has many philosophical questions but ultimately it's about the nature of truth and memory - how there is written word or digital memory which can be relied upon to be objective truth, but there's also oral history or the memories that we remember which are a part of who we are and in their case, their objectivity doesn't matter because they are the truth that we believe. The story goes quite deep into these discussions and I found it very fascinating.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Great Silence

A heartbreaking story narrated by a parrot, this is about the creation of the universe and the huge aspirations of humans to contact extra terrestrial life but how we continue to ignore and neglect the species that coexist with us.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Omphalos

Written as a series of diary entries by a scientist addressing God, this is about her complete faith in God and her belief that her scientific and archeological endeavors are all in tune with her faith, finding out more about how God created humanity. But when some contradictory scientific claims are made, she has to grapple with uncertainty in her faith and what it means to have a purpose that is not in service of God. Another fascinating story with lots to think about, and definitely one I found very relatable.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom

A story about quantum divergence and how our actions or any small change in weather or anything not even related to us occurred, it would be spawn multiple timelines of ourselves . I found the idea of communicating with our alternate selves using devices utterly intriguing but it was the myriad of questions it raises about free will, actions and consequences, how much different or similar we can be across the different timelines, the morality of being able to communicate or selling such devices etc was what that made it so compelling. I know I'm probably not explaining it well but this was a great story and I definitely understand why it's a Nebula nominee.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who is only trying to get into sci-fi this year, I know my limitations well and I would never have picked up this critically acclaimed award winning book by my own volition. But one of my book clubs chose this as our May BOTM and I decided I should atleast give it a try. And after finishing it, I'm both blown away by it and also a bit sad, so let me try to articulate my thoughts.

It has not been easy to maintain focus for long periods of time on a book during this pandemic. Part of why I have been gravitating towards more short fiction these days, but when I committed to this book, I wanted to see it through. For someone who almost always finishes any sized book in just a few days, this one took me almost 20 days to read. While one part of the issue was the external circumstances, the other was the subject matter of the book itself. I found the idea of first contact with extra terrestrials very fascinating and there were some chapters which completely held my interest, but I couldn't sustain that for the whole book.

The translation of this book is excellent and it never had that choppy feeling that can sometimes occur in translations. And however it might have been in the original, the book never felt difficult to read (which was how I thought it would be for me). Even the story being told in two timelines felt very easy to follow. I especially found the chapters during the Cultural revolution very fascinating, because I'm not much aware of Chinese history and it felt like a very honest look at the struggles and lives of the people of the time, on both sides of the civil war. The book is also extremely science heavy, and while I could understand what was going on in the context of the story, I could not tell you a single thing about the physics that was discussed. There were paragraphs and chapters devoted to physics discussions, most of them going over my head.

What really impressed me and what I feel is the soul of the book is the philosophical questions it asks. We have a group of humans who are fed up of humanity because we are destroying nature and environment without a care; we have another group which still cherishes humanity and wants to do anything to survive. And the author discusses both their POVs without clearly judging any of them, because they all have their valid points to make. And then there is the important question of what will happen if we do make contact with extra terrestrials - should we expect them to be a higher evolved intelligence than us and hope to learn from them?? Is it even possible to coexist with an advanced civilization? And why do we humans who can't coexist with the people who live in other countries, who wage wars constantly and perpetuate mass killings of people, expect an outside civilization to be benevolent and grant us knowledge? These are some very interesting questions to ponder on and I know I'll be thinking about them for a while.

I was initially intimidated when I saw the cast of characters at the beginning, but I quickly understood who were the main influencers in the story and was able to follow along. However, being used to first person POVs, this third person narrative felt very distant and I couldn't connect to anyone. Even when I could objectively understand that something bad was gonna happen, I wasn't emotionally attached to any of them to care enough. Also, except one main protagonist, there are hardly any female characters around which I thought was a real miss; and among the ones who were present, I felt that none of them were shown in any good light.

In the end, this is a book that definitely deserves all the prestige bestowed on it because of the concepts and philosophies it discusses, in a mostly accessible manner. It is more of an introspective book than an action packed alien invasion adventure novel, so you should keep that in mind before deciding to pick it up. If you are someone who is new to sci-fi like me, I would suggest reading more science fiction novels before venturing into this series. But if you are a science/physics nerd, then this would probably feel like home. I still haven't decided if I want to continue with the series, but we shall see.

This is how you lose the Time War is not what you would call my usual kind of book. It's so far out of my comfort zone that it shouldn't have even been on my radar. But I read Max Gladstone's debut Three Parts Dead recently and completely fell in love with how unique a world it was. So, when I saw this latest novella collaboration by him and kept reading rave reviews about it, I just wanted to give it a try. I'm also trying to expand my reading into sci-fi, so I thought a shorter book would be the way to go. And wow did I make a great choice.

On first glance, I should hate this book. This is pure 100% purple prose. It's actually poetry masquerading as prose. I can't even say I understood all the sentences that were on the page. But even when I didn't exactly get the literal meaning, I could totally feel the emotion behind it all. This is probably what beautiful writing looks like - I was sitting in a bookstore reading this book and as it went on, I struggled so hard to choke back my tears. It's sublime and poignant and lyrical and utterly romantic. This is also not the kind of book you can race through - it requires patience and effort and really needs to be savored very slowly.

As you can glean from the title, the main part of the world building is time travel. The two main characters travel through strands of time, make changes that alter the courses of past and future, and leave each other letters through these strands. The epistolary format works perfectly to show us development of the relationship between the two MCs and as a huge fan of love letters in novels, I was totally charmed by them. The only world building we can be sure of is that there are two factions fighting a time war and our MCs are on opposite sides of the conflict - everything else is left vague and while that would usually put me off in any other book, I didn't mind it here at all. There was just enough for me to feel it, a sprinkling of foreshadowing to keep me going and an ending that comes together so perfectly that it made my heart soar.

To wrap it up, I just want to say that this book is unlike anything I've ever read. This is genre bending at its finest - it's a literary fiction novel with a time travel backdrop featuring a romance for the ages. If you like books that are unique and won't fit into any boxes, you should definitely give this one a try. This may be a little novella but it demands attention, and I implore you to give it its due and savor it. Don't try to understand it, just feel it. It just might surprise and capture your heart.

Surely a 4.5 but just fell short of a full 5 star rating.

I'm not someone who knows much of American history - we obviously didn't need to study it in school and whatever I've gleaned through in the past few years has been by watching documentaries, tv shows or reading fiction inspired by true historical events. Even in those cases, I have probably read more about WWII because the Holocaust is one of the most horrific events that I've come to know perpetrated by design by one evil man. As far as American history is concerned, I know about important events and key figures related to the Civil war and the civil rights movement, but not much more. So, why did I pick up this book? I have no idea. I just read one glowing review on Goodreads and decided to give it a try. And whatever I was expecting it to be, it surpassed all my expectations.

The one common refrain we always hear is that history books are boring. And this book is most definitely written by a history professor. But boring it ain't. While I hoped that it would be interesting enough that I can read it slowly over the course of a week or two, I didn't expect it to suck me into it so wholly that I managed to complete in just three sittings. The author writes in such an accessible manner with lots of anecdotes and dry humor that you can't help but enjoy it. Particularly, the first half to two thirds of the book is very engrossing - the details of the events the author is describing are truly horrific and I was frankly appalled that I didn't know any of it. However, what is more appalling is that this actual history of the United States is nowhere taught in its schools. Americans might very well proclaim (and even believe in their hearts) that they are a nation built out of anti-imperialist notions, and by virtue of literally erasing all this history from their textbooks ensure that this image stays intact, but the fact is, US has been an empire and colonized millions of people since the late 19th century and continues to do so till this day.

There are many important chapters of history that the author decides to talk about, but the two which get most page time are Philippines and Puerto Rico. While I had some idea that PR is still a colony of the US and has no representation in Congress while being very dependent on federal aid, I knew nothing about how it came to be so. And I literally had no clue that Philippines, a country in Asia was colonized by the US for around 47 years. The years of oppression, the wars and massacres that were raged to quell any rebellions and exploitation of resources reads like any standard imperial fare (I've read enough about British in India to see the similarities) - it's just surprising to read because we never talk about US in the same vein as British while discussing colonization.

What was truly horrific and revolting to read about was the illegal and unethical experiments that so-called pioneers of American medicine conducted on their colonial subjects, with no regard for their consent because they didn't care about “those” people. Forced sterilizations, experimenting the initial versions of the birth control pill (with highly adverse side effects), deliberately not giving medicine to some patients to determine how they fare, and airdropping mustard gas on thousands of people to understand its effect on humans - these are not so dissimilar to what Josef Mengele did - but while one is the infamous Angel of Death, other is the father of Chemotherapy. I guess this is what it means when we say history is written by the victors.

The latter half of the book deals more with how the nature of imperialism changed after WWII and technological advances made during the war enabled it to take the form of globalization. I was utterly fascinated by the chapters about how American standards became the norm across the world in every field and ISO came to be, and the rise of English as the global connecting language. Some might think this was actually good and only happened because of “free market capitalism” and not forced on anybody, but when one country controls more than 60% of the manufacturing economy of the world, the leverage it holds is enormous and what other countries do to appease it is just pragmatism and not enthusiastic acceptance. One very stark fact that reiterates it is that while all countries across the world decided to adhere to many US standards, US still separates itself from everyone by refusing to use the metric system. This may also seem trivial to Americans because they are used to believing they are the best at everything, but as an Indian, the fear of losing our languages and ultimately our culture to the hegemony of English isn't really that unfounded.

The last section of the book about the pointillist empire is where I lost interest a little. The author rightly points out that the more than 800 US bases across the world make it an empire even now, albeit just a different kind but he doesn't go into much detail. We only get to know a little about the military bases in Japan as well the initial ones in Saudi Arabia, which eventually and very unexpectedly led to the rise of Japan as a tough industrial competitor to the US; and the accumulation of wealth by the bin Laden family and then using it to fight against the US which facilitated that wealth in the first place. The author also points out little known facts about how Guantanamo bay came to be which eventually led to its use as a detention facility, as well as the loopholes in law which led to exploitation of labor in Northern Mariana Islands even though they were by right US citizens. The author refrains from going into much detail about any of these though, and also only makes cursory references to all the wars the US has fought in after WWII. I guess this was done to limit the size of an already big book, but it just gave a feeling that some important events were glossed over.

Wow did I go on quite a rant in this review. I didn't even realize I had so much to say. To conclude, I just want to mention that this book is well written and very readable for anyone, whether you know anything about US history or not. Even if you usually find history books boring, I promise that this is very engrossing and enjoyable, mostly due to the author's excellent storytelling skills. And if you are someone who is interested to know more about the usually hidden and unknown parts of American history, you should definitely give this a try. It'll surely surprise you. And I think it's important to know this history but ignorance of it can only lead to mistakes in the future.