Books I've Read: May-June 2022
Apr. 2nd, 2024 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjMay 2022
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark - audio
I read this one for Hugo voting, but got solidly hooked and added the rest of the works in this series to my to-read list. This book (and some of the other stories in this universe) centers a dapper butch magical investigator in a seriously alternate early 20th century Cairo who gets caught up in a conflict with a bad-ass Djinn. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding of what happened when "our" world unexpectedly communicated with the plane of reality that the Djinn inhabit. That's not the central action of the story--merely the backstory. So what we get in the series is stories that build on the consequences of that background.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - print
On a whim—because I found myself in a really cute bookstore and wanted to buy something—I picked up this rather bonkers novel. It’s…well, it has a spaceship full of interstellar refugees managing a doughnut shop, a violin teacher who sells her students’ souls to the devil in order to save her own music, and a teenage transgender runaway violinist. And then things get complicated. Not the sort of book I’d normally pick up, except that it’s a Hugo finalist and I wanted to read it for that, but I very much enjoyed where it took me.
Blood Moon (The Wolves of Wolf Point #2) by Catherine Lundoff - print
This series has one of the best short-and-to-the-point hooks that I can think of: "queer menopausal werewolves." Mix in a thriller plot and a main character who is still working on sorting out the various changes in her life, and it's a gripping story.
Toad Words by T. Kingfisher - print
A collection of some of Kingfisher's short pieces. It took me a while to finish the collection because I kept diverting to read other things and forgetting that I hadn't finished it yet. The stories are delightful (as always) though I don't have any notes on which specific ones are included. Kingfisher is one of those authors where I will pre-order as soon as a book is announced...well, except for some of her horror. I'm just not fond of horror in general.
June 2022
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho - audio
Someone—and I confess I’ve forgotten who—mentioned that the narration for this audibook was truly inspired, so since I’d had my eye on the book already, I took advantage. After growing up in the US, the protagonist is struggling to adapt when her Malaysian-Chinese family returns to their ancestral home. Torn between family loyalty and the desire for independence, missing her girlfriend but not out to her family, things only get more complicated when the ghost of her grandmother takes up residence in her head. Zen Cho brings her own background to a story thoroughly steeped in the culture and setting of contemporary Malaysia.
Spear by Nichola Griffish - audio
I absolutely devoured this Arthurian historic fantasy. Inspired both by dark age history and Welsh and Irish myth, the story posits the knight Peredur as a queer cross-dressing woman. I loved that—unlike many Arthurian fantasies—I didn’t feel like the outcome of the story was pre-determined and guaranteed to be tragic. For a long time I’d given up on my love of Arthurian re-tellings because I was tired of them all ending the same, but Griffith has given me back my joy in this genre.
Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire - audio
I dipped into another title in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children novella series, about the lives of children who slip into other worlds and what happens when they come back. This one features a world that’s a horse-mad girl’s dream…or nightmare.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers - audio
Another book that I listened to because it’s a Hugo finalist. This is part of an existing series that stands alone fairly well (which is a good thing because it’s the first book I’ve read from that series). The basic premise is: an odd assortment of spacefaring aliens are stranded together at a planetary truck stop and get to know each other better. I have a number of complicated thoughts about what the book is doing. In large part, I had problems with the aliens not being alien enough. A large part of the plot involves dealing with physical, physiological, and cultural incompatibilities--but for all that, their various cultures seemed strikingly similar. Everyone seemed to have the same preoccupations and rituals, just with minor differences. The main protagonist (who is decidedly non-human) has an adolescent child who is described in terms lifted from stereotypes of human teenagers, but treated as if adolescence will inevitably work the same regardless of species. A lot of the concerns and attitudes seemed very rooted in contemporary social discourse, which is a perfectly fine and entertaining thing to do, but it took me a lot of work to settle into figuring out that it was trying to do that.
First Kill - tv series
This Netflix series is based on a short story by SFF author V.E. Schwab and can be summed up as “cross Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Romeo and Juliet and make them both lesbians.” So: totally my jam as a premise, though the execution involves a lot of graphic violence to a degree that's less to my taste. You have two warring families – the vampires and the monster hunters – and two high school girls trapped between them as they fall in love. The first season ends on something of a cliffhanger with respect to the romance, but given the tone of the series, I have high hopes for a happily ever after ending. [Alas, after I scribbled down these notes, we eventually got word that Netflix cancelled after the one season.]
(Note: I don't include all my tv/movie consumption in these reviews.)
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison - audio
This is a sort-of sequel to The Goblin Emperor, turning a minor character in that book into the protagonist of this and subsequent books. While it could certainly be read as a stand-alone, a lot of the worldbuilding gets done in TGE and the reader might be a bit lost without it. The sequels are basically fantasy police procedural, told from the viewpoint of someone whose profession is taking the testimony of dead souls.
And that concludes this installment of Heather Catches Up on Review-Like-Objects. I keep being startled by how many things I was reading in a month back then because it feels like I'm luck to finish two titles a month currently.
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark - audio
I read this one for Hugo voting, but got solidly hooked and added the rest of the works in this series to my to-read list. This book (and some of the other stories in this universe) centers a dapper butch magical investigator in a seriously alternate early 20th century Cairo who gets caught up in a conflict with a bad-ass Djinn. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding of what happened when "our" world unexpectedly communicated with the plane of reality that the Djinn inhabit. That's not the central action of the story--merely the backstory. So what we get in the series is stories that build on the consequences of that background.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - print
On a whim—because I found myself in a really cute bookstore and wanted to buy something—I picked up this rather bonkers novel. It’s…well, it has a spaceship full of interstellar refugees managing a doughnut shop, a violin teacher who sells her students’ souls to the devil in order to save her own music, and a teenage transgender runaway violinist. And then things get complicated. Not the sort of book I’d normally pick up, except that it’s a Hugo finalist and I wanted to read it for that, but I very much enjoyed where it took me.
Blood Moon (The Wolves of Wolf Point #2) by Catherine Lundoff - print
This series has one of the best short-and-to-the-point hooks that I can think of: "queer menopausal werewolves." Mix in a thriller plot and a main character who is still working on sorting out the various changes in her life, and it's a gripping story.
Toad Words by T. Kingfisher - print
A collection of some of Kingfisher's short pieces. It took me a while to finish the collection because I kept diverting to read other things and forgetting that I hadn't finished it yet. The stories are delightful (as always) though I don't have any notes on which specific ones are included. Kingfisher is one of those authors where I will pre-order as soon as a book is announced...well, except for some of her horror. I'm just not fond of horror in general.
June 2022
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho - audio
Someone—and I confess I’ve forgotten who—mentioned that the narration for this audibook was truly inspired, so since I’d had my eye on the book already, I took advantage. After growing up in the US, the protagonist is struggling to adapt when her Malaysian-Chinese family returns to their ancestral home. Torn between family loyalty and the desire for independence, missing her girlfriend but not out to her family, things only get more complicated when the ghost of her grandmother takes up residence in her head. Zen Cho brings her own background to a story thoroughly steeped in the culture and setting of contemporary Malaysia.
Spear by Nichola Griffish - audio
I absolutely devoured this Arthurian historic fantasy. Inspired both by dark age history and Welsh and Irish myth, the story posits the knight Peredur as a queer cross-dressing woman. I loved that—unlike many Arthurian fantasies—I didn’t feel like the outcome of the story was pre-determined and guaranteed to be tragic. For a long time I’d given up on my love of Arthurian re-tellings because I was tired of them all ending the same, but Griffith has given me back my joy in this genre.
Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire - audio
I dipped into another title in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children novella series, about the lives of children who slip into other worlds and what happens when they come back. This one features a world that’s a horse-mad girl’s dream…or nightmare.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers - audio
Another book that I listened to because it’s a Hugo finalist. This is part of an existing series that stands alone fairly well (which is a good thing because it’s the first book I’ve read from that series). The basic premise is: an odd assortment of spacefaring aliens are stranded together at a planetary truck stop and get to know each other better. I have a number of complicated thoughts about what the book is doing. In large part, I had problems with the aliens not being alien enough. A large part of the plot involves dealing with physical, physiological, and cultural incompatibilities--but for all that, their various cultures seemed strikingly similar. Everyone seemed to have the same preoccupations and rituals, just with minor differences. The main protagonist (who is decidedly non-human) has an adolescent child who is described in terms lifted from stereotypes of human teenagers, but treated as if adolescence will inevitably work the same regardless of species. A lot of the concerns and attitudes seemed very rooted in contemporary social discourse, which is a perfectly fine and entertaining thing to do, but it took me a lot of work to settle into figuring out that it was trying to do that.
First Kill - tv series
This Netflix series is based on a short story by SFF author V.E. Schwab and can be summed up as “cross Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Romeo and Juliet and make them both lesbians.” So: totally my jam as a premise, though the execution involves a lot of graphic violence to a degree that's less to my taste. You have two warring families – the vampires and the monster hunters – and two high school girls trapped between them as they fall in love. The first season ends on something of a cliffhanger with respect to the romance, but given the tone of the series, I have high hopes for a happily ever after ending. [Alas, after I scribbled down these notes, we eventually got word that Netflix cancelled after the one season.]
(Note: I don't include all my tv/movie consumption in these reviews.)
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison - audio
This is a sort-of sequel to The Goblin Emperor, turning a minor character in that book into the protagonist of this and subsequent books. While it could certainly be read as a stand-alone, a lot of the worldbuilding gets done in TGE and the reader might be a bit lost without it. The sequels are basically fantasy police procedural, told from the viewpoint of someone whose profession is taking the testimony of dead souls.
And that concludes this installment of Heather Catches Up on Review-Like-Objects. I keep being startled by how many things I was reading in a month back then because it feels like I'm luck to finish two titles a month currently.
