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What Have I Been Reading? (2020 batch #2)
Mar. 2nd, 2020 12:25 pmThe Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - Okay, so, credit that this succeeds in its goal to be a sci-fi psychological thriller: This is absolutely a freakout and the spec-fic elements are solid. It’s also arguably a love story (a meet-traumatic?) between the two deeply damaged characters. I found the pacing interesting because all the “twists” come fairly early—and it doesn’t actually pay off a number of the “was it real or was she hallucinating?” elements. Arguably it doesn’t need to; it doesn’t really matter whether the cave is haunted or other people are sneaking around or Gyre is poisoned or isolation just makes you nuts—the danger and the nature of overcoming it is what matters to the story. (And the explanation of why the Tunneller only attacks groups of people does make sense.) That said, I personally was irritated by it, and I’m running with the “haunted cave” theory.
The End of All Things by John Scalzi - The final book in the Old Man’s War series, itself made up of several novellas that chain together. Scalzi had clearly tired of writing action sequences by this point, because 90% of the story is snarky politicking and sci-fi exposition. Which I’m not complaining about, mind you, because I mostly went into this wanted to be entertained while learning how all the worldbuilding turned out, and I got that. A plucky mixed group of people who all talk like John Scalzi get together, engineer the defeat of the evil terrorists, quietly fix the galaxy’s governments, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel - A sequel to Fun Home in the sense that it’s more about Bechdel’s life and her family; this time focusing on her mother and their relationship. (And a lot about psychology, particularly the work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott.) It’s a very meta book (including references to the time she spent writing it), and perhaps a bit too self-indulgent—I don’t think this one’s getting the musical treatment.
Robots Vs. Fairies, ed. Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe - A collection of stories about robots, fairies, robot fairies, and fairy robots; and a pretty solid collection at that. (There are a couple of weak ones buried at the back, but then they close out with Cat Valente playing off the title in spades, so it ended strong.) As spec-fic short story collections go, it’s a good one.
The End of All Things by John Scalzi - The final book in the Old Man’s War series, itself made up of several novellas that chain together. Scalzi had clearly tired of writing action sequences by this point, because 90% of the story is snarky politicking and sci-fi exposition. Which I’m not complaining about, mind you, because I mostly went into this wanted to be entertained while learning how all the worldbuilding turned out, and I got that. A plucky mixed group of people who all talk like John Scalzi get together, engineer the defeat of the evil terrorists, quietly fix the galaxy’s governments, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel - A sequel to Fun Home in the sense that it’s more about Bechdel’s life and her family; this time focusing on her mother and their relationship. (And a lot about psychology, particularly the work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott.) It’s a very meta book (including references to the time she spent writing it), and perhaps a bit too self-indulgent—I don’t think this one’s getting the musical treatment.
Robots Vs. Fairies, ed. Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe - A collection of stories about robots, fairies, robot fairies, and fairy robots; and a pretty solid collection at that. (There are a couple of weak ones buried at the back, but then they close out with Cat Valente playing off the title in spades, so it ended strong.) As spec-fic short story collections go, it’s a good one.
