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Fall Books?
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu – It’s a bit “up its own ass”, but in a way I appreciate as it spools out lies and inaccurate truths but makes it clear they’re coming from characters rather than a narrator. I need to decide whether to read the sequels. It's got some brilliant and fascinating concepts, wrapped in a complicated political approach that I'm worried is going to end up either smugly patronizing or FAR too much up its own ass. The reveal of how reality worked on the 3body game was very clever; the exploration of the Sophon computers and the reveal of the mysteries of the first half of the book was solid.
Hi Honey, I'm Homo! – My mother had a theory that queer acceptance in the US was driven by Will and Grace. The thesis here is that queer acceptance was paralleled and driven by sitcom TV, but it started much earlier and went much deeper; and was and remains a perpetual a tug-of-war between queer advocates and conservative censors. I think he misses some important points by focusing so much specifically on half-hour sitcoms: I think Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a much bigger impact on my generation, and Glee on the teenagers of ten years later. But that said, this is an interesting exploration of the evolution of queer characters in sitcoms and how they parallel real-life political progress; and clearly an indication that what the world needs now is a sitcom starring a really funny comedian who happens to be trans.
Starter Villian by John Scalzi - While this is nominally about a man who inherits his uncle’s supervillain empire, it’s really about a Scalzi Protagonist™ being thrust into a world of techbros and billionaires and learning exactly how stupid and assholish every single one of them is. It’s a fast and entertaining read, but if you’re looking for big splashy sci-fi villainy (or James Bond adventures), you’re not going to find that. You’re going to learn what real late-stage capitalism supervillains look like and you’re going to be happy when they end up dead, mostly because of their own greed and/or stupidity. (No cats are harmed, by the way. Every cat gets a happy ending.)
Bogbrush the Barbarian by Howard Whitehouse - A goofy book about a really stupid barbarian, making fun of classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy in a way accessible to kids of today who’ve never actually read (or possible heard of) Conan. I was reminded of Groo the Wanderer, but with a more literary and less visual bent. ARR and I took turns reading it depending on who was bored during Philcon.
One Time Taxes (#1) by Chazz Mair – A graphic novel I picked up at PhilCon, which you can read online. (The creative team seems to be brand-new at this, and this was the only book they were selling at the con.) It’s a cool concept: A down-on-his-luck trash sorter gets a mysterious helmet in the mail, which bonds to him and gives him superpowers. But it also draws the attention of “Taxes”, the alien talk show host who rules the world, and at least two different factions of humans. It’s got a wild anime feel to it and the art is fun, though a glossary of terms might have been useful given the amount of worldbuilding that clearly went into this. It’ll be neat to see if they manage to produce more.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - In many ways this is a travelogue through LeGuin’s worldbuilding more than a character piece; it tells the youth and follies of Ged, the greatest wizard of Earthsea, in a manner most like an epic of long ago. Throughout the story, Ged feels less like a person we’re to know and more like one we’re being told of; he has one real friend throughout the story and only has a handful of conversations with anyone. But the worldbuilding is the real draw, the magic and the mysteries have marvelous ideas in them and I suspect those are going to stay bouncing around my head.
How to Take Over the World by Ryan North – The framing idea is that you’re a real-world supervillain who wants to do comic-book supervillain schemes, and this examines the feasibility and makes suggestions for how you might actually clone a dinosaur, build a floating island nation base, or live forever. Really, it’s a near-future speculative pop science book with a cute hook, and it works as that.
Hi Honey, I'm Homo! – My mother had a theory that queer acceptance in the US was driven by Will and Grace. The thesis here is that queer acceptance was paralleled and driven by sitcom TV, but it started much earlier and went much deeper; and was and remains a perpetual a tug-of-war between queer advocates and conservative censors. I think he misses some important points by focusing so much specifically on half-hour sitcoms: I think Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a much bigger impact on my generation, and Glee on the teenagers of ten years later. But that said, this is an interesting exploration of the evolution of queer characters in sitcoms and how they parallel real-life political progress; and clearly an indication that what the world needs now is a sitcom starring a really funny comedian who happens to be trans.
Starter Villian by John Scalzi - While this is nominally about a man who inherits his uncle’s supervillain empire, it’s really about a Scalzi Protagonist™ being thrust into a world of techbros and billionaires and learning exactly how stupid and assholish every single one of them is. It’s a fast and entertaining read, but if you’re looking for big splashy sci-fi villainy (or James Bond adventures), you’re not going to find that. You’re going to learn what real late-stage capitalism supervillains look like and you’re going to be happy when they end up dead, mostly because of their own greed and/or stupidity. (No cats are harmed, by the way. Every cat gets a happy ending.)
Bogbrush the Barbarian by Howard Whitehouse - A goofy book about a really stupid barbarian, making fun of classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy in a way accessible to kids of today who’ve never actually read (or possible heard of) Conan. I was reminded of Groo the Wanderer, but with a more literary and less visual bent. ARR and I took turns reading it depending on who was bored during Philcon.
One Time Taxes (#1) by Chazz Mair – A graphic novel I picked up at PhilCon, which you can read online. (The creative team seems to be brand-new at this, and this was the only book they were selling at the con.) It’s a cool concept: A down-on-his-luck trash sorter gets a mysterious helmet in the mail, which bonds to him and gives him superpowers. But it also draws the attention of “Taxes”, the alien talk show host who rules the world, and at least two different factions of humans. It’s got a wild anime feel to it and the art is fun, though a glossary of terms might have been useful given the amount of worldbuilding that clearly went into this. It’ll be neat to see if they manage to produce more.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - In many ways this is a travelogue through LeGuin’s worldbuilding more than a character piece; it tells the youth and follies of Ged, the greatest wizard of Earthsea, in a manner most like an epic of long ago. Throughout the story, Ged feels less like a person we’re to know and more like one we’re being told of; he has one real friend throughout the story and only has a handful of conversations with anyone. But the worldbuilding is the real draw, the magic and the mysteries have marvelous ideas in them and I suspect those are going to stay bouncing around my head.
How to Take Over the World by Ryan North – The framing idea is that you’re a real-world supervillain who wants to do comic-book supervillain schemes, and this examines the feasibility and makes suggestions for how you might actually clone a dinosaur, build a floating island nation base, or live forever. Really, it’s a near-future speculative pop science book with a cute hook, and it works as that.