Friday, June 29, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar




  The Winged Histories marks a return to the world of Sofia Samatar's "A Stranger in Olondria," dealing with the stories of four women leading up to, during, and after the war described near the end of that novel.  That said, it is entirely a stand-alone novel with very few direct references to the prior book and as such there's no need to read A Stranger in Olondria first.  And in fact, I found it a stronger work than its predecessor, despite it being even further than that book from the type of book I normally read.

  What I mean by that is that well, if you like book with straight prose, you're going to not enjoy The Winged Histories, which often borders on poetry rather than prose and frequently jumps between at least three time periods in each character's story with barely any notice of a time jump whatsoever.  I admit to missing quite a bit in my first read through and only realizing this fact after a reread after my first completion of this book as a result.  It's also not a happy book in any way, all four of our main characters have endings that at best can be considered bittersweet.  But it is a fascinating tale(s) of a group of women who chafe at the roles and lives others have assigned for them.


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Thursday, June 28, 2018

Fantasy? Book Review: The Invisible Valley by Su Wei, Translated by Austin Woerner




  The Invisible Valley is a Chinese Novel by Su Wei - a professor of Chinese language and literature at Yale, translated into English by Austin Woerner for publishing in 2018 by Small Beer Press, which publishes more "literary" works of fiction than the typical SF/F publisher.  Indeed, whether or not The Invisible Valley counts as "fantasy" is questionable - there's the hint of the supernatural at times in the book, but even that hint is extremely minor at best- hence the question mark in the title of this post.  But what is clear is that The Invisible Valley is an incredible piece of literature that I have to strongly recommend, regardless of whether or not it counts as genre or not.

  The Invisible Valley is a story about family, love and relationships and what those truly mean.  Taking place in China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1960s-1970s), the story follows a Chinese Man, Lu Beijing, sent for agricultural "re-education" into the Country who encounters a polyamorous family of mountain people who challenge his way of thinking.  While this story also involves are a legendary giant snake and a potential haunting, it's not really about them, but rather a story about family and love and its incredibly powerful for that.

More after the Jump - a warning, I'm going to struggle to really explain my feelings about this story, so I hope this review does this book justice.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Award Nominees: The Campbell Award for Best New Author

Hugo Award voting opened last month and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did last year, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.  As I mentioned in my Hugo Packet post, all of the short fiction nominees are available in the Hugo Packet, though many of these pieces are also available for free online already - if they are, I will link those stories in the post.

My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Short Story can be found HERE:
My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Novelette can be found HERE:
My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Novella can be found HERE:

The Campbell Award is an award for the Best New Science Fiction or Fantasy Writer over the past two years.  It is technically not considered a "Hugo," but it's part of the Hugo Awards Ceremony and awarded by the same group so everyone basically treats it as one and I will as well.  The Award commemorates the best new writer in the genre over the past two years, so unlike all of the other awards, covers both works from 2017 AND 2016, and writers remain eligible to be nominated for the first two years of their genre careers (unless they win in their first year).

I didn't love last year's Campbell ballot, where I begrudgingly voted for eventual winner Ada Palmer mainly because I loved her second book which wasn't even in the eligibility period.  This year's Campbell Award ballot however is incredible - three novelists with a Novel I rated at least 9 out of 10, two short fiction writers with at least one work elsewhere on the Hugo Ballot, and a fourth novelist whose book was pretty popular.  With the exception of that last one, that's an incredibly hard ballot to sort out, so I had to give myself some rules to help me do so, though these may differ for every voter.  My Rules: 

1.  I will count Novelists ahead of Short Fiction writers, not because the former is a greater form than the latter, but because I read more novels and they take up more of my time and give me more long term enjoyment.
2.  If I have a tie, I will break the tie in favor of the candidate whose eligibility is running out, if possible.




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Tuesday, June 26, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee



  Revenant Gun is the third and final book in Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy, which began with 2016's Ninefox Gambit and continued with last year's Raven Stratagem (Review Here).  I'd nominated both of the prior books in the series for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and both did in fact get nominated (Ninefox Gambit also picked up a Nebula Nom), so this has been one of my most highly anticipated books in quite a while.  So it shouldn't surprise anyone it too me less than 24 hours to finish this book, and I've reread parts of it multiple times already.  

  As the finale of the trilogy, Revenant Gun, is mostly excellent - I'd probably place it on par with Ninefox Gambit but behind Raven Stratagem - and does a great job wrapping up the major plot threads of the trilogy (while leaving open some more for future potential work in this world).  As you might imagine, you cannot start the trilogy with this book (you could've in theory started with Raven Stratagem, but I would not have recommended it).  

More after the jump, Spoilers for the first two books to some extent are inevitable:

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Monday, June 25, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold




  Diplomatic Immunity is the second book in the Vorkosigan Saga to feature the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan as an Imperial Auditor - basically as a sci-fi detective of sorts.  It's also kind of a weird book in terms of setting - whereas the first such book (Komarr) did not make many references to past episodes in the series and was very beginner friendly, Diplomatic Immunity makes references to events all over the Saga, and sometimes feels more like an adventure from Miles' earlier days.  Similarly, it also shifts the narrative entirely to Miles' point of view, after two books in a row of splitting the point of view between at least Miles and Ekaterin - Ekaterin is still present, but spends large portions of time off screen, instead.  

  This is not to say Diplomatic Immunity is bad in any way - as always the book has some incredibly witty dialogue, fun twists and turns, some great characters, and fun action - or that it can't be read without reading all of the previous books.  That said, a lot of the fun of Diplomatic Immunity comes from characters and plot points from prior books returning for the first time in a while, and a reader who has just started the series either here or say with Komarr, might find this to be a bit more average than the prior two books in the series.  In any event, I'd say it's around an average book for the series, so it's still fun for veteran readers, if not as good (by a bit) as the three preceding books in the series.

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Friday, June 22, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold




Falling Free is technically the first book chronologically in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga (4th published), but it takes place 200 years prior to the rest of the books in the series and thus is entirely stand-alone.  I'd intended to skip it originally, but its setting would be revisited years later in a later book in the Vorkosigan Saga, so I opted to read it as an audiobook after all.

In retrospect, I think I would've been better off skipping Falling Free.  It's....not bad, but it definitely feels rougher like Bujold's earlier works, and it lacks the humor and wit of the rest of the series (since our humorous Vorkosigan family isn't involved).  If you're trying for completeness in the Vorkosigan Saga books, you won't have problems reading Falling Free, but for anyone else, It probably won't be for you.


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Thursday, June 21, 2018

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Award Nominees: Best Novella

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Award Nominees: Best Novella

Hugo Award voting opened last month and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did last year, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.  As I mentioned in my Hugo Packet post, all of the short fiction nominees are available in the Hugo Packet, though many of these pieces are also available for free online already - if they are, I will link those stories in the post.

My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Short Story can be found HERE:
My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Novellette can be found HERE:

The Best Novella category has become far more competitive over the past few years, as the format has flourished due to the existence of publishers like the Tor.com imprint, which again dominates this category (5 of the 6 nominees are Tor.com works).  It's also a category where I've managed to read all of the nominees prior to the release of the nominee list, though only one of the nominees was on my own list.  Still, only three of the nominees in my mind are actually worthy of the award, with one of them the clear favorite both for me and for winning the award in general.


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Wednesday, June 20, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge




A Skinful of Shadows is another novel nominated for this year's (Not-A-)Hugo Award for Best SciFi/Fantasy Young Adult Novel of 2017.  I hadn't heard of the book until it's nomination for the award, but it was included in full in the Hugo Packet.  That said, it's a pretty good novel, well worthy of the nomination I'd think.  In terms of how it fits as YA, A Skinful of Shadows is aimed at a slightly older age group than Summer in Orcus, but only slight - and definitely not aimed at more mature readers as other nominees such as The Art of Starving or In Other Lands (the book contains no sexual activity or even hint of the same, so it's not a book that would be inappropriate necessarily for young readers).

More after the Jump:


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Tuesday, June 19, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher




Summer in Orcus is a "YA"/Middle-Grade Novel written by T Kingfisher - who if you didn't know is actually children's book author Ursula Vernon (Kingfisher is the pseudonym she uses for her non children's books).  It's also one of the nominees for the first ever (Not-a-)Hugo Award for Best SciFi/Fantasy Young Adult Novel and as such was included in full in the Hugo Packet.  That said, Summer in Orcus is definitely on the younger side of the "Young Adult" genre (hence my use of "Middle-Grade" above) unlike several of the other nominees.  It's still pretty good even if it's definitely meant for a younger audience, mind you.

Summer in Orcus is a portal fantasy - main protagonist Summer is taken by Baba Yaga to a fantasy world very different from our own, with magical creatures abound and dangerous fantasy threats as well.  It is arguably a response to books like the Chronicles of Narnia - main character Summer is in fact aware of Narnia and its ilk and is genre savvy as a result - sharing similarities on a basic level but going in very different directions - no Christian allegories here.  Instead it's a story of a girl going on a journey and discovering the key to safety is kindness, not violence, and is pretty wonderful at that.


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Monday, June 18, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman



  La Belle Sauvage is the first part of a new trilogy of books - The Book of Dust - by Philip Pullman, set in the same universe as his famous "His Dark Materials" trilogy.  This book is essentially a prequel to the earlier trilogy, although apparently the sequels to this book will take place either alongside or after the original trilogy of works.  In any event, I've never read "His Dark Materials" so I came into La Belle Sauvage blind, as if it was a brand new work in its entirety.  As it was nominated for the (Not-A-)Hugo Award for Best SF/F YA Novel of 2017, I was curious to see how it would read as such.

  But as a stand-alone beginning to a new trilogy however, La Belle Sauvage did not work for me.  While it's not openly annoying to read at any point - It's not a frustrating to read book and I had no problem finishing it - it doesn't do enough to justify its own existence as its own book.  The book spends its entire first half working as setup - the titular boat begins its journey at the end of the 15th chapter of a 25 chapter book - and...doesn't really set up some of the events that follow particularly, well, such that they feel like they come out of nowhere.  Add in some relatively one note characters - and well, it isn't a book I would recommend except maybe to HDM fans, and it certainly falls behind all of the other contenders for the YA award.

More after the Jump

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor



Akata Witch is the first in a YA/Middle-Grade series from Nnedi Okorafor, whose sequel is up for this year's (Not-A-)Hugo Award for Best Young Adult Novel.  A Nigerian inspired Young Adult novel (Amazon lists it as being for readers from grades 7 to 9, which seems about right), Akata Witch follows the Albino Nigerian-American girl Sunny, whose family moved back to Nigeria, and discovers that she is one of the Leopard People, who are able to use magic and juju.  The story follows Sunny and her three friends as she discovers the magical world of Leopard People and is forced to face a great evil.

The above may sound generic middle grade fantasy, and well, it is!  But Okorafor writes the story extremely well for what it is, with a bunch of surprises along the way, and well, most of the time this type of story (see Harry Potter) is done from a White perspective, and the difference is definitely interesting to read.

More After the Jump:

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Friday, June 15, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold




Winterfair Gifts (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold

Winterfair Gifts is a sequel novella to A Civil Campaign (Reviewed earlier on this blog), and features the events leading up to and through Miles and Ekaterin's wedding, as well as the return of an older character from the series, Sergeant Taura.  Told from the perspective of Miles' Armsman Roic, Winterfair Gifts follows up its romantic predecessor with a romance of its own, which is really sweet.

(Obviously, don't read this before A Civil Campaign, and if you picked up this series with Komarr, you might miss some of the references here, particularly since Taura is the second main character of this story, so if you did start the series that late, try to read the novella "Labyrinth" if you can)


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Thursday, June 14, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold





A Civil Campaign, subtitled in some editions as "A Comedy of Biology and Manners," is the Vorkosigan Saga's entry into the Romance genre.  And I don't mean that ACC simply has a romance side plot - this book is a full on Romantic Comedy, with two of its three major plots dealing entirely with romances between four of the five main characters, and the third major plot exists mainly to cause complications for the other two.  Following up from Komarr, the book again splits time between the points of view of Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson, as Miles attempts (badly) to romance Ekaterin, but also features three other points of view - Miles' clone brother Mark and his girlfriend Kareen, as well as their cousin Ivan.

The result is a book that has some problems early, but is absolutely lovely in the second half, with a climax that made me cheer.  It might have some of the funniest moments in the entire series, as well, so it's definitely well recommended.  And as usual, the audiobook reader for this book is excellent, so that format is also great, if a good bit longer than the usual audiobook in the series (though not too long compared to some other audiobooks I've finished).

Note:  As hinted above, you really should not read ACC before reading Komarr.  And unlike in Komarr, prior knowledge of the events in the series will be of big help in getting full enjoyment of this book, as the secondary Romance is between characters essentially introduced in Mirror Dance, and you might be a little lost without that foreknowledge.  

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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang


The Poppy War is the first in a new trilogy by R.F. Kuang, and it winds up being a very angry piece of fantasy.  A fantasy novel featuring a Chinese inspired world, it's a book that features both a compelling world and a compelling protagonist.  In a way it seems like two books in one - the first part featuring our heroine learning at a military school and learning the ways of magic, the second part featuring the same heroine forced into the horrors of war - but the two parts flow naturally into each other.

The Poppy War can very much be considered part of the grimdark genre of SF/F - this is not a light book in any sense (our heroine stays awake for studying at the start by dripping hot candle wax onto her arms, and it doesn't get lighter from there).  The world is not simply inspired by Chinese myths (although it is), but is very much a fantasy version of early 1900s China during the horrors of the Sino-Japanese wars, and is just as dark as those wars were in real life.  And yet while I have not been a fan of a few grimdark works in the past (Kameron Hurley's for example), The Poppy War works because its darkness is not gratuitous and its anger is very understandable.  This is a powerful book and I definitely both recommend it and look forward to its successors.

Trigger Warning:  Rape, War Atrocities, and Genocide.  As mentioned above, a large part of this book is based upon the Sino-Japanese Wars (particularly the second one), and as such analogous events occur in this book, even if the book only shows the after-effects mainly and not the actual events occurring on-page.


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Monday, June 11, 2018

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Nominees: Best Novelette

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Award Nominees: Best Novelette

Hugo Award voting opened last month and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did last year, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.  As I mentioned in my Hugo Packet post, all of the short fiction nominees are available in the Hugo Packet, though many of these pieces are also available for free online already - if they are, I will link those stories in the post.

My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Short Story can be found HERE:

The Best Novelette category is both stronger than last year's category - there are clearly no weak links (as opposed to last year), and there are at least five (if not all six) stories that I might be happy with winning the award.  It's an incredibly tough category to judge - with all of the stories being from good to excellent, just in very different ways and tones - and with the Nebula winner for this category having not been nominated for the Hugo, it's anyone's guess who the actual winner is going to be.

Still, my attempt at ranking/reviewing the nominees is below:


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Friday, June 8, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Prisoner of Limnos by Lois McMaster Bujold




The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric & Desdemona #6) by Lois McMaster Bujold

 The Prisoner of Limnos is the sixth novella in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Penric & Desdemona" series of novellas that began with "Penric's Demon."  In addition to being the sixth novella chronologically (and published as such), it also serves as the conclusion to a story that began in "Penric's Mission" and was continued in "Mira's Last Stand," featuring Penric and Nikys one last time.  So yeah, you really shouldn't start the series here - if you haven't read Penric's Mission and Mira's Last Stand first (and of course, the series' introduction Penric's Demon), you will be hopelessly lost.



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Thursday, June 7, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Komarr (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold




Komarr is the 10th or so book in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, but it is the start of a new direction for the series, that of Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan.  As such, the book can very likely serve as a starting point for newcomers to the series, although veterans of the series will naturally get more from the book due to a greater understanding of the world in question.  Still, newcomers will find themselves enjoying a book that's part SciFi mystery story and part the story of a woman who has suffered emotional abuse for years deciding to take a stand against those who would impose upon her.

That woman is Ekaterin Vorsoisson, and half of the book - every other chapter - takes place from her point of view instead of the POV of the usual series protagonist Miles Vorkosigan.  Ekaterin is an excellent addition to the series - not only for her important story - but because she is such a different person than the usual Vorkosigan protagonist - intelligent, observant, but not in any way manic or driven to craziness.  More specifically, she's not an asshole - and god knows she has every right to be after what she's gone through - and the contrast between her and Miles' chapters and points of view creates an excellent story for newcomers and veterans to the series alike.


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Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Nominees: Best Short Story

Reviewing the 2018 Hugo Award Nominees: Best Short Story

Hugo Award voting opened last month and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did last year, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.  As I mentioned in my Hugo Packet post, all of the short fiction nominees are available in the Hugo Packet, though many of these pieces are also available for free online already - if they are, I will link those stories in the post.

For the second straight year, the Best Short Story category is very very strong.  Three or Four stories I thought were worthy of the award for sure, and the final two nominees in the category are definitely worth picking over "No Award."  You have a stories that are hopeful, stories that are light and amusing, stories that are angry, and stories that are very bittersweet.  What you vote for may depend upon which of those you prefer - it's very hard to look at this list and necessarily say that something is better, but that's the job of the voter.  So, let's take a look:



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Tuesday, June 5, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Head On by John Scalzi




Head On is the stand-alone sequel to John Scalzi's "Lock In," a Sci-Fi mystery series set in a near future world where a disease called "Haden Syndrome" has spread through humanity causing some humans to be "Locked-In" to their own bodies, only able to move via robot bodies nicknamed "threeps."  The series follows Chris Shane, a Locked-In Haden, a former child celebrity turned FBI Agent as he investigates mysteries that are Haden-related.  The result is a cross between a TV cop procedural and a SciFi story, which is well executed.

Unfortunately, like its predecessor, the result is basically a cop procedural, and not one that elevates the form to another level.  Despite the interesting premise, the mystery in this book isn't particularly intriguing (Lock-In's was better in this respect) and the main character is entirely bland.  So while Head On is perfectly fine, it's entirely unremarkable, even more than it's predecessor.  If you like procedurals, you'll like this book, but even then it is not something i'd highly recommend as compared to others.

More after the jump.


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Monday, June 4, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Devourers by Indra Das

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
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Friday, June 1, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar



A Stranger in Olondria is the type of book I struggle to review, because it's not my typical SciFi/Fantasy book - this is not a book about characters (mainly) or with a compelling plot when separated from the language used inside.  I hate the term "literary fiction," but if it is to be applied ever to a genre book, A Stranger in Olondria is it.  This probably shouldn't have come as a surprise - author Sofia Samatar is known as a poet, and poetry, lyrics and language feature heavily in her prose here.  This is not to say this isn't a book where ideas don't matter - in this case, perhaps unsurprisingly, we're dealing with ideas about language, written and oral, and literature/stories.  But it's a book where the color given by the descriptions in the prose is central.

And Olondria's prose/poetry is fantastic.  The story is essentially written as a travel log of the main character, Jevick of Tyom (some editions have the subtitle "Being the Complete Memoirs of the Mystic, Jevick of tyom"), and large portions of the text are dedicated to Jevick's descriptions of the world around him.  And these descriptions are beautifully vivid and work out really well.  That said, as I've pointed out before, I'm not really one who loves books solely for vivid descriptions, so it wasn't just that that made me enjoy this book - Samatar makes a plot which could seem simple in its description (see after the jump) sing with its ideas.

More after the Jump:


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