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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, https://t.co/tMEdPofC5P Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 29, 2018

Short Review (cont): A book telling the tales of four women before, during, and after a war for independence and religion, who each rebel against the roles others have chosen for them. Fascinating but oft-heartbreaking stories told w/ phenomenal prose/poetry. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 29, 2018

  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.

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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Invisible Valley by Su Wei, Translated by Austin Woerner https://t.co/sCnLCqhzNB Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 28, 2018

Short Review (cont): A translated from Chinese novel that features only limited fantastical elements, The Invisible Valley is an amazing story set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution about the meaning of family, love and relationships. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 28, 2018

  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.

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.

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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Revenant Gun (Machineries of Empire #3) by Yoon Ha Lee https://t.co/m4z07KAqYp Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 26, 2018

Short Review (cont): The conclusion to the trilogy began in Ninefox Gambit, Revenant Gun features the final confrontation in this world where technology is affected by the calendars, rituals, and tortures observed by society as our heroes fight for a better galaxy. Stunning (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 26, 2018

  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:

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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Diplomatic Immunity (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold https://t.co/s20MSty3En Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 25, 2018

Short Review (cont): Diplomatic Immunity features the Vorkosigan Saga returning to its SF mystery/adventure genre, as Miles runs down a mystery missing crewman on a space station only to run into a deadly foe. As usual, great dialogue and humor, but not a stand out entry (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 25, 2018

  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.

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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold https://t.co/JVQ1Sttgtx Short Review: 5.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 22, 2018

Short Review (cont): Falling Free takes place 200 years prior to the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is an okay story of an engineer using his skills to save a genetically engineered people escape destruction, but lacks the wit and charm of the main Vorkosigan books. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) June 22, 2018

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.

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.