Drive-By Reading Wednesday

[chomiji]

Hugo votes were due yesterday, so I hurriedly finished my Hugo reading over the past couple of weeks. I'm not going to comment individually on much of anything shorter than a novella: there are just too many of them. I may do an FFRiday post about one of them, though.

The Collapsing Empire (novel) by John Scalzi was better than I expected. He's grown a bit as a writer, and as viridian5 said, the characters are great. But it is very much Part 1 of a longer story and has a pretty cliffhanger-y ending.

And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker felt like a much shorter work than most of the other novellas. I keep wanting to say it's about clones, but it's not really: it's about duplicates caused by parallel universes, and they all end up at a convention together. It's also a locked-room mystery. I wasn't as impressed by it as a lot of others seem to be (and Pinsker's other nominee, the novelette "Wind Will Rove,” was much better).

River of Teeth (novella) by Sarah Gailey was a fun romp, a Weird Western with a flooded mid-America full of hippos, both scary Ferals and specialized domestic hippos used as riding animals. The cast members span a wide range of races and orientations. There are river boats, gambling, sharpshooters, and people of dubious virtue.

Binti: Home (novella) by Nnedi Okorafor will be liked by those who liked the earlier installments and disliked by their opposite numbers. The story takes a weird turn halfway through that seems unconnected with the earlier Binti novellas, as though Okorafor thought it up just recently, but the results of it were more interesting to me than Binti's previous adventures. I think one of the things that's been bothering me about this series and Akata Witch/Akata Warrior is that previously neutral characters seem to suddenly burst out nasty, with no previous indications of such issues.

The Black Tides of Heaven (novella) by JY Yang is SF that reads like mythic fantasy. It was beautiful and sad but somehow rather thin for me. And it is also clearly just Part 1.

I've read the first volume of Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series and am halfway through the second (it was up for Best Series). I'm enjoying them, but they are slighter than her October Daye series. My first choices for this award, both of which I read independent of their Hugo nominations, are in no danger from the adventures of Verity Price, journeyman cryptozoologist and ballroom dancer. Part of my problem is that Verity is a very girly girl, despite the guns and knives and parkour, and I get impatient with her constant commentary on hair and clothing.

The Art of Starving (Young Adult book) by Sam J. Miller is kind of mis-cast as SF&F. It's not clear to me that any of the magical stuff that Matt thinks is happening actually happens. Also, his family seems to have Judaism pasted on: although it's mentioned and his mother is described as buying Judaica/Jewish foods, she never reads to me as Jewish (which I am), and Matt's Judaism never seems to inform any of his actions. I appreciate that he is gay and eventually has a boyfriend, but the overboard angst and lack of anything that reads to me like actual SF&F made this one a non-starter for my consideration or this new award. But of course, I am not the intended audience for the book. Still, that didn't keep me from enjoying the other nominees in this category.

Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate (Best Related Work) by Zoë Quinn is an important book. The first two-thirds or so is the chronicle of her harassment by the Gamergate malfeasants after her ex-boyfriend posted an online hatchet job of her character, and the last third is very chunky, rich information about protecting yourself online and helping others who have been victimized this way. But she could really have used a better editor. The continuity gets rough sometimes.

Phew! That's it.

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Anyone have any recs for vacation reading? I already have Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee queued up, and I will download the latest Murderbot as soon as it becomes available. Oh, and I think I have another Incryptid or two on my Kindle as well.

Comments

[sholio]

Heh, InCryptid #1 bothered me in a sort of vague way that it took me awhile to put my finger on, but I think the biggest problem I had with it is that it seems to be bending over backward to make the point that girly girls can fight monsters too! and girls can kick ass in high heels! ... except, that's basically every movie "action girl" ever (I mean, female characters fighting monsters in high heels with perfect makeup is not really something we have a huge shortage of??) and I just felt like in the book it was supposed to be this ground-breaking thing, and ... really, really wasn't.

I really liked some of the worldbuilding stuff, though, like the mice and the low-level creepy of the Cuckoo.

[nenya_kanadka]

I didn't get all the Hugo reading done that I wanted to! But these are good reviews for when/if I get to them. :D

[oracne]

Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail if Lightning, is a fair, engaging read.