Wednesday Reading: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear

[chomiji]

Oh look, it's Wednesday. And I have bronchitis and am trying to work dayjob through it. Let's see how short I can make this review.

Elizabeth Bear is a pretty prolific author with whom I have rarely clicked. I keep trying to give her another chance, to the extent that I think I actually have an unread novel by her lying around the house somewhere. The only book of hers that I recall reading and liking (although I never went back for a re-read) was Karen Memory. But Ancestral Night is showing up on people's awards short list, so I read it.

Haimey Dz the engineer, Connla the pilot, and Singer the ship/AI, plus their two cats, run a tramp space salvage operation. When they discover a crime against intelligences and a Big Mysterious Object, one after the other, their lives become immensely more complicated. I would like to add "especially Haimey's," but she's the viewpoint; maybe Connla and Singer and the cats also feel that their lives have become uniquely complicated.

The large object features some previously undiscovered technology that could definitely change life as it exists for the beings of this part of the galaxy. The salvagers end up being chased around for a while and then make a fuel stop at a space station that also seems to be hosting the perpetrators (space pirates) of the crime mentioned earlier. Some of the station officials are corrupt. Our friends have to make another run for it. In fact, there is an amazing amount of distance covered in the story. Even when Haimey ends up on her own on another Big Mysterious Object, she ends up running around inside it for ages.

I didn't intensely dislike the book? Some of details of the societies involved were intriguing, as were the descriptions of Haimey's use of some newfound gifts. But Bear is clunky with languages/words. A device called a "fox" is mentioned early on, along with a bunch of other technobabble, and very little of any of it is well-explained, even by example. The fox thing particularly annoyed me because it's not like "fox" is an obscure word, and even when I finally got the basic idea of what it was and did (and it was mentioned over and over), I could not figure out why she had chosen this very common word to describe it.

It's quite possible that I missed some crucial bits because I was skimming heavily for large sections of the story. Haimey has Issues, she has an entire subscription in fact, and the society of which she is a part believes in voluntary mind control for handling a lot of things. Haimey has handed off a considerable portion of control of herself, piecemeal, to others. The only person who speaks forcefully against this practice is a brutal pirate who is not really quite evil but is a colossal jerk. Oy vey.

Also, at one point I came to what I assumed was the beginning of the end of the story. There was a moment much akin to that in LotR where Sam wakes up, discovered that Gandalf is still alive, and asks in bewildered joy whether everything sad was going to become untrue. And then I looked down at the bottom of my Kindle's display and saw I was only 80% of the way through the book. *sigh*

I also don't think I ever discovered why the book has that title.

Did someone else read this and like it? Can you maybe talk me back from the edge of deciding that Bear is just not for me? I mean, there were good things about the book. People are of varied sexualities! There is interesting practical body-modding! Bear has given thought to what you would do with your cat if your spaceship encountered a disaster! Haimey makes friends with a rather nice giant insect!

Help?

Nope, did not manage a short review.

Comments

[sholio]

I tend to have the same reaction to Bear, fwiw. She writes books that sound in general premise/outline like they should be entirely my thing - in fact, some of them are plots/premises I've thought about writing myself - but then I simply can't click with them. It's usually a combination of plotting decisions that make it go just slightly off the rails for me, and characters who are so emotionally flat that I can't connect to them. Which is interesting because I adore Cherryh and her books are also very emotionally restrained. But you get the sense that the characters are having tons of emotions right under the surface. With Bear, it's kind of like her characters are just there. They don't really seem to connect to each other or to me.

[chomiji]

>> it's kind of like her characters are just there. They don't really seem to connect to each other or to me.<<

Oh, THIS.

Yeah, after I posted this, I went in my sleep-deprived haze to deal with a sinkful of dishes, and I was thinking about A Memory Called Empire, which was the last book I blogged, and Cyteen, which I'm re-reading as part of a read-along. And wow, some contrasts there!

In Memory, Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea are a woman and a man who are just friends; Three Seagrass doesn't go for guys. In Night, Haimey and Connla are in the same kind of relationship, on paper. But in Memory, you can feel the history! They call each other by old nicknames (Reed and Petal), make references to old incidents and things they know about each other: "You would never think that anyway, Petal." In Night, Haimey and Connla are friends. They like each other. And that's about it! It's a static snapshot, not a living history.

And then there's Justin's trauma in Cyteen, and Grant trying to help him with it even though he is in a subservient position, as an azi. And there's Haimey's trauma, and Singer trying to help her with it even though he's in a subservient position as an AI. And again, in Night, it's a flat little card of notes, and in Cyteen it's a living, breathing, aching symbiosis.

[sholio]

YES, this helps me nail down my thoughts too! I mean, obviously her books do work for some people! But I think for me, it's that, exactly - what's missing in Bear's books, that some other authors have a lot of, is the sense of the characters having rich and varied inner lives, and intense relationships with each other. It's possible that Bear just doesn't like writing that, or doesn't consider it important, but it IS important to me, and it's what elevates a book from "meh" to obsessive pageturning.

[oracne]

Yeah, this.

[ursula]

Hmmm, which other Bear books have you read? (I've read maybe half of her books--there was a gap because I offended her back in the days of lj and had to get over my own embarrassment.)

[chomiji]

The only one I recall getting through was Karen Memory. Range of Ghosts is the one gathering dust in the house somewhere.

Mostly I don't try books that don't grab me. With Bear I keep reading the blurbs, thinking "sounds interesting," and then I slowly put them down and edge away.

[mecurtin]

I LOVED it, thought it was great, Bear moving up a level in the number of balls she can keep in the air ... but it's been almost a year since I read it so I can't talk to your points directly. Also it's late. I'll try to get back to you!

[chomiji]

I have to say that praising a novel by saying the author is increasing the number of balls she can keep in the air is not something that would have occurred to me.

I mean, it's not that plots don't matter to me, but complex =/= good to me.

I was thinking well, maybe we just don't like the same kind of books, but I went back and looked at some of your SF reading blog entries, and man, we like a lot of the same kind of thing. In fact, now that I recall that, I think it's part of why I friended you.

So, as a person who liked Leckie's Provenance, what can you tell me about the attraction of this book by Bear?

[yhlee]

Oh no! I've had bronchitis and it is AWFUL. I hope you recover soonest.

[chomiji]

Yeah, I get it as a sequela most times that I have a bad cold or the flu.

[sovay]

And I have bronchitis and am trying to work dayjob through it.

Aaaaagh! Feel better soon.

[chomiji]

Thanks!

[lawless523]

Not trying to be contrary here, but what bad thing would come of avoiding Bear's books in the future? It sounds like her books aren't that enjoyable for you.

Hope you feel better soon! It's horrible when viruses spiral into bacterial infections. I know a couple of people who thought they had colds or the flu but wound up having bronchitis or pneumonia.

[chomiji]

Yeah, so you've probably noticed that I am a big ball of overly empathetic sentimentality. I read books because they are interesting to me but also to bond with the people I know who read them.

When an author has fans among my friends, I like to read the author's books so my friends and I can squee together. It's important to me. When I don't like such authors, I feel that I have somehow missed an opportunity for an interaction I wanted very much.

The other case I've had with this in recent years is Lois McMaster Bujold. The Miles + Cordelia books leave me quite, quite cold. And so many people I know and respect LOVE them. I did enjoy Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, though.