laurareads87's reviews
565 reviews

"A Fire in the Heavens" follows Katin, a woman persecuted for her religion who has hired a ship to take her towards where her holy text suggests the religion began in hopes of finding a homeland.  What they find is not what anyone expected.  I enjoyed this story; my only real complaint with this is that I wish it were longer.

3.5 stars.

This collection of short stories is best read after (re)watching Dirty Computer, as the text is set in the world of Dirty Computer and includes the characters therein.  I appreciate this collection as a hopeful visioning, in many cases focused on the carving out of utopian, pleasurable spaces amidst struggles for liberation from totalitarianism.  I like the inclusion of a short essay and some discussion questions at the end of the book, well suited to a book club.  With each short story featuring a different co-author, I did find the collection read a bit unevenly, with some stories more compelling than others.  The book is best at its most subtle; in a few instances, the analysis felt a bit heavy.  Monáe is tremendously talented and I'm not at all surprised her first work of written fiction is solid; I'll happily pick up her next one.

DNF at 50% (I made it through the introduction and major arcana).  From the very first sentence's declaration that tarot cards are precursors to playing cards, this book is full of incorrect information.  While there are citations throughout, the author attributes their own ideas to sources they don't appear in and many of the sources cited are not very good.  There is a lot of problematic generalization here, conflating different cultural contexts and incorrectly positing highly culturally specific ideas as universals.  I cannot recommend this.

In the The Druid Revival Reader, John Michael Greer has collected 12 writings to represent the Druid Revival.  Some of the texts are by Druid Revival participants, such as Iolo Morganwg and Ross Nichols, while others are by authors who in some way influenced the Revival but were not themselves practicing Druids.  For each, Greer includes a short introduction contextualizing the author and his work and providing a few bibliography entries for further reading; the texts are chronologically ordered, and Greer's forward provides an excellent guide to the collection without imposing too much on the reader in terms of interpretation of the texts.  This is not a text to learn about Druidry as it is practiced today, but it's a valuable resource for learning about contemporary Druidry's roots.  Inevitably, some of the writing is rather dry.  I would recommend this collection to those interested in or practicing Revival Druidry, and to those interested in the historical development of contemporary Druidry.

The Witch King is a stand-alone fantasy novel set in two timelines, both following Kaiisteron, a demon.  In the earliest timeline, here positioned as a backstory, the novel follows Kai's emergence into the mortal realm into his first human body, his meeting most of the supporting characters, and his participation in an uprising. The later timeline begins with Kai awaking from imprisonment and needing to figure out who betrayed him and to what end.  Both timelines are, effectively, adventure stories, complete with magic artefacts, dangerous terrains, outmaneuvering enemies, and the need to keep complicated, messy coalitions and allegiances together.

This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters.  It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance.  The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here.  The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning.  It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.  

While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).

This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained.  I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise. 

Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture

3.5.  The Scourge Between Stars is a solid sci-fi suspense debut novella following the first mate of a generational ship attempting to return to Earth after an attempt at developing a new colony on another planet failed. Jacklyn, acting as captain while her father hasn't been seen for a week, must navigate not only internal crew dynamics (including wards contesting bridge decision-making and seeking autonomy) but the threat of something mysterious lurking inside the ship.  A well written novella with a pace that kept me engaged, I appreciated Jacklyn as a POV character and the tension that built over the course of the book.  I didn't find this the most original by any means - it feels a lot like Alien and was rather predictable - but I had fun reading it and would absolutely read more by Ness Brown.

Content warnings: blood, gore, violence, death, murder, gun violence, body horror, grief, sexual assault (off page / clearly implied but not detailed)

This is my first book by M.R. Carey, though I've seen the excellent film "The Girl With All The Gifts" based on his novel and screenplay.  I'll happily be reading more.

Infinity Gate is the first book in a series focused on multiverse travel.  In this set of universes, the Pandominion, an alliance of many relatively similar Earths maintained by a violent cyborg army, polices its borders and monitors for incursions (instances when someone from a non-Pandominion world discovers "stepping" - moving between universes - and arrives in a Pandominion world). We learn relatively early on that another alliance, which the Pandominion has termed the 'Ansurrection,' also exists: this is comprised of worlds which seem to be populated exclusively by very advanced mechanical AIs.  The Pandominion army, the Cielo, considers non-Pandominion worlds to be blatantly inferior, and does not value the lives of those who live there.  The plotline of this first installment of the series establishes this context, and follows several protagonists -- a scientist from a non-Pandominion world collapsing due to human-caused climate disaster who discovers step technology, a young man from another non-Pandominion world that she meets, a Pandominion bureaucrat, and a teenager who finds herself at the center of the Ansurrection/Pandominion conflict. 

I liked a lot about this.  The plotlines came together in a satisfying way while leaving a ton of room for the sequels, the author tackles a lot of challenging themes well, and the pacing is consistent and engaging.  I love that the setting for the story is Lagos (multiple iterations of Lagos across multiple universes). The cast of characters is extraordinarily diverse, spanning a range of ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds, and the representation feels consistently thoughtful and nuanced.  If I had a criticism, I'd only say that I found some of the point-of-view characters more engaging than others - I really wanted more of Hadiz Tambuwal, and felt like the last section with Paz went on a bit too long for me.  I'll absolutely pick up the sequel.

Content warnings: death, murder, violence, gun violence, slavery, torture, blood, injury detail, medical content, medical trauma, xenophobia, forcible confinement

Thank you to NetGalley & Orbit Books for providing me an ARC for review.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea follows Shek Yeung, a pirate captain who, after her husband and co-captain dies, marries his second in command to maintain her position and goes on to lead the fleet through a series of clashes with both the Emperor's fleet and those of Europeans set on dominating trade in the South China Sea.

I will say, this book was not at all what I expected.  I have no idea why this book is being shelved as fantasy - it is 100% historical fiction. While there are religious practices depicted (uttering prayers to deity, fortune telling, etc.) and brief chapters detailing stories of the ocean goddess Mazu (whom the main character petitions), this does not make the book fantasy.  While the book is described as a "riveting, roaring adventure novel" and does certainly include some battle scenes and plenty of strategizing, I most appreciated the novel as a portrait of one individual woman: the protagonist's traumatic past, her relationships with other characters, and her strategizing and at times brutal actions undertaken to maintain her tenuous hold on the power she has while not sure what she ultimately wants.

Content warnings: violence, murder, blood, death, torture, sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, colonialism, sexism, homophobia, human trafficking, addiction, war, grief, slavery

I found this to be an informative book on what ancient sources have to say about Druids (such sources are few and far between) as well as about the cultural context for these sources.  The author's archaeology expertise is clear in the book's emphasis on the remains of monuments and artifacts.  I appreciate the inclusion of a wide range of images, a thorough index, and a substantial 'further reading' list.  Unfortunately, the last section on contemporary Druids is not so great -- contemporary Druidry and its relationship to other traditions/paths is vastly oversimplified and some of the information is incorrect (for instance, the Wiccan Rede is characterized as a central principle of "modern paganism" rather than Wicca in particular, and witchcraft and Wicca are conflated).  Wicca and Druidry are linked together in this final chapter, but with no reference to the relationship between Nichols and Gardner which seems a rather important historical context to omit when discussing these paths sharing 'the wheel of the year.' 

This was my first Elizabeth Bear novel, and while it's part of a series it did read well as a standalone.  This novel follows Dr. Jens, a rescue specialist, who is sent to investigate when an ancient generation ship is discovering moving quickly and off course with an unresponsive contemporary ship attached to it.  The novel explores themes of artificial intelligence, medical ethics, free will, and class inequality.

What worked for me: I loved the diverse cast of characters, including many profoundly non-humanoid aliens.  I appreciated Dr. Jens as a queer disabled protagonist, and her experiences of chronic pain & pain management felt very relatable and believable to me as someone who's lived with long term injuries.  Dr. Jens was a multi-faceted character who is both complex and easy to root for.  I liked that the novel's handling of its themes felt deliberate and thoughtful, but not preachy, and I really liked the descriptions of the aliens and the space hospital.  The plot moved quickly and kept me engaged, and there were one or two plot developments I did not see coming.

What didn't work so well: The novel was a bit slow to grab my attention -- by around 20% in I was hooked, but before then I was not particularly interested.  Some of the action scenes were a bit hard to follow by virtue of the very alien technology involved.

Overall, I'd absolutely read more from Elizabeth Bear based on this novel, which I enjoyed & recommend.

Content warnings: chronic illness, medical content, medical trauma, violence, a few minor instances of homophobic and/or sexist comments