Sci-fi classic I can't believe I didn't read before
5 stars
I have so many questions. Sound-based thought waves? The galaxy has speed zones? Ultimately though it was such a good story that I don't care much about the answers. I was super impressed by (since he was writing in 1993) and absolutely love Vinge's idea of a galaxy-wide internet that's hundreds of millions of years old and nobody knows who started it. That to me seems extremely plausible, given a universe with multiple sentient space-faring species. This was SO much fun, and anyone who loves science fiction should definitely read it.
Moody scifi, social justice, but mostly brother-sister healing
4 stars
I liked it, it was very atmospheric. It starts out in a world that seems normal and ordinary, recognizable as the one we all shared in the early to mid 1990s (for those of us that old). Then, as the LA riots loom and the little girl is revealed to have strange, frightening, unexplainable telekinetic abilities, things get weirder and weirder. The main focus, though, is on the relationship between the girl and her younger brother, the one born during the height of the violence. They journey through pain and injustice to find a place where they can forgive each other, and their mother, and maybe even the world, for what they've been through. Sad but not hopeless.
"Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface …
Jim Butcher is too un-self-aware to write far future spec fic, I think
3 stars
Or maybe he's just a dick, I dunno. Certainly the Harry Dresden character reads like a self-insert character and he's a bit of a dick. Anyway, the ups:
Talking cats! Who save the day. And frankly they were written very well. Obviously Butcher knows and loves cats. Could have used more cat action.
Kickass ladies all over the place.
Great airship battle writing. That was fun.
An intriguing setting.
The downs:
The intriguing setting not well-explored or adequately explained. Humanity has been living in spires for at least 2,000 years, and the surface of the planet is basically uninhabitable. Full of strange, dangerous creatures that become maddened by a slight taste of human blood. OK... but why is one spire "Albion" (blegh, read the Book of Koli for why this is barf-worthy) and one spire "Aurora" and why are the clearly stand-ins for the British Empire and the Spanish Empire? …
Or maybe he's just a dick, I dunno. Certainly the Harry Dresden character reads like a self-insert character and he's a bit of a dick. Anyway, the ups:
Talking cats! Who save the day. And frankly they were written very well. Obviously Butcher knows and loves cats. Could have used more cat action.
Kickass ladies all over the place.
Great airship battle writing. That was fun.
An intriguing setting.
The downs:
The intriguing setting not well-explored or adequately explained. Humanity has been living in spires for at least 2,000 years, and the surface of the planet is basically uninhabitable. Full of strange, dangerous creatures that become maddened by a slight taste of human blood. OK... but why is one spire "Albion" (blegh, read the Book of Koli for why this is barf-worthy) and one spire "Aurora" and why are the clearly stand-ins for the British Empire and the Spanish Empire?
In this vein, the power sources in this book are basically magical crystals that seem to have some kind of consciousness, which means that the airships they power can be thought of as discrete sentient beings, which offers intriguing potential for exploring nonhuman awareness and suchlike things, but all that happens is that a girl learns to talk to a ship and the ship is like "My captain is so cool" and the girl is like "Yeah he is" and that's the extent of it.
A bit too long. Action needs pauses sometimes, and there was rather too much time spent with the antagonists of the story. This could have been OK if there weren't so many overlapping protagonist POV storylines interweaving throughout. Edit! Edit!
I don't FULLY regret the time I spent reading it because it was an audiobook, and the narrator did a great job, and mostly I was doing other things at the same time. But if I'd sat down and read it I'd be annoyed.
I can tell where Butcher is going with the sequels, but I'm not going to follow him there - I don't care enough about the characters.
In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy …
Glorious Use of Alternate History
5 stars
Ultimately, the novel was unsatisfying, but not in the way that comes from careless writing or a lack of vision on the part of the writer. Rather, it's unsatisfying in the same way that life is--you understand why it has to be that way, and although you often wish things could be different, you can't help but glory in the moments that were given.
I don't want a movie of this, I want a video game where the player gets to explore the city of Cahokia. Through it, we get to see the author's vision of Indigenous cultures entering the 20th century but on their own terms. It's colorful, adventurous, brutal, brazen - perfect setting for a politically charged noir murder mystery.
It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …
Solarpunk tale of self-discovery and grappling with one's history
5 stars
A compelling yet soothing tale about a non-binary monk having a midlife crisis.
Topics: finding purpose in life, wilderness, the nature of consciousness, and more.
No violence, no struggle apart from that of a person against the pressures of exertion and survival outside of human civilization, and yet it is a page-turner.
It gets the "solarpunk" label because the setting is a human society which fits the bill: non-capitalist, low-impact technology. Main transport method: "ox-bikes," apparently the author's neologism to refer to electronically assisted bicycles that pull carts around. Personal computers are computers that last a person's entire life. Half of the available land is set aside for wilderness. Etc.
100% recommend. It would probably be a good introduction to science fiction for someone who's not familiar with the genre as it exists in the 21st century.
1890s Sudan. When Akuany and her brother are orphaned in a village raid, they are …
Luminous, evocative, poetic storytelling
5 stars
This is a piece of historical fiction that takes us to Sudan, during the 1880s, the end of the Ottoman empire. There are several main characters, but the one whose arc unites them all is a spirited young woman who loves the river as if it is her own mother. Her journey from the lush highlands, through the desert, to the cities of Sudan (mainly Al-Ubeid and Khartoum) introduces us to a young merchant turned Islamic scholar, a lout turned soldier, a mother-in-law who keeps her penchant for trading a secret, a widowed Scottish painter who wishes only to return to his daughter, and historical figures such as British Generals and a Muhammad Ahmed ibn Abdullah, a self-styled messianic prophet and leader of the uprising against Egyptian rule. Throughout, the experiences and voices of women in war, women in a patriarchal society, are centered and uplifted.
Listening to the audiobook …
This is a piece of historical fiction that takes us to Sudan, during the 1880s, the end of the Ottoman empire. There are several main characters, but the one whose arc unites them all is a spirited young woman who loves the river as if it is her own mother. Her journey from the lush highlands, through the desert, to the cities of Sudan (mainly Al-Ubeid and Khartoum) introduces us to a young merchant turned Islamic scholar, a lout turned soldier, a mother-in-law who keeps her penchant for trading a secret, a widowed Scottish painter who wishes only to return to his daughter, and historical figures such as British Generals and a Muhammad Ahmed ibn Abdullah, a self-styled messianic prophet and leader of the uprising against Egyptian rule. Throughout, the experiences and voices of women in war, women in a patriarchal society, are centered and uplifted.
Listening to the audiobook is highly recommended. The narrator captures various voices with precision and care. Although her Scottish accent is a bit off, it barely warrants mentioning in light of the many other accents she pulls off flawlessly. The writing is beautiful and eloquent, with no repetitive tics that sometimes mar narrative storytelling. The structure is thoughtful and surprising. The denouement is sad, joyful, and satisfying in just the right measures.
In a world that has become treacherous and desiccated, Magdala has always had to fight …
Flawless storytelling; one of my favorite cli-fi books so far
5 stars
Correction: The exiled Vegas priest is actually named Arturo.
Long ago, the earth's rains turned poisonous. Thus, the only places where humanity survives (barely) are in the deserts. The people who dwell in the North American desert west of the Mississippi call it "the Remainder." This is where Magdala is born.
But the desert also sickens and kills its occupants. Madgala must survive thirst, hunger, animal predators, human predators, and "stuffed men": those who've succumbed to the sickness and become one with the desert and its creatures. The sexual violence of human predators is dealt with realistically but not gratuitously. Although the author's vision of the future is dark, it's also shot through with threads of hope and rumors of miracles.
People who liked Rebecca Roanhorse's "Sixth World" series will love this. "Poetic precision" is a good phrase for the storytelling. In this world, there are still a few road …
Correction: The exiled Vegas priest is actually named Arturo.
Long ago, the earth's rains turned poisonous. Thus, the only places where humanity survives (barely) are in the deserts. The people who dwell in the North American desert west of the Mississippi call it "the Remainder." This is where Magdala is born.
But the desert also sickens and kills its occupants. Madgala must survive thirst, hunger, animal predators, human predators, and "stuffed men": those who've succumbed to the sickness and become one with the desert and its creatures. The sexual violence of human predators is dealt with realistically but not gratuitously. Although the author's vision of the future is dark, it's also shot through with threads of hope and rumors of miracles.
People who liked Rebecca Roanhorse's "Sixth World" series will love this. "Poetic precision" is a good phrase for the storytelling. In this world, there are still a few road signs and billboards here and there, and their fading words always seem to place the narrative's events in the perfect frame.
