Tag: SF/F

Review – Binti

Posted October 17, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor

I keep meaning to read Okorafor’s work, but Who Fears Death was a bad fit when I picked it up, and my copy of Lagoon has gone AWOL. Which left this as my introduction — maybe not a bad thing, because it’s fairly bitesize, without being truncated. I wasn’t sure what to think of it until I was talking with Robert from my book club, though, where he noted that at the start of the book, things begin to happen due to Binti’s merit. She gets herself into university, and she’s brave enough to leave her family and set out into the unknown. After that, though, it’s luck: she couldn’t know that the things she took with her would be useful, had no idea how to make them useful, and basically just happened to survive and do well because of her background.

It feels almost like message fiction: sometimes, someone from an unprivileged background can make good because they bring new tools which other people wouldn’t consider. That’s not a bad message, and the story and world-building is reasonably entertaining… but. The conflict essentially ends by 20% in — after that, Binti no longer has to rely on her own resources. She just happens to have the right things with her.

That’s a bit of a simplification, but it does weaken the story for me. It starts off strongly, and the world is interesting — Binti’s people, the way things are set up, the aliens — but then… I began to feel as if it would turn out okay because Binti was special somehow. Having a special protagonist who is insulated from harm makes suspense and intrigue difficult.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, short stories

Review – Embassytown

Posted October 16, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Embassytown, China Miéville
Originally reviewed 26th October, 2012

Miéville’s work is never easy for me — I always have to work for it — so I get a little contemptuous of people who just read fifty pages and give up, even though I do that plenty with other books. I always have to give Miéville plenty of leeway: he gets to a place where he blows my mind in the end, but it might take half the book before I’m starting to see it.

So it was with Embassytown, and not helped by the fact that I’m in a bit of a depressed phase at the moment and everything is Too Much Effort. But I got there eventually, and when I did, I didn’t want to put the book down for a second. I stayed up to finish it, last night, and felt breathlessly excited at the twists and turns.

I can understand the criticisms that there aren’t really any well-defined/sympathetic/unique characters (maybe if there’d been more of Spanish Dancer?), but in Miéville’s work there’s always plenty that makes up for it, for me. His cities are pretty much characters, both a collection of separate organisms and an organism in themselves, and his world-building is second to very, very few. I loved the concept of Language, and the way it became language. I just. Flail.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, China Miéville, Flashback Friday, SF/F

Review – The Witches of Lychford

Posted October 13, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

The Witches of Lychford, Paul Cornell

This novella has an interesting triad of characters at the centre. They’re very different, and yet they have things in common, and things to teach one another. One’s an atheist who fears she’s losing her mind; one a pastor fearing she’s losing her faith; and one a woman who would probably refuse to agree that she was afraid of anything. The personalities make quite an interesting mix!

The story itself is fairly simple, with a traditional sort of feel. A new supermarket is coming to Lychford, and the residents are split almost 50-50 on whether they want it or not. Campaigns are in full swing, both for and against. So far, so ordinary. But Judith knows there’s more to it — that the supermarket as planned will change the shape of the town, and maybe even alter the fabric of the world: Lychford is built the way it is for a particular reason.

Those are just surface details: each character has much more going on, which impacts the plot of the novella in different ways. The three main characters (who all happen to be female) are well-realised and compelling, even when one of them is cantankerous.

I didn’t love it like, say, Robert did, but I did enjoy it. It’s paced well and is just the right length — neither cut off short or stretched out too long. It was the first book I read from Tor.com’s novella line, and it was a good introduction.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Fox’s Tower

Posted October 12, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Fox’s Tower, Yoon Ha Lee

This is a lovely collection of microfiction, which often teasingly looks over the edge at poetry in the imagery, the choice of words, the spare precise nature of the prose. It’s a collection of fable-like stories, some of them more familiar than others, all of them given their own little twist. There were a few that didn’t really strike me, but microfiction is a very difficult art, and I think Yoon Ha Lee does an amazing job with the form. Each word has to be necessary — done. Each image has to evoke a picture, an emotion, a perfect still moment — done.

I also liked that gender is not a major thing in these stories. It shifts. Someone is referred to as someone’s son, and yet the pronoun is ‘they’. It’s noticeable at first because people don’t usually do it, but I quickly got used to it, and it’s a part of the narrative voice. (Some characters are ‘she’ or ‘he’; it also depends on the character, the story.)

I know Yoon Ha Lee has a sci-fi book deal with Solaris, and I’m definitely looking forward to that on the strength of this.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, short stories

Review – The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Posted October 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 12 Comments

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson
Received to review via Netgalley and a won proof copy

I first heard of this via Kameron Hurley’s enthusiastic response on Twitter, and requested it pretty much based on that. It was only later that I read critical reviews/thoughts, like Foz Meadows’ and Liz Bourke’s, and while it made me feel a little more wary, I decided I was going to give it a go anyway. And I did, and to me, that central thesis that this is a book with a message, “Homophobia Is Bad”, which brings the message across by all queer people being unhappy… isn’t true. Nobody here “suffer[s] unbearably because of their orientation”, but because of the imperialist, colonial reaction to their sexual orientation.

It’s not a Queer Tragedy story where the main character is gay and struggling. She’s not struggling because she’s gay. She’s struggling because the Empire of Masks believes that the customs of her homeland are wrong, she disagrees, and she is determined to fight it at whatever cost. Everything that happens to her is her choice. It would be more of a Queer Tragedy if she was eventually manoeuvred into the position she’s in at the end of the novel, if it wasn’t her choice. But it is. And I don’t think this is saying there’s no hope for Baru, either; yes, she has done some terrible things, betrayed every cause except the one closest to her heart. But she’s holding onto that. She’s not broken. She does not accept a gilded cage.

As for “the evil empire is too evil” criticisms… well. The British Empire used all these methods to assimilate colonies. Maybe not at the same time, in the same place, but they did. The issue is not whether those things are going on, but control of the information: these things do look very bad to us now, partly because we see them in our past and know the harm they caused, partly because we get a privileged view. If the Masquerade don’t publicise those things are happening, people might know that some of it is going on. They can write it off to bad management, to unfair application of policies, to a particular person being corrupted — rather than seeing it as a whole, a pattern, that defines the empire. That’s pretty clearly shown to be in effect here, as far as I can see. We see the Empire for what it is, and so does Baru with her carefully split and guarded identity, but just because we as readers can doesn’t mean we would’ve in real life when these things occurred.

And, a thought that I suspect is very uncomfortable for a lot of people, we don’t now. You can ignore an awful lot of shit when you’re not the one who directly faces it.

Anyway. Going back to just the story — I loved it. It’s a painful, wrenching story, and yes, it goes through the dark side of capitalism and colonialism a lot. It explores what one person has to do, has to change, to try and make a difference, and the pain it brings them. It’s really well written: this is a story with an accountant at the centre, as the hero, and yet her machinations are still as fascinating as any duel. It also deals with people being people: complex, split in their loyalties, unpredictable. Driven by emotion. I believed in every character here, and that they thought they were the hero of their own story.

I recommend it. Sending the proof copy to my sister ASAP, though I suspect she may kill me when she reads the end.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, queer fic, SF/F

Review – Bookburners: Badge, Book and Candle

Posted October 8, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

Bookburners: Badge, Book and Candle, Max Gladstone
Received to review via Netgalley

I like the idea of this serialised novel business; I’ll be checking it out again when Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine world gets a serialised outing. But Bookburners didn’t really grab me; it doesn’t help that the file that ended up on my Kindle was a mess, of course, with the formatting all over the place, but there was nothing special about the style or set-up, as far as I was concerned. It’s a fairly typical urban fantasy opening, and there’s just not enough to hook me and keep me following it through the serial format.

It’s cool that this isn’t a damsel in distress or ‘fridged’ woman plot, that the victim and motivating factor is in fact a female cop’s brother. And there were some pretty cool details about the world-building, like the idea that demons (essentially) can get into you through anything that links one person to another, like a book. But… not convinced to subscribe and follow this particular story.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, mystery, SF/F, short stories

Review – Pacific Fire

Posted October 7, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Pacific Fire, Greg van Eekhout
Received to review via Netgalley

Originally received to review, anyway, but I bought it as well after being a terrible person and not getting round to the ARC. Now I’m regretting that, because I liked this more than the first book — it takes all that background, and gives us some more emotional stuff. I’m always a sucker for loyalty stories, so the relationship between Daniel and Sam — gah. And the dilemma of them realising that Daniel’s actually harming him — double gah. And then the ending! Triple gah.

I know, I’m very coherent.

We see some characters from the previous book: we find out a touch more about Daniel’s mother and his golem; we see Otis again, Cassandra, Moth; there are parts featuring Gabriel and Max… I love that Moth is casually gay and has a guy; I love that Gabriel is really powerful but still doesn’t seem to want it, only to use it because he has to and no one else will do so responsibly. I want more of Max, really — I want to know what drives him, what’s going on in his head. It’s exactly as fast-paced as the first book: my Kindle started out by calculating I’d take three hours, and then quickly halved that as I raced on through.

And, after that ending? I want Dragon Coast right now.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – California Bones

Posted October 4, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

California Bones, Greg van Eekhout

I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, and then got out of the mood for it when I had started it. This time, I read it almost straight through! It’s basically a fantasy heist novel set against a really intriguing background of magic, politics and alternate history. The magic is really interesting, and mostly it’s introduced organically: it’s pretty much explained in the opening chapters, but that makes sense because Daniel is being taught osteomancy by his father. The rest, we need to pick up as we go along — there’s no major explanation of regeneration, shapeshifting, non-osteomantic skills, the way hounds track osteomancers…

While I liked the background, I didn’t get that involved with the characters. There was potential there, and if they appear in the other books, maybe I’ll be more invested. Also, there were a couple of things which were too well telegraphed. Buuut, I think this was a first book, so I’m inclined to be forgiving — especially because I found it pretty well paced.

There’s a recurring image of horror from the early chapters of the book which is really done well, too. Daniel witnesses the death of his father, and sees the Hierarch (an antagonist here, though a bit difficult to properly get a grip on because he appears in person at the start and end only) actually eating his father. And he remembers that image, the sound of the Hierarch chewing. Very vivid, really works.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

The story behind The Killing Kind

Posted October 1, 2015 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

You might know I’m a bit of a fan of Chris Holm’s work — you can find my reviews of his Collector trilogy here, and of his new book The Killing Kind here — and we’ve had some great interactions (including some signed bookmarks for the Collector series, featured in my review of that trilogy!), so I was excited to be contacted and asked if I wanted to feature a post from him about the journey behind writing The Killing Kind.

It’s a bit of a jump from publishing SF/F Chandler/Hammett pastiche with Angry Robot to writing a book set in reality (albeit the dark underside of reality I wouldn’t want to visit, unless guided by an author like Chris in a safely fictional vehicle)… but as you can see from Chris Holm’s post here, maybe it has something in common with the Collector trilogy after all.

It just wouldn’t die, you see.

The Story Behind THE KILLING KIND
Chris Holm

It began, as many criminal enterprises do, with a layoff—with a man, suddenly out of work, nearing the end of his rope.

Writers don’t often talk about their day jobs, but I’m a scientist by training. For a time, I thought I wanted to be one of those bug hunters the CDC dispatches whenever there’s an outbreak of something deadly and exotic. (My wife, as you might imagine, was thrilled.) I was serious enough that I enrolled in a microbiology PhD program at the University of Virginia—but ultimately, it didn’t stick. A field that challenging demands one’s full attention, and I couldn’t bring myself to shelve my dream of becoming a published author. So I dropped out of grad school, took a job as a researcher for a small biotech startup, and got writing.

Nine years, one unpublished novel, and a handful of short stories later, that startup folded—and for the first time since I was sixteen, I was jobless. So when my buddy Steve Weddle told me he was launching a new print magazine and asked if I’d like to contribute a story, I said sure. He couldn’t afford to pay me, but I didn’t care. I needed something to do to keep me from climbing the walls while waiting to hear back on all the resumes I sent out.

I pitched Steve couple story ideas. One was lean and mean at maybe 3,000 words—the sort of story I was known for (inasmuch as I was known at all). The other was a monster, a behemoth—an idea so ambitious that I worried it’d get away from me, and wind up too long to print. When I told Steve so, here’s what he replied:

“The problem with online writing (which I love and have nothing against and love and did I make it clear that I love online?) is that folks have a tough time scrolling through a 10k word blog post of a story. So if you have a piece that’s longer than 5k, being in print would be the way to go, I think. AHMM and EQMM and those folks have limits to size. I mean, they can’t just run 20k of something because it’s cool. Needle can. It’s what we were built for. Yeah, some quick punch is great. But something longer, developed, intricate, high-concept would be great to see in print.”

So, caution thrown, I sat down and wrote “The Hitter”—a hard-bitten tale of violence, loss, and redemption, featuring a hitman who only hits other hitmen. It came out fast. Crazy fast. And at 11,000 words, it wound up more novella than short story.

“The Hitter” appeared in Needle’s second issue. To my surprise and delight, people really responded to it. It was nominated for an Anthony Award, and selected to appear in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2011. I’m pretty sure that means I owe Steve a beer.

But for some reason, the story still nagged at me. Unlike all the other shorts I’d written, it felt unfinished—which was odd, since it was already longer than the lot of ’em. I told myself to leave it be. That I shouldn’t mess with a good thing. Then, one day, I woke up with an idea that changed everything. I could pull back the camera. Shift the narrative from claustrophobic first-person to sprawling third. Show not just the (hopefully redemptive) journey of the hitman protagonist, but also that of the antagonists who want him dead, and those who hope to bring him to justice. A few months later, I’d finished the first draft of THE KILLING KIND.

Whether the transition from short story to novel was successful isn’t for me to say—but so far, buzz has been good. THE KILLING KIND received the first starred review of my career, from Kirkus. I’ve gotten glowing blurbs from writers I admire. In one of the more surreal turns of my life, the legendary David Baldacci called it “a story of rare, compelling brilliance.”

I’m grateful, if a bit befuddled. All I was trying to do was make this story finally shut up. I’m nearly finished with book two, and it hasn’t yet. It’s almost enough to make me wish I’d been laid off ages ago.

Almost.

***

Chris Holm is an award-winning short-story writer whose work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2011. His critically acclaimed Collector trilogy made over forty Year’s Best lists. His latest novel, THE KILLING KIND, is about a man who makes his living hitting hitmen, only to wind up a target himself. For links to Chris on Twitter and Facebook, visit www.chrisholmbooks.com.

Tags: Chris F. Holm, guest post, mystery, SF/F

Review – The Martian

Posted September 30, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

The Martian, Andy Weir

Oh dear, I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long! But fortuitously, now that I have, the next book club read is going to be The Martian, and the film adaptation is coming out soon. Now I just need to get my mother to read it… I found it a lot of fun, though sometimes a bit too juvenile in the style and humour — coming right after reading An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, I was very aware that astronauts are, for example, trained in public relations. Watney’s “look, boobs!” comment and so on… mmm. That didn’t ring true of the kind of professionalism you expect from an astronaut, even bearing in mind that they’re human too and Watney’s in an awful position.

Despite that, I did get hooked on the survival aspects, working out ways and means and timings, finessing budgets, launch times and politics. It’s a formula that works pretty well, and one of the reasons I find Apollo 13 (the real event, not the movie) more interesting than, say, Apollo 12. Apollo 11 put the first men on the moon, and Apollo 13 brought astronauts home despite immense odds, but Apollo 12 didn’t have the emotional engagement of being a first or of being a disaster. The situation for Mark Watney and his crew is very similar: people have been to Mars before, interest is even waning in the program, but then the mission’s scrubbed, NASA have to scramble to bring the astronauts home safely… and the world’s eyes are back on spaceflight.

Even with the sometimes juvenile humour, I couldn’t help but smile at some of Watney’s shenanigans, and I enjoyed trying to follow the chemistry and so on. Given that this was originally self-published as a serial and there was no contact with NASA, I didn’t really look too hard for any defects in the science — and I forgave it the NASA fanboyism, since it was full of the wonder of exploring space in an obvious way that reminded me of my mum’s enthusiasm for space.

The ending is pretty abrupt, since there’s actually plenty of time to go before the mission is really over, but that did leave the moment of attempted rescue as the climax of the story, and avoided taking away any of the significance of that moment with worries about re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere and the like.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F