Mind Meld

SF Signal has a Mind Meld post up about: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Genre Series: Series vs. Standalones; Ones We Abandoned; Ones We Returned To.

This is wherein several authors/critics respond to the topic prompt. I'm pleased to have had it pointed out (thanks Zach) that the Acacia Trilogy got three mentions - and some further chat in the comments! What nice people...

You can read their thoughts HERE.

In Search of and Others

Just a few days ago I mentioned a newly published anthology edited by some former Stonecoast students of mine (Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction). Well, today I get to mention another!

The marvelous Will Ludwigsen has just published a collection of short stories called In Search of and Others. I don't know if I've read any of these stories or not, but I loved the stuff I read of his when he was at Stonecoast. Quirky. Humorous. Gothic.

Here's the jacket copy:

A house inches eight hundred miles to confess its horrible crime. The last resident of a mental institution discovers he's not alone. A middle-schooler performs an experiment to determine how much time we fit in dreams. Boys looking for wonder find more than they're expecting in the Adirondacks with Charles Fort. A detective learns everything he's ever wanted to know...and some things he hasn't. In Will Ludwigsen's short stories of strangeness and mystery, the universe has a way of being weird in just the ways we need it to be. There are answers to many of our deepest questions...and they're usually far more personal than we expect. What are you in search of? And what is in search of you?

Hey, wait, I definitely did read that story about a house inching eight hundred miles to confess a horrible crime! It's terrific.

Publishers Weekly gave the collection a starred review, saying:

In this hauntingly beautiful collection of nine reprinted and six original stories, Ludwigsen issues an invitation to look past preconceived notions of self and ways of being, and to take a journey to the dark side of imagination. “The Speed of Dreams” begins as a lighthearted tale told from the perspective of a teen girl but takes an abrupt turn to a resonating and viscerally powerful conclusion. “We Were Wonder Scouts” echoes the irrepressible spirit of a Heinlein protagonist while twisting it ever so slightly. The variety of viewpoints and alternation between short and long stories allow the reader to catch a breath just before being pulled deep beneath the surface of chilling wonder. Each story’s concepts remain fully accessible while still challenging the reader, and exquisite craftsmanship makes this a timeless classic for those seeking asylum from formulaic prose.

Congrats, Will.

Futuredaze

Just wanted to mention a cool new book.

Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction, edited by Hannah Strom-Martin and Erin Underwood. It's published by Underwords Press, an indie.

Now, I have a particular interest in this anthology for several reasons. One is that I know both these editors. They graduated from the MFA program I teach for - Stonecoast. Another is that they're such awesome readers I've called on both of them to beta read for me on several occasions. The Acacia Trilogy owes a lot to their insights. And also because I read and blurbed this thing!

Here's what I said:

“I love this collection! It offers all the ideas, speculation and creativity I look for in quality science fiction, but it presents them with a nimble verve, with humor and with a focused attention to the interests and concerns of teen readers. Each story works as science fiction, while also resonating at a wonderfully energetic, youthful frequency. That pleasantly surprised me again and again.” —David Anthony Durham, author of The Acacia Trilogy

And here's how they describe the book themselves:

"Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction includes 33 original short stories and poems that spark the imagination, twist the heart, and make us yearn for the possibilities of a world yet to come. Futuredaze includes pieces by Jack McDevitt, Nancy Holder, Gregory Frost, Lavie Tidhar, Sandra McDonald, Brittany Warman, Stephen Covey, E. Kristin Anderson, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Jenny Blackford, and many more!  

Reflecting many of the ideals first set forth by science fiction icons such as Isaac Asimov, George Orwell, and Ray Bradbury, Futuredaze challenges the imagination with young adult fiction that includes far-flung futures, dystopian alternate worlds, life among the stars, and a host of startling stories that embrace the idea of “What if?” that has driven the science fiction genre forward for more then a century. Now, it’s time to give voice to the next generation of science fiction readers and to those of us still young at heart."

Throne of the Crescent Moon

I don't usually post twice in the same day, but I just got a reminder from Saladin Ahmed that his debut novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon, is out today! This is a very good thing for fantasy readers, especially ones that are looking for a fresh, innovative, distinctive new fantasy world, one that uses all the imaginative flare of fantasy, but does so in a different cultural landscape than the norm. That's exactly what Saladin has written.

I wouldn't want you to think I'm suggesting this book to you because cultural diversity is good for. It is, but that's not the point. Saladin's an effortlessly entertaining writer. He makes unusual choices every step of the way in terms of characterization and plot, and his Arabian Knights influenced alternative world provides a vivid backdrop for his story.

I read the novel in galley form a while back, and have been looking forward to its publication ever since. You'll be happy to know I'm not the only one that liked it. For example:

From his starred Publishers Weekly Review -

"Ahmed’s debut masterfully paints a world both bright and terrible."

From his starred Kirkus Review -

"An arresting, sumptuous and thoroughly satisfying debut."

Fantasy Book Critic has lengthy review up HERE.

The Ranting Dragon has one up HERE.

I've no doubt at all that this book marks a major step forward in what's sure to be a very impressive publishing life. Do check it out.

Time Out

Time Out Chicago has a rather short Best Of list of Science Fiction and Fantasy titles for 2011. Just three. Quality, though. Quality is what counts. At least I'd like to think so.

I'm there, along with Catherynne Valente and China Mieville.

Take a look if you need convincing.

Arms of Nemesis

I have a short piece up at Campaign for the American Reader. They asked me what I was reading at the moment, and I told them: Steven Saylor's Arms of Nemesis.

If you want to know why, the answer is a click away: HERE.

Who Fears Nnedi?

I was thrilled to learn that Nnedi Okorafor's novel, Who Fears Death, has just won this years World Fantasy Award. Yay, Nnedi! I'm not surprised. To quote the blurb I offered her a couple years back...

"WHO FEARS DEATH is urgently topical, at times brutal, and always wholly original. It’s no surprise she’s been racking up awards. There are more to come, surely."

Also, I'm just as thrilled that my friend and Stonecoast MFA Program colleague, Elizabeth Hand, won in the novella category for "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon".

Congrats to you both!

Black Hills

So this post started simply enough. I was going to write about how much I'd enjoyed Dan Simmon's Black Hills: A Novel. Simple. Thing is that during the process of blathering about it, I poked around the web looking for other stuff about Mr. Simmons', and I was reminded why I'd really rather I didn't do that.

For example, there's this piece published on his website, and here at Free Republic website Message from a Time Traveler. Hmmm.

And then there was the October 2005 message from Dan. Hmmm. I'm sure there's more stuff that might make my cheek twitch, but I stopped there.

I became troubled. It's not just that I find the content of the time traveler piece silly, it's also that I find it maliciously so, and that I find the structure of it to be manipulative. (ie- The fake conversation with a supernaturally intelligent stranger that knows more than me and slowly convinces me to be afraid, to be very afraid of those scary Muslims...) And it's not just that I don't think there's plenty to be criticized about all things Katrina-related, but that I would hope that a wealthy person looking out at the world from a perch on the Rockies might show some humility when discussing a social tragedy with complex origins. Also, the rambling, discursive structure of it lacks the clarity and empathy I so appreciate about his fiction.

If I had started with those pieces I wouldn't have been very interested in reading his fiction. This much is clear; Mr Simmons and I do not see the world with the same eyes politically. But... the guy can write (fiction). So do our differences matter in terms of my encouraging people to read his work? I'm not sure.

Certainly, I don't want my readers to only be people that are aligned with me politically. I've had some wonderful correspondences with readers that I know have a very different world view than me in terms of politics, social issues, religion, etc. I love those interactions, and I love it that it's the fiction that has created a connection that might not be there if we instead began by comparing and contrasting our political stripes.

It may be wrong of me to begin this by doing just that, but I couldn't help it. And I should point out that the things he wrote about in those pieces have nothing directly to do with the book in question. It's other stuff. So... with that jumbled opening I offer the words of praise I initially composed for Mr. Simmons. Here goes:

There are some writers that I read a bit of and politely fold the cover on. I'm not one to denigrate other authors, but plenty of what's published and praised leaves me a tepid. Then there are authors that I admire greatly, feeling (perhaps mistakenly) that they're my compatriots and peers in this writing craft. And there are others to whom I nod in reverence. Dan Simmons is one of these. I don't know who or what he is as a person, but as a writer he's a pro that has taken his talent and exercised it with admirable discipline. He is, in a lot of ways, the kind of writer I want to be when I grow up. Why?

Because he consistently produces ambitious, genre-hopping (and merging) novels, filled with an intelligent engagement with history, rich with ideas, fueled by a verve for storytelling and infused with heavy doses of the fantastic. He's prolific, but the finished products he manages to publish every year are dazzlingly in their reach and erudition. I've praised his work before. The occasion for this endorsement is his recent novel, Black Hills.

Now, I'll admit the description was not one that immediately grabbed me. The historical setting held interest, but I couldn't get the shape of the book from the dust jacket material:

When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, "counts coup" on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bighorn, the legendary general's ghost enters him - and his voice will speak to him for the rest of his event-filled life. Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans. Haunted by Custer's ghost, and also by his ability to see into the memories and futures of legendary men like Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse, Paha Sapa's long life is driven by a dramatic vision he experienced as a boy in his people's sacred Black Hills. In August of 1936, a dynamite worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, Paha Sapa plans to silence his ghost forever and reclaim his people's legacy-on the very day FDR comes to Mount Rushmore to dedicate the face.

It still doesn't exactly hook me. It's the kind of book that you just need to enter with an open mind, let it define itself, get to know the characters, and get swept along. That's what I did, and I enjoyed it very much.

I found Paha Sapa to be a compelling character, rendered with understated empathy. He has an interior life that he cannot and will not share with the white people that shape his life in so many ways. Simmons does a wonderful job of understanding that. He portrays a man that shares very little of himself with others, and he makes it clear how limited seeing him from the outside is. And yet the novel provides us an intimate exploration of his childhood, his desires, disappointments, loves and, ultimately, his singular destructive ambition.

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say in a starred review:

Hugo-winner Simmons, the author of such acclaimed space operas as Hyperion and Olympos as well as Drood, an intriguing riff on Dickens's unfinished last novel, displays the impressive breath of his imagination in this historical novel with a supernatural slant. In the author's retelling of Custer's last stand at the Little Big Horn in 1876, the dying general's ghost enters the body of Paha Sapa, a 10-year-old Sioux warrior who's able to see both the past and the future by touching people. The action leaps around in time to illustrate the arc of Sapa's life, but focuses on 1936, when, as a septuagenarian, he plots to blow up the monuments on Mount Rushmore in time for a visit to the site by FDR to atone for his role in constructing the stone likenesses. In his ability to create complex characters and pair them with suspenseful situations, Simmons stands almost unmatched among his contemporaries.

That's probably all the review one needs to enter the book. I'm actually glad that I didn't read any reviews before starting it. So, if you're inclined to pick up it you might want to stop reading here.

Or, stay with me... I looked up some reviews as I prepared this post. I found lots a positive ones, sure, but others like this Washington Post review written by Barbara Ehrenreich are a bit jumbled, though still positive. I like The Post and review for them myself. I certainly like it that Simmons manages - some times, at least - to get the critical attention that his work deserves. While I offer the link, the review seems a bit scattered to me. For some reason, she chooses to mention Jonathan Franzen.

Now is that necessary?

But, anyway, she is a fan when all the back and forth has run its course.

The guy that reviewed it for The Science Christian Monitor, Justin Moyer, is another story entirely. Personally, I think the reviewer gets pretty much everything that he snidely complains about wrong. But you can read it here if you’re so inclined.

Paha Sapa a "Sioux Forrest Gump"? That's a clever jibe. It’s definitely the type of line that would put me off a book, and that’s what it’s intended to do. Problem is, I read the book already, and I don't think that’s an accurate characterization. Perhaps the reviewer mistook Paha Sapa’s reticence when speaking to white people for a lack of intelligence. I didn’t. It’s a defense mechanism in a world in which he’s discriminated against at every turn.

Nor do I get why it offends the reviewer that the main character of the novel knows several famous people and is on the ground at a number of historic moments/settings. That's the reason he's the main character. That's why the story is about him.

He then appears to slight Paha Sapa's strange bond with Custer by saying it would make a good Sherman Alexie story. So... not a good Dan Simmons story, but a good story if a hip Native American writer wrote it instead? Maybe, but references like that seem less about the substance and more about the reviewer making sure we know he's read Sherman Alexie. We'll, I've read Sherman Alexie too.

So there. (Makes a silly face.)

Another thing that bugs me about when reviewers trash a book is that they have the advantage of being able to contextualize things that the reader of the review has not (assuming he/she hasn't read the book yet) had an opportunity to contextualize themselves. Take this, for example:

Close to death, Paha Sapa envisions the “rewilding” of the Great Plains at an unspecified date by the federal government – that is, the same government that blazed the Trail of Tears, murdered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and commissioned Rushmore in the first place... Given America’s questionable management of its natural resources and the sham global warming debate, this Eden isn’t just an unlikely outcome – it’s bad fiction that neither reflects reality nor entertains.

Well, sure, that sounds a bit stupid when you put it that way. What the reviewer ignores is that the government gets around to the "rewilding" Paha Sapa envisions after a catastrophic collapse of the ecology of the middle of America. The land is turned into desert, abandoned and uninhabitable in a conventional sense. It's quite clearly explained that governmental/business/personal mismanagement of the land by the majority American culture is what caused it. So the “rewilding” is not a sudden liberal/environmentalist take over in 2020 or something. We're talking a response to disaster, suffering, mass-extinction, likely within a larger world of global calamities that are outside of Paha Sapa’s vision. Given that context - which is the true context of the book - I find his dismissal of the idea glib, and lacking in the imagination that makes science fictional meditations on the future so interesting.

So there. (Sticks out tongue.)

Oh, final bit on this one. He writes: Simmons thinks he can heal Colonial wounds with a good yarn...

I don't feel that way. Simmons isn’t trying to “heal Colonial wounds” at all. I’d say he’s showing the ways in which we move forward scarred by those wounds, creating fresh ones as we go, acknowledging some mistakes and making new ones at the same time, while hopefully aging into enough wisdom to be able to run our fingers over those wounds, recognizing and remembering them - and acknowledging that the truth of them lives on in our very blood. In our DNA, so to speak.

So that's what I wrote. I can't take any of it back. That's still the book I remember reading, and that was my reaction to it. Was I mistaken? Should I read it differently? Or is the book the book and my reaction to it should be what it is, regardless of other stuff?

You tell me.

More On Stroud

While I'm at praising Bartimaeus, I might as well mention that I also read and enjoyed Stroud's Heroes of the Valley recently too. It's an entirely different story, with a somewhat more dangerous tone. There's still lots of humor, but a lot of the drama of it is more rooted in real world power struggles and decision making.

Here's what Publishers Weekly said in a starred review:

Witty and cinematic storytelling propels Stroud's engrossing novel, set in a medieval world that recalls Norse epics—no gods, but plenty of heroes to go around. Twelve Houses control sections of a valley. Halli Sveinsson—at 15, the youngest child of the rulers of the House of Svein—goes against tradition when he sets out to avenge the death of his murdered uncle, and his actions result in warfare among Houses for the first time in generations. Halli, a cumbersome stump of a boy, is a quick-witted, appealing underdog and troublemaker (Leif needs no sabotage from me, he quips. If he manages two sentences without tripping over his trailing knuckles he will have exceeded my expectations). Smart, funny dialogue and prose, revealing passages about the exploits of the hero Svein, bouts of action and a touch of romance briskly move the story along. Offering more than just a grand adventure (which the tale certainly is), Stroud (the Bartimaeus Trilogy) explores the consequences behind legend-worthy acts of glory and the power and peril of blind faith and hero-worship.

The Ring of Solomon

I just finished Jonathan Stroud's latest Bartimaeus book, The Ring of Solomon.

If you don't know this guy, Bartimaeus is a djinni that's summoned by various wizards, enslaved by them temporarily, and made to do acts of magic on their behalf. That's actually the way magic works in Stroud's world. Magicians don't really cast spells - primarily they summon the magical creatures that can do such things for them. These creatures don't do so willingly, and they're always on the lookout for any mistakes on their master's part that might free them to... well, eat that unfortunate master.

I enjoyed the original trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye and Ptolemy's Gate a couple of years ago. Read those with my kids. This new standalone title I read all by my lonesome, though. My favorite parts of the first series were the Bartimeous sections. He's a sarcastic, humorous, self-indulgent narrator, well versed in history - since he's lived through it - and with opinions on everything, especially his own shining virtues. That's probably why I liked this one; it's more heavily Bartimeous.

Good fun. I love the combination of historical material, full on fantasy magic, and healthy dose of snarky humor. Am I the only one that thinks such stuff is tons of fun?

No, of course not. But sometimes when you say to your agent, "Hey, what if I was to write middle grade fantasy set in some distant time period, like... ancient Egypt?" and the agent says, "Ah... No, you don't want to do that. Kids want to read about contemporary stuff, something relevant to them." Well... it sort of makes it seem like I'm weird.

See, kids may want to read about something contemporary and relevant to them, but I'm not terribly interested in that. I want to write for kids - my own included - but I want to take them to far away, strange and fantastic places in the process. Isn't that at the heart of so many classic childrens books? Adventure. Magic. Far, far away... I think so, and when I read Bartimeaus and his long life since the days of ancient Uruk I'm even more sure of it.

Here's what School Library Journal had to say about it:

Fans of Stroud's “Bartimaeus Trilogy” (Hyperion) will cheer the return of the sarcastic, chatty, and mischievous djinni in this prequel. Or perhaps this should be termed a pre-pre-prequel as the setting is an alternate version of biblical times during the reign of King Solomon, where magicians command djinni and Solomon rides herd over the known world due to his possession of an all-powerful ring that causes everyone to cower before him. The Queen of Sheba, aware that Solomon is preparing to disrupt her country's frankincense trade due to her refusal of his multiple marriage proposals, sends her most trusted guard, Asmira, to kill Solomon and steal the ring. Meanwhile, Bartimaeus has been humiliated because of his misbehavior and forced to work for Solomon's henchman, Khaba, on his new temple. After an amusing incident in which Bartimaeus is caught in the form of a hippo while illegally using magic to lay stones for Solomon's temple, he is sent to hunt other creatures who are disrupting trade routes. He encounters Asmira, traveling to Jerusalem under an assumed identity to accomplish her mission. How Bartimaeus ends up as her servant, and what they discover about the truth of Solomon's power, makes this a delightful and fascinating book, and it's likely to bring new fans to the original series. Bartimaeus is a wonderful creation, with his constant storytelling digressions delivered in the form of footnotes. But the new character, Asmira, is equally well rendered, with her keen ability with daggers providing her with much-needed self-defense. Definitely a must-purchase for most libraries.

Not exactly super-contemporary, but that doesn't seem to have done the series any harm. Mr. Stroud has sold a few million of these books already, and there's no reason to think he won't keep doing so. Has a nice life, he does. Rides his bike to his office every day. Writes. Has tons of young fans around the world... Yeah, it's good to be a successful writer.

Never Let Me Go

I had a strange experience watching this film. It was well-done and acted, and calmly intriguing, but about halfway through I began to go, "Yeah, but, what about..." and "I'm not sure that makes considering..." and "Oh, come on, why don't they..." There were aspects of the world and how the characters inhabited it that didn't quite makes sense. If you're interested in the details check out the link to reviews I have below.

By the end, none of my queries were answered with answers. Instead, they were undermined with questions. Gudrun and I talked about it quite a bit. She'd read and enjoyed the book, but couldn't answer my questions either. I walk away wondering if the world Kazuo Ishiguro (author of the book on which it's based: Never Let Me Go) created made the questions I wanted answered beside the point. It's like by the end your supposed to walk away with the questions, not with the answers at all.

This is all leading up to me saying I think I liked it quite a bit. It's something of a puzzle that I didn't solve, but that I find intriguing. HERE's a link to the Rotten Tomatoes site for it - with lots of connections to various reviews.

Carey Mulligan is a terrific actress, by the way. I think she has the potential to have a wonderfully diverse career.

Mind Meld

There's a rather useful Mind Meld over at SF Signal at the moment. The questions they put to their selection of authors and editors was: "What forthcoming sf/f/h books are you most looking forward to? Why are you anticipating each of those selections?"

There are some interesting answers that include a number of titles I'm glad to have been alerted to.

Yes, there's an element of self-interest in this. The Sacred Band, I'm glad to say, made author Daniel Abraham's list. Hurrah! And the new Wild Cards novel, Fort Freak, got mentioned a couple of times. I have my three part snake story in that one.

But, enough about me. Go check out the other recommendations. I bet you'll see something that tickles your fancy! It's HERE.

Sugar

So here's another movie recommendation. Remember, I'm not inclined to recommend movies that everyone has heard of anyway. I see those too, but it's smaller, independent or foreign films that I'm inclined to spotlight. This one is from 2009. It's called, simply, Sugar. Seen it? If not, consider doing so.

You could say it's a baseball movie, but... well, it's not really that. Baseball is the catalyst for the story, but it's about a lot more than that, and it's certainly not about some ninth inning victory. It's about the minor league training camps in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere that farm local talent with an eye toward sending them through to the states, where they then hope to play their way up toward the major leagues. It's about the tension between the dream all these young guys feel and the reality that the vast majority of them aren't going to achieve that dream. It's about the cultural turmoil of feeling out of place in the US, longing for home while also striving to take advantage of the opportunities here. It's a quiet movie in some ways, but it also moves in unexpected directions. It's the type of film that I didn't know how much I like it until it was over, and even at that point I can't quite explain why it worked for me. But it did, and that's why I'm mentioning it.

I got good reviews. Check out The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times, for example.

Oh, it's mostly in Spanish, by the way. You're not afraid of that though...

I Am Love

So, this blog was never supposed to just be about my novels or about things fantastic, but I realize I haven't been posting as much random stuff, like movie recommendations and such that are far outside of the genre. I should correct that. Not everything I read or view fits into one category, and I imagine the same is true for you.

With that in mind, I'll want to mention a movie I saw the other day and quite liked. It's on dvd, an Italian movie called Io Sono L'Amore (I Am Love). It stars Tilda Swinton. Yes, she speaks Italian throughout the movie, with a little bit of Russian thrown in also. This is definitely an artsy foreign film. I've been known to both like and despise those, based on their merits. This one I liked a lot, though in some ways it's hard to say why. I won't even try.

Of course, some folks get paid to explain such things. The reviewer from Time Out had this to say:

‘I Am Love’ is a brazen blueprint for a cinema that straddles past and future while worrying little about trends of the present. It’s a bold experiment rooted in tradition. It plays like smart opera and looks like a marriage of poetic documentary with classical European drama.

Does that send you running for the hills? Perhaps. Well, try Roger Ebert's review, then. I think he does a fine job of making sense of it in his review of the film, which you can read HERE. Take a look, and it if it sounds like your thing give it a try.

Tender Morsels

This is a book recommendation post, but let me say up front that Tender Morsels will not be for everyone.

Yes, it's a YA fantasy, but it's not light fair at all. It is a novel that disturbingly deals with sexuality, incest and even gang rape. Several times I couldn't not quite believe Margo Lanagan was going where she seemed to be going, but therein lies the strength of this one. It's uncomfortable, but deeply felt, disturbing, challenging.

It's also wonderfully imagined and - though not exactly uplifting - by the end it did leave me with a weary feeling of relief and faith in the goodness of some people within a world a dangers. I'm not aware of having read anything quite like it before, and that's a draw for me as well. Lanagan is a brave writer. I respect that.

Here's what School Library Journal had to say in a Starred Review:

"A traumatized teen mother magically escapes to her own personal heaven in this daring and deeply moving fantasy. The characters, setting, much of the action, and even the very words of the title are taken from the Grimm Brothers' "Snow-White and Rose-Red," a sweet story of contrasting sisters who live deep in the forest and whose innocent hearts are filled with compassion for a lonely bear and an endangered dwarf. In the novel, Liga's daughters—one born of incest, the other of gang rape—first flourish in Liga's safe world. But encounters with magical bears and the crusty dwarf challenge them to see a world beyond their mother's secure dreamscape. Eventually the younger one, Urdda, and subsequently her sister and Liga are drawn back into the real world in which cruelty, hurt, and prejudice abound. But it is also only there that they can experience the range of human emotion, develop deep relationships, and discover who they truly are. The opening chapters vividly portray the emotional experience of a boy's first sexual encounter, mind-numbing abuse by Liga's father, and a violent gang rape. It's heavy fare even for sophisticated readers, but the author hits all the right notes, giving voice to both the joys and terrors that sexual experience can bestow without saying more than readers need to know to be fully with the characters. While the story explores what it means to be human, it is at its heart an incisive exploration of the uses and limitations of dissociation as a coping mechanism. Beautifully written and surprising, this is a novel not to be missed."

If you're up for that give this one a try.

Shades of Milk and Honey

I was thrilled to get an audio copy of Mary Robinette Kowal's new novel, Shades of Milk and Honey. (Thank you, Mary!) I listened to it with keen interest, not least because Mary narrates it herself. Could she really pull off hours of English accents? Apparently so. I'm no connoisseur of English accents (Scottish are more my thing), but I think she did a great job.

So what's it about? Booklist describes it wonderfully:

Take Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and add a dash of magic and you have this delightful story by Mary Kowal. This is the story of two sisters, Jane, who is more magically talented, and Melody, a stunning beauty, and their quest to find love and stability. Both girls hope to marry well despite their lack of inheritance, and are pursued by various suitors. They are quickly embroiled into the intricacies of their neighbors’ lives, and the resulting series of events is sure to entrance the reader. For those who love reading Jane Austen’s books, this will at least temporarily satisfy the craving. A touch of magic inserted into the story is enough to enhance, but not overwhelm the story line. A quick, light read, with characters that the reader will feel right at home with.

That about sums it up. I found it particularly interesting how lightly the magic is used. It's a feature in young lady's education, much like art or music or needlepoint would be. It's just there. It can be startling beautiful, but so can a good painting or a well-played bit tune on the piano. Don't expect magical battles and epic journeys in this one. It's not that type of book. It's own type of book. Quiet, personal, Jane Austenish...

Cory Doctorow has gushed about it over at boingboing.

Here's a great review at Adventures in Reading.

And here's one from PowellsBooks.Blog.

Just to give you a random selection of adoration...

Well done, Mary. What's next?

Nnedi and Ekaterina

Two authors. Two blurbs. I'm rather proud to point out that I had the privilege of endorsing two terrific new books.

The first one, Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor is out now.

I read this awhile ago, and was very impressed. Enough so that I wrote: "WHO FEARS DEATH is urgently topical, at times brutal, and always wholly original. It’s no surprise she’s been racking up awards. There are more to come, surely."

Yep. It's serious stuff. Don't believe me? Here's what Publishers Weekly wrote in a Starred Review:

Well-known for young adult novels (The Shadow Speaker; Zahrah the Windseeker), Okorafor sets this emotionally fraught tale in postapocalyptic Saharan Africa. The young sorceress Onyesonwu—whose name means Who fears death?—was born Ewu, bearing a mixture of her mother's features and those of the man who raped her mother and left her for dead in the desert. As Onyesonwu grows into her powers, it becomes clear that her fate is mingled with the fate of her people, the oppressed Okeke, and that to achieve her destiny, she must die. Okorafor examines a host of evils in her chillingly realistic tale—gender and racial inequality share top billing, along with female genital mutilation and complacency in the face of destructive tradition—and winds these disparate concepts together into a fantastical, magical blend of grand storytelling.

The second is The House of Discarded Dreams, by Ekaterina Sedia. Here's how I responded:

"The House of Discarded Dreams is a moody feast of the fantastic, dreamy, surreal, all rendered in visually poetic prose that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki films. Oh, and that guy with the crazy hair was awesome! Terrific stuff. Just the right fusion of thematic depth and unbridled creativity that I’m always looking for, but rarely find."

This one isn't out until the fall, but keep it in mind...

Here's an interview with her at Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews.

The Year of the Flood

I recently finished Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood: A Novel. I liked it. It's her follow up to Oryx and Crake, her earlier novel of the genesis and effects of a human-created pandemic. I guess you could call it a sequel, but it's not quite that. It's more of a companion novel. It covers the same time period, many of the same events, with some of the same characters, but deals with it all from several different perspectives. For one thing, the main characters in this one are female, whereas Oryx and Crake had more male voices.

What I remember liking about Oryx and Crake (although "like" is probably a strange word for it) is that it dealt with a recognizable present, a reasonable near-future, and a catastrophe of a sort that seems... uncomfortably plausible. It just all felt possible. That would suck, except that Atwood manages to infuse all the horror with humor as well.

This new book does the same, although perhaps with more emphasis on the day to day survival challenges facing her female characters. In some ways, that's starker than the time spent with the guys in the earlier book.

I did find it a little convenient that so many of the people the main characters know before "the flood" happen to be around through it and beyond. It allows closure and resolution to some relationships, but it also makes the world seem awfully small, like it revolves around this particular handful of people just bit too much...

But I digress. I'm not here to review. I'm here to recommend. The bottom line is that Atwood brings her usual fine writing into play here. The fact that she does it in firmly sf territory is wonderful.

I wonder if she would turn up for the Hugos or Nebulas if she was nominated?

Nam Le

Herewith, another book recommendation. This one is in the literary fiction category, just in case you've got a hankering for some good short fiction...

The book is called The Boat and the author is Nam Le. I was lucky enough to meet Nam at BEA a couple years back. This was before his book came out. I enjoyed talking with him a bit late into an evening of fine food and free drink, but it was awhile before I got around to reading his collection. As is so often the case, I'm very glad I finally did!

So what do I like about his stories? Each and every one of them is an engaging character study, stories about people living their lives, but with enough happening in them that none of them feel like navel gazing. They're about things, and each story is a trip to a very different place in the world, featuring very different situations and characters.

And that, in a big way, is another thing I love about Nam's work. He's marvelously ambitious. He might - as is mentioned in the first seemingly autobiographical story in the collection - have cashed in on the "ethnic" thing. He's an Australian of Vietnamese origin, an interesting enough identity that he could have played that card effectively to liberally-minded literary readers. Instead, he does something very different. After that opening story about a character that is essentially him, he tells a tale of Colombian assassins, and then one about an aging and ill white artist, and then about a conflict and love story among Australian youths, and then about a Japanese girl during WWII, and then about an American woman caught up in politics and persecution in Iran...

See what I mean? He's all over the globe, and I'd argue he makes each jump with incredible style. At times his stories end with a bit of mystery to them, almost as if the subjects and themes he's working with are larger than he can fit on the page. Other stories - like the title story about Vietnamese refugees - he nails shut to devastating effect.

I got to hang out with him again last month at that Pen/Faulkner event. Good fun. He's working on a novel, and I, for one, am looking forward to it. And just so you know he's not without some interest in the genres... he's on the record as having written a lesbian vampire story! I haven't read it, and it's not in the book. Maybe one day, though...

Kindred

I'd read a bit of Kindred before, but recently I sat down with it again and read the whole thing. Very glad I did. It confirms yet again how marvelous I think Octavia Butler is/was.

I've said it before, but I think what I'm still most struck by is the feeling of empathy she seems to convey for all her characters. White or black, slave or free, noble or wicked or a complicated variation of both: no matter what I believe she grasps her characters humanity at it's core, and still manages to show them as living and breathing flawed individuals shaped by personal inclination and societal forces that make it impossible for those cores to remain unaltered.

(Just to warn you, I'm going to mention some plot details here.)

In this case, we have the story of a modern African-American woman, Dana, (who happens to be married to a white man) who gets mysteriously transported back in time to the American South in the early 1800's. She quickly learns that she's been brought back to save the life of a child that will eventually become her ancestor.

Complications? Well, there are many. For one, the ancestor is a white boy from a slave owning family. As a black woman the main character immediately has no rights that any white person needs to respect. It's a wonderful way to juxtapose modern perceptions with Antebellum realities. It doesn't matter how smart she is, how much history she knows, how well she can read: none of it is accepted at face value and all of it puts her in danger as much as it helps her.

I won't say too much more about the specific plot points, but I will aid this – that I love the way Butler's complicated characters defy the type of narrative progressions that we've come to expect in popular literature and film. Frankly, I can see this characteristic of her writing putting some people off. Does Dana's intelligence and insight and all the many things she offers change the perspective of her slave owning masters (and relatives)? Not by a long shot. Does her 20th Century smarts allow her to thrive? Not exactly.

And that's why I treasure Octavia Butler. She humbles me with the breadth of her intelligence and the clear-eye generosity with which she writes about human foibles. I wish she was around to write more, but at least I know I have many more titles of hers yet to read.