A book that overtly acknowledges and plays with the tropes of “kid plays video games, recruited to pilot a space ship and save the world”. I liked it, but didn’t love it–much like Ready Player One, really.
I suspect that Jennifer will appreciate it more; I’ll be sure to pitch it to her.
The author builds an interesting, grungy future. It’s even more extreme on the haves–there’s something even more necessary to future work than skills or machinery operation: magic. The magic is hinted at as maybe advanced science, and the ruins of the old world definitely reflect modern skyscrapers, subway lines, etc.
The society is strange and strained; it turns out that Xhea (our heroine) is the one who is going to push society off the cliff. Though much of that appears to be the result of cross-cutting manipulation from various players…
It’s an interesting world, and the exploration rarely feels like a travelogue. Xhea has a history and is known throughout the city for old deeds, which makes it feel authentic.
The heart of the story is about friendship. It’s nice to see how strongly friendship affects Xhea (and her friend Shai), how committed they both are to doing right… to each other, and the others with a claim on them. The tower intrigues are largely off stage, but there are strong hints that they make sense if you’re in the right circles…
Long story short, the story and friendships worked. The world is altered now, and it looks like Xhea is a player. I’m interested in seeing what the next book brings…
These two books completed the Paradox trilogy, begun in Fortune’s Pawn. Unfortunately, while Devi’s first book was great and I had trouble setting it down, Honor’s Knight was much less compelling.
Why? I loved Devi’s competence, and it was stripped from her at the end of Book 1. She didn’t lose her personality, but she lost a lot of knowledge and the corresponding sense of forward motion in resolving the mysteries of the universe. Fortunately, the memory blockage doesn’t last even half the novel, but it was a disappointing start.
From there, Devi has to make a few bad deals. We get to meet some more aliens, and the mysterious opposition to Captain Caldswell’s organization. The opposition makes sense, and Devi’s able to understand both sides from an outsider’s perspective. In the final quarter of the book, she demands agency and makes things happen.
The third book, Heaven’s Queen, starts off idyllic, but action comes in before you can get bored with homey life. The rebalancing of her relationship with Rupert is interesting–no, high melodrama–but it works. Together, they bump into some of the mysteries of the universe, get captured, imprisoned, there’s a jailbreak, and a dangerous confrontation with the Legilis.
This book has Devi back to competence, and her moral courage and refusal to back down are great. The last couple of chapters are a nice wind down; the universe is changed and we get to experience the first taste of the new era.
I finished reading this and was excited to read more. I’m requesting the next two books in the trilogy from the library, but would be content with this as a stand alone.
The book is well written; Devi is an engaging protagonist, but also one with work and a background. In contrast to the YA novels I’ve been reading, it’s nice to have a hero who has been around. The story starts off with her asking an ex (kind of) about her plan for advancement and getting a reality check.
That she takes on the crazy, high risk mission as a step in her career advancement tells us a lot about her. And, as she reacts to the “things are stranger than they seemed”, her reactions reflect experience and realistic calculation.
In the background is a universe that seems plenty plausible. There are some aliens, but there’s not the casual acceptance of a Star Trek or Star Wars universe. There are a few human empires: their relationship seems mostly political, very important if you’re a planetary homebody, but companies and ships travel and trade between them.
As I said, this book is well written, and has a nice mix of action and character development. There’s also an interesting romance angle, but even the romance reflects an experienced woman–not a lovestruck teenager blindsided by feelings for the first time. Her determination to buckle down and concentrate on what’s important is great… and reflects women I’ve known.
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord. This book reminded me strongly and favorably of LeGuin’s Ekumen novels. Karen Lord does an excellent job of developing interesting cultures, and getting deep into them.
The novel is told from two point of view; one the local, the other the refugee. Delarua is the guide, but she has discoveries to make–including about herself and her past. Dllenahkh is the refugee; he comes across as grounded and experienced–it never feels false. You can feel his concern under the surface (in Delarua’s chapters); his doubt and concern are constant but don’t become one dimensional.
This is not action adventure; there are a few tense moments, but most of the book’s pleasure is exploring interesting people, on an interesting planet, and seeing how they’ll learn to share and evolve. I understand her first book, Redemption in Indigo, is quite different. I look forward to reading it soon.
Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain is post-technology sci-fi, where people have colonized a distant star, but lost the technology (due to war). The resulting society is interesting; in the Capitol there are a number of forces who remember a star faring era, but the leadership and common people live no more advanced than riffles and trains.
One twist is that the local culture is Caribbean derived; the language has propagated forward, with regional variations. Similarly, the aggressors are Aztec, but manipulated by aliens to have strong reinforcement in their ways of sacrifice.
The conflict between the two is interesting; all of my sympathies were on the Caribbean side, but the peeks we get at the life under the Aztecs makes them understandable. John deBrun is interesting; I found myself doubting and disappointed in him–just the way he and other major characters view him. The reveal near the end is okay, but the resolution of the ship seemed arbitrary. (Well, the final run, at least.)
In the end, I’m mildly curious about the next books in the series, but it didn’t inspire “must buy now”. Though the galactic situation that was setup is quite interesting, and was barely touched on in this book.
Death Sworn, by Leah Cypress, was a fast, fun book. It’s YA, with a solid protagonist, who really does have a reason to mope. Her struggle to uphold the responsibilities placed on her, and her navigating of the assassin’s society, were all captivating. Her big breakthrough–in figuring out how her whole mission had been manipulated into being–was a surprise to me, but made perfect sense in the resulting conversation.
The relationship between the two main characters was very interesting and felt authentic; their sense of duty to their organizations, suspicion at the setup, confidence in their own abilities, and such all worked very well. The Empire has just enough threat–and the characters seem to have an appropriate for their age lack of understanding of the details of the Empire’s modern nature and recent acts–that I’m interested to see what we learn about them.
If I’d had the sequel on hand, I’d have immediately begun reading the next book. (Admittedly, that’s true of most books… but I did enjoy it. And its low complexity made it an easy read.)
I picked up my Winter and Spring issues of Boom: A Journal of California and finally read them. Both were engaging on their main topics; Winter’s theme was The Future, and included articles about how California has often stood in for “the future” for authors. An article about sustainability was excellent, and dug under my perceptions of what sustainability should be trying to maintain and how it’s measured. It seems intuitive… which is how is escapes from being challenged on its underpinnings.
Spring’s subtitle was THE WORLD IN CALIFORNIA. CALIFORNIA IN THE WORLD. It felt more loosely connected, but I enjoyed most of the articles. (Bring the World to California felt a little too like an informercial–and the hard parts were signposted instead of solved.) This issue felt dreamier, more reflective, though the border article was concrete.) I enjoyed them and renewed for another year…
Summer will bring “What’s the Matter with San Francisco.” I’m curious to see what they’ll see.
I loved this book. There was interesting interaction between the victors and children of war that drove the book. Chelo and the altered are a fascinating remnant of the war– torn between the only parents they’ve ever known and their biological parents who fled or died years ago.
The various groups’ reactions to the children of their enemies is interesting, varied, and feels realistic. You feel sympathy for the kids, but it’s understandable given the disruption and memory their mere presence keeps provoking.
The role of technology is well handled– this isn’t a run away crazy futuristic technological paradise. There are strong hints of transformative technology elsewhere– but locally, it’s comprehensible. The tales of disaster elsewhere help reinforce the colonists aversion to the technology that creeps closer. The New Making is a great lure; Jenna is quirky and so much more than you first imagine.
A great book– I look forward to reading more by Brenda Cooper in the future.
This was a great book, headed by two well drawn characters. The book alternates POV chapters between the two characters. The S’sinn are sufficiently alien, and Kathryn is a great viewpoint character.
It’s an interesting universe, with powerful but fallible aliens. The guild of translators and their technology is interesting. It requires a huge sacrifice to translate, and the subsuming of the individuals to the guild is fascinating and works well. When the book turns to action, it pivots well and keeps things tense.
The theme of restraint is continuously in the background, but doesn’t overwhelm anything. All in all, an excellent book. I hope to read more of his books soon.
An interesting future, easily imagined as a logical outgrowth of our attitudes today. AI and immigrant rights are the foundation on which the book is built. Hyperspace requires human interaction to navigate, an interesting way of working in relevance for humans.
The technology is interesting, but the author doesn’t drool over it, which makes it feel well established. Jian, our narrator, is honest, with a limited viewpoint and prejudices that are clear. She feels realistic: a person struggling in a work-a-day world, highly skilled in a narrow technical way [starship piloting], which isn’t the best for consistently making the rent. The other characters are sharply drawn with bold flaws that cause them problems.
All in all, a good book. I don’t plan on picking it up, but I won’t be sad if I happen across it again for a reread.
I wanted to like this novel, and liked many of the characters, but it never came together for me. Reading it felt dutiful, not pleasurable. I liked the future history angle– as a thought experiment, and in retrospect, but didn’t look forward to reading it in the evening.