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My reading pace remained slow this week due to a combination of the holiday, canon review, and compulsively reading newsfeeds. That said, I am now caught up on my reviews, including one I accidentally deleted last week.
What I Finished Reading This Week
Artificial Condition – Martha Wells
All Systems Red was a Meh, whatever read for me, but I really enjoyed Artificial Condition. Some of this is because these are unchallenging but fun books, and I was looking for that when I started Artificial Condition. (By contrast, I wanted challenging and thought-provoking when I read All Systems Red, and this series is not that.) Much of it is due to the introduction of ART, a character who is, as a fellow sentient AI but with much more processing power and a different relationship to humans, a far better foil for the protagonist than the preceding volume’s human characters. It was great fun to see Murderbot by turns irritated, envious, frightened of, and grateful to ART. This in turn made Murderbot a much more enjoyable and relatable character than the previous volume’s oh-so-over-it incarnation. And ART’s reactions to Murderbot’s streaming collection were priceless. To sum up: this is a vast improvement over the first novella and convinced me to read the third.
Rogue Protocol – Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol was solidly in the middle for me. I liked it more than All Systems Red but less than Artificial Condition. It broke little, if any, new ground in terms of plot or characters (which were both rather thin to begin with) and I rather suspect it’s mostly an exercise in making a quick buck with the already proven formula. That said, the introduction of Miki, a fellow sentient AI with less processing power and a different relationship to humans than either Murderbot or ART, was absolutely my favorite thing about this novella and what kept me reading. In summary, a quick, light, unchallenging read that’s written to a template but is a good way to kill time on the bus or when standing in line.
What I Finished Reading Two Weeks Ago
Seraphina – Rachel Hartman
This is definitely a book that readers need to sit down and focus on, and once I had the time to do that, I really enjoyed it. I wish I could have read it as an early adolescent or younger, because then I would have loved it.
Seraphina does an excellent job of using its protagonist’s hidden secret (she’s half-dragon, half-human in a human society that hates and fears dragons) as a proxy to explore any number of issues—gender identity, sexuality, race, religion, or ethnic origin—that alienate people from their peers. There are plenty of other YA novels that explore these things—including through fantasy settings—but I really liked the way it was done here.
That’s in large part due to Hartman’s depiction of her fantasy setting, which is your standard “medieval northern Europe plus magic,” but better executed than most. Her depictions of city settings and rhythms, court politics and intrigue, and religious practice (the descriptions of the various saints alone!) all really worked for me. It feels like a blend of Robin McKinley, Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette, and Megan Whalen Turner, which I find to be a very comfortable and homey fantasy atmosphere.
That atmosphere worked for me so well that I wasn’t as bothered as I might have been by the fact that Seraphina is what I call a “human condition consolation” story; that is, it involves encounters between humans and some other form of existence (deity, alien, mythical creature) with extra-human abilities or traits, and concludes that the human way of being is ultimately superior to how this Other thinks, feels, structures society, or interacts with the world. Hartman’s Other in Seraphina is the dragons, here, basically giant reptilian Vulcans with extraordinary mathematical and reasoning capacity but an aversion-to-inability to feel human emotions.
This is very much treated as a negative by the novel, something the “good” dragons need to overcome. And I very much value emotions and emotional attachments...but I’m human. Seraphina and stories like it make the case that “having human trait of choice is preferable to not,” but they always leave me asking, “Is it, though? Is it?” It's better for the humans, but why is it supposedly better for the non-humans? (I don't think this is the question authors intend readers to ask.)
The other thing that bugged me was the names for people and places, which are drawn from an amalgamation of English, Irish and Scots Gaelic, German, Latin, and other languages. For readers who hear them as “fantasy foreign land-”sounding, I’m sure it’s great, but to me they sound like those distinct languages, with the result that my suspension of disbelief shuts down while I puzzle out how people who are presumably speaking one language in a unified culture ended up with words from so many different ones.
Anyway.
Hartman also did a good job with the plot. She parceled out clues to one of the central mysteries such that I was able to figure several out ahead of time through careful reading, but it did take effort and there was no patronizing authorial handholding to make sure I hadn’t missed anything Important. I did fail to properly piece together clues to another of the mysteries, which was also fun, leading as it did to a The Thief-style Aha! Moment toward the end of the novel when I realized what I’d been overlooking the entire time. That was all great fun.
I also very much appreciated the messiness of the budding love story, the crotchetiness of several characters (human or otherwise) and the absolutely delightful bonus prequel story at the end. To summarize: I really liked this one and I wish could have read it at an earlier age.
What I Finished Reading Two Weeks Ago
Heaven Official’s Blessing – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
I wish I were reading these in Japanese translation. I don’t even know if Japanese translations exist, and if they do, that they’d be any less slapdash than the mediocre-to-piss-poor English translations. But at least I’d have the resonance of the characters for people, places, spells, and items.
Lacking that resonance, I’m left with the bones of a story that I like, and that I wish so much hadn’t been stripped from. The easy interactions of the two leads, the literal carrying through danger, the intimations of a forgotten dark past: there’s a lot in here that just does it for me. I’ll continue to the next volume of this series...as soon as I’m able to get it used at a price commensurate with the quality of the translation.
What I Am Currently Reading
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The novel starts to get pretty ridiculous by early July.
The Qabalistic Tarot – Robert Wang
This week I read the entries for the Kings, Queens, and Aces through Fours.
Exit Strategy – Martha Wells
Fourthverse novella, same as the first, second, and third.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I picked up Wren To The Rescue by Sherwood Smith, because eventually I have to just stop perma-renewing things from the library.
これで以上です。
What I Finished Reading This Week
Artificial Condition – Martha Wells
All Systems Red was a Meh, whatever read for me, but I really enjoyed Artificial Condition. Some of this is because these are unchallenging but fun books, and I was looking for that when I started Artificial Condition. (By contrast, I wanted challenging and thought-provoking when I read All Systems Red, and this series is not that.) Much of it is due to the introduction of ART, a character who is, as a fellow sentient AI but with much more processing power and a different relationship to humans, a far better foil for the protagonist than the preceding volume’s human characters. It was great fun to see Murderbot by turns irritated, envious, frightened of, and grateful to ART. This in turn made Murderbot a much more enjoyable and relatable character than the previous volume’s oh-so-over-it incarnation. And ART’s reactions to Murderbot’s streaming collection were priceless. To sum up: this is a vast improvement over the first novella and convinced me to read the third.
Rogue Protocol – Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol was solidly in the middle for me. I liked it more than All Systems Red but less than Artificial Condition. It broke little, if any, new ground in terms of plot or characters (which were both rather thin to begin with) and I rather suspect it’s mostly an exercise in making a quick buck with the already proven formula. That said, the introduction of Miki, a fellow sentient AI with less processing power and a different relationship to humans than either Murderbot or ART, was absolutely my favorite thing about this novella and what kept me reading. In summary, a quick, light, unchallenging read that’s written to a template but is a good way to kill time on the bus or when standing in line.
What I Finished Reading Two Weeks Ago
Seraphina – Rachel Hartman
This is definitely a book that readers need to sit down and focus on, and once I had the time to do that, I really enjoyed it. I wish I could have read it as an early adolescent or younger, because then I would have loved it.
Seraphina does an excellent job of using its protagonist’s hidden secret (she’s half-dragon, half-human in a human society that hates and fears dragons) as a proxy to explore any number of issues—gender identity, sexuality, race, religion, or ethnic origin—that alienate people from their peers. There are plenty of other YA novels that explore these things—including through fantasy settings—but I really liked the way it was done here.
That’s in large part due to Hartman’s depiction of her fantasy setting, which is your standard “medieval northern Europe plus magic,” but better executed than most. Her depictions of city settings and rhythms, court politics and intrigue, and religious practice (the descriptions of the various saints alone!) all really worked for me. It feels like a blend of Robin McKinley, Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette, and Megan Whalen Turner, which I find to be a very comfortable and homey fantasy atmosphere.
That atmosphere worked for me so well that I wasn’t as bothered as I might have been by the fact that Seraphina is what I call a “human condition consolation” story; that is, it involves encounters between humans and some other form of existence (deity, alien, mythical creature) with extra-human abilities or traits, and concludes that the human way of being is ultimately superior to how this Other thinks, feels, structures society, or interacts with the world. Hartman’s Other in Seraphina is the dragons, here, basically giant reptilian Vulcans with extraordinary mathematical and reasoning capacity but an aversion-to-inability to feel human emotions.
This is very much treated as a negative by the novel, something the “good” dragons need to overcome. And I very much value emotions and emotional attachments...but I’m human. Seraphina and stories like it make the case that “having human trait of choice is preferable to not,” but they always leave me asking, “Is it, though? Is it?” It's better for the humans, but why is it supposedly better for the non-humans? (I don't think this is the question authors intend readers to ask.)
The other thing that bugged me was the names for people and places, which are drawn from an amalgamation of English, Irish and Scots Gaelic, German, Latin, and other languages. For readers who hear them as “fantasy foreign land-”sounding, I’m sure it’s great, but to me they sound like those distinct languages, with the result that my suspension of disbelief shuts down while I puzzle out how people who are presumably speaking one language in a unified culture ended up with words from so many different ones.
Anyway.
Hartman also did a good job with the plot. She parceled out clues to one of the central mysteries such that I was able to figure several out ahead of time through careful reading, but it did take effort and there was no patronizing authorial handholding to make sure I hadn’t missed anything Important. I did fail to properly piece together clues to another of the mysteries, which was also fun, leading as it did to a The Thief-style Aha! Moment toward the end of the novel when I realized what I’d been overlooking the entire time. That was all great fun.
I also very much appreciated the messiness of the budding love story, the crotchetiness of several characters (human or otherwise) and the absolutely delightful bonus prequel story at the end. To summarize: I really liked this one and I wish could have read it at an earlier age.
What I Finished Reading Two Weeks Ago
Heaven Official’s Blessing – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
I wish I were reading these in Japanese translation. I don’t even know if Japanese translations exist, and if they do, that they’d be any less slapdash than the mediocre-to-piss-poor English translations. But at least I’d have the resonance of the characters for people, places, spells, and items.
Lacking that resonance, I’m left with the bones of a story that I like, and that I wish so much hadn’t been stripped from. The easy interactions of the two leads, the literal carrying through danger, the intimations of a forgotten dark past: there’s a lot in here that just does it for me. I’ll continue to the next volume of this series...as soon as I’m able to get it used at a price commensurate with the quality of the translation.
What I Am Currently Reading
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The novel starts to get pretty ridiculous by early July.
The Qabalistic Tarot – Robert Wang
This week I read the entries for the Kings, Queens, and Aces through Fours.
Exit Strategy – Martha Wells
Fourth
What I’m Reading Next
This week I picked up Wren To The Rescue by Sherwood Smith, because eventually I have to just stop perma-renewing things from the library.
これで以上です。
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Math dragons! :D I really enjoyed Seraphina and also reflected that I would have liked to have found that book when I was in the YA demographic myself -- and promptly encouraged my then-teenage daughter to read it. The odd mix of place and people names did also make me think about the worldbuilding -- possibly more than was intended, possibly the right amount, as I've read that the world is one Hartman made up as a teenager and has been exploring ever since, so there might be a lot of genuine secondary world history behind the apparent mishmash, as there is with English.
I enjoyed the sequel(s) as well, though I do think Seraphina also works well as a stand-alone. The love story stuff continued to be interesting and not straightforward, in a way I didn't expect, so that was also a bonus.
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This is very good to know! I've had Network Effect for some time now but wasn't sure if it would just be a longer volume of More of the Same. If it's got similar elements to Artificial Condition I am probably going to like it a lot.
so there might be a lot of genuine secondary world history behind the apparent mishmash, as there is with English.
Yes! This is how I handwaved it to myself while reading and maybe it's a bit contradictory of me, but I would have liked to have seen more of that worldbuilding shown (probably because I have read so much mediocre fantasy where the author is clearly picking names out of a hat that "sound" genre).
I enjoyed the sequel(s) as well, though I do think Seraphina also works well as a stand-alone. The love story stuff continued to be interesting and not straightforward, in a way I didn't expect, so that was also a bonus.
Also good to know, as the sequel seems pretty divisive among readers and I'm weighing whether or not I want to just stop with Seraphina or read them both.
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Also good to know, as the sequel seems pretty divisive among readers
They sure are! And I understand why, but, hm. I think whether or not they are worth reading depends on what one wants out of them. If it's "more like 'Seraphina'", they really aren't much. If it's a deepending of the world, character growth, other/complicating points of view, then I do think they are very worthwhile. I do feel like each of the sequels gets darker, though even at its nadir Tess of the Road never felt grim to me, just painful. But I think if one goes in expecting the same level of cozy as Seraphina, it's quite likely to be unhappy with what one finds.
If you were curious, these were the non-spoilery, general portions of my writeups for:
Shadow Scale: "As an individual work, I think I like it as much as Seraphina; as a sequel, though, in the sense of giving me more of the things I liked about the first book -- not so much. It gives me other, different things that I like, more complex and unusual things, but I did miss the coziness." [A lot of the stuff I liked about the book, and the one thing I was unhappy about, are quite spoilery.]
Tess of the RoadL: "I'm not surprised it ended up on all the shortlists but didn't win any awards, because it's a really odd book, with a slow, meandering, inward-facing plot (inasmuch as it has a plot in the traditional sense), with a difficult protagonist whom we meet at her lowest point. Although I ranked it first and both liked and respected it a lot, I didn't love it. But I did think it was an important book that tackled several unusual, important subjects in a nuanced and honest and, IDK, prickly way, without being joyless or medicine-tasting, and I do think for that it deserves all kinds of recognition. There's a lot of weighty stuff, tragedy and grief and anger, and yet the book never felt grim. The narration almost always had some measure of humour, and kindness, and hope."
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If it's a deepending of the world, character growth, other/complicating points of view, then I do think they are very worthwhile.
This all sounds very good to me, so I think I will read the subsequent volumes.
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But I think they are basically two duologies set in the same world and involving members of the same family. Seraphina gets her duology in Seraphina + Shadow Scale, and Tess of the Road is book 1 of Tess's duology -- which, I actually had missed that book 2 was already out, so I'm glad you reminded me about this world :)
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Yes, I love the duology, but if I had read them at twelve? I would have been OBSESSED.
depiction of her fantasy setting, which is your standard “medieval northern Europe plus magic,” but better executed than most.
Yes! Sometimes I read fantasy novels and I am like, "I am never going to read a pseudo-medieval European-set fantasy again!" And then I read one where it's well done and I'm like, "Oh, this is okay."
It feels like a blend of Robin McKinley, Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette, and Megan Whalen Turner, which I find to be a very comfortable and homey fantasy atmosphere.
Agreed, and it explains much of why I love it.
Seraphina and stories like it make the case that “having human trait of choice is preferable to not,” but they always leave me asking, “Is it, though? Is it?” It's better for the humans, but why is it supposedly better for the non-humans? (I don't think this is the question authors intend readers to ask.)
This is relatable.
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Do you recommend reading the second volume? From what I've seen online, opinions tend to be pretty mixed.
I am like, "I am never going to read a pseudo-medieval European-set fantasy again!" And then I read one where it's well done and I'm like, "Oh, this is okay."
I think this is because some authors expect readers to fill in the blanks, maybe? But the thing is, all the European fantasy that I love--Bradley, Paxon, Tolkien, Turner, etc.--really put in the effort to create their settings from the ground up, even if they're based on things that happened or are meant to evoke the feel of other authors' works.
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I think this is because some authors expect readers to fill in the blanks, maybe? But the thing is, all the European fantasy that I love really put in the effort to create their settings from the ground up,
YES. I think you're very much onto something. And there's always something unique about their worlds. So many medieval European fantasy settings are just so bland.
I've never read any Paxon. What would you recommend I start with?
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You're welcome on the rec. If you do pick it up and like to have spoiler/trigger warnings for certain things, just let me know.
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The 2D men did not bother me at all. Coming to Mists from Mallory, Pyle, and Excalibur where all the women are conniving shrews and/or simpering beauties who never get to do anything, it was nice to see the tables turned. >.
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