The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

I was psyched to read this book, and so disappointed by the end. Maybe if I had realized it was a book that didn't have a plot I'd have looked at it differently from the beginning, but the first chapter teases a tense space escape story about a mysterious woman who has changed her identity and fled to the far reaches of space, and then the book is.... just a picaresque series of scenes on various planets, learning about various alien species and cultures. And that's it.

I just... I needed something to happen, or for actions to have some consequences, or for the exposition to stop. It reminded me a lot of reading Rosemary and Rue, where every chapter seemed to introduce a new type of faerie. Every couple of chapters goes deep into some alien civilization, all the way to the end of the book. But unless it's setting up a bigger plot, I find myself skimming and uninterested.

And there was no larger plot or conflict. They land on a planet; they meet people; they leave. Any time there's something that seems like it might be bad or tense, it's immediately resolved. They land on a planet that has periodic swarms of giant bugs; they are all safely inside when it happens. One of their crew is arrested for being a clone; they find a legal loophole to save him. A ship full of land mines docks up with them; they find the mines and diffuse them. And this all happens quickly, just like that.

It's not the book's fault that I also happen to really dislike the archetype of the wacky, adorable female engineer who's so CRAZY and ADORABLE and scatter-brained, but it drives me nuts, and I don't find it charming.

For space adventures that are exciting, feature lots of weird aliens, are creepily atmospheric, and compulsively readable, I HIGHLY recommend the Paradox books by Rachel Bach. Read that, not this.

Grade: C
#10 in 2017

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley

I liked so much of this book so much. I loved the setting and the writing and Thaniel and Mori, and I loved the vaguely steampunk sci-fi premise (which I won't spoil). Until about 80% in I thought this was going to be one of my favorite books of the year, maybe ever, rivaling my love of Cloud Atlas. (Big portions of this read like a much more accessible Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.) It's wonderful.

But god I hated that the only major female character a) hates other women for not being as smart and scientific as she is and b) mainly exists to try and ruin the men's lives and be wrong about things. It's an old plot trope, the jealous woman trying to destroy the romance, and it really spoiled the book for me. I can't recommend a book where the only woman is a plot device and a monster.

Grade: C
#4 in 2017

Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut

I've read a lot of Vonnegut, but not this one somehow, and now two of the writers from Cracked have started a Vonnegut book club podcast so I figured I'd catch up. I especially like that, although both of them are huge Vonnegut fans, they discuss not just the beautiful parts of the books, but also the parts that haven't aged well, or where he could have done better. (In this book, I was underwhelmed by Beatrice's character in general, and there's a bit in the jungles of Africa that really wasn't necessary.)

I had honestly forgotten that reading Vonnegut is just about equal parts "ahaha, OH THE SATIRE," and feeling like you've been kicked right in the chest. Ouch. Damn it, Kurt.

Recapping this book would be a nightmare, but it's very Vonnegut-y; there is an invasion from Mars, there is some stuff about joining the army and literally having your mind wiped away, there is some religious satire, there is Trafalmadore, and there is a lot of meditation on the meaningless of life -- just try your best to love the people (or aliens) around you. The book essentially comes down in the same place that Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy does; there is no meaning of life, we are all a series of accidents, nothing is fair, humans are ridiculously short-sighted and self-centered, and probably aliens are controlling everything everywhere anyway. But it's a great story.

Vonnegut's writing style is so beautiful and raw and unique, and his use of language is so musical, and his imagery is so vivid. He just uses words so well. I am usually  not a fan of books where everyone is miserable or hateful, and everyone ends up badly, but Vonnegut makes it worth the struggle.

Grade: A
#80 in 2016

The Rook, Daniel O'Malley

Listen, if I never read another "There is a secret government agency that handles all the supernatural beasties in the world" book it will be fine with me. As a genre, I have had more than enough of it. And while it is occasionally brilliant -- Ben Aaronovitch's books are fantastic, and I love them -- it's usually not worth slogging through another one that makes me wish I were watching Men In Black or reading KJ Charles.

With that out of the way, I enjoyed this book. It's got a nice plot twist. Our heroine's mind has been erased and she starts out the book in a rainstorm, surrounded by the dead bodies of all the men who just tried to kill her. Then she has to go back to her job at the top secret government agency that handles magical whoosits, pretend she knows what's going on, and figure out who's trying to kill her.

I think the book was meant to be funny? I'm not 100% sure, though. In her former life Myfanwy Thomas was shy and scared and meek; since she's had her memory erased she has no fucks left and tells everyone where they can stick it. There's a certain type of "I've had such a long day, you wouldn't believe," narration, where I get that it's supposed to be funny, but there weren't actually... any... jokes? Like, her name, Myfanwy. (We are told early on: rhymes with Tiffany). Clearly supposed to be, if not laugh-out-loud funny, then quirky. I think the book was looking for that very-hard-to-hit line between spooky/creepy and quirky/funny. David Wong's John Dies at the End does a great job of nailing that. This book was just... I mean, it was a fun read. I read the whole thing in a weekend, which required some real dedication. I liked reading it. I enjoyed reading it. It never made me laugh, and it never got atmospheric enough to creep me out.

Put it this way: I haven't pre-ordered the second book in the series. I might totally read it, though. I just don't feel any pressing need to jump into the next one, or a burning anger that it isn't out yet. Meanwhile I've had the next Aaronovitch pre-ordered since last summer, and they keep changing the release date, and it's agony. Gimme that book! (If you haven't read that series, pick up Midnight Riot, the first one, and set aside a couple of weeks to read all of them. What a delight.)

Grade: B

#26 in 2016

The Superheroes Union: Dynama (The Superheroes Union #1), Ruth Diaz

I read this because it's the next book we're discussing on the romance novel podcast I'm a part of, and I'm really glad my friend suggested it. This is a novella, and it's a delight.

I am the one remaining American who doesn't like superheroes (it feels like sometimes), and "if we fail it'll be the end of the world/the city will be destroyed/aliens will invade" isn't very compelling stakes for me. This is a superhero story, but the stakes are very personal. The bad guy who has escaped from Supervillain jail is one of our heroine's ex-husband, and he's not trying to destroy the world, he just wants custody of his kids. I loved that, more than being a story about superheroes smashing stuff up, it's a story about a mother at the end of her rope, and her kids, and the hot babysitter she hires who ends up fulfilling both the kids' and her emotional needs. What a cute, satisfying story.

Grade: B

#23 in 2016

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Half sci-fi, half parody, this book is sort of a tumblr post come to life. The bad guy is a Men's Right's Activist, more or less, and the heroine is just a normal lady trying to get by in a world determined to murder her. It's ridiculous and funny, and then also occasionally scary and upsetting. Action-adventure-sci-fi-dystopia-parody-horror-noir isn't a genre, right? It should be.

Grade: I don't know, the highest B possible?

2015

Reamde, Neal Stephenson

Just finished Neal Stephenson's Reamde. (It's slated to come out 9/20.) Like, I just finished it about 3 minutes ago and I just read 981 pages in four days so I'm trying to clear my head.

I will try to summarize the plot, because the back of the book doesn't really do much besides say, "High stakes technological thriller!!" which is SORT OF true. It's about Richard Forthrast, who runs an online computer game that competes with World of Warcraft. It's about some Chinese hacker kids who invent a virus to steal money from people in the game. (I wish it had been more about them, actually.) It's about Richard's niece, Zula, whose boyfriend makes a terrible deal with some mobsters. And it's about a bunch of international terrorists whose secret hideout in China just happens to be in the same run-down building as the hackers. 

It's super typical Stephenson; there's computer stuff, there's shooting, there's traveling the world, there's about 500 pages of climax where I had to keep putting the book down or I would forget to breathe. (I had to flip to the last page to make sure my favorite character survived, and she did.) But then it's NOT typical Stephenson, at the same time; there are no 25 page digressions on obscure mathematical concepts or long flashbacks to how Newton invented the calculus. And weirdly, I found myself really missing those. This is like a Bourne movie or a Bond movie; it's all action and adventure and shooting. It's almost like he decided to redo Snow Crash for the 2010s but it's got even less "here is how technology works" than Snow Crash. 

As an interesting note: this is the first Stephenson I can think of that has lots of important female narrators. Eliza was important in the Baroque Cycle but not as important as Jack. America Shaftoe was more of an idea than a character in Cryptonomicon. Same with Y.T. in Snow Crash. Reamde features three different female protagonists, all of whom have tremendous agency, smarts, and personality. AND not a single one of whom is white. Stephenson still can't write a convincing romantic relationship but this was a huge improvement, women-wise.

This is going to sound weird, but instead of 981 pages of excellent action-adventure I wish it had been 1,000 pages and included more weird technological digressions. I read Stephenson and I feel smarter afterwards, usually. Anathem is magical just because it spends so much time being about higher math concepts. I love the dense and weird history in Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle. This is JUST an action-adventure story. 

Anyway, if you enjoy Stephenson this is great. And if you've never read his stuff this is probably his most approachable book in a long time -- the page count sounds intimidating but it reads really, really quickly and I found myself staying up until 1 or 2 to get to the next section.

Grade: A

originally posted 2011

Anathem, Neal Stephenson

I don't know where to begin. This is a fascinating, weird, amazing book that throws together a billion different ideas from Plato's ideal forms to Schrodinger's Cat and Occam's Razor and the way light particles can be everywhere at once until they are observed. It takes place on a distant planet where society has split into seculars and those who live in cloisters and study math and science. It's full of made up words but they're all so close to understandable that it's not hard to follow, although if you haven't studied physics or philosophy I imagine it's confusing. Stephenson builds worlds like no one's business, and the first half the book is mostly just that. It was so interesting and well-done that I would happily have read history books just about the Third Sack and the Harbingers and the Terrible Events. The second half of the book is about what happens when thing start to happen in the secular world. There's some action adventure and some hard scifi at the end. Now and then Stephenson gets so caught up describing things and how they work that I skimmed but in general it was so damn fascinating that I blasted through 800 pages in about four days. (It helps that I've been too sick to leave the house since Friday.) I think I like the Baroque Cycle better, but it's been so long I might have to re-read that and check to be sure.

Grade: A

Originally posted 2011

How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu

I read this whole weird, baffling, lovely book in one day and I'm still sorting it out in my head. Our narrator is a time machine repair man in a science fictional universe that's only 93% actually built, so there are areas and characters that aren't entirely fleshed out. Time travel depends mostly on changing your tenses (this is science FICTION, after all) but really the book is about a guy who misses his father. Time travel, he explains eventually, is the idea that right now you're experiencing the present and remembering the past. All you have to do is experience the past while remembering the present and voila. The narrator tells us that most people rent a recreational time travel device to go visit the worst day of their lives and then break the machine because they can't fix that experience, but of course he's trying to use his to find his father. 

I was expecting a much twistier twist ending, but instead the book is mostly a meditation on regret and how much you can accidentally hurt your family without ever really understanding them. And at the same time it's full of sci-fi jokes, particularly about Star Wars. It's not really a book about time travel, it's more a philosophy thesis written as a novel. I think I loved it, but I'd have to re-read it to be sure.

Grade: A

Originally posted 2010

John Dies at the End, David Wong

Comedy horror is REALLY hard to pull off. The first third of this book is more horror, and I was totally creeped out; then the horror part settles down and it's kind of funny, mostly when John (the narrator's unreliable best friend) is around. After a while the unspeakable horrors just get kind of dumb, and I felt like the ending wasn't nearly big enough, but damn if I didn't just check to make sure no one was inside the TV watching me with their hands pressed against the other side of the screen just now. Ack. Apparently there will be sequels? Apparently I will read them.

Grade: B

Originally posted 2010

Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld

Cool! Alternate WWI where the British splice together animals to make flying whale airships and the Germans build giant walking robots to fight them. Sheltered-little-prince learns to be a regular boy isn't my favorite trope but I liked the way our two main characters decided to be friends instead of fighting, and I appreciated that the whole "THERE ARE TERRIBLE SECRETS WE CAN'T EVER TELL YOU BECAUSE THEY ARE ABOUT YOU" thing was basically explained and went away. I also wish there had been more background characters to flesh out the world. There was a LOT about the technology and not much about the other people, and I'm more about characters than world building. I loved the lady scientist, though. Grumpy lady scientists rule.

Grade: B

Originally posted in 2010

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, E.L. Doctorow

I haven't read hard sci-fi in a few years, and this is why. No matter how cool the idea -- and the idea is pretty darned cool, I admit -- there isn't enough CHARACTER there for me. I liked it, and I stayed up all night to read it, but I didn't come away feeling anything about it. 

Grade: C

Originally published 2009

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I), Stephen King

It’s complicated, but I read this because my co-worker (who is potentially in love with me a little bit) lent it to me. It’s very much not my thing. It’s not bad, but I have no urge to read the rest of the series. The whole thing felt a lot more like a style exercise than a book, and I kept waiting for something definable to happen, but it never did. I am left with a profound sense of *shrug*.

Grade: C

Originally posted 2008

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde

My sister and I have talked for a long time about how there are two kinds of fiction books: one type that builds up the world of the book, and one that builds up the characters in the book. She tends to prefer world building; I tend to prefer character building. In fact, I get extremely annoyed if a book spends too long telling me the fabulous history of made up people or how elvish magic works, instead of letting me watch characters grow and do interesting things. (This is why I am bored by Tolkein, for the record.) 

I really enjoy the Thursday Next series, but this one (like the third one) spends a long time talking about how the book world works. It's frustrating, because I was much more interested in what Thursday's kids were up to and if the world was going to end. It's nothing wrong with the books, it's just what I prefer. There were several really good jokes and at least one twist that made me go back and re-read the last couple of chapters to see all the things I'd missed. It was certainly fun to read, and I'm glad there will be more Thursday Next books. I just wish they were more about his hilariously weird real world, and not so much about how literature taxis work.

Grade: B

originally posted 2007

Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

I am creeped out by end-of-the-world stories, particularly with heavy foreshadowing like this. The weirdest thing about reading Vonnegut as an adult for the first time is the vague feeling that I would get more out of it if I had a teacher leaning over my shoulder and saying "But what does the fact that he's a dwarf represent?"

Grade: B

originally posted 2006

Passage, Connie Willis

Things you should know about this book: 1) Connie Willis wrote one of my FAVORITE books EVER; To Say Nothing Of The Dog 2) This is one of Becky's favorite books ever 3) It's really quite good

However, (And isn't there always a however? It would be boring to write "It was good;" I'm so much better at finding nitpicky flaws.) I have a couple of quibbles. Passage is about two scientists, Richard and Joanna, who are trying to figure out what causes the visions people have when their hearts stop and then they get revived. It's incredibly gripping, and despite my 5 AM wakeup time, I stayed up late to read it a couple of nights. It's unfortunate, therefore, that I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown, and the characters were flawed.

It's hard to explain why I didn't love the end without giving away the "twist" in the third act, so here's the deal with the characters; having read several books by Willis, I find she deals more in caricatures than characters. There's a religious fanatic or two in this book, and they are both utterly one-dimensional non-people who are just there to further the plot or show why Science Is Right. (And I agree, but I don't need any straw men to help me see that.) Even our two main characters are pretty flat; Joanna is desperate to find out the causes of the visions, but we never find out why she feels the need to know RIGHT NOW. (And it's a plot point.) I was all caught up in feeling anxious about her quest, and then suddenly realized there was no reason she couldn't sit down and just figure it out tomorrow. The only characters who feel three-dimensional are peripheral characters. (This worked really well in To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is written in the style of a Jeeves-and-Wooster farce. It works less well in a science fiction novel.) 

Secondly, and I can't explain without giving away the "twist," I thought that the ending was weak. Willis sucker punches the audience two-thirds of the way through the book, and then, although she doesn't quite get to "It was all a dreeeeeeam," she does soften it for us unexpectedly, and then, in the very last chapter, softens it again. I want authors to stick to their guns. If you've done something mean to a character, it stays that way, or else you did it for no reason.

It's an interesting and enjoyable book, and it certainly kept me thinking and a little freaked out for several days. But if you're looking for a super awesome amazing book, go pick up To Say Nothing of the Dog. 

Grade: C

originally posted 2006 -- I am still mildly freaked out by this book