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bironic
Remember that post from January about how our bus-mates came together to support substitute drivers who didn't know the route? Rinse and repeat 25 times, toss in some other transit shenanigans, and finally I had to change my commute in order to get to and from work on any sort of reasonable schedule. The new method is much more consistent but requires transferring and only provides a 50/50 shot of snagging a seat, which cuts into my reading time.
That said, I'm still on track to have read an average of a book a week for January-June this year. Hoping that continues.
Some reads since last we spoke!
Bear in a Bookshop by Zoe Chant (friend) (2018)
I had fun describing this to people as: "She's a were-dragon; he's a were-polar bear. She's a librarian; he's dyslexic. They are soulmates." A light and pleasant read. I'm not the target audience for shifter romance, but I enjoy reading pro fic by fan friends and learning more about plot construction and characterization through the simple formulae. See also: Handcuffed to the Bear by Lauren Esker (friend), my favorite so far.
Descender vols. 1-5 by Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen et al (2015-2018)
Tensions have risen and spilled over into outright war between robots and various human/alien species in the years after an unknown advanced culture sends giant killer space robots to wipe out a ton of people.
Above all, the art is amazing. Gorgeous watercolors done by hand, then scanned into a computer for Photoshop touch-ups. No wonder the series has won Eisner awards. Recommended for that alone.
Otherwise, interesting enough politics and worldbuilding; features a lot of unlikeable characters, but some worth rooting for, including two 'bots; has a couple of kickass female main characters but failsmarginaliana's "written/drawn by a dude" test (for example, one of them has such an unlikely angular hourglass figure and shiny hair that I thought she was a robot for the first volume or two); and it feels uncomfortably like we're meant to side with one supposed hero when he insists on calling his ex-girlfriend by her cyborg deadname despite her repeated requests that he quit it.
Even with the flaws, I'm curious enough about what's going to happen that I'll be continuing as new volumes come out.
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz (2017)
I've been on a robot kick, so, strengthened by a rec from![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
were_duck, I read this novel from Annalee, who used to run io9.com. It's cool biotech sci fi, lots of human/animal/plant/microbe genome engineering, humans with robot parts and other biohacks, robots with human parts, etc.
The main concept is that in the near future, pharmaceutical patent law has led to even greater socioeconomic imbalances re: access to medicines and life-extending drugs. There are drug pirates and open-source developers on one side and Big Pharma and its enforcers on the other. I sided with the human protagonist, Jack (female), a drug pirate, philosophically, but loved the POV of the robot protag, Paladin (agender, starts out with male pronouns before switching to female), and his feelings for his human minder, Eliasz, so much that even though they were doing horrific things to cover up the harm caused by their client's badly designed drug, I wanted everyone to come out of the ultimate conflict safely, as unlikely as that seemed.
Also of the good: It's hard sci-fi but not at the sacrifice of characterization. It's queer and it touches on an array of social justice issues. The presentation of Paladin's mind and the lives of other 'bots when out of the view of humans was fabulous—imaginative, sometimes funny (robots reproduce the effects of recreational drugs and sex through downloading worms and other buggy code), and offering what a lot of fans want when they complain that fictional depictions of robot or robot/human sex focus too much on traditional anatomical/genital-based acts and sensations. There were questions about how much attraction and loyalty arise from innate programming and whether an indentured AI (as character and as metaphor for all of us) can ever know if it has its own desires.
Caveats: So many trigger warnings. Off the top of my head for those who need them: torture and graphic bodily harm, coercion using drugs and technology, human and robot slavery, homophobia and repeated use of a homophobic slur, human character's persistent misunderstanding of robot's (a)gender identity.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Murderbot book two) (2018)
The first novella, All Systems Red, left me cold last year, or at least lukewarm. Like Every Heart a Doorway, it felt too quickly written. Plus it seemed designed for readers who identify hard with the robot protagonist, which is fine, except there wasn't much left for those who don't. I mean, I got it—what fan doesn't understand the desire to be left alone to watch TV and read and stuff, what introvert/private person/person with social anxiety doesn't understand the desire to wear metaphorical body armor and make one's face unreadable when around others—but not enough to carry the rest of the novella. Felt more like a joke repeated too often. I wasn't charmed by "Murderbot"'s deliberate obtuseness about its feelings for the crew members under its protection and their feelings toward it. I felt impatient about its self-moniker and insistence on believing it had committed terrible crimes in its amnesiac past when it seemed clear there was more to the story and probably even that it had been programmed to think it committed crimes it had not. The unreliable narrator, sure, but… meh.
Anyway, I tried the sequel and am glad I did! The irksome elements felt toned down this time; "Murderbot" did better at acknowledging its attachment to a new batch of humans, and the media-watching gained some depth. There was a planetary station to infiltrate and a mystery to solve, which provided more plot and competence kink. And there were two new robot/AI characters, both of which—whom?—I liked.
tl;dr It's still sort of Ann Leckie Lite, but this volume went down smoothly enough. Maybe I'll try All Systems Red again to see if it improves on reread.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (2017)
I hadn't tried any of SRB's books before, andmeretricula recommended this one as a good place to start. It was compulsively readable and I had a good time, although not without complaints, mainly regarding the main character and the pacing.
Good things: Canon bisexual main character, plus something like one bi and three gay supporting characters, as well as one who seemed gender-nonconforming by human standards but not by her own dwarf culture. The narrative supported feminism through the absurd gender reversals of elf culture. It offered a good message about the importance of scholarship, negotiation and intercultural knowledge vs. militarism.
It had flavors of Harry Potter and SGA, although not in a knockoff sort of way. Clever, obnoxious young man gets transported to a magical realm adjacent to "normal" England, where he makes a few friends despite his best efforts and learns to let himself be vulnerable. Problem #1: Elliot sounded WAY older than 12, which was his age at the beginning of the book; he was 18 by the end and didn't sound much different. Snarky kids only wish their one-liners came out so acerbic and articulate. In addition, whoever on my friends list compared Elliot to Rodney McKay was spot on. For the first several chapters I wished I hadn't heard that, because it couldn't be unseen. It meant Elliot, Serene and Luke read like Rodney, Teyla and John, and it was harder than it would have been otherwise to experience them as their own characters.
Problem #2: Although Elliot-not-Rodney correctly assessed that the soldier side of the magical humans' culture had unjustly overtaken the scholars/ambassadors over the years, I wanted him to be wrong more as he worked to restore balance—to learn he doesn't know everything, can't succeed alone, needs to understand the politics of the situation and the history behind the way things are now. As it was, he kept being certain he was right, he kept coming up with "I'm a genius"-style plans to fix other people's incompetence or malice, and he was almost always proven correct. It took until maybe halfway through the book for someone older and wiser to explain to him what I said above, and Elliot did run into trouble a time or two by questioning dogma, such as that unicorns only like virgins, but overall things turned out well and I didn't see him grow a lot in this respect.
Problem #3: As for the pacing, it just took a long time for Elliot to see what was right in front of him, relationship-wise. I figured he would get together with Luke, and/or Luke and Serene, at a certain point in the narrative and then things would continue from there, because surely it couldn't take 400 pages to drag that out. But no, it could. Oh, well. Without spoiling anything, I'll also say it was interesting what the final relationship(s) turned out to be.
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (reread) (1984-1986)
I looooooved this trilogy in college and re-read it a month or two ago when friends started tweeting about their own read-throughs and fancasting. There's a whole post's worth of material here, but I'm tired, so in brief, I was surprised by how little development most of the characters were given, including Loren, whom I'd adored. Matt, Diarmuid and Lancelot probably stood out in memory because they had more substance than the rest.
This time around, with 15 years of additional perspective, I was bothered by the argument that the only path to heroism is self-sacrifice, mostly through death but sometimes through giving up the only thing(s) you love; by Kim's corruption of the giants, especially when she turned around and refused to corrupt the sacred creature of the dwarves; and by the stereotypes in the depiction of women, especially Jennifer, Sharra and Jaelle—among other things, this insistence that the worst quality for a woman is to be "cold"—with bonus Nice Guy villain who is never really called out for wanting to, you know, destroy creation because a lady loved someone else.
But I still ship Matt and Loren, and there were still moments from book to book with emotional resonance or a flash of sexiness.
That said, I'm still on track to have read an average of a book a week for January-June this year. Hoping that continues.
Some reads since last we spoke!
Bear in a Bookshop by Zoe Chant (friend) (2018)
I had fun describing this to people as: "She's a were-dragon; he's a were-polar bear. She's a librarian; he's dyslexic. They are soulmates." A light and pleasant read. I'm not the target audience for shifter romance, but I enjoy reading pro fic by fan friends and learning more about plot construction and characterization through the simple formulae. See also: Handcuffed to the Bear by Lauren Esker (friend), my favorite so far.
Descender vols. 1-5 by Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen et al (2015-2018)
Tensions have risen and spilled over into outright war between robots and various human/alien species in the years after an unknown advanced culture sends giant killer space robots to wipe out a ton of people.
Above all, the art is amazing. Gorgeous watercolors done by hand, then scanned into a computer for Photoshop touch-ups. No wonder the series has won Eisner awards. Recommended for that alone.
Otherwise, interesting enough politics and worldbuilding; features a lot of unlikeable characters, but some worth rooting for, including two 'bots; has a couple of kickass female main characters but fails
marginaliana's "written/drawn by a dude" test (for example, one of them has such an unlikely angular hourglass figure and shiny hair that I thought she was a robot for the first volume or two); and it feels uncomfortably like we're meant to side with one supposed hero when he insists on calling his ex-girlfriend by her cyborg deadname despite her repeated requests that he quit it. Even with the flaws, I'm curious enough about what's going to happen that I'll be continuing as new volumes come out.
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz (2017)
I've been on a robot kick, so, strengthened by a rec from
The main concept is that in the near future, pharmaceutical patent law has led to even greater socioeconomic imbalances re: access to medicines and life-extending drugs. There are drug pirates and open-source developers on one side and Big Pharma and its enforcers on the other. I sided with the human protagonist, Jack (female), a drug pirate, philosophically, but loved the POV of the robot protag, Paladin (agender, starts out with male pronouns before switching to female), and his feelings for his human minder, Eliasz, so much that even though they were doing horrific things to cover up the harm caused by their client's badly designed drug, I wanted everyone to come out of the ultimate conflict safely, as unlikely as that seemed.
Also of the good: It's hard sci-fi but not at the sacrifice of characterization. It's queer and it touches on an array of social justice issues. The presentation of Paladin's mind and the lives of other 'bots when out of the view of humans was fabulous—imaginative, sometimes funny (robots reproduce the effects of recreational drugs and sex through downloading worms and other buggy code), and offering what a lot of fans want when they complain that fictional depictions of robot or robot/human sex focus too much on traditional anatomical/genital-based acts and sensations. There were questions about how much attraction and loyalty arise from innate programming and whether an indentured AI (as character and as metaphor for all of us) can ever know if it has its own desires.
Caveats: So many trigger warnings. Off the top of my head for those who need them: torture and graphic bodily harm, coercion using drugs and technology, human and robot slavery, homophobia and repeated use of a homophobic slur, human character's persistent misunderstanding of robot's (a)gender identity.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Murderbot book two) (2018)
The first novella, All Systems Red, left me cold last year, or at least lukewarm. Like Every Heart a Doorway, it felt too quickly written. Plus it seemed designed for readers who identify hard with the robot protagonist, which is fine, except there wasn't much left for those who don't. I mean, I got it—what fan doesn't understand the desire to be left alone to watch TV and read and stuff, what introvert/private person/person with social anxiety doesn't understand the desire to wear metaphorical body armor and make one's face unreadable when around others—but not enough to carry the rest of the novella. Felt more like a joke repeated too often. I wasn't charmed by "Murderbot"'s deliberate obtuseness about its feelings for the crew members under its protection and their feelings toward it. I felt impatient about its self-moniker and insistence on believing it had committed terrible crimes in its amnesiac past when it seemed clear there was more to the story and probably even that it had been programmed to think it committed crimes it had not. The unreliable narrator, sure, but… meh.
Anyway, I tried the sequel and am glad I did! The irksome elements felt toned down this time; "Murderbot" did better at acknowledging its attachment to a new batch of humans, and the media-watching gained some depth. There was a planetary station to infiltrate and a mystery to solve, which provided more plot and competence kink. And there were two new robot/AI characters, both of which—whom?—I liked.
tl;dr It's still sort of Ann Leckie Lite, but this volume went down smoothly enough. Maybe I'll try All Systems Red again to see if it improves on reread.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (2017)
I hadn't tried any of SRB's books before, and
meretricula recommended this one as a good place to start. It was compulsively readable and I had a good time, although not without complaints, mainly regarding the main character and the pacing. Good things: Canon bisexual main character, plus something like one bi and three gay supporting characters, as well as one who seemed gender-nonconforming by human standards but not by her own dwarf culture. The narrative supported feminism through the absurd gender reversals of elf culture. It offered a good message about the importance of scholarship, negotiation and intercultural knowledge vs. militarism.
It had flavors of Harry Potter and SGA, although not in a knockoff sort of way. Clever, obnoxious young man gets transported to a magical realm adjacent to "normal" England, where he makes a few friends despite his best efforts and learns to let himself be vulnerable. Problem #1: Elliot sounded WAY older than 12, which was his age at the beginning of the book; he was 18 by the end and didn't sound much different. Snarky kids only wish their one-liners came out so acerbic and articulate. In addition, whoever on my friends list compared Elliot to Rodney McKay was spot on. For the first several chapters I wished I hadn't heard that, because it couldn't be unseen. It meant Elliot, Serene and Luke read like Rodney, Teyla and John, and it was harder than it would have been otherwise to experience them as their own characters.
Problem #2: Although Elliot-not-Rodney correctly assessed that the soldier side of the magical humans' culture had unjustly overtaken the scholars/ambassadors over the years, I wanted him to be wrong more as he worked to restore balance—to learn he doesn't know everything, can't succeed alone, needs to understand the politics of the situation and the history behind the way things are now. As it was, he kept being certain he was right, he kept coming up with "I'm a genius"-style plans to fix other people's incompetence or malice, and he was almost always proven correct. It took until maybe halfway through the book for someone older and wiser to explain to him what I said above, and Elliot did run into trouble a time or two by questioning dogma, such as that unicorns only like virgins, but overall things turned out well and I didn't see him grow a lot in this respect.
Problem #3: As for the pacing, it just took a long time for Elliot to see what was right in front of him, relationship-wise. I figured he would get together with Luke, and/or Luke and Serene, at a certain point in the narrative and then things would continue from there, because surely it couldn't take 400 pages to drag that out. But no, it could. Oh, well. Without spoiling anything, I'll also say it was interesting what the final relationship(s) turned out to be.
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (reread) (1984-1986)
I looooooved this trilogy in college and re-read it a month or two ago when friends started tweeting about their own read-throughs and fancasting. There's a whole post's worth of material here, but I'm tired, so in brief, I was surprised by how little development most of the characters were given, including Loren, whom I'd adored. Matt, Diarmuid and Lancelot probably stood out in memory because they had more substance than the rest.
This time around, with 15 years of additional perspective, I was bothered by the argument that the only path to heroism is self-sacrifice, mostly through death but sometimes through giving up the only thing(s) you love; by Kim's corruption of the giants, especially when she turned around and refused to corrupt the sacred creature of the dwarves; and by the stereotypes in the depiction of women, especially Jennifer, Sharra and Jaelle—among other things, this insistence that the worst quality for a woman is to be "cold"—with bonus Nice Guy villain who is never really called out for wanting to, you know, destroy creation because a lady loved someone else.
But I still ship Matt and Loren, and there were still moments from book to book with emotional resonance or a flash of sexiness.
