Reading not-Wednesday 24/06
Jun. 24th, 2021 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livRecently read: A couple of sequels to brilliant books which are both good but not quite as brilliant.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi. Pub Rick Riordan Presents 2020. I borrowed this from Judith and have now returned it to her so don't have the full details. Anyway, it's a worthy sequel to Aru Shah and the End of Time even if not quite at that level.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death has many of the same good qualities as the previous book in the series. Great characters, and a really nice contemporary take on Hindu mythology, and pacey and funny. I really liked the subversion of the arrows of the love god idea, and the pointed observations about ugly people, especially ugly women, getting cast as villains. And I liked meeting two more of the avatars of the Pandavas, and really running with the gender-swap theme: instead of brothers with a wife, we have sisters and one male supporter.
In some ways this did feel a bit middle-book-ish. It was a bit more inclined than the first one to drop into infodump mode with the characters simply recounting stories from the Mahabharata instead of just letting the mythological plots unfold through the adventures in the book itself. And the teenaged conflict and angst and personal growth seemed a bit phoned in compared to the previous book where I found the relationships more compelling.
Still, there is some really vivid imagery and the stakes felt real throughout and basically it's great fun.
A desolation called peace by Arkady Martine. (c) AnnaLinden Weller 2021; Pub 2021 Tor; ISBN 978-1529001624.
cjwatson and I managed to both give each other the same book for Pesach. And I finally got round to reading it because I brought it on holiday last week. I loved it but not quiiiiite as much as A memory called empire
So my first problem is that aMCE didn't really need a sequel. I mean, it certainly has a sequel-hook, but it's a really self-contained story. I desperately wanted more of Marit, and yes, A desolation called peace definitely delivers that. But the thing I liked about aMCE is that it's more about interpersonal relationships than boring space battles, so I was disappointed with aDCP opening with a space battle. For the first few chapters it seemed like the aliens (who are never actually named) were just going to be monsters who can only be killed before they devour everything, which is even more boring.
But actually the aliens are a lot more interesting than that; aMCE is about the complex interactions between two very disparate human cultures, but aDCP is a genuinely novel first contact story with aliens who are impressively alien. Probably on the level of Chiang's Story of your life. The exploration of the culture clash between the Stationers and the empire trying to colonize them, against the background threat of world-devouring aliens is interesting, and carries on where the first book left off. I definitely enjoyed the portrayal of a hive mind species, and the way it turns out they're not the Borg, just very alien. And particularly the consideration of how humans are in fact not completely separate individuals, how culture and religion and some futuristic but not completely implausible communications tech means that we're somewhere on the spectrum towards being a group mind.
The human politics threads are interesting too, the different leaders at different levels who sincerely believe that total destruction of the enemy is the only way to save civilization / humanity. They're not necessarily caricatured evil dictators either, they're portrayed with nuance. Of course I'm going to love a plot centred around the little people (in one case an actual child) trying to prevent mass destruction, and the book is dedicated to Stanislav Petrov
I loved the ambiguous relationship between Marit and Three Seagrass in aMCE, whereas in aDCP the ambiguity is resolved and there's a sex scene (!) and not quite a HEA but definitely hints in that direction. And, well, ok, not queer-baiting but having a definitely romantic relationship between women is a good thing, but I like pining and ambiguity. Also I felt a bit as if we were just on a conveyor belt through the standard romance beats. Pining. A kiss during a crisis. A lovers' quarrel, which to my mind seemed to come out of nowhere just because that's the expected shape of a romance. Make-up sex (very well written sex, I'll give it that). Impossible obstacles to the relationship while dramatic events unfold. Resolution. The other thing that bothered me about this sequel is that the notion of heroic men dramatically sacrificing themselves for the women they love is becoming a leitmotif, and it was fine once to have that gender reversal, but having it repeated several times across the two books started to get a bit annoying.
Anyway, in spite of those quibbles I got really sucked into the book and spent a couple of days unable to tear myself away and I was really excited to babble about it at my partners, so definitely more positive than negative.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death has many of the same good qualities as the previous book in the series. Great characters, and a really nice contemporary take on Hindu mythology, and pacey and funny. I really liked the subversion of the arrows of the love god idea, and the pointed observations about ugly people, especially ugly women, getting cast as villains. And I liked meeting two more of the avatars of the Pandavas, and really running with the gender-swap theme: instead of brothers with a wife, we have sisters and one male supporter.
In some ways this did feel a bit middle-book-ish. It was a bit more inclined than the first one to drop into infodump mode with the characters simply recounting stories from the Mahabharata instead of just letting the mythological plots unfold through the adventures in the book itself. And the teenaged conflict and angst and personal growth seemed a bit phoned in compared to the previous book where I found the relationships more compelling.
Still, there is some really vivid imagery and the stakes felt real throughout and basically it's great fun.
cjwatson and I managed to both give each other the same book for Pesach. And I finally got round to reading it because I brought it on holiday last week. I loved it but not quiiiiite as much as A memory called empireSo my first problem is that aMCE didn't really need a sequel. I mean, it certainly has a sequel-hook, but it's a really self-contained story. I desperately wanted more of Marit, and yes, A desolation called peace definitely delivers that. But the thing I liked about aMCE is that it's more about interpersonal relationships than boring space battles, so I was disappointed with aDCP opening with a space battle. For the first few chapters it seemed like the aliens (who are never actually named) were just going to be monsters who can only be killed before they devour everything, which is even more boring.
But actually the aliens are a lot more interesting than that; aMCE is about the complex interactions between two very disparate human cultures, but aDCP is a genuinely novel first contact story with aliens who are impressively alien. Probably on the level of Chiang's Story of your life. The exploration of the culture clash between the Stationers and the empire trying to colonize them, against the background threat of world-devouring aliens is interesting, and carries on where the first book left off. I definitely enjoyed the portrayal of a hive mind species, and the way it turns out they're not the Borg, just very alien. And particularly the consideration of how humans are in fact not completely separate individuals, how culture and religion and some futuristic but not completely implausible communications tech means that we're somewhere on the spectrum towards being a group mind.
The human politics threads are interesting too, the different leaders at different levels who sincerely believe that total destruction of the enemy is the only way to save civilization / humanity. They're not necessarily caricatured evil dictators either, they're portrayed with nuance. Of course I'm going to love a plot centred around the little people (in one case an actual child) trying to prevent mass destruction, and the book is dedicated to Stanislav Petrov
who knew when to question orders, which tells you a lot. I definitely appreciated the portrayal of the fine line between patriotism and the meaningful fight to save one's culture from conquest and colonization, and excessive nationalism.
I loved the ambiguous relationship between Marit and Three Seagrass in aMCE, whereas in aDCP the ambiguity is resolved and there's a sex scene (!) and not quite a HEA but definitely hints in that direction. And, well, ok, not queer-baiting but having a definitely romantic relationship between women is a good thing, but I like pining and ambiguity. Also I felt a bit as if we were just on a conveyor belt through the standard romance beats. Pining. A kiss during a crisis. A lovers' quarrel, which to my mind seemed to come out of nowhere just because that's the expected shape of a romance. Make-up sex (very well written sex, I'll give it that). Impossible obstacles to the relationship while dramatic events unfold. Resolution. The other thing that bothered me about this sequel is that the notion of heroic men dramatically sacrificing themselves for the women they love is becoming a leitmotif, and it was fine once to have that gender reversal, but having it repeated several times across the two books started to get a bit annoying.
Anyway, in spite of those quibbles I got really sucked into the book and spent a couple of days unable to tear myself away and I was really excited to babble about it at my partners, so definitely more positive than negative.
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Date: 2021-06-25 08:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-27 08:47 pm (UTC)