Category: Aa

The Jaguar House, in Shadow — Aliette de Bodard

By 5t4n5

The Jaguar House, in Shadow -- Aliette de BodardI recently came upon Aliette’s book, The Tea Master and the Detective, which i very much enjoyed and, as i mentioned in that review, i was going to be reading more from Aliette in the future.

So off i went to Aliette’s website to find out more about “The Universe of Xuya”, and so began my hunt to track down each of these stories from years ago and hopefully read them all in chronological order.   Before beginning to read, or listen to, these books, it is best to go to that page and have a good read through the background to Xuya and bring yourself up to speed with how everything is in this alternative past/future that Aliette has created.

And so in The Jaguar House, in Shadow we begin our Xuya journey.   This story was originally printed in Asimov’s, July 2010 edition, and if you feel inclined i’m sure you can go and buy a second hand copy at your usual second hand places.   It’s also in the collection Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight.   Or, instead, you could simply listen to the audio book at StarShipSofa.

If you want to skip all the intro stuff just skip through to 23:58, where the story begins.   The narration is by Morag Edwards and it is absolutely delightful and gives the story a wonderful other worldly quality.   Admittedly, i listened to this in bed in the pitch dark with the speaker just above my head, and i fully recommend everyone in the whole wide world giving this a go.

Even if you’re not into doing the whole Xuya thing, this is delightful audio book that is soooo well worth a listen simply for its own sake.

Next up: Fleeing Tezcatlipoca.

Aliette’s Page

#scifi #aliettedebodard

The Queen of Frost and Darkness — Christine Pope

By 5t4n5

The Queen of Frost and Darkness -- Christine PopeA gender role reversal of the old fairy tale standard of defenceless princess put under evil spell until perfect, heroic prince kisses her and they live happily ever after.   This time it’s the brave, adventurous girl rescuing the enspelled boy.

So yeah, it’s about time the girls get to have an adventure and do the rescuing and young readers get to realise that boys are just as fallible to the wiles of evil doers as girls have always been portrayed to be.

I think this one is good for all ages, and certainly a great way to begin further conversations with children about historical views of gender roles when this is compared to fairy tales from the patriarchy such as Sleeping Beauty etc..

Available in the anthology, Once Upon a Curse.

Christine’s page

#fantasy #fairytale #christinepope

Fae Horse — Anthea Sharp

By 5t4n5

Fae Horse -- Anthea SharpThis one is very much on the dark side of folk-lore/fairy-tale telling, beginning in a witch hunt.   Maybe not so suitable for very young children.

That said, its very good and will certainly keep you in its grip until the end.

Available on its own (click on picture) but also included in the anthology, Once Upon a Curse, and also in the collection, Tales of Feyland and Faerie.

Anthea’s page

#fantasy #fairytale #antheasharp

Electric Jungle — James K. Pratt

By 5t4n5

Electric Jungle -- James K. PrattA delightful little collection of short stories that i got for free in one of those BookFunnel promotions.

At the time of writing this — March 2020 — James was still giving this away in BookFunnel promotions, so if you want a copy then maybe email James and ask nicely.   It’s definitely worth sending an email, just tell him you were reading this and i told you to.   LOL

James’ Page

#scifi #jameskpratt

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom — Cory Doctorow

By 5t4n5

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom -- Cory DoctorowPublished a year after Altered Carbon this book takes a lot of the re-sleeving ideas from Richard’s book and instead of placing them into the realm of super warriors, criminals, etc.; Cory puts them into a future Disney Land theme park in an alternative dystopian future.

Having very much enjoyed Altered Carbon, i was left quite disappointed by the sequels, especially Woken Furies, and so it was rather nice to find a story like Cory’s that took some of the best ideas of Altered Carbon and spun them into a new Earth-side future that we can all begin to relate to because we’ve all heard of these real places.

No, this isn’t the blood and gore fest that Altered Carbon was, and neither does it have the amazing future-sex-drugs thing — they’re still smoking crack from crack pipes FFS.

But it does have the murder mystery and the loss of the intervening memories between back up and re-sleeving that Altered Carbon does, all wrapped around who gets to control various Disney Land attractions.

So yeah, if you’ve read any other Cory Doctorow books and enjoyed them then do give this a go, and also, if you enjoyed Altered Carbon, i’d bet a few pennies that you’ll enjoy this also, albeit a very much tamed down version.

There’s also a follow up novella: Truncat.

Cory’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #corydoctorow

Pan — Christopher Ruz

By 5t4n5

Pan -- Christopher RuzAnother Peter Pan spin off that’s rather similar to Lost Boy.

Pan was first published in January 2016 as a short story for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine whereas Lost Boy was published in July 2017, which is curious:  was Pan the catalyst for Lost Boy?

But, whatever, glad to have them both as they’re both definite must reads for all fans of Peter Pan and things Neverland, and Pan definitely deserves a place in the “Peter Pan and Neverland” hall of fame.

Christopher’s Page

#jmbarrie #peterpan #fantasy #christopherruz

The Travelling Cat Chronicles — Hiro Arikawa

By 5t4n5

The Travelling Cat Chronicles -- Hiro ArikawaSo yeah, i love cats and i love most things Japanese, so eventually i had to get around to pulling this out of “The Pile” and reading it.

It’s one of those books that one just flies through, and i was always eager to dive back into it whenever i got a few moments spare.

Nana, a street cat, is our wonderful narrator, who gives us a delightful cat’s eye view of Satoru’s world as he drives around Japan visiting each of his childhood friends trying to get one of them to adopt Nana before he dies, but Nana has other ideas and is determined to stay with Satoru until the very end.

It’s through this cat’s eye view, and through each childhood friend we visit, that we get to learn, bit by bit, about Satoru’s life: a life of tragedy, loss and grief, and how these things shaped Satoru.   I think i’d put it on the shelf with The Little Paris Bookshop, also a well written book about tragedy, loss and grief with some cats in it.

Yes folks, a definite must read for anyone who likes cats.

Warning:   you may get a little soggy eyed at the end — cats can do that to you.

Hiro’s Page

#japan #hiroarikawa

I Am Legend — Richard Matheson

By 5t4n5

I Am Legend -- Richard MathesonSo i got 23% into this book and i simply cannot take another page of this.

Stupid, alcoholic, smoking, crap eating, sad, miserable idiot getting chased by lots of vampires.   Woohoo!   Yes folks, another dull and boring vampire story, only difference from the norm is that this one is post-apocalyptic as the vampires have wiped out all humans apart from this one pathetic, sad alcoholic.

Seriously, if you had the daylight hours of every day to do whatever you want, go wherever you want, you have the whole world and its contents at your disposal before the vampires came out at night to hunt and all you could think to do was live like this sad twat because you’re a pathetic, miserable alcoholic, then you may as well just throw yourself into the vampire’s grasp and get it over with.   Stop torturing yourself, and most of all, stop torturing us poor readers who have large “To Read” piles to get through.

I have no idea about the rest of the book, but the first quarter of it has no sci-fi whatsoever in it.   How this has managed to get itself into “SF Masterworks” is quite beyond me.   I suppose there always has to be the bottom of pile, hopefully this is it because i’m going to despair if there are any worse books than this in the series.

Deleted.

Richard’s Page

#sfmasterworks #vampires #postapocalypse #richardmatheson #whataloadofcrap