Category: Reviewed

The Raven Tower — Ann Leckie

By 5t4n5

The Raven Tower -- Ann LeckieNo idea how i came across this, but it sounded rather good so i added it to my wish list and when it got put on sale for only 99p, i didn’t need asking twice.

And for 99p i definitely got an incredible bargain.

I’ve no idea why this is listed in science fiction on Amazon, i’d definitely put it squarely in the grimdark fantasy section.   I suppose i may be getting my genres completely misconstrued, but i don’t think i am.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a good bit of grimdark fantasy then this should be right up your alley.   Who are the good and the bad in this and are they even aware that they are and why?   The baddies, although doing what they do for completely nefarious reasons, are actually doing the good thing; while the goodies, thinking they’re being all altruistic and everything, turn out to be on the baddies’ side.   And it’s all wound into a very well written story.

My only little winge is that Eolo’s gender thing is rather ambiguous and confusing and i think this could have been better defined.   At the end of the book i’m still not sure what gender Eolo actually is: cis, trans or otherwise.   Another character also mentions an aunt that had a gender thing going on, but again, no real information as to what.   I just completely failed to see what purpose having a main character — and another character who wasn’t part of the story whatsoever — with ambiguous genders served: other then being a poor attempt by the writer to include someone with these issues in order to get some woke cred.   Wouldn’t it be nice if we’re going to have characters with gender issues, dysphoria, trans, non-binary, etc., that they were made relevant to the story and explored further with a view to educating the ignorant masses on these issues while also helping and supporting those who have to deal with these issues in real life?   A great example of a writer that did such a thing would be Jason Segel, working with Eve Lindley, in the series Dispatches from Elsewhere: definitely a must watch before you read another book if you haven’t watched it already.

Other than my little winge this is a great book with great characters, well written and it really plays with the idea of gods and how gods get, keep and use their power over people.   We can see in our own world how a certain god has been allowed to overwhelm other gods and how this has ultimately turned the whole world into a shit hole of ecological disaster with a global plague while in a mass extinction event.   This is what happens when you worship a god whose clergy tells you that you don’t have to care about this world because said god has got something better for you when you die — just keep breeding like flies and fucking the planet up, Armageddon will soon be upon us and the pious shall have their rapture.

Ann’s Page

#fantasy #grimdark #annleckie

The Cat and The City — Nick Bradley

By 5t4n5

The Cat and The City -- Nick BradleyThere are parts of this book that totally felt like Nick has taken Ghostwritten and number9dream, put them both in a mixing bowl, threw a calico cat in and stirred them all together.   Which is not a bad thing as they’re both excellent reads, and, as it turns out, so is The Cat and the City.   Although, having said that, Nick does have his own writing style and the underlying theme of the story is completely different.

This is one of those reviews where i feel i can’t say as much as i’d like to say without giving away the book’s ending, which is a bit annoying, both for me and, i imagine, anyone wanting a review.   So i’ll just do my best without ruining it for anyone: i’m sure if anyone wants to have it ruined by reading a more in depth review they’ll soon find one somewhere on the internet.

At first this is what appears to be a collection of short stories, however, each is interconnected by a calico cat and various characters that keep appearing around various parts of Tokyo. Slowly, over time, a back story begins to coalesce.

I wouldn’t put this down as an easy read because you do have to keep track of some of the characters who randomly appear — and their relationships — add to this that most of the characters have Japanese names and it becomes a bit of a challenge.   Then there’s the Japanese terminology that is peppered throughout, for which most of us will need to stop occasionally and use “Look Up”.   All in all it is quite a challenge but it is well worth the investment if you have the sort of mind that likes reading books that require you to make a bit of effort.   If, however, you like your stories spoon fed to you by mother at bedtime then i would probably not bother as you’ll probably just end up getting totally lost, confused, annoyed and ultimately blame a really good book for your own failings.

One could ask why is all this chaos necessary?   I would suggest that it’s meant to portray Tokyo and it’s metropolitan area of 37,468,000 people, all passing on the streets, trains, taxis, etc.; pretending to ignore each other while obviously being continually affected, being extremely polite while ultimately suffering inside, and being so distant from each other while being so very near.

Anyway, like the two David Mitchell books, mentioned above, i really enjoyed it and if you do make the effort i’m sure you will to as it’s a great story spread out all over one of the world’s greatest cities.

Nick’s Page

#japan #nickbradley

Citizen — Claudia Rankine

By 5t4n5

Citizen -- Claudia RankineA rather different way of saying the things that need to be said, containing a mixed bag of poetry, prose, vignettes, etc., detailing what it’s like to be perpetually on the receiving end of racism, from micro-agressions to extremely overt racism.

Maybe, instead of forcing children to read Shakespeare and Dickens at school, we should be encouraging them to read books like this and encouraging them to engage in constructive dialogue with each other about the issues raised and the experiences of those on the receiving end of racism and other bigotry.   Racist is not something people are born, it’s something people are taught, and its very clearly up to schools and educators to start stepping up and making much more effort with the young minds in their care.

In the UK “Citizenship” and “Relationship” education is not on the curriculum until after 11 years of age: this is far, far too late.   How our societies are peopled — our citizens — and how we relate to those other citizens within our societies should be permanently on the curriculum from the very first day of school, not be left in the hands of young people’s peers, bad television, bad websites, and ignorant parents who read nothing but vile, tabloid drivel.   A child who has been nurtured badly up to the age of 11 is highly unlikely to respond to positive nuturing by over-worked, underpaid, stressed-out teachers after the age of 11.

Claudia’s Page

#poetry #claudiarankine

Star Maker — Olaf Stapledon

By 5t4n5

Star Maker -- Olaf StapledonI managed to get 31% into this and then just had to give up trying.   I really couldn’t manage any more of it.

Imagine that William’s favourite book is Gulliver’s Travels and he decides to have a go at writing a sci-fi version of it having read Brave New World just before starting.   I think that pretty much sums up the first 31%.

The problem is that while Gulliver’s Travels and Brave New World are both very good books, both are very well written and keep the reader’s attention, Star Maker is tedious, dull and plodding: at least that’s how i found it to be.   I can imagine for its time it was very exciting, but sadly some books just don’t age well and i think this is one of them.

I don’t feel that it’s bad enough to warrant a place on “The Deleted” page, so it will get a reprieve and stay in my Amazon lists for now and i may give it another go at some future date when i’m feeling a lot better about life and stuff.

Olaf’s Page

#scifi #sfmasterworks #olafstapledon

Crome Yellow — Aldous Huxley

By 5t4n5

Crome Yellow -- Aldous HuxleyI was in my 20’s when i last read this, somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, and i still think it’s a very good book.

There is, however, a problem with this book: Aldous was very clearly a product of Victorian England and his use of words really reflect this, especially in his early writing, and there are the very occasional racial words/comments used — which i counted twice.

It’s a very awkward place to find oneself, caught between two cultures.   By my standards the use of such language is completely unacceptable, yet, having read a few Victorian books and also post Victorian books, like this, written by those who were educated by Victorians, it is clear that the use of such language was, very much, the standard of the day.

Do we now throw the babies out with the bath water?   Admittedly, by contemporary standards, the bathwater we are dealing with is now considered untreated sewage, but in it’s day it was considered fit for drinking.   I certainly don’t feel that Aldous was, in anyway, being racist and derogatory, but simply using the words and cliches of his day.

As to the rest of the book it is very clearly a satire and critique of England in the early 1920’s and it’s very clear that Aldous was not supporting of many views expressed in this book, but laying bare the thinking and ideas of his day.   If you are interested you can read much more about this on it’s Wiki page.

The interesting thing for me is that just over 5 years ago i spent 3 years living at one of England’s great houses and its huge estate, including parklands, shrubberies, woods, Italian gardens, ponds, lakes, etc., and it certainly made reading about Crome a whole different experience.   Sadly, to be honest, the upper classes, and their sycophants, haven’t really changed much from the attitudes and behaviour satirised and parodied within Crome Yellow.

This book is also, very much, the forerunner to Brave New World, and i would suggest a must read for fans of that book.

Aldous’ Page

#aldoushuxley

The Lollipop Shoes — Joanne Harris

By 5t4n5

The Lollipop Shoes -- Joanne HarrisBook two of the Chocolat series.   I really enjoyed Chocolat. so this is another one of those sequels in the unenviable position of having a lot to live up to.   Did it?   Well, it didn’t do too bad a job.

I would say my only real criticism of it was that it went on for far too long.   Chocolat was a mere 359 pages whereas The Lollipop Shoes is 594 pages, and while reading it one gets the feeling that it could have been trimmed down a fair bit and the story would have benefited.

As i say, that’s my only real criticism.

I certainly enjoyed knowing that there are two further books in this tetralogy, as one can’t be certain how this is going to end.   Is Vianne going to be left high and dry with the further two books dedicated to her fighting back, or is Vianne going to triumph here and now and we’ll move on to some other tale in the next book?   We’re also not even sure who is going to be Vianne at the end of this book as it’s mostly about identity theft and Vianne becoming the target of an identity thieving witch: can chocolate witchery save the day again?

At the end, the only real judgement one can pass on this book is: am i going to read Peaches for Monsieur le Curé?   Not straight away.   As i said, this went on for a bit too long and i have a few other books i’ve been looking forward to reading, but Peaches for Monsieur le Curé is queued up on my Kindle ready to be read at some time in the not too distant future.

Joanne’s Page

#joanneharris

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate — Robin Sloan

By 5t4n5

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate -- Robin SloanI really enjoyed Annabel Scheme and also everything else that Robin has written, so i went into this with very high expectations: sadly, i don’t think it reached them.

While it’s not a bad book and is quite an ok read, it just all felt a bit rushed.

Yes, i know, it was written as a serial article for a newspaper and maybe Robin was hobbled with some level of word count, or maybe Robin was in a rush to get on with other things: i’ve no idea.   What i do have an idea about is that this book just isn’t as good as the original Annabel Scheme book.

But, hey ho, it’s enough to keep us Robin Sloan fans happy for a while and you can at least read it for free in it’s original form at the newspaper’s website.

In the meantime, we keep our fingers crossed for a full length novel coming from Robin soon.

Robin’s Page

#scifi #robinsloan

Good Neighbours — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

Good Neighbours -- DeAnna KnipplingI really enjoyed this.   A nice captivating little short to fill an hour or so.

In East Smithville the fog is always coming and with it, the Fairies who whisk people away, not to be seen again for years.   This is the story of one such person returning — for a while at least.

I admit to being thoroughly disappointed that it ended, i really wanted it to keep going: away with the Fairies.

Well worth a read of your time and it would be really good if DeAnna came back to East Smithville some time and wrote a few more short stories about people returning.

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytale #deannaknippling

A Perfect Moment — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

A Perfect Moment -- DeAnna KnipplingI revceived this as an ARC from DeAnna to read, comment and review.

As a short story, anthology stocking-filler it does what it’s supposed to.   I was quite happy to read it and wasn’t put off at all but, it doesn’t do much more than that.

As with a lot of these shorts for anthologies, there’s usually a really good idea at their core but the word count to play it out just isn’t available, and i do feel that this is one of those.   There’s a greedy reader part of me that wants this spun out novel length into a temporal food-fight similar to Recursion by Blake Crouch.

DeAnna’s Page

#deannaknippling