Currently Reading
Sep. 1st, 2014 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidgillonI've been meaning to start listing the stuff I read, this seems like a good place to start:
Last Week:
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Hugo, Nebula, Clarke Winner, I'm a bit late getting to it, but an exceptionally good read. One Esk Nineteen was once an ancillary, an AI driven zombie soldier, and minor part of the huge warship Justice of Toren, now she's all that's left of the ship and its crew, and she's on a mission to kill the person who betrayed them. There's just a minor complication there though...
Locked In, John Scalzi
25 years ago Haden's Syndrome left 1% of the world's population with Locked In syndrome. A massive government effort got the victims mobile again in the form of threeps, remote operated robot bodies, but now that government support is coming to an end. Newbie FBI agent, and Haden, Chris Shane's first day on the job starts with a murder potentially committed by a Haden, and the plot spirals downward from there, until the very future of Haden society is at risk. What I really liked here is that Scalzi nails disability society in the Hadens. I'd probably have reread Locked In anyway, but I saw a suggestion yesterday that he may never have explicitly stated Chris Shane's gender, which I missed, so I need to check that out.
Unlocked, John Scalzi
Scalzi's companion novella to Locked In, using a faux documentary format to explore the post-Haden's Syndrome world. The novel stays tightly focused on the crime, but the novella opts for a both wide and deep exploration of the Hadens' world. The stuff about discrimination really hits disability discrimination exactly right - I've faced exactly the same kind of on-street harassment the Hadens face. And available free at http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi
Anyone want to discuss parallels between Unlocked's Senator Dave Abrams (whose spiteful bill brings an end to Hadens support) and IDS ;)
Reading Right Now:
Shaman's Crossing, Robin Hobb
Picked this up to try in the Amazon summer sale, I love Megan Lindholm's Wizard of the Pigeons, but I haven't read any of her work as Robin Hobb - and I loved what I saw of her at Worldcon. This is different to the typical fantasy in that the tech level is Victorian, and the political set-up is basically the Plains Indian Wars being fought by a British Empire analogue rather than the US Cavalry. The protagonist is a young nobleman whose position as a second son means he is committed to being a soldier when he grows up, and it's his growing up that's the focus here. An early vision quest segment is superb, and casts his allegiances into doubt, but then we get into a relatively standard issue military academy, much hazing tale, and that's rather dragging.
Indexing, Seanan McGuire
My intro to Seanan McGuire back at Christmas, and I fancied a re-read - probably prompted by Seanan announcing a second series of stories are coming via Kindle Serial next year. Fairy Tales are real and it's the job of the agents of the ATI Management Bureau to stop them causing more harm than they can help whenever a Sleeping Beauty or a Pied Piper manifests. Like fairy tales themselves the telling is fairly light and frothy, but with a darker edge. Basically a fix-up of short stories, but a well-planned one that works as an episodic novel.
Half-Off Ragnarok, Seanan McGuire
And in bringing Indexing up, I noticed - literally from just the font of the title - that the third InCryptid novel is out, and as I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, the sample is already on the Kindle and the full thing will probably follow later as a reward for sorting out something I really should be doing right now.
(Edited to add link to Unlocked and correct name of ATI Management Bureau)
Last Week:
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Hugo, Nebula, Clarke Winner, I'm a bit late getting to it, but an exceptionally good read. One Esk Nineteen was once an ancillary, an AI driven zombie soldier, and minor part of the huge warship Justice of Toren, now she's all that's left of the ship and its crew, and she's on a mission to kill the person who betrayed them. There's just a minor complication there though...
Locked In, John Scalzi
25 years ago Haden's Syndrome left 1% of the world's population with Locked In syndrome. A massive government effort got the victims mobile again in the form of threeps, remote operated robot bodies, but now that government support is coming to an end. Newbie FBI agent, and Haden, Chris Shane's first day on the job starts with a murder potentially committed by a Haden, and the plot spirals downward from there, until the very future of Haden society is at risk. What I really liked here is that Scalzi nails disability society in the Hadens. I'd probably have reread Locked In anyway, but I saw a suggestion yesterday that he may never have explicitly stated Chris Shane's gender, which I missed, so I need to check that out.
Unlocked, John Scalzi
Scalzi's companion novella to Locked In, using a faux documentary format to explore the post-Haden's Syndrome world. The novel stays tightly focused on the crime, but the novella opts for a both wide and deep exploration of the Hadens' world. The stuff about discrimination really hits disability discrimination exactly right - I've faced exactly the same kind of on-street harassment the Hadens face. And available free at http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi
Anyone want to discuss parallels between Unlocked's Senator Dave Abrams (whose spiteful bill brings an end to Hadens support) and IDS ;)
Reading Right Now:
Shaman's Crossing, Robin Hobb
Picked this up to try in the Amazon summer sale, I love Megan Lindholm's Wizard of the Pigeons, but I haven't read any of her work as Robin Hobb - and I loved what I saw of her at Worldcon. This is different to the typical fantasy in that the tech level is Victorian, and the political set-up is basically the Plains Indian Wars being fought by a British Empire analogue rather than the US Cavalry. The protagonist is a young nobleman whose position as a second son means he is committed to being a soldier when he grows up, and it's his growing up that's the focus here. An early vision quest segment is superb, and casts his allegiances into doubt, but then we get into a relatively standard issue military academy, much hazing tale, and that's rather dragging.
Indexing, Seanan McGuire
My intro to Seanan McGuire back at Christmas, and I fancied a re-read - probably prompted by Seanan announcing a second series of stories are coming via Kindle Serial next year. Fairy Tales are real and it's the job of the agents of the ATI Management Bureau to stop them causing more harm than they can help whenever a Sleeping Beauty or a Pied Piper manifests. Like fairy tales themselves the telling is fairly light and frothy, but with a darker edge. Basically a fix-up of short stories, but a well-planned one that works as an episodic novel.
Half-Off Ragnarok, Seanan McGuire
And in bringing Indexing up, I noticed - literally from just the font of the title - that the third InCryptid novel is out, and as I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, the sample is already on the Kindle and the full thing will probably follow later as a reward for sorting out something I really should be doing right now.
(Edited to add link to Unlocked and correct name of ATI Management Bureau)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-01 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-01 07:33 pm (UTC)I am currently working on Lock In and had noticed that at 20% of the way through Chris' gender hasn't even been alluded to and it is GREAT and making me SO HAPPY and I am delighted to know that this continues so I don't have to slightly miserably & antsily wait for the other shoe to drop :-)
YES INDEXING. Enjoyed it very very greatly, whizzed through a reread during WorldCon (having just finished an Old Man's War-verse reread), and I am the InCryptid series is on my to-buy list (and has been for a while *smallguilt*)
HURRAH BOOKS.
Also if you would like introducing to folk/communities around here I am very happy to point you at people! Of particular shared interest are, I suspect,
no subject
Date: 2014-09-01 08:09 pm (UTC)Still trying to work out what's going on with gender in Ancillary Justice. Everyone in Imperial Rachd is 'she', yet they're baseline human? Either baseline got redefined, 'she' got redefined, or there's something even more complex going on.
InCryptid is fun, I prefer the first volume to the second, but that's largely as the second feels like it needs to be 50% longer. Done my errand (insured the car), so downloading vol 3, opening wine later. There's a bunch of Incryptid related short fiction and background on Seanan's website if you haven't seen it.
Intros very welcome. The fucking series look like definite necessities!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-03 01:39 pm (UTC)Have now finished Lock In and can confirm Chris is never gendered :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-03 07:25 pm (UTC)As for Lock In, I'm astounded that has gotten so little attention! Still planning to re-read it so I can beat myself over the head for letting the universal narrative make my gender assumptions for me. Thinking about Unlocked (and I just searched it to check), it's always 'Marcus Shane's toddler' or similar.