Recent reading
May. 6th, 2014 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaGhost Spin, by Chris Moriarty
I've been saving this up for at least a year, and damn, was it worth it. How are these books so good? If you like science fiction and have not read Spin State and Spin Control which are the first ones in the series, you really should. They feature, among other things:
- futuristic mine strikes and labor conflicts
- interesting and complicated AI characters
- a compelling human/AI romance
- an idealistic entomologist who is a clone
- cool use of quantum mechanics with actual plot relevance
- a queer woman of color as a protagonist
- vivid writing
I don't want to say too much about this one as it's the third in the series, but wow. So good.
Pacific Edge, by Kim Stanley Robinson
I am a huge fan of KSR's Mars books, so I expected to like this. And I really did! It's a utopia, and when writing one of those, you want to show off your utopia but still have a plot, and I think it succeeded in that (although sadly I can't quite believe in the revolutionary potential of legislation). The plot is 1) a love story and 2) a political struggle over whether a particular piece of land in a small California town should be developed or not. I like that there are lots of differing opinions and interests--it is not a homogeneous society. Also, I loved what KSR did with the author-insert sections talking about the writing of the book. At first I took these at face value, but it slowly becomes clear that there's something else going on there. Also there is nature porn in the book, and I am always a fan of that.
Here's the main character thinking about what it's like to tell the story of his relationship troubles to someone else:
"It felt good to tell it, in a way. Because it was his story, his and his alone, nobody else's. And in telling it he gained a sort of control over it, a control he had never had when it happened. That was the value of telling one's story, a value exactly the reverse of the value of the experience itself. What was valuable in the experience was that he had been out of control, living moment to moment with no plan, at the mercy of other people. What was valuable in the telling of the story was that he was in control, shaping the experience, deciding what it meant, putting other people in their proper place. The two values were complementary, they added up to something more than each alone could, something that...completed things."
That is so true.
Ficwise, I can recommend Mansfield End by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Ione, which is an AU ending of Mansfield Park with Fanny Price/Henry Crawford and Edmund Bertram/Mary Crawford. I like how it really takes its time to develop the relationships. Ha, and of course it's by Ione. I'd downloaded it to my ereader before reveals, and I am now entirely unsurprised to find out who the author is. I always love Ione's stuff.
I've been saving this up for at least a year, and damn, was it worth it. How are these books so good? If you like science fiction and have not read Spin State and Spin Control which are the first ones in the series, you really should. They feature, among other things:
- futuristic mine strikes and labor conflicts
- interesting and complicated AI characters
- a compelling human/AI romance
- an idealistic entomologist who is a clone
- cool use of quantum mechanics with actual plot relevance
- a queer woman of color as a protagonist
- vivid writing
I don't want to say too much about this one as it's the third in the series, but wow. So good.
Pacific Edge, by Kim Stanley Robinson
I am a huge fan of KSR's Mars books, so I expected to like this. And I really did! It's a utopia, and when writing one of those, you want to show off your utopia but still have a plot, and I think it succeeded in that (although sadly I can't quite believe in the revolutionary potential of legislation). The plot is 1) a love story and 2) a political struggle over whether a particular piece of land in a small California town should be developed or not. I like that there are lots of differing opinions and interests--it is not a homogeneous society. Also, I loved what KSR did with the author-insert sections talking about the writing of the book. At first I took these at face value, but it slowly becomes clear that there's something else going on there. Also there is nature porn in the book, and I am always a fan of that.
Here's the main character thinking about what it's like to tell the story of his relationship troubles to someone else:
"It felt good to tell it, in a way. Because it was his story, his and his alone, nobody else's. And in telling it he gained a sort of control over it, a control he had never had when it happened. That was the value of telling one's story, a value exactly the reverse of the value of the experience itself. What was valuable in the experience was that he had been out of control, living moment to moment with no plan, at the mercy of other people. What was valuable in the telling of the story was that he was in control, shaping the experience, deciding what it meant, putting other people in their proper place. The two values were complementary, they added up to something more than each alone could, something that...completed things."
That is so true.
Ficwise, I can recommend Mansfield End by
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-08 07:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-09 02:13 pm (UTC)