I love robots and will read all about them. Tor.com this month offered its newsletter subscribers not one but three robot-themed novellas or short novels. Terrific ones, too.
I’ve been striking out with science fiction lately, but this one reminded me of why I like the genre in the first place. It’s a murder mystery/legal drama set on Europa in a not-too-distant future of 2145. Europa has been colonized but modestly. There’s a small population of people and robots working side by side. The robots have been given some rights, but it’s far from the separate but equal situation. The balance gets tested when a robot convicted for murdering a person decides to appeal the court’s decision. A lawyer, disillusioned with Earth and looking for a fresh start on Europa, takes up his case and finds herself at odds with the local population in a case that is threatening to upend all the existing boundaries and conventions. A fascinating story that questions the legal and moral assumptions or a divided society, this story worked on every level: from terrific world-building to great character writing to being a poignant and thought-provoking intelligent literary read. There was an interesting choice here (either deliberate by the author or it’s just how it read to me) where the robot, 812-3, comes across more humane that its carbon-based meat and blood counterparts. The lawyer character makes less sense in her actions that he does in his, in a way. The robot’s motivations are more clearly laid out…and more emotionally driven too. Some fascinating juxtapositions there; makes the reader question the very nature of being. Just how artificial is AI? Just how authentic are we? And that ending…what a gut punch. Overall,a very good read. Smart, emotionally engaging and entertaining too. Sped by in one relatively brief sitting and well worth checking out. Recommended.
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All Dressed Up has places to go. In its mind, anyway. It’s got a clever idea, an idea bound to set it apart from the countless similar thrillers out there. A murder mystery weekend, stylized like a golden age era mystery from 1920s, flappers, gangsters and all.
The merry event is sprung on the book’s protagonist by her loving but cheating husband as a sort of I’m-sorry-I-slept-around-on-you-for-six-months-but-I’m-back-now-and-see-I-notied-you-like-tv mysteries-so-yeah-let’s-do-this-together-and-get-back-on-track. Funsies, right? Well, kinda, until art begins to imitate life too closely or no, actually, life begins to imitate art too closely. And a pretend murder might just be a real one. Lots of potential here but ultimately the book gets dragged down by all its freaking estrogen. It’s like yeah, we get it, Blake cheated, boo-hoo, but can we get back to murder, please? This is a mystery thriller not a marriage counseling session. Can we talk less about marriage in general, maybe? Sheesh. They can’t, though. It’s a ladies for ladies and about ladies affair through and through. And as such, it ends up way slower and less exciting that it ought to be. With a predictable killer to boot. Decent enough, overall, but nothing special. At all. When it might have been, easily. The book just never quite lives up to the cleverness of its concept. Something like a beach read, maybe. Nothing to get dressed up for. Thanks Netgalley. There has been a proliferation of African fiction lately. I’ve read some, most of which was very good. And this one was simply exceptional.
There were times I was thinking it might overwhelm me with the poeticism of its narrative, but it never did. Instead, it overwhelmed me with its beauty, its poignancy – in the best possible way. The way good books can. In 1927 South Africa passed its Immorality Laws, outlawing relationships between different races. This is something most Americans are probably mainly familiar with through Trevor Noah, who talks about it extensively in his stand-up and autobiography, being a child of such an outlawed union. This novel is a story of the devastating effect that law had on one family – the Dutch-English white man, his black English wife (originally from the West Indies), and their two biracial daughters. An imperfect marriage to begin with, fraught with underlying issues of a woman driven to the brink of madness by her inability to find a place to belong in this world and (subsequent or concurrent) depression. But it began in love; a love that managed to sustain itself however imperfectly over many years. A love that became strained, that changed, but never went away. It’s what makes what happens in the novel all the more tragic. I can’t discuss the details without giving too much away, but suffice it to say no one gets out unscathed. The brutal arm of an inhumane law bruises everyone in its reach. It is a great credit to the author to be able to write about such a difficult time with such emotional intelligence and linguistic elegance as to make the experience positively transforming. This is especially striking in the depiction of Alisa, a woman unmoored, at odds with her heritage, with her ethnicity and nationality, with her past, unable to find her place in the world, wrecked by a devastating conviction that she doesn’t – cannot – belong to the world that hasn’t made a place for her. Those diary entries alone are absolutely gutting. Such stunning character writing. And so there you have it. One ugly law – one beautiful book. A relatively short but a powerhose of a read. Literary historical fiction at its best. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley. There are some forests that don’t let go. Some woods you can’t enter twice. Or leave. Moresby Wood is one of those. So much more than a mere accumulation of trees.
There have been legends about it, stories told and retold, of witches, of a beast dwelling there. Modern day doesn’t take to legends kindly, wants to analyze and disprove them. And so a small team of women led by a professor, obsessed with local past, set off to explore the Moresby Woods. Their goal is to retrace the steps of the Parliamentarian soldiers who got lost there and never left all the way back in 1643. The modern team is equipped with the latest in GPS tech and outfitted to a tee, but the place they enter is too forbidding, too dark, too hungry…can anyone be really prepared for that? Will they fare more impressively than the soldiers centuries ago did? Read on and find out. The novel is told through alternating storylines, past chapter/present chapter style, and, while essentially it can be boiled down to people wandering the creepy woods…the author does her best to make it exciting and scary. It’s a very atmospheric read, you can practically feel the trees closing in around you, cutting off the sunlight. Quite right too, since this is a book best read in the dark. Slightly repetitive since its protagonists are likely doing loops, slightly distanced because of the character engagement (somewhat low), but overall it does the job right – creates a terrifying Blair-Witch-style-can’t’leave-them woods that makes you glad you glad to stay out of the nature. After all, some things in nature are just…unnatural. Or too natural, maybe. Or supernatural. Anyway…you get the idea. Pretty good read, especially for a debut. Thanks Netgalley. Under another author’s purview, this might have been 1. too cutesy, 2. too preachy, 3. too whimsical, etc. but Chambers made this tale sing. Really.
I’ve read Chambers before, a standalone novella that made a good impression. And my love for all things robots made me naturally interested in this one, so when Tor.com provided it as a freebie for its newsletters subscribers, I read it right away. And loved it right away. I’ve always dreamt of having a robot friend. To me, that’s the epitome of technological advancement. In the world of this story it didn’t quite go like that – people invented robots and then set them free. Because of personal responsibility and such. This is a VERY woke book. Again, it might have been annoying had it not been so good. So anyway, people felt guilty for enslaving robots so they set them free and no one has seen them in ages. People, meanwhile, went to a sort of simple life; it’s got all the modern tech, but the social structures are positively middle ages, although a much quainter cleaner version thereof. A unique society has unique jobs and one of them is a tea monk; a sort of barista/therapist. Tea Monk is a dream job of one of the two main protagonists and so they set off to become it and, in time, succeed spectacularly. And yet a strangely dissatisfied mood lingers. They set of on a person al quest and meet a robot. An awesome robot. A robot on a person quest of its own, which is to see how people have fared post-robots. So it’s your essential odd couple scenario, albeit a charming and original one. And if the combined charms of the characters weren’t enough, there’s Chambers’ writing – a charmer in its own right, but also so good. First rate world building with sophisticated internal logistics and terrific descriptions. This book is as immersive as a good dream. Reads like one too. Overall, it’s an uplifting read without deliberately doing so, it just kind of has that power to brighten one’s day. One that even this reader, who traditionally prefers darker reading fare, was able to recognize and appreciate. Plus, it has the best robot friend ever. I want one. Very enjoyable read. Recommended. I’ve read a bunch of novellas by Sebourn before, so I knew to expect a good quality of writing and was very interested to see how he’d handle a genre staple as tried and true as a haunted domicile. And sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.
Literary and character-driven, this novel follows a protagonist trying for a second chance. His first chance was ambitious enough, a shot at rock stardom that paid off, a hit song, a hit album, fame, money…and then he beat a man to death with his guitar and went to serve time for it. Sure, the man deserved it, but that’s another story. Now, freshly free, our protagonist needs some new material, something authentic. And what’s more authentic than revisiting the scene of his crime – something apparently every murderer longs to do? So he rents out the place that used to belong to his victim and is now owned (for reasons never explained) by a local millionaire lady and starts trying to write. Only the songs don’t come. Too many distractions…things like mobsters showing up with his guitar/weapon of choice or a disconnected phone ringing in the middle of the night. What’s a guy to do? Well, he can only do his best…while hanging out with the owner of the place, an attractive older woman who appears to be intrigued by him. Slowly, but surely the mystery unravels and it turns out to be infinitely more interwoven with our protagonist’s past and his family that he ever thought. In fact, there are two mysteries here, of natural and supernatural origins. Does it make for a good song writing atmosphere? That’s questionable. But will it sing to you as a book? Likely. It did to me. The chords of a rock song and the moodiness of blues. An enjoyable atmospheric tale well told. Just the right length too. Very nice find. I even grabbed it as a freebie. Definitely makes one read more of the author’s work. Recommended. A zombie-esque apocalypse straight out of Shawn of the Dead playbook, featuring, as you might have guessed, plumbers.
The end of the word might be nigh, but toilets still need plunging and all that, and so the plumbers are your basic essential workers. Good thing the apocalypse hasn’t really come to the parts of the country where these plumbers live and work, and so they just go on about their daily life, more or less, as per usual. Just your normal everyday plumbers…with a license to kill. This is a story of one crazy day in their lives. One plumbing request to a mansion and sure enough, all safety presets are thrown to the wind. Fight, plumbers, fight for your life. An over-the-top sort of comedy of the horrific with guts and gore and oodles of action and an occasional joke or two. This one also is over-the-top British in a way that screams pastiche and, sure enough, turns out it is, with the author being American (of the uberAmerican New York to Texas to California persuasion). This novella was a quick fun read. Just the right length to entertain without overdoing it and overstaying its welcome. Nice find, especially for a freebie. And a solid introduction to a new author for me. Recommended. I’ve recently stumbled across a really fun bunch of kindle genre freebies. This was my first priority read – I’m familiar with Jay Alexander as an editor (he’d recently bought a short story of mine) and wanted to check him out as an author. Because, you know, it’s interesting to see what the person on the other side of the table can do. And sure enough, Alexander is a good storyteller in his own right if we’re going by this tale of mad puppets and hungry forest deities.
A blend of creature feature and folk, this is a story of an ordinary family that gets pinned against extraordinary circumstances. And to think, all these parents wanted to do was to make sure their kid ate his food. The kid, a finnicky eater at best, needed to be tricked into it and so they did trick him - with a creepy old puppet they found in the woods while drunk. Obviously, that’s the moral right there…don’t bring creepy puppets you found in the woods while drunk back with you. But then again, it worked for years. Creepy or not, the puppet delighted the kid and encouraged him to eat. Until it decided enough is enough and that the eater looked too much like food to resist. So much like food that he’d make a proper lovely sacrifice to the boss. Cue in the puppet nightmare of your most extreme imaginings. Ready, set, go. Can this family survive the Lunchling? Read and find out. It’s a short read, lots of fun and well worth checking out. Recommended. I discovered Daryl Gregory a while back. And promptly read every single book of his available. Because he’s just that good of a writer. When it comes to literary horror, Gregory’s about as good as it gets. (The guy is my second favorite Daryl, after Daryl Dixon, obviously).The things Gregory does with genre’s standards are strikingly original. And so, naturally I was excited for this book, saved it for my birthday in fact as a sort of gift for myself – a guaranteed good read.
And sure enough, a good read. Inspired by his family’s history (generations of Gregorys from the cove of their own), this spin on folk horror is as literary and atmospheric and disturbing as any you’re likely to find out there. Through split timelines, the story takes you from 1930s to 1948, while staying in Appalachia’s backwoods the entire time. It follows a protagonist, an heir to a terrifying matrilineal family legacy of being the Revelators (speakers for) a mountain dwelling creature the locals revere. A protagonist who got away, build a new life brewing and selling booze, and yet finds herself drawn back home to reckon with her past once and for all. To deal with the creature so awesome named Ghostdaddy. So spooky, so creepy, so good. And that’s just the horror element. It’s also an intricately woven tapestry of a terrific character-driven literary drama of families and obligations and devotion. It’s all so good…and yet, it read so slowly. Curiously slowly. No idea why. Immersive, dark, transporting…all the things a literary horror work ought to do (all the things a great book ought to do, really), but very leisurely or maybe measuredly paced. Visit, if you dare, the Appalachia steeped in myth and darkness. Good to see Gregory still got game. Recommended. I love a good survival story. This was a good survival story. Braverman, making her fictional debut, has created a thoroughly immersive world – a middle of nowhere set to be televised for the amusement of the reality tv addicts and five people driven to be cast in the show for very different reasons.
Mara, the main protagonist, is there for a fresh start that the prize money would afford her. She’s so very young and yet already tired of her life. A child of survivalist/prepper off-gridder parents turn survival retreat guide for the people with too much money and not enough sense, stuck in a dead-end relationship, no plans, no savings, Mara sees this show as an opportunity to buy a new life. Her teammates/costars are in it for fame, recognition, opportunity to prove themselves. It’s all about second chances, really. The show’s premise isn’t a wildly original one, just another spin on the Survivor. The producer is a creep. But it’s moving along…until it comes to a stop. Suddenly, the cameras are gone, and the cast of the show find themselves alone, abandoned, deliberately or on purpose. Now the real survival begins. All the drama, all the excitement, all the dangers, all the creativity and the desperation come out in cinematic vividness once the camera stop rolling. Once it is no longer a game. Exciting, engaging, entertaining…all the Es of good and great reading, this book is a terrific literary adventure in the wilderness. The writing, the pacing, the characters…all done so well, most impressive for a debut. You won’t want to put this book down and coming in at just under 300 pages and being dynamically paced, you won’t really have to, not much anyway. I read it in one sitting with one pause for lunch and enjoyed it very much. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley. |
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