Paladin of Souls

Stats

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

2004 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Own it (found it in the $1 bin at the library)

470 pages

Dowager Royina Ista, previously cursed and so profoundly grief-stricken as to be marked as mad, sets out on a religious pilgrimage, intending to right herself in the world once again.  A different kind of madness ensues.

Bujold does what Bujold does best

The most compelling aspect of Paladin of Souls is the part of science fiction and fantasy that Bujold does so well.  Ista is a wonderfully conflicted, funny, and smart female protagonist who struggles to know her gods and the people around her in a way that is at once completely foreign and weirdly unsettling, yet also totes-compelling, human, and eerily familiar. 

The differences between life on Bujold’s Ibran Peninsula and modern life abound, but are overshadowed by a very intimate and very warm human story.  Maybe Bujold’s worlds aren’t as confoundingly different from our own as a Ringworld for example, but Bujold brings her readers there in a very different way.  Rather than devising spectacular tech or weird aliens Bujold pulls readers into her worlds by the emotions.  To be fair there is some pretty rad stuff thrown in there too…Chalion is a place where:

• direct experience of any of five capricious gods (and demons) is possible; and
• rescue by hunky, sword-wielding, horseback-riding, sweaty muscle-men is not just possible, but AS WONDERFUL AS YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE; and
• sexytime is just a little bit unsettling; and
• people will literally chop your gods-damned head off.

Knowing what we know about Bujold’s skillz in her other Hugo winners (there's a Bujold Skillz meme in here somewhere...), and considering even just a short list like that, are you prepared to say you don’t want to read this book?

I really want to love this…

As I do best, I have jumped into the middle of a Lois McMaster Bujold series.  And as has been the case in the past, it doesn’t seem to matter much.  I’d say as far as my enjoyment of the Hugo’s goes, I’d lump this in with any of Bujold’s other winners.  Which is to say that it was a pretty damn decent book and I liked a lot about it, but it also wouldn’t be the first book I recommend to someone wanting to break into the Hugos.  Maybe reading them out of order has caused some problems again, but I don’t think so.  Paladin of Souls is good as a stand-alone novel.

Paladin of Souls is one of just few of what I have come to think of as the Spiritual Hugos in which dealings with a divine being or matters dealing with spiritual practices take precedence over other more traditional SF & F elements.  I have tended to like these books, but not really love them and that’s pretty much what’s happened once again.  Everything about Paladin of Souls appeals to me on a conceptual level and I really want to love every page, but it doesn’t ever elevate itself beyond just the sum of its parts.

Recommendation

If you were a fan of Barrayar, this would be another great read.  In fact, Ista was to me a character very much akin to Cordelia Naismith.  If you thought Cordelia was maybe a little too ultra-confident sometimes, you won’t see that in Ista.  However, while she seemed a little more rounded out as a character, she’s still been lumped the same exact space of my brain (my brain is just a tiny chest of drawers) and so have the two books.  To be clear it’s a good space, but it’s also the same space as her other books.

There is also a lot of horseback excitement.  Which is to say that from a strictly level-of-horseback-excitement view, I guess Paladin of Souls is your clear winner.

HEP SCORE

Universe 3/5

Social/Political Climate 3/5

Dialogue 4/5

Scientific Wonders 3/5

Characters 4/5

Overall 17/25

My last post was October.  That is really bad.  As you know I’m all caught up on the Hugos, but I’m still reviewing the last 10 or so.  I’ll be trying to pick up the pace again.  Also, I’m trying to finish the first Mouse Guard by David Peterson (a graphic novel) by the end of the year because my reading list for 2013 is pretty embarrassing and I need to spice it up at the last minute.  Because that will change everything.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Stats

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Audiobook read by Jim Dale

2001 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Public Library

20h 37m

The same, but darker.

Trying to make sense of so many questions…

I’ve read the Harry Potter series twice now and I always enjoy them as fun, familiar, and not very challenging.  Preparing to read it in the context of all of the really great SF/F titles that have earned the Hugo, I was a little perplexed and to be honest, earnestly dreading this read (is it possible to dread earnestly?  Because I was very intent in my dread).  I would never admit to this, but there may have even been a moment in time when I sort of chose to listen to the audiobook so that I could only half pay attention and just be done with it with minimal effort.  And I was even less excited about writing this review.  Now, I’m glad I’ve taken some time to stew over it, because I’ve developed a slightly different perspective.

Initially, I was concerned that the pendulum swing of voter fickleness (is that a word?) had swung from the very hard SF choices of the 90’s to what appeared to be little more than a popularity contest in the 2000’s (Vinge, Gaiman, Bujold, and Rowling, all with large fan bases, account for half of the Hugo’s).  But really, that’s a silly comparison; after all, people like Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and LeGuin have been getting repeat wins since the beginning.

My fear that Rowling’s win would only evidence the number of fans rather than the quality of the book was probably unwarranted as popularity has always influenced Hugo Award voting.  But my concerns about the book went beyond popularity too.  I joked that this was the same Harry Potter only darker.  I’ll get to the darker part in a minute, but Rowling really does lean heavily on the safe and predictable at times.  I wondered for a long time why this book won, if none of the others (which are written very similarly) had even been nominated?

I have also been seriously delaying this review (earnestly delaying it), then writing and rewriting major portions of it for the last month or so, trying to decide what to defend (I think there’s plenty worth defending) and what to criticize (probably even more).  But just now, I don’t think I’ll go there except to remember that if any book signaled Rowling’s attempt to transform this series to something darker, it was this one.  There’s a lot that feels rote-Harry-Potter about this book, but even amidst really awful moments like the entire World Cup Quidditch Cup, Rowling was able to introduce a sense of pervading and seemingly permanent doom.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire shed quite a lot of the happy-go-lucky, even-if-something-bad-happens-it-will-turn-out-alright-in-the-end feeling of the first three books.  Rowling’s fourth installment had some real weight (physically too), and even a sliver of emotional depth.  In all fairness, it’s not entirely undeserving (just mostly).

So I guess, while it might seem that I could get behind arguments in favor of- or in opposition to- this win, I think I still lean toward being opposed to this win.  At the same time, I’m of the opinion that the question of whether this or any of the Harry Potter books are deserving of the Hugo is irrelevant.  That Harry Potter won the Hugo seems to say more about the award process to me than the worthiness of the book.

The Hugo Award, at least for best novel, is only marginally about the crowning of this year’s best SF/F work.  It’s a fan process.  It’s a thing anyone can do (if you can pay).  It’s a popularity vote.  And yet, we also know that people are supposed to be voting for the “best” of the year.  I don’t think any of that is bad necessarily, but I think it’s probably necessary to remember before starting to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the context of quite a few really distinguished SF/F novels.  It might be a little more fraught with questions of legitimacy (rightfully IMHO), but it is still fun, immersive and sometimes a little gross.

Recommendation

If you’re trying to finish off the Hugo list like me and, like I was, regretting this one, just know that despite being a little miffed about this Hugo, I still think there’s plenty to enjoy.  Overall, I enjoyed the book.  Not my favorite HP, definitely not my favorite Hugo, but still worth the time.

If you’ve already gone through the print books and you think you want to read them again, I recommend giving the audiobooks a shot.  Jim Dale is always great, and he has such a Harry Potter-y voice that he’s doubly good here.

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 4/5

Dialogue 2/5

Scientific Wonders 4/5

Characters 3/5

Overall 18/25

Hey! In case you didn’t notice, I actually finished the Hugo’s just a few hours before Redshirts was announced this weekend.  I considered that a challenge completed, though I have already started reading Redshirts, and I’m sure I’ll end up reviewing it here later.

Stardust Read Along Pt. 2

Well, Stardust was an interesting interlude between the two other Neil Gaiman novels.  I’m glad to have participated and I always enjoy read alongs because the questions either require that I think differently about the book or force me to articulate some half-formed thoughts.  Carl is especially good at generating questions that get to the meat of a story, but also some of the fun too.

Of course, one of the best parts of a read along is visiting and discussing with other bloggers.  For Stardust, it has been a great, smart group and I can’t wait to hear from everyone again.  Thanks again Carl for organizing this and I look forward to the book vs. movie discussion to follow.

So how about Carl's questions.

1.  In the first part we saw a naive, wool-headed and self-involved Tristran.  What are your thoughts about Tristran and his personal journey now that the book has ended?

Carl did a good job of bringing me around to Tristran during the last discussion.  Tristran’s journey was predictable but fun, funny at times.  At first I wasn’t sure he had changed all that much by the end.  Now that I’m sitting here thinking about it more, I like that Tristran’s journey resulted in a realistic personal growth.  We saw his unhealthy infatuation with Victoria vanish, his niavete lessen, but his sudden choice to travel the world with Yvaine recalled some of the old impulsive, romantic Tristran.  It seemed a very human way to “grow”.

2.  The star, who we now know as Yvaine, also experienced a transformation of her own.  So I ask the same question, what are your thoughts about Yvaine and the journey she took?

I had a hard time getting on board with Yvaine’s transformation.  I thought the progression from hating Tristran, to feeling obligated to him, to falling in love with him was forced and frankly, I failed to make that last jump from obligation to love.  I thought for a minute I had missed something.  Yvaine seemed to rather abruptly change her mind about him at each stage and I never really developed much of an emotional connection with her.

I never really saw her as destined for something bigger either.  We meet her as a fallen star with a broken leg, helpless and I felt rather insipid at times.  That she would later become a wise and balanced ruler was certainly a more appealing fate than just wasting after Tristan died, but I never got a real sense of a trajectory from her.

I wouldn’t say I was particularly upset about her character or her journey, but frankly, I didn’t really follow her transformation very well and as a result didn’t have much of a connection to her.

3.  The villains of the story came to interesting ends, but not necessarily expected ones.  How do you feel about Neil Gaiman's handling of the Stormhold brothers (who had remained at the end of Part 1) and the two witches, the one Lilim and Ditchwater Sal?

This was certainly the most interesting treatment of villains I can recall for a long time.  I mentioned how much I enjoyed seeing the witch queen humbled while at the same time demonstrating her terrible power.  Gaiman only intensified his very unusual handling of villains and I only enjoyed it, and them, even more in the second half.

4.  Were there any descriptions, characters, settings, plot threads that stood out to you personally during this second half of the book?

I was rather touched by the carefree approach to experiencing the world that overtook Tristran and Yvain after leaving Victoria.  There was this one last thing tethering them to Wall, Tristran’s family and society.  Once that was eliminated, and combined with the feeling from the first half of the book that Tristran’s parents could have done with a little more upfront honesty about Tristran, their choice to just aimlessly wander was deeply satisfying to me. 

5.  At the very end of the book we see that Tristran and Yvaine's relationship and fate echoes that of Aragorn and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings.  If this question makes any sense to you (lol), what comparisons and/or contrasts do you see, especially in the fates of Yvaine and Arwen?

I came to this same conclusion about the two couples myself.  I’m not sure I have a lot to add about that here though as it was mostly just something of a passing thought once or twice.  What did strike me a differentiating the two was that Yvaine didn’t seem nearly as concerned about what her life would be like with Tristran gone.  Perhaps this is the result of a life span counted on a galactic scale, or because Yvaine was less emotionally tied to her man?  I’m not sure I have that answer, I admit it has been several years since I read LOTR.

6.   What are your overall impressions of the story now that it is done?

In broad strokes, I liked it.  Probably my favorite of Gaiman’s stories that I’ve read.  I was fun and whimsical in a vague and vaguely dark way.  I think this is one to be read several times over the course of a life.  I imagine it would take on drastically different meanings each time.

7.  If Gaiman were to return to Wall/Faerie, would you take another journey there?  If so, are there any adventures hinted at in Stardust that you would like to see Neil expand on?

My first inclination was to say that all I cared about was Dunstan, but I think I’d also revisit Wall/Faerie for more about any of the villains.  Any of them at all.

Stardust Read-Along: Pt. 1

Over the past year, I’ve participated in several of the (non)challenges hosted by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings.  In that time, I’ve had to pass on quite a few read-alongs that he has also hosted and which have always looked amazingly fun.  When I saw that he had one planned for Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, which is short and sounded fun, I thought it was not only a good chance to hopefully redeem my opinion of Gaiman after a not so enthusiastic reading of The Graveyard Book, and also the opportunity to participate in one of Carl’s read-alongs as I’ve been waiting for so long to do.

So here is the first installment.  As Carl suggested, I’ve been listening to Gaiman himself read this one and like I said in the case of The Graveyard Book, Gaiman does a fantastic job reading his own work.  Carl has also suggested we take these questions as we please and I’m doing just that.  I’m getting to this late after-all.

******

1.  We have spent a little time with Tristran and even less time with the star.  What are your initial thoughts/impressions of our two protagonists?

2.  There are some very interesting potential villains introduced in this first half of the book.  Do any of them particularly stand out to you? If so why or why not?

At first I didn’t care much for any of the villains, but I became very interested in the Witch Queen toward the end of Chapter 5.  Her goats were interesting and her chariot even more so, but what I really appreciated was that we see her fooled so early in the story.  She is still clearly a force to be reckoned with and will no doubt cause some serious trouble for Tristan but she’s also liable to be tricked when her guard is down too.  It didn’t so much endear me to her as it did to the storytelling itself.  I like that Gaiman’s villains can be pretty terrifying even when we see that they can be tricked into paying too much for the milk (that is totally not a saying but I’m going with it).

3.  In Chapter Three, just after the section with the brothers in Stormhold, Neil Gaiman gives us a description of Faerie that includes "each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there...".  What imaginary lands do you then hope are a part of Faerie?

4.  We do not get to spend a great deal of time in the market but while there we are given a number of interesting descriptions of the wares being bartered or sold.  Which if any of them caught your eye, either as items you would like to possess or ones you would most certainly hope to avoid.

5.  If you have read much of Gaiman's work, particularly his short fiction, then you have come across some rather graphic and disturbing portrayals of sex.  Gaiman offers up something very different in the way of a sex scene early on in Stardust.  What are your feelings of the scene either in general or as a contrast to other Gaiman-penned scenes involving sex?

I didn’t so much enjoy the sex scene per-se, but I did enjoy how emotionally charged it was, without being graphic or disturbing as Gaiman’s other portrayals have been.  Instead, I came away feeling very much a part of the fleeting yet strong and unspoken connection between two people.  It seemed like something that shouldn’t be overlooked and felt real and important.  In a world that was so quickly established as something different than our own, their meeting seemed so real.  Of course, anything Gaiman writes has an essentially other-worldly quality but, and especially in contrast to the market scene, this scene imparted a sense of grace and beauty that was shockingly endearing. 

6.  I suspect Neil Gaiman is influenced by a number of fairy and folk tales in Stardust.  Are there any elements of the story that made a particular impression and/or reminded you of other fairy stories you have read or are familiar with?

7.  And finally, which of the many side characters introduce have caught your eye and why? Or what else about the story thus far is of interest to you?

The dynamic between Tristan and his father, Tristan and his mother, and between the father and mother themselves was just great.  Gaiman really just hints at a quiet anxiety but even the nub he shows us hints at a pretty complicated family dynamic that I really wish we could have heard more about. The truth just seemed to hang about the air and though the family put on pretty taciturn airs, all the little things apparently made a huge impact on Tristan’s upbringing.  Meanwhile, his father’s acceptance and special attention only highlights what they were all trying so desperately not to point out.  We didn’t get much of a look at the family, but what we did see was fraught…in the most intriguing way.

Similarly, I was, at least initially, very interested in what could have made Tristan’s mother leave him at the Gates of Wall.  I think we’ll probably get a better flavor for the pressures and fears that lead her to make such a difficult choice as we get further into the book, but maybe not.  In any case, it only contributed to a very much understated sense of mystery surrounding Tristan that I was quite thrilled with.  Compared to Gaiman’s other books I’ve read (just a few of them), this has been the most absorbing beginning for me.

Of course this is also where my only complaint comes in so far.  I couldn’t help feeling there was something missing in Tristan’s character.  I didn’t get the sense that his family life, excessive teasing, and his deep love for Victoria didn’t make for the strong connection with Tristan that you might expect.  He seemed oddly impervious to the weirdness and meanness, and the outright rebuffs Victoria deals him.  You’d expect his reactions, or lack thereof, to somehow manifest themselves as an extraordinary sense of determinedness or other such capability.  Instead he came off rather uncaring and emotionally inept at times.

The Graveyard Book

Stats

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2009 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Public Library

Audiobook read by the author

7h 45m

The only surviving member of his murdered family, Nobody Owens was raised by ghosts.  As you can imagine, Nobody eventually wishes to leave the graveyard and explore the big world, only to find that in the real world, there’s no place as friendly as your neighborhood graveyard.

My library has The Graveyard Book in just about every format to be found and I tried to sample them all.  In the end, I decided to try out these Playaway thingies.  My Mom has told me about them at her library, but I’d never actually seen one before now.  I liked that there was an option to speed-up or slow-down the audio, and that it was read by the author, so I decided to give it a shot while also making note of the many other formats in existence (the illustrations by Dave McKean looked fantastic).

I’m glad I chose the Playaway device (a counterintuitive use of an mp3 player) because although the faster speed setting wasn’t to my taste, just hearing Gaiman read “flibbertigibbet” at what was descriptively labeled “speed ++”, was well worth the price of admission.

Titular-ly suggestive

Going into this book, I knew next to nothing about it.  Since completing it, I’ve seen The Graveyard Book oft praised for inspiring a sense of wonder.

Well, it certainly starts out promising.  The title alone is about as ominous as the Hugo’s come (maybe right behind Doomsday book).  We are immediately introduced to a toddler who has only narrowly escaped the clutches of “The Man Jack” (another threatening title), who murdered his family for an undisclosed reason.  The first chapter ends when the boy is rescued, at the behest of his recently dead mother, by a graveyard full of very unthreatening ghosts.  The rest of the book cobbles together an uninspiring hero’s journey, never managing to live up to the possibilities suggested by the title and first chapter.  Gaiman notes that it began as a re-telling of The Jungle Book, but I just didn’t find it to be much of an improvement.

This is a book with an orphaned protagonist, ghosts, ghouls, and a murderous evil dude, from the 2000’s and it’s not Harry Potter.  The fact that it is still well-known and well-loved is impressive.  However, beyond the neat concept, the story lacks any robust development and it never mattered to me whether Bod would ever see Scarlett again, whether he’d get out of the graveyard permanently, or whether anything in particular would happen at all.  The graveyard ghosts fell flat for me and Nobody Owens was one the most flat characters of all the Hugos.   I might have cared about The Man Jack for a minute…but then I stopped at the uninspired “Jacks of All Trades”.

The Harry Potter series, for all its faults, had readers invested in not only Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but in the Hogwarts Castle, secondary characters and the compendium of magical beasts and intricacies of the previously unknown magical world.  Compared, The Graveyard Book is just the most beautifully wrapped and enticing gift under your Christmas tree that upon unwrapping turns out to just be a second pair of boring pajamas.

The good wreck

Gaiman has a very recognizable voice.  I’ve only read The Graveyard Book, Coraline, and I’ve heard him read a handful of things on the Youtube, but even this small sample has demonstrated an instantly recognizable author’s voice.  He tells The Graveyard Book in much the same way that he addresses a graduating class.  I happen to like that he approaches all of these with the same level of care for the construction and tone, so it’s fair to say that despite a fairly strong disconnection from the characters and events in The Graveyard Book, the vehicle in which it was told was truly pleasing.

But that’s not the voice I mean to talk about.  I mean to say that his voice – his speaking voice – is just wonderful.  If I were a contestant on one of those old dating shows where the bachelors are screened from view and they answer inane questions and whatnot and Neil Gaiman were one of the bachelors, his voice would totally be my pick.

He has the sort of voice that can perfectly convey the sense of wonder (I’ll admit there is a little more than none), of silliness, but also of the grave things that only a children’s story might contain all at once.  The combination of his distinctive brand of storytelling and a rather natural voice-acting ability (the man knows how to pause like nobody’s business) created a children’s story that can fill the room.

I’m aware there are a great many people out there that enjoyed this book more than I did and I imagine for those who did, listening to Gaiman read it himself will just wreck them.  This has been one of my most favorite audiobook experiences thus far.

Recommendation

The only other complaint I’d pass on here, was that it seemed to have such a deficit of emotion (and a story about an orphaned child should have been easy) that I never felt much about it at all.  Honestly, the 2009 nominees included some pretty big names (Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Neal Stephenson), and it seems unlikely that this one pulled out the win.  It was fun at times, but mostly just seemed uninspired.  If my daughter were reading now, this would be pretty hard to suggest given the dearth of amazing SF/F for kids in existence.

HEP SCORE

Universe 2/5

Social/Political Climate 3/5

Dialogue 4/5

Scientific Wonders 2/5

Characters 3/5

Overall 14/25

After initially deciding not to listen to any more audiobooks for the remainder of the challenge, the time it is taking me to finish Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is forcing me to.  So while I continue with that beast, I'm also listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The Snow Queen

Stats

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

1981 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Public Library

409 Pages

Nearing the end of the Winter Clan’s 150-years of rule over the planet Tiamat, in a desperate bid for immortality, the Snow Queen, Arienrod, secretly implants several clones in her subjects in order to produce a perfect copy of herself and take her place though tradition would have her succeed her power to the Summer Clan.  Only one of those clones survives, Moon Dawntreader, and it turns out she never got the message.  Instead, Moon becomes a Sybil and as a part of the secretive and mysterious group of soothsayers, stands poised to uncover the truth not only of the Snow Queen’s plot, but also of galactic conspiracies.

Shame and humiliation…

I have two admissions of guilt as I begin this review:

1)      I was not familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen original, nor any of its re-tellings before reading Vinge’s.  This was my introduction and I’m not sure that did me a disservice, but I certainly would have had a much different perspective.  Since I was taking so long to begin this review, I snagged a few different copies, including H.C.A.’s original (side admission: I’ve not read very many of his originals! though I’m familiar with many re-tellings).  So hopefully I’ve corrected my problem of perspective and can apply it retroactively.

2)     I have a huge crush on Moon Dawntreader.  This doesn’t happen very often, but I’m noticing it is sometimes the case with female protagonists who, quietly or not, kick-ass.  I feel justified; Moon will kick yours.

So yeah, thrice guilty.  But hey, I’m glad I admitted to them, and I’m glad I took the time for the original, because I think it improved my reading of Vinge’s telling.  So if you’ve read and loved this Hugo, do look into Hans Christian Andersen’s original.

Fairy tales, juiced

People talk about how much this book reads like fantasy.  The interview with Vinge at the back of my copy acknowledges this and Vinge makes no bones about her fascination with the mythological elements of fantasy.  We’ll, I can’t argue with that much, but I’d still like to alter that depiction somewhat.

After going back to the original Snow Queen.  I might not say it’s some kind of quasi-fantasy, but that it reads quite a lot like a fairy tale.  Maybe the distinction isn’t much of an improvement, but I think it more precisely captures what it is that makes The Snow Queen stand out among Hugo Winners.

I say fairy tale because Vinge uses a hell of a lot of imaginative symbolism, allegory, metaphor, an explicit moral narrative, and so many other tropes you would expect from your favorite children’s tales.  Sure, The Snow Queen might feel a little paranormal, some characters a little monstrous, inhuman, but I don’t think it recalls fantasy quite so much as it does fairy tales.  Yeah, I think I’d be inclined to say it (rightfully) reminds me of a fairy tale.  In fact, Vinge did a surprisingly good job of remaining faithful to quite a few details from Andersen’s original, and I think there could be an opportunity for a really thorough comparison of the two versions.

But more than that, Vinge did a fantastic job of making what was kind of creepy in the fairy tale, absolutely terrifying in her own, and the same went for anything sweet about the children or nerve-wracking or fun or whatever.  Joan D. Vinge gives us Hans Christian Andersen on steroids.

Recommendation

There were a lot of things I liked about The Snow Queen and I liked it for a lot of the same reasons that I liked The Dispossessed: carefully crafted characters, gender role reversals, fun-ness.  Silky.  I just want to say I love Silky.  So much.  But one of the things I like best about this book is the place that it occupies among the entire field of Hugo Winners.  I feel like such a powerful adaptation of a popular fairy tale (and Vinge would say it is even older than Andersen’s telling) tethers SF to a kind of storytelling that is rooted deep in human history.  So many people revered U.K. LeGuin for making SF relevant, a part of something greater; I think Joan D. Vinge does very much the same thing with The Snow Queen and I adored it for that.  Also Silky.  Did I mention that already?

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 5/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 5/5

Characters 4/5

Overall 24/25

Moving on…

This week’s book is Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, and I’m still working on (almost done with) Green Mars via audiobook.

After that comes Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Finally, I am managing to get another book reviewed for the Once Upon A Time Challenge, hosted by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings, a very high quality blog and a great challenge host.  More than likely this will be my last for the challenge, but I guess you never do know!  If you missed my first OUAT review, it was a doosey so you check it out.

Stats

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Audiobook narrated by Casaundra Freeman

2011 Hugo Award Nominee

Got it from: Public Library Audiobooks

11h 47m

I’ll try to untwist this.  Yeine is still mourning the death of her mother when she is summoned to the capital city (for all intents and purposes) of the hundred thousand kingdoms.  There, she finds out she is heir to the throne held by her grandfather, the man she believes killed her mother.  Before she can take the throne, she has to navigate the city, Sky, which stands ½ mile from the ground, which essentially means, try not to get killed by any of the psychopaths, gods, or vengeful others lurking around the city before being killed by her own grandfather.  That makes sense, right?

Worldbreathing

THTK was a living, breathing thing.  It is not enough to say that I read or listened to it.  I was in it.  I could feel Nahadoth in the car with me, which was freaky as hell (I was listening to the audiobook if you didn’t already catch that), and I have never had a clearer picture of such a strange cast of characters in all my life.

Despite the fact that the characters and universe were so far removed from anything I was familiar with, it made so much sense anyway.  The internal logic of the place was scary good and I kept thinking to myself, “he would do that, because…”, as if they were real people who I had some kind of personal experience with, and then realize I had been thinking about how and why what just happened was perfect and then have to rewind and listen again.

On a side note: Sometimes the littlest things can tear apart an entire world.  When they stink, made-up curses can really close the door on a world for me.  That being said, I loved the way Casaundra Freeman read their exclamation “demons!”  It was really fabulous and made me wish it wouldn’t instantly transform me into a total weirdo if I said it in public.

Hell on Earth

100k included some really super cool gods, super scary nobility and also Nahadoth (see him behind the city there...), who was one of the scariest things of my entire life.  I sort of pictured him like some creepy K horror-looking creep.  As scary as he was, I was not prepared for the scene with all the hands!  For those who have read this – please tell me you know what I’m saying!  It was creepy right?  If you haven’t, I was literally tingling all over and put my hand to my mouth (for the record, I don’t advocate driving with only one hand nor listening to books that take all your attention from the road).  But Nahadoth was only one of many conspirators, conjurors and evil bastards who find their way into this novel and thanks to Jemisin’s graphic and dark style, I found it very easy to experience, not just listen to, all the horrific goings-on.  Especially the godsex.  Disturbing.  Exciting.  Weird.  Weird.

Recommendation

Coming off of two great fantasy reads, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, I was really nervous this might not entertain.  I was pleasantly disappointed in that regard.  Certainly not funny like the last two of the last three Fantasy titles I’ve read (I think I like comedic fantasy – is that a thing?) but demons was it dark!  And you know how much I like that.  The pace and timing of 100k was amazing and nerve-wracking and hard to get over, so be ready not only to enjoy this, but to live through it!  I know I will definitely be picking up more of Jemisin’s work in the future.

The Lies of Locke Lamora Read Along Week 2

Week 2 Everyone!

This week was great.  We keep getting more and more of Locke’s background, which is another way of saying it's just getting better and better.  For whatever reason,  most of my answers this week contain predictions.  This week I was able to correctly predict that it was a Gentleman Bastard who snuck into Don Salvara’s room and told him to cooperate with The Thorn of Camorr.  Maybe this read along is helping me to realize my latent soothsaying talents?  Cool.

1) Do you think Locke can pull off his scheme of playing a Midnighter who is working with Don Salvara to capture the Thorn of Camorr? I mean, he is now playing two roles in this game - and thank goodness for that costume room the Gentlemen Bastards have!

Honestly.  If everything works perfectly for him, I’m not sure it would be much of a book.  I don’t think whatever trouble he has will result from too many roles or schemes running at once though.  It seems clear though that when the other Gentleman Bastards are warning him so strongly it must be setting something up.  Then, of course, we all remember that if there is one thing that Locke has a history of, it is not being circumspect.  This seems like a perfect time for those old tendencies to come bubbling to the surface.

2) Are you digging the detail the author has put into the alcoholic drinks in this story?

Most of the beverages sound like they would burn the hairs from my chest and kill me.  Am I excited about that?  YES J

3) Who is this mysterious lady Gentlemen Bastard Sabetha and what does she mean to Locke?

Well, I don’t really know but it sounds like Locke has some pretty strong feelings. I find this kind of weird and I haven’t really been thinking about it much because Locke is not a very sexualized character but Nazca alluded to Sabetha being the only woman Locke will ever love.  Oh well, I guess we’ll be finding out sometime and maybe he just loves her like a sister?  Doubt it though.

4) Are you as creeped out over the use of Wraithstone to create Gentled animals as I am?

I have been creeped out by so much in this book that I guess I’m already becoming inured to the terrible things that happen there.  What I did like was the way that that Lynch introduced gentled animals early in the book with just enough information to get a vague sense of what they were until he finally explained them in all their horrible glory.

5) I got a kick out of child Locke's first meeting with Capa Barsavi and his daughter Nazca, which was shortly followed up in the story by Barsavi granting adult Locke permission to court his daughter! Where do you think that will lead? Can you see these two together?

I hadn’t thought about this much, but now that you bring it up… I think the easy assurance from Nazca could be hinting at some future problems there…  Perhaps they’ll actually fall in love, just before Sabetha returns and Locke will be caught between two loves?  Whatever happens, it will assuredly not be good.

6) Capa Barsavi is freaked out over rumors of The Gray King and, in fact, us readers are privy to a gruesome torture scene. The Gray King is knocking garristas off left and right. What do you think that means?

Well, either Lynch is demonstrating that Barsavi is not all that competent or brave a leader, or Barsavi is savvy to some information that we are not…likely he has reason to believe The Gray King is one of his own?

7) In the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, we learn that Father Chains owes an alchemist a favor, and that favor is a fresh corpse. He sets the boys to figuring out how to provide one, and they can't 'create' the corpse themselves. How did you like Locke's solution to this conundrum?

I was really surprised by how simple and straight-forward his solution was.  I did laugh nearly hysterically when Father Chains asked what had happened to cause everyone to throw money at him.  Probably not safe to drive while laughing so hard…