My review of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang went up at Strange Horizons a few weeks ago.
I have at least three hands of feelings about this book, and not all of them made it into the review, which I wrote several months ago. In the interim, I’ve continued talking with people about it, and I’ve been able to articulate some of the things which were still inchoate for me while I was writing the review.
My latest review, of the indie comics anthology Wayward Sisters, is up at Strange Horizons. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you’ll like.
My review of Karen Healey and Robyn Fleming’s charming new novel is up at Strange Horizons. I liked this book very much–it reminded me of Sherwood Smith in a very good way. And yesterday I learned that there is a sequel short story available, even better! May it be the first of many.
My review of the latest animated Star Wars series was published at Strange Horizons a few weeks ago. I loved this show to pieces, and it’s great Star Wars storytelling. If you’re a Star Wars fan, do yourself a favor and watch the show before Solo comes out next month.
This novel has already garnered a lot of buzz, and it was quite interesting to see someone combine wuxia movies and Hong Kong gangster flicks with the trappings of fantasy novels. I didn’t love this book unreservedly, but it’s definitely worth reading.
The island of Kekon is the only source of jade in the world, and it’s jade that gives the island’s Green Bone warriors their powers of agility, speed, strength and perception. Decades ago they used those powers to win Kekon its freedom from colonial overlords; now the two crime families who worked together for independence are on the brink of all out war as Kekon’s economy has taken off. The scions of the youngest generation of the Kaul family–cautious Pillar Lan, brash Horn Hilo, and failed future Weather Man Shae, who walked away from her family once and just returned, as well as their adopted cousin Anden–face an uncertain new world in which they will be tested by the Ayt clan, led by a ruthless female Pillar whose plans encompass a stage far larger than the island.
There’s no getting around the fact that this book is long, probably too long, as has been the case with most adult novels I’ve read recently. Lee, however, avoids the soggy middle problem which often afflicts these novels by having the plot take a sharp left turn that I won’t spoil. It works well, and it sets the front half of the novel up as a kind of golden age in retrospect, which is interesting.
I grew up in New Jersey, so I have a pretty high degree of automatic side-eye for the idea of competent and/or even moderately honorable mobsters, but it’s a fantasy novel, so I’ll give Lee that one for free. The real problem with the book from my perspective is that the female characters (Shae, Ayt Madashi, and Hilo’s fiancé Wen) are much more interesting than the male characters. I’m also not wild about the fact that Anden is a bundle of tragic queer and tragic half-breed stereotypes rolled into a ball, and let’s remember that this is a novel that Lee constructed: queerness is “unlucky” and therefore only okay if people don’t talk about or “flaunt” it on Kekon because she decided that Kekon would be this way.
All that being said, I grew to like the characters quite a lot by the end, and there’s a good deal of sharp-edged hilarity in the brief glimpses we get of Kekon from the white not!European perspective towards the end of the novel. I’m definitely also interested to see where the story goes, and even if that turns out to be a place I don’t like, Lee’s bold story and world-building are a boon for the genre as a whole. We need more books like this, and it deserves its success.
With less than a week until Hugo nominations close, I thought I’d share some of my nominations. I actually have strong feelings about some of the categories (Best Dramatic Long Form), and I am quite excited by the chance to recognize some of the best work in speculative fiction going by the Young Adult category.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form – A year in which Hollywood blockbusters were unusually strong on the SFF front means a difficult year to narrow things down. I don’t watch a lot of TV, which makes it easier.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form – A strong year for genre TV means a lot of trouble narrowing things down. Star Trek: Discovery features on this list twice as I try to split my nominations between episodes I think will get a critical mass and those which are better standalone TV.
Seanan McGuire is so prolific a writer that following her career comprehensively would probably be a full-time job in and of itself. I’m a committed fan of her Toby Daye series, but I’m less committed to her other works; I’ve read some of the Newsflesh books but none of her other Mira Grant books. This one, about killer mermaids, is apparently a sequel to an earlier novella, but I can attest that you can read it independently.
