The Deluge by Stephen Markley (4 stars)

Climate change apocalypse, but near term (2040 I think?). Which is actually a lot more difficult to write than a real apocalyps-ey novel set further in the future when everything will obviously be a disaster. If you came to this book because "apocalypse", you're in the wrong place. You need to come to it for "climate" and be ready for a long haul: something like 900 pages.

This is the crumbling of society and the chickens-coming-home-to-roost of the near future. Gas station blockades, collapse of beachside real-estate, environment organizations turning violent and some of-the-moment mentions of AI: AI-written political analysis media articles, AI auto-recruiting extremists over chat etc.

It's a lot of characters, but they are good ones, well placed to give you a view from many angles. The environmental radicals, the PR person who shills for the fossil fuel industry, the political aide, the trump-esque demagogue. 

The writing is good but occasionally goes into boring lecture mode to explain what should be happening, but isn't.

Just Transition funds should be targeted at workers in the carbon economy and those people and regions most hurt by polluting practices, which will require major investments in clean electricity deployment, adaptation measures, and afforestation and land management projects. Money must flow to those most affected by the clean energy transition and climate damage. R&D should focus on hard-to-decarbonize sectors with a special emphasis on bringing green hydrogen to scale and carbon sequestration and utilization. Lowering emissions is no longer adequate.

Keeper's character is written in second person, which I hate, but thankfully it isn't a big part of the story. It also occasionally flips into exposition just cataloging disasters, which reads like a boring almanac entry. Markley is really trying to educate and entertain at the same time. It was probably difficult to decide on what to leave out in terms of the science/politics/economics.

All the standard environmental activist stuff of today's world has largely been tapped out without making enough difference, so the activism starts turning more violent:

Our original goal was to create disastrous uncertainty in the market for dirty energy, make it too risky and expensive for investors, but it’s all been surprisingly resilient. So let’s hit the full fucking menu.”

On October 7, Kate Morris led a blockade of a gas station in New York City, part of her so-called Seventh Day protests. The idea being that on the seventh day of each month, people will remove themselves from the economy—refuse to work, shop, or contribute—and instead use the day to “blockade, disrupt, or dismantle” part of the carbon infrastructure.

 A lot of it felt plausible. Some things didn't, here's some complaints that I think avoid spoilers. The DC action was too successful: in reality it wouldn't have been allowed to get that far. The political analyst testing calorie budgeting in the cruelest way would have gone to jail. The personal journey for the PR activist felt...unlikely. But it's still worth a read I think.

4 stars.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2 stars)

So much potential, but unfortunately this one misses the mark. When it opened up in second person narrative I groaned, it's a PITA to read 2nd person and I feel like it's only real function is to have some showy reveal when it switches to first person. That's exactly what happens here, but there's only a single line at more than halfway through, and it doesn't fully switch until about 80% of the book.

The biggest sadness is that Gideon is gone, she was far and away the best part of the first book. Instead of that dialogue that was popping off the page, we get the much more restrained and boring Harrow. While I had a dozen favorite quotes from Gideon in the first book, there was only one from Harrow I liked:

It was only the fourth funeral you had ever been to where you had been responsible for the corpse.

This novel is also full-on fever-dream mode. Harrow is constantly waking up places with no idea how she got there or what is happening. For probably 60% of the book stuff just happens to her, and she has no idea why. It's almost boring to read because everything just seems random: there's always someone killing her and you don't know why. 

Not only is it batshit crazy fever-dreamy, it also jumps back and forth in time, and I don't think I ever fully understood where in time I was currently supposed to be. I was not excited to pick this one up until I was at about 80% finished, it was a grind.

I'm usually on board with feeling confused and clever incremental reveals, but the balance is off here. The last chapter is basically stuffed full of reveals in a single narrative conversation. Muir held onto all of that closure for too long and dumped it on the reader all at once, in a way that was difficult to process. I'm sure it's all very cleverly constructed, but having it jammed into one chapter just makes it feel rushed and unsatisfying.

It's a shame because I think the world is good, the characters are fairly solid, the plot arc seems good, it's just the pacing is wrong.

Also still too many swords on spaceships, which even the characters acknowledge:

“Why does a Lyctor need a sword? Lord, what use can we have of one? I can control bone. I can shape flesh and evoke spirit. I no longer need outside thanergy. Why anything so crude as a sword?”

There's also way too many people called Gideon. I had no idea who the fuck was who in the final chapter.

I did kind of love the poetry-come-to-life scene. That was a surprise and I thought it was very clever: it also poked fun at the dialogue of the scene during the scene. Topped off with an eminem reference no less.

“My master in life was revenge,” said the Sleeper. “My mission is one of— Goddamn it, I’m not going to start talking like this.”

“Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity,” 

This series would make an amazing TV show because they can fix the plot pacing.

2 stars

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (4.5 stars)

It's the Hunger Games with necromancers, in space. But the best part is Gideon, because she's could not give a fuck. She's sarcastic and bitchy as hell, and doesn't give a shit about whatever this dumb necromancer competition is, and is busy checking out all of her hot competitors. Amazing character, so much hilarious dialog. I could read her all day.

The plot is fun: it's a murder mystery inside a really, literally and figuratively, dark version of the hunger games. It's all gloomy haunted creepy-as-fuck rooms with something that is killing these courageuous cavaliers and necromancers in horrendous ways.

The only thing that kind of annoyed me was the weird mismatch of technologies: half the novel is about swordplay with rapiers, swords, daggers, weird knuckle knives etc. But they fly to Canaan house in spaceships and can basically build anything out of bones and magic. They couldn't invent a projectile weapon?

But I'll suspend my disbelief because Gideon is a treasure. She reminds me of murderbot and hard luck hank.

“the only job I’d do for you would be if you wanted someone to hold the sword as you fell on it. The only job I’d do for you would be if you wanted your ass kicked so hard, the Locked Tomb opened and a parade came out to sing, ‘Lo! A destructed ass.’ The only job I’d do would be if you wanted me to spot you while you backflipped off the top tier into Drearburh.”

“Oh, this is boring,” Gideon had said in disappointment. “I wanted one with a skull puking another, smaller skull, and other skulls flying all around. But tasteful, you know?”

The man who’d put the sword to her neck was uncomfortably buff. He had upsetting biceps. He didn’t look healthy; he looked like a collection of lemons in a sack. 

He had the eyes of a very beautiful person, trapped in resting bitch face.

“Surprise, my tenebrous overlord!” said Gideon. “Ghosts and you might die is my middle name.”

Corona had vaulted herself out of the water in a flash of warm golden skin and her exceedingly long legs, and Gideon made her first and only devout prayer to the Locked Tomb of thankfulness and joy. 

There's a lot of characters to keep track of, a number of which have multiple names and nicknames, it's pretty hard to keep them organized in your head. The plot is also somewhat deliberately confusing because gideon herself is confused for 99% of it. I was quite surprised by the ending, but there's a LOT left unresolved to reel you into the next book.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1 star)

I loved the Goldfinch. Loved it. I think it's one of my favorite books ever. I don't understand how the same person wrote this.

The secret history is spectacularly boring, with ridiculously unlikable characters who don't even seem like plausible humans.

Richard is inexplicably drawn to this cast of pretentious assholes who accidentally, or maybe on purpose, killed someone. And he seems determined to fit in with them for god knows what reason. He almost dies from hypothermia because he's an idiot and doesn't ask anyone for help, and then seems really really determined to get involved in another murder for no reason. He's not the one being blackmailed, and the blackmailer and blackmailee deserve whatever dumb hell they have built for themselves.

I should have stopped reading. 18% into the novel my note was "Where are we going? Rich kids do greek class is all I got". There's no payoff.

1 star.

Monkeys on the Road: One family's vanlife adventure south in search of a simpler life by Mary Hollendoner (5 stars)

Mary and John did what for many people is only ever a dream: opting out of careers in tech for #vanlife and a multi-year adventure from Yosemite to Patagonia with their 6-yr old daughter.

This is different from many of the other adventure memoirs I've read that tend to be feats of strength or endurance: riding bikes across a continent etc. Those accounts often have to convey tales of brutal monotony and courage in the face of weeks of grinding hardship in a way that somehow manages to be interesting. Here Mary gets to pick only the most fascinating parts of a huge multi-year multi-country adventure, and there are plenty: both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. No boring bits :)

Part of me wants to use this as an inspirational travel checklist, and it certainly is that. Assuming of course that you can handle the most off-the-beaten-track version of travel where there are no guides, very few plans, and generally a great willingness to follow what may or may not be a passable road over the well-traveled routes.

But what really stands out is not the sights. Mary reaches a point that I've occasionally got to in travelling where you don't really care about more cities, or rocks, or ruins, or gorges, or rivers, or whatever, and just want to hang out with cool people. And what I totally believe from this book and my own travelling experience is that to find interesting people you can just turn up and be super friendly with whoever you encounter. It's also true that the people with the least will give the most and find joy in the giving: time, food, shelter, love.

Other things I learned about traveling overland in South America: borders with a vehicle can be crazy stressful and complicated, it's essential to have good Spanish, and you'd better be a mechanic. Oh, and a global pandemic will constantly redefine what you thought your travel experience was going to be.

Loved it!

5 stars.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett (4.5 stars)

The sequel to foundryside! I was a little disappointed to be back in heist mode again, it felt like doing the same thing all over again, but OK. This one is definitely darker and I think the pacing is a bit more uneven. Everything becomes super-powerful beings and it seems unclear why those beings wouldn't just be able to crush everyone immediately.

I continued to enjoy the descriptions of Clef hacking his way through magical doors and locks. There really are a lot of programming and software themes in these "ancient" magic systems set in what otherwise feels like fairly medieval times. Clef opens doors by convincing the programs running those doors that they are allowed to open backwards, or are already open etc. This is a really really clever layperson's description of computer hacking.

The dark dark view of capitalism continues:

“There is no innovation that will ever spring from the minds of men that will not eventually be used for slaughter and control.

An emperor’s hunger for control will always outlast a moralist’s desire for equality and idealism.

“That humankind will always invent, but the powers of these inventions will always eventually accrue to the most powerful, and they will use them for conquest and slaughter?”

“Scriving is the root of all these problems. Polina quite literally calls it an evil magic. And after what I just went through…I find it hard to argue. I am forced to wonder—would it be better if…if we just didn’t have it?” Sancia thought about it. “If it wasn’t scriving,” she said finally, “it’d be something else. Land. Money. Iron. Or, hell, even beans, if Crasedes told me the truth. People are inventive. And anything they invent they can use to raise themselves up over everyone else.” “Then…could we ever win?” Gregor said. “Is this just a dance we do over and over? Will everything we build turn to nothing but ugliness?” 

“True,” she said. “I know the hearts of men. I know that so long as humankind possesses a power, they will always, always use it to rule the powerless. And there is no alteration, no scriving, no command that either I or the Maker could ever wield that would burn this impulse out of you. Better to destroy what power you have.” 

I'm eagerly awaiting the final book in the trilogy, but this one definitely felt like a "middle" book. I think the most impressive part of the writing here is that the reader is not at all convinced that the "bad guy" is actually wrong. It could be that these well-meaning citizens we're empathizing with are actually making the whole world worse. Are we the baddies?

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett (5 stars)

Really excellent fantasy that had me hooked quickly. It's China Meiville level worldbuilding, but a bit less dark and with a heist flavor and an interesting magic system. The themes of the novel are about the winners and losers in capitalism and how power naturally concentrates and elevates a few at the cost of many. 

The magic system is based on a forgotten alphabet, and how those that understand how to use it can build libraries of tools that perform powerful functions. Everything from weapons to building re-inforcement. This "scriving" has a lot of similarities to programming, here they build functions:

They’d figured out that you could take a blank slate of iron, write out that extensive, complicated scriving command; but then, you could follow it with the sigil for “meaning,” and next write a completely new sigil, one you yourself just made up.

And it made me wonder if it wasn't supposed to be commentary on the powerful software houses of the modern era where power concentrates because they have the best libraries, and software "foundries".

The world building really is impressive, and the plot is unpredictable.

Some favorite quotes:

“Traditional,” she echoed. “What a curious word that is. So bland, and yet often so poisonous.”

Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world.

Gregor stared at the lorica. He had seen such things before, and he knew what they were meant for: war, and murder.

“Remember—move thoughtfully, give freedom to others, and you’ll rarely do wrong, Sancia. I’ve learned that now. I wish I’d known it in life.”

Any given innovation that empowers the individual will inevitably come to empower the powerful much, much more.

5 stars!