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!

 

 

 

 

Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney (3.5 stars)

Boy is this book getting attention at the moment, it seems to be really divisive. It's also been made into a TV series.

I think I'm going to spoilertown on this one, so come back once you've read it?

Straight out of the gate it annoyed me with the lack of quotation marks and dialog that felt...weird to read. Like you're watching a Gilmore girls episode on 1.5 speed.

I got an A1, he says. What did you get in German? An A1, she says. Are you bragging? You’re going to get six hundred, are you? She shrugs. You probably will, she says. Well, you’re smarter than me. Don’t feel bad. I’m smarter than everyone.

But OK, Cormac McCarthy did it I guess. Somehow it was less annoying. Anyway.

Connell goes around being a complete dick to Marianne. And my experience of teenage boys kept looking to find something wrong with Marianne, what was the big problem? Why was he so embarrassed at the thought of his friends knowing they were together? Was it the class thing because his mum was her house cleaner? Something about her appearance? She certainly wasn't stupid, she's top of the class for the entire novel. This is as close as we get to an explanation along these lines coming late in the book:

Marianne says nothing. It’s true they did bully her. Eric called her “flat-chested” once, in front of everyone, and Rob, laughing, scrambled to whisper something in Eric’s ear, some affirmation, or some further insult too vulgar to speak out loud.

Which is incredibly petty. But spoiler: there's nothing really wrong, Connell is just a dick to her in high school. This annoyed me at the time, but on reflection I think it's actually clever. Teenage boys really don't need much reason at all to act like this, who cares what the reason was? It was Connell's problem not Marianne's.

He didn’t say anything. Eventually she laughed, because she wasn’t totally without spirit, and it obviously was kind of funny, just how savagely he had humiliated her, and his inability to apologize or even admit he had done

And later we find out all of that sneaking around and the hurt caused over the debs was for nothing, everyone knew anyway. Good. Connell should feel bad.

He knew then that the secret for which he had sacrificed his own happiness and the happiness of another person had been trivial all along, and worthless. He and Marianne could have walked down the school corridors hand in hand, and with what consequence? Nothing really. No one cared.

But then Marianne goes to university and suddenly being super smart, sarcastic, and your own independent person means she's cool, not weird. This is a transition that I think lots of people can relate to. High school is for conforming, university is for standing out: weird is cool.

Frustratingly Marianne and Connell circle each other again. And Connell fucks it all up again

He told her that, when she asked him who his best friend was. You, he said. Then at the end of May he told her he was moving home for the summer.

...because he's too dumb to ask if he can stay at Marianne's house for a few months, when he has been practically living there anyway. Because of the class dynamic and he wants to be the big man I guess? But we don't really know. And Marianne doesn't offer because she expects to be hurt and expects Connell to leave her?

The reality was that he stayed in Marianne’s apartment most nights anyway. He could just tell her about the situation and ask if he could stay in her place until September. He knew she would say yes. He thought she would say yes, it was hard to imagine her not saying yes. But he found himself putting off the conversation, putting off Niall’s enquiries about it, planning to bring it up with her and then at the last minute failing

It sounds semi-plausible when I write it out like that but it drove me nuts when I was reading because it was so unbelievable. What follows is a series of sadder and sadder emotionally and physically violent relationships for Marianne that is pretty depressing to read. Each one breaking her a bit more.

So the plot is really frustrating, and the punctuation is annoying, but there is some serious 5 star writing in here. This. This one gives me the chills:

Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.

And people saying there wasn't enough character development must have been asleep for gems like this:

She’s missing some primal instinct, self-defense or self-preservation, which makes other human beings comprehensible. You lean in expecting resistance, and everything just falls away in front of you. Still, he would lie down and die for her at any minute, which is the only thing he knows about himself that makes him feel like a worthwhile person.

 I can see why it rated well with book critics.

3.5 stars.