Review of Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie

ancillary_sword_largeAncillary Sword

by Ann Leckie

Orbit Books, 2014. 356 pages.
Starred Review

Ancillary Sword is the sequel to the astonishing Ancillary Justice. Breq, the former AI controlling a ship and multiple ancillaries, now in one isolated body, is now the captain of a ship, Mercy of Kalr, and holds a rank of Fleet Captain. Because Breq still has implants to connect her consciousness with her original ship, she can instantly receive information from Mercy of Kalr, though not as effectively as when she had more bodies.

In this volume, the events in Ancillary Justice have touched off a possible civil war between different bodies of the Lord of the Radchaai (more fun with consciousness and perception). Breq has gone to a distant planetary system, hoping to help the sister of a former captain she loved who was killed around the time Breq’s ship was destroyed.

The gates ships use to travel between planetary systems are down, so Breq is seemingly isolated once she arrives. But a military ship, Sword of Atagaris, accosts them as soon as they enter the system. Something strange is going on.

Breq goes onto the space station and sets up quarters where she is not welcome. There are political undercurrents to navigate and plots and counterplots.

This book was always interesting and absorbing, but the plot path wasn’t as clear to me throughout as I would have liked. The conflicts Breq faces are mostly local, and it’s not entirely clear how it fits in with the civil war she may have touched off.

I have a strong feeling I will like this second book better after I’ve read the third book (and this is the advantage to reading a trilogy after it’s already complete), which I’m going to do as soon as possible. Then I think I’ll understand better how it all fits together.

The author still pulls off showing her readers how it would feel to see the world through multiple perspectives all at once. And how it would feel to look at the world without seeing gender.

As a side note, there’s an interesting scene when they come to the planet and there’s a Genetalia Festival going on and garlands of brightly colored penises on the wall. Breq is told, “The Athoeki weren’t very civilized…. They mostly aren’t even now. They make a division between people with penises and people without.” Imagine that.

Again there are mysteries for Breq to solve and motivations to uncover. And we get to enjoy world-building done by a genius. I’m very curious what’s going to happen next.

annleckie.com
orbitbooks.net

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Review of Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie

ancillary_justice_largeAncillary Justice

by Ann Leckie

Orbit Books, New York, 2013. 422 pages.
Starred Review
2014 Nebula Award Winner
2014 Arthur C. Clarke Award Winner
2014 British Science Fiction Association Award Winner
2014 Hugo Award Shortlist

My son gave me Ancillary Justice for Christmas because it was the best book he read in 2015. I read it on my trip to ALA Annual Conference in Boston, and it was amazing.

The book begins like a classic mystery:

The body lay naked and facedown, a deathly gray, spatters of blood staining the snow around it. It was minus fifteen degrees Celsius and a storm had passed just hours before. The snow stretched smooth in the wan sunrise, only a few tracks leading into a nearby ice-block building. A tavern. Or what passed for a tavern in this town.

There was something itchingly familiar about that out-thrown arm, the line from shoulder down to hip. But it was hardly possible I knew this person. I didn’t know anyone here. This was the icy back end of a cold and isolated planet, as far from Radchaai ideas of civilization as it was possible to be. I was only here, on this planet, in this town, because I had urgent business of my own. Bodies in the street were none of my concern.

Sometimes I don’t know why I do the things I do. Even after all this time it’s still a new thing for me not to know, not to have orders to follow from one moment to the next. So I can’t explain to you why I stopped and with one foot lifted the naked shoulder so I could see the person’s face.

Frozen, bruised, and bloody as she was, I knew her. Her name was Seivarden Vendaai, and a long time ago she had been one of my officers, a young lieutenant, eventually promoted to her own command, another ship. I had thought her a thousand years dead, but she was, undeniably, here. I crouched down and felt for a pulse, for the faintest stir of breath.

Still alive.

Seivarden Vendaai was no concern of mine anymore, wasn’t my responsibility. And she had never been one of my favorite officers. I had obeyed her orders, of course, and she had never abused any ancillaries, never harmed any of my segments (as the occasional officer did). I had no reason to think badly of her. On the contrary, her manners were those of an educated, well-bred person of good family. Not toward me, of course — I wasn’t a person, I was a piece of equipment, a part of the ship. But I had never particularly cared for her.

Reading the beginning over, it’s clear I need to read the whole book over, the better to appreciate certain details which were there all along. The world-building in this book is incredible, though now that I understand all of it, I think I’d appreciate the book even more.

The person talking was once a ship, or at least the AI controlling a ship. She had many bodies, ancillaries, taken from captured peoples and connected up to the AI. In her memories, she saw events from many different perspectives.

But something terrible happened, the ship was destroyed, and Breq’s current body is the only body left. She is now on a mission for vengeance — vengeance against one who also has multiple bodies.

We find out all this along the way. Meanwhile, Breq cares for and rehabilitates Seivarden, who was her officer more than a thousand years ago, and has some catching up to do.

This book is mind-blowing with the situations and ways of looking at the world.

Another thing I liked was the things the author does with gender. On this icy planet where the book opens, Breq is trying to figure out how to address someone.

She was probably male, to judge from the angular mazelike patterns quilting her shirt. I wasn’t entirely certain. It wouldn’t have mattered, if I had been in Radch space. Radchaai don’t care much about gender, and the language they speak — my own first language — doesn’t mark gender in any way. This language we were speaking now did, and I could make trouble for myself if I used the wrong forms. It didn’t help that cues meant to distinguish gender changed from place to place, sometimes radically, and rarely made much sense to me.

With the Radch language not marking gender, the author, seeing through Breq’s eyes, uses “she” as the default. For everyone. This is a refreshing change. I thought it was interesting that I didn’t necessarily adjust well to this, thinking of everyone as female. When I later found myself wondering which sex organs different people had — when it didn’t matter in the slightest — it dawned on me how much I see the world through gender lenses. It was interesting to look at the world a different way through the eyes of someone who was once a ship.

And besides doing amazing things with perception, this book tells a compelling story. We’ve got the whole history of how most of Breq was destroyed and what she is trying to do now. And how almost-dead Seivarden fits into that.

This is a fascinating and absorbing book. If you like science fiction at all, and if you like having your perceptions and assumptions stretched, give this one a try.

annleckie.com
www.orbitbooks.net

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Review of Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith

emma_largeEmma

A Modern Retelling

by Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon Books, New York, 2015. 361 pages.

Oh Emma, Emma – I was reminded by reading this book that she’s really an annoying character.

But I’m a huge Jane Austen fan, and I’ve been eagerly following the new modernized Jane Austen retellings as they’ve come out, and on top of that I love Alexander McCall Smith’s writings, so of course I wanted to read this one.

But I almost stopped reading in the middle. Emma’s snobbishness and superiority was a little more tolerable in the original, somehow embedded in the English class system. For a modern young woman to assume she has the right to manipulate people because she can? Not so endearing.

It was somewhat endearing to occasionally notice Emma sounding like the ladies from the No. 1 Detective Agency or philosophizing like Isabella Dalhousie, but the characters put into the modern day weren’t as likable to me.

Also interesting was that the modern author took more time with the backstory than Jane Austen did, and spent about half the book before the classic novel even got started. Then some of the crucial scenes in the classic were skimmed over rather lightly.

I have to say, though, that I did enjoy a small twist at the end, as the tables get turned a bit on Emma. It’s also a much nicer ending for her father than the original.

I don’t think of my problems with the novel as Alexander McCall Smith’s fault. Emma really is an annoying character, an interfering, manipulative busybody who thinks herself better than everybody else. Somehow I bought her view when it was dressed up in a historic period in England’s history. Weren’t the gentry actually better than everyone else? But modern day Emma I wanted to slap.

Still, I did like the way this Emma thought over her shortcomings at the end. I felt like she gave them more weight and took things more to heart than classic Emma did.

But most of the retellings have made me want to revisit Jane Austen’s classics. This one made me realize that next time I see a reworking of Emma, I’ll be much happier giving it a miss.

alexandermccallsmith.com
theaustenproject.com
pantheonbooks.com

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Review of Tower of Thorns, by Juliet Marillier

tower_of_thorns_largeTower of Thorns

by Juliet Marillier

A Roc Book, 2015. 415 pages.
Starred Review

This is the second book about Blackthorn & Grim, and yes, you should read the books in order.

In Tower of Thorns, like the first book, there’s a mysterious enchantment that Blackthorn and Grim need to break. Along the way, we find out more about both of their painful pasts.

This series is set in ancient Ireland. Monks are around, but also Wee Folk and others of the fey. Blackthorn is a wise woman. She wants nothing else than to bring vengeance and justice to the chieftain who had her husband and baby killed. But she is under conditions given by the fey who set her free from prison to not seek vengeance for seven years — and to help anyone who asks her.

In this volume, there’s a lady who lives near a tower that has cast a blight on all the land around it. But she’s not telling Blackthorn the full story.

And while Blackthorn is working on that curse, she sees an old friend, whom she’d thought was dead. He says that he will be able to bring the evil chieftain to justice if she goes with him. But there’s no way she’s going to take Grim into danger, so the only answer is to lie to him. Or so she decides.

In this installment, we get more insight into what happened in Grim’s past. We see, though Blackthorn doesn’t, how strong the bond has grown between them.

Juliet Marillier’s writing is magical. I read this on my flight across the country, and had to continue until I’d finished.

Blackthorn and Grim are described as people dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. They have their own curses of flashbacks and have trouble trusting anyone, and certainly don’t claim to faith in God. But the reader cannot help loving them as they struggle on and try to do good in the world, in spite of themselves. The description of their journey is pitch perfect and brings the reader along with them. I can’t wait for the next installment! This is a wonderful series, even if I wasn’t quite as enthralled as I was with the first volume. That was mainly because most of the people they were dealing with weren’t nearly as good-hearted as those in the first book. But Blackthorn and Grim themselves are people I can’t hear enough about.

julietmarillier.com
penguin.com

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Review of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, by Amy E. Reichert

coincidence_of_coconut_cake_largeThe Coincidence of Coconut Cake

by Amy E. Reichert

Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2015. 318 pages.
Starred Review

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake was one of those books I enjoyed so much, once I started I didn’t stop reading until I’d finished – even though most of the night had passed. (Oops!)

Lou Johnson is a chef in Milwaukee with her own restaurant, which is just beginning to turn a profit. Her fiancé, a lawyer, doesn’t really understand her passion for her restaurant. He talks about a time when she “won’t have” to work any more.

And then, when Lou brings over a coconut cake from her grandmother’s recipe to surprise her fiancé on his birthday morning – she discovers a young intern at his house, with him in his boxers. She drops the cake on the intern’s underthings.

Lou insists that she can work anyway. But her mind is not on her work, and everyone else in the restaurant is worried about her. Most unfortunately, by coincidence, that’s the very night that the new food critic in town, A. W. Wodyski, has chosen to review her restaurant. His reviews are very popular, but he hasn’t written a positive review yet. His review of Lou’s restaurant is his most scathing so far.

The critic’s real name is Al, and he’s newly arrived from London, ready to move out of Milwaukee after he’s built up a following. He ran into Lou the day he saw her walking with a divine-smelling coconut cake, and then he sees her again at a pub the day his review is published. Lou is in a terrible mood and quite drunk, knowing this review will destroy her fledgling restaurant.

At the pub, Al shows he’s new in town and not too impressed with Milwaukee. Lou, born and raised there, offers to show him the sights. They begin spending Mondays together, Lou giving a friendly tour of the city. Their friendship grows as they discover more and more in common. Naturally, as you’d expect in a romance, Al discovers the secret between them first – that she’s the one whose restaurant his review destroyed. But he’s already in love. How can he keep Lou from finding out?

What I loved about this book? The two valued each other so much. This wasn’t a romance you had to be told was happening or a romance based on good looks. You could watch it happening, and you could see two foodies bonding over common interests. Al is such a contrast with her ex-boyfriend, who didn’t understand what motivated Lou. But Al and Lou see each other for who they are and value that – well, except for the big secret they don’t realize is between them at first.

Here’s a section I liked from when they’re first getting to know one another. They’ve gone to a Chinese exhibition with a variety of sayings painted on the wall. Lou is looking at a quotation about Delight, and turns around and bumps into Al.

Al had hoped Lou would bump into him. He stood behind her while she stared at the wall for just that reason. Intrigued by her interest, he started to ponder the quotes on the wall, too. Delight – he couldn’t remember the last time he felt delight. Maybe before Eton, when he and his parents took road trips through the English countryside, stopping in little village pubs for lunches, traipsing over hilltops to see what was on the other side, and sharing a hearty meal at the end of the day. Wait – that wasn’t quite true. During his last outing with Lou, eating a buttery, cheesy burger and tasting fried cheese curds for the first time, with the sun shining and the world humming, he had felt delight. There had been no cynicism, no pretension, just pure enjoyment. Perhaps it was more about surroundings than the emperor had envisioned.

This book is the story of a relationship built on delight. And it is lovely. On top of that, it made me want to visit Milwaukee, something I’ve never wanted to do before. There’s a strong sense of place in this novel, as well as wonderful characters and a genuinely delightful romance, which faces obstacles but comes through.

This was the kind of book which I finish and think, That’s what I want. I want a relationship where I’m valued as much as Al and Lou value each other. I’d rather stay single than settle for anything less. It was a joy to read about such a couple.

amyereichert.com
SimonandSchuster.com

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Review of Wolfskin, by Juliet Marillier

wolfskin_largeWolfskin

by Juliet Marillier

Tor, New York, 2002. 493 pages.
Starred Review

I was in the mood to read an outstanding book and wanted something that would really absorb me, so I reflected that there are still some books by Juliet Marillier which I haven’t read. I chose Wolfskin because it was a first-in-a-series title that was on our shelves at my library branch.

At first, I admit, I was a little dismayed. There’s some foreshadowing that goes on which didn’t sound good. Our hero, Eyvind, a Viking, wants nothing more than to be a Wolfskin, a berserker soldier who hears Thor’s voice. When he is young, he hears a tale about two men with a blood oath of brotherhood. Later, because of that blood oath, one of the men ends up killing his beloved, who is in the family of the enemies of the blood brother. The story is held up as an example of wonderful loyalty. And soon after, Eyvind is asked to swear a blood oath to a nobleman’s brother who is staying with them, Somerled. The reader knows this can’t end well.

Well, it slowed me down. It turns out Somerled isn’t a tremendously likable character. And Eyvind is not as clever as Somerled, and gets taken advantage of.

But I knew I could expect deeper things from Juliet Marillier, and I was definitely not disappointed. Many years later, Eyvind travels across the sea to the Orkney Islands under the command of Somerled’s brother. Events that happen there require Eyvind to trust his own instincts and stand for the truth.

Here’s a section from the beginning of the book, where Eyvind’s older brother Eirik comes home for a visit.

Eirik was his hero. Eirik was a Wolfskin. That was the most glorious calling in the whole world, for surely nothing could surpass the moment when you heard Thor’s call to battle ringing in your ears, pulsing in your blood, filling every corner of your being with a red rage that shut out any thought of fear. To charge forward in pure courage, inspired by the god himself – that bold vision tugged at Eyvind’s thoughts by day and filled his dreams by night. What matter if a Wolfskin’s life were short? Such a warrior, once fallen, would be carried straight to Thor’s right hand. One day he himself would pass the test, and become one of that band to which Eirik and Hakon belonged, as had many of Eyvind’s kin in times past. The men of Hammarsby had a noble tradition in the Warfather’s service. So Eyvind practiced with the bow and with the axe. He ran and climbed, he skated and swam. He shoveled snow and hunted and grew strong, awaiting that day. Eirik’s tales kept his dreams alive. Later, perhaps his brother would tell of the autumn Viking, the riches plundered, the battles won.

Once they get to the Orkneys, the story of Nessa is told alongside Eyvind’s. Nessa is the king’s daughter, training to be the priestess of her people. But then Somerled’s brother dies, and Somerled insists that the folk of the Orkneys are responsible, and there is trouble between their peoples.

This book includes the detailed creation of a world as it may have been, with adventure and bravery, romance and passion, right and wrong, justice and treachery, loyalty and betrayal, and a touch of magic.

Juliet Marillier has done it again. (Or I should say, “did” it again. I just preordered her next book to be published in America!)

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tor.com

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Review of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley

as_chimney_sweepers_come_to_dust_largeAs Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

by Alan Bradley
read by Jayne Entwistle

Random House Audio, 2015. 11 hours on 9 compact discs.
Starred Review

I decided to listen to the next installment of the Flavia de Luce books, after learning it’s read by Jayne Entwistle, whom I heard read The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place and heard in person at the 2015 Odyssey Award reception. This added to the fun, though I think I would have enjoyed this book anyway. I was afraid it would degenerate into a standard school story — but Flavia is anything but standard.

Flavia has, however, been sent off to school in Canada. But the very night she arrives, a body falls out of the chimney in her room. The body is wrapped in a Union Jack and has been there awhile. It is clearly a murder, since the head is not attached.

Flavia has no relationship with the police in Canada, so she has little access to clues, beyond what she saw that first night. But she does have access to the school’s chemistry lab, and I was happy when her knowledge of poisons did come into play.

I wasn’t thrilled with the hints that the school was training ground for a league of espionage. That seemed a little far-fetched. However, it did make for some nice red herrings along the way. Because there are secrets everywhere at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy.

Basically, Flavia has a nice classic murder to solve. Who was killed, and how? And she’s not in her native element. Can she pull it off? Flavia is still her unique manipulative self, with a knack for uncovering secrets and an uncanny knowledge of poisons.

alanbradleyauthor.com
randomhouseaudio.com

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Review of The Mathematician’s Shiva, by Stuart Rojstaczer

mathematicians_shiva_largeThe Mathematician’s Shiva

by Stuart Rojstaczer

Penguin Books, 2014. 366 pages.

Sasha Karnokovitch, a lowly professor of atmospheric sciences, is the son of one of the greatest female mathematicians of all time. The book opens when his mother is dying. His family shows up at her bedside, but he knows that many more people will arrive when she dies.

When my father warned of the horde of mathematicians that would descend upon our house after my mother’s death, I knew what to expect. They would be grieving, but not like my family. They would be mourning not my mother but the loss of ideas, the loss of intellect. They would no longer be able to sit in a room with her and feel the magical presence of someone with the talent to find the hidden gem in what is thought to be all dross.

The Hasidic Jews have a word, dveykus, for men who always possess the spirit of God inside them. My mother, unlike my grandfather, did not believe in such things literally, but when it came to understanding mathematics, she knew that she possessed the equivalent of dveykus. Like a rebbe with acolytes who feel blessed just to be around someone whose goodness and spirituality are always present, my mother had her followers. I had been with them all of my childhood. They sought me out for my secondhand dveykus even as an adult. Now they would come and I would have to be their gracious host for seven days, the days of shiva that are a traditional part of Jewish mourning. My uncle called them the szale?cy, the crazy people. Yet he would supply the vodka, and soothe them in his own way.

This book is about that shiva. Indeed, the mathematicians descend, especially those, like Sasha’s mother Rachela, from Poland and Russia. They are convinced she proved the Navier-Stokes Theorem before she died. But where would she have hidden her work? They will search the house; they will interrogate her parrot; they will even work together to try to prove it themselves.

This is a rambling novel, with quirky characters, mostly academicians. There are stories of Rachela’s childhood during World War II and stories of how it was for Sasha growing up as the child of a genius. There are family stories and mathematician stories.

Having been in a math graduate program myself, even though this novel wasn’t a page-turner, I kept coming back to it and couldn’t resist reading about the world created here – about genius and math and family and fate and love and faith and recognition and whether cold weather helps you think clearly.

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penguin.com

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Review of Defender of the Flame, by Sylvia Engdahl

defender_of_the_flame_largeDefender of the Flame

by Sylvia Engdahl

Ad Stellae, Eugene, Oregon, 2013. 452 pages.
Starred Review

I like Sylvia Engdahl’s writing. I’d ordered copies of all of her Flame books, then hadn’t gotten around to reading them because they aren’t library books and don’t have a due date. So I got this one read on vacation. I’d accidentally purchased two copies of this third book, so thought I’d bring it along and leave that copy behind after I finished it. This plan worked well — it is a book I’m happy to pass on to family.

And even though this is the third book, the cover explains that it takes place 200 years after the events in the earlier books, so you can read it without having read the earlier books. I do now have a good idea of what happens in the earlier books, but I’m hoping that won’t spoil them.

This is a book about humanity’s future. It’s consistent with Sylvia Engdahl’s view, hinted at in the wonderful Enchantress from the Stars, that mankind’s future evolution depends on learning to use the powers of our minds.

Defender of the Flame takes place when humans are on the cusp of discovering all their minds can do. Terry Radnor is a starship pilot, and he gets in on a secret project — defending a planet colony founded two hundred years earlier, where everyone is telepathic.

Terry also goes into training and learns to harness his full potential. He finds out why he was never satisfied in relationships before. Only with the telepathic connection can he truly link with others. On the planet, he finds an idyllic situation. He will dedicate his life to protecting what they have built here.

But things on Earth, in general, are not going well. There is overcrowding, slums, poverty. And the idea of psychic power is ferociously opposed by many, even some in power.

Though I didn’t foresee what would set Terry Radnor’s life drastically off the course he was trying for and the way he would be called upon to protect the colony.

If you let it, this book can read like propaganda for Sylvia Engdahl’s world view, or perhaps I should call it her view of humanity’s future. She’s got a prime directive of non-interference that everyone seems to believe in much more firmly than I ever would.

However, ultimately it’s a hopeful view — and makes a really good story. This is fun reading, about a starship captain facing many tough choices and several different seemingly impossible scenarios and coming through. If you choose to think more deeply about the view of humanity’s future, that’s icing on the cake. Enjoyable and thought-provoking reading.

stewardsoftheflame.com
sylviaengdahl.com

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Review of The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

goblin_emperor_largeThe Goblin Emperor

by Katherine Addison

Tor Fantasy, New York, 2014. 502 pages.

This is the sort of book that usually gets me telling people I don’t particularly like fantasy written for adults — so much detail in the world-building! So many strange names and strange cultural facts! So much strangeness in names and terminology!

However, unlike some others which I won’t name, Katherine Addison won me over completely with her story, despite the abundant detail. I found myself completely caring about the protagonist and even about his detailed choices — which at first I’d been impatient about.

Maia is the half-goblin fourth son of the elven emperor. His father is ashamed of him — he looks far too much like his goblin mother. He only met his father at his mother’s funeral, when Maia was 8 years old, and then was sent back into exile, accompanied only by a tutor who was also in exile and unhappy about that.

But then the emperor and his three oldest sons are all in an airship crash. Maia must come to the capital city immediately and take the throne.

This book is the story of an 18-year-old young man with no training for leadership being suddenly exalted to the position of emperor. He must learn how to rule and how to navigate the court and the halls of power. As well as wanting to stay alive.

Maia doesn’t even know how to dance or ride a horse. Can he get himself crowned, investigate his father’s death, choose an empress, rule the country — and stay alive while he’s doing it?

Despite my original prejudices, this ended up being an absorbing and engaging story.

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