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furyofvissarion) wrote2008-07-20 10:41 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2008-07-20 10:41 pm
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Racing the Dark - Alaya Dawn Johnson. Lana is a young girl growing up in a remote part of a Hawaii-esque group of islands. Lana is a diver, one of a special group of women who harvest the rare jewels produced by mandagah fish. Unfortunately, the mandagah fish are dying, part of a larger environmental upset that results in Lana & her family moving away. Cue realistic, but nevertheless depressing, portrait of hardscrabble immigrant life in the big city. Under dubious circumstances, Lana becomes apprenticed to the witch Akua, who very obviously--to anyone but Lana--messes around in unethical & dangerous magic, & has Bad Plans for her new apprentice. We also learn that the islands are viable places to live only because angry elemental spirits were bound long ago, but they seem constantly on the verge of breaking free & causing havoc, like by erupting a volcano.
Lana starts out an engaging character, but her stubborn refusal to consider that Akua might not be a good person is both frustrating, & as the book progresses, increasingly harder to believe. It's also clear that the binding of spirits is a troubling practice. I spent a lot of the book annoyed that the characters seemed so oblivious. I know the weight of tradition is a strong persuader, but it was still annoying, & anyway, there still wasn't any excuse for Lana to be so naive.
Johnson has created a world that I find intriguing despite my disgust with a lot of its populace. I didn't realize the book was the first in a trilogy; I'm hoping to learn more about the bound spirits in future books. I like that magic very clearly has a price in this world--Akua's lost arm being the most obvious reminder--& I liked that magic is kind of a sketchy, dark power, even if Lana refuses to acknowledge this through most of the book. (One nitpick--Lana's people are apparently vegetarian... except for fish. This sort of thing annoys not only me but omnivores I know. It's pretty obvious that a fish is an animal, & if you're disgusted by the idea of eating flesh, as Lana mentions at one point, fish should clearly be included! This popped up in a Hiromi Goto book & annoyed me then too.)
White Sands, Red Menace - Ellen Klages. This is the sequel to Green Glass Sea (which doesn't come out until October NYAH NYAH--oh, pardon me...). For those of you worried about sophomore slump, fear not. It's very much worth waiting until October for (but, oh, am I glad I didn't have to!).
Dewey & Suze are now living in Alamogordo, New Mexico; Suze's scientist dad Phil is working on rocket technology taken from the Germans after the war, & Suze's scientist mom Terry is basically sitting on her ass, since there isn't a job available for her. She's taken to spreading the news nationally about what the atomic bomb does, in hopes of avoiding its use ever again. It's kind of easy to see from the start that this will end up causing a rift between her & her husband, who is totally cool with getting rocket help from imported Nazis (who perfected their technology with the help of slave labor). It's fascinating to see the beginnings of anti-communist fervor, & the naive belief that technology is unquestionably good, in everyday society: Suze & Dewey get annoyed by all the products in stores that are marked "new & improved!" & especially the ones that brag about "atomic" power somewhere on their labels, since not only do they know the real deal about how atomic power works (well, at least Dewey does, & I'd imagine Suze still knows more than the average American), they also know the grimmer, scarier side of it, that is usually minimized in public view.
Are there really that few books w/solid, realistic friendships between two girls? Or does it just feel that way? Because Dewey & Suze's friendship is definitely one of the highlights of the book (of both books)--& I'm trying to pin down what I find so validating or refreshing or what. Because they're both geeky, awkward girls? I dunno. I love how they work together--Dewey's science plus Suze's art--& I also love how they learn to fight. Not in a martial arts training sense! Just that they learn how to disagree w/each other, & that a disagreement doesn't mean the end of their friendship, & that it's worth the awkwardness to figure things out. I also liked Suze's new friendship with Ynez, a Mexican girl from the wrong side of the tracks (ie. the Mexican side of the tracks); I thought Suze's growing understanding of race & class dynamics, not only in town but in her own relationship with Ynez, was realistic & sensitively done.
And and and Dewey finds a nerdy friend who's a boy, who eventually maybe kinda becomes a boyfriend, or at least they kiss but still are pretty chill about the whole thing. Which I think may be the best part about it. I totally think Suze is a dyke--there's this scene where Ynez washes Suze's hair that is a wee bit too sensual not to ping my baby-dyke-dar. Also, when Dewey's mother appears, she's this wild woman on a motorcycle, & Suze's first reaction to her also registers on the not-a-straight-girl scale to me. (Phredd thinks Suze is totally queer too!) Yay!
Oh yeah. Dewey's mother. A lot of the tension between Dewey & Suze in the book revolves around Dewey's place as a sort-of unofficially adopted, yet not because her mother is still out there somewhere, member of Suze's family. Dewey gets along great with Terry, Suze's mom, since they can both geek out over science. Hence Suze getting jealous, & some of the bits about learning to fight I mentioned above. However, when Rita (Dewey's birth mom) shows up, it is abundantly obvious to everyone but Rita that Dewey going away with Rita to live a wild traveling life would be a bad idea. I thought, oh God, what else is going to happen to Dewey??? But luckily she manages to show Rita that both of them would be better off if Rita went away by herself. It's not the overdramatic angstfest that it could be, which is good.
Speaking of mothers, it turns out Terry is pregnant. It seems to come a little bit out of the blue--there are some paragraphs about how Dewey & Suze both have noticed that Terry has been tired & ill lately, & their secret unspoken fear is that it's radiation sickness. But no, she's pregnant. It felt a little random to me, & maybe just like it was there to heighten the tension between Terry & Phil. That would be the only part of the book that I could complain about, though, & it's pretty minor.
The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 - Edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith. My recollection of the first anthology is that it was good, but I had to work a little to get through it. I found mostly that this second volume pulled me along by itself, although--revoke my Secret Feminist Cabal membership now--I found Ursula K. LeGuin's "Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" tiresome & way too long. On the other hand, I can see why Raphael Carter's "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K. N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" is the only short story to be a solo winner of the Tiptree. I was dubious of the mock academic paper format, but it worked really well & the story was surprisingly hilarious. I found "Nirvana High" by Eileen Gunn and Leslie What very disturbing--it's about Cobain High, a school for troubled youth where "entertain us!" (I hope I don't have to explain that reference?) is a catchphrase used by teachers to mean "pay attention!" & by peers to mean "stop whatever you're doing that's interesting and do what we want you to do." And predictably I really liked Nalo Hopkinson's guest of honor speech, "Looking for Clues," about growing up a PoC fan. Oh, & I wish the excerpts from Johanna Sinisalo's Troll had been proofread properly: the accents got all jacked up, resulting in Kalevalaic names like Lemminkdinen & the like.
Lana starts out an engaging character, but her stubborn refusal to consider that Akua might not be a good person is both frustrating, & as the book progresses, increasingly harder to believe. It's also clear that the binding of spirits is a troubling practice. I spent a lot of the book annoyed that the characters seemed so oblivious. I know the weight of tradition is a strong persuader, but it was still annoying, & anyway, there still wasn't any excuse for Lana to be so naive.
Johnson has created a world that I find intriguing despite my disgust with a lot of its populace. I didn't realize the book was the first in a trilogy; I'm hoping to learn more about the bound spirits in future books. I like that magic very clearly has a price in this world--Akua's lost arm being the most obvious reminder--& I liked that magic is kind of a sketchy, dark power, even if Lana refuses to acknowledge this through most of the book. (One nitpick--Lana's people are apparently vegetarian... except for fish. This sort of thing annoys not only me but omnivores I know. It's pretty obvious that a fish is an animal, & if you're disgusted by the idea of eating flesh, as Lana mentions at one point, fish should clearly be included! This popped up in a Hiromi Goto book & annoyed me then too.)
White Sands, Red Menace - Ellen Klages. This is the sequel to Green Glass Sea (which doesn't come out until October NYAH NYAH--oh, pardon me...). For those of you worried about sophomore slump, fear not. It's very much worth waiting until October for (but, oh, am I glad I didn't have to!).
Dewey & Suze are now living in Alamogordo, New Mexico; Suze's scientist dad Phil is working on rocket technology taken from the Germans after the war, & Suze's scientist mom Terry is basically sitting on her ass, since there isn't a job available for her. She's taken to spreading the news nationally about what the atomic bomb does, in hopes of avoiding its use ever again. It's kind of easy to see from the start that this will end up causing a rift between her & her husband, who is totally cool with getting rocket help from imported Nazis (who perfected their technology with the help of slave labor). It's fascinating to see the beginnings of anti-communist fervor, & the naive belief that technology is unquestionably good, in everyday society: Suze & Dewey get annoyed by all the products in stores that are marked "new & improved!" & especially the ones that brag about "atomic" power somewhere on their labels, since not only do they know the real deal about how atomic power works (well, at least Dewey does, & I'd imagine Suze still knows more than the average American), they also know the grimmer, scarier side of it, that is usually minimized in public view.
Are there really that few books w/solid, realistic friendships between two girls? Or does it just feel that way? Because Dewey & Suze's friendship is definitely one of the highlights of the book (of both books)--& I'm trying to pin down what I find so validating or refreshing or what. Because they're both geeky, awkward girls? I dunno. I love how they work together--Dewey's science plus Suze's art--& I also love how they learn to fight. Not in a martial arts training sense! Just that they learn how to disagree w/each other, & that a disagreement doesn't mean the end of their friendship, & that it's worth the awkwardness to figure things out. I also liked Suze's new friendship with Ynez, a Mexican girl from the wrong side of the tracks (ie. the Mexican side of the tracks); I thought Suze's growing understanding of race & class dynamics, not only in town but in her own relationship with Ynez, was realistic & sensitively done.
And and and Dewey finds a nerdy friend who's a boy, who eventually maybe kinda becomes a boyfriend, or at least they kiss but still are pretty chill about the whole thing. Which I think may be the best part about it. I totally think Suze is a dyke--there's this scene where Ynez washes Suze's hair that is a wee bit too sensual not to ping my baby-dyke-dar. Also, when Dewey's mother appears, she's this wild woman on a motorcycle, & Suze's first reaction to her also registers on the not-a-straight-girl scale to me. (Phredd thinks Suze is totally queer too!) Yay!
Oh yeah. Dewey's mother. A lot of the tension between Dewey & Suze in the book revolves around Dewey's place as a sort-of unofficially adopted, yet not because her mother is still out there somewhere, member of Suze's family. Dewey gets along great with Terry, Suze's mom, since they can both geek out over science. Hence Suze getting jealous, & some of the bits about learning to fight I mentioned above. However, when Rita (Dewey's birth mom) shows up, it is abundantly obvious to everyone but Rita that Dewey going away with Rita to live a wild traveling life would be a bad idea. I thought, oh God, what else is going to happen to Dewey??? But luckily she manages to show Rita that both of them would be better off if Rita went away by herself. It's not the overdramatic angstfest that it could be, which is good.
Speaking of mothers, it turns out Terry is pregnant. It seems to come a little bit out of the blue--there are some paragraphs about how Dewey & Suze both have noticed that Terry has been tired & ill lately, & their secret unspoken fear is that it's radiation sickness. But no, she's pregnant. It felt a little random to me, & maybe just like it was there to heighten the tension between Terry & Phil. That would be the only part of the book that I could complain about, though, & it's pretty minor.
The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 - Edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith. My recollection of the first anthology is that it was good, but I had to work a little to get through it. I found mostly that this second volume pulled me along by itself, although--revoke my Secret Feminist Cabal membership now--I found Ursula K. LeGuin's "Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" tiresome & way too long. On the other hand, I can see why Raphael Carter's "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K. N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" is the only short story to be a solo winner of the Tiptree. I was dubious of the mock academic paper format, but it worked really well & the story was surprisingly hilarious. I found "Nirvana High" by Eileen Gunn and Leslie What very disturbing--it's about Cobain High, a school for troubled youth where "entertain us!" (I hope I don't have to explain that reference?) is a catchphrase used by teachers to mean "pay attention!" & by peers to mean "stop whatever you're doing that's interesting and do what we want you to do." And predictably I really liked Nalo Hopkinson's guest of honor speech, "Looking for Clues," about growing up a PoC fan. Oh, & I wish the excerpts from Johanna Sinisalo's Troll had been proofread properly: the accents got all jacked up, resulting in Kalevalaic names like Lemminkdinen & the like.