Matthew's Journal

Given my desire not to sign up to an entire subscription service just to watch a film, I only managed to watch 3 of the nominees in this category. Which I think is just about enough to vote anyway...

1. The Green Knight. [previously reviewed]
2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This is fun; it felt fresh whilst still ticking the MCU boxes; not sure where it fits on the representation/orientalism axis
3. Encanto. [previously reviewed]

Time to vote for the short stories...

1. Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather, Sarah Pinsker. A fun, creepy story, excellent use of unusual form.
2. Mr. Death, Alix E. Harrow. A nicely told tale, good twist, plenty of heart without getting mushy.
3. Unknown Number, Blue Neustifter. I read this when it appeared on twitter, and it obviously spoke to a number of people; nicely executed.
4. Proof by Induction, José Pablo Iriarte. There's a lot going on in this, but somehow it didn't quite land for me.
5. Tangles, Seanan McGuire. A lot less bleak than much of what I've read by McGuire, but I think I wasn't invested enough in the world for this to appeal.
6. The Sin of America, Catherynne M. Valente. An angry, and necessarily horrible tale.

I had some trouble ranking these, especially the top two or three...

1. Unseelie Brothers, Ltd., Fran Wilde. Tailors who make show-stopping gowns, if you can bear the cost...
2. Bots of the Lost Ark, Suzanne Palmer. Really pleased to have another "bots" story, this was delightful.
3. Colors of the Immortal Palette, Caroline M. Yoachim. Art, immortality, colour, coping with change. I enjoyed the construction of this.
4. That Story Isn’t the Story, John Wiswell. A creepy horror about the trauma of escaping abusive relationships
5. L’Esprit de L’Escalier, Catherynne M. Valente. What if Orpheus hadn't looked back, but the result still wasn't a happy ever after? This is nicely done, but grim.
6. O2 Arena, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. I get what the author is angry about, but I still didn't like this, and I'm not sure it's that well put together either.

I read (and reviewed) these a while back, but didn't get round to ranking them.

1. A Desolation called Peace, Arkady Martine.
2. Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki.
3. A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark.
4. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers.
5. She Who Became The Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan.
6. Project Hail Mary Andy Weir.

Again, I'm quite sure about places 1, 2, and 6, but found ranking the middle ones rather difficult.

Voting deadline is 11 August, so I should get the shorter fiction done too, and maybe the Lodestar also...

I've read all of these (in fairly short order), so I now must rank them. I think:

1. A Spindle Splintered, Alix E. Harrow. A very meta take on Sleeping Beauty, but manages to be an engaging and engrossing and sometimes surprising story at the same time.
2. Fireheart Tiger, Aliette de Bodard. A story of colonialism, escaping abusive relationships, and fire elementals, in a beautifully drawn world.
3. Elder Race, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Two narrators, one fantasy, one SF, tell the same story from different perspectives. A cute device, nicely executed, although I found one of the narrators a bit irritating
4. A Psalm for the Wild-Built Becky Chambers. A story about finding oneself and finding vocation; very Becky Chambers (and I felt it ended just as it was getting going).
5. Across the Green Grass Fields Seanan McGuire. Another Wayward Children book; less bleak than some.
6. The Past Is Red Catherynne M. Valente. Post-apocalypse, where the people of our time are simply "Fuckwits". We do probably need books like this, but far too grim for my liking.

I think it's fair to say I knew which were my first and last choices, and the ones in the middle were harder to rank.

This book is a queerer retelling of events preceding the reign of the Hongwu Emperor in 14th-century China. The first viewpoint character we meet is the daughter of a peasant family who are slowly starving to death in the famine. Early on, she chooses to take up another's destiny, whatever the cost.

The plot is twisty and compelling (though I thought it lost focus a bit in the middle), and there's a very satisfying level of political machination going on. Very few of the characters are likeable, though: some of the antagonists are simply arseholes, but even those we are more sympathetic towards rarely show much in the way of kindness. Which I guess is making a point (echoed by the characters) that desire is the cause of suffering, but towards the end I found myself wanting to know how everything would turn out, rather than really rooting for any of the main characters to succeed...

The fantastic elements of the setting make little difference to the plot. ( mild spoiler ).

The main characters of this are a young trans runaway, the captain of a donut shop, and the Queen of Hell. For the first half or so I was wondering if their seemingly-disparate stories (which you know are going to cross at some point) were going to turn into a coherent whole or a mess. I think the author did manage to stick the landing in this case, and the ending was satisfying to me.

As a musician, I loved the sections about music, and how we can communicate through it; and how that was also a mirror of what was going on in the story. There's quite a range of music discussed, too, from the classics through anime tunes and on to Bartók. And, of course, there's a lot said about the sacrifices women make for the people round them. It's a fundamentally optimistic tale, I think, despite all the demons and darkness.

This is one of those books that's a real page-turner, and you want to keep reading, but if you stop and think about it too much you go "hang on a minute...". Also, a bit "one smart man is all you need". It's hard to say much more without serious spoilers; we start with the narrator waking up with no idea where he is nor any recollection of how he came to be there.( Major plot spoilers )

The last of the books in the Wayfarers universe (to call it a series seems a bit of a stretch). It still isn't the sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet I was hoping for. It's a very gentle book - if you liked that about Chambers' previous works, you'll like it, if you previously found yourself hoping for a bit more action, you'll be disappointed.

There is some plot, but largely this book is about the relationships between the various characters of different races, and how events that transpire affect their relationships with each other. It's a book about cultural differences, family, and how we relate to our own past.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Memory Called Empire, although I read it long enough ago that I'd forgotten much of what went on; so I was looking forward to the next Teixcalaan book. It didn't disappoint :)

It's difficult to adequately describe everything that's going on in this book (particularly while avoiding spoilers), but some of the themes of Memory around colonisation and language return, alongside questions of identity and personhood. There's a lot of intrigue, some pretty alien aliens (though I picked up on the nature of the aliens quite early in the book), a number of plot twists, and still time for some delightfully funny moments.

Highly recommended, but do read Memory first if you haven't already!