Hello Darkness! Note. read the whole thing, my heart hasn't been the same since then.Hello Darkness! Note. read the whole thing, my heart hasn't been the same since then....more
An outstanding collection, Tiptree, Our Dark Mistress from now on and forever refined quite the skill of making short stories. Strong, blunt, bleak anAn outstanding collection, Tiptree, Our Dark Mistress from now on and forever refined quite the skill of making short stories. Strong, blunt, bleak and consistently filled with despair, you will leave shaken an unsettled. I took little sips of this book, taking it at once wouldn’t be wise.
- The Last Flight of Doctor Ain - ⭐ 5 She did what... stars - The Screwfly Solution - ⭐18 give me anxiety stars ⭐ 6.2 Slap in the face stars - And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side ⭐3 we almost got there but didn't stars - The Girl Who Was Plugged In - ⭐ 16 sharp as a blade stars - The Man Who Walked Home - ⭐ 20 falling stars - And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways ⭐12 lazy stars ⭐ 3 meh stars - The Women Men Don't See - ⭐1000 Sexy native stars ⭐32 cheeky stars ⭐ 99 Brilliant stars - Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light! ⭐ 826 you hurt me bad stars - Houston, Houston, Do You Read? - ⭐ 44 savage stars ⭐ 15 stars of doom - With Delicate Mad Hands- ⭐ 15 Solid first part stars ⭐ 6 Solid ending stars ⭐ 8 Lousy middle part stars - A Momentary Taste of Being - ⭐ 100000 Cosmic jizz stars ⭐ 99 I needed my hazmat suit stars ⭐ 3 Why? stars - We Who Stole the Dream - ⭐ 32 Why do you hurt us stars ⭐ 15 I want to know more stars ⭐ 15 I dont want to know more stars - Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - ⭐ 38 trippy stars ⭐ 59 fighting the friendzone forever stars - Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death - ⭐ 1000 awesome stars ⭐ 562 best title ever stars ⭐ 18 love hurts stars - On the Last Afternoon - ⭐ 300 Cosmic jizz stars ⭐ 350 I needed my hazmat suit stars ⭐ 3 Why? stars ⭐ 3 Creepy dad stars - She Waits for All Men Born - ⭐ 6 Why? stars ⭐ 3 meh stars ⭐ 54 evil savage squirrel men stars - Slow Music - ⭐ 17 Why do you hurt us stars ⭐ 89 cinematic ending stars ⭐ 52 we didn't quite get there, but close stars - And So On, and So On - ⭐ 10 stars of doom ⭐ 85 that´s why stars...more
I had a recent streak of books that leave me wondering on how to consider them. This was one of them. Did I enjoy reading it? No, it was nasty. Do I tI had a recent streak of books that leave me wondering on how to consider them. This was one of them. Did I enjoy reading it? No, it was nasty. Do I think it is a good book? Yes. I have been there before, but the other detail that defined the latest experiences was that as I thought it was brilliant, some of its flaws and aspects that I disliked (subjective, of course) were big too.
First off, I think the whole plot was very smart, some turns were very neat and I didn’t see them coming at all. The whole setting was different and interesting. It has a gritty and harsh quality that feels a lot more apocalyptic than a lot of books. Themes like race, class, religion, the absence of morality in survivor mode come strong in the narrative and can give you a headache or two.
The main characters are very well defined and feel very real, you really want them to pull through or to fail (eh, depending which one), getting invested with them very quickly.
It made me consider about what it is usually expected from heroes, more an antihero in this case, but still. (view spoiler)[ How can we ask everything from a hero, including sacrifice, when the hero has never had something? We assume people will sacrifice everything because it is needed, morally right or correct, when they may don’t have the tools to do it, the mental and affective frame to make that choice. Who is at fault, the hero or the blank expectation? (hide spoiler)]
Now, the parts that were not so good for me. The setting, as much as it was interesting, it didn’t mesh through the story. You have a natural disaster that infects people and along the way you forget about it, because it seems it has no major consequence, the infected are dropped rather quickly and appear to be not more than an element of shock. No other direct ramifications from the natural disaster are shown in the life of people. Some cool futuristic details don’t make a complete picture of a timing either, the different time frames have little distinction on their core.
Finally, an even more subjective consideration related to my displeasure when reading the book: the female figures felt empty and a complete vehicle to the male machinations and plot. As for being violent and harsh, it is part of a narrative and setting the author wanted to portray, but it became too much. The crass sexual and violent thoughts in Argenis mind came through more exploitative or with the intention to shock or disgust more than a needed part of the narrative, I think you could transmit the message without getting overboard with it and I felt it made a disservice to the poignant experiences the characters suffer.
It is a very good book, clever, rough and original, but I can’t say it is an experience I want to keep present. ...more
As I stumbled through weird chaotic paragraphs, having no clue who was even talking, I was hooked by little things, funny moments, fascinating tidbitsAs I stumbled through weird chaotic paragraphs, having no clue who was even talking, I was hooked by little things, funny moments, fascinating tidbits of worldbuilding (which world? Who knows!), witty remarks, satisfaction for an angry tirade, troubled by uncomfortable scenes. My experience was getting lost, complaining with frustration (huh?!), throwing the book to the wall (metaphorically, no book was harmed here) to later return with an avid curiosity. It´s like having the hots for an annoyingly brilliant troublesome person.
Many have reviewed this book before; good, bad or whatever. A lot of what had been said is true, at once. It is complicated. Frustrating. Angry. Funny. Controversial. Witty. Brilliant. Not really outdated, sadly.
Being dismissive about it being outdated, just gives it more emphasis. The same for being controversial, which it is. What about angry? Why it shouldn’t be? Anyway, Russ answers herself in the last pages in a spectacular way. She had a lot to say and did it in her own terms. ...more
This has to be one of the most reactionary works I have read lately. The word feminist was thrown around about this book and I was expecting the hit aThis has to be one of the most reactionary works I have read lately. The word feminist was thrown around about this book and I was expecting the hit along the way, but was massively disappointed. My bad. In the end, expectations aside, it never quite took off, lots of interesting formations to fly splendidly … just crashing.
To be honest, the more I think about the book, my displeasure grows, so I wanted to get it off my chest, especially after reading Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. It was a funky connection, because I see both books dealing with the same issue (surprise!) of conformity in very different ways and degrees of success.
Some parts are beautifully written, heartfelt moments here and there, the mood was smoothly sustained, but the particularities were a mess and underneath, troubling. I get the despair about being the last of a civilization, the tortured path each woman walked, the years of imprisonment, but grouping and mixing the same despair with the impossibility of motherhood, being without a male partner… wtf? Yeah, let´s just die without boyfriends. Ok, that is partially unfair, but really, it is ridiculous to read that apparently women only can develop a meaningful connection with men, that relationships formed within the women are just empty substitutes, both sexual and non-sexual. Apparently, gays and bisexuals don’t really exist and there is nothing to find without a heterosexual romantic/sexual relationship... nothing at all.
Just the able bodied survive, I am all in favor of euthanasia and no one who wants to avoid terrible pain should be forced to endure it, but every time someone had a problem… better die. Without men, there is no joy or comfort in creativity, in a peaceful existence, being alone is the worst it can happen, yes, they do stuff around, but just… meh. It draws the idea that the majority of these women had a dimmed intellect… because unknown reasons and yet, they suffer an existential anguish that doesn’t exactly fit and the simple pleasures of a simple mind are negated. I am not expecting the heavenly utopia of some feminist SF, just not this… poverty. I would find it equally ridiculous if it was men instead of women.
I have to stop now, because there are no more stars of rating to remove left. I am having trouble leaving one, just for how some parts were described, the never-spoiling-frozen-meat and how hard I laughed when the young girl recalls being told that only a penis can take your virginity away. After the laugh, part of the book´s core is revealed.
Fun fact. It came to mind the book The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa on how it achieved what I Who Have Never Known Men couldn’t regarding the mysterious circumstances surrounding the plot. ...more
My kingdom for an Editor Kea's Flight by Erika Hammerschmidt
This is such a hard book to rate. I found two sides, one which I liked, the other I didn’t My kingdom for an Editor Kea's Flight by Erika Hammerschmidt
This is such a hard book to rate. I found two sides, one which I liked, the other I didn’t much. For one, the whole set of ideas, characters (on the first half) and setting are amazing. On the other side, the execution, the lack of editor work and choice of progression were problematic for me.
The book takes a deep dive into tricky and not explored enough themes like autism, mental health, abortion, human rights, disability and how relative the normal label can be and the dire consequences of letting prejudice rule things. In a dystopian future where abortion is substituted by embryo removal (because is a sin, of course) of those deemed undesirable (another murky arena here), the way out is to send the unwanted to grow on decaying ships with shady people to take care of them, on course to probable planets to establish colonies. That felt a bit of a stretch, humanity has refined through history the out-of-sight (supposedly… come on) disposal of entire groups of people in cheaper, less fantastic ways. Anyhoo, we are in one of those ships, filled with kids that are treated poorly, which take us to the very real and actual misunderstanding of how some of these disorders work, where does that characteristic relates to value as a person and what opportunities might be denied by ignorance, worse, how much damage these attitudes can bring.
The characters are where the book shines, for the first half at least. We get a truly neurodivergent group of people, the mains being Aspies and autistic developed with thoughtful care, and they give us a glimpse of their perspective…. Maybe a little too much and here is where the first issue pokes out, there is a flood of ideas to communicate that aren’t filtered and the problem is not those ideas on themselves (I found them extremely interesting), but the delivery. They became extensive monologues that bury the plot, and the characters interactions feel less genuine and more as a stiff vehicle for those ideas. After the first half, even the characters are deeply buried in this flood and things start to fall to pieces. The interesting characters lose consistency, having huge shifts from one moment to another, lacking the progression and depth expected for them to take place. And finally, the ideas themselves lose track.
I guess the issues that bugged me more are borne of this departure. Take Kea for example, at first, she is strong willed and has a very clear independent and creative thought, this is completely washed away by her love for Draz. I kept thinking: Poor girl! The excessive praise for Draz, checking on him for things she already knows, it made a hollow out of her, she even starts doubting her value. (view spoiler)[ What if she didn’t have the opportunity to trick Screen Man at the end? Where would her self-worth would be? (hide spoiler)] You also wonder here, where is the worth of non-savant neurodivergents? She is a supposedly linguistic savant (in a way, it felt more like she liked languages a lot, but I am ignorant of the issue, so…) and by that her super ability “isn’t useful”. Like… what? And here comes Draz, the computer savant, I didn’t understand the “leader” notion, it felt mismatched. I think their notion of group is the same, the way it holds itself and how they interact is different, but having ideas and hacking doesn’t make a leader out of you, hell, you don’t need to have any savant ability for that, it is a quality and hard work on its own. I don’t know what I missed, but the role of the group in some point was make up chatter and poke their eyes out… they couldn’t even pack some water? Study a blueprint of the ship? Check the situation beforehand? You don’t need to be a genius to do such things and neither the group has to hold hands and sing kumbaya, being overwhelmed and such, more like... purposeful ninjas (don’t get me started with ninja-Draz scene) with their tasks defined? I have to confess; the level of frustration was off the charts by this point.
The Gabria situation was shallowly handled (this is subjective of course), a huge wasted opportunity too and felt a bit weird the “I have empathy when others have empathy for me”. Why be greedy with empathy-like-gold-nuggets? It kind of gave me the impression that it reinforces the stereotype about care and empathy for neurodivergent people, when it is a more complex subject. Maybe I am not seeing something, the Gabria chick thing could have been a nice way to link and explore both things a bit deeper, just saying.
I don’t think I will continue the series, I liked very much what the author has to say, but the book didn’t work for me as I would love to....more
The word is potential. This book has plenty and I find it hopeful that more stories could be set in the same world. From my very comfortable chair, I The word is potential. This book has plenty and I find it hopeful that more stories could be set in the same world. From my very comfortable chair, I think it was a bit all over the place. The city as a character itself, that is nice, I liked it a lot in other books before; here it is a little off and that is the perception I had all along. Don’t get me wrong, the worldbuilding is very good, the city is interesting but at its core it isn’t anything new, a lot of aspects are very simply translated to modern contra parts, which is not bad in itself, it just doesn’t go beyond and it kind of pulls off the excitement that begins to build.
The story shares a similar dynamic. It starts very slow in a way, not for lack of action or perspectives, but it feels all over the place too. It has promising characters, but again, not solid, they are competing a lot with the city as a character, a vehicle for it to take form, making them less defined, not that it should be one way or another. Halfway it gives a very good grip, the flow starts to pull and takes shape, the story and characters have consistency and a firm ground, to lose it again at the end, the characters turning into a complete mush, very frustrating here.
All that said, it is important to say that the characters are awesome. A lesbian warrior riding an orca? They sure are! Interesting and exciting, I wish they were more developed, I would love to read more about them, there is a lot of promise here.
In my very subjective opinion, I just like more characterization than flashy stunts. No need to go very deep, just more solid and consistent. ...more
First of all, thank god because we are constantly aware of where the penises are and their status. And that is the quirky side I found in the book. ItFirst of all, thank god because we are constantly aware of where the penises are and their status. And that is the quirky side I found in the book. It… is… SO… homoerotic. But of the unsettling kind: the macho way. It is all uh! My tight body! My penis. Where is his penis? Oh, a female passing: yeah, erection. I have to say that I am divided between fascination of the plot and setting of the book and repulsion from the sleazy perspective that guides us through the book.
The amazing part, oh yeah. The setting is utterly interesting, being placed in Nigeria, detaches itself from the fistful popular scenarios with a very vivid rendition (for me, as an outsider) of the characters life and particularities. Add to the mix the alien contact, government agencies, life after that first contact and the effects on people: healing, corpses being brought back to life, reconfigurations and the sensitives, people with psychic powers. And the mechanics of all these are fascinating, it is not that they read minds as we could imagine it, but that there is an alien element in the environment and embed in the bodies that forms an organic network in which thoughts and minds can connect, an internet of the mind via fungus. Amazing well-developed stuff, hands down.
I found the author intriguing. There are strong, very interesting characters, women, gays, but their perspective is minimal and the interesting women most of the time are wanting to, shagging our main or being the vehicle of his desire. He is a sleazy guy, described very correctly as sexist, greedy, materialistic and is his perspective what we got. Are we being played? Ok, taking my tinfoil hat off, I still wonder.
Maybe I am too sensible or my patience has been eroded with age. And here it is the troublesome side. Our main, Kaaro, is very consistent through the book, he even has some kind of growth while maintaining his cynicism, sleaziness and detached involvement, but I found his character off. He doesn’t like people and is rude, but has a very thin skin and ends always happily being dotted on. Doesn’t like bullies and violence, but flourish in them, like them. He dislikes so much the government work, but gets the pay, has initiative and pride at how good he is at it, even having an emergency plan to escape, but never using it and remains, and at the same time, confessing he loves it. He gets a chunk of life knowledge through… plot and remains painfully childish. He is hypocrite all right, even acknowledges some bits through the plot, but it doesn’t really match.
Some may be discouraged by the jumping narrative between past and present, I really don’t mind it, but the pace is affected when this rigid consistency makes it less meaningful and blurs the circumstances between jumps.
In the end, I don’t know, I would want to know what happens and what more interesting things are in the next books, but I am not sure if I can stomach our guide and this particular perspective.
Fun fact. Somewhere in the book, a character says that you can assess a community in how they treat woman. Are we being played? (Puts tinfoil hat on) ...more
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