This was well written and well read by the author. It defines its characters well. And makes them rise out of the page. It knows what it wants to do, it gets to the business of doing it, but doesnt get to heavy on the way of getting there.
A really affecting story of race, queerness, history, and freeing one's self.
Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport's fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology …
Sci-fantasy with heavy-handed social commentary
3 stars
I wanted to like this book more. A brash young woman challenging racism and sexism while trying to simultaneously conceal and learn to use secret goddess-given powers? Advanced technology along with gods and goddesses answering prayers or creating monsters? Sounds great in theory. The problems arise with the execution.
First, the protagonist, Ikenna, is exceptionally dense. OK, she's grieving the unexpected death of her grandfather, but that's no excuse to simply take the word of the very first person who suggests that his death wasn't accidental as to who the responsible parties might be and fixate on murdering those people for the first 2/3 of the book. She repeatedly misses obvious clues that she's being played. I am not one of those people who solves mysteries ahead of the conclusion of a mystery book, but even I could see it coming. She trusts and distrusts completely and suddenly, based on …
I wanted to like this book more. A brash young woman challenging racism and sexism while trying to simultaneously conceal and learn to use secret goddess-given powers? Advanced technology along with gods and goddesses answering prayers or creating monsters? Sounds great in theory. The problems arise with the execution.
First, the protagonist, Ikenna, is exceptionally dense. OK, she's grieving the unexpected death of her grandfather, but that's no excuse to simply take the word of the very first person who suggests that his death wasn't accidental as to who the responsible parties might be and fixate on murdering those people for the first 2/3 of the book. She repeatedly misses obvious clues that she's being played. I am not one of those people who solves mysteries ahead of the conclusion of a mystery book, but even I could see it coming. She trusts and distrusts completely and suddenly, based on little to no evidence, and with predictably bad results. It was frustrating.
Second, there's a jarring contrast between the book's YA tone and its horribly brutal events - Mareen, the republic that Ikenna reveres even though she wants to reform it--wantonly slaughters its would-be soldiers in training in the name of making those left at the end more fit to fight.
Third, the heavy-handed nature of the social critique of racism and sexism. An odd choice was the author's seemingly deliberate avoidance of the words "race" and "racism" to describe how the light-skinned Mareenians view the dark-skinned Khanaians with contempt and hatred--only to throw the word "racism" right in there close to the end.
With all that said, the inventive setting and the fast-paced action are lots of fun. And when the plot stops dragging and we finally get the big twists at the end, Ikenna did manage to surprise me with her avoidance of the traps laid out by her many enemies. Read it, but keep your expectations low and you'll have a good time.
if you want to show your cat who's boss, read this book and then get a dog
4 stars
Somewhat drily written, not to the extent of an academic paper but long sentences and some with semicolons, so this was a long bit by bit read for me. The authors are anti-indoor cat (which I gather is the general sentiment in England, but maybe living by an LA freeway will change your mind) and, somewhat interestingly but kind of bothers me, propose more selective breeding for cats to tone done their hunting instincts. Admittedly, they are experts who cite a lot of research (and point out the lack of some, e.g. with the accusations that cats are decimating endangered species), have actually trained their cats in a non-forceful manner that respects their independent and paranoid natures (the elaborate training prescriptions may have you thinking might as well get a dog instead), and obviously love their cats. I could have used this book two cats ago, and if I break …
Somewhat drily written, not to the extent of an academic paper but long sentences and some with semicolons, so this was a long bit by bit read for me. The authors are anti-indoor cat (which I gather is the general sentiment in England, but maybe living by an LA freeway will change your mind) and, somewhat interestingly but kind of bothers me, propose more selective breeding for cats to tone done their hunting instincts. Admittedly, they are experts who cite a lot of research (and point out the lack of some, e.g. with the accusations that cats are decimating endangered species), have actually trained their cats in a non-forceful manner that respects their independent and paranoid natures (the elaborate training prescriptions may have you thinking might as well get a dog instead), and obviously love their cats. I could have used this book two cats ago, and if I break down and get another one I'll give this a refresher read.
This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, …
Disturbing, excellent story
5 stars
Content warning
Graphic Murder, Death, Misogyny Moderate Rape, Sexual assault, Miscarriage Minor Incest, Trafficking, Sexual violence
"The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave."
That line from the book description echoes my reactions:
This story clawed into me with its vivid descriptions of mundane, good, bad and evil deeds set in a future Botswana (and world) where very long lives are possible.
But what is the true cost of those long lives, especially for everyone who isn't a cis male?
Please see the content warnings.
This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring …
Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport's fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology …
I have started listening to this book at 1.5x speed, something I rarely do, because although Ikenna is irritating as fuck in her rashness and inability to catch on when people are manipulating her, I still want to find out whether she chooses to stick with the bigoted republic in which she was raised, whose rulers killed her grandfather, or do the sensible thing and defect to the substitute family who were reaching out to her and offering her support as well as an escape hatch.
In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful …
Hard to put down. And hard to pick up again.
5 stars
It's certainly not a fun book, but it's extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.
What makes this apocalypse so horrifying, and the story so engaging, is how matter-of-fact Lauren is in describing everything in her diary. It's the world she grew up in, so it's normal to her, though she can see clearly even at 14 that it's unsustainable. There's a sharp generational divide between those who remember what things were like before, but all that is just history to her.
Lauren's present is hopeless and brutal, but her diary doesn't linger on the ever-present brutality like a horror novel would. She acknowledges it, of course, but she's focused on how to survive it so she can build something better.
The setting resonates so well today in part because the societal fears of the 1980s that Butler was extrapolating from are the same fears that …
It's certainly not a fun book, but it's extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.
What makes this apocalypse so horrifying, and the story so engaging, is how matter-of-fact Lauren is in describing everything in her diary. It's the world she grew up in, so it's normal to her, though she can see clearly even at 14 that it's unsustainable. There's a sharp generational divide between those who remember what things were like before, but all that is just history to her.
Lauren's present is hopeless and brutal, but her diary doesn't linger on the ever-present brutality like a horror novel would. She acknowledges it, of course, but she's focused on how to survive it so she can build something better.
The setting resonates so well today in part because the societal fears of the 1980s that Butler was extrapolating from are the same fears that have been re-stoked to create our modern political moment, and the problems she focused on remain unsolved. (I go into a bit more literary analysis on my website if you're interested in that sort of thing.)
The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre) is a 1961 book …
These reflections on violence have made us realize the frequent discrepancy between the cadres of the nationalist party and the masses, and the way they are out of step with each other. In any union or political organization there is a traditional gap between the masses who demand an immediate, unconditional improve-ment of their situation, and the cadres who, gauging the difficulties likely to be created by employers, put a restraint on their demands. Hence the oft-remarked tenacious discontent of the masses with regard to the cadres. After a day of demonstrations, while the cadres are celebrating victory, the masses well and truly get the feeling they have been betrayed. It is the repeated dem-onstrations for their rights and the repeated labor disputes that politicize the masses. A politically informed union official is someone who knows that a local dispute is not a crucial con-frontation between him and management. [...] The creation of nationalist parties in the colonized countries is contemporary with the birth of an intellectual and business elite.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and …
The time-travel project was the first time in history that any person had been brought out of their time and into their far future. In this sense, the predicament of the expats was unique. But the rhythms of loss and asylum, exodus and loneliness, roll like floods across human history. I'd seen it happen in my own life.
Close to Cronenberg and deeply indebted to Kafka, this gaucho-punk novel offers an explosive interpretation …
Another interesting book from my local library's expanding collection.
If you're someone who, like me, is constantly searching for new books to read, I urge you to sign up for your local library's newsletter. Mine divides it by subject so I get a bi-weekly list of new sci-fi and fantasy titles.