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octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)
I've been on a good run of Trek books lately, and this is another better-than-average addition to the franchise, which is all the more astonishing as it strongly features Data. I know he has a lot of fans, but I've never cared that much for him. The slavish desire to be human is not a motivation which has ever garnered any sympathy from me, so when a story like this comes along, in which his motivation is the identification and development of android rather than human culture, I am infinitely more interested. It seems to me that diversity in Trek is best served by characters being true to what they are instead of trying to fit the norms of something else, which might explain why Data's never really struck a chord with me. It helps that Mancour has cut way back on the tedious, irritating characterisation which writers seem to love, admittedly based on the show, that has Data never understanding idiom or slang. (Just fucking feed him Brewer's and be done with it, why don't you, the constant misunderstanding wasn't even funny the first time round.)
But anyway. The Enterprise comes across a group of androids, fleeing enslavement by their creators. Those androids had engaged in violent terrorist actions in order to get free, and the creators want to hold them accountable and ultimately execute them for it, so Picard is in a moral quandary when it comes to which side to take. Admittedly, not much of a quandary as the author's sympathy for the androids makes it plain who's going to come out on top, but it's the route taken that's the main point of interest here, and that's Data's immediate identification with the androids, and his deliberate manipulations to ensure their survival. It's just all very well done... with one very small exception.
The one note here I didn't care for had Data taking one of the aliens to the holodeck to interact with a hologram of Spartacus. There's a few throwaway lines where Spartacus rakes said alien over the coals for following a woman. Now granted, Alkirg is a terrible person and a worse leader, but her gender is not the reason why. And granted, Spartacus is a product of his time, blah de blah, but no character queries this, and neither Data nor the author point out that recognition of slavery and bigotry change over time, and that the prejudice that androids are somehow subhuman was a prejudice that was once applied to women as well. That connection isn't made, and so this throwaway sequence, which is in no way necessary to the plot, is just there to be nasty. A novel as otherwise thoughtful as this should not have lowered itself.
But anyway. The Enterprise comes across a group of androids, fleeing enslavement by their creators. Those androids had engaged in violent terrorist actions in order to get free, and the creators want to hold them accountable and ultimately execute them for it, so Picard is in a moral quandary when it comes to which side to take. Admittedly, not much of a quandary as the author's sympathy for the androids makes it plain who's going to come out on top, but it's the route taken that's the main point of interest here, and that's Data's immediate identification with the androids, and his deliberate manipulations to ensure their survival. It's just all very well done... with one very small exception.
The one note here I didn't care for had Data taking one of the aliens to the holodeck to interact with a hologram of Spartacus. There's a few throwaway lines where Spartacus rakes said alien over the coals for following a woman. Now granted, Alkirg is a terrible person and a worse leader, but her gender is not the reason why. And granted, Spartacus is a product of his time, blah de blah, but no character queries this, and neither Data nor the author point out that recognition of slavery and bigotry change over time, and that the prejudice that androids are somehow subhuman was a prejudice that was once applied to women as well. That connection isn't made, and so this throwaway sequence, which is in no way necessary to the plot, is just there to be nasty. A novel as otherwise thoughtful as this should not have lowered itself.
I've just been looking at four Goodreads lists based around the houses in Harry Potter, and I came across this book in the Hufflepuff list and it wasn't marked as read and I thought "Hang on, I'm sure I've reviewed that" because I've read it about eleventy-billion times and I remember logging it here. And it turns out I have, sort of. Little Women was also published as two books: Little Women and Good Wives, and those are the books my grandparents gave me as a kid (which I still have). So I read and reviewed them separately, which is why I'm logging this now and backdating the read date to when I left the Good Wives review.
In summary: I've always liked these books, preachy as they are. And I like Amy just as much as Jo, and I'm glad about who Amy ended up with and always have been, so fucking there.
In summary: I've always liked these books, preachy as they are. And I like Amy just as much as Jo, and I'm glad about who Amy ended up with and always have been, so fucking there.
I reviewed this for Strange Horizons, so that should be up soon. Basically, I found it fascinating! Not so much for the plot or the characters, though - which is not to say that the plot or the characters aren't entertaining, because they are. Jean's road trip with Sue the dingo, and the relationship between them - not always comfortable, and often one of mutual incomprehension - is a highlight. But my favourite part of this book, the bit that stands out for me most of all, is often what's going on in the background. A pandemic gives infected people the ability to communicate with animals, and this up-ends an entire culture.
Some people, of course, in our reality-based uninfected state, are better at this sort of communication than others, although there's a point which no-one can go beyond. With the arrival of the zooflu, however, communication is available to everyone, and the results are frankly not that pretty... which seems to me like the only possible choice. It's one thing to know that pigs are intelligent creatures, but if they're talking to you on their way to the slaughterhouse? Do you really want to know what your pet thinks of you? What happens when understanding whale song causes mass drownings, or when the ability to understand insects means your mind is never free from chatter, not ever? It's just a whole destabilising mess, no Snow White singing to bluebirds here. Which makes the exploration of that mess - often in very black-humoured tones, as McKay does - really interesting and original to read.
Some people, of course, in our reality-based uninfected state, are better at this sort of communication than others, although there's a point which no-one can go beyond. With the arrival of the zooflu, however, communication is available to everyone, and the results are frankly not that pretty... which seems to me like the only possible choice. It's one thing to know that pigs are intelligent creatures, but if they're talking to you on their way to the slaughterhouse? Do you really want to know what your pet thinks of you? What happens when understanding whale song causes mass drownings, or when the ability to understand insects means your mind is never free from chatter, not ever? It's just a whole destabilising mess, no Snow White singing to bluebirds here. Which makes the exploration of that mess - often in very black-humoured tones, as McKay does - really interesting and original to read.
"It's a creepy Scandinavian Narnia" - HA!
A wormhole opens up in a fictional equivalent of IKEA, and two of the most exploitable staff of one of these unpleasantly capitalistic superstores are sent through to retrieve a customer who wandered in by accident. That wormhole leads them to other versions of their own hell-store, and it's a hefty shove at businesses that treat employees like interchangeable and replaceable cogs. Finna is most successful for me when it sticks to these alternate stores - the passage in one dimension where employees have to pay for food in the store cafeteria with their own blood really is creepy. I'm less interested in the other worlds where the parallel is toned down or ignored, as it is on the ship, but overall it's still a fun, trenchant read, with a lot packed into a novella-sized package.
A wormhole opens up in a fictional equivalent of IKEA, and two of the most exploitable staff of one of these unpleasantly capitalistic superstores are sent through to retrieve a customer who wandered in by accident. That wormhole leads them to other versions of their own hell-store, and it's a hefty shove at businesses that treat employees like interchangeable and replaceable cogs. Finna is most successful for me when it sticks to these alternate stores - the passage in one dimension where employees have to pay for food in the store cafeteria with their own blood really is creepy. I'm less interested in the other worlds where the parallel is toned down or ignored, as it is on the ship, but overall it's still a fun, trenchant read, with a lot packed into a novella-sized package.
I've been putting off reading this book for years because it's so damn huge, but I'm doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge this year and the first task is to read a book that intimidates you. There was only one choice.
It was not a good choice. I knew it was intimidating. I did not know it was dull. There was nothing about the "war" side of this bloated monstrosity that actually interested me - not a single bit. Every spark of interest I managed to keep alive for some of the characters (primarily Natasha and Princess Mary) came to a grinding halt under the leaden nature of the rest. There might have been a decent story here, had 900 odd pages of it been cut out. Unfortunately I had to read the whole 1300, and you can be sure I will never, ever do so again. The end is particularly tedious; only the knowledge that it was just about over kept me going.
How this got to be so famous is beyond me.
It was not a good choice. I knew it was intimidating. I did not know it was dull. There was nothing about the "war" side of this bloated monstrosity that actually interested me - not a single bit. Every spark of interest I managed to keep alive for some of the characters (primarily Natasha and Princess Mary) came to a grinding halt under the leaden nature of the rest. There might have been a decent story here, had 900 odd pages of it been cut out. Unfortunately I had to read the whole 1300, and you can be sure I will never, ever do so again. The end is particularly tedious; only the knowledge that it was just about over kept me going.
How this got to be so famous is beyond me.
I really enjoyed this - so much so that I read it in a single sitting! There's something very gentle about this collection of short essays, and seeping through it all is Moses' love for and interest in the animals that live around her. Not just wild animals, though the title would seem to indicate this. Moses is as attached to dogs and goats and horses as much as she is to deer and wild turkeys and raccoons. The basic throughline here, though, is that she's given up trying to create a garden which keeps these animals out, and is instead focused on creating a garden that will help to sustain the local ecology. Yet there are many trips into the neighbourhood and the wider city (San Francisco) and even some out of it. Don't expect a consistent narrative. These are, rather, meditations - beautifully polished little pieces of writing that speak to the emotional attachment that humans can have for nature, and how to nurture that capacity.
The library's going to make me give this back, so I shall have to hunt down a copy of my own, because this is one of those books that I can see myself dipping into again and again.
The library's going to make me give this back, so I shall have to hunt down a copy of my own, because this is one of those books that I can see myself dipping into again and again.
A short collection of humorous essays about the cats that Leonard has owned. I don't want to say that he's the equivalent of a crazy cat lady, because it's not like he's a cat hoarder or anything, he just always has one (preferably two) around. It's not crazy to enjoy having a pet, but it's also pretty clear that he's never going to go out and get a budgie or a dog or anything like that. It's cats or nothing, and these recollections of various animals (including Rover, who managed to get himself locked in a vacant neighbouring hotel for nine days) are domestic and loving. The funniest story is Leonard and family smuggling a beloved family pet from England into Ireland, because pet travel had been temporarily banned due to disease and they didn't think the mog could cope with the isolation of quarantine. Which is the kind of rule-breaking which would likely be frowned upon right now, due to pandemic, but this didn't happen right now, it happened back then, and besides, the cat waking up and wailing through an entire following train ride was honestly pretty funny.
I really enjoyed this! I haven't read a paranormal romance where the romance was between two men before, but then I have read very little paranormal romance so my knowledge of that particular subgenre is fairly sketchy at best. Given the historical setting, however, and how unfriendly much of history was to gay relationships, the exploration of the difficulties that Whyborne and Griffin face is not only consistently and thoughtfully explored, but it's also had clear consequences, for Whyborne especially. He's the most interesting character here for me, someone so rigidly repressed, so unable to connect honestly with the wider world, that he's really only got one friend. That friend, Christine, is an archaeologist who works with him at the museum, and her career struggles - due to gender - are portrayed as sympathetically as Whyborne's sexuality is. This thoughtful treatment of both primary and secondary characters gives depth and appeal to the writing.
What really surprised me here, though, was the Lovecraft influence. I have to be honest, I am not a fan of Lovecraft. I find his prose purple and his fears pathetic, and I have never, not once, found his whole immensity of Elder Gods and whatever to be even remotely frightening. Frankly, I find all his Cthulhu shit to be largely tedious and just a bit silly, and had I known that this book was going to include some of it I would probably not have been very enthusiastic about picking it up. And that would have been such a shame. I can't say that Hawk has truly interested me in the Lovecraftian elements of Widdershins, but they are thankfully limited within the story, and while the central investigation is interesting enough, if a little predictable, it takes a back seat to the character and relationship work, which is far more interesting... and for me, far more attractive.
I look forward to reading the next novel in the series.
What really surprised me here, though, was the Lovecraft influence. I have to be honest, I am not a fan of Lovecraft. I find his prose purple and his fears pathetic, and I have never, not once, found his whole immensity of Elder Gods and whatever to be even remotely frightening. Frankly, I find all his Cthulhu shit to be largely tedious and just a bit silly, and had I known that this book was going to include some of it I would probably not have been very enthusiastic about picking it up. And that would have been such a shame. I can't say that Hawk has truly interested me in the Lovecraftian elements of Widdershins, but they are thankfully limited within the story, and while the central investigation is interesting enough, if a little predictable, it takes a back seat to the character and relationship work, which is far more interesting... and for me, far more attractive.
I look forward to reading the next novel in the series.
This was just plain fun, and by talking about birds in plain language and relating his experiences in bird-watching, both as a child and as an adult, Lindo has made birding accessible. Primarily what there is here is a deep affection, a consuming interest, and the desire to keep learning more about the birds that he loves. As a science communicator, this is how you get people interested in nature.
A love of birds was evident from Lindo's childhood, growing up in a working class London family - not the typical birder, as he's quick to point out, and one particularly funny story involves a woman friend that he used to go birding with sometimes... other birders, generally older white men, would never know whether to address the woman or the black man as the expert of the pair! (Which is sadly depressing as well as funny, but Lindo and his mate took great delight in trolling them, so they could at least appreciate the humour involved in puncturing the prejudice.) But coming from this background has increased that sense of accessibility that Lindo is so determined to promote, I think. He's at pains to say, over and over again, that birding is something anyone can do, and that even the most unassuming urban environments can be wonderful places to watch birds if you only keep your eyes and your mind open to seeing them. It makes me think about how carefully I watch city birds myself - not very - and that I should make more of an effort, because there are no doubt lots of them and they're worth looking at.
It's just a friendly, unassuming, welcoming book about birds, and I think that's wonderful.
A love of birds was evident from Lindo's childhood, growing up in a working class London family - not the typical birder, as he's quick to point out, and one particularly funny story involves a woman friend that he used to go birding with sometimes... other birders, generally older white men, would never know whether to address the woman or the black man as the expert of the pair! (Which is sadly depressing as well as funny, but Lindo and his mate took great delight in trolling them, so they could at least appreciate the humour involved in puncturing the prejudice.) But coming from this background has increased that sense of accessibility that Lindo is so determined to promote, I think. He's at pains to say, over and over again, that birding is something anyone can do, and that even the most unassuming urban environments can be wonderful places to watch birds if you only keep your eyes and your mind open to seeing them. It makes me think about how carefully I watch city birds myself - not very - and that I should make more of an effort, because there are no doubt lots of them and they're worth looking at.
It's just a friendly, unassuming, welcoming book about birds, and I think that's wonderful.
"Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!"
Now that is a line, and it is the pick of this play - the only time I laughed while reading. I expect I would find the whole funnier to watch, but just reading it is only mildly amusing. I confess I have been trying to read this for the past year, as part of my ongoing effort to get through all of Shakespeare's plays. Usually they do not take me so long, but the fact that this one starred Falstaff was putting me off. Yes, I know, he's beloved of the Shakespeare crowd and all that, but in the Henry plays I found him nothing but tedious, and the thought of an entire play dedicated to him did not appeal. As the introduction to this edition points out, however, this is in some ways a very different Falstaff (I call him alternate universe Falstaff) and he basically exists here to be made fun of, and I honestly found him more tolerable that way. The highlight of the play for me, though, was the central friendship between Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, their total disgust at this hopeless lecher trying to woo them both into handing over money, and their subsequent plots to get their own back on his exploitative arse.
In summary: not one of the greats, but I'd like to see it performed one day. I suspect it'd come across funnier that way. Especially if it were paired with a few glasses of wine...
Now that is a line, and it is the pick of this play - the only time I laughed while reading. I expect I would find the whole funnier to watch, but just reading it is only mildly amusing. I confess I have been trying to read this for the past year, as part of my ongoing effort to get through all of Shakespeare's plays. Usually they do not take me so long, but the fact that this one starred Falstaff was putting me off. Yes, I know, he's beloved of the Shakespeare crowd and all that, but in the Henry plays I found him nothing but tedious, and the thought of an entire play dedicated to him did not appeal. As the introduction to this edition points out, however, this is in some ways a very different Falstaff (I call him alternate universe Falstaff) and he basically exists here to be made fun of, and I honestly found him more tolerable that way. The highlight of the play for me, though, was the central friendship between Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, their total disgust at this hopeless lecher trying to woo them both into handing over money, and their subsequent plots to get their own back on his exploitative arse.
In summary: not one of the greats, but I'd like to see it performed one day. I suspect it'd come across funnier that way. Especially if it were paired with a few glasses of wine...