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speculativebecky
Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson is a sci fi short story collection, heavy on the robots. Some stories are spooky, some are just smart and interesting, and running throughout is a strong theme of characters who are driven by love.
Right off the bat this book almost made me cry with Miss Gloria, a story about a robot who jumps between bodies to protect the young girl in his charge after she’s abducted. Then, in The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever, an astronomer rushes home to be with his daughter when he discovers a chilling astronomical event is occurring. My many other favorites stories include The Executor, about a man trying to get the robot executor of his ancestor’s will to award him money for the medical care of his daughter; Helmet, a haunting story about a boy in a world where a tyrannical government is empowered by robot servants; Blood Memory, the creepiest story in the collection, about a woman coping with fear of her daughter after she was born via teleportation; The Nostalgist, about a boy and his grandfather in a slum where trademarked Eyes and Ears allow the inhabitants to experience the world as clean and safe; and God Mode, which I won’t explain, as the unfolding of the story is perfectly mysterious and again almost had me in tears.
The only story I didn’t really care for at all in this collection was the tie in story to Wilson’s other writing in the Robopocalypse series, which I think would have been more enjoyable, and made a lot more sense, if I were familiar with that work. The other tie in story, to his Clockwork Dynasty setting, was a more successful stand alone.
This collection was full of stories that were exciting to read, building on cool ideas for technologies and characters I connected to immediately. Overall I recommend this collection very highly to fans of science fiction as a delightful dip into Wilson’s many creative ideas and obvious love of robots. I’m so excited to read more of his work!
Right off the bat this book almost made me cry with Miss Gloria, a story about a robot who jumps between bodies to protect the young girl in his charge after she’s abducted. Then, in The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever, an astronomer rushes home to be with his daughter when he discovers a chilling astronomical event is occurring. My many other favorites stories include The Executor, about a man trying to get the robot executor of his ancestor’s will to award him money for the medical care of his daughter; Helmet, a haunting story about a boy in a world where a tyrannical government is empowered by robot servants; Blood Memory, the creepiest story in the collection, about a woman coping with fear of her daughter after she was born via teleportation; The Nostalgist, about a boy and his grandfather in a slum where trademarked Eyes and Ears allow the inhabitants to experience the world as clean and safe; and God Mode, which I won’t explain, as the unfolding of the story is perfectly mysterious and again almost had me in tears.
The only story I didn’t really care for at all in this collection was the tie in story to Wilson’s other writing in the Robopocalypse series, which I think would have been more enjoyable, and made a lot more sense, if I were familiar with that work. The other tie in story, to his Clockwork Dynasty setting, was a more successful stand alone.
This collection was full of stories that were exciting to read, building on cool ideas for technologies and characters I connected to immediately. Overall I recommend this collection very highly to fans of science fiction as a delightful dip into Wilson’s many creative ideas and obvious love of robots. I’m so excited to read more of his work!
Loved! Plus, the Deep is the kind of science fiction that I think will easily find a home with readers who aren't typically seeking out the genre. A powerful and profound premise, and Solomon crafts it into a gorgeous and deeply moving novella.
With this novella, Solomon cements themself as one of my favorite authors and I cannot wait to read more of their work.
With this novella, Solomon cements themself as one of my favorite authors and I cannot wait to read more of their work.
Loved! Gender Queer is a graphic memoir, written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe (e/em/eir) and colored by eir sister, Phoebe Kobabe
Unfortunately and surprisingly, I did not love this book ☹ I'm bummed because I know this is a classic sci fi favorite for a lot of folks, and I'm not really sure why it just super didn't click with me. To be honest, if I weren't currently plodding through War and Peace, this would be the most boring book I've read in a long while!
This collection's premise is that all organizing is science fiction, as both begin from envisioning another world could be possible. All the stories in this collection come from individuals who’ve dedicated their lives to making change, and many of the contributors to this collection had never written fiction before. While I love this idea, I think it led to a collection that felt a little more unfinished or unpracticed than some other anthologies I’ve read. I still enjoyed the reading experience, and would recommend this collection to folks looking for something a little different, especially fans of SFF or readers aiming to engage in thinking about social justice and organizing.
My favorite stories were The Long Memory by Morrigan Phillips, set in a world where the "Memorials" are employed to keep the world’s memory, at a time where the existence of such a memory is dangerous to the powerful; Small and Bright by Autumn Brown, a story of a person from an underground city who is punished by exile to the uninhabitable aboveground; Hollow by Mia Mingus, about a community of disabled people on a planet separate from the world of the “Perfects”; Runaway Blackout by Tara Betts, set in a world where shapeshifting has dramatically changed the face of modeling; and Homing Instinct by Dani McClain, in which a woman grapples with where to settle after a government order requires all people to register their permanent location and cease traveling. Finally, the collection ends with another favorite, The Only Lasting Truth: The Theme of Change in the worlds of Octavia E. Butler by Tananarive Due, a slightly edited transcript of a lecture given in 2010, that has me fired up about my re-goal to read more Butler in 2020!
My favorite stories were The Long Memory by Morrigan Phillips, set in a world where the "Memorials" are employed to keep the world’s memory, at a time where the existence of such a memory is dangerous to the powerful; Small and Bright by Autumn Brown, a story of a person from an underground city who is punished by exile to the uninhabitable aboveground; Hollow by Mia Mingus, about a community of disabled people on a planet separate from the world of the “Perfects”; Runaway Blackout by Tara Betts, set in a world where shapeshifting has dramatically changed the face of modeling; and Homing Instinct by Dani McClain, in which a woman grapples with where to settle after a government order requires all people to register their permanent location and cease traveling. Finally, the collection ends with another favorite, The Only Lasting Truth: The Theme of Change in the worlds of Octavia E. Butler by Tananarive Due, a slightly edited transcript of a lecture given in 2010, that has me fired up about my re-goal to read more Butler in 2020!
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline is a book I’ve been highly anticipating reading for quite some time, and I’m so glad I was able to fit it in as one of my last books of this year. Very different from my expectations, but absolutely spectacular. This book is a devastation, and a triumph.
I have mentioned before that I am easily bored by travel narratives, and this book impressed me by captivating me despite being almost in its entirety a story about traveling, really being on the run. The Marrow Thieves follows an Indigenous boy named Frenchie, in a near future where Indigenous people are captured to harvest their dreams in schools that harken back to the Residential Schools of the near past. Over a tightly paced years long journey, Frenchie and his found family of other Indigenous survivors bond and make a home together as they must stay always on the move in attempting to escape capture. Dimaline had me gripped with fear as I fell in love with her characters, and somberly contemplated the parallels between this speculative fiction novel and the real exploitation of Indigenous people and land that underlies the history of colonization of North America.
This novel is super brilliant. I’m still reeling, and looking forward to more from Dimaline.
I have mentioned before that I am easily bored by travel narratives, and this book impressed me by captivating me despite being almost in its entirety a story about traveling, really being on the run. The Marrow Thieves follows an Indigenous boy named Frenchie, in a near future where Indigenous people are captured to harvest their dreams in schools that harken back to the Residential Schools of the near past. Over a tightly paced years long journey, Frenchie and his found family of other Indigenous survivors bond and make a home together as they must stay always on the move in attempting to escape capture. Dimaline had me gripped with fear as I fell in love with her characters, and somberly contemplated the parallels between this speculative fiction novel and the real exploitation of Indigenous people and land that underlies the history of colonization of North America.
This novel is super brilliant. I’m still reeling, and looking forward to more from Dimaline.
Kitchen is the story of a young woman named Mikage, after the death of her grandmother, who raised her since the death of her parents, she moves in with Yoichi, a young man who worked for her grandmother, and his mother, who is trans. Yoichi and Eriko deal with their share of grief, and Yoshimito tells a poignant story of coping with loss that had me pulling for these characters.
Moonlight Shadow is about a woman who just lost her love, a more ethereal story with a hint of the supernatural. I was somewhat disoriented by the expectation that these two stories would be more connected than they were, but they do dovetail beautifully and build on the same themes.
Reading these novellas was a rich way to begin the year, although heavy.
Moonlight Shadow is about a woman who just lost her love, a more ethereal story with a hint of the supernatural. I was somewhat disoriented by the expectation that these two stories would be more connected than they were, but they do dovetail beautifully and build on the same themes.
Reading these novellas was a rich way to begin the year, although heavy.
I'm so glad I read this one, and enthusiastically recommend this book to fans of graphic memoirs or anyone interested in learning more about adoption, especially international adoption.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung is probably the only book focused on adoption I've read before this one, and I was struck by the parallels in how both women describe the fundamental importance of their "origin myth", as well as their common motivation to search for their birth family which intensified with having children of their own. Sjöblom also begins with her childhood as a trans-racial adoptee, and how her young pride in being Korean is buffeted by the racism she faced constantly growing up in Sweden.
Sjöblom's story is personal, but she threads together much research and other adoptee's stories, highlighting commonalities in many of their experiences that are often suppressed. She bemoans that most literature about adoption is created by parents, and that it obfuscate the family tragedy that often underlies stories of adoption, as well as the difficult psychological effect on the children.
Her search for her birth family is frustrated by conflicting or missing documentation, and lackluster responsiveness from the organizations that are meant to help. In the process she discovers a lot about illegally performed adoptions, how not all adoptees are properly given up, and how documents are changed intentionally to make kids seem "more adoptable". I learned so much from reading this book, but at the same time it's a touching personal narrative, I'm so grateful to Sjöblom for sharing.
Cw for suicide
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung is probably the only book focused on adoption I've read before this one, and I was struck by the parallels in how both women describe the fundamental importance of their "origin myth", as well as their common motivation to search for their birth family which intensified with having children of their own. Sjöblom also begins with her childhood as a trans-racial adoptee, and how her young pride in being Korean is buffeted by the racism she faced constantly growing up in Sweden.
Sjöblom's story is personal, but she threads together much research and other adoptee's stories, highlighting commonalities in many of their experiences that are often suppressed. She bemoans that most literature about adoption is created by parents, and that it obfuscate the family tragedy that often underlies stories of adoption, as well as the difficult psychological effect on the children.
Her search for her birth family is frustrated by conflicting or missing documentation, and lackluster responsiveness from the organizations that are meant to help. In the process she discovers a lot about illegally performed adoptions, how not all adoptees are properly given up, and how documents are changed intentionally to make kids seem "more adoptable". I learned so much from reading this book, but at the same time it's a touching personal narrative, I'm so grateful to Sjöblom for sharing.
Cw for suicide
