Wednesday Reading Meme Nov 15 2023

[kitewithfish]

What I’ve Read:
A Power Unbound - The Last Binding #3 by Freya Marske
I read this in about two days, after re-reading the prior two books, and I am really excited – Marske absolutely nailed the landing on this series! The ending took all the themes of the prior books and was like, Hold my beer. I strongly recommend this book and this whole series!

The main couple for this book are Jack Allen, Lord Hawthorn, and Alan Ross aka Alonzo Rossi. They have a dynamic that would be hate sex if they didn’t both openly acknowledge how much fun they have arguing with each other. Watching them test and push each other starts off as a safe way for each of them to get what they want, but gradually becomes a situation where they are entangled and tender with each other. It’s a great relationship dynamic.

I was particularly pleased with how Marske managed to figure out a happy ending for three different committed couples, AND addressed the central problem of inequality

If you’re able to, I think the trilogy is best enjoyed by reading straight thru - Marske doesn’t spend a lot of time reworking events from the prior books, which I appreciate, but it does mean you’ll need to remember who the key players are from book to book. Several of the reveals are set up as far back as the first book. (I do know someone who picked up the second book as a stand alone, and while she enjoyed the romance, the stakes of the larger plot were a bit opaque.)

System Collapse – Martha Wells – Audiobook by Kevin R. Free
First: the events of this book take place immediately after Network Effect, the full-length Murderbot novel that came out in 2020. The Tor.com review mentioned that this novella felt like it was taken directly from NE, and I agree – you will not understand this story without reading Network Effect

I listened to this audiobook immediately (Libby got it to me the day it came out! When did I get in line??) and I really enjoyed it. It felt like a continuation of major themes coming out of the earlier books – what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be free? - and takes a look at those from multiple angles. As much as previous stories with Murderbot were about recognizing trauma, this book is about the messy process of *feeling* those feelings and grief, and figuring out what to do next.

What I’m Reading:
City of Blades – Robert Jackson Bennett - Xing Book Club – Compulsively readable. Feels very interested in the bloody awfulness of having an empire and keeping it, no matter who gets in the way. The main character was introduced in City of Stairs and the story will not make sense without it.

A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter J Miller Jr – not much progress but was able to renew from library (Stream; SciFi Classics)

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections in Horror - Joe Vallese (Editor) – SPN Seminar – Short essays where queer authors talk about horror cinema’s impact on them, with a focus on particular movies.

What I’ll Read Next:
Dark Rise – CS Pacat – re-read before the next book comes out.
Dark Heir – New book!
House of Leaves – Robobook Club – Haven’t touched it since I started it.
Ninefox Gambit – Xing Book Club
When Women Were Dragons - Xing Book Club

Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Some thinking about reading organization : Streams?
I’ve been getting more organized with my reading the last few years, and I have really appreciated the way it’s made my memory of what I read more sharp and also set me up to stop forgetting about books I intend to read.

But a friend of mine has a reading decisions system that I am rather envious of – she makes a list of books in several categories, assigns each category a number, and then a roll of dice tells her what she’s reading next from those preassigned lists. It’s all queued up beforehand.

I was talking to her today about how she organizes her “streams” so that she’s got multiple things to read at once but they are all things she has picked ahead of time and curated to read (with some space left for things that are just interesting or hit the spot.) I was strongly reminded of my Hugos Deathrace project, where I set up to read as many books off the Hugos shortlist between when it comes out and the actual awards are announced.

I’m vaguely thinking about trying to set up a similar system in my own Storygraph. I have several easily tagged genres I am interested in (Romance, Horror, SFF) and a few more potential streams that just fit my interests – Terry Pratchett, Authors of Color/Indigenous authors, Balkans, nonfiction, SPN reading group

Comments

[yarnofariadne]

Ooh the streams idea is really cool!

[kitewithfish]

I know, right? It seems to require a lot of set up, but honestly, I think she's running it all from a notes app on her phone. I'm going to need at least a spreadsheet.

[theskywasblue]

When Women Were Dragons was an interesting book. I don't think it's my favourite thing ever, but I sympathized so much with the main character (particularly the older sister vibes) that I found it very touching.

[kitewithfish]

I'm looking forward to reading it!

[ithiliana]

Me too! Me too! That is, I got Marske's third book and the seventh (!) Murderbot within a day or two of each other. I started reading Marke's, but realized I did not remember the previous two well enough to go on, so I reread them and sailed into the final one, and it was brilliant! Agreeing with all you say here.

I've re-re-re-read the Murderbot series often, so started right into SC: and omg! all the FEELS! Now I have to re-read the whole thing from start to finish (which is what I tend to do with my favorite series). What you said here is, I think, the perfect way to describe it: As much as previous stories with Murderbot were about recognizing trauma, this book is about the messy process of *feeling* those feelings and grief, and figuring out what to do next.

Have you read any of Celia Lake's Albion series? I was struck as I was re-reading and reading Marske's trilogy about the resonances in their worldbuilding (the existence and practice of magic, keeping it hidden, how it works and shapes the world). Lake's work is a bit more toward the cozy genre conventions (dialled down descriptions of violence--in some cases, no physical violence, and ditto for sex, and a larger variety of relationships/couples.). They're sort of alternate history (Britain from WWI to WWII).

[kitewithfish]

I've re-re-re-read the Murderbot series often, so started right into SC: and omg! all the FEELS! Now I have to re-read the whole thing from start to finish (which is what I tend to do with my favorite series). What you said here is, I think, the perfect way to describe it: As much as previous stories with Murderbot were about recognizing trauma, this book is about the messy process of *feeling* those feelings and grief, and figuring out what to do next.

Oh, god, yes, I really love how we start this series with so much of Murderbot clearly hinted at but on lockdown and seeing it expand into a person who can actually begin to acknowledge "Oh, oh, god, I have so much to deal with. I would so much rather be watching media but I have to DEAL with this now?"

I LOVED that Murderbot made a vid in this book, and I love that it had its therapist's advice bopping around in its head. It's like, yes, buddy, you put all the stuff in place for you to heal and, well, shit, now you've got to do it.

I have incepted a book club I'm in to read the novellas one at a time, and so far it's been universally enjoyed - which is saying something for this group!

RE: Albion - I have never heard of this series! I confess, I am slightly intimidated to see the number of books in this universe - do you recommend starting with the first one or do you have a favorite entry point?

If you haven't see this, CL Polk's writing has similar levels of complexity and her Witchmark trilogy that is based in an alternate 1910's England with an open magic system but some complicated stuff underneath.

[ithiliana]

I lucked onto Polk's Witchmark trilogy with the first one -- and yes, all three are amazing. I've re-read the trilogy several times, and it always *grabs* me: and while the romantic relationships are great, I'm also very interested in the complexities of the brother and sister relationship (and the ways in which the Powers That Be in that culture approach power). I've just grabbed Polk's The Midnight Bargain that's just out -- and I also liked Even Thought I knew the End.

Interlaced series which is what Lake's are (like Pratchett's) are difficult!

I started with Carry On in the "Mysterious Powers" sub-series which are mostly set in the 1920s--at that time, it was the first in that series. Since then Lake added Forged in Combat which is a prequel (set in the 1880s, focusing on characters who are the parents of the male protagonist in CO).

CO remains one of the ones I reread the most, so unless you are very focused on the chronological order of series novels, I would recommend CO over "Forged." I think CO is a better introduction to a lot of the most important themes of the series (the trauma of war, the religious-magical aspects of the world, the inability of the institutions to deal with the different realities of WWI, and the difficulties of healing, whether of humans or, as the series goes on, the Land/Albion).

Lake gives information in Afterwords after other books in the series that feature the same characters (and it might help to know quite a few of them are novellas, with a few collections of shorter pieces!--they're not all novels). And although many of the books can be read as stand-alone (Lake makes it clear which are, and are not), there are meta-narrative themes that I can see tie them all together -- and some characters appear across the series' boundaries.

Murderbot's VID! OMG, yes -- and how much that project brought together incidents from the past (espcially the ship full of people being delivered to be contract labor!) and studying the fictional media to work on getting the emotional content into the vid, and the whole collaborative process (I thought this vid was nicely foreshadowed by Me2.0 giving Three the file--am spacing out on the particulars of that one which is why I need to re-read the whole series). And it worked!

[delphi]

That's a really neat idea, the streams. A nice mix of planning and spontaneity.

[kitewithfish]

I'm going to give it a try and report back!

[delphi]

Looking forward to it!