stuff i read in december

[tabacoychanel]

Francis Spufford, Golden Hill (2016) “You have walked into a mesh of favors owing, where everybody knows everybody—even if none of them, as yet, know you.” If Black Sails was a book instead of a TV show, it would be this book. That is my verdict as someone whose favorite TV show of all time is Black Sails. It’s even set in roughly the same period, mid-18th century, only in New York rather than the Bahamas. It’s about theater, and truth, and storytelling, and it left this fizzy carbonated feeling in my stomach which it took me a minute to identify as hope. Is it a happy ending? By no means. Yet it is a happier ending than we deserve. This novel has both radical politics and taut storytelling, and despite the many obvious debts it owes to the notoriously messy picaresque genre I find it incredible that it never sags, not once; it hooks you from the first page and it just keeps pulling you along. The protagonist lands his ass in jail twice. In between there’s a duel and a jury trial and a play. The most inconvenient conceivable person walks in on him in flagrante delicto with an actress twice his age. But what is most impressive is not the exquisitely constructed over-the-top plot, or the piquancy with which Spufford evokes New York in that vanished era, or even the pitch-perfect emotionally devastating epistolary interludes. It was the treatment of money. The plot hinges on an absurdly large sum of money, and it is not clear to the reader whether this sum is real or illusory. Money is a token of trust, and this is in large part a book about the minutiae of financial transactions, which Spufford somehow packs with more pyrotechnics than any three Marvel movies combined. Of course when Smith befriended Septimus i went OH SHIT because Septimus is of one Political Faction, and Smith’s super sekrit mission means he must remain neutral amongst competing political factions and for me, personal vs. political loyalties in conflict? Bruh I was fucking t h r i v i n g. “I know why a magician claps his hands,” declares Tabitha towards the beginning, and again towards the end of the novel, and those words reorient the frame of the story for me: For is it not a heist? After all, stage magicians clap their hands for one reason and one reason only—to divert the audience’s attention.

Frances Hardinge, Cuckoo Song (2014) “We’re in-between folks, so scissors hate us. They want to snip us through and make sense of us, and there’s no sense to be made without killing us.” The most cogent explanation for why scissors are anathema to the fae tbh. Frances Hardinge, the best-kept secret in YA fiction, has written her best book yet. In terms of ideas it’s not as wrenchingly original as Gullstruck Island or A Face Like Glass, but it has so much fucking heart. Hardinge’s stories always have teeth but they are initially concealed beneath a suffocating atmosphere of Something Is Wrong But It’s Not The Thing You Think It Is. Our protagonist, Triss, is two things a girl should never be: angry and hungry. The novel opens with Triss cosseted by her adoring parents and escalating hostilities with her mortal enemy of a sister; by the time the novel ends the situation is quite the reverse. Hardinge’s knack for packing adult truth bombs into books for children is second only to Diana Wynne Jones, everybody go read her backlist immediately.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Passage (2008) (Sharing Knife #3) One of my few beefs with Bujold aka MY FAVORITE WRITER OF ALL TIME is that she’s not great with the “chemistry” dimension of romantic attraction. The problem is especially acute here because the main characters are in an established relationship (they’ve been married since Book 1) but what I noticed on this reread is that the presence of supporting characters mitigates that lack of chemistry? I skipped Books 1 & 2 bc they’re a snoozefest and I always felt she should’ve paced the series so all the action isn’t squeezed into books 3.5-4. But I realized that it’s not true that the stakes are low in 1 & 2!!! They slay a malice in Book 1, they slay a super advanced malice in Book 2 and it almost costs Dag’s life, and in Book 3 not even a single malice makes an appearance! You know who shows up halfway through Book 3 however? Remo and Barr!! They are #brotpgoals. They give Dag a purpose and a role (patrol leader) to step into, they remind him of his younger self, they’re an all-around riot and the character growth is unbelievable (I’m looking ahead to Book 4 when Barr chooses exile with Dag and Remo doesn’t—almighty god what a reversal). Book 3 is a quest narrative, and Remo and Barr are part of the Found Family that Dag & Fawn collect on their journey downriver. Since we can all agree that Found Family stories are the best stories, I cannot fathom why Bujold didn’t start assembling this one sooner—this was the element that was missing from Books 1 & 2. Tbf I can actually point to one instance that Bujold nailed the romantic chemistry between the leads and that was Paladin of Souls, where the secondary characters were much weaker than Remo & Barr (I mean Liss who? Foix who?) so idk if there’s a correlation there. The thing I love about Bujold is that I may not endorse her every authorial choice, but she rewards rereading and she especially rewards critical reading—this is my third time through the Sharing Knife books and it definitely won’t be my last.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Horizon (2009) (Sharing Knife #4) Bujold is an engineer’s daughter, and it shows. She’s spent the past thirty-odd years writing speculative fiction and winning every award in sight, and part of the reason is she’s peerless at explaining how complicated stuff works, and embedding those explanations organically in the plot. The technology at the center of this series is the sharing knife, which is forged by magic and designed to slay monsters. So far, so much standard fantasy fare. But as Dag’s midlife awakening catapults him from simple patroller to world’s most cutting-edge medicine maker, he cracks all these knife-making-related MYSTERIES; he singlehandedly invents Force shields (Lakewalkers=Jedi) and in the hands of a lesser writer his cogitations on such technical topics would have either (1) not made sense or (2) bored readers to tears. This is the book where it’s explicitly stated Dag’s aim is to remake the world—to make it safe for his own half-blood children, for all children everywhere, Lakewalkers and farmers must overcome their mutual mistrust and thrive together. I will say that Bujold lays it on a bit thick with the pro-natal propaganda—I get it! Kids are gr8! I want them myself! I just don’t think CHERISH YOUR CHILDREN is an unpopular stance that needs reinforcing? Then again what was I expecting from the lady who invented uterine replicators (this is not a knock on uterine replicators! they’re gr8 too! they are just indicative of how reproductive concerns have always lain at the heart of Bujold’s work, and how a world where “childfree” is the default is a pretty alien concept to her). Anyway Fawn is cute and I like that she exists—she’s small and fierce and hasn’t got a lick of Force-sensitivity or martial prowess—all her strengths lie in the domestic and interpersonal spheres—but speaking as someone who has major social anxiety and is introverted by nature, I couldn’t identify with her, and the lack of chemistry with Dag I covered already. Arkady otoh is prickly like a briar bush, likes to take long baths and I identified with him 100%.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Knife Children (2019) (Sharing Knife #4.5) “All true wealth is biological” are the truest words that have ever been uttered and it is at its core what every single one of Bujold’s books is about. This novella is just more directly about parenting than some of the others. It’s obviously not Bujold at her finest, but even Bujold at 60% capacity is better than most anybody else firing on all cylinders.

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth (2019) (Locked Tomb #1) This book fucked me up. What I knew about it going in: (1) hyped to the rafters by everyone in my little corner of fandom (2) GAYGAYGAY. Me a quarter of the way in: Well I haven’t got within 10 meters of a ship it’s all ACTIONworldbuildingACTION i mean i’m not complaining I like that the pace is relentless but I thought there were supposed to be queers? Me halfway in: Turns out I’m just really bad at recognizing an enemies-to-lovers ship until it hits me over the head with a sledgehammer. “The entire point of me is you. You get that, right? That’s what cavaliers sign up for. There is no me without you. One flesh, one end.” If this was a fic the tags would 100% read #loyaltykink, because that’s what it’s about—the sworn swordsman, the leal retainer, and all the shapes that loyalty takes (Colum’s “You speak to me of oaths?” speech floored me bc he’s all “Bitch I am the oath”). The novel is constructed as a series of locked-room mysteries, and the key to unmasking the murderer is a very Agatha Christie sleight-of-hand where identities have been swapped and the real crime occurred before the suspects even arrived on the scene. It’s brilliant. Gideon Nav knows one thing and one thing only, and that is the sword. She’s incredibly obtuse in a lot of ways which makes her the perfect POV for a mystery. She also hasn’t got a non-ironic bone in her body, which renders the sincerity with which she eventually utters that “one flesh, one end” oath all the more poignant. This isn’t grimdark, it’s hopepunk: being kind and soft is not a sign of weakness, it’s an act of defiance in a brutal nihilistic world. I have not been so engrossed by a swordfight since Ellen Kushner; I have not encountered a string of such imaginative & unwholesomely specific insults since Scott Lynch. In her acknowledgements Tamsyn Muir includes a shoutout to some rando who commented on her Animorphs fic when she was fifteen?? ICONIC. Best book I read all year.

E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frakenweiler (1967) “Claudia had always known that she was meant for such fine things. Jamie, on the other hand, thought that running away from home to sleep in just another bed was really no challenge at all.” Claudia and Jamie are an unbeatable team whose strengths perfectly complement each other. I did not recall this book having such HUGE Anarchist Energy but it does, and it stands up to a reread superbly (anarchist in the sense of being hella skeptical of authority). E.L. Konigsburg was out here agitating for Eldest Daughter rights in the sixties— god bless. “I didn’t run away only to come home the same,” says Claudia, and that’s a mood.

Sharon Kay Penman, When Christ and His Saints Slept (1995) I’ve read four of Penman’s historical novels before, each centered on a historical figure: Llewelyn the Great (Here Be Dragons), Simon de Montfort (Falls the Shadow), Llewelyn ap Gruffydd (The Reckoning), Richard III (The Sunne in Splendour). The main problem with this book is it’s about The Anarchy (1135-1153 C.E.) but it’s not anchored by the overarching narrative of one life. The character who holds the two halves of the novel together is Ranulf, but even Ranulf cannot bridge the gulf between the “King Stephen vs Empress Maude” stalemate of the first half, and the “Henry II + Eleanor of Aquitaine = power couple” arc that is second half. It does feel like this is a warmup, a prequel to the later Plantagenet novels which focus solely on Henry + Eleanor + and their brood. Penman is an indifferent stylist but a magisterial writer, and that’s because when it comes to writing the whole is greater than the parts. In accordance with her general method, all of Stephen and Maude’s worst wounds are self-inflicted: There is something very High Tragedy about the way Stephen is a good man but a bad king, and Maude is—well it doesn’t matter what she is because the most salient fact about her will always be she’s a woman. Henry II, though. If Henry didn’t exist Machiavelli would probably have had to invent him—the consummate union of excellence in governance/statecraft and tactics/battle command in the same person. I always dive into a Penman book expecting to wash up wrecked a week later, so it was kind of anticlimactic to discover my heart firmly lodged in my ribcage on the final page.

Claire North, 84K (2018) Here’s the deal. I read Claire North’s debut, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and I have been fruitlessly attempting to recreate that reading experience ever since. This is a perfectly competent book but it is not that. Next. (Fwiw Touch? Also not that, although technically I will concede Touch is probably a better book book than Harry August. The good news is she’s a fairly prolific author so keep ‘em coming lol.)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I discovered Hardinge over the lat couple of years, and she's phenomenal, yes! (and does remind me of DWJ in the unflinchingness of her writing for children). I'm still working on the backlist (and have a shiny, shiny copy of Deeplight in my possession now, as you might have seen). My acquaintance started with A Skinful of Shadows, and I've also read The Lie Tree (which I think might be the most visceral one for me) and Cuckoo's Song most recently, which I found very hard going for body horror reasons, but also so, so good. I can't wait to read more, and yeah, I'm so puzzled by why she is not better known, at least in the US.

I have not encountered a string of such imaginative & unwholesomely specific insults since Scott Lynch.

Hee! I have regretfully semi-concluded that I think the POV/narrative style of 'Gideon' probably will not work for me, but I keep hearing things about the book that make me wish that weren't the case...

The good news is she’s a fairly prolific author so keep ‘em coming lol.)

I assume you know about her fifteen thousand other pen names, too? :D (I've actually only read (some of) the Kate Griffin books, and I respect the hell out of them without being really enamoured of the style, but I'm just so impressed by her obvious talent and SHEER OUTPUT, whoa.

[tabacoychanel]

yes she really is phenomenal, cannot say enough good things about her and i'm looking forward to skinful of shadows

and I respect the hell out of them without being really enamoured of the style
ahaha noted. i haven't picked up any of her Kate Griffin books just because i figured there was a reason her Claire North books were marketed under a different pen name? there's just something so DISTINCT about what she's doing writing as Claire North, woudl you say she's boiling a different ketlte of fish as Kate Griffin?

[hamsterwoman]

So I haven't read anything beyond the Kate Griffin ones and can't directly compare, but friends who have read both Griffin and Clare North titles do seem to like them both. I do get the sense that the subgenres are a bit different, though, which probably explains the pen names. Or IDK maybe the publishers just think no single person can plausible publish this much? :P

Anyway, the thing I do like about the Kate Griffin books: they are urban fantasy and, like, the MOST urban fantasy. There is a real sense of the city as an entity in these books, which is downright Pratchettian -- the worldbuilding in general is very solid and very unusual -- the type of magic and the practitioners and creatures and anthropomorphic personifications. I absolutely recommend these books, for all that I don't love them myself.

Some of the reasons I don't love them are the prose -- it is very good prose, but this sort of overwhelming, description-heavy style that doesn't mesh particularly well with my personal preferences. And the other thing is, the books are quite dark -- I don't mean that terrible things happen, but, I don't remember if you were around still for the discussion of Clair vs Noir universes, but this one definitely feels on the Noir side. As a reader who gets attached to characters, it's not a good match if those characters don't stick around for very long. (I have some of the same quibbles with Scott Lynch, but his overall tone is lighter, and at least I'm reasonably sure Jean at least will be OK, so it's less for a problem.)

[tabacoychanel]

like, the MOST urban fantasy would you even say, the PLATONIC IDEAL of urban fantasy lmao

I don't remember if you were around still for the discussion of Clair vs Noir universes
i was not!! ::eyes::

reasonably sure Jean at least will be OK
priorities we haz them. lol Jean's safety is also my priority. if i had to describe her tone as Claire North, it def skews closer to "dark" than "light", so this is not unexpected but it's good information to have

I absolutely recommend these books, for all that I don't love them myself. this is one of the things i love the most about you. most people straight up DO NOT have the ability to separate "this was good" from "i liked this" it's not exactly a superpower but i like to think i'm pretty good at it myself, and it drives me BANANAS when people can't step back and at least recognize a situation where they can't be objective and just recuse themselves?? when i read a good novel i'll recommend it to friends, but the BEST thing is when you read a novel and you just KNOW your friend will enjoy it more than you and you literally trip over your shoelaces running over to gift them a copy lol

[hamsterwoman]

would you even say, the PLATONIC IDEAL of urban fantasy lmao

It might actually be, hehe. Very urban, much fantasy, wow - but in all seriousness, I think they do put the urban in urban fantasy in a way the other series do not. It's not just fantasy set in the modern world with a vaguely noir flavor.

Jean's safety is also my priority.

Jean is the main reason I'm reading these books at this point, because Lynch has killed off or otherwise left behind every other character I was interested in XP (I was not a fan of Sabetha, when we met her, or the Falconer's return...)

most people straight up DO NOT have the ability to separate "this was good" from "i liked this" it's not exactly a superpower but i like to think i'm pretty good at it myself,

<33 (and :D at the compliment) Yeah, I find that most of my book buddies, and definitely the ones whose book write-ups I mine for recs, have that ability, and it's definitely not as common as I'd like, heh. But, yeah, I find it useful and necessary to distinguish between -- honestly, they're probably different axes, even, so that you can have matrices along the lines of "this is brilliant and I loved it", "this is probably objectively a good book but I wasn't able to appreciate it because of this one thing it got wrong that I can't look past", "this is probably trash but it's trash I love", "this is a book that I was able to appreciate, but a lot of people may not because X, Y, Z", etc. etc.

but the BEST thing is when you read a novel and you just KNOW your friend will enjoy it more than you and you literally trip over your shoelaces running over to gift them a copy lol

Yepppp! Actually I was going to mention The Goblin Emperor here - I read it, and I wasn't even finished with it by the time I was like, "OK, I need to tell X to read this RIGHT NOW", and then it turned out that outcome of that story was embedded in the Clair vs Noir discussion: here (I am still super proud of myself for that one :D) (And bonus discussion on my favorite Clair and Noir universes here :D)

[tabacoychanel]

I was not a fan of Sabetha, when we met her, or the Falconer's return...
i've provisionally DNF'd Book 3 about...1/3 of the way in? from what i've seen of Sabetha so far she has not impressed me favorably, especially considering the buildup (we been waiting 2 books to meet her!!).

The Goblin Emperor here - I read it, and I wasn't even finished with it by the time I was like, "OK, I need to tell X to read this RIGHT NOW"
omg this happened to me with Ninefox Gambit hahahaha i'm actually kinda scared to reread both of those (Goblin Emperor and MAchineries of Empire) because i loved them so much the first time that idk if the reread can measure up??? it's almost guaranteed to be a letdown and i wanna preserve that fresh untouched new-fallen snow reading experience crystallized in my mind forever. otoh i wanna also reread the damn book and derive joy from it. DILEMMA.

honestly, they're probably different axes, even, so that you can have matrices along the lines of "this is brilliant and I loved it", "this is probably objectively a good book but I wasn't able to appreciate it because of this one thing it got wrong that I can't look past", "this is probably trash but it's trash I love", "this is a book that I was able to appreciate, but a lot of people may not because X, Y, Z", etc. etc.
this is occurring on like 12 dimensions otherwise i would try to attempt a visual representation

off to read about Clair and Noir universes ty for the link!

[hamsterwoman]

i've provisionally DNF'd Book 3 about...1/3 of the way in?

Oh, oops, sorry for kind of spoiling it then XD But I'm relieved to hear you were also not a fan of Sabetha! (And, yeah, there was so much build-up, and then... this.)

omg this happened to me with Ninefox Gambit

LOL, at this rate we will have our calibration complete before we even get to the meme, because Machineries was one of my big recent fannish discoveries, heh -- and, yeah, I also rushed out and recced/gifted it to a lot of friends. Have ou finished the trilogy? Because my reading buddies HAVEN'T, and I need to talk about book 3 Kujen content with someone! (Hexarchate Stories I haven't read yet myself, though I have the book -- originally meant to be a gift for K, but she beat me to the punch, oops XD)

And I totally know what you mean about the "new-fallen snow" initial impression. I usually don't reread books much, but with my favorites I do get that dilemma (fortunately, my favorites usually do stand up and become richer for the rereads).

[chomiji]

Can I say how much I loved that you are reading children's books? I love that too. And yeah, Claudia's rebellion, no more just Straight A's Claudia Kincaid: yes indeed. One write-up I read of the book years ago pointed out that Mrs. Frankweiler is Claudia grown old, or Claudia is young Mrs. Frankweiler: they both understand the value of having a secret.

[tabacoychanel]

omg Mixed-Up Files is one of the books of my heart. Jamie's deadpan humor kills me every time, and that time when they INVENTED TELEPATHY to avoid getting busted by a museum security guard?? it makes me sad that "two middle schoolers run away to NYC and live in the Met for a week” is a premise that would never fly in our present surveillance panopticon, but works just fine in the sixties. but yeah i love Claudia and her squirreling away of secrets sfm. "Claudia doesn’t want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs … That was why planning the runaway had been such fun; it was a secret. And hiding in the museum had been a secret. But they weren’t permanent."

unsolicited rec but this pitch-perfect 13k futurefic is set not long after the vents of the book and it honeslty reads like EL Konigsburg wrote it herself, it is a delight