Toll

Neal Shusterman

Book 3 in Arc of a Scythe trilogy

The conclusion, following Scythe and Thunderhead. Scythes Lucifer and Anastasia are stuck in a vault at the bottom of the ocean after the sinking of Scythe capital Endura. New Order sociopath Goddard has taken over the Scythedom. Simultaneously, Thunderhead has designated everyone unsavory (and therefore unavailable for communication) save one, who becomes Toll (effectively a cult leader). While the first two installments were interesting as an AI-coming-of-age story, here we have a separation of church and state, burgeoning fascist state story. The development of Thunderhead takes a back seat (although still pivotal) role. I wonder if the story was always planned this way, or if Shusterman is writing to be relevant in 2019 U.S. The reason I have to wonder is because it is not obvious. The story works, and does not feel put on. It is part of this continuous character development. I like the pacifist nods, but also recognize that it is really pretty "just war pacifism". I like the struggle with mortality and meaning. I love that this is a quality trilogy (not just strong 1 & 3) and Shusterman maintains his strength of fascinating worlds that speak to important social topics.

4 stars (out of 4)

The Resisters

 Gish Jen

The Circle meets The Brothers K. Set in the near future where civilization is run by artificial intelligences (referred to as Aunt Nettie in Autoamerica) and the major geopolitical tension is between Autoamerica and Chinrussia. In this world, there are basically two social classes, the Netted and the Surplus. Since Aunt Nettie has so vastly improved the efficiency of production, most workers are no longer necessary. But to do their part, the Surplus have consumption goals to help utilize all the production that the Netted produce. Into this setting, our protagonist is Gwen, a Surplus girl who finds that she has a gift for pitching. The story follows her development as a pitcher, getting called up to the Netted leagues and with scholarship to NetU, and the manipulative ways that Aunt Nettie arranges to coerce her along the way. So while Aunt Nettie is terrifying (in that Jen describes the technology so that we can see that it is much nearer-term than we like to admit), the baseball storyline throughout is brilliant. A couple of really enjoyable pieces to look forward to include (since I listened to this on audio, read by William DeMeritt) is his voicing of the "house", and Jen's "name branding" of tasks. Can't recommend this enough.

4 stars (out of 4)

The Raven

Ann Leckie

A story where the narrator is a god, and an ancient god at that. In fact, it is two stories. The first person account of the god's experience over history in discovering its self-identity and learning to interact with people, and a specific event story about a town in political transition where the actions of the gods is integral. This definitely gave me American Gods vibes, but was way better. I loved the development of identity of the god. How it discovered that it had power, and how that power worked. By definition, anything that a god proclaims must be true. So, the god must be careful to only say true things or, if a statement of fact is made that is not currently true, it will then become true. This is the creation process of sorts. For example, if a god says "All trees are made of metal", it is clearly not true now. So the in order to keep the god status, trees become made of metal. And the amount of power that this requires must be taken into account. Likely this statement would actually kill the god, since turning all trees to metal would take more power than the god has available. So you can see that it is tricky being a god, and takes great care in what is said. With this line of thinking about how gods work, it does allow for an interesting thought experiment about the Christian creation story. Perhaps God was not "creating" most of the time, but stating already true facts about the universe?

While this may seem like a genre departure for Leckie from her space opera Imperial Radch Trilogy (which I loved), it in fact has many themes that overlap. As a reader, I was thinking about power and responsibility, and challenged with my preconceptions about gender throughout. Leckie may be one of my favorite authors.

4 stars (out of 4)

A Reaper at the Gates

Sabaa Tahir

Book 3 in the Ember in the Ashes series. 

Now we get in to it. Good vs Evil begins to clarify. And the humans and fey alike need to evaluate their own morality. How far along the path to evil are you willing to travel in order to achieve the good? And I love a good prophecy that can be interpreted 3 ways. The character chooses one way (which of course is mostly wrong, but makes sense) so I choose another (slightly more obtuse, but possible, and eventually still wrong) and in hindsight, the prophecy is so clearly manifested that we kick ourselves for not seeing it. The story here follows the characters settling into the prophesied roles as Elias becomes the Soul Catcher, Laia the leader of the resistance, Helene the savior of the empire. Each is continuing to explore the depth of personal character and identity, working out motivation and purpose. The Nightbringer seems to be pulling all strings toward something, and clues to that something are doled out in the smallest of cryptic bits. In the end, we are set up for a grand battle, where all the pieces will fall into place. I look forward to the final chapter, coming in December.

4 stars (out of 4)

A Torch Against the Night

Sabaa Tahir

Book 2 in the Ember in the Ashes series. 

The new emperor has been chosen, Helene is the Blood Shrike (#2 to the emperor and enforcer), Elias and Laia are fugitives. The main story driver is Laia pursuing her quest to free her brother Darin from prison. It turns out that Darin is only one of may layers of subterfuge, and the magical world is largely revealed in this story. We are introduced to a new people (the tribesmen) and the feud between the Helene and the Commandant (Elias' mother) heats up. This is outstanding fantasy storytelling, with both action and clarity and creativity of the world, but also finding the right mix of foreshadow/partial reveal/reveal/twist. Nothing is just "dropped in", and nothing is just obvious. The characters and the readers are simultaneously pursuing understanding and interpretation of events and prophecy. Very engaging.

4 stars (out of 4)

An Ember in the Ashes

Sabaa Tahir

Found on a list of Sci-fi/Fantasy by Muslim/Women authors. Why this has not shown up on any of my lists of good fantasy without the special categorization I cannot figure out. The world created here by Tahir is outstanding. The setting is Serra, a central city of the Scholar peoples, but currently part of the Martial empire. In this city is the Blackcliff, the training facility for Masks, the elite soldiers of the Empire. Elias and Helene are about to graduate. Elias is the son of the commandant, but neither wants anything to do with the other; they operate on diametrically opposed moral foundations. Helene is the sole woman mask of her generation (not class, generation). The two are the top fighters/soldiers of their class. Laia is a young girl forced by desperation into spying for the resistance in order to save her brother. The intertwined relationships between these three and various factions (both physical and mystical) in the empire and resistance is a complex weaving that Tahir has set out. This book is not about magic and mystics, but I am sure that the world is magical and mysticism will weigh heavily in this story. And the slow reveal of the history of the world though personal stories keeps me pushing though to discover more.  

4 stars (out of 4)

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Linda Brent

This is an autobiography written in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs under the Brent pseudonym. It is the story of Jacobs life from about the age of 10 through 25 or so. The story tells of her years as a slave and travel to the north after escape. I won't summarize the story here, but please read this. It is a fascinating primary source telling of slavery by a particularly unique woman in so many ways. Through the telling her life story, Jacobs illuminates so many misconceptions about slavery that exist even today. She powerfully captures many of the root emotions associated with slavery, and the generational impacts of slavery on both black and white, north and south. This is not a book about slavery, but an exposure of humanity, the corruption of power, persistence, and self worth. Read!

5 stars (out of 4)

The Obelisk Gate

N.K. Jemison
Volume 2 of The Broken Earth trilogy

Picking up immediately after the first, a fifth season has begun, and it has been started by the cataclysmic actions of the powerful orogene Alabaster. Essun is now learning from her former mentor things about the world that she did not know. She gets a glimpse of an ancient grudge between humans and Father Earth that, if set right, could end the fifth seasons. And she begins to see into the roots of orogeny. But she is also still a human, a person, a mother. So amidst her explorations, she is a member of a new community, and still seeking her lost daughter. These relationships she can not put off as easy as Alabaster would have her. Jemison has us deep in this world, but there is so much mystery that we as readers are just discovering what this world is, just as the characters seem to be. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Fifth Season

N.K. Jemison
Volume 1 of The Broken Earth trilogy

First, let me say Really Good Storytelling. I knew nothing about this world before reading and much of the pleasure of this book came in the unfolding of the characters and the plot-line. So I will not ruin for you that same pleasure (which makes this basically a useless summary). Read the book without reading any synopsis. Suffice it to say, the world that is created here is novel and interesting. It is mysterious. The stories of the characters we are following reveal to us as readers complexity and humanity and suggest political and social hierarchies and machinations that are sure to only surface in Vol 2 & 3. I can see why this is award winning and can't wait to continue.
4 stars (out of 4)

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

Originally published in 1985, I am just now getting around to the classic sci-fi story. Ender is a chosen child and sent to a special school for training. His charge? Apparently humans came together sometime in the past to fit a truly world war... this time Earth v. some alien insects species that was invading. That time, Earth forces won, but barely and mostly with luck and on the valor of one leader. Ender is now a student in the military academy learning strategy and technique to fight space battles against the aliens should they choose to return. The story is mostly the story of his training and development as a soldier with his other child soldier conscripts. He is clearly leader material and clearly "the chosen one", so the adults put him in situation where he is tested beyond his own belief in himself to show that he can succeed. Trial by fire to develop a military leader. It is a good story... good enough that I have the sequels on my read list. But it is also pretty clearly an 80's storyline, and reading through that lens I can see how it was revolutionary at the time. It feels a lot like Ready Player One or Feed, although those push more cyberpunk than space war.
3 stars (out of 4)