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Dec '23 and Early(ish) 2024 Reading
A reread of Some Desperate Glory for Yuletide reasons. The reread did nothing to reduce my thoughts on Mass Effect showing up in the DNA.
All nine Expanse novels (2011 - 2021), and the collected short stories, in a mix of audiobook and ebook. All 1.5 million words, give or take. In a month.
Apparently I am the target audience for "members of scrappy found family (Paladin who rolled minus one million on comprehending Actions vs Consequences, oblivious to or actively ignoring that his chosen family is made up of disaster humans; quiet engineering genius with a history that comes out of nowhere in book five; pilot who is 90% chill unto conflict avoidant and 10% 'you threatened my favorite engineer, this can only be solved with a railgun'; and Amos) claim they're just trying to live their lives while fighting large evil corporations, selfish and short-sighted government factions, and sometimes men who believe they can be God."
For a series that has Massive American Dudebro Energy, The Expanse has a couple themes not usually accompanied by Dudebro Energy: first, for all the gun-fights and spaceship duels and fist fights, a larger bomb solves almost no problem ever. Larger bombs, or more guns, or better guns, usually make larger problems. Talking, now, that sometimes maybe solves problems. Second, the writers really do seem to have taken to heart the adage that the third spear-carrier to the left's gender is irrelevant, why not make a minor, tertiary, or secondary character a woman? Why not make them a minority? Third, our dumbass paladin and the only person to get one of the rotating PoV slots in all nine novels is, well, a glorious dumbass paladin. As one character says, "you talk out your ass better than most people do using their mouth and sober. Plus which, no one on this ship will try harder to jump in front of a bullet for me than you will. I find that appealing in a captain."
Source checks: golden age SF, classic space opera, the last round of New Space Opera. Herbert, Vinge, Andy Weir shout-outs. Firefly's in the DNA, but I didn't notice any shout-outs. If there isn't some Kim Stanley Robinson in the Mars worldbuilding, I will be shocked. Norabombay thinks Naomi has Cordelia Vibes, but she watched the TV show first, which doesn't count for novel influence assessment. On the other hand, I think Amos has Bothari vibes to go with the What If We Upgraded Jayne Cobb vibes, so... checks out. I don't think the authors meant to give me Diane Duane vibes, but first of all, polyamory and diverse family arrangements are baked into the worldbuilding, which feels a lot like the Tale of the Five novels; second, if there isn't some deep American progressive-leaning Protestant themes about sacrifice in the background of Young Wizards and The Expanse, well, I'm wrong and I am going to sulk while sandwiching Deep Wizardry between Leviathan Wakes and Cibola Burn and scrowling. Anyway. There's also a Le Guin nod in one of the late series ship names, because the Earthsea trilogy is awesome, and the extended series is... well, it's an interesting choice.
The authors have mentioned they're also pulling from different genres in each novel, which is fun. The first novel is soaked in noir and the second novel's realpolitik gives me Cherryh vibes. It's also a monster thriller I guess? IDK, Bobbie showed up in her power armor and Avasarala used cheap and largely empty threats against men's reproductive organs as a cover for her far more serious threats to their political, economic, and social power, and I was sold. Third novel is doing a bunch of plot stuff to set up Babylon 5 vibes long term. The fourth novel is such a Western, there had to be a shoot-out. And so on.
The authors have been pretty up-front that the worldbuilding and characters came out of a role-playing game; the worldbuilding leaves a lot of unfilled space if you're into that sort of thing. (See: Babylon 5 vibes.)
Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros): First in a proposed five novel series. Twenty year old Violet Sorrengail, third child of a general of the dragonriders, is hustled off to dragonrider school after the death of her father, a gentle Scribe who wanted his chronically ill daughter to follow in his footsteps.
Yeah, no, where's the fun in that?
Instead, Violet is ordered to the fight-or-die Rider's Quadrant, which boasts a 75% mortality rate among the cadets who a.) want to be there b.) trained to be there c.) aren't blessed with something which looks like plot-convenient Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Graduates are part of the dragonrider elite, bonded to the dragon who hand-picked them until their death (dragons usually survive their rider's death; riders don't) and with access to magic powers via the bond with their dragon.
Violet spends most of the novel trying to survive her first year in the Rider's Quadrant and battling her attraction to tall, dark, and lethally handsome Xaden Riorson, son of the man who lead an uprising and was killed on Violet's mother's orders. Xaden has the biggest muscles, the most brooding gold-flecked onyx eyes, and the most badass dragon among the trainees, at least until Violet - well, you figure it out.
My friend who read this said she did not think it was good, but that it was fun, and as a veteran of the fantasy and the AO3 trenches, I cannot disagree with her assessment. I can't even fault her for having no idea who Adam Driver was when I was texting her my reactions, she's not fannish and would have no logical reason to know about Reylo. So let's be clear: Violet is the Most Special. She has the Most Special challenges to being a dragon-rider. She has the Most Special dragon. She has the Most Special hot boy pants-feeling problems. She has the Most Special angst since emo Herald-Mages roamed the world (though this is straight person angst, rather than very gay angst). She has the Most Special dragon magic power. She also has the Most Special Hair. Etc etc etc. I can put up with everything except the part where Hot Boy didn't tell her about his secret plan to resist the evil censorship state, and she takes it as him not trusting her, so she can't trust him with her heart. Well, I guess that's one way to set up some will-they-won't-they sexual tension in the second book.
(Every PoV character of the Expanse is over here saying, "it's called operational security and you shouldn't take it personally, Violet," except for maybe James fucking Holden (1). Holden's possible support is more than balanced out by Avasarala's opsec speech, which probably would start with insults to Violet's intelligence, threatening Hot Boy's balls, and include Avasarala saying "fuck" at least twice. Fifty foot tall fire-breathing dragons have nothing on Chrisjen Avasarala in a bad mood.)
(1) But then, Holden would be appalled that trying to fight the censorship state got a bunch of people killed in a war half a generation back, and he'd do what Holden is notorious for doing, which is an unauthorized press release that triggers a war and gets a bunch of people killed.
Other trope highlights: Hot Boy and Violet's dragon collaborate on secretly inventing a dragon saddle, complete with stirrups, because apparently saddles are Not To Be Endured by our murder dragons, until they are; Nice Boy Next Door turns out to be Not Nice; dead people are - plot twist! - not dead.
The novel is told in first person present tense. The audiobook switches narrators for the last chapter, which is told from Hot Boy Xaden Riorson's PoV, so readers can really appreciate how much he burns, heh, for Violet's passionate love. The narrator switch threw me hard, especially after untold millions of words with the Expanse audiobook narrator, who can't pronounce "gimbal" consistently but does great voices.
Iron Widow (Xiran Jay Zhao) (2021): Another road audiobook. YA, Pacific Rim meets Han Chinese mecha sci-fi AU. Angry peasant girl Wu Zetian volunteers to be a pilot-concubine, a typically subservient and short lived role, to avenge her dead older sister on the pilot she believes murdered her older sister. Instead of getting a chance to stab him with a blade disguised as a hairpin, she pulls all his qi in battle, earning the "Iron Widow" epithet used in the novel's title. Wu goes on to survive the army's attempts to get her killed in battle or break her resistance, while trying to solve most of her problems with murder. Along the way, she solves her love triangle problem with convicted murderer Li Shimin and gentle rich boy Gao Yizhi by going for the thruple. Good job, kids, good job.
If you're here for "angry young woman rages her way to the top of the pile," is this the novel for you.
If you're reading for subtlety, Iron Widow is not the novel for you. Wu's Huaxia is built on crushing and hobbling women into subservience, with the foot binding tradition bringing literalism to any possible metaphors.
The audiobook was read by someone who either knows Chinese much better than me or fakes it well, which I think helped sell the worldbuilding to me.
All nine Expanse novels (2011 - 2021), and the collected short stories, in a mix of audiobook and ebook. All 1.5 million words, give or take. In a month.
Apparently I am the target audience for "members of scrappy found family (Paladin who rolled minus one million on comprehending Actions vs Consequences, oblivious to or actively ignoring that his chosen family is made up of disaster humans; quiet engineering genius with a history that comes out of nowhere in book five; pilot who is 90% chill unto conflict avoidant and 10% 'you threatened my favorite engineer, this can only be solved with a railgun'; and Amos) claim they're just trying to live their lives while fighting large evil corporations, selfish and short-sighted government factions, and sometimes men who believe they can be God."
For a series that has Massive American Dudebro Energy, The Expanse has a couple themes not usually accompanied by Dudebro Energy: first, for all the gun-fights and spaceship duels and fist fights, a larger bomb solves almost no problem ever. Larger bombs, or more guns, or better guns, usually make larger problems. Talking, now, that sometimes maybe solves problems. Second, the writers really do seem to have taken to heart the adage that the third spear-carrier to the left's gender is irrelevant, why not make a minor, tertiary, or secondary character a woman? Why not make them a minority? Third, our dumbass paladin and the only person to get one of the rotating PoV slots in all nine novels is, well, a glorious dumbass paladin. As one character says, "you talk out your ass better than most people do using their mouth and sober. Plus which, no one on this ship will try harder to jump in front of a bullet for me than you will. I find that appealing in a captain."
Source checks: golden age SF, classic space opera, the last round of New Space Opera. Herbert, Vinge, Andy Weir shout-outs. Firefly's in the DNA, but I didn't notice any shout-outs. If there isn't some Kim Stanley Robinson in the Mars worldbuilding, I will be shocked. Norabombay thinks Naomi has Cordelia Vibes, but she watched the TV show first, which doesn't count for novel influence assessment. On the other hand, I think Amos has Bothari vibes to go with the What If We Upgraded Jayne Cobb vibes, so... checks out. I don't think the authors meant to give me Diane Duane vibes, but first of all, polyamory and diverse family arrangements are baked into the worldbuilding, which feels a lot like the Tale of the Five novels; second, if there isn't some deep American progressive-leaning Protestant themes about sacrifice in the background of Young Wizards and The Expanse, well, I'm wrong and I am going to sulk while sandwiching Deep Wizardry between Leviathan Wakes and Cibola Burn and scrowling. Anyway. There's also a Le Guin nod in one of the late series ship names, because the Earthsea trilogy is awesome, and the extended series is... well, it's an interesting choice.
The authors have mentioned they're also pulling from different genres in each novel, which is fun. The first novel is soaked in noir and the second novel's realpolitik gives me Cherryh vibes. It's also a monster thriller I guess? IDK, Bobbie showed up in her power armor and Avasarala used cheap and largely empty threats against men's reproductive organs as a cover for her far more serious threats to their political, economic, and social power, and I was sold. Third novel is doing a bunch of plot stuff to set up Babylon 5 vibes long term. The fourth novel is such a Western, there had to be a shoot-out. And so on.
The authors have been pretty up-front that the worldbuilding and characters came out of a role-playing game; the worldbuilding leaves a lot of unfilled space if you're into that sort of thing. (See: Babylon 5 vibes.)
Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros): First in a proposed five novel series. Twenty year old Violet Sorrengail, third child of a general of the dragonriders, is hustled off to dragonrider school after the death of her father, a gentle Scribe who wanted his chronically ill daughter to follow in his footsteps.
Yeah, no, where's the fun in that?
Instead, Violet is ordered to the fight-or-die Rider's Quadrant, which boasts a 75% mortality rate among the cadets who a.) want to be there b.) trained to be there c.) aren't blessed with something which looks like plot-convenient Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Graduates are part of the dragonrider elite, bonded to the dragon who hand-picked them until their death (dragons usually survive their rider's death; riders don't) and with access to magic powers via the bond with their dragon.
Violet spends most of the novel trying to survive her first year in the Rider's Quadrant and battling her attraction to tall, dark, and lethally handsome Xaden Riorson, son of the man who lead an uprising and was killed on Violet's mother's orders. Xaden has the biggest muscles, the most brooding gold-flecked onyx eyes, and the most badass dragon among the trainees, at least until Violet - well, you figure it out.
My friend who read this said she did not think it was good, but that it was fun, and as a veteran of the fantasy and the AO3 trenches, I cannot disagree with her assessment. I can't even fault her for having no idea who Adam Driver was when I was texting her my reactions, she's not fannish and would have no logical reason to know about Reylo. So let's be clear: Violet is the Most Special. She has the Most Special challenges to being a dragon-rider. She has the Most Special dragon. She has the Most Special hot boy pants-feeling problems. She has the Most Special angst since emo Herald-Mages roamed the world (though this is straight person angst, rather than very gay angst). She has the Most Special dragon magic power. She also has the Most Special Hair. Etc etc etc. I can put up with everything except the part where Hot Boy didn't tell her about his secret plan to resist the evil censorship state, and she takes it as him not trusting her, so she can't trust him with her heart. Well, I guess that's one way to set up some will-they-won't-they sexual tension in the second book.
(Every PoV character of the Expanse is over here saying, "it's called operational security and you shouldn't take it personally, Violet," except for maybe James fucking Holden (1). Holden's possible support is more than balanced out by Avasarala's opsec speech, which probably would start with insults to Violet's intelligence, threatening Hot Boy's balls, and include Avasarala saying "fuck" at least twice. Fifty foot tall fire-breathing dragons have nothing on Chrisjen Avasarala in a bad mood.)
(1) But then, Holden would be appalled that trying to fight the censorship state got a bunch of people killed in a war half a generation back, and he'd do what Holden is notorious for doing, which is an unauthorized press release that triggers a war and gets a bunch of people killed.
Other trope highlights: Hot Boy and Violet's dragon collaborate on secretly inventing a dragon saddle, complete with stirrups, because apparently saddles are Not To Be Endured by our murder dragons, until they are; Nice Boy Next Door turns out to be Not Nice; dead people are - plot twist! - not dead.
The novel is told in first person present tense. The audiobook switches narrators for the last chapter, which is told from Hot Boy Xaden Riorson's PoV, so readers can really appreciate how much he burns, heh, for Violet's passionate love. The narrator switch threw me hard, especially after untold millions of words with the Expanse audiobook narrator, who can't pronounce "gimbal" consistently but does great voices.
Iron Widow (Xiran Jay Zhao) (2021): Another road audiobook. YA, Pacific Rim meets Han Chinese mecha sci-fi AU. Angry peasant girl Wu Zetian volunteers to be a pilot-concubine, a typically subservient and short lived role, to avenge her dead older sister on the pilot she believes murdered her older sister. Instead of getting a chance to stab him with a blade disguised as a hairpin, she pulls all his qi in battle, earning the "Iron Widow" epithet used in the novel's title. Wu goes on to survive the army's attempts to get her killed in battle or break her resistance, while trying to solve most of her problems with murder. Along the way, she solves her love triangle problem with convicted murderer Li Shimin and gentle rich boy Gao Yizhi by going for the thruple. Good job, kids, good job.
If you're here for "angry young woman rages her way to the top of the pile," is this the novel for you.
If you're reading for subtlety, Iron Widow is not the novel for you. Wu's Huaxia is built on crushing and hobbling women into subservience, with the foot binding tradition bringing literalism to any possible metaphors.
The audiobook was read by someone who either knows Chinese much better than me or fakes it well, which I think helped sell the worldbuilding to me.
no subject
The obstacle course is literally the American Ninja Warrior course, but with 2000 foot falls.
I agree on Iron Widow. It's not subtle, it's not trying to be subtle, but it's pretty great at what it actually is doing.
no subject
Can't have our protagonist be middle of the pack! Where's the id vortex in that?
I was not aware of the overlap with the American Ninja obstacle course! I will look up a run.
Yep. Iron Widow is here to be a loud problem and it's not interested in being anything but. I am deeply curious if the sequel will continue to lean into the "murder solves problems" theme, because I am all for a cold open on storming the people dangling that last plot twist (vague to avoid spoilers) or also a mid-novel murder storming.
no subject
:D
I knooooow I need to read the Expanse! (At this point, the earliest possible is probably after Hugo reading plus my repeated attempt to read the Terra Ignota books, agh.) But if it's any consolation this post giving me more reasons to do so :D
Iron Widow had some really, er, interesting worldbuilding choices. The literal foot binding combined with the mecha SF vibe just did not work for me. Totally agreed on the subtlety, or lack thereof.
no subject
Reading other reviews, Iron Widow is apparently doing some stuff with wuxia tropes, as well as hot takes like "pilots are young because brains stop changing after age 25." (As I recall, the receipts on that internet meme are that the study was on people ages 25 and under, so I'm genuinely not sure if this is character PoV regurgitating incorrect facts pushed by her society or author regurgitating... incorrect facts pushed by her society.) Sometimes I'm just not the target audience and that's okay.
no subject
This bothers me, because I really love the characters, especially the Dumbass Paladin, Amos, and Naomi.
But I keep getting a sense of futility out of the series. I might be wrong about this. I want someone to tell me if I'm wrong about this. But the last time I bailed out was near the beginning of the book when Naomi falls in with the People from Her Past and it's a group of Belter terrorists with a plan to destroy the Earth because the billions of people suffering on Basic are... for some reason... responsible for the Belters' oppression and are supposed to be able to do something about it, or something, and I don't care, and that's what I kept getting out of the series: Mankind will never learn, we will always be assholes to each other, the only non-assholish social units are going to be the lone heroes and antiheroes and little families and found families.
Do Not Want that in my escapism, sorry.
So... tell me if I'm wrong. Because I really want to finish the series.
no subject
Well, that's certainly one half of the message.
My question is: is that half a deal-breaker for you? I'm not going to be able to contradict your conclusions after four and a half novels. The series has set its themes, and the themes include large social units as more interesting when explored in its components than in a whole. Almost any large group is tesselated into smaller groups, if the reader spends any amount of time with that large social unit. The authors aren't interested in panning out to the big organization / institution / family / etc.
Cut for thematic and some plot spoilers.
Nemesis Games doubles down on small group interactions, especially if you decide you're done at the halfway point, say, around Amos's speech about tribes. The way I read the series, The Expanse is really disintrested in large groups of humans as united fronts, and more interested in the competing desires of different groups or individuals come into conflict or alliance and play out. I also think the authors don't have, for example, Martha Wells' talent for writing medium-sized group interactions, or maybe even her interest in that sort of writing.
On the other hand, the series really likes to put characters into the absolute worst situation and then see them elect to work together for a collective good. It's still focused on small group scenarios, rather than crowd-sized or army-sized collaboration, even when there are additional people - or groups of people - in the background working to the same goal.
The flipside of the "people will always be assholes" is "people's kindness will always surprise you."
A follow-up question is: what would you want to see that would make you feel satisfaction as a reader?