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aseThe Mercy of Gods (James S. A. Corey) (2024): Multi-PoV novel where aliens brutally annex a far future human world that, for reasons so far not signaled, has no idea where it came from, and pull our human PoV characters, academics with bonus secret ridealong spy, into publish or perish on a species level.
Word of God is that this is not in the same universe as the Expanse novels, and since Corey is not J. J. Abrams and this is not Star Trek: Wrath of Khan Reboot Into Darkness, I'm inclined to believe them.
JSAC just spent a decade-plus publishing a big space opera, so it's interesting to read a new big space opera and note some author quirks. The themes and character treatments they go to the way a stone falls down, to paraphrase another author with consistent quirks. There's something about the mind-body issue, or maybe the problem of self-awareness, that I haven't got hammered out, but I'm pretty sure it's there and tapping against my great love of identity problems.
The pining for sort-of-undead dead girls is not a great look, but okay, let's see what happens in the sequel. I'm rooting for Dafyd and the swarm banging while the swarm works out life as Jellit, because I'm shallow and like messy identity problems in my fictional relationships. It's unlikely to get that queer, but I can hope. More likely is Jessyn's reacting to any "my brother has been taken over by an alien spy" reveals with a light spot of violence and verbally cutting Dafyd. Which would be fair of Jessyn, all things considered.
Anyway. Author quirks.
I'm interested in how Jessyn's unspecified mental health issue - which looks a lot like major depressive disorder - plays out through the novel. The bit about not disclosing because high performing environments are savage and absolutely will judge people feels very relevant to disabilities in the contemporary world. Especially in the academic world. Sometimes writers think long and hard to represent a character element; sometimes they incorporate something seen in their lived experience and accidentally or deliberately nail it.
Good enough to keep reading, if only to see if the bonkers character naming conventions stay bonkers. Some people should make better friends with conlang people, just saying.
"Livesuit" (James S. A. Corey) (2024): Novella in the same universe as TMoG. Timeline bounces between the "now", when the protagonist is an experienced livesuit solider, and episodes leading up to that period.
JSAC namechecked Heinlein and Le Guin as Captive's War influences, but the time dilation, technology mods, and distant senior command, ruthlessly lying to and sacrificing the front-line troops, gives strong Forever War vibes.
The big plot twist is that the livesuit-human bond is irreversible, and the livesuit is gradually infiltrating / replacing the human parts. "So. How long have you been dead?" applies to a couple of characters. Maybe more than a couple.
The Captive's War discord has been going in circles trying to align TMoG as later than "Livesuit". It would line up with JSAC publishing "The Butcher of Anderson Station" (prequel) after Leviathan Wakes hit the shelves. But watching the struggle to make the narrative pieces fit together, I'm really curious whether it might be set sometime later in the trilogy. My completely bonkers hypothesis is that Dafyd decides he is essential to winning a very long slog of a war and goes a little (or a lot) God-Emperor on the problem. The authors have Expense precedent for people using wacky alien tech on themselves (cough High Consul cough), or getting chewed up and repurposed by alien tech in ways that pass a Turing test. A couple hundred years down the line, Dafyd or whatever post-Dafyd consciousness exists could be Control, who showed up to the rest of humanity with a.) news of a lost colony b.) news of the Carryx conquest wave hitting the lost colony and rolling toward human space, c.) exotic tech, including proto-livesuit options, to help with protecting the rest of humanity / dunking on the Carryx.
I am looking forward to finding out how I am completely wrong, but until then, that's my fun and cheerful guess.
She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan) (2021): Fantasy-ish retelling of Chinese history, this time the origins of the first Ming emperor, who rose from humble origins to unite China.
In this case, the protagonist is a peasant girl who seizes her brother's destiny of "greatness". This contributes to the novel being Very Gender, especially contrasted with antagonist Ouyang, eunuch and survivor of an otherwise extinct male line. Ouyang spends a lot of time curdling in his damaged masculinity and the long list of things he's not: a Mongol; a Nanren; an undamaged man; an equal of Esen, son of the Prince of Henran; happy in his fated vengeance plan. There's some peak wuxia moments like Ouyang murdering his former slavemaster and bestie and sobbing helplessly over the body. Gay? Messed up loyalty? It's hard to tell. The seething anxiety over Ouyang's damaged manliness does not contribute to a clean read on the roots of his despairing fixation on Esen's perfect manliness.
If it wasn't evident, there's wuxia vibes. Lots of politics, revenge plotting, and talk of fate.
One of the fun plays on the plotting and alliances is that, in this universe, the Mandate of Heaven manifests as a summon-on-command visual effect. Multiple characters demonstrate this ability. As a worldbuilding nerd, I look at this and ask, "is this a Mandate of Heaven or the person's belief in themselves and/or their ambition?" From a plotting and scheming perspective, it gives the in-universe characters multiple Chosen Leaders to pick from, as their biases see fit.
It's a satisfying book: executes on its premises, worldbuilding checks out, characters are mostly interesting. (Ouyang's angst gets boring for me.) People who aren't me liked it more, so it's probably going to appeal to the Very Gender and Elaborate Sociopolitical Plot people a lot.
Word of God is that this is not in the same universe as the Expanse novels, and since Corey is not J. J. Abrams and this is not Star Trek:
JSAC just spent a decade-plus publishing a big space opera, so it's interesting to read a new big space opera and note some author quirks. The themes and character treatments they go to the way a stone falls down, to paraphrase another author with consistent quirks. There's something about the mind-body issue, or maybe the problem of self-awareness, that I haven't got hammered out, but I'm pretty sure it's there and tapping against my great love of identity problems.
The pining for sort-of-undead dead girls is not a great look, but okay, let's see what happens in the sequel. I'm rooting for Dafyd and the swarm banging while the swarm works out life as Jellit, because I'm shallow and like messy identity problems in my fictional relationships. It's unlikely to get that queer, but I can hope. More likely is Jessyn's reacting to any "my brother has been taken over by an alien spy" reveals with a light spot of violence and verbally cutting Dafyd. Which would be fair of Jessyn, all things considered.
Anyway. Author quirks.
I'm interested in how Jessyn's unspecified mental health issue - which looks a lot like major depressive disorder - plays out through the novel. The bit about not disclosing because high performing environments are savage and absolutely will judge people feels very relevant to disabilities in the contemporary world. Especially in the academic world. Sometimes writers think long and hard to represent a character element; sometimes they incorporate something seen in their lived experience and accidentally or deliberately nail it.
Good enough to keep reading, if only to see if the bonkers character naming conventions stay bonkers. Some people should make better friends with conlang people, just saying.
"Livesuit" (James S. A. Corey) (2024): Novella in the same universe as TMoG. Timeline bounces between the "now", when the protagonist is an experienced livesuit solider, and episodes leading up to that period.
JSAC namechecked Heinlein and Le Guin as Captive's War influences, but the time dilation, technology mods, and distant senior command, ruthlessly lying to and sacrificing the front-line troops, gives strong Forever War vibes.
The big plot twist is that the livesuit-human bond is irreversible, and the livesuit is gradually infiltrating / replacing the human parts. "So. How long have you been dead?" applies to a couple of characters. Maybe more than a couple.
The Captive's War discord has been going in circles trying to align TMoG as later than "Livesuit". It would line up with JSAC publishing "The Butcher of Anderson Station" (prequel) after Leviathan Wakes hit the shelves. But watching the struggle to make the narrative pieces fit together, I'm really curious whether it might be set sometime later in the trilogy. My completely bonkers hypothesis is that Dafyd decides he is essential to winning a very long slog of a war and goes a little (or a lot) God-Emperor on the problem. The authors have Expense precedent for people using wacky alien tech on themselves (cough High Consul cough), or getting chewed up and repurposed by alien tech in ways that pass a Turing test. A couple hundred years down the line, Dafyd or whatever post-Dafyd consciousness exists could be Control, who showed up to the rest of humanity with a.) news of a lost colony b.) news of the Carryx conquest wave hitting the lost colony and rolling toward human space, c.) exotic tech, including proto-livesuit options, to help with protecting the rest of humanity / dunking on the Carryx.
I am looking forward to finding out how I am completely wrong, but until then, that's my fun and cheerful guess.
She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan) (2021): Fantasy-ish retelling of Chinese history, this time the origins of the first Ming emperor, who rose from humble origins to unite China.
In this case, the protagonist is a peasant girl who seizes her brother's destiny of "greatness". This contributes to the novel being Very Gender, especially contrasted with antagonist Ouyang, eunuch and survivor of an otherwise extinct male line. Ouyang spends a lot of time curdling in his damaged masculinity and the long list of things he's not: a Mongol; a Nanren; an undamaged man; an equal of Esen, son of the Prince of Henran; happy in his fated vengeance plan. There's some peak wuxia moments like Ouyang murdering his former slavemaster and bestie and sobbing helplessly over the body. Gay? Messed up loyalty? It's hard to tell. The seething anxiety over Ouyang's damaged manliness does not contribute to a clean read on the roots of his despairing fixation on Esen's perfect manliness.
If it wasn't evident, there's wuxia vibes. Lots of politics, revenge plotting, and talk of fate.
One of the fun plays on the plotting and alliances is that, in this universe, the Mandate of Heaven manifests as a summon-on-command visual effect. Multiple characters demonstrate this ability. As a worldbuilding nerd, I look at this and ask, "is this a Mandate of Heaven or the person's belief in themselves and/or their ambition?" From a plotting and scheming perspective, it gives the in-universe characters multiple Chosen Leaders to pick from, as their biases see fit.
It's a satisfying book: executes on its premises, worldbuilding checks out, characters are mostly interesting. (Ouyang's angst gets boring for me.) People who aren't me liked it more, so it's probably going to appeal to the Very Gender and Elaborate Sociopolitical Plot people a lot.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-20 10:04 am (UTC)Ouyang murdering his former slavemaster and bestie and sobbing helplessly over the body. Gay? Messed up loyalty? It's hard to tell.
My read on this was that he's gay (and a sub) and hates that about himself because it hurts his masculinity - his reaction to Esen touching his face, and then his horrified reaction to "you really are as beautiful as a woman", felt much more 'I would but I'm worried - and then confirmed in my worry - that you want me in a way that I can't bear.'
The seething anxiety over Ouyang's damaged manliness does not contribute to a clean read on the roots of his despairing fixation on Esen's perfect manliness.
Ahh it's so messed up and good. I really like how clearly his misogyny is tied to his own desperation to be seen as a man, as well as the general misogyny of the setting, and how it contrasts with Zhu. Especially since I think Zhu goes through a more subtle arc where she (?) becomes much less 'ew girls' once she's stopped being afraid that Heaven will find out she isn't one.
I loved the Mandate of Heaven thing, yeah. Fun and interesting and I can't lie, I loved that incredible visual at the end.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-23 06:51 am (UTC)The duology is really well done for what it is. There is a point where Zhu Yuanzhang wants to keep conquering and I'm at my limit for unchecked expansion, and into my nation-building / nesting phase, which Zhu doesn't really get to in the duology. Ah well.