Recent Reading

[ase]

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire (Jonathan Abrams) (2018): In audiobook, narrated by... well, everyone they could pull in from The Wire. Nerd heaven. Either you're here for "people who worked on The Wire talk about making The Wire, very few bodies are unearthed," or you have no idea what The Wire is, in which case let me find someone into long form series TV who can explain it.

Fablehaven (Brandon Mull) (2006): Children's fantasy novel, from a coworker during a holiday gift swap. Siblings Kendra and Seth Sorenson are dropped off with their socially-distant grandparents for a multiweek stay, discovering the secret of their large property, a secret preserve for magical creatures, and the forces of evil that move against Fablehaven.

The tropes are all played straight in Fablehaven. Kendra and Seth fall into the archetypes of Responsible Older Sister and Reckless But Plucky Younger Brother. Their grandparents' secret responsibilities explain their absence from the lives of their grandkids, with no emotional repercussions (not in this novel, at least). The parents are thoroughly written out of sight and mind.

I've got to say, if I'd been anyone in this novel, every time Seth said, "what if we do X" after the Not-A-Walrus Incident, I would have said, "hey Seth, remember that time you were told not to do the thing, and got turned into a walrus when you did the thing? And we had to use a very expensive and medium-risky magical favor to get you de-walrused?"

My coworker and I have a solid working relationship founded on neither of us ever talking politics or religion. If my coworker likes Fablehaven as much as he said he did, I am very tempted to hand him Diane Duane's first three Young Wizard novels and see what he thinks. And whether Duane's wokeness is going to be a dealbreaker or the start of a good discussion.

Heavenly Tyrant (Xiran Jay Zhao) (2024): In audiobook, narrated by Rong Fu. DNF. Sequel to Iron Widow.

At the end of IW, Boyfriend #1, Li Shimin, was in the hands of the Enemy. Boyfriend #2, Gao Yizhi, was in the capital, dodging fallout from the violent destruction of the previous government. HT's Part One sidelines both of them for Boyfriend #3, Qin Zheng. Qin Zheng is a legendary historical figure, the pilot-emperor who a) united Huaxia b) caught plague and disappeared into suspended animation, to be retrieved when a cure was found. Two hundred years later, Team Iron Widow revived the "lost" emperor and the end of IW happened.

HT quickly establishes Qin Zheng as The Emperor Returned, and from Wu Zetian's perspective is ten thousand problems in one annoying package. The shattered remainder of the upper class powers bow to him; he gives fiery speeches about rooting out corruption, the rights of the working class, and sometimes his disgust withneconomic "parasites" on the productive; he makes Wu Zetian his Empress; he tangles Wu Zetian in expectations for proper Empress behavior; he makes Yizhi his prime minister. Most IW plot lines are back-burnered so we can be treated to some prime Evils Of Capitalism infodumps. Qin Zheng uses his wedding to speechify on the coming-together of the city workers (him) and rural peasantry (her) as the perfect moment to stage a general work stoppage and maybe seize some rich people stuff. Real estate industry collapses are mentioned. Riots follow the wedding. Advertising is struck down from the capital city and events are stripped of the trappings of corporate sponsorship. It's An Experience.

If you're going "but where is Wu Zetian in all this?" she's mostly raging about Qin Zheng having the power she wants, recovering from non-consented restorative foot surgery with a side of laser hair removal, and fighting with Qin Zheng about freedom of movement (her) vs someone deciding to take her out to avenge her violent destruction of the previous government (him). The Heavenly Court is threaded in there, but they're a background element in the lectures about personal property vs private property.

I noped out when three corrupt officials were paraded into a stadium filled to the nosebleed seats so their working class victims could be encouraged to participate in a beat-down of their chained and hobbled oppressors as "justice".

It wasn't just the what, but also the how: I hadn't been enjoying HT and I really didn't enjoy how Zhao wrote Wu Zeitan's PoV during the PR spectacle of violence. Revenge fantasies are not doing it for me these days, radical, reactionary, conservative, or liberal.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

I don't mind revenge fantasies but that general plot outline is REALLY not where I expected/wanted the sequel to go.

Like. What about the big reveal at the end of the last book that the humans are invaders?

[ase]

There's some handwaving about the gods and extortion, but I guesss that plot twist wasn't as exciting to the author as violent reform of the State. Or Zhao's saving something for the third novel.

[rachelmanija]

This just sounds really not what I wanted from a sequel.

[ase]

There's some girl friendships, and some helping women at a programmatic level, and according to spoilers, also a baby / not baby / surrogacy plotline!

It feels like Zhao threw all their anger at the wall, like cans of open paint, and we get to watch the contact, the splash, the cans bouncing, and the drips.

I'd say another round of edits might have improved the outcome, but Zhao notoriously fired their editor for political differences, and learned the hard way the line edits from one editor do not carry over to a new editor.

Zhao is growing and learning in a public stage. It's An Experience for all on the sidelines.

[rachelmanija]

The LAST thing I wanted from a sequel was fucking SURROGACY.

[ase]

It's a noncon surrogacy. Egg stealing, etc. Also maybe a giant fake-out? The spoilers for the rest of the novel are wild.

[rachelmanija]

WTF.

Also, pls dish on Zhao - I haven't heard about any of this and it also sounds wold.

[ase]

Check the haters for dishing, I'm going to pull out Zhao in their own words. As Lizbee pointed out in other comments, they're in their 20s, and how many of us are really glad our 20s were not recorded for internet posterity?

Zhao learning how commercial publishing works and sharing their discoveries: it's a business, firing your editor has consequences (Twitter link, mid-thread, because if you can't get if off google I'm not touching the microblogging platform formerly known as twitter). Also Zhao on the Cait Corrain scandal (Zhao figures out a romancelandia author is reviewbombing her competition, it escalates in romancelandia fashion, author is dropped by publisher).

Elsewhere, Robespierre fan goes off. Zhao's pinned post at the top of their tumblr recaps a number of pre-HT internet controversies in teakettles.

[lizbee]

I never got around to reading Iron Widow, but I am FASCINATED by how the sequel is straight up Maoist apologia. (And also I'm fascinated by Xiran Jay Zhao's whole deal, they were like, "I missed my deadline because I need to read theory in order to figure out what happens when the revolutionaries win." And I was like, I think there's a whole field called 'history' which covers that, and it often goes badly. But then I learned they're a Robespierre fangirl. FASCINATED.)

[ase]

...googling "xiran jay zhao robespierre" and clicking through is An Experience. Like reading HT, I'm not sure it's a good experience, but it's certainly memorable.

From what I can tell, Zhao's writing, self-promotion, and publishing learning curve has been and will continue to be presented in real time with no filter, but a lot of stanning for their interpretation of righteousness. It'll be interesting to see how Zhao's fiction shakes down as they mature. But someone else gets to pre-screen for me from here out.

[lizbee]

They are a frequent topic of fascination and discussion among my pro writer friends, and the vibe is that they are incredibly smart, but probably got signed too young. Which I think is fair -- at their age, I was doing and saying dumb stuff online, but no one cared except the few dozen Harry Potter fans I annoyed. There's a lot to be said for learning and growing without an audience.

[ase]

There's a lot to be said for learning and growing without an audience.

Or a small audience you're open to getting concrit from. Remembering my 20's, I definitely benefited from both support and from pointers on growing up.

We will all continue to watch Zhao with fascination.

[loup_noir]

Thanks for All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire (Jonathan Abrams). We loved The Wire, and I bet this will be a blast to read. Or, would you suggest listening to the book instead?

[ase]

I listened to the audiobook, and really liked it in that format, so that would be my suggestion. There's a ton of audio clips from the people involved with The Wire in the audiobook, behind and in front of the camera, which I think is really neat.

[lokifan]

I noped out when three corrupt officials were paraded into a stadium filled to the nosebleed seats so their working class victims could be encouraged to participate in a beat-down of their chained and hobbled oppressors as "justice".

Nooooooooope!

[ase]

There's a lot of passion but not a lot of connection to consequences. Not my jam.

[cahn]

I -- was not really intending to read HT anyway but I gotta say reading this post and the comments has been wild and probably vastly more entertaining than the experience of reading HT would have been.

If my coworker likes Fablehaven as much as he said he did, I am very tempted to hand him Diane Duane's first three Young Wizard novels and see what he thinks. And whether Duane's wokeness is going to be a dealbreaker or the start of a good discussion.

I mean -- it could work, maybe? I feel like Duane is a good bridge in a lot of ways because of all the implicit connections to Christianity. I gave my older niece Duane years ago and I am pretty sure she's read it, though I never hear back anything from my sister-in-law about these kinds of things so idk what the effect has been, if any (although sister-in-law still lets me give them books, so there's that).

[ase]

I -- was not really intending to read HT anyway but I gotta say reading this post and the comments has been wild and probably vastly more entertaining than the experience of reading HT would have been.

I think a colorful summary of HT is, in fact, an excellent way to experience HT.

Re: Duane: I feel like the YW novels in particular talks a good game about universalism, but implementations of it in Duane's fiction come from a very Christian-informed worldview. The virtues and non-virtues in the worldbuilding manifest accordingly. It feels like a worldbuilding limitation to me, but might be a hook for my coworker. I'll keep thinking abut it.