Some Books I Loved

 **Modern, feminist stories inspired by traditional Japanese folk tales, kabuki plays, and general myths and legends.  Yeah, it's fantastic** "Updated fairy tales" has actually been a pretty robust genre, which I enjoy (I'll probably get around to reviewing Naomi Novik's forays at some point).  It's pretty easy to understand how delightful it can be to have the stories we know by heart, the ones that formed us as children, the ones that have stood the test of centuries, and then try to bring them to "literature" or whatever.  Pretty clear rationale behind that trend So how does Matsuda set this collection apart?  So many ways.  But I'd say the best part is rather simple:  If you want to tell fairy tale stories in the modern world, sure you need to understand the fairy tales, but that's not the hard part--the hard part is understanding and portraying our modern world.  And that's something that Matsuda does perfectly Rather than being the ...

 **Fantasy adventure, maximum snarkiness.  What's not to like?** “Doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.” “My ideas never are. But my execution is flawless.” - Aelis de Lenti un Tirraval is kind of my hero Credit to Daniel M. Ford, he knows exactly what he's doing and this book knows exactly what it is.  It's just plain fun, no need to overthink it. It's a very well-constructed world, post-Tolkien (similarly, you could say it has a heavy D&D vibe) to the point that any even casual consumer of fantasy will find comfortable ground on which to stand.  Humans are plucky but physically outmatched, elves are wise and graceful, orcs and strong and angry, dwarves enjoy tinkering and ale ("we have enough sense to turn all grains, corn, barley, oats, and wheat into something to drink.") To this, Ford has mixed in plenty of original ideas.  Magic is taught in separate colleges, and mages have affinity for one or some but not all of them, which leads to nice variety (an...

**It's a big, big galaxy out there.  It's hard to find your place in it.  Becky Chambers is here with a message of hope** This series is truly wonderful.  And I'm not saying anything radical here, this series has gotten its laurels and deserves every one of them.  But it's worth writing about, because it really is just a hand of friendship extended out into the darkness I'm tagging this as "Series (concluded)" although there's no reason why it should be.  The four books are only loosely connected to each other, occasionally a character from one books shows up in a later one (or sometimes is only mentioned, and the author trusts the perceptive reader knows who is being talked about:  "‘Which homesteader are you from?’ ‘I’m from the Ratri.’ Pei smiled blue. She knew the name. ‘I have a friend from the Asteria.’ ‘Our waterball team is better.’ ‘He’d fight you on that.’ ‘Yeah, well, he’d lose, just like his team does under pressure.’").  Becky Ch...

 **Very pleasant intro to the current reigning king of "hard" fantasy.  If you're curious about Sanderson, this is where to start** Much has been discussed on the difference between "hard" and "soft" science fiction.  Hard science fiction is one in which the author sat down and worked out the science for the novel's futuristic technology.  These authors tend to have the mindset of predicting the future, or at least future technological trends.  Meanwhile, soft science fiction generally isn't bothered with this, the futuristic setting is just that--a setting for the story the author wants to tell.  That's not to say that "hard" scifi is serious and "soft" scifi is fluffy (Le Guin in particular was more than happy to park herself in the "soft" category while still churning out timeless, enduring classic works) However, this distinction works in fantasy as well.  There is "soft" fantasy in which the magi...

 **A masterpiece of supernatural horror.  You're not going to totally understand what's happening, but you're going to know that whatever it is, it's viscerally uncomfortable in the best way** (note, I read the original publisher's translation by Megan McDowell, released 2023.  I think that's the only translation so far) Ok, elephant in the room:  This is a tome .  600+ pages, and more importantly than that it's one of those books where you're deliberately kept in the dark for much of it.  Oh and it's basically five different novellas combined with each other, with more than four different viewpoint characters and five different time periods (plus a few short story length bits from random viewpoint characters that fit into the gaps).  Even by the end of it, there are still so many unanswered questions.  So if you're looking for a linear, single-viewpoint, clear narrative . . . uh, this is not any of those things.  And if that's not your jam, ...

 **Calling him one of the greatest short story writers ever is damning him with faint praise.  One of the greatest artists to ever put pen to paper, period** If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose a favorite author, there's a very real chance I'd select Jorge Luis Borges.  Erm, or William Gibson.  Oh, Ursula K. Le Guin, obviously.  Or modern torchbearers like Ken Liu and Ted Chiang.  Or obviously Nghi Vo, can't forget her, wow she's amazing.  Or . . . I mean, if you're actually putting a gun to my head, you'd better be prepared to either pull the trigger or have patience for a long debate.  Bring a snack, or something But yes, if there were a shortlist of authors I consider my absolute favorites, Borges would be very near the top What do I love about Borges?  Other than everything, of course.  Well to start, Borges truly mastered the art of the short story.  His entire writing philosophy was basically, "if you can't say...