Some Books I Loved

 **One of my favorite 'balancing the real world and an online world' stories, told with fun and respect for the subject** Some of you might recognize the name Sakurazaka Hiroshi.  He's most well-known for having written "All You Need is Kill", which was adapted to the movie "Edge of Tomorrow" (also apparently just got an anime adaptation?  I should watch that) For those that don't know, "All You Need is Kill" is a story about a soldier in a future war against alien invaders, who discovers that every time he dies, he wakes back up that same morning.  He uses that time loop to become a better soldier, make new contacts, and try to win the war.  The movie was actually a decent adaptation of the first two-thirds of the movie--although the setting changed from Japan to Europe, the general structure of the idea was pretty close (and then they completely changed the ending, which changed the entire story, and I'm grumpy about it, but that'...

Hi everyone!  Sorry the blog has been on hiatus while I'm traveling.  But at the very least, let me get this up.  It's been a fantastic year of reading for me, I hope for you all as well Not a ranking, not even a comprehensive list of my favorite books.  I like reading, I like writing, I like writing about reading, and I love being able to share.  Just what it says at the top:  Some books I loved this year * * * "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013) I always feel like I have to put out a weird explanation of, "I don't only  read speculative fiction.  Just mostly," whenever I want to talk about a book that's more "serious" literature.  But yes, although not in line with much of what I read, "Americanah" was not only one of the best books I read this year, it's the one of the best books I can recommend, period.  It is without question a masterpiece This book is a portrait of the immigrant experience, from Nigeria to bo...

 **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...