SF book club picks
Mar. 9th, 2022 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxofdelightsThe theme of the next group is Body Modifications through Technology: Changing yourself is the most intimate thing you can change to survive in a changing world.
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei, trans. Ari Larissa Heinrich, pub 1995 (orig. Taiwan), 168 pg.
It is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Momo prefers to keep to herself, and anyway she's too busy for other relationships: her clients include some of the city's best-known media personalities. But after meeting her estranged mother, she begins to explore her true identity, a journey that leads to questioning the bounds of gender, memory, self, and reality.
Machinehood by S.B. Divya, pub. 2021, 416 pg.
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her by the Machinehood. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want?
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor, pub. 2021, 224 pg.
AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist and the saga of the wicked woman and mad man unfold.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, pub. 2021, 394 pg.
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death.She will miss no opportunity to leverage her might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
I think I'll vote for Noor, but I'll be happy with any of these choices.
Next group is Changing Your Home: Sometimes the best thing to do is to leave the environment that is no longer safe for you and find a new place to call home. These are all immigration/refugee stories.
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divinia by Zoraida Cordova, pub. 2021, 336 pg.
The Montoyas know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. Determined to save what’s left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants of Orquidea Divinia travel to Ecuador—to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, pub. 2017, 231 pg.
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young-Hur, pub 2021, 416 pg.
Elsa Park is a particle physicist at the top of her game, stationed at a neutrino observatory in the Antarctic, confident she's put enough distance between her ambitions and the family ghosts she's run from all her life.When her mother breaks her decade-long silence and tragedy strikes, Elsa must return to her childhood home in California. There, among family wrestling with their own demons, she unravels the secrets hidden in the handwritten pages of her mother’s dark stories: of women’s desire and fury; of magic suppressed, stolen, or punished; of the hunger for vengeance.
The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick, pub. 2005, 320 pg.
Lémabantunk, the Glorious City, is a place of peace and plenty. But it is also a land of swift and severe justice. Young Darroti has been accused of the murder of a highborn woman who had chosen the life of a Mendicant, a holy beggar whose blessing brings forgiveness. Now his entire family must share his shame, and his punishment--exile to an unknown world. Grieving for the life they have left behind, Darroti and his family find themselves in a hostile land--an all-too-familiar American future, a country under attack in a world torn by hatred and war.
I have read The Necessary Beggar, which is really good, but it is an odd shape for a story. There's this fascinating otherworld, and how does the role of the Mendicant work? And this fascinating portal to elsewhere, which is only used to get rid of offenders (and their families) -- does that act as a pressure valve, to remove the energy that might otherwise force the system to change? But none of that is going to be explored. It's just a backdrop, it isn't what the story is about.
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei, trans. Ari Larissa Heinrich, pub 1995 (orig. Taiwan), 168 pg.
It is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Momo prefers to keep to herself, and anyway she's too busy for other relationships: her clients include some of the city's best-known media personalities. But after meeting her estranged mother, she begins to explore her true identity, a journey that leads to questioning the bounds of gender, memory, self, and reality.
Machinehood by S.B. Divya, pub. 2021, 416 pg.
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her by the Machinehood. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want?
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor, pub. 2021, 224 pg.
AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist and the saga of the wicked woman and mad man unfold.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, pub. 2021, 394 pg.
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death.She will miss no opportunity to leverage her might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
I think I'll vote for Noor, but I'll be happy with any of these choices.
Next group is Changing Your Home: Sometimes the best thing to do is to leave the environment that is no longer safe for you and find a new place to call home. These are all immigration/refugee stories.
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divinia by Zoraida Cordova, pub. 2021, 336 pg.
The Montoyas know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. Determined to save what’s left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants of Orquidea Divinia travel to Ecuador—to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, pub. 2017, 231 pg.
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young-Hur, pub 2021, 416 pg.
Elsa Park is a particle physicist at the top of her game, stationed at a neutrino observatory in the Antarctic, confident she's put enough distance between her ambitions and the family ghosts she's run from all her life.When her mother breaks her decade-long silence and tragedy strikes, Elsa must return to her childhood home in California. There, among family wrestling with their own demons, she unravels the secrets hidden in the handwritten pages of her mother’s dark stories: of women’s desire and fury; of magic suppressed, stolen, or punished; of the hunger for vengeance.
The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick, pub. 2005, 320 pg.
Lémabantunk, the Glorious City, is a place of peace and plenty. But it is also a land of swift and severe justice. Young Darroti has been accused of the murder of a highborn woman who had chosen the life of a Mendicant, a holy beggar whose blessing brings forgiveness. Now his entire family must share his shame, and his punishment--exile to an unknown world. Grieving for the life they have left behind, Darroti and his family find themselves in a hostile land--an all-too-familiar American future, a country under attack in a world torn by hatred and war.
I have read The Necessary Beggar, which is really good, but it is an odd shape for a story. There's this fascinating otherworld, and how does the role of the Mendicant work? And this fascinating portal to elsewhere, which is only used to get rid of offenders (and their families) -- does that act as a pressure valve, to remove the energy that might otherwise force the system to change? But none of that is going to be explored. It's just a backdrop, it isn't what the story is about.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-09 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-10 12:09 pm (UTC)I tend to accumulate recs on the basis of blurbs like these, make long lists, then look them all up on GoodReads and go through removing the ones where the bad reviews seem more credible and relatable than the good ones (ie all the good ones sound like an advertisement for alternative medicine or some sort of wacky fad diet and the bad ones are pointedly and cogently pointing out particular flaws that are things I dislike).
no subject
Date: 2022-03-10 01:34 pm (UTC)