fiction

“Gifts” by Ursula K. Le Guin

February 20, 2016 by Sonia Connolly 1 Comment

Recommended to me by: Referenced in The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture blog post.

This is not a comfortable book to read. At first it feels irritatingly simplistic and aimed at young readers, but with not enough happening. Then it feels irritatingly complex with not enough answers to hard questions.

What if the best we can do with destructiveness inside us is do nothing, hold still, for a really long time. What if we lose what really matters to us. What if the people around us are doing the best they can with their destructiveness and lack of resources. What if, eventually, there is less destructiveness and we have more options than we thought.

In her essay, Nora Samaran uses “Gifts” as an example of needing to look at something backwards, violence vs. nurturance. “Gifts” doesn’t talk directly about nurturance, although the two young people at its center are shown to be attuned to each other, and there is some gruffly attuned parenting as well.

An uneasy, thought-provoking read, with layers.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Ancillary Mercy” by Ann Leckie

January 9, 2016 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: reading Ancillary Justice, the first book in this series.

This book has more plot drama and more heavy-handed social justice messages than the first two books. I imagine that works for the target audience of young space opera fans, but it didn’t suit me as well. It felt like the faster-moving plot crowded out some of the relationship development that I enjoyed in the first book.

The first book felt like it included me, where this book felt like it lectured me. Even though it was a lecture I agreed with about self-determination and unconscious privilege, I didn’t enjoy the book in the same way.

There was a lot less killing, and a lot more emphasis on each life being valuable. No one is cannon fodder in their own life story.

All in all, I’m not sorry I read it, but it didn’t have the WOW factor of Ancillary Justice.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Ancillary Sword” by Ann Leckie

October 17, 2015 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Reading Ancillary Justice

The nice thing about waiting a year or two to read a good book is that the sequel is already available! This sequel to Ancillary Justice was more about the troubles of 17 year old girls (and boys), and so didn’t pull me in as much. It still uses she/her as default pronouns, leaving in doubt whether some of the powerful, misbehaving teens are male or female.

People in power are described as having bulky bodies and dark skin, and being beautiful. A welcome change from thin, white powerful people, at the same time they abuse power in the same imperial ways. I keep hoping for new ways to handle power that don’t immediately devolve into abuse and violence.

I liked the way an abusive romantic relationship is described. I was uncomfortable watching the abuser interact with her (his?) abusive family. The question of nature or nurture is not addressed directly, but it felt a little too pat.

I liked that a love of folk singing is important to the plot.

Still worth reading to see what happens next. Still appreciably different from most of the science fiction out there, and I imagine it resonates more with a younger audience. Looking forward to the third book, which just came out, so the hold queue at the library is pretty long.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie

October 14, 2015 by Sonia Connolly 2 Comments

Recommended to me by: Sam L-G

I loved this book. I saw it recommended all over the place as unusual for space opera, but it took a friend loaning me his copy, and some spare time, to sit down with it. It opens with what seems to be a dead body, so I almost put it down again, but then I found myself on page 80. I finished it the same day. I used to inhale science fiction like that when I was growing up, but I’ve gotten a lot pickier over time.

Default pronouns are female, no matter what the person’s gender. It’s not the mismatch that interests me, but the up-front declaration that this isn’t just about young white men. In fact, the protagonist and her companion have brown skin. Sensory details are described with creative care. Details of relationships, not just heterosexual pairings but working relationships, negotiations, friendships, carry this book.

Power and privilege and favoritism aren’t just taken for granted, but clearly described and taken into account. I didn’t feel erased by this book. It brought up my own feelings of being stranded, isolated, and stubbornly trying to make things better one step at a time.

Highly recommended, when you have a chunk of time to spare.

Available at bookshop.org.

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle

April 8, 2015 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

I clearly remember not wanting to turn the light out, the first time I finished reading this book, spooked by mind control. I was around 9 years old, new to having my own room, lined with bookcases of my parents’ books.

Rereading it now, it’s interesting to see which parts I could practically recite, and which parts I had forgotten, but then remember liking, like Meg being cared for by Aunt Beast. This 50th Anniversary Edition includes a biographical essay about Madeleine L’Engle, written by her granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis.

There was a discussion about how evil is defined in this book, whether it was removing people’s individuality. I think evil is more about control, erasing people’s power of choice. Pure evil is pure control, pure selfishness, pure disregard for the will of others.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Flying in Place” by Susan Palwick

February 17, 2015 by Sonia Connolly 1 Comment

A twelve-year-old girl is being abused by her father, and is ultimately rescued by their next door neighbors. Her older sister had died, and at the end of the book, the neighbor says, “No one can help her. That’s what being dead means.”

Susan Palwick’s blog title is Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. That does describe this book’s satisfying rescue, and at the same time, the book realistically portrays gaslighting and abuse and the necessary mechanisms for survival.

I’ve had the book long enough that I don’t remember how I first came across it. I went back to it looking for that quote. Highly recommended, if you don’t mind crying at the end.

Available at bookshop.org.