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Reading Wednesday
Sep. 18th, 2019 07:24 amo boi
Just finished: Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson. I wrote about it last week. I loved this one, possibly even more than the first one. The only problem is that it ends on a cliffhanger and the last part of the trilogy isn't out yet.
Currently reading: Rare for me, but two books at once because one is short stories and the other is...a thing.
Palestine + 100, edited by Basma Ghalayini. This is probably the fastest I've ever slammed "buy" on an e-book because the first story is by an old El Jay friend of mine and his first novel was one of the best books I read the year it came out, and also because it's very much up my alley. I've never read any Palestinian sci-fi before, though I'd say that Elia Suleimen's brilliant Divine Intervention is a cinematic example of the genre. The stories are all set in 2048, a century after the founding of Israel/Palestinian Nakba. The thing is, if you look at the present day, real world situation of Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, it's pretty much Kafka and cyberpunk rolled into one, and a glimpse of the future that, unless we are very wealthy, most of us globally have to look forward to, as resources dwindle, climate change takes its toll, and walls and camps go up. In many ways, this necessitates a less dystopian brand of science fiction to differentiate from the present. Which is not to say that the stories aren't depressing, because most of them are, but they're also incredibly imaginative and humanistic so far.
Guardian (镇魂) by priest, translated by RainbowSe7en. Thanks to @umadoshi's bad influence, I have been watching this weird, life-ruining Chinese drama. And as I just finished the penultimate episode last night and am full of the sads that when I finally watch the finale, there will be no more, I started reading the novel on which it's based.
It's...something. The translator admits that this is a labour of love and that they are in no way a professional translator. I hope, one day, there is a really good translation, because this one is definitely a work in progress. It's also not done, although the book seems quite long so maybe it'll be done before I hit the end? Who knows.
There are definitely things that I prefer to the show, namely the setting. The show is very much the product of Chinese censorship laws, for better or for worse. The original Buddhist inspired fantasy setting of the novel makes far, far more sense than the sci-fi handwaving and it makes the politics a bit less uncomfortable, in that our heroes are attempting to stop hungry ghosts from escaping from Hell vs. trying to keep aliens from sneaking out of their lightless hellworld just because they want to see the sky. But the big change, of course, is that the main characters are gay af for each other in the novel and the show wasn't allowed to depict it, and much as I despise the homophobic reasons behind it, it...kindamakestheshowbetter. Essentially, the show is forced to make some very creative decisions in order to depict what the novel explicitly states, and as a result we have the truly glorious euphemism Socialist Brotherhood, and also a romance that is implicitly rather than explicitly stated is just way more narratively interesting, regardless of the sexualities of those involved. The book is still really fun, though.
Just finished: Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson. I wrote about it last week. I loved this one, possibly even more than the first one. The only problem is that it ends on a cliffhanger and the last part of the trilogy isn't out yet.
Currently reading: Rare for me, but two books at once because one is short stories and the other is...a thing.
Palestine + 100, edited by Basma Ghalayini. This is probably the fastest I've ever slammed "buy" on an e-book because the first story is by an old El Jay friend of mine and his first novel was one of the best books I read the year it came out, and also because it's very much up my alley. I've never read any Palestinian sci-fi before, though I'd say that Elia Suleimen's brilliant Divine Intervention is a cinematic example of the genre. The stories are all set in 2048, a century after the founding of Israel/Palestinian Nakba. The thing is, if you look at the present day, real world situation of Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, it's pretty much Kafka and cyberpunk rolled into one, and a glimpse of the future that, unless we are very wealthy, most of us globally have to look forward to, as resources dwindle, climate change takes its toll, and walls and camps go up. In many ways, this necessitates a less dystopian brand of science fiction to differentiate from the present. Which is not to say that the stories aren't depressing, because most of them are, but they're also incredibly imaginative and humanistic so far.
Guardian (镇魂) by priest, translated by RainbowSe7en. Thanks to @umadoshi's bad influence, I have been watching this weird, life-ruining Chinese drama. And as I just finished the penultimate episode last night and am full of the sads that when I finally watch the finale, there will be no more, I started reading the novel on which it's based.
It's...something. The translator admits that this is a labour of love and that they are in no way a professional translator. I hope, one day, there is a really good translation, because this one is definitely a work in progress. It's also not done, although the book seems quite long so maybe it'll be done before I hit the end? Who knows.
There are definitely things that I prefer to the show, namely the setting. The show is very much the product of Chinese censorship laws, for better or for worse. The original Buddhist inspired fantasy setting of the novel makes far, far more sense than the sci-fi handwaving and it makes the politics a bit less uncomfortable, in that our heroes are attempting to stop hungry ghosts from escaping from Hell vs. trying to keep aliens from sneaking out of their lightless hellworld just because they want to see the sky. But the big change, of course, is that the main characters are gay af for each other in the novel and the show wasn't allowed to depict it, and much as I despise the homophobic reasons behind it, it...kindamakestheshowbetter. Essentially, the show is forced to make some very creative decisions in order to depict what the novel explicitly states, and as a result we have the truly glorious euphemism Socialist Brotherhood, and also a romance that is implicitly rather than explicitly stated is just way more narratively interesting, regardless of the sexualities of those involved. The book is still really fun, though.
