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Reading Wednesday
Oct. 28th, 2020 07:09 amJust finished: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. This was fun. Still in "good not great" territory—I actually enjoy a lot of the fanart more than the story itself—but with many great bits in it. One more editorial pass and it probably would be great. It corrects a lot of the flaws in the first one—insufficiently fleshed-out supporting characters, details of worldbuilding like "why necromancy? what is it for?"—and just has some awesome moments. Does it hang together? Ehhhh. Do we care? Not so much. I'm glad it exists.
I think my big problem with this one, besides that I found the combination of a flashback structure, combined with an unreliable narrator and ornate prose, somewhat disorienting, was ( spoiler )
But anyway, I liked it. Will definitely continue to read the series.
Currently reading: The Iron Heel by Jack London. This is a *looks it up* 1908 dystopian novel by a guy best known for writing about dogs. He was also a hardcore socialist, which I knew, but I only found out that this book existed a few weeks ago. It's much like It Can't Happen Here in that it's eerily accurate in its predictions, not just of an American dystopia but of the Russian Revolution and the rise and fall of social democracy in Germany.
See, this flashback structure works for me. The main narrative is a manuscript written by Avis Everhard, a socialist revolutionary living during the fascist takeover of the US, and Anthony Meredith, a scholar living in a future socialist utopia in about 2600 AD. So Avis' manuscript is interrupted by footnotes from Anthony, explaining things that the contemporary reader wouldn't understand, often rather snarkily.
It's very much a product of its time—there's some rather antiquated racist language and stereotyping as you might expect. This said, for a male writer in 1908 to give us multiple badass female protagonists (love the Red Virgin, she is my favourite) is a bold choice. Avis' journey from the sheltered bourgeois professor's daughter to freedom fighter is fantastic.
While obviously it gets a lot wrong (a general strike prevents WWI, the Socialist Party in the US gets some traction, etc.) he gets a lot right, and it's a chilling read given the current state of the US and the rise of far-right governments throughout the world. The selling out of organized labour in particular brings up all the feels.
Anyway it's quite a good read if you like scaring the shit out of yourself.
I think my big problem with this one, besides that I found the combination of a flashback structure, combined with an unreliable narrator and ornate prose, somewhat disorienting, was ( spoiler )
But anyway, I liked it. Will definitely continue to read the series.
Currently reading: The Iron Heel by Jack London. This is a *looks it up* 1908 dystopian novel by a guy best known for writing about dogs. He was also a hardcore socialist, which I knew, but I only found out that this book existed a few weeks ago. It's much like It Can't Happen Here in that it's eerily accurate in its predictions, not just of an American dystopia but of the Russian Revolution and the rise and fall of social democracy in Germany.
See, this flashback structure works for me. The main narrative is a manuscript written by Avis Everhard, a socialist revolutionary living during the fascist takeover of the US, and Anthony Meredith, a scholar living in a future socialist utopia in about 2600 AD. So Avis' manuscript is interrupted by footnotes from Anthony, explaining things that the contemporary reader wouldn't understand, often rather snarkily.
It's very much a product of its time—there's some rather antiquated racist language and stereotyping as you might expect. This said, for a male writer in 1908 to give us multiple badass female protagonists (love the Red Virgin, she is my favourite) is a bold choice. Avis' journey from the sheltered bourgeois professor's daughter to freedom fighter is fantastic.
While obviously it gets a lot wrong (a general strike prevents WWI, the Socialist Party in the US gets some traction, etc.) he gets a lot right, and it's a chilling read given the current state of the US and the rise of far-right governments throughout the world. The selling out of organized labour in particular brings up all the feels.
Anyway it's quite a good read if you like scaring the shit out of yourself.
