Reading Wednesday
Nov. 23rd, 2022 07:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyJust finished: The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente. I loved this. I don't have tons to add since last week (I was mostly done last week) but I will say Tetley's monologue about hope towards the end of the book absolutely broke me and was terribly relatable.
I have a hard time picking up climate fiction books, both because I don't want to be unduly influenced but also a lot of them start from the premise of "what if we fixed the world's problems," and I'm just. Not there right now. I know a lot of folks don't want to read grimdark and need escapism to keep them going, but I'm the opposite. I need to practice scenarios. I need to wallow. I need books that ask, "what if the worst thing happened and we survived it?" And this book does that magnificently.
Currently reading: A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger. Halfway through the book, and a plot has emerged! That sounds sarcastic—it's really not. This book really does spend half of its pages wandering in worldbuilding and character work, which is a feature, not a bug. Oli, the snake person, has gathered a group of animal friends around him. His adorable little friend Ami, a frog who can't or won't speak or turn into human form, falls suddenly comatose, and Oli finds out it's because his species is threatened with extinction in the human world. So he gathers his crew and goes to the human world, where he at last has met Nina, who has been researching her own ancestry and connections to the animal people.
Assassin of Reality by Marina and Serhiy Dyachenko.
Can I just take a moment to scream? Just. When this arrived on my very own doorstep, I emitted a high pitched shriek. Sorry to alarm any neighbourhood dogs. But like, it came directly from Marina with an actual note from her inside the book that said "Enjoy reading, Marina."
Bit of a backstory here. Vita Nostra is my favourite fantasy novel. I read it, was obsessed, and evangelized about it to everyone, including one of my friends who befriended the translator, Julia Meitov Hersey. Who is a really excellent person and offered us both ARCs. Vita Nostra has had a sequel for quite a few years, but it wasn't translated into English until this year. Another friend has been reading it in Russian, but she no longer thinks in Russian and has been very considerate about not giving me spoilers even though I was dying to know what happened.
I don't want to give too many spoilers myself, but Vita Nostra is really a complete work and the ending, which is absolute bonkers, doesn't seem to be the kind of ending that leaves any room for a sequel. If you've read it, you'll know what I mean. But I shouldn't underestimate these authors, because they found a way to continue the story that doesn't contradict any of the weirdness of the first book's ending but adds another layer of strangeness and melancholy to Sasha's story. The Sasha in Assassin of Reality is older, more battered, reluctantly returning to the Institute of Special Technologies in order to complete a new series of inexplicable, impossible—or as her mentor Farit puts it, near-impossible—"corrections" in order to save the lives of those she cares about and to take her place as the Password.
It's every bit as gripping a story as Vita Nostra, and as much as Sasha doesn't want to return to the Institute, I definitely did. The school and town itself is a living character in the book, bleak and menacing. And of course, the translation is stunning. (If you follow my other blog and newsletter, stay tuned for an interview with Julia about how she managed the incredible feat of making the Dyachenkos' I-can-only-assume-incredible prose in Russian work just as well in English.)
Anyway, I'm burning through it because I want to know what happens but I will also probably re-read it to savour some of the moments and come up with a more intelligible review than this one.
I have a hard time picking up climate fiction books, both because I don't want to be unduly influenced but also a lot of them start from the premise of "what if we fixed the world's problems," and I'm just. Not there right now. I know a lot of folks don't want to read grimdark and need escapism to keep them going, but I'm the opposite. I need to practice scenarios. I need to wallow. I need books that ask, "what if the worst thing happened and we survived it?" And this book does that magnificently.
Currently reading: A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger. Halfway through the book, and a plot has emerged! That sounds sarcastic—it's really not. This book really does spend half of its pages wandering in worldbuilding and character work, which is a feature, not a bug. Oli, the snake person, has gathered a group of animal friends around him. His adorable little friend Ami, a frog who can't or won't speak or turn into human form, falls suddenly comatose, and Oli finds out it's because his species is threatened with extinction in the human world. So he gathers his crew and goes to the human world, where he at last has met Nina, who has been researching her own ancestry and connections to the animal people.
Assassin of Reality by Marina and Serhiy Dyachenko.
Can I just take a moment to scream? Just. When this arrived on my very own doorstep, I emitted a high pitched shriek. Sorry to alarm any neighbourhood dogs. But like, it came directly from Marina with an actual note from her inside the book that said "Enjoy reading, Marina."
Bit of a backstory here. Vita Nostra is my favourite fantasy novel. I read it, was obsessed, and evangelized about it to everyone, including one of my friends who befriended the translator, Julia Meitov Hersey. Who is a really excellent person and offered us both ARCs. Vita Nostra has had a sequel for quite a few years, but it wasn't translated into English until this year. Another friend has been reading it in Russian, but she no longer thinks in Russian and has been very considerate about not giving me spoilers even though I was dying to know what happened.
I don't want to give too many spoilers myself, but Vita Nostra is really a complete work and the ending, which is absolute bonkers, doesn't seem to be the kind of ending that leaves any room for a sequel. If you've read it, you'll know what I mean. But I shouldn't underestimate these authors, because they found a way to continue the story that doesn't contradict any of the weirdness of the first book's ending but adds another layer of strangeness and melancholy to Sasha's story. The Sasha in Assassin of Reality is older, more battered, reluctantly returning to the Institute of Special Technologies in order to complete a new series of inexplicable, impossible—or as her mentor Farit puts it, near-impossible—"corrections" in order to save the lives of those she cares about and to take her place as the Password.
It's every bit as gripping a story as Vita Nostra, and as much as Sasha doesn't want to return to the Institute, I definitely did. The school and town itself is a living character in the book, bleak and menacing. And of course, the translation is stunning. (If you follow my other blog and newsletter, stay tuned for an interview with Julia about how she managed the incredible feat of making the Dyachenkos' I-can-only-assume-incredible prose in Russian work just as well in English.)
Anyway, I'm burning through it because I want to know what happens but I will also probably re-read it to savour some of the moments and come up with a more intelligible review than this one.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 01:40 pm (UTC)So are governments.
And, unless there are scientists who reckon everything is going to be fine if we wind down business as usual over the next 30 years, we are fucked.
. This book really does spend half of its pages wandering in worldbuilding and character work, which is a feature, not a bug
I feel like this approach works best on TV... Notsomuch on the page.
But if the story carried it, sure.
When this arrived on my very own doorstep, I emitted a high pitched shriek. Sorry to alarm any neighbourhood dogs.
Oh, that's what that was.
I am glad you are enjoying it. Expectations can be hard to reach.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 09:18 pm (UTC)But if the story carried it, sure.
For me, novels are one of the best media to do this in. I always rejoice when I encounter a novel that's written to be unadaptable into a film.
Oh, that's what that was.
I am glad you are enjoying it. Expectations can be hard to reach.
LOL. This is only the third book by these authors that has been translated into English, and I loved the other two to a fanatical degree. Vita Nostra more than Daughter From the Dark, but that's only because I love Vita Nostra than most things.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 01:55 pm (UTC)I am so jealous. It's one of my very favorite books as well and I had been so worried that they wouldn't manage to pull off a sequel to such a complete book, but OMG. It's not coming out here until March. How will I wait?
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