Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I ended up loving this one. The scary mermaids were...not mermaids. (I don't want to give spoilers, but I imagine that a Black reader will understand much earlier than I did.) I should have seen what they actually were coming but I did not, and it was incredibly cool and incredibly brutal. It's funny because this story has like, half a dozen tropes I normally dislike, but it was done so well that they completely worked in this context. This ended up being my pick for best novella in the Nebulas based on vibes alone.

Currently reading: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Frustratingly, I'm like a chapter away from having finished this. Let's just say that it is a perfect pairing with Lost Ark Dreaming. 

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar. I'm not finished it yet but let's just say it was going to be a toss up as to whether this was my Nebula pick. This is a very strange and dreamy story about class divisions and the carceral state on a mining ship. In the Hold, generations of workers are Chained, never seeing anything other than their miserable conditions. But a boy who is good at drawing is plucked from the Hold and brought up to the ship's university, where he joins the bluelegs, people like his professor, who get an electronic ankle bracelet instead of a chain. Some people even have no fetters, and get names instead. This is so cool so far.

Comments

[greylock]

. (I don't want to give spoilers, but I imagine that a Black reader will understand much earlier than I did.)

I wonder if it was what was supposed to be in The Well in this week's Dr Who?

Frustratingly, I'm like a chapter away from having finished this.

I relate to this.

(I read two Neil Gaiman books this week, and DO I HAVE THOUGHTS? I do).

[sabotabby]

No, but you're warmish, era-wise.

Which books? Tragically I still think he's a good writer, though not a great one.

[greylock]

Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors.
I will argue he's a fantastic writer at times, especially and short fiction and comics, but he has weaknesses.

I said this many years ago when I read American Gods, he gets icky when he writes about sex, and that was before the recent disquieting allegations, which make his power dynamics worse.

He's one of the few writers I've ever met, and at that point I'd read one Sandman issue (which I loved), and that kind of lyrical style is his lane. The further he gets from that....

[sabotabby]

IMO he's at his best when he collaborated with someone who would tell him no.

[greylock]

Everyone was at their best with PTerry.

[selki]

(I don't want to give spoilers, but I imagine that a Black reader will understand much earlier than I did.)

I bet I know, but then, I've been a clipping fan since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splendor_%26_Misery (I hope that's obscure enough to not spoil for the casual reader).

And I LOVED The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar.

[sabotabby]

Oooh I've never heard of them! they sound rad.

[sovay]

Oooh I've never heard of them! they sound rad.

Strongly seconding the recommendation for the album, to which my introduction was the video for "Air 'Em Out" (2016).

[rydra_wong]

OMG Clipping are amazing (assuming you have at least some liking for hiphop). Cannot rec too highly. Ferocious music, massive fucking sf/f geeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/14/daveed-diggs-clipping-dead-channel-sky-sub-pop
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1483-why-clippings-hugo-nomination-matters-for-music-in-science-fiction/
https://www.youtube.com/@clppng/videos

[sambucawitch]

I have begun a book called In the Dark Dark Woods. :) I may bring it with me to New D today.

[sabotabby]

Enjoy!

[sambucawitch]

I started it last night but fell asleep on it hehe..

[sovay]

The scary mermaids were...not mermaids. (I don't want to give spoilers, but I imagine that a Black reader will understand much earlier than I did.)

I hope this means it is a Drexciya variant, because I read a YA novel a couple of years ago which also employed this mythos and which I should have loved, but it made the same mistake with Eshu that a lot of retellings make with Loki and therefore I burnt out on it.

[sabotabby]

You are in fact dead on.

[sovay]

You are in fact dead on.

I will locate this book posthaste. (Thank you!)