Nanoreviews: The Testaments, Laughter at the Academy, The Ascent to Godhood

Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments [Nan A. Talese]

The thing about reading and ultimately discussing a novel like The Testaments is that it is nearly impossible to separate the novel itself from the weight of hype and expectation. The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1985, is one of the most significant novels of the past fifty years. The Testaments is an unexpected sequel set fifteen years after The Handmaid’s Tale and telling more of the story of Gilead’s fall. Reading The Handmaid’s Tale was an act of discovery, partly because when I read it in the late 1990’s I had never heard of the novel or of Margaret Atwood and had no expectations of what I might find, and partly because up until that time I had read very few dystopian novels – not that I yet had an understanding of that term as a thing.

Reading The Testaments, on the other hand, is nothing but expectation. It has been 34 years since The Handmaid’s Tale was first published and its significance has only grown in that time. Remarkably (and disappointingly), the novel still speaks to the political reality of the United States today and the imagery from Hulu’s adaptation of the novel has given The Handmaid’s Tale a revived cultural significance. All of this is to say that The Testaments has a lot working against it – the weight of expectation, of time, and of memory.

Set fifteen years after The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments tells the story of three women: a young women of Gilead moving through that society, a young woman in Canada whose parents are part of the Mayday resistance against Gilead, and one of the founding Aunts of Gilead. The stories of the three women intertwine and give a richer exploration of what Gilead means to the wider world, more details of life inside Gilead (especially with those placed “above” handmaids), and images of what the founding of Gilead looked like and how certain institutions like Ardua Hall and the Aunts came in to power.

Atwood’s storytelling remains on point and her characterization is one of the strongest features of the novel. There's nothing wrong with The Testaments, but it also does not live up to the weight of 34 years. It can't. It's a good novel, but compared to the best of Margaret Atwood, The Testaments is a Minor Atwood - though Minor Atwood is relatively major for another writer. One of the selling points is what the novel reveals and expands upon the world of the Handmaid's Tale but it also somehow doesn't have the same feeling of depth that my memories of The Handmaid's Tale did - but perhaps another five years of distance from the weight of expectation will change how The Testaments is viewed, Booker Prize or otherwise.
Score: 7/10

McGuire, Seanan. Laughter at the Academy [Subterranean Press]

Laughter at the Academy is Seanan McGuire's first full length collection (there was a previous Newsflesh collection published as Mira Grant) and it takes everything you like about McGuire's novels but distills it downs into shorter and more experimental snacks. You see the shape of McGuire's longer fiction as well as some of the horror of Mira Grant - but with these stories Seanan McGuire gets to play with more ideas and a wider range of nasty than she fleshes out in her novels. At turns horrifying and heartwrenching, Laughter at the Academy is a delight.
Score: 7/10

Yang, JY. The Ascent to Godhood [Tor.com Publishing]

Each of JY Yang's Tensorate novellas has been as different from each other in form and concept as can be. This fourth novella is an origin story, but told after the Protector has died. Lady Han has spent a lifetime in rebellion towards the Protector but she spent years before that working for the Protector and loving the Protector. The Ascent to Godhood is their story, together and eventually apart. Yang's storytelling is as strong as ever and this is a moving story of a failed friendship that shook a world.
Score: 8/10


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 3x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. 

Nanoreviews: Mira's Last Dance, Midnight Blue-Light Special, The Descent of Monsters

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Mira's Last Dance [Subterranean Press, 2018]

Mira's Last Dance is the fourth published and fifth chronological novella in the Penric and Desdemona mini series. This one follows immediately after the events of Penric's Mission and continues Penric's flight with a betrayed General and the Genera's sister (who Penric has just happened to have fallen in love with) to continue Penric's mission of bringing the General to Adria. That mission does not seem likely to succeed, but escape is the ultimate goal.

Here we get a deeper dive into one of Penric's demon's previous riders / personalities - one several hundred years removed from her life and her time as a courtesan is well utilized in helping Penric and company remain free from capture. Those scenes are tenderly and considerately well handled with the grace and wit that readers have come to expect from Lois McMaster Bujold. Though she has not yet attained the title, Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the grandmasters working today and Mira's Last Dance continues to show Bujold's mastery of her craft.
Score: 7/10

McGuire, Seanan. Midnight Blue-Light Special [DAW, 2013]
Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second Incryptids series, which is up for the Hugo Award for Best Series. McGuire doesn't waste any time in raising the stakes from Discount Armageddon.  In that first book we were introduced to Verity Price, a competitive ballroom dancer who also happens to be a descendant of a family known for protecting supernatural creatures (cryptids) from those who would do them harm. From those like The Covenant of St. George, an organization dedicated to wiping out cryptids wherever they may be found.

They were introduced in the first book, but here they are to conduct a purge of the cryptids of New York City. That sounds about as bad as it is. There was a lightness and playfulness to Discount Armageddon that much diminished in Midnight Blue-Light Special. It's a more serious novel, though still lightened by those talking religious mice (the Aeslin really are the best). Verity is racing to prepare the city's cryptid population for the coming purge and is preparing to, with her life if necessary, stop the Covenant from carrying it out - all the while not knowing if her Covenant boyfriend is going to betray the her or the organization which raised him. It's a tense novel, and like most books written by Seanan McGuire - it's incredibly smooth and, if I can be be excessively cliche, "a real page turner"
Score: 6/10

Yang, JY. The Descent of Monsters [Tor.com Publishing, 2018]

As the third novella in the Tensorate series, The Descent of Monsters doesn't require knowledge of The Black Tides of Heaven or The Red Threads of Fortune, but it certainly helps give additional nuance and shading to the storytelling. Knowing who Rider and Mokoya and Akeha may not exactly matter for understanding and appreciating this story, but it fills in the gaps in the worldbuilding. The Descent of Monsters is the story of a covered up investigation into a mass killing incident.

Unlike the previous Tensorate novellas, The Descent of Monsters is told through journal entries, letters, and redacted transcripts of interrogation. As everything written by Yang so far, The Descent of Monsters is compelling reading as they reveal what actually happened (compared to what the investigator was permitted to learn and report about) and further build this brutal world. The character of Inspector Chuwan is a welcome addition to to the series. The Descent of Monsters is JY Yang trying different techniques in storytelling and very much succeeding.
Score: 7/10 




POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Emrys, Ruthanna. Deep Roots [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

Ruthanna Emrys’ Innsmouth Legacy, which began with Winter Tide and continues with Deep Roots, confronts H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos head-on, boldly upturning his fear of the unknown with a heart-warming story of found family, acceptance, and perseverance in the face of human cruelty and the cosmic apathy of the universe. Emrys brings together a family of outsiders, bridging the gaps between the many people marginalized by the homogenizing pressure of 1940s America.

Aphra Marsh, descendant of the People of the Water, has survived Deep One internment camps and made a grudging peace with the government that destroyed her home and exterminated her people on land. Deep Rootscontinues Aphra’s journey to rebuild her life and family on land, as she tracks down long-lost relatives. She must repopulate Innsmouth or risk seeing it torn down by greedy developers, but as she searches she discovers that people have been going missing. She will have to unravel the mystery, or risk seeing her way of life slip away.

Why We Want It: I've never given a rip about the Cthulhu Mythos or Lovecraft, and I still don't. More than anything else, knowing a story is Lovecraftian is a major turn off. And yet. And yet when I read Winter Tide last year I didn't want the book to end. I didn't care anything about what may have inspired the novel. I cared about Aphra and the story Emrys was telling. I didn't know if there would be a second book, but if there was, I knew I wanted it.

Hurley, Kameron. Apocalypse Nyx [Tachyon]
Publisher's Description

Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter Nyx is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.

Nyx’s disreputable reputation has been well earned. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices. Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.

Apocalypse Nyx is the must-have collection of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx adventures.

Why We Want It: It's been six years since Kameron Hurley last gave us a full length Nyx novel with Rapture. With Apocalypse Nyx, we get to see what Nyxnissa has been up to with this story collection detailing Nyx's further adventures. We're in for one hell of a ride.

Kowal, Mary Robinette. The Calculating Stars [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning "Lady Astronaut of Mars."

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

Why We Want It: "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" won a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and knowing that The Calculating Stars is the first of two prequel novels expanding on that story and that alternate history. I absolutely adored "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" and tend to thoroughly enjoy Kowal's work. How can I not be excited for this?

Novik, Naomi. Spinning Silver [Del Rey]
Publisher's Description

A fresh and imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted, which was hailed as “a very enjoyable fantasy with the air of a modern classic” by The New York Times Book Review.

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silverdraws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.

Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.

Why We Want It: I wrote that Uprooted (my review) was a standalone fairy tale which felt both fresh and familiar. I was, in fact, left wanting more. Spinning Silver is not a sequel to Uprooted and the only sense that it is a follow up is that it is also a standalone fairy tale. That's exactly what I want. After the roaring success of Uprooted, my expectations for Spinning Silver are extremely high. Novik has the skill to meet and perhaps even exceed those expectations.

Strahan, Jonathan. Infinity’s End [Solaris]
Publisher's Description

The highly-anticipated final volume of the critically-acclaimed science fiction anthology series

Life in space is hard, lonely and the only person you can rely on is yourself. Whether you’re living deep in the gravity well of humanity’s watery home, mucking out air vents in a city floating high in the clouds of Jupiter, or re-checking the filtration system on some isolated space station, life is hard and demanding, and life is small.

The stories of Infinity’s End are set in those empty spaces, in futures where planets have been disassembled and reused for parts, or terraformed and settled; where civilisations have risen and fallen; where far future people make their lives anywhere from colonies hanging in the clouds of Neptune or Venus to the repurposed cores of distant asteroids; on worldlets and asteroids, inside Saturn’s rings or distant spheres and wheels, on-board ships trucking from home to home, and port to port. They're set in a future that's lived in. And they make it clear that even if we never leave the Solar System, there's life enough and room enough to live out all of science fiction's dreams.


Infinity’s End is the future. The stories you’ll find here are the stories of your life.

Why We Want It: I've been a fan of Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project since its inception. Many science fiction anthologies offer visions of the future. It's somewhat inherent in the genre, but Strahan has offered up somewhat more focused looks at possible futures around a loose theme of Engineering or Building or War. With Infinity's End, Strahan brings the Infinity Project to a close and I know I'm going to miss my annual volume of Infinity. Unless, of course, there is a secret anthology titled Infinity's Rebirth. If there is, I'll be there for that, too!

Yang, JY. The Descent of Monsters [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

JY Yang continues to redefine the limits of silkpunk fantasy with their Tensorate novellas, which the New York Times lauded as "joyously wild." In this third volume, an investigation into atrocities committed at a classified research facility threaten to expose secrets that the Protectorate will do anything to keep hidden

You are reading this because I am dead.

Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.

Investigator Chuwan faces a puzzle. What really happened at the institute? What drew the Machinists there? What are her superiors trying to cover up? And why does she feel as if her strange dreams are forcing her down a narrowing path she cannot escape?

Why We Want It: At this point, a Tensorate novella is essential reading. The Black Tides of Heaven (my review) is one of the finest novellas I've read. It was a sublime experience. The Red Threads of Fortune was never going to quite hit that height, but it was likewise exceptional. The Descent of Monsters is the third novella from JY Yang and I can't wait.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. 

Reading the Hugos: Novella

Welcome back to Reading the Hugos: 2018 Edition! Today we're going to take a look at the stories up for Best Novella.

For those keeping score at home, two of the short listed stories were on my nominating ballot (Down Among the Sticks and Bones, "And Then There Were (N-One)"), though similar to the finalists for Best Novel, this is an outstanding category from top to bottom. It's a damn shame that something needs to be ranked last, but that's how the voting works. They can't all win, but there are no weak stories here.

It is also worth noting this category is incredibly heavy with Tor.com Publishing stories, even more so than last year (which only had four out of six from Tor.com Publishing). The good news is that they put out a LOT of excellent fiction with a focus on the novella length and they're making those novellas very affordable and accessible. The bad news is that this sort of publisher dominance is probably not a good thing for the health of the category or the field. There are other publishers putting out high quality novellas (Subterranean, Tachyon, and PS are three book publishers that come to mind), but it's a harder length of story to place. I'd like to see a wider variety of publishers make the short list in coming years.

On to the finalists!


All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
“And Then There Were (N-One),” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.Com Publishing)
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

River of Teeth: From my review: "Um, did you know there was a serious plan to bring hippopotamuses to America to alleviate a meat shortage? I didn't either, but Sarah Gailey did. I'm so happy that she knew this because it grew into this insanity of a novella that delivers a fantastic story that feels like the wild west as seen from hippoback. River of Teeth is glorious, but it is more than just the wonderful idea of using hippos as beasts of burden and transit (and oh, this idea is so well excuted) - it is also filled with striking characters like Winslow Remington Houndstooth and Regina Archambault, but the whole cast, really. It's great." The fact that this is my least favorite of the finalists does not denigrate River of Teeth at all, but rather it shows just how high the bar is in this category.

Binti: Home: It's not entirely fair to set one's expectations for what the story was going to be against what it actually is. My expectation was that after Binti left Earth to study at Oomza University, more time would be spent there and that perhaps the "Home" in the title would be Binti finding a new home. That is not the case. Rather, Binti returns home fairly quickly to visit and go on a pilgrimage. Okorafor digs deeper into Binti's family, the cultural reactions to her bringing back her alien friend, Okwu (this is a gross oversimplification, but go read the first novella, Binti, for context and nuance). In the end, the story that we get is absolutely fantastic, but it is also so clearly incomplete. That's not too much of a surprise since it is setting up a third volume, but where Binti (the first novella) told a complete story, Binti: Home tells the first part of a larger story and it calls for the payoff in Binti: The Night Masquerade. As a bit of advance spoiler, that has no bearing in how Home stands on its own, The Night Masquerade is outstanding and is the best of the trilogy.

All Systems Red: The lead character calls itself "Murderbot" and it is a partly organic artificial intelligence security unit murder machine. Which, if I stick with that description, makes me think of a deadpan witty Terminator. That's not exactly accurate, because Murderbot would rather watch what passes for television that interact with a human. There is action and drama a plenty here, but the real joy of All Systems Red is the characterization and personality of Murderbot. The novella entirely hangs on how successful Martha Wells is in pulling off the character of Murderbot. She nails it and the novella is an absolute delight to read.

“And Then There Were (N-One)”: What a cool concept for a story. Sarah Pinsker wrote a story where Sarah Pinsker was invited to Sarah-Con, a convention of Sarah Pinskers from across the multi-verse. Pinsker (the author) is incredibly effective at getting across the disorientation of arriving at a hotel where everyone looks like you, just subtly different (and, in some cases, substantively different). You all have (mostly) the same mannerisms, it’s just that everyone took subtly different paths in life. The points of divergence in the lives of the Sarahs Pinsker are another fascinating aspect to the story. The most poignant moment getting that point across is at a conventional panel where a story is told about a particular horse and when Sarah helped save a young girl. Protagonist Sarah is following along, remembering, hearing the other Sarahs snap their fingers in agreement that this was also their story – until the story changed. It’s still a story about a horse, but it wasn’t Protagonist Sarah’s anymore. And other members of the audience diverged at an earlier part in the story. It was moving as hell.

That’s not really the story of “And Then There Were (N-One)”, though. That’s just the cool stuff that gives shape to the story. The story here is that one of the Sarahs is found murdered and Protagonist Sarah, who is an insurance investigator, is half-tasked to help find the murderer / solve the crime. Essentially, “And Then There Were (N-One)” is a giant locked room mystery in a really big room (the hotel is on an island, but police and EMS services can’t arrive for another day). On its own, the murder investigation aspect to the story is just kind of there – but Author Sarah Pinsker’s storytelling is absolutely top notch when combined with the hook of the story (a multiverse of Sarah Pinskers). That’s where “And Then There Were (N-One)” really shines, the idea that Sarahs who couldn’t imagine having committed a murder must have committed a murder – and how all of the interactions come together. It’s really good, as is everything Author Sarah Pinsker writes.

Two last cool things: the murder weapon may well have been Author Sarah Pinsker’s actual Nebula Award, and one of the other Sarahs at the convention has a well worn paperback of Parable of the Trickster, which is (presumably) the famously unfinished novel from Octavia Butler. I love that there may have been a universe in which Butler lived to finish that novel.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones: As I wrote in my review,

"Down Among the Sticks and Bones is soaked with blood and science and alienation and brutal acceptance. The novella turns into a starker, darker, and more painful story once Jacqueline and Jillian travel down those stairs and step through a doorway with a sign stating "Be Sure".

The only ones actually sure are the readers that yes, this is absolutely a door we want to enter and a journey we want to embark on.  Down Among the Sticks and Bones is not soaked with that same nostalgia as Every Heart a Doorway. It's not supposed to be, though I admit it is difficult to talk at all about this novella without also thinking about the one. Every Heart a Doorway tells the story of what happens when the fairy tale is over. Down Among the Sticks and Bones tells the story of the fairy tale itself. Like the truest fairy tales, it's not for children. It's for all of us."

This is a standout piece of fiction that could be at the top of any ballot and would be here, except for just how incredible The Black Tides of Heaven is.

The Black Tides of Heaven: JY Yang's exceptional novella is the benchmark is an incredibly strong category featuring no disappointments. I'll just quote my full review from mid April:

"Have you ever read a book and midway through you're actively angry at yourself for not reading it sooner? That was me after maybe twenty pages of The Black Tides of Heaven. By the end of the book my jaw was on the floor in amazement at just how spectacular this novella is. Told over the course of more than thirty years, The Black Tides of Heaven is not quite the story of revolution, but it is more a story of politics, of family, of personal choice, with a bit of revolution in the mix. All of that, and more, is woven together to something that is far superior than any facile description I could possibly give. I'm not sure I am up to the task of properly reviewing thie novella. I can only give The Black Tides of Heaven my highest possible recommendation."


My Vote
1. The Black Tides of Heaven
2. Down Among the Sticks and Bones
3. "And Then There Were (N-One)
4. All Systems Red
5. Binti: Home
6. River of Teeth


Our Previous Coverage
Novel 


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. 

Nanoreviews: Discount Armageddon, The Mongrel Mage, The Red Threads of Fortune

McGuire, Seanan. Discount Armageddon [DAW, 2012]

Discount Armageddon is the first novel of the Incryptids series, which this year is a Hugo Award finalist for Best Series. This is another series I have avoided for no good reason and now that I've read Discount Armageddon, I am reminded that I am frequently a damn fool because McGuire is consistently excellent. Discount Armageddon features "monsters", monster hunters, a strip club, intensely religious talking mice, and a protagonist who is trying to decide if she'd rather be a professional ballroom dancer or keep with her family's tradition and trade of protecting those monsters from others who would do them harm. In short, it is delightful.

Score: 7/10

Modesitt Jr, L.E. The Mongrel Mage [Tor, 2017]

This seems to come up nearly every time I talk about Modesitt's fiction, but reading a Recluce novel is an act of comfort reading. I know exactly what I'm going to get and it's a hearty stew and brew of the detailed day to day life of Beltur, a white mage on the run from the more powerful white mages of Gallos. We see Beltur escape, learn a new trade, and follow the slow burn of daily life while an outside threat grows and grows. Modesitt leans a touch hard on the concept of "mongrel" in the novel, making some aspects a bit too on the nose. For a series known for slow development, The Mongrel Mage is especially so in the early goings.

As much as I love the Recluce novels, I would only recommend The Mongrel Mage to fans of the series. There are references to the few earlier set novels, but knowledge of those books are not necessary. It stands well enough on its own, but I suspect the appeal of The Mongrel Mage lies primarily with those readers who have read all of the Recluce novels and still want more. There are stronger entry points to the series.
Score: 7/10

Yang, JY. The Red Threads of Fortune [Tor.com Publishing, 2017]

When The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune were announced, that announcement came with the description that these were twin novellas which could be read in any order and be equally satisfying. While there is no way to go back and read The Red Threads of Fortune without having already read The Black Tides of Heaven, I'm reasonably confident in my opinion that Red Threads is a far richer story coming after Black Tides than it would coming first. Red Threads is set some four years after Black Tides and the necessary early character beats are far more compelling and emotional because of the journey of Black Tides.

If I said The Red Threads of Fortune was simply an excellent novella, I would be doing it a necessary disservice because when I wrote about The Black Tides of Heaven I rated it an exceedingly rare 10/10 and when held to that standard, Red Threads falls just a smidge short. Held to a more reasonable standard (like, against everything else being published), Red Threads is outstanding. This is Mokoya's story, dealing with her grief from the events of Black Tides and she's now a monster hunter - though the events of Black Tides permeates everything. The naga hunt is fantastic, but it is the development and resolution of those character beats that began in Black Tides and changed hard in Red Threads that is why this novella works so well.
Score: 8/10


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

Nanoreviews: Good Guys, Penric's Fox, The Black Tides of Heaven

Brust, Steven. Good Guys [Tor]

Seldom has there been a novel I've been quite so disappointed in. As a general rule, I adore Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels (see here), but I haven't read any of his standalone work (minus his Firefly fanfic novel). Good Guys is his first solo standalone novel in twenty years, or so the book publicity told me. I was so excited for this book. Then I read the description. Then I read the book. It's my fault, really. I was more hyped to see what Brust would do outside of Vlad Taltos than I was to read this particular book - because just based on the description of low rent / low budget magic copies (and Brust's particualr wit), this didn't sound all that great. Brust's name was the selling point. As much as I love Brust's voice and wit, the jokes here didn't land and the story itself wasn't as well executed or as interesting as I'd like.
Score: 5/10

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Penric's Fox [Subterranean Press]

Penric's Fox is the fifth published and third chronological novella in the Penric and Desdemona mini series. It is also part of the larger Chalion / Five Gods universe, but no knowledge of those novels is required. The joy of this series is the interplay between Penric and his indwelling demon Desdemona. I'm not willing to go so far as to say that the story doesn't matter, but we know Bujold can tell a fantastic and compelling story and she does so here. It's the characters that are vital and that are the hooks to keep us reading. We want more of Penric and more of Desdemona. This is as good as any of the previous four novellas, and that means it is good indeed.
Score: 8/10

Yang, JY. The Black Tides of Heaven [Tor.com Publishing]

Have you ever read a book and midway through you're actively angry at yourself for not reading it sooner? That was me after maybe twenty pages of The Black Tides of Heaven. By the end of the book my jaw was on the floor in amazement at just how spectacular this novella is. Told over the course of more than thirty years, The Black Tides of Heaven is not quite the story of revolution, but it is more a story of politics, of family, of personal choice, with a bit of revolution in the mix. All of that, and more, is woven together to something that is far superior than any facile description I could possibly give. I'm not sure I am up to the task of properly reviewing thie novella. I can only give The Black Tides of Heaven my highest possible recommendation.
Score: 10/10 


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 / 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.