Series Review: The Harwood Spellbook by Stephanie Burgis

A trio of magical, historical romances offering the most engaging, well-realised type of comfort reading.

Art by Leesha Hannigan

As winter continues its reign of terror over this part of the northern hemisphere, I've been doing my best to introduce a steady diet of comfort reading into what can become a pretty dark and dense TBR. That's why I've been so glad to finally make time for Stephanie Burgis, and particularly her Hardwood Spellbook series, an alternate historical romance set in a magical regency era reminiscent of Zen Cho, or Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker trilogy. The series currently consists of two "main" novellas - Snowspelled and the forthcoming Thornbound, as well as a shorter prequel novella, Spellswept, set fifteen years or so before the events of the main chronology, and from a different point of view, but with many of the same characters.

The focus of the series is Cassandra Harwood, a young woman born to an elite Anglish family. For 1700 years, elite men and women have maintained a balance of power by which only women can go into politics, but only men are allowed to study magic, and for families like the Harwoods, male and female children are expected to follow that most elite career path exactly. That seems limiting in a number of ways, and Cassandra's path has put her in collision with the most obvious taboo: she's a talented magician and is desperate to study magic, taking the place of her older brother, Jonathan, who is more than happy to step aside and follow his non-magical passion for history. To complicate matters further, members of the Boudiccate, the council that governs the country, must be married to a mage - which means that, despite general acceptance of same-sex relationships and the understanding that not all men can do magic, politically ambitious women must marry from a very limited group of men.

Cover by Ravven

What's fascinating about the main series - and while Spellswept is a delightful story and adds a lot to our overall understanding of Cassandra and her future sister-in-law Amy, it's worth reading after the initial introduction to the characters that Snowspelled provides - is that by the time we meet Cassandra, she's not the driven mage struggling against discrimination in her chosen path. Instead, in her own words, Cassandra is no longer "functional". Having pushed herself too hard in pursuit of securing the respect of her peers, she's burned out her own magic and is now unable to cast any spells at all. Luckily for us, this doesn't signal the end of any of her adventures, and Snowspelled and Thornbound deliver a tense pair of magically-driven mysteries: the first, set in a snowed-in house party, and the second in the Harwood's own estate next to a menacing forest. In both cases, unknown human meddling has upset the balance with their near neighbours, the elves and the fae, and it's up to Cassandra to untangle the mixture of human and fantastical motivations behind the mystery and save the day, all without a magical spell in sight.

As a reader, it's hard it is not to fixate on Cassandra's lack of magic, and how happy she - and we - would be if it returned, and to unconsciously expect that as an ending. What Burgis does so well is not to dismiss or deny that disappointment, but to make it very clear that the happy endings Cassandra and her family (including magic-school-rival-turned-fiance-turned-ex-fiance-turned-husband Wrexham) achieve are valid and satisfying even if they don't lead to undoing her past mistakes. Cassandra's response to the overwhelming hostility she has faced in achieving her ambitions has been to close herself off and attempt to achieve things on her own - even though Spellswept makes it clear that she has always had allies among her family - and each entry in the series explores that in a different way. Along the way, the story makes it abundantly clear that despite not being able to single-handedly achieve the reform she wanted by pushing through with blunt force, Cassandra there are perhaps even better ways to achieve her goal while also working with the family and allies around her. All three of these books are capital R Romance, so Cassandra's reconciliation with Wrexham and Amy's relationship with Jonathan are big elements of the "happily ever afters", but I very much enjoyed the fact that these relationships don't take total precedence over other family ties or personal goals, even if they sometimes provide more narrative fuel. Of course, the satisfaction of these endings relies on the strength of the main characters, and all three novellas benefit from a main cast who shine even when the limited space available means others are less fleshed out. Llewellyn, in Spellswept, has a particularly unfortunate time of it, though astute readers will note that it's because he's actually the worst.

Art by Leesha Hannigan

The worldbuilding of these novellas is quite focused, and there's a satisfying symmetry and an interesting power dynamic to the "women are politicians, men are mages" thing even if it might not stand up to super close scrutiny as a system of power distribution. Thornbound does add an interesting wrinkle when a character points out how many countries have a traditional patriarchal structure, which might also overturn the Boudiccate any moment if women were to give up or amend the political structure in any way. Certainly, Cassandra's struggles to be accepted as a magician feel more like someone of a marginalised gender hitting a glass ceiling than the disbelief and in-group policing (and/or appropriation) which might follow a privileged person taking on a marginalised person's social role. That's not to say that the conflict the book recounts isn't already compelling, but I do wonder if the complexities of Angland's gender politics might be fleshed out in later volumes. I'd also love to see the apparent precariousness of this political system explored, especially as it holds an interesting mirror to the storylines with the elves (in Snowspelled) and fae (in Thornbound), in which treaties must be upheld because of the unknowable but almost-certainly-dire consequences for humanity if they aren't, as doled out by non-human intelligences who aren't at all interested in nice human answers. There's a lot to explore here, and while I can see this series leaning in to the "Lady Trent" tactic of glossing over anything Cassandra doesn't find interesting in her own story, its nice to have the perspective from Amy (and other points of view in future) to hopefully expand on some of these questions and themes.

Ultimately, this series is one which takes a generous interpretation of human nature and applies it to the concept of sacrifice - of what we give up, when, and how, of what it does or doesn't help us achieve, and about how to cut one's losses and accept the best circumstances available. While there are a couple of genuinely unpleasant characters, most of the interpersonal conflict in Cassandra's world stems from those who have given something up in order to protect what they see as the good of society: whether that be upholding a status quo and forcing themselves into a particular mould to do so, or pushing for reforms at the expense of their own wellbeing. The result is a trio of well plotted, tense, emotionally satisfying novellas which punch well above their length in terms of thematic weight. Comfort reading this series may be, but it's comfort at its most engaging, balancing trauma and intrigue with a great cast of characters and some very satisfying - romantic and otherwise - outcomes.

The Math:

Snowspelled: 8/10 Great introduction to the series, start here. Not-so-cosy winter themes perfect for cold nights under a blanket.

Spellswept: 7/10 A lovely diversion into the past. Slighter, but Amy remains a force to be reckoned with.

Thornbound: 8/10 A return to Cassandra and a great continuation of the overall themes, introducing new characters and settings and a fascinating central mystery.

Overall: 8/10

POSTED BY: Adri is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke.

Reference: Burgis, Stephanie. Snowspelled [Five Fathoms Press, 2017]

"Spellswept, " first published in The Underwater Ballroom Society [Five Fathoms Press, 2018]

Thornbound [Five Fathoms Press, 2019]

                                                  

Microreview [book]: Through Darkest Europe, by Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove's Through Darkest Europe tackles religious fundamentalism, prejudice and violence through his classic use of an alternate history world.

A pair of investigators visit a notorious backwater and corrupt portion of the world, a part of the world that resists coming into the modern era. The local autocrat is trying to hold down religious fundamentalists from running amok, women are expected to be seen (but covered up, of course) and not heard. Prejudice, racism, sexism and violence on the streets are a daily event. You probably already are imagining some place in the Middle East, or Central Asia, perhaps. You could likely see the investigators in your mind eye, maybe played by Chris Pratt and Tom Cruise. Americans abroad, helping democracy and freedom.

But since this is a Harry Turtledove alternate history novel, you would be wrong. The place is the Grand Duchy of Italy, in an alternate world where Europe is the backwater, and the investigators are from the civilized republic of the Maghreb of North Africa, in his latest novel, Through Darkest Europe.

The novel relies mainly on the setup, the world and the characters much more than a high throttle plot to propel the narrative. The two investigators come to Italy and get into trouble of all kinds, caught in the midst of secular and religious violence. Khalid, the Muslim, reaches across divides to find a relationship with a local woman,Annarita ,who struggles against the prejudices and backwater nature of her homeland. Dawud, is a Jew, and even in the modern world, still suffers prejudice there, and even more within the Grand Duchy. His is the older, mordantly funny observational type, a nice contrast to Khalid as lead. Turtledove carefully have Khalid note that in a more just world free of all prejudice, his partner would be the senior one.

In that line, too, this is not a “better” world by any means, although I have some unanswered questions about the world. With the center of civilization switched from Europe, history has rhymed if not repeated from our world, with devastating wars between Iran and Iraq mentioned. There is also mention of a Holocaust like genocide of millions of people, but it is not a Jewish Holocaust. His alternate world’s Dar Al Islam may be as advanced and modern as Europe and America in our world, but it is not and hasn’t always been peace and roses since the rise of Egypt, the Maghreb and the other nations.

And yes, friends, since this is a Harry Turtledove, there is a tuckerization, something I have spotted in his work since the days of realizing who a used car dealer in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump was in our world. This time, the tuckerization I spotted was of a famous SF character, an alternate history character no less. I got a chuckle out of that. This novel is not quite like Matt Ruff’s The Mirage (one of the books that explores this novel’s theme in a different way)  in that regard which is replete with parallel versions of characters from our world. Turtledove can and does play with the net fairly high up. Ruff’s The Mirage doesn’t bother to try and figure out why the Middle East is civilized and America is a backwater, he just goes with it. Turtledove’s two small changes in the philosophy of a key scholar in Europe, and one from the Islamic World is enough to put things on a very different course.

And truthfully, some of the descriptions of what The Grand Duchy of Italy pulled at my heart in the same way that I felt when ISIS wrecked the ruins of the city of Palmyra. Italian heritage of their ancient sites is poor and the description of the neglect of those places in Rome, a couple of which I have seen for myself, was devastating. If the author meant to invoke the destruction of Palmyra explicitly, then for me, he succeeded.

I think, if anything, Turtledove could have been even sharper and more poignant in his flipped world and missed a couple of chances to do so. Since the novel almost exclusively takes place in peninsular Italy, I wonder if in Turtledove’s world that not only are the glorious remnants of the past falling down, but why haven’t they long since been sold off. Maybe a comment or two about Roman statues transplanted to Tunis or Alexandria. Heck, there is a mention of the obelisk in front of the (sadly very crumbling) Pantheon in this world. I’d think that if Egypt was a powerful country in the civilized world, they’d long since have put a lot of pressure on the Grand Duchy of Italy to give back the dozen or so obelisks the Romans carted off from Egypt two millennia ago. The very secularized North African nations of Turtledove’s world, I think, would have a higher appreciation for artifacts from before the time of the Prophet and seek their return. There is stated admiration for the Roman ruins at Leptis Magna, for example, showcases this.

All in all, however, some of the value of Turtledove’s alternate histories is to see our world, or an aspect of what our world once was, through the lens of a timeline that never was and never could be. The book shows just how senseless religious fundamentalism really is, by showing that with just a couple of changes,the center of civilization could have been elsewhere, and the world turned upside down, with those forces of intolerance hate taking root elsewhere.

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The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 for an effective and believable alternate world

Penalties: -1 for unignorable weakness in plot and story.


Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws


Reference:  Turtledove, Harry Through Darkest Europe, Tor Books, 2018]

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Thursday Morning Superhero

Before we hop into this week's trio of comics I thought I would share a Kickstarter for a board game that has grabbed my attention.  In Dead Man's Cabal, you play a necromancer who is trying to raise the dead to join you for a party. While the premise is simple as you gain skulls and spell cards in order to raise the dead, the variable phase order is what has me excited about this game. On your turn you get to determine one action for yourself and one action for the everyone. Do you maximize both moves knowing it will benefit one of your opponents? Do you settle for a move that isn't as good, but doesn't help anyone else either? There are a lot of tense decisions and the Kickstarter has already reached some cool stretch goals including 3D bones as currency and the art ranks up there with some of the best in the business. The next stretch goal is 3D skulls!  Check it out here.

Pick of the Week:
Batman #64 - This marks the start of a Batman and Flash crossover and I am quickly learning that I need to read more Flash comics. I will openly admit that I grew up as a Marvel kid and have primarily dabbled in Batman in the DC Universe. Batman and Flash are teaming up in this arc to deal with a crimewave that is sweeping Gotham. Batman seems to have some sort of insider knowledge on the attacks and we learn that Gotham Girl, who he once attempted to train, is trying to somehow save her brother who was corrupted by Psycho Pirate. Despite having one of the worst names in all of comics, Psycho Pirate is adept at manipulating people and played a pivotal role in one of the arcs that caused me to abandon this series. While that thought has me a bit hesitant for this crossover, the dynamic for Batman and Flash teaming up has me very excited to explore more of the DC Universe.

The Rest:
Vindication #1 - I wanted to like this book based on the premise, but it felt too cliche and hook me despite a solid cliffhanger ending. Turn Washington was wrongly convicted for a murder 10 years ago and has just been set free. The detective who worked the case disagrees, and is set out to make sure that Washington returns to his prison cell at the first sign of a slip up. There are a lot of interesting elements to this book, including some racial undertones, a corrupt system, and attention grabbing lawyers, but it fell flat to me.  I am currently enjoying the latest season of True Detective and wonder if my standards are elevated due to that series having captivated my interest. There is a good chance that this series will improve as we learn more about the murder 10 years ago and the similarity to a recent murder, but I am not quite there.

Star Wars #61 - It looks like we reached the conclusion of another arc and that the Rebels are going to have to engage with the SCAR Squadron in the near future as they have obtained some of their secret plans. This was a big reunion issue as Han and Chewy join forces again, Han returns to his true love the Millennium Falcon, and Luke rejoins Tula after she helped him and the Rebels escape. The highlight in this issue was a two page interaction between C-3P0 and an alien having what appears to be a tense negotiation, only to learn that C-3P0 was nearly advocating for new leg plating which he successfully obtains. It felt very authentic to the humor that has been sprinkled throughout this series and I remain in awe at how effective the comics are at filling in the gaps of the films and remaining very true to the original source.



POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.

Microreview [video game]: Darksiders 3 by Gunfire Games (developer)

The Worst of Both Worlds

When I beat Darksiders, I thought it was the best Zelda game I’d ever played. It’s not Zelda. It’s really a mash up of a lot of good games, but its most obvious influence is the 3D Zelda games. Darksiders 3 most obvious influence is Dark Souls, but it’s not the best Dark Souls. It’s not even the best Darksiders.

The story of Darksiders 3 is convoluted, and it doesn’t help that there’s not much “in the previous games” lead up. The short of it is that you are one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, Fury (not an actual historic horseman, but whatevs), and you have to hunt down and kill the seven deadly sins. They’ve been set free on Earth in the middle of the apocalypse. Now there are demons, angels, and sins to kill.

After release, Darksiders 3 got a couple significant updates to address some of the major complaints reviewers had. One of those was “classic” mode, which was intended to make the game more like the previous two installments. I played the whole game in “classic” mode, and I still felt the Dark Souls influences in nearly every aspect.

In a game where you play as Fury, there’s a dearth of fury shown. Enemies rarely come in groups larger than three, and they’re mostly durable. It has a somewhat slow pace, especially compared to the rest of the series, with a focus on watching attacks and dodging them to counter attack and punish the enemy. I was slightly surprised at how few huge monsters there were, especially considering that huge bosses are staple of the series. The sins themselves are rarely bigger than Fury and follow the same approach as the basic enemies: watch the pattern, dodge, and punish.

There’s nothing really spectacular here. It’s an okay action game that obviously apes a lot of mechanics from Dark Souls. The problem is that Dark Souls‘ mechanics match its world and Darksiders 3 does not. Darksiders is a world of comic book action, heaven versus hell, four horsemen riding, deadly sins running amok. The sins are just bosses at the end of uninteresting dungeons. It mashes in some Metroidvania qualities by adding movement options when you get new weapons, and there’s some degree of non-linearity to the middle game. It doesn’t use the Dark Souls influence to elevate the world, and it never turns down the comic book influence to match the more methodical gameplay.

Darksiders 3 is confused about what it wants to be, and I hope Gunfire Games can sort it out by the fourth game and possibly the conclusion of the series. I’d hate for them to get to the end of it and never overcome the greatness of the first game. Darksiders 3 is not going to do it.


The Math
Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 the core gameplay loop works...

Penalties: -1 but maybe belongs in a different game

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10 (still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore)

BONUS: I made a video to show off some of the gameplay. Enjoy!



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POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Gunfire Games. Darksiders 3 (THQ Nordic, 2018)

Adri and Joe Talk About Books: 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List

Joe: The Locus Recommended Reading List is out, which is always something of an annual event. I don’t think this is an original idea, but I’ve long considered the Locus Recommended list to be one of the best snapshots of what is going on in the genre in a given year. It’s certainly not exhaustive, and there’s always going to be favorites left off the list, but from a high level - these are most of the important and noteworthy SFF books and stories from the previous year.

What are your initial impressions of the list?

Adri: At this stage, I think I’ve read over 50 novels (and a sizeable number of novellas) published in 2018, but I have to say that every time the Locus list comes out I have a moment of screaming into the void over what a drop in the ocean that is compared to the number of fantastic books that come out. This year is no exception and for every book I’ve read and am excited to see here, there’s another one I want to catch up on or want to find out more about! That is, of course, a brilliant problem to have compared to the alternative of having read everything...

Joe: I’d give myself around 60 books from 2018 (a down year), including novellas, and I think I have much the same reaction. I quickly scan the list thinking “that was good, that was good, damn it I haven’t read that one yet, that was good, what the heck is Theory of Bastards, that was good”, and so on. Besides the fleeting joy of seeing stuff that I like get recognized, it’s the combination of discovery and reminders that I like.

For example, I’m pretty sure I first heard about this on the Coode Street podcast, but there’s a science fiction novel titled Condomnauts and it’s about galactic sexual ambassadors from Earth, because sex is diplomacy. I’m just so glad this novel exists and that it made the Locus Recommended list.

I am reminded that I need to read Sam Miller’s Blackfish City. I fully expect it to end up on one of the awards ballots, probably the Nebula.

Adri: Yes to both those things! Blackfish City is great but having read it, it definitely “feels” like a Nebula book - although, saying that without qualification feels a bit obnoxious...

Joe: No, I agree. Without being able to really put my finger on it (and without having read it), Blackfish City *feels* much more like a Nebula book in that same way that I’m not surprised Autonomous made the Nebula ballot last year and not the Hugo (while fully noting that Autonomous placed 8th in the nomination tally - but if you asked me if Autonomous would get a Hugo or a Nebula nomination, I’d have said Nebula).

Of course, I hated The Three-Body Problem and wouldn’t have called it for either award, so what do I know?

Adri: I mean, there’s nothing on this year's list that I would be as annoyed to have to read for awards purposes as I was with Death’s End, so that’s definitely a good starting point.

Joe: Ignoring for a moment the lack of recognition for our own Feminist Futures project in Non-Fiction since it wasn’t actually published in book form, are there any other glaring omissions that jumped out at you?

Adri: So, apparently I’m being contrary this year, because two of my novel nominees and four of my favourite novellas didn’t make the cut. Of those, I’m most disappointed not to see Before Mars, by Emma Newman - I caught up on both of the more recent Planetfall novels last year and they both completely blew me away, especially this. I also think it’s a shame not to see any Book Smugglers stories here, especially as this is the last year for their publishing wing; they came out with some really interesting novellas last year, including Accelerants by Lena Wilson and Between the Firmaments by JY Yang.

Overall, it’s quite interesting to see where sequels are being recommended and where they aren’t. I like that Tim Pratt’s The Dreaming Stars is here, as that’s shaping up to be a great series, and it’s nice to see Vivian Shaw’s irreverent horror-based urban fantasy, Dreadful Company, in the mix too, even if I’m still waiting for that series to capitalise on the potential of its female characters. Salvation’s Fire by Justina Robson - the second in a shared universe series kicked off by Adrian Tchaikovsky earlier in 2018 - is a bit of a surprise to me as the sole entrant for that series, but I do see the appeal even if I liked its predecessor better.

On the other hand, there’s no threequel love for Binti or the Wayward Children (in a much shorter overall novella list), and neither of John Scalzi’s novels - Head On and The Consuming Fire - get a mention. They’re my top contenders for the unusual “not on the Locus but made the Hugo ballot anyway” spot this year.

What did you expect, or want, to see here that isn’t?

Joe: The first thing I specifically looked for was Matt Wallace’s final Sin du Jour novella Taste of Wrath. I’m not entirely surprised it didn’t make the list simply because I’m not sure it’s received a fraction of the attention and love that the series deserved. I passionately and sometimes aggressively love those stories and it has been a perpetual disappointment to me that they haven’t been nominated for everything they are eligible for and even for some things they aren’t. I’m holding out for a Best Series Hugo nod, but maybe I shouldn’t hold my breath.

The second thing i looked for, and this was mostly out of curiosity, was whether anything from Serial Box made the cut. Nothing did. Because I’m that sort of wonk, I did a super quick check of previous years and the first season Tremontaine made the list. I’m not surprised by that either, because Tremontaine is an expansion of the Swordspoint world and I would expect to see Locus recognize Ellen Kushner. I do wonder if next year we’ll see recognition for The Vela or Ninth Step Station. Both seem like something that might get some extra attention, eyeballs, and acclaim.

Adri: Bookburners, helmed by Max Gladstone, also made in 2017 but I take the point about next year's list.

Joe: I didn’t notice it until you mentioned it, but the lack of Beneath the Sugar Sky from novella really does seem glaring. It’s perhaps my second favorite of the four (behind Every Heart a Doorway), and I have to think it’ll make the Hugo ballot.

Adri: Yes, it's on my novella ballot, and it's my runaway favourite of the Wayward Children series so far, although I freely admit there's a heavy dose of personal taste in there...

On the other hand, is there anything other than Blackfish City that’s jumped to the top of your TBR after seeing it here?

Joe: Sue Burke’s Semiosis. Would you believe I’ve had that on my Nook for pretty much all of 2018 and I still haven’t read it? Any mention of it has practically glowed with praise and I just never got around to it.

I do also want to read Chercher La Femme, the latest from L. Timmel Duchamp published by Aqueduct. Those two, along with Empire of Sand and perhaps Dread Nation are the ones to really catch my eye.

Adri: Conveniently for me, Semiosis just went on sale on Kindle UK! It’s been on my radar for a while and I’m really keen to check it out. The other one I’m very interested in is Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, a very intriguing looking fantasy set in a Mughal Empire-inspired world.

I’d actually had Chandler Klang Smith’s The Sky is Yours on my radar and then forgotten about it until now. I think in my mind, the neon cover got confused with the cover of Blackfish City, because apparently I can keep eighty different spaceship covers straight in my head but not two actually very different-looking city-based science fiction novels. Back on the list it goes!

Joe: From what I can tell, Locus tends to do a good job mentioning UK publishers, but just out of curiosity, how US-centric does the list feel to you?

Adri: Well, nothing jumps out as a glaring US-centric text, and I don't think there are any buzzy books that I've struggled to gain access to in the UK. One thing I did note is that there are a couple of things on my Hugo radar (although not my ballot) that are in “second wave” eligibility i.e. first publication in the US in 2018, which I don’t think the Locus list counts? Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time was a 2015 UK release that won the Clarke, my heart, and a 2018 US edition (in that order), but I don’t think that counts for this list, and the lack of Tchaikovsky overall makes me a bit sad. Terra Nullius, by Claire G. Coleman, was released by Small Beer Press in 2018, a year after originally being published in Australia, and it’s an absolutely searing take on colonialism that deserves a wider audience. I also noticed only one translation among the novels - Yoss - and surely there must be more worth noting? Jin Yong’s A Hero Born came out in English for the first time in 2018.

Joe: I expect Rachel Cordasco will have something to say about the lack of translation. I counted two (Frankenstein in Baghdad and the aforementioned Condomnauts).

The thing that jumped out at me with the UK publication is the Adam Roberts novel only with a UK publisher listed. I think Dave Hutchinson has had greater success in the UK than in the US. I just didn’t know if all of the books I was aware of was because they were more prominent in the US than in the UK, and if you’re more aware of them because of how they are positioned here versus books you’d actually see in the shops or discussed where you live.

Adri: Yes, I think the UK is pretty well represented in this list, at least based on the novel sections? Hutchinson’s Fractured Europe series has definitely been bigger in the UK (although I can’t quite bring myself to finish it despite owning Europe at Dawn, for a couple of reasons). Ben Aaronovitch is also huge, and Lies Sleeping was a really great entry to the Rivers of London series (probably the best since the fourth), so I’m happy to see that get some love! Jasper Fforde’s new standalone (Early Riser) isn’t here, and a new novel from him is always a big deal, but I’m not sure it’s at the level of quality where I’d expect it to appear. From a publishing standpoint, only The Dreaming Stars makes it for Angry Robot but there’s a fair bit of love for Solaris, which is based in the UK.

But yes, an increase in translation is something I’d love to see on this list from a selfish standpoint - I don’t read nearly enough of it to know what I’d like to see here (and I bounced pretty hard off the misogyny in the Yoss book I previously tried), but I’d love it if Locus could solve that problem for me. Of course, there already are people out there doing that work, and not all lists can do all things, so I guess I'll cope.

Joe: To the point that we can look at the Locus Recommended list and extrapolate out to the Hugo and Nebula Awards (I believe there’s something like a 75-80% hit rate on novels and novellas), what would you expect to see make the final ballots? Or, at least, what would you not be surprised to see make the final ballot?

Adri: My money is on The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal making both lists: it’s been a huge hit (including with you!) and while I have somewhat mixed feelings about the duology as a whole, I think it deserves to be recognised. I think The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is also going places, although it will be interesting (and frustrating) to see if the first half of the plot, which takes place in a school with a teen protagonist, leads to people nominating it for the YA awards when it so clearly isn’t. And if Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning doesn’t make one or the other I’d be super surprised, given her short story wins last year. Finally, Catherynne M. Valente seems to fly under the radar of awards notice a lot of the time but there’s been a lot of buzz around Space Opera. While it’s not at the top of my personal list, as a fan of Eurovision I would not be sorry to see a book that takes its chapter titles from the contest’s greatest hits and its section names from the Captain Planet elements get some best novel love.

Joe: I agree that The Calculating Stars seems like as much of a lock as a book can reasonably be. I think it was a major hit in both nominating audiences and Kowal has been generally popular with both the Hugo and the Nebula crowds (she’s a two time Hugo winner for her short fiction and once more for Writing Excuses), plus the original Lady Astronaut novelette won a Hugo.

Space Opera seems likely. Like we discussed, Blackfish City seems reasonable for the Nebula. I won’t be surprised by Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Moon getting a Hugo nod. Robinson’s novels tend to get nominated (Shaman did not, but I expect Aurora would have had it been published in a normal Hugo year). Revenant Gun? Record of a Spaceborn Few? I will be surprised if Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside makes the list. I just haven’t seen the conversation around it, and if his Divine Cities didn’t make it as individual novels, I don’t think this is the awards breakout. I won’t be surprised if Scalzi makes the Hugo ballot with one of his two novels.

The one I think you’re right about is Trail of Lightning. Traditionally, no. It’s not the sort of novel that gets recognized, but Roanhorse was so popular with “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” and Trail of Lightning was so well received, that I’d also be surprised if it doesn’t make at least one of the ballots.

I expect to be disappointed by The Poppy War missing out.

I also won’t be mad if something like The Red Clocks sneaks onto the Nebula ballot. Or Madeline Miller’s Circe, but I think that’s a stretch.

Oh! I forgot the obvious one: Spinning Silver. I can’t imagine an awards season where Naomi Novik’s novel isn’t nominated for one award, if not both the Nebula and the Hugo.

Adri: I agree with you for Foundryside, unfortunately, although its on my ballot and I think it’s just as worthy as the Divine Cities (which were robbed last year). And yes, Spinning Silver feels like a near certainty - insofar as anything is - too.

I think Revenant Gun is the thing on my personal novel ballot that is most likely to make the final list (because apparently I’m rooting for some serious underdogs this year - though I’m also cross-pollinating with Tess of the Road, my hands-down favourite book of 2018, which I refuse to contemplate not being up for the Lodestar). However, it doesn’t feel as certain as the previous two novels - which would be a shame, because I think it’s a much stronger book than Raven Stratagem and did some unexpected but quite satisfying things with its final-act character arcs.

Joe: The one book not mentioned so far that I do have on my Hugo ballot is Nicky Drayden’s Temper. I liked Prey of Gods, but Temper was Drayden leveling up. I’d expect it more on the Nebula than the Hugo, if it gets anywhere.

Adri: Yes - Temper is another one that narrowly missed out for me, but between that and Prey of Gods, Drayden is basically on my autobuy list for future novels. I do also have to note that I think she’s the only Black novel author not on here for YA (this is not to disparage YA at all, but the barriers to entry in that field are different to those in adult SFF), which feels frustrating after the glow surrounding Jemisin’s three-Hugo streak. There are people and publications out there doing great things when it comes to increasing representation of marginalised voices in the genre; we’ve not touched on the short fiction categories but I was really pleased to see FIYAH Literary Magazine represented with 6 stories, 5 more than last year, among lots of other good venues. But it’s frustrating to see PoC representation continue to fall on so few shoulders in the novel lists. I hope there will be more detailed analysis of this (Natalie Luhrs has done a great breakdown for the last few years) because it's something worth keeping in mind when using these lists.

***

Joe: Hey - I really enjoyed this. We should do another one, maybe when the Nebula ballot is announced.

Adri: Absolutely! Thanks for putting this together and I look forward to seeing what this year’s awards reading has in store...


Adri is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke.

Joe Sherry is a 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.

It's been a couple of months since our last New Books Spotlight. December was a bit spare with new releases and with last month's mega "24 Books" looking at some of the major books for the full year we needed to take a small break to refresh ourselves. For this month (and probably only this month), I'm also not going to include any books mentioned on that 24 Books list - so just know that there are some other impressive novels coming out.

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!

Anders, Charlie Jane. City in the Middle of the Night [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Charlie Jane Anders, the nationally bestselling author of All the Birds in the Sky delivers a brilliant new novel set in a hauntingly strange future with The City in the Middle of the Night. 

"If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams... And from there, it's easy to control our entire lives."

January is a dying planet--divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk.

But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.

Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal.

But fate has other plans--and Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world. 

Why We Want It: We've followed the short fiction of Charlie Jane Anders for a number of years now, but she burst on the scene with her debut novel All the Birds in the Sky and it was a raw delight. The City in the Middle of the Night promises to be as different from All the Birds in the Sky as can be, and that is all the more exciting.

Gloss, Molly. Outside the Gates [Saga]
Publisher's Description

Villagers were always warned that monsters live outside the gates, but when a young boy named Vren is cast out, he finds a home in the world beyond, in Whiting Award winner Molly Gloss’s classic fantasy novel. 

Vren has always been told that the world beyond the gates of his village is one filled with monsters, giants, and other terrifying creatures. But when he confides with his family about his ability to talk to animals, he’s outcast to the very world he’s been taught to fear his whole life. He expects to die alone, lost and confused, but he finds something different altogether—refuge in a community of shadowed people with extraordinary powers.

Thirty years later, Molly Gloss’s dystopian fantasy novel is just as timely, poignant, and stirring as ever, in a brand-new edition! 

Why We Want It: We've long been a fan of Gloss's novel The Dazzle of Day and have meant to read her other work. Saga is bringing back three of Gloss's older novels this year and it's the perfect time to fulfill that goal. Outside the Gates is the novel Ursula K. Le Guin told Saga Press's editor Joe Monti, "if you brought it back into print, I’d blurb the shit out of that.” There is no higher recommendation.

LaValle, Victor and John Joseph Adams. A People's Future of the United States [Random House]
Publisher's Description

A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and envision new futures for America—from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more. 

In these tumultuous times, in our deeply divided country, many people are angry, frightened, and hurting. Knowing that imagining a brighter tomorrow has always been an act of resistance, editors Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams invited an extraordinarily talented group of writers to share stories that explore new forms of freedom, love, and justice. They asked for narratives that would challenge oppressive American myths, release us from the chokehold of our history, and give us new futures to believe in.

They also asked that the stories be badass.

The result is this spectacular collection of twenty-five tales that blend the dark and the light, the dystopian and the utopian. These tales are vivid with struggle and hardship—whether it’s the othered and the terrorized, or dragonriders and covert commandos—but these characters don’t flee, they fight. Thrilling, inspiring, and a sheer joy to read, A People’s Future of the United States is a gift for anyone who believes in our power to dream a just world.

Featuring stories by Violet Allen • Charlie Jane Anders • Lesley Nneka Arimah • Ashok K. Banker • Tobias S. Buckell • Tananarive Due • Omar El Akkad • Jamie Ford • Maria Dahvana Headley • Hugh Howey • Lizz Huerta • Justina Ireland • N. K. Jemisin • Alice Sola Kim • Seanan McGuire • Sam J. Miller • Daniel José Older • Malka Older • Gabby Rivera • A. Merc Rustad • Kai Cheng Thom • Catherynne M. Valente • Daniel H. Wilson • G. Willow Wilson • Charles Yu 

Why We Want It: These are the days we're looking for alternate visions of America's future because its present doesn't offer a whole lot of promise. Badass stories dreaming a better world edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams? Sign us up!

Lee, Yoon Ha. Dragon Pearl [Rick Riordan]
Publisher's Description

Rick Riordan Presents Yoon Ha Lee’s space opera about thirteen-year-old Min, who comes from a long line of fox spirits. But you’d never know it by looking at her. To keep the family safe, Min’s mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times. Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She’s counting the days until she can follow her older brother, Jun, into the Space Forces and see more of the Thousand Worlds. When word arrives that Jun is suspected of leaving his post to go in search of the Dragon Pearl, Min knows that something is wrong. Jun would never desert his battle cruiser, even for a mystical object rumored to have tremendous power. She decides to run away to find him and clear his name. Min’s quest will have her meeting gamblers, pirates, and vengeful ghosts. It will involve deception, lies, and sabotage. She will be forced to use more fox-magic than ever before, and to rely on all of her cleverness and bravery. The outcome may not be what she had hoped, but it has the potential to exceed her wildest dreams. This sci-fi adventure with the underpinnings of Korean mythology will transport you to a world far beyond your imagination. 

Why We Want It: Simply put, it's a new Yoon Ha Lee space adventure. This time, a YA space adventure, but after the Machineries of Empire trilogy, Yoon has earned our trust.

Liu, Ken. Broken Stars [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Broken Stars, edited by multi award-winning writer Ken Liu--translator of the bestselling and Hugo Award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu-- is his second thought-provoking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. Following Invisible Planets, Liu has now assembled the most comprehensive collection yet available in the English language, sure to thrill and gratify readers developing a taste and excitement for Chinese SF. 

Some of the included authors are already familiar to readers in the West (Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang, both Hugo winners); some are publishing in English for the first time. Because of the growing interest in newer SFF from China, virtually every story here was first published in Chinese in the 2010s.

The stories span the range from short-shorts to novellas, and evoke every hue on the emotional spectrum. Besides stories firmly entrenched in subgenres familiar to Western SFF readers such as hard SF, cyberpunk, science fantasy, and space opera, the anthology also includes stories that showcase deeper ties to Chinese culture: alternate Chinese history, chuanyue time travel, satire with historical and contemporary allusions that are likely unknown to the average Western reader. While the anthology makes no claim or attempt to be "representative" or “comprehensive," it demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of science fiction being written in China at this moment.

In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore the history of Chinese science fiction publishing, the state of contemporary Chinese fandom, and how the growing interest in science fiction in China has impacted writers who had long labored in obscurity. 

Why We Want It: It might be a bit of a stretch to give Ken Liu credit for the flowering of Chinese science fiction in the United States, but it was his translation of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem (winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel) that seemed to be the watershed publication that brought wider attention and certainly acclaim to Chinese science fiction. Broken Stars is Liu's second anthology of translated short fiction.

Modesitt, Jr, L.E. Endgames [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Endgames is the stunning final volume in L. E. Modesitt, Jr's, New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series the Imager Portfolio, and the third book in the story arc that began with Treachery's Tools and Assassin's Price. 

Solidar is in chaos.

Charyn, the young and untested ruler of Solidar, has survived assassination, and he struggles to gain control of a realm in the grip of social upheaval, war, and rioting. Solidar cannot be allowed to slide into social and political turmoil that will leave the High Holders with their ancient power and privilege, and the common people with nothing.

But the stakes are even higher than he realizes. 

Why We Want It: Modesitt is my definition of a comfort read. I know exactly what I'm going to get, and I appreciate the slow ramping up of tension through the mundanity of every day tasks before chaos (so to speak) breaks out. I'm a book behind on this story arc, still needing to read Assassin's Price, but every Modesitt novel has been a pleasure to read. I have no doubt this will be the same. Also, much to my surprise (and despite the title), Endgames is purported to be the final Imager Portfolio novel - which really means that it is time to catch up.



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

Microreview [book]: Miranda in Milan, by Katharine Duckett

Miranda in Milan is a imaginative character study that reframes the history and life of one of Shakespeare’s most famous heroines, carrying her story forward from the original play.

“Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,. That has such people in 't!”.

Miranda’s declaration is one of the most famous in Shakespeare. Aldous Huxley borrowed it for a novel title (and filled his novel with plenty of other Shakespeare quotes besides). But it is a innocent declaration, one that Miranda was always destined to be disabused of the moment that she left the island and encountered lands outside of her father’s island. But what would happen to Miranda once they left the island? Would Prospero truly give up magic?

These questions are answered, and Miranda gets her own story, and her own centrality as a heroine, in Katherine Duckett’s Miranda in Milan.

The author dumps Miranda and the reader into the deep end immediately, casting her into a Milanese court that her father now rules. Even though she is the daughter of the ruler of Milan, Miranda’s life and position are uncomfortable, for reasons that are only slowly made clear. The cutthroat Milanese court life is a world far removed from the island, and Miranda’s place within the palace is a precarious, fraught one.

The book is imaginative, putting Miranda front and center of her story and giving her agency, goals, and desires of her own--even if she isn’t quite sure what those should be. The book is evocative as we get a deep dive into the thoughts, and more importantly and more poignantly, the feelings, often conflicted, and always passionate and soul-tugging, that she feels. This is a character based story, very much about Miranda trying to figure out who she is and where she came from, and what her place in the world is. There is a plot thread, and revelations about what her father, as Duke of Milan is up to.

But that’s not the main thrust of the story. The story is Miranda and her relationship with Dorothea, and the legacy of finding out who her mother really was, and who she is that this story revolves around. It’s a story of self-discovery and coming into herself, in a pressure cooker environment. And, oh, yes, there is a tentative, fledgling, queer romance at the heart of Miranda in Milan, as Miranda starts to learn what she really wants for herself, what she really feels, and tries to articulate those feelings and desires. I’d have liked a little more from the other side of the romance, Dorothea, though. While some secondary characters are well explored, like Agata, and Bice, Miranda’s mother, Dorothea feels more mysterious and nebulous, perhaps deliberately so. I also am not sure that the gear shift of Prospero’s nature in Milan is entirely smoothly transitioned from what we see in The Tempest.

My major disappointment in the story, though, is in its epilogue. When I think of an epilogue, I think of it is a postscript to what has happened, a final close to what has occurred, an exit to the narrative that eases us out of the book. The issue I have with Miranda in Milan is that the epilogue, here, instead hashes out a major decision and sudden change of plans for Miranda, in a not entirely satisfactory way. It’s a swerve and it’s not as well prepared earlier in the book that I would have liked. It feels too abrupt to be the note that the book ends on, and this structure subsequently left me disquieted. There is also a quite anachronistic bit of history and geography in the epilogue which rankled as well. All this feels like a false note to end a book I had otherwise been enjoying.

---
The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 for effective reframing and rethought of Miranda and Prospero’s life

Penalties: -1 readers looking for strong plot will be disappointed with the offering here
-1 for a number of issues with the epilogue

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10: still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore


Reference:  Duckett, Katherine Miranda in Milan Tor Books, 2019]

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.