Favorite Books of 2016 & Year in Review
Jan
03
2017

It goes without saying that 2016 wasn’t a great year in a lot of ways, and it wasn’t a great year for me personally, either. I had to spend part of it moving yet again (I’ve moved in 2014, 2015, and 2016 now), and the only major thing that happened this year that was actually good was visiting Ireland. (Although that was amazing—I went on a Game of Thrones Tour of filming locations and “met” a couple of the Northern Inuit dogs who were direwolves in the show, and I also visited a lot of other interesting places while I was there!)

Direwolves
Dublin Castle Cafe

It’s actually quite surprising to me that I read more this year than last and actually managed to stay ahead of my Goodreads reading goal for most of the year (until November, when I started falling behind). In the end, I did meet my goal of reading 40 books, although I attempted to read several more and read somewhere between 100-200 pages in quite a few. Since there are so many books to read and so many older books I’ve missed, I’m trying to do better about just dropping books that aren’t working for me and moving on.

Part of that is due to a new feature this year, reading and reviewing one book per month based on a poll on Patreon. Although some of the books were fairly recent, none were released in 2016 and some were older books. This has helped me get to some of the books I’ve been meaning to read for awhile despite the allure of shiny new releases, such as Forerunner by Andre Norton and Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee. All the books reviewed for Patreon in 2016 can be seen here.

In addition to these and other reviews, April 2016 was the fifth annual Women in SF&F Month, a month dedicated to highlighting women’s contributions to speculative fiction. Renay and I updated the list of favorite SFF books by women with 2015’s contributions and collected more recommendations, and there were many guest posts about a variety of topics related to equity, favorite works by women, or writing and speculative fiction in general, such as:

All Women in SF&F Month posts from 2016 can be found here.

Looking back, it’s been a busier year than I’d thought! As always, I discovered a lot of great books over the last year, and today I’d like to highlight some of my favorite books of 2016, both new releases and some released before last year.

 

Favorite Books Released in 2016

The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

1. The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth #2) by N. K. Jemisin
My Review

N. K. Jemisin is one of the most consistently excellent authors I’ve read, and The Obelisk Gate is my favorite of her novels yet. The first book in this trilogy, The Fifth Season, was on my 2015 favorites list for its brilliance and uniqueness but wasn’t my top favorite since I didn’t find it as thoroughly engaging as other books I’d read. However, The Obelisk Gate has all of those qualities and I could hardly put it down! It’s both personal and epic, and the characters are complex people shown at their best and worst—people with complicated views and emotions. This is a fantastic story with lots of depth, and I especially loved the exploration of how individuals are shaped by their experiences and each other. Even though I was fortunate enough to read a couple of older books I enjoyed just as much as The Obelisk Gate, this is the BEST book I read this year regardless of publication date: a thoughtful, perceptive, phenomenally written book that’s also a page turner.

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

2. The Masked City (The Invisible Library #2) by Genevieve Cogman
(Not Yet Reviewed)

I just finished reading this not that long ago so I haven’t reviewed it yet, but I found it to be every bit as delightful as the first book in this series, The Invisible Library (my review). It follows the adventures of Irene, a Librarian Spy with an organization existing outside of space and time that has the primary goal of collecting books from alternate worlds. Like the previous installment, it’s immensely fun with a delightful narrative voice, and I enjoy how practical, matter-of-fact, and clear-thinking Irene continues to be, even when facing great peril—including fae plots, potentially angry dragons, and a dangerous rescue mission to a chaotic alternate Venice!

Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

3. Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda
My (Brief) Review of Issue 1

This graphic novel is bleak and violent yet absolutely gorgeous (well, when it’s not too gory for me since I’m incredibly squeamish!). Sana Takeda’s artwork is stunningly beautiful with exquisite details, and this may be the first graphic novel I’ve read in which I spent as much time gazing at the graphics as reading the story. Issue one made me curious about Maika’s history and her connection with the monster, but I found it worked much better for me when I was able to immerse myself in the story by reading multiple issues back to back in this volume.

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

4. The Lyre Thief (War of the Gods #1) by Jennifer Fallon
My Review

The Lyre Thief was my first book by Jennifer Fallon but it definitely will not be my last! This is an incredibly entertaining book featuring two of my favorite tropes: false identities and meddling gods. Though it includes several perspectives, the majority of the story focuses on a princess and her friend Charisee, an illegitimate daughter of the king born a slave. The princess’s mother fears for her daughter’s life and arranges for her to be married to a foreigner—but her actual plan is for her to escape during the long journey to her husband’s land and for Charisee to pretend she is the royal bride-to-be. In doing so, the false princess attracts the attention of the God of Liars, who is incredibly pleased by her service. It’s so much fun, and I loved reading about many of the characters, especially Charisee.

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

5. Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
My Review

Roses and Rot is an absorbing debut novel with sisterhood, art, and fairy tales at its core. It’s a contemporary fantasy about two sisters, a writer and a dancer, accepted into an art program that turns out to have a sinister purpose—and how it drives a competitive wedge between the two women when they’re starting to put the pieces of their relationship together after years of separation. It’s quite aptly titled as it’s filled with both beauty and ugliness in its exploration of the difficulty of creation and relationships, and this is mixed in with the darker side of fairy tales. Best of all is the complexity of the bond between the two sisters.

6. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
My Review

All the Birds in the Sky is a difficult book to summarize since it includes a hodgepodge of elements: adventures both magical and scientific, an AI, and communication with animals, to name a few. It follows the lives of a young witch and a young scientist destined to change—or perhaps even destroy—the world, but it’s largely about the impact each has on the other and the longing for connection. Though chaotic, I thought Charlie Jane Anders made it all work, and I especially loved the sense of humor that shines through the narrative voice, even when there’s darkness.

 

Favorite Books Published Before 2016

The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip

1. The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
My Review

The Changeling Sea is enchanting, and I savored every lovely word of it. It’s a tale that mixes the legendary with the everyday: though islander Peri becomes tangled in events involving a prince who is not what he seems and a sea dragon who is also not what he seems, she spends her days working at an inn rife with ordinary village conversation (even if it does involve the mysterious appearance of a sea dragon!). It’s a small book but it has large themes of love, loss, and humanity with a memorable ending, and Peri is a wonderful heroine who surprises everyone, including herself.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

2. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
My Review

Kindred, the story of a black woman named Dana repeatedly sent to the antebellum South to aid an accident-prone ancestor, is an incredibly powerful novel. It’s a gripping page turner since I desperately wanted to find out what happened to Dana, and it’s also an examination of the acceptance of slavery and the reinforcement of racial inequality. Kindred offers an unflinchingly honest, harrowing view of the atrocities human beings are capable of committing through the eyes of a courageous, tough, and compassionate heroine—and it’s unforgettable.

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

3. Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
My Review

Though intrigued by the description I’d heard—Jane Austen with dragons!—I was still skeptical about Tooth and Claw. Dragons eating the weak to gain strength sounded so literal, and it seemed like it would be difficult to imagine giant dragons riding trains. The social commentary is not subtle and it did require some suspension of disbelief to picture dragons donning hats and writing letters, and yet it was absolutely delightful with endearing dragon characters!

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

4. Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown
My (Brief) Review

I was surprised by how thoroughly engaging Golden Son turned out to be: although I enjoyed Red Rising, I had some reservations about it and I didn’t love it. Golden Son was nearly impossible to put down since it had so many twists and turns and kept me wanting to know what the true motivations of various characters were, and I thought it was far superior to the first book in the trilogy. (Unfortunately, I’m struggling with the concluding volume about 200 pages into it, which is why that one is absent from this list despite how much fun I had reading Golden Son.)

The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter

5. The Midnight Queen (Noctis Magicae #1) by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
My Review

Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s debut novel is charming. The Midnight Queen follows two characters: Gray, a student of wizardry taken captive by one of his professors, and Sophie, the professor’s middle daughter who exudes magick even though she insists she has none of her own. It’s set in an alternate version of our world in which Christianity never became a major religion, and it has family secrets and hidden identities, a conspiracy, and romance.

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

6. Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
My Review

The narrator bluntly states that this is not a tidy story at the beginning, and this voice and the chaotic nature are part of its charm. Partially based on a Senegalese folk tale, it’s vividly told and peppered with humor and wit. Paama is a resourceful character, and I particularly enjoyed reading about the tales she invented to explain away the absurd situations her husband kept getting into—they didn’t fool anyone, but everyone admired her grace, tact, and quick thinking!

Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear

7. Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear
My Review

This novella, set in the same world as the Eternal Sky trilogy, is beautifully written. I read the prequel novella Book of Iron first (my review) and thought Bijou was a wonderful character—and I still do after reading more about her. In this story, she’s in her nineties, surrounded by the titular bone and jewel creatures she’s created and animated throughout the years. The descriptions of her menagerie are lovely, and I also found the perspective of the feral child she saves and cares for unique and compelling.

Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine

8. Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine
My Review

Sign for the Sacred revolves around one key figure—the prophet Resenence Jeopardy, a charismatic man who is loved by many and feared by the Church of Ixmarity. The three main point-of-view characters are all seeking him, including one who knew him quite well when they were both slaves in the same House. His tale of being given to the Church and becoming close to Resenence before he was famous was the highlight of this lengthy novel, which explores religion and the power that an individual can have upon others.

Review of Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine
Dec
31
2016
Sign for the Sacred
by Storm Constantine
566pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 8/10
Amazon Rating: 5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.53/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.83/5
 

Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu trilogy are among my favorite books, partially because of the beautiful prose and their exploration of gender but mostly because the main protagonists are vibrant and fascinating. Since discovering them I’ve wanted to read more of her books, and though there are a lot more of them left for me to read, I’ve yet to find one as compelling as the Wraeththu books. The latest book in my quest to read more by this author, Sign for the Sacred, was more engaging than some of her other work I’ve read but fell short of Wreaththu. I still enjoyed Sign for the Sacred, though, even if it seemed slow at times.

Sign for the Sacred–currently a stand alone fantasy novel even though Storm Constantine has never thought this was the end of the story and hopes to write the sequel in full some day–was written and first published in the early 1990s. My edition, released through Stark House in 2002, also includes extras providing some fascinating insight into its creation and the artistic process: an introduction from the author about the story’s themes and her inspiration from the Goth music scene, an excerpt from an early version of the novel that was quite different, and a few chapters from the unfinished sequel, Death By Sweetness.

This novel is the tale of Resenence Jeopardy, a prophet whom many believe to be a threat to the powerful Church of Ixmarity—and yet, it’s not completely his story even though he’s the thread connecting all the main storylines, which are told from the perspectives of individuals seeking him.

Lucien, like Jeopardy, was once a Vibrancer, a dancer who performed routines with religious significance to the Church of Ixmarity. Also like Jeopardy, Lucien was a slave purchased by the House of Mandru, and is the only main character who knew him before he became a renowned prophet. He is also the only one who was ever close to him, as the two performed together and were also lovers for awhile. Lucien’s story, the most prominent one, largely consists of his telling the story of his past to another he encountered during his travels, beginning with his family being forced to give him to the Church at a young age and ending with how he came to be on his current quest.

Delilah is impelled to pursue Jeopardy after everyone else in her village dies due to a cursed visitor, doomed to mindlessly slaughter everyone he encounters once the moon rises and infect them with a plague when the sun reigns. For some reason, Delilah is immune to both of these and feels that must mean she and this man are bound somehow. When he tells her of the only one who could completely still his affliction—Resenence Jeopardy—Delilah is intrigued and decides to join him on his expedition to reunite with the prophet.

Cleo, a poisoner’s wife, is bored with her life until her husband approaches her about a difficult business situation. A rich client came to him with his sister’s child: the son of Resenence Jeopardy, who, like all of the sorcerer’s children, will be tortured and killed by the Church. His uncle wanted a more peaceful death for the boy but was unable to go through with it at the last moment, prompting Cleo’s husband to turn to her for advice. Cleo is immediately taken with the child and cares for him herself, but his uncle changes his mind again, fearing the consequences of the Church’s displeasure to himself and his family, and Cleo is devastated when she returns from visiting a friend to discover the boy is gone, killed by her husband at his client’s wish. In her grief, Cleo embarks on a journey to find the father of the boy that she loved and lost.

Though not one of the central stories, the Archimagery of the Church of Ixmarity and an ecclesiarch within the Church named Implexion also have related perspectives woven into the tale. Implexion fears and despises Resenence Jeopardy—he’s the one who advocated for his children to be put to death—but some around him harbor concerns that his hatred for the prophet is becoming a dangerous obsession.

Despite having different thoughts, views, and feelings about Resenence Jeopardy, they will all be changed because of him.

Sign for the Sacred can be untidy and meandering, but there’s an art to it making it more reflective of reality since the story and characters do not seem scripted: at times, the characters’ actions are frustrating and not entirely comprehensible, but they’re all the more human because of this. It also incorporates a lot of compelling themes, from journeys both literal and metaphorical, to power wielded by both an individual and an organized group, to the ability for a variety of individuals to have different perceptions of the same events and actions. Although it’s not a book that inspired new thoughts on any of these themes, it is one that put them together in striking way, leaving plenty to think about related to the story and the fate of the characters.

My favorite part was Lucien and his tale. Toward the beginning, his perspective was actually the least engaging of the three major ones since it started with his travels instead of a transformative event. Once the main focus turned to his past I was hooked. He’s the one I thought had the most character development since it showed his entire life, not just the present or a brief overview of his past. It’s also through his eyes that we get the most information about Resenence Jeopardy, since he’s the only one who not only knew him before he was famous but also was close to him at any point.

Though I found it interesting to read about others’ reactions to Jeopardy, it took me awhile to completely understand the fascination with him. By the end of the story I could see his appeal, even if it was largely due to the mystery surrounding him. Lucien’s first encounter with him was unpleasant, and he was often too self-absorbed to listen to other people so I found him to be a jerk earlier in the tale. Since he was supposed to be a figure who engendered strong feelings, whether love or hate, that’s a reasonable reaction, but later I had difficulty seeing what was so special about him that anyone would care about him either way. I don’t think his charm always translated well through the written word since his allure was not profound speeches or ideas but beauty and charisma. Toward the end, there were enough unanswered questions about the precise nature of his power and influence that I understood the obsession with him as a prophet, even aside from being intellectually aware that people found him to be a magnetic individual.

My biggest problem with Sign for the Sacred is that there was too much focus on literal journeys, making Delilah and Cleo’s sections seem rather long-winded at times. After they both decided to seek Resenence Jeopardy most of their perspectives were dedicated to mystical encounters and the people they met along the way. Though this is part of what made it ring true and they contained some important scenes it also seemed much too drawn out at times, especially since I didn’t think either character was as fleshed out as Lucien (which made sense since his part was his life story).

Like the central figure binding the various perspectives together, Sign for the Sacred is an elusive book, leaving a lot open to interpretation so readers—like the characters—can have different ideas about what transpired. Though it contains familiar elements, the author’s rich vocabulary and approach make it a unique book that stands out as different from most fantasy books I’ve read, and I found it enjoyable even if not as absorbing as some of the other books I’ve read by Storm Constantine.

My Rating: 8/10

Where I got my reading copy: I purchased it.

This book is December’s selection from a poll on Patreon.

Review of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Dec
22
2016
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
264pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 10/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.17/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.16/5
 

Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, first published in 1979, is an incredible novel. Though it’s speculative fiction utilizing time travel, much of its focus is showing a glimpse into the past, and the way the author incorporated so much about society into such a well paced story is nothing short of masterful. It’s a book I find difficult to recommend because it’s filled with ugliness and brutality due to its forthright examination of slavery, and as such, may be too grim for some to endure. Yet I want to recommend it to everyone because it is a powerful book showing exactly what fiction can be.

Kindred tells the story of Dana, a black woman suddenly transported from 1976 to the antebellum South. She has no idea how she got from her living room to a riverbank and does not even realize that she’s in a completely different century from whence she came: all she knows is that a redheaded child is about to drown before her eyes if she doesn’t do something about it. Without hesitation, Dana jumps into the water, pulls the boy to shore, and saves his life using artificial respiration—but soon fears saving his life will cost her own when she turns around to find herself facing the boy’s father and his rifle.

Dana is convinced she is about to be killed but instead ends up back in her house as suddenly as she left. Her husband only saw her disappear for a couple of seconds and can barely believe her account of what happened to her even though she returned drenched and muddy. Dana can hardly believe it herself and dreads the thought of it happening again—and later that evening, it does.

Once again, Dana sees a child in danger: a lone child with red hair a few years older than the drowning boy, this time standing in front of burning draperies. She puts out the fire and prevents the house from going up in flames but is not sent home immediately after the threat is gone as she was before. Dana learns that this boy, named Rufus, is the child she pulled out of the river earlier, now a few years older, and that not only is she in a different state but also a different time: the year 1815. As she converses with him, she comes to realize that this boy, the son of a slave owner, is the exact same Rufus recorded as one of her ancestors in the family Bible that was passed down to her. Somehow, they are connected by more than blood and he seems to be able to pull her into his time whenever he’s in trouble—and does so throughout his lifetime, again and again, sometimes keeping Dana in the 1800s for a long time.

Before Kindred, my only experience with Octavia Butler’s work was her novel Parable of the Sower. Though thoughtful with a wonderful main character, I found it more an interesting book than a page turner, but Kindred is both gripping and reflective. It doesn’t spend a lot of time introducing Dana and her life in the present timeline (although it does fill in some details about her relationship with her husband Kevin and both their families’ displeasure with their interracial marriage later) but quickly plunges into her trips to the past. From the very beginning, I liked her and was also quite frustrated on her behalf as she kept getting pulled backwards in time to rescue to her accident-prone ancestor, often from his own folly. Dana is practical, compassionate, and far tougher than she gives herself credit for being, and the main reason I was glued to the book was to find out what happened to her.

Even though it is technically a book about time travel, I didn’t think that was the primary focus of Kindred. Both the basic idea of what’s happening to Dana and Rufus’ identity are revealed early, but how Rufus managed to pull her into his time or why precisely she went back instead of another is never explained. Dana definitely has an impact on the past as she saves Rufus several times and becomes an important figure in his life, but it’s not a book that’s about accidentally making major changes affecting the present or one that dwells too much on the butterfly effect (although Dana does have some concerns about what would happen to Rufus’ daughter Hagar and the rest of her line, including herself, if she were to fail to save him before he can father this child). Most of Kindred takes place in the past and shows Dana’s attempts to survive there, allowing readers to see events firsthand through her eyes as a black woman from the late 1900s transported to the antebellum South.

As such, it’s often a distressing story. When Dana returns to the present the first time after nearly being shot, she’s traumatized and her time in the past only gets worse from there as she witnesses firsthand—and is subject to—the inhumane treatment of slaves. She describes seeing someone beaten and how shockingly different it is from televised violence, as she can smell their sweat and hear their cries. She observes a chilling game played by slave children in which they pretend to sell each other to the highest bidder. It includes racial slurs, violence, and rape: it is unflinchingly honest when depicting the atrocities human beings are capable of committing.

This is why my thoughts kept turning to “Mind of Her Mind,” a superb essay on the work of Octavia Butler that Wendy wrote for Women in SF&F Month 2015, when reading Kindred, particularly this part:

 

Her protagonists’ experiences often made me feel uncomfortable, to say the least, not merely because she so openly broached such taboo topics, but because Butler showed me a frightening world where the scariest person was me. Butler’s writing feels as if she is holding a mirror up in front of the reader, revealing humanity at its best and at its worst and questioning your place within it. What we consider good and evil, right and wrong, is all called into question as Butler peers into our souls with her words.

Kindred is frightening because, despite the time travel and fictional characters, it’s rooted in history and mirrors society. I felt one line in particular that Dana uttered during a conversation with Kevin struck to the heart of this novel: “I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery” (pp. 101). It shows how the attitudes that permeate society reinforce racial inequality, and how it can be easy to be an observer of injustice, especially the further one is from being personally affected by it. Dana herself at times felt like an observer as a visitor from the past, but her white husband found it easier to dismiss the treatment of slaves as not as bad as he may have expected instead of seeing it as plenty bad enough.

Seeing Rufus at different points in time also shows a boy who could have grown up to be kind under different circumstances. As a child, he’s certainly absorbed what society has taught him and repeats what he’s learned from his parents, but Dana actually likes him and has hope that maybe, just maybe, she can be a positive influence and he won’t end up like his cruel father. Yet, he turns out to be largely terrible, though he and even his father still have moments when they are not completely heartless, making their more horrific moments all the more disquieting.

Kindred is the absorbing tale of a young woman forced to navigate the troubled waters of a hostile era she’s only experienced through books and television, and it’s also an in-depth examination of society, particularly racial inequality and its reinforcement. Given its exploration of slavery and related themes, much of it is quite harrowing, but it’s all the more powerful and memorable because of its candidness bringing the worst of humanity to light. Even though much of what is described is common knowledge, the way Octavia Butler presents it through Dana’s perspective is particularly impactful, and it’s tragic how relevant this story is in the year 2016.

My Rating: 10/10

Where I got my reading copy: I received it for Christmas a couple years ago (it was on my wish list).

The Leaning Pile of Books
Dec
11
2016

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.

Before I get to the latest books, here’s what’s been posted since the last one of these features in case you missed it:

  • Review of the November Patreon book, Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
    • This one was hard to review because it was a book I liked having read more than a book I liked reading, and many of the issues I had with it actually made sense artistically, fitting with the story and character. A lot of the main ideas do not seem particularly original (at least, when reading it about 40 years after it was published!) and some of it is predictable, but there’s still something about how it’s executed that makes it unique and memorable—and makes me glad I read it even if the first book in the omnibus wasn’t particularly enjoyable to read.
  • Announcement of the December Patreon book, Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine
    • I love Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu books so I’m excited about reading this for December’s Patreon review and am reading it now. It didn’t hook me immediately like the Wraeththu books, but I am very interested in seeing where it goes!

Now for the books!

The Nature of a Pirate by A.M. Dellamonica

The Nature of a Pirate (Hidden Sea Tales #3) by A.M. Dellamonica

The third Hidden Sea Tales novel was just released last week (hardcover, ebook). Tor.com has an excerpt from The Nature of a Pirate, as well as from the first two books in the series:

Some prequel short stories are also on Tor.com:

 

Marine videographer and biologist Sophie Hansa has spent the past few months putting her knowledge of science to use on the strange world of Stormwrack, solving seemingly impossible cases where no solution had been found before.

When a series of ships within the Fleet of Nations, the main governing body that rules a loose alliance of island nation states, are sunk by magical sabotage, Sophie is called on to find out why. While surveying the damage of the most recent wreck, she discovers a strange-looking creature—a fright, a wooden oddity born from a banished spell—causing chaos within the ship. The question is who would put this creature aboard and why?

The quest for answers finds Sophie magically bound to an abolitionist from Sylvanner, her father’s homeland. Now Sophie and the crew of the Nightjar must discover what makes this man so unique while outrunning magical assassins and villainous pirates, and stopping the people responsible for the attacks on the Fleet before they strike again.

Additional Books:

December Patreon Book
Dec
04
2016

Since January, I’ve been reviewing one book a month selected by a poll on Patreon so this month marks the end of one year of these reviews (all of which can be found here). The December theme is religion—fantasy books with descriptions involving divinities, prophets, priestesses, etc., in some way—and the choices were as follows:

The December book is…

Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine
Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine

In a world dominated by the austere religion Ixmarity, a charismatic prophet arises – Resenence Jeopardy. Once a vibrancer of the Ixmaritian Church, a sacred dancer, Jeopardy has escaped his bonds of faith and is drawing the sons and daughters of the rich families of Gleberune to his heretical movement. The Church moves against him and his followers with increasing zeal and cruelty.

Lucien Earthlight, also a former vibrancer, is obsessed with Jeopardy and travels the land always just behind the man he is compelled to find. His life is unravelling and melting into the surreal, which intensifies when he meets a mysterious boy in the city of Gallimaufry, whose words are far older than his years.

Delilah Latterkin’s life is shattered when Trajan Sacripent, a follower of Jeopardy afflicted by a terrible curse, slaughters her entire community. Young and innocent as she is, she is bound to Sacripent against her will and together they too travel to seek the prophet.

Cleo Sinister, a poisoner’s wife, finds her life touched by the death of a child – a son of Jeopardy brought to her husband for disposal. A mysterious inner call reaches out to her too, and she is driven to seek out the father of the child. Upon the road she meets a forlorn and broken paladin, Dauntless Javelot, who becomes her reluctant protector.

Meeting many strange and mysterious people along the path, as their worlds grow ever more peculiar, these travellers are fated to converge upon one spot: the city of Gallimaufry where, as the Church militia conspire to murder him, Jeopardy will reveal himself for perhaps the last time. But nothing is as it seems and, as their acceptance of reality is challenged continually, none of the company will survive these bizarre days unscathed or unchanged.

I absolutely LOVE Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu books so I am very excited to read this novel!

Review of Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
Nov
30
2016
Biting the Sun
by Tanith Lee
384pp (Mass Market Paperback)
My Rating: 6.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.6/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.23/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.23/5
 

Biting the Sun is an omnibus containing both of Tanith Lee’s Four BEE novels, Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, originally published in the 1970s. These two short science fiction books work best as a single volume: the first introduces the world and explores the main protagonist’s struggles with finding meaning within its confines, and the second has more forward momentum and is a more satisfying story.

 

My friend Hergal had killed himself again. This was the fortieth time he had crashed his bird-plane on to the Zeefahr Monument and had to have a new body made. And when I went to visit him at Limbo, I was wandering around for ages before the robot found him for me. He was dark this time, about a foot taller, with very long hair and a mustache, all glittery gold fibers, and these silly wings growing out of his shoulders and ankles.
— pp. 3

Biting the Sun‘s narrator (whose name is never revealed) lives in the dome Four BEE and is Jang, a young-ish person who has completed hypno-school and the child stage of life but is not yet considered ready to be an Older Person. Jang are expected to spend about half a century completely devoted to seeking pleasure and recreation before moving on to the next stage of life, and their most common problem seems to be recognizing their own friends. Mortality is no longer an issue since humans can—and quite frequently do—change bodies, and when someone dies, their consciousness is simply transferred to a new body.

After being Jang for about a quarter of a century, the main protagonist becomes bored with hedonistic pursuits. Don’t Bite the Sun largely focuses on her attempts to find purpose in her life, only to find that her efficiently run society does not allow for much individual creativity or achievement. When Drinking Sapphire Wine begins, he (though the main character identifies as predominantly female and is usually a woman throughout these books, the narrator was male at the time) has become fascinated with reading the History Records and revives an old tradition—and in doing so, commits a crime unheard of for ages. As punishment, his memory will be erased and he will eventually be reintegrated into the community as a whole new person, but he is given a choice about whether to do so immediately or live out the remainder of this life first—as an exile in the desert in one final body that will ultimately age and die (which, he is informed, is not a recommended experience).

Biting the Sun is an odd pair of books. After finishing Don’t Bite the Sun, I felt that, though it was readable, I didn’t really like it: having to constantly refer to the Jang slang glossary at first was distracting, a bored main character makes for a somewhat boring story, the final chapter made me roll my eyes, and it was just overall a very strange book. And yet… It definitely grew on me, even if I still don’t love it. Drinking Sapphire Wine was a better book with more plot progression, and even though it utilized some common tropes and could be predictable, I found this omnibus fresher and more memorable than many of the books I’ve read (or tried to read) lately. My thoughts keeping going back to it, and I’ve found it’s a book I enjoy having read even if I didn’t always enjoy reading it (especially the first of the two books).

The highlight of this story is how immersive it is: readers are thrown right into the world and see it through the narrator’s eyes, getting a clear picture of what it’s like to be Jang, to live in a world with no responsibilities—one in which people can design their own bodies and change them almost like clothes. (Almost, because although people do often switch bodies, there are also some limits to how often they can do so!) Though these two books give a great overview of the main protagonist’s world, they do not delve into how it came to be that way or why certain rules are in place. Personally, I would have liked to have had a better understanding of the ins and outs of this universe Lee created, especially since there was a lot that I didn’t feel entirely made sense, but I also felt that this worked well with the story and character despite my preference. After all, the narrator has no reason to be concerned with the hows and whys of her world as she’s going through her everyday life, and my feeling that the universe was pretty and shiny on the surface but lacking depth was actually quite fitting given that this matched what she experienced.

Though character-focused due to the centrality of the main character and her obstacles, I didn’t feel like she had a wholly fleshed out personality beyond that she had a desire to create that wasn’t being met. Once again, this lack actually was suited to her world and situation since her world didn’t value or need individual creativity, and she is a sympathetic character as one who doesn’t fit in and is searching for a purpose, but I didn’t find her a particularly compelling character.

Biting the Sun does not have particularly original ideas (at least, to me as someone reading it about 40 years after it was published) but its execution makes it both unique and frustrating. Though I want more detail and depth, any shallowness or character or worldbuilding seems fitting since it is primarily about a character who does live a charmed (if dull) life—just as it seems fitting that the second book in the omnibus has more substance. It is, at least, an interesting book to ponder—an unforgettable book, even—even if it wasn’t entirely my cup of tea.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Where I got my reading copy: I purchased it.

This book is November’s selection from a poll on Patreon.

Sci Fi Month 2016 Graphic

Since November is Sci-Fi Month hosted by Rinn Reads and Over the Effing Rainbow, the November book is science fiction!