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RYO Review: The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
** Beware Spoilers **
So, I was in the mood for starting a new multi-book fantasy and sci-fi saga and after reading a little about the New Sun series and a little about the author I was intrigued to give The Shadow of the Torturer a read and was hoping that this was going to be the start of a relationship with a well respected author who I had not previously read before. This was also part of a challenge to read twelve Damon Knight Grand Masters I had not read before in 2014.
To put my review in context I would like to say I really wanted to like this and also that I probably did enjoy the book more than the review suggests as there was quite a bit in the book that niggled me.
The book is set in Urth that is our Earth in the far-future. The Sun is dying and Urth is essentially a medieval society with some future tech (lasers, space travel etc.) The author states that the book is a translation from a ‘future language’ and it is the language of the book which was the most rewarding thing for me. Wolfe uses language and words from all over Europe, America, Africa. He uses words from the 16th, 17th and 18th Century as well as formal language from more recent times. I can imagine this grating on some people but I found much enjoyment in looking up words – it’s a book that benefits from the ‘future tech’ of built in dictionaries of e-readers. Quite often Wolfe makes words up. In 1980 I suspect many readers would be quite lost with this book due to the difficulty for most readers not having such an enormous vocabulary. I totally understand a reader’s opinion that Wolfe thinks he is smarter than his audience.
WoGF Review: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
Shades of Milk and Honey is an openly acknowledged homage to Jane Austen. It’s a Comedy of Manners set in the Regency period where pretty much the only thing a young rich woman can do is wait for an eligible suitor. Young women in the hope of attracting a husband are expected to be proficient in the skills of music, art and Glamour. Glamour is the magic of the book. Strands of Glamour are pulled from the ether and used to change the environment. They can be used to create illusions, create sounds and smells and entertain. On a day to day basis these skills are used to beautify rooms (and people!) and create a pleasant ambiance.
Jane is exceptionally proficient in the use of Glamour although being of plain appearance and at the ripe old age of 28 (!) feels destined for spinsterhood. Melody is her beautiful sister who appears to have men queuing for her attentions but herself is insecure at her lack of skill using Glamour compared to her sister.
WoGF Review: In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
Editor’s Note: We’re playing catch up here on WWEnd after WorldCon last weekend. This review counts for August.
Sam Dance is a soldier in the US military just prior to the United States entry into the theatre of war in World War II. He is seem as someone with particular talents and early on in his career is extracted from his duties and placed into classes of physics, chemistry and other scientific matter.
During this time he is seduced by his enigmatic lecturer from Eastern Europe, Handtz who places into his custody a device which she hopes he will use. It’s quickly clear that the device is something highly prized by the US, Communist Russia and Nazi Germany. It’s a device that has potential for great good and also would be disastrous for humanity in the ‘wrong hands’ – which seems to be everyone apart from Dance.
The device is capable of combining the consciousness and biology of DNA to create parallel and alternative timelines that mesh at a nexus and carry on in alternate directions. An analogy is made throughout the book of jazz musicians who individually do their own thing in a piece of music whilst still playing the same underlying structure, coming together in the same place where necessary and then departing. The analogy is made a little too often for my liking as it seems every fifty pages or so we are introduced to the idea.
WoGF Review: Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
Cyber Circus is a carnival featuring a range of bizarre characters and oddities as it travels across Sore Earth in a steam powered airship. The novel is very much in the vein of the ‘road movie’ as the Circus moves from town to town whilst being pursued by a pimp character (D’Angelus) trying to reacquire one of the acts (and ‘obtain’ another) for his brothel.
That set-up may well seem seedy and indeed it is. There is a sickness to the culture of Sore Earth and on the face of things the inhabitants have very few redeeming features with individuals falling into categories of ‘exploited’ or ‘exploiter’ (and it could be argued some fitting into both).
The world is barren and survival is hard, it’s hard not to think of the American Depression era and the ‘curiosities’ of the traveling freak show.
There is a theme of violation through the characters of the circus. Many of them have been subjected to bodily modification either against their will or as a result of other ‘bio-surgery’. Indeed, there is a presence of sexual violence (or threat thereof) throughout the book and although these scenes are not graphically presented it still is an uncomfortable read at times. It seems that many of the non-storyline inhabitants of Sore Earth fit into the category of ‘worker’ or ‘prostitute’. It did make me think of how female characters in particular are portrayed in ‘Western’ cinema – (or those who inhabit bars at least).
WoGF Review: Ironskin by Tina Connolly
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
The central character of Ironskin is Jane Eliot. She was injured by a fey bomb towards the end of the Great War trying to save her brother. The injury causes her to leak her curse and project that emotion onto others – her’s being rage.
The effects of the curse can be countered by iron and consequently Jane wears an iron mask that stops the curse from affecting others but does cause those emotions to build up inside her and others like her with no outlet.
Jane struggles to keep employment before accepting a governess job where she believes the child could use her help. This is her entry into the mysterious world of Mr Rochart and the foreboding Silver Birches.
Ironskin is a retelling of Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is a book I treasure and have gone back to many times. I have also been sympathetic to retellings and additions to the ‘Eyre’ canon – in particular I find Wide Sargasso Sea an essential ‘prequel’ and puts a significant twist on the original.
WoGF Review: Among Others by Jo Walton
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
Among Others a delightful book which once I started I could not put down. The central character is not only believable but likeable and as a reader I easily connected to her and hoped for her happiness.
The notion of magic in the book is handled delicately and Walton balances superbly the idea that ‘the fairies are real’ whilst never quite dispelling the idea that magic is the result of a lonely teenage girl’s over active imagination.
Walton writes beautifully and the ‘magic’ of old things and wild places comes through whilst the ‘real world’ of late 1970’s Britain meshes well. The ‘journal’ structure of the novel makes this an easy read but also underpins the growth of Morwenna as an individual. The feeling I was left with at the end was that this is not a novel about SF or magic but one of growth and empowerment.
I carried on trying to read Mor’s relationship with her mother as Mor not realising her mother was unwell, rather than a witch. However, believing her mother is a witch and fairies are real makes for a much more enjoyable novel.
