Oct 08 2021

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

I nearly noped out of Black Sun about a quarter of the way through, thinking that if I wanted to read about teachers abusing a child in supposed service to a greater cause then I would go back and read The Fifth Season and its sequels, but I don’t. I had given Black Sun a pass — well, not a pass, something more of an abeyance — on the horror of a mother ritually scarring her twelve-year-old son and then sewing his eyelids shut in the first chapter because I thought it was an introduction meant to shock, as indeed it did shock me. But when the child of the first chapter returns, blind of course, in the care of a “teacher” who slaps him hard enough to draw blood and determined to teach him to “Make the pain your friend” (Ch. 4), I was very close to done with this book.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

I stuck around for the strength of the world-building, because I liked one of the other main characters, and because I wanted to do the book justice when I voted in this year’s Hugo awards. The world, as Roanhorse notes in her acknowledgments, is an amalgam of fantasy riffs on pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas, with some sea navigation lore drawn on Polynesian traditions. Roanhorse has some of the problems with warmed-over Englands that I do, though she puts it a bit more diplomatically. “So much of epic fantasy is set in analogs of western Europe that I think most readers believe that all fantasy must be set in a fake England in order to even be considered epic” and “… it still seems incredibly rare to find a fantasy inspired by the Americas.” (Acknowledgments) And though the window dressing is different, the key places will feel familiar to readers of fantasy: the rough side of town, the priests’ tower, the clan strongholds, the gambling den, the council room.

Xiala, the main character I enjoyed most, is a sailor through and through. She’s lusty and free with money on land, feels most at home on the sea, knows how to motivate a crew, and also knows the kinds of superstitions that sailors are prone to believing. One of the problems is that she is Teek, a type of person about whom sailors have a great many superstitions, many of them better founded than ordinary superstitions, and not all of them positive. The Teek homeland is something like a watery Shangri-La, often sought but never found. And there are no Teek men, as far as anyone in Black Sun besides Xiala knows. That’s in addition to the magical powers that Teek are correctly reputed to have.

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Oct 07 2021

Magical History Tour #5: The Plague, History Of A Pandemic by Fabrice Erre & Sylvain Savoia

Technically, this is a children’s book, but honestly, I wish everyone would read this!

In the fifth volume of this deeply intelligent, highly accessible history series, our intrepid guides, Annie and Nico, go on a tour of historical pandemics, focusing primarily on the plague. They cover the historical and geographical spread of the disease — at least as it was recorded and correctly identified — from the 6th century when it was known as the Justinian Plague, to the last modern mass outbreak after Japan dropped dirty bombs carrying the bacteria over China during World War II. Since then, incidents of the plague have been isolated and controlled by the World Health Organization and local health authorities. It’s still deadly, but with proper monitoring, the world has been spared the waves of death the plague caused for millennia.

If only we could say the same for other diseases! Fabrice Erre and Sylvain Savoia touch on other pandemics including COVID-19 in the bonus material, and while they remain quite neutral in their factual reporting, it’s hard to miss the sharp irony that underlines the entire book as they discuss how the disease spreads, how to contain it, and how woefully and sometimes willfully ignorant people can be. One of my favorite panels in this book has the 14th century Pope Clement VI pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he tries to stop flagellants from parading from town to town, bringing both disease and riots in their wake. Some people just don’t want to listen to authority, never mind common sense, so certain are they of their own specialness.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/07/magical-history-tour-5-the-plague-history-of-a-pandemic-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/

Oct 06 2021

Turning To Wallpaper: Poems And Art by Heidi Wong

Wow, this book is a gut punch, in several very excellent ways.

First, ofc, there’s the art, all by Heidi Wong, which is primarily dark to macabre. My review copy was a black and white Kindle version, so there’s only so much I can say about something I can’t observe in its full glory, but the renditions I had available to me were striking and invited long scrutiny (and it’s easy to tell from the cover photo I included here alone that I definitely missed out on the vibrancy of her use of color.) While much of the art was a bit too lushly Gothic for my personal taste, it did compliment the text quite well. My favorite pieces were the ones that combined Tarot imagery with the use of social media, two of my most recent preoccupations.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the poetry in the book also spoke to issues that have been in my head for this last longest while. Dealing with topics of family, illness, immigration, alienation, death and sexual assault via imagery courtesy of Shakespeare and Ovid, the rawness of the emotions is for the most part cleverly, impactfully channeled through Ms Wong’s intelligent use of wordcraft and construction. Our Story, Told In The Wrong Order is a particular favorite, tho I’m hoping it’s less confessional than metaphorical! Another of my favorite poems of this collection, After The Breakup, is particularly impactful for its dissonant ending. I loved the callbacks to and correlation between Lavinia and Philomela throughout.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/06/turning-to-wallpaper-poems-and-art-by-heidi-wong/

Oct 05 2021

Needle And Thread by David Pinckney, Ennun Ana Iurov & Michah Myers

Oof, this graphic novel hit me in my comic book-loving heart. I’m not saying I was Azi growing up — I mean, her dad is nuts even by Asian parent standards — but certain of her trials hit me as hard as a hammer blow to my psyche.

The story goes like this: Noah Ramirez wants to design costumes but his firefighter and police officer parents want him to continue the family tradition of public service by enrolling in pre-med at UCLA. Azarie Valerius is secretly a comic book nerd but her high-powered family and popularity-obsessed friends force her to hide her love of superheroes and performing deep, deep down inside. Noah and Azi go to the same high school but inhabit very different social circles. When a comic book movie inspires Noah to check out the nearest comic book store for design ideas, he runs into Azi, who is busy nerding out with the clerk. The two get to talking, and find a mutual interest in cosplay. Tentatively, they form a friendship over building a costume for Azi to wear to a convention in hopes of winning a competition.

As their senior year of high school progresses, Noah and Azi must contend with many obstacles as they each pursue their individual dreams and their joint goal of entering the big cosplay competition at the Comic And Pop-Culture Expo (CAPE). Their friendship is sorely tested again and again, as they have to try to please the people they love most, who look askance at best on their relationship. Can they stay true to themselves and to each other as graduation looms and their tumultuous year comes to a close?

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Oct 04 2021

A Difficult Thing by Silvia Vecchini & Sualzo

Odd that the book is subtitled The Importance Of Admitting Mistakes when those words are nowhere to be found in the copy I was sent. Not that there are many words at all in this book, which is a gorgeously illustrated, deceptively simple parable acknowledging how hard it is to say sorry but how worthwhile in the end.

We follow a young dog in a cyanotype-tinted landscape as he makes amends to the friend he wronged. The struggle to do the right thing is echoed in the metaphor of the difficult terrain he must traverse, which slowly warms and lightens as he apologizes and helps to make right what went awry. As far as story goes, it’s not terribly complicated or long, but the thoughtfulness of the art, whether it be in the friends’ distinct expressions or in the perfectly evoked weather conditions and their effects on the characters, is absolutely stunning. Silvia Vecchini and Sualzo do amazing things with pacing just by going in for close-ups then zooming out again, and working with layers of color to signify shadow and light. The meditative aspect of this book is superb, with the art inviting you to linger over each page while you empathize with the hesitancy and struggle of the protagonist to keep working towards earning forgiveness.

I’ve never read anything by these creators before but definitely would again. Highly recommended for all children (tho not necessarily in the Adobe Digital Edition I read. I swear that format was designed to pain the reader in exchange for entertainment.)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/04/a-difficult-thing-by-silvia-vecchini-sualzo/

Oct 01 2021

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is a scientist, working to understand the world around him. That world may seem odd, or circumscribed, to readers, but Piranesi does not question it. It is the world, after all; the House. He does not inquire into its origins, nor try to understand its supports. Instead, he maps it. The House has Halls and Vestibules, of which there is apparently no end, and Levels. “The Lower Levels are the Domain of the Tides; their Windows — when seen from across a Courtyard — are grey-green with the restless Waters and white with the spatter of Foam. The Lower Halls provide nourishment in the form of fish, crustaceans and sea vegetation.” Then comes the level where Piranesi lives. Above that “The Upper Halls are, as I have said, the Domain of the Clouds; their Windows are grey-white and misty. Sometimes you will see a whole line of Windows suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning. The Upper Halls give Fresh Water, which is shed in the Vestibules in the form of Rain and flows in Streams down Walls and Staircases.” (All Ch. 1)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

What lies beyond? “Outside the House there are only the Celestial Objects: Sun, Moon and Stars.” He is also an explorer. To the west of the Hall he chose as his starting point, he has traveled 960 Halls, to the north 890, and to the south 768. To the east, parts of the House have collapsed, and he can go no further. “In all of these places I have stood in Doorways and looked ahead. I have never seen any indication that the World was coming to an End, but only the regular progression of Halls and Passageways into the Far Distance.” (Ch. 1) Fortunately for him, and for readers, Piranesi has an excellent memory. He knows the Statues in the Halls that he has visited, he knows his way around, he knows how to make provisions from the bounty of the House, and he knows practical things such as how to calculate the Tides that sometimes combine and rise quite high in the House.

Piranesi the book opens with Piranesi the person going “to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three Tides. This is something that happens only once every eight years.” His calculations are not as reliable as his memory. He has underestimated two of the Tides, and is in danger of being drowned or swept away. He clings to a Statue and hopes, or rather he prays to the House for protection. When the Tides recede while he still has breath, he concludes “The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.” (Ch. 1)

Piranesi is not really his name, it is what the other person in the House calls him. He does not particularly see the need to call himself anything else, or indeed anything at all. He is. That is sufficient. Piranesi, for his part, calls the other person the Other. The Other is also a scientist, though a bit moody. The two of them meet twice a week, generally for an hour each time. Piranesi supposes that the Other is very busy with his research in other parts of the House because he often seems hurried and sometimes cuts their meetings short. The Other is vague about which parts of the House he lives and works in, but that does not trouble Piranesi very much. They are working together in search of some great knowledge that will give them both deeper understanding of the House.

In his explorations, Piranesi has come across evidence that other people have also been in the House, at least for a while: skeletons. There are thirteen of them, leaving him to draw the conclusion that the world has only ever held fifteen people. He tends to the skeletons, making sure that the Tides do not carry them off, bringing them presents occasionally so that the deceased know that the living have not forgotten them. It does not seem a small number to him; that is all the world has had.

If Piranesi reminds me of another story, it’s The Slow Regard of Silent Things. In Rothfuss’ book, a major character lives in a particular world alone, with a heightened sense of the inanimate objects in that world, with rituals that shape their relationship to the world. Like Auri, Piranesi is slightly askew from the ordinary run of people.

Part of what makes this book great is the beauty and simplicity with which Clarke shows Piranesi and his world. The most extraordinary things are self-evident to him, while others escape his wit and attention entirely. How does he know concepts like week and month? What was he like as a child? Did he even have parents? None of this comes up in the diaries that form the text of Piranesi. As the story goes on, I found myself wondering more and more about the gap between what Piranesi discussed and what he obviously knew.

Crossing that gap is the greater part of what makes Piranesi brilliant, and plot details that are not apparent from the beginning are crucial to the changes. Things are not entirely as they seem, and there is more in the House than is reckoned in Piranesi’s science.

+++

Piranesi is a finalist for this year’s Hugo Award in the Best Novel category. It is the fourth book I have read in that category, and it will get my top vote unless one of the two remaining books is much better than I expect.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/01/piranesi-by-susanna-clarke/

Sep 30 2021

Dance Or Die: From Stateless Refugee To International Ballet Star by Ahmad Joudeh

I love dance books, and often find them a source of luminous prose and inspiration. Couple this with the true story of a stateless ballet dancer who grew up and performed in war-torn Syria, and who is active in dancing and advocating for peace and for the rights of refugees worldwide, and I absolutely had to read this memoir.

On those two subjects — the joy and power of dance, and the plight of those displaced by war — Dance Or Die succeeds tremendously. Ahmad Joudeh is at his most eloquent when describing his need to dance, how it compels him and how it makes him feel, how it serves as a refuge from all the ugliness going on around him. His prose is so lovely, it made me want to get up out of my seat and flex my own muscles and training. His writing is also evocative for its simplicity, in contrast, in stating the plight of his family, made stateless first by the annexation of Palestine, then by chauvinist citizenship laws in Syria. The absolute injustice that subjects people born without the correct set of papers to lives of fear and deprivation is a shocking scandal globally, and part of why I’m so firmly for open borders.

Alas then that this book is so infuriatingly vague on so many other subjects. The narrative is in strict keeping with the official story, tho even then, I felt like I gleaned more insight into what he’s really like by watching his So You Think You Can Dance Arabia video clips than I did here. The tone when discussing why his dad was so against him dancing, to the conflict in Syria, to the challenges he faced when competing on SYTYCD, all affected an “I’m too above this to explain” demeanor that really did a disservice to his story. Is it homophobia that causes the physical violence and death threats against his person? When he rebels against religion, is he saying “fuck you” to fundamentalists or to Islam as a whole? When he complains about facing racism from his fellow competitors, who are also primarily Arab, what exactly does this mean? Why is there not even the most rudimentary explanation of why war is tearing apart Syria?

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Sep 29 2021

Pahua And The Soul Stealer by Lori M. Lee

Ever since her father left and her mom moved her and her younger brother Matt away from the larger Hmong American community to live in small town Wisconsin, Pahua Moua has felt like the weirdo outsider. It isn’t just that she’s the only Asian person in her class. Her single mom has to work long hours to cover expenses, leaving Pahua responsible for looking after Matt and severely limiting the eleven year-old’s social life and free time. And then, of course, there’s the fact that Pahua can see spirits that no one else can.

Having been raised, however loosely, in the Hmong tradition, Pahua knows about spirits and the shamans like her aunt who can communicate with them. But she also knows that not everyone else can see them the way she does. So she spends a lot of time pretending she can’t either, to varying degrees of success, even tho her best friend is Miv, the spirit kitten who accompanies her almost everywhere. When an effort to make friends her own age at summer school leads her to cross paths with the vengeful spirit haunting a local bridge, Pahua’s compassion, coupled with her shamanic abilities, accidentally sets off a chain of events that results in the bridge spirit stealing Matt’s soul and taking it away to the Spirit Realm.

With Matt’s body in the Mortal Realm getting sicker by the day and, according to Miv, only about three days left to save him, Pahua is determined to confront the bridge spirit and restore Matt’s soul. She gathers some of the shaman gear her aunt had left with them and heads to the bridge again, only to have a very different kind of supernatural entity appear when she rings her aunt’s summoning gong. Luckily, a shaman warrior in training named Zhong also shows up, who both lends a hand in defeating the demon and offers to guide Pahua in her ongoing search. It’s a little unfortunate that Zhong has a huge chip on her shoulder, but any ally is better than no ally, right?

As Pahua and Zhong join forces to travel to the Spirit Realm and save Matt, they’ll have to learn not only to work together but also how to navigate their way through the Six Realms of the Hmong. There will be plenty of reversals and revelations as the two girls search for answers and fight bad guys, all while exploring the rich mythology of their culture.

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Sep 28 2021

Big Panda And Tiny Dragon by James Norbury

While I originally picked this up as a children’s book, it is definitely a volume for readers of all ages, featuring sweet, simple lessons with some truly lovely watercolor and ink illustrations that invite you to stare at them for hours in delighted/delightful meditation.

Our two title characters are Big Panda and Tiny Dragon, a pair of unlikely friends who meet and journey together over a year and some months of changing seasons, discussing life, friendship and their travels in short, easily digestible paragraphs. The vibe is rather as if Calvin & Hobbes were far more laidback and thoughtful, and a little less wordy. James Norbury’s interest in Buddhism is clear even before his afterword, as the soothing tranquility of considered introspection and conscious mindfulness is present throughout the text and its accompanying illustrations. I only had an e-galley of this but find it not at all difficult to imagine how beautiful a physical copy of this book would be, showcasing the luminous art.

My only quibble, and this is just a philosophical difference, was in the application of the equation of waves in an ocean with thoughts in the mind. The equation was quite correct, but I thought the extrapolation belabored or, perhaps, not well enough explained given the restrictions of the format. Which is a very small complaint to make considering the dazzling thoughtfulness and sweetness of the rest of the book!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/09/28/big-panda-and-tiny-dragon-by-james-norbury/

Sep 27 2021

Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Yooooo. I love any book with an unapologetically, righteously angry female lead and this one did not disappoint! Also, Zetian is a disabled heroine who kicks ass! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with such positive disability rep, which is partly on me but, let’s face it, mostly on publishing. Add to that the Asian aspect and I was already hugely predisposed to loving this, even before I laughed and cried and empathized my way through reading this terrific speculative fiction novel.

Wu Zetian is a frontier girl on a mission. After her beloved older sister dies at the hands of Yang Guang, a male ace mecha pilot, Zetian decides to enlist so she can assassinate her sister’s killer. She knows that doing this not only condemns the rest of her family but also forsakes the guy she’s been secretly seeing for the past three years, rich city boy Gao Yizhi. But vengeance is more important to her than anything, even love.

It’s something of a surprise to arrive at training and discover that her spirit pressure, the ability that allows people to pilot and transform the mechas, is high enough to immediately qualify her to partner with Yang Guang. But it’s only her iron will and murderous intent that allow her to climb out of their mecha later alive, the sole survivor of a process that usually takes the lives of the female concubine-pilot while leaving the male pilots unscathed.

At first, the army is scandalized, especially since Zetian staged her survival as a triumph, entirely out of keeping with the docility expected of women in Huaxian society. When she refuses to back down, they partner her with Li Shimin, the most powerful pilot in the army but also a boy with a reputation as a savage patricide. Zetian is fully ready to kill him too if she has to, but discovers a surprising kinship between them. As the pair slowly bond over the abuse they’ve each suffered, they begin to fight back against the suffocating restrictions and expectations placed on them both, in the process uncovering fearful truths about the world they live in.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/09/27/iron-widow-iron-widow-1-by-xiran-jay-zhao/