Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

*Some Spoilers Ahead*

Much better cover than the first of the series I got out. It makes Akin look a lot less human than he does through most of the book, but still, at least this one isn't whitewashed.

This book starts years after the first one, as the humans and Oankali are established on Earth, and have been giving birth to Oankali/human construct children for quite a while now. I maybe missed the explanation of why they're called constructs, because aren't all children through the mediating influence of an Oankali ooloi (their third sex, masters of genemixing) constructed, whether part human or not? I mean, isn't that what makes the Oankali what they are?

Most humans have run to the hills, hoping that the Oankali's statement that they had made it so that humans couldn't procreate without an ooloi was false. They've had long enough to despair. And enough desire for children that they've turned to kidnapping construct children that look mostly human (although they will change dramatically at metamorphosis). Some threaten to cut off the parts of those children that make apparent their joint heritage, even though those are sensory organs for the children.

Akin is the first child who will probably become male (with the Oankali, male and female don't become determined until metamorphosis) born to a human female. There have been males born to Oankali females, but for some reason, it's considered more dangerous when the mother is a human. He is kidnapped when quite young, although he has been able to speak since days after he was born. During his time being kidnapped, he becomes convinced that the humans should be able to have children without ooloi intervention. With the Oankali, every time they meet a new species and "trade" with it (the reason for the quotation marks is something I want to discuss in a minute), they split into three groups. One mixes with the new species and stays for a long time. One mixes with the new species and departs into space. The third stays as it is, and moves on.

That way, any new changes have a safety buffer. Akin argues that human deserve the same consideration. Other Oankali believe that humans are too dangerous to give a legitimate second chance. Beside, they're going to use up Earth over the next few centuries and leave it a husk. Akin argues that they could be given Mars.

I liked the first book in this trilogy, but somehow, it didn't grab me the same way that Parable of the Sower did. I needn't have worried. Adulthood Rites got inside of me, made me uncomfortable, made me think. I'd put the book down and walk through the world in a daze for a while, trying to sort out what I thought, and why. What made me uncomfortable and why. The implications of Butler's writing and what that meant. This is a truly astounding book, with complex philosophical discussions being worked out through characters and their interactions. It's not preachy, and the philosophy isn't heavyhanded, or even in huge chunks. It's woven in so subtly that it has a much stronger impact. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a masterclass in writing.

One thing she takes on is something that bothered me about the first book (and indeed, I'm sure was supposed to bother me.) The ooloi can sense emotions, if not the thoughts behind them. That means that they will often do what the person they're with wants rather than what they consent to. In practice, that means that an ooloi drugs and initiates sex with a man who will not resist, because he does want it, but will not consent. It means that an ooloi impregnates Lilith without her consent because he can sense that she wants a child.

It's troubling, and in the first book, it's just left there as a disturbing undercurrent. And then in the second book, it gets crystallized into one moment, where the Lilith draws a clear line between the two, and, I think, between the concepts of desire and want. Or desire and consent. One may desire something without actually wanting it. And certainly without consenting. She says at one point that if she was strong enough not to ask the ooloi to impregnate her, it should have been strong enough not to do it.

That hit me with a ton of bricks, because I did carry around that discomfort with the issue from the first book, and in one sentence of anger and frustration, I understood why. The ooloi take desire to be consent, and then feel free to do whatever they like. And the ways that violates bodily autonomy are truly terrifying. It takes the issue of people thinking they have to right to do whatever they want to the body of another person, and takes this pinprick right to the center of it, to the idea that they want it, or are asking for it. Sure, the Oankali can say, and say truthfully, that they are doing what these people desire. But that is not enough. That is not consent. That is not even want.

That Butler can get at that, that issue, make that differentiation, and in circumstances in which it hits emotionally and strongly. I am in awe. That was the section that I meant when I said dazed. When I went out for my husband for lunch shortly thereafter, I was quiet and I think my eyes were focused somewhere very far away for most of the time we were out.

And that's just one small moment. There are more. It's a truly amazing, if disturbing, book. I really can't wait to see how the third brings this all together.

Dust Cover Dust-Up 2014: Round Three, Part Three

Daughter of Smoke and Bone vs. Memory

Winner: Memory

This is a tough one. I liked both of these books a lot - the former was definitely the best YA I read this year (not that there were many), and the latter was one of my favourite of the Vorkosigan books. I like it in particular because it has Miles at his most vulnerable, having shot himself in the foot, metaphorically. Learning how to live with disability, and not being what you thought you would be. It's timely, it's interesting, and it's difficult. So it wins, even though Laini Taylor's world and the characters in it left me hungry for more. It's a tough choice. Bujold for the win.

Komarr vs. An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

Winner: Komarr

It feels a little weird to put two Lois McMaster Bujold books through in a row, but Chris Hadfield's book, while I liked it, has mostly been getting through because it's been up against weaker books. I like space, and his book is interesting, but it didn't grab me as hard as the first introduction of Ekaterina did on Komarr. And she is one of my literary loves of the year. What a great character, what a great match for Miles. I may have read these books out of order, but still, she was amazingly fun to read.

Broken Homes vs. Habitation of the Blessed vs. The Broken Kingdoms

Winner: The Broken Kingdoms

Ooof. A dreaded moment where I have to pick between three books I really, really liked. Two of which have "broken" in the title for some reason. It's a hard choice. I love Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books. I loved Catherynne Valente's prose. But I think of the three, I love even more the tenuous knit-togetherness of the main character in The Broken Kingdoms and all the thought about what the fracturing of power can do.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I think I have seen the movie too many times to be able to come to the book with anything like a fair perspective. To be clear, this was on the agenda of almost every movie party I went to or held in high school. I cannot count the number of times I've watched it. It's up there with Monty Python and the Holy Grail for movies of which I can recite long sections without pause. Unfair as it may be, the movie version is my version of this story, and I was not unbiased coming to this book.

This was the January selection for my local book club (as opposed to my virtual book club), chosen by a very close friend. By the time this is posted, the meeting will be long past, although as I write, it's two days in the future. (I'm trying to get ahead of my reviews this year.)

This is a difficult review to write, which you can perhaps tell from the two paragraphs of dithering you've just read. It's not that I disliked the book. It's just that I didn't think the book added anything to the movie. There are more words, sure. And more overt meta-ness. But nothing substantial, nothing to make me gasp, or add another layer of meaning to make me become one of those people who would sniff and say, sure, the movie's okay, but it's nothing compared to the book.

Perhaps it's because that for the most part, what's on the page is in the movie, exactly. (Except for the interjections, and I'll get to those.) The few times that a line is different, it's better in the movie. Take, for instance, Westley's line about Buttercup's perfect breasts and how it would be a shame to spoil them. It's more elegant in the movie than in the book, it trips off the tongue. Goldman tightened the dialogue up in really excellent ways in the movie, and so when I come across a line that is not only clunky, but was fixed in the movie version, it's a little disconcerting.

As for the meta-ness, I may be in the minority here, but I like the way it was incorporated into the movie better. It's more subtle, left more to the audience. (That is not something I thought I'd ever be writing about a movie version of a book. The vast majority of the time, this goes this other way. Movies have to be brasher, more explicit, or at least, they think they do.)  In the book, it's meta, but it's meta with too much explanation. Goldman explains too much and in too much detail what the meta is and what it means, and there is little space left for the reader to do more than take that in and make of it exactly what Goldman seems to want us to make of it.

In the movie, the act of skipping, eliding, it happens on the screen without explanation, and we're allowed a little space to to play with ideas about what was cut and how much, and that satisfies me more.

All that said, I did enjoy it. It's a fun read. But I guess I was expecting that it was going to add a whole other level to the movie, and what it did was make me want to watch it again. I don't know if I'd bother reading the book again. It's great fun. It's just not the movie.

Dust Cover Dust-Up 2014: Round Three, Part Two

A Civil Campaign vs. Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

Winner: A Civil Campaign

This isn't that difficult. Samuel Delany's Stars in My Pocket etc. had mostly stayed in the competition because it was so interesting, even if I was never quite convinced it succeeded as a science fiction novel. But I respected the experiments and was sucked in by the language play. Bujold's books may be much more straightforward, and they're certainly more rousing yarns, but that shouldn't be mistaken for shallowness. There's always more going on underneath the ripping good story. Of all the Vorkosigan books I read last year, I think this is my favourite.

Long Walk To Freedom vs. How The Light Gets In

Winner: How The Light Gets In

I feel bad about this choice, picking a mystery over Nelson Mandela's autobiography. However, it comes down to this. I liked Long Walk to Freedom quite a bit, but I was struck with how impersonal it seemed at times. That's fair - Mandela's under no obligation to tell us all the personal details of his life. But Louise Penny's mysteries are all about the personal in ways that get to me strongly. And this was the most personal and difficult of the series, and I can't cut it from the competition quite yet.

Republic of Thieves vs. Camera Obscura

Winner: Republic of Thieves

I'm a little surprised that Republic of Thieves has gotten this far in, as it wasn`t my favourite of the Gentlemen Bastards books. But on the other hand, Scott Lynch can tell a hell of a story, and maybe not the best is still a hell of a lot better than a lot of the other books I've read. As for Camera Obscura, it was fun, and I liked it more than the first book in the series, but it can't measure up to Locke Lamora.

The Imposter Bride vs. The Robber Bride

Winner: The Imposter Bride

It's the battle of the delinquent brides! And not incidentally, of Canadian literature written by women - one from a giant in the field, the other from a relative newcomer. And you know what? The newcomer takes it. I liked Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride a lot, and the writing was exquisite, but there was just something about the quiet pain and consideration of Nancy Richler's The Imposter Bride that got to me more deeply.

Mirror Dance vs. Black Swan Green

Winner: Black Swan Green

I have put through a lot of Lois McMaster Bujold books till now, and some will keep on making it through. But as much as I liked Mirror Dance and its musings on family and brotherhood and command, Black Swan Green was just so poignant and unsentimental. British youth in a wheel of the year filled with both good and bad and inconsequential all at the same time. David Mitchell, you do write good books.

Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James

P.D. James tries to combine her mysteries with Jane Austen. There has been a great division of opinions on this book. The blurbs try to make it sound like the most amazing book ever. Most of the people I know who've read it dislike it intensely. I don't feel that strongly one way or another - at most, it awakens in me a sense of slight disappointment. This isn't that good, and it isn't that good on both the mystery and the Jane Austen novel levels. On the other hand, it isn't abhorrently bad. It's just bland enough that I don't have a strong reaction to it.

Let's take those two elements in turn. It feels like here, P.D. James is trying to show us how policing and the justice system has changed. But it's not really a mystery. It's missing a detective, or really, anyone who is looking at the evidence, trying to ferret out the truth. I realize that being a detective as such is anachronistic, but even without having that formal position or informal undertaking, the mystery part falls flat.

The story just sort of happens, and that would be okay, if it were a little more lively. This is sedate without being interesting. Austen may have been sedate at times, but she was also always interesting.

The answer to the mystery arrives by carriage at the end of the mystery, and so, without lifting any fingers, it is solved. This is less than satisfying. Other authors, writing before the advent of detectives, have still found ways to give us that central character who is trying to get to the truth. It might be an experiment to see if you can do without them, but it's not that successful of one.

As for it being an Austen book, ten years after Pride and Prejudice, it's not terribly successful at that. The faux-Austen prose is clunky, and that's almost an unforgivable sin. It calls attention to itself, and there is too much of a data dump about what they're eating, or what the rooms look like, and it seems to be there to prove that James has done her research, rather than for good effect. If she's trying to ape Austen, it's done without grace. Also, you're P.D. fucking James. You should know you don't have to show all your research.

The biggest problem, though, is that the characters are boring. Elizabeth Darcy should not be boring. She may have changed, but you can't make her boring. That's ridiculous. Also, you know how Austen always has that one character who chatters on and on and you kind of want to kill her, but she's also so vibrantly alive that somehow she needs to be there? There is nothing like that. At all.

Lydia ends up being more interesting than Elizabeth, and a) really? And b), if that's the case, give us more of her than just having her go into hysterics once. We keep hearing about her being overbearing, annoying, hysterical, and quite frankly, that makes her the most interesting character in this book, but we barely get to see her. There is scarcely a scene that I didn't think would be improved by her presence. If you've made a vibrant character, why would you banish her to the spaces between the pages?

As far as I can tell, the book is missing feeling. With it, I could have forgiven the rather lackadaisical mystery. In Austen, there is a distinct difference between what the characters are doing and what they are feeling. They may be acting proper, but man, is there stuff roiling beneath the surface. And there is really none of that. They all seem to be pretty much as sedate as they act, although mildly perturbed at what has gone down in the woods near Pemberley. That is not enough to make a book out of, and it certainly doesn't do justice to Jane Austen.

Oh, P.D. James. I do like your mysteries. But this one, while it wasn't atrociously terrible, missed on virtually every aspect I would have wanted out of this book.

Scardown by Elizabeth Bear

It's interesting reading a series in such short order. I usually try to pace things out more, to let one book sink in fully before barging on to the next. But I'm moderating discussions on this series over three months in an online SF group, so here we are. (Because I'm trying to catch up on some discussions I wasn't moderating, I'm doing the same thing for Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood series.)  As I mentioned in my review for the first book in this series, though, I had actually read the last book of the trilogy first, in my own sheer perversity. Still, I'll reread and review it next month.

In this case, I think it really worked to go through Hammered and then Scardown in short order. In my first review, I said I thought that the pacing was slightly odd in the first book, in that there isn't really a major denouement. (Or maybe it didn't feel like a major denouement because I already knew it from the third book. Also possible.) I liked what the book was trying to do, but wasn't sure what I'd have made of it had I not known where the books were going. And if that isn't the most convoluted sentence I've written in a while, I'll eat my hat. And I like hats, so I have a lot to choose from.

Scardown definitely does not have the same issue. (I'm hesitant to even call it a problem.) The end of this book has all the shit-hitting-the-fan I could possibly wish for, and at least one moment, even though I knew it was coming, made me cry. Now that's a good sign, when a writer can show me something I knew was going to happen and make it so poignant that even though it's not a surprise, it breaks through any emotional defences I might have.

Jenny Casey continues to be an awesome character, and I love her so much. There was less Elspeth in this book, and that's too bad, because I like her almost as much, and enjoyed her sections in the first book. Jenny has been upgraded to be the pilot of new interstellar ships that are a bitch to steer - they tend to be irresistibly attracted to objects of large mass, like planets, and stars. Your first mistake is likely to be your last.

While the Canadians are getting closer to being the first to get out of the solar system, the Chinese are not far behind, and the national, corporate, and personal tensions rise accordingly. Much of these books, and particularly Scardown, seems to be about the conflict between duty, orders, and responsibility. What if a good order comes from an enemy? A bad order from a friend? When do you make your stand, and how? How do you make such stands effective?

Jenny's commanding officer is a man who has given her every reason to want him dead, but she starts to suspect there may be more going on than she realizes. A young woman revolutionary has similarly good reasons to want Jenny dead, and is definitely working from insufficient information.

Another theme is, I think, about wrecking the house on the way out, or, conversely, tidying up. If we're about to leave the solar system and start new colonies, and the Earth's ecosystem is nearly irrevocably wrecked, what does that justify? And what do you do with those who are willing to wreak more havoc so they win?

I realize I'm being oblique, but this is not a book you want spoiled. Suffice it to say that all these themes are wrapped up in awesome characters, great action, and heartbreak at the end. I'm very glad I've finally read the whole series. And will try not to start at the end next time.

Dust Cover Dust-Up 2014: Round Three, Part One

We're getting near the end! Round Three. Now we're getting to the tough decisions, although there have been some doozies so far.

Railsea vs. Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do

Winner: Railsea

Of course, I say that, and then the first match-up is one of the easiest imaginable. Ain't Nobody's Business has mostly survived this far by being slightly my favourite of two books I don't care a lot about. Railsea made me swoon. I keep saying that. It's not really a metaphor. There aren't many books that make me weak in the knees, but this was one. China Miéville, there is no question that this round is yours.


In The Night Garden vs. The Fall of Hyperion 

Winner: In The Night Garden

This, on the other hand, was a very difficult choice. Two books I liked a whole hell of a lot. In the Night Garden might not have been my favourite Catherynne Valente book of the year, but through a quirk, that one has already been eliminated. And Dan Simmons' follow-up to last year's Dust Cover Dust-Up Winner, Fall of Hyperion, was less experimental, but so satisfying. And horrifying. Either choice is going to break my heart. But the sheer fairytale delight of storytelling is going to give it to In The Night Garden.

Wolf Hall vs. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Winner: Wolf Hall

Not an easy choice, but not a heartbreaker. Jeanette Winterson's memoir, in the second half, turns into something really great, but the first half is mostly set-up for that. Everyone should read it, no question. But if I'm stuck in an airport with a book, give me Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell as a companion. The writing style takes a bit of getting used to, but it was a thoroughly satisfying read. 

Redshirts vs. Tooth and Claw

Winner: Tooth and Claw

I liked John Scalzi's Redshirts. It was fun, it was meta, and if it had too many codas, it also had a fun and entertaining story. But it can't match the sheer delight of realizing that, why, yes, I did want to read about Victorian dragons preying on poorer dragons, and the sexual politics of the colour of female dragons. This book is so strange, and it's exactly my kind of strange, and I loved it and you should probably read it.

Hexed vs. Red Seas Under Red Skies 

Winner: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Not really a hard one. I liked Kevin Hearne's second outing of Atticus, ancient druid, but it was mostly just entertaining. On the other hand, Scott Lynch pulled me along on a thoroughly entertaining sea adventure, and then ripped my heart out and left it beating on the deck. Sorry if that's graphic. But it's pretty descriptive of how I felt as I read the end of the book, tears streaming down my face.