2023 Books I Read

One of  my goal for 2023 was to keep a reading log.  I had been concerned that I wasn't reading enough; too much scrolling on news and scoial media.  I read 8 novels/novellas this year, including reread of Lord of the Rings (which I counted as one novel). Plus 8 or so short stories.  A lot of my fiction reading is to be able to vote for the Hugo Awards.
 It is OK to quit reading a book I don’t like, so  I have a section labelled started and quit. 

The notes are not meant to be a review, just my half-baked reaction to the book and may contain
SPOILERS.

Started/Continued

1. The Penguin History of New Zealand - Apple Books - Started in 2019 to provide background for our trip to New Zealand for the Worldcon. That trip didn’t happen because of the COVID pandemic. We did make a trip in 2022.  It is very through assumes you have a map handy.   81% complete

2. Triangulation: Appetites - Short story collection, 90% complete

3. Hawaii’s Story, by Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani, 1898 - paperback. Started in 2022. I bought the book from a bookstore in Hawaii while visiting. It is a fascinating account of the history of Hawaii from the view of the last monarch. It is basically a memoir. The parallels and intersection with New Zealand’s history are remarkable. It is good to read this and the New Zealand history book at the same time. Progress on 8/15/23, Chapter 20 She visits US

6. Purakau: Maori Myths Retold by Maori Writers , 2019 - Kindle. I received this as a New Zealand Worldcon volunteer perk. 85% complete. I enjoy reading the folklore from different cultures. So different from European fairy tales. 

7. Imaginative Realism by James Gurney of Dynotopia-fame, Started reading 8/12/23, Lots of practical advice for artists. 

Started and quit:

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher ; It was the 2023 Hugo winner for Novel. I wasn’t in the mood for horror.Icky.Building a dog from bones. A friend says she didn’t like it at first but it becomes a found family story. So maybe I’ll try it if I can’t find an SF book I like. 

 

Completed

6/7 Imago by Octavia Butler, Started May 2023. I read a few pages. I like it. Published in 1989. It is 256 pages long. A nice short novel, or maybe a novella. It is the third book in the Lilith’s Brood series. I may have understood the premise better if I’d read the first book. It was interesting. Global nuclear war on Earth. Aliens rescued humans to attempt to breed constructs without their genetic “flaws” but keep the interesting features. I don’t fully understand the process. No sex is involved. The Alien Oankali take semen and ova into its body in a minimally invasive process. Tinkered with it in a special organ they have for genetic editing, then returns the fertilized egg to the woman’s uterus. She carries the fetus and gives birth normally. The offspring is called a construct and will later metamorphose into its adult form. There is some creepy non-consent thing when a ooankali takes human mates. The have tentacles/arms for sensing and also introduce a chemical to make the humans “love” it. The feeling is mutual, but it is a strange codependency. There Ooankali emit pheromones that cause humans to calm down and believe what they say. Oankali don’t lie, except by omission. Ooankali like novelty. I don’t understand why it is easier for the Ooankali to help the humans create a Mars colony then it would be to restore Earth. Earth is going to be destroyed, it seems an turned into interstellar ships. I don’t know if I would have stuck with the story if it wasn’t by Butler. The exploration of sex and sex roles. The Ooankali have a third “sex” in addition to male and female, I think. This third sex uses “it” as a pronoun. They seem to need to have mates to function and most of the story is about acquiring human mates for the protagonist, Joshans(?). Oankali seem almost magical in the way they manipulate matter and biology. The story takes place in South America. Lilith has African heritage, The description of her hair is basically an Afro. She’s probably Caribbean. All the other humans are brown skinned, dark haired, native South Americans. Human mutations and cancer can be cured through genetic manipulation even in adults. Not sure I buy all of it. Butler claims that humans are violent and hierarchical (or violent because they are hierarchical, or live in hierarchies because they are prone to violence.) Also genetically prone to kill those who are different. The book has a book club guide with interesting questions. I’ll work through them later.

4/4 - A Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler. Library. Nebula finalist and my Book Group's list. It is a tough read. Too many threads. Gratuitous sex and violence. I can’t understand why it is a Nebula finalist, the writing is poor and pretentious. Octopus and language development. Totally ignoring ape communication. Interesting to have the RNA change ability in cephalopods be the reason it evolved quickly to climate change. Southeast Asia setting is different. Interesting political arrangment. It is really three short stories or novelettes mashed together. The thread of Ha Nguyen and the octopuses is the only interesting story. The scene of Shapesinger meeting Ha and giving her the etched hook was very touching to me. The slave fishing boat has nothing to do with that. Evrim was also stand alone, with Rustem maybe, to explore consciousness.

5/21 Desolation Called Peace: Great first contact story. How to communicate with someone whose audible speech make you violently nauseous. Too long. Liked Eight Antidote subplot. Good if you like political. Sex was too graphic. I’d be uncomfortable if hetero sex was described that way. Implausible that the fungus would survive being fed to a human. Digestive acids would destroy it before it could be absorbed in the gut. Not sure how fungus enabled mindhive would work. Like the Shard trick?

10/12 Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree It was a fun fantasy about an orc quitting the bandit life to open a coffee shop and the friends she made along the way. This was a 2023 Hugo nominee. Started as a Nanowrimo, self published via Amazon. Noticed by Seanan McGuire. Eventually published by Tor. It was interesting enough to keep me up after bedtime to see what happened next.  And I was thinking about it later and could imagine the town and characters continuing on after the novel ended. Characters were mostly one-dimensional serving to support Viv’s purpose. But in a first person story that is the purpose of the characters. A man writing an inter-species lesbian romance was slightly awkward. No romantic feelings described really.

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Complete reread for comfort, and because it is great writing and depth.

11/15 Dairy of a Tuscan Bookshop.  A memoir by Alba Donati. She is a poet and worked in Italian publishing. Bought from Sundial Books in Chincoteague, September, 2023; I’d heard of it and wanted to buy something from the bookshop. It is interesting but slow. This is why I don’t like popular literature. Lots of flashbacks. Lack of emotion when her bookstore burned down. Her parents lived through WW II and fascism in her town. Relatives who died fighting the Russians. That has to affect your view of the world. Interesting to see how Italy handled COVID. She does show more emotions as her mother declines in health and mental acuity and has to be moved to a hospital, then a nursing home. The lists of books could be a good start to broaden my horizons.  At least one movie recommendation when I am feeling upbeat. I haven’t read Virginia Wolf or Proust. I feel bad that I don’t have a group of friends or a network involved in my daily life, but that might drive me craxy. She is 62, but her mother was over 100 and her daughter was starting college. I couldn’t make sense of the time range. My grandmother was 42 when she gave birth to my mother. So Mama had Alba in her 40s and Alba must have had Laura at 40 as well.

11/28 Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky 2022 This was a Hugo finalist for Best Novella (17,500-40,000 words). I thought it would be a fantasy based on the title. This really grabbed my attentions and I finished it in one day. The first few chapters sounded like the typical feudal setting. The Ogres were the Masters with humans the feudal serfs. However, the glancing mention of Robin Hood and later descriptions of Picasso paintings made me realize this was Earth in the future. Genetic engineering made humans unable to eat meat, and less aggressive, and smaller as an answer to world hunger and war. However the ruling class did not getting these modifications. After hundreds of years, a throwback emerged and rebelled killing the son of his Master. Torquell was rescued from execution and “studied” by a scientist “ogre” Isadora. He because a pet, companion, and was encouraged to educate himself aided grudgingly by her research assistant Minith. He (and the reader) slowly uncover the truth that Ogres and his people were basically both humans will slight genetic differences; mostly due to nutrition. However, the Ogres didn’t think of the gen-mod humans as equals. They were called Economics, were basically slaves, and were sometimes eaten. Now fully grown, Torquell escapes from Isadora’s estate, aided by Minith. He is essentially an Ogre. He returns to his village and starts a rebellion, killing the Master and burning his manor. Thin using the networks he created while living with Isadora, he spreads the Truth. The Ogres are too dependent on servant and too stagnant they don’t know how to fight back, but when they do it will be devastating mass destruction weapons. Isadora meets with Torquell to propose a truce to let him keep what he has freed. Basically making him a Master. But still allowing the other domains to exist. He agrees, being afraid of losing what he has won so far. This story is told in second person so far. Until Torquell is poisoned my Minith. As is Isadora. Switch to first person, from Minith’s POV. She wishes, he had said No, but continuing the revolution with a dead hero works too. It is a little heavy handed with the labor message. Theory: Workforce must work or starve, otherwise no work would get done. Testing: Have they tried feeding people to see if they still did the work? Also noting the irony that the ogres did no work. Isadora did research because she had slaves and lands to earn the money to feed and house her staff and building labs. Another good reason to read more books by this author. 

 

12/25: Octavia Gone, an Alex Benedict Novel, by Jack McDevitt, 2019, Started Dec 2023, Bought for $10 at a convention dealer room. Rediscovered in a stack in the living room while cleaning. I’ve been wanting some SF that is entertaining and not too challenging. McDevitt usually has a good mystery with a science hook, Sometimes profound. Sometimes not. Still too last century in his attitudes to build a believable society 9000 years in the future. They have gadgets and hyperdrive, but women still change their last name when they marry and are evaluated by their looks. Too European-centered. People still watch movies. Play pianos. It would be like people today still playing whatever instruments people played in Mesopotamia. Maybe there was a culture lost and reset. They still have personal printers. Avatars are a good extrapolation. Different types of cities. Flying cars. But still need pilots/chauffeurs. Bringing Gabe back adds some character conflict that makes it more interesting. Chase is still a pilot/administrator/executive secretary. The probe size is compared to a coin. So they still use currency in the future along with routine spaceflight?  Finished. Nice twist, I figured he’d have to bring in the AI/ Dyson sphere somehow, otherwise it would how been just an AI rights diversion, but what are the odds? Pollux/Polyx, well. Red herring, but OK.  Good mystery. I do like that he wrote a story about AI rights, question of sentience. Slavery. There could have been a deeper discussion. Pro and con. Kind of glossed over the argument of AI just acting like they have emotions/awareness to whether they actually do. Chase and Chad’s relationship. The fact that the mystery was more important to Chase than consideration for Chad.  Chad has to decide is have Chase when she is available is enough. Rick Harding killed himself and 3 coworkers rather than reveal the location of a dying alien civilization and their AIs. Mental illness played a part.