This was a shaky 3 stars for me. There are some interesting ideas, here but the choppy writing style made it hard to be invested and the ending feels This was a shaky 3 stars for me. There are some interesting ideas, here but the choppy writing style made it hard to be invested and the ending feels particularly flimsy.
The core story is quite compelling: Katrina Nguyen, a transgender runaway, is a talented but untaught violinist. Satomi Shizuka is trying to find the seventh violinist soul to complete her bargain with hell and get her own music back. Their teacher-student relationship, along with Katrina's journey to valuing herself, is well-articulated and moving. There's a lot to appreciate in the way Katrina wants to be a musician but hates the body that allows her to play so well.
Unfortunately, the story spends a lot of time on subplots that land without much emotional impact, and the sci-fi element of aliens running a donut shop is under-baked at best. Their technology doesn't need to be well-defined to create a good story, but their home culture (which apparently doesn't have concepts like art and music) never gets enough color to play into a serious culture clash. The story could have been great if the aliens had gotten more pagetime or if they'd been cut to allow the arc of Lucy the violin maker/ luthier more space; in turn, Lucy's weakly drawn arc about not being a male heir to the family violin shop needed more space or to be removed entirely. If Katrina's arc is an oil painting, the alien subplot is a short comic and Lucy's is a rough, unfinished pencil sketch.
The aliens also had subplots among themselves, including a double murder that's barely set up and then barely addressed. This is part of a trend in the book where people who are mean/ assholes/ were snide and did some misgendering in public die, possibly at the hands of a major character, and it's just glossed over without any examination of the consequences and who's deserving of death. (One rude person who misgenders Katrina dies and her rapist lives while never being mentioned again, for example.) The author isn't obligated to deal out death and consequences with a perfectly even hand, of course, but the events add up to "misgendering and other non-violent forms of bigotry deserve the death penalty, rape and public sexual assault and murder get either mild consequences or none whatsoever." It's just profoundly odd, though I may be missing some transition-related wish fulfillment here.
The conclusion is also something of a mess, rushing through to a happy ending full of plot holes. As a Georgia native, I'm inclined to like stories of devils and fiddling contests, but the ending to this one felt less clever and more contrived. There's a lot of back-and-forth over whether Katrina will take up the dogwood bow that binds Shizuka's students to hell, and I went from being on the edge of my seat to rolling my eyes at the page by the end. Spoilers abound: (view spoiler)[If Shizuka replaced the dogwood bow with a fake to save Katrina, why is she so shocked and scared to see Katrina using it onstage? If Katrina knew the plan all along, why did she bother stealing the bow and spend so much angst on knowing her soul is forfeit (when if she was using the real bow, Tremon would take her instead of Shizuka?). Why is "I'm trans and good at keeping secrets" a defense against demonic mind-reading powers discovering the plan when Katrina's secret-keeping skills don't even extend to locking the door when she's doing a webcam sex show? People in my discussion group were divided in how they read the final scenes, but I was in the camp that read the epilogue chapter as Katrina entering into a sexual relationship with a rich man who sexually assaulted her (and other vulnerable young musicians), and the unexamined nature of that development left a bad taste in my mouth. (hide spoiler)]
Stylistically, I wanted to enjoy the work more than I did. The work slides between POVs constantly, even mid-paragraph; I know it's more common in older works and sometimes it does click for me, but in this case the way there's a mini-section (with double line breaks) broken off every half-page or so except during immersive music segments. Those section breaks don't correspond to a change in time, location, or POV, and the same holds true for the pale ___ section markers. The *** markers do seem consistent about showing a shift, but the other markers seem to be decorative more than anything, and to me it came off as choppy. I know this is a small complaint, but it truly did start to bother me and make each scene less immersive.
We rarely stay with one character's view long enough to get immersed, and the scenes where the POV does stay anchored (like when Katrina first tries on a dress in a nice store) are some of the most memorable in the story. I would have preferred far more longer glides like that where the reader's attention can linger long enough to really get into a character's head. Some pieces of the prose are lovely, but they get lost in the structure, which feels to me like a collage made of tiny shreds of tissue paper-- there are lots beautiful things without much connection, and the glue holding it all together is internal inspirational speeches.
I'm glad that more queer-friendly books are being published, but I didn't enjoy this one in particular.
Content warnings: severe; (view spoiler)[one (on-page but non-graphic) instance of rape, several dangerous situations arising from sex work, parental abuse, pervasive transphobia (including slurs), self-harm, murder. (hide spoiler)]
Other recommendations: -For a deeper exploration of the "immigrants from another planet/ dimension" type of story, try The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar. It's a novella about a boy coming to terms with a legacy his parents are trying to conceal from him....more
The was a conflicted 4 stars for me. The setting has some of the best worldbuilding I've seen in a while, but the back half gets too action-heavy and The was a conflicted 4 stars for me. The setting has some of the best worldbuilding I've seen in a while, but the back half gets too action-heavy and drags on.
A Master of Djinn begins as the story of Fatma el-Sha'arawi trying to solve the murder of a secret society of rich men who were all burned to death. She's met at the scene of her crime by Hadia, a new partner she doesn't want to take on. Fatma is a delightful lead character, full of skills and flaws in equal measure. She's a great detective and cuts a distinctive figure in her dapper English suits and cane, but she's also impulsive and reluctant to accept help, even from a partner who's eager to learn. Hadia is eager and responsible but full of surprises, and I wanted to see more buddy-cop scenes between them like we got to see between the officers in The Haunting of Tram Car 015. The relationship between Fatma and her lover Siti is also good-- they fight side by side but are also lovely in quiet moments together.
The most (potentially) interesting element of the book is the supposed return of al-Jahiz, the mystic who opened the barrier between worlds and allowed the djinn to cross over. He appears in a gold mask and starts speaking out against the current power structures that use djinn and magic to advance their own interests while leaving the poor behind to struggle. Spoilers follow: (view spoiler)[In the end, this al-Jahiz is an imposter who's just trying to stir up unrest in the city to advance their other plans. I would have liked to see a genuine al-Jahiz or even an imposter who's more connected to Cairene life and is speaking out as a revolutionary rather than a saboteur. The speeches are full of great points: the poor are suffering, the police seem more interested in keeping order than promoting true safety, and something needs to change. But because this al-Jahiz is an imposter, victory is about a return to order, and there's no sign that changing the city (and country) is a priority. I would have liked to see a more difficult ideological struggle for Fatma and the city. (hide spoiler)]
I would have liked to see more time on the global political scene as well. The entry of djinn into the world made Egypt a global power and allowed Africa to expel European colonial forces, changing the shape of international relations. World leaders are making a visit to Cairo in the second half of the book, in part to plan talks to avert an oncoming war (what would be World War I in our timeline). I found this idea absolutely mesmerizing, but the political angle was under-explored just seems to be there to raise the stakes of the last act.
The last act or so of the book just didn't work for me. This is in large part because (view spoiler)[the author pulls back out the Clock of Worlds from the initial short story to open up a last act about a sky portal letting out massively powerful ifrit to brawl in the streets with djinn. After years of MCU and DC movies that always have to have a fucking sky portal and half-aerial fight scene, I'm tired of it, and I don't think it works very well on the page without the spectacle and soundtrack of a movie to anchor it. And that's partly on me, but I also think that stapling an action-heavy sky portal sequence onto a very cool mystery with political implications was just not a good structural choice. It limits where the series can grow: if the first full-length book is about stopping the ifrit from destroying humanity, where can you raise the stakes? (hide spoiler)]
And if the last act was so annoying, I should be less interested... but I love this djinn-filled steampunk Cairo to death. There's so much talent and research on display with all kinds of little details, from the underground jazz club to the Egyptian feminist movement to the all-female Forty Leopards gang of thieves to the way the ifrit already in the world are philosophers living in remote areas to think about ethics and avoid fighting each other. It's a fantastic world and I would read another dozen stories here (provided they're not jumping on the sky portal train again). This particular story had some missed opportunities, but I'm interested to see where the author goes next.
Content warnings: moderate; (view spoiler)[there's some talk about corpses that were burned alive to kick off the mystery, but it's not incredibly graphic. Nothing else that I remember standing out, just fantasy-typical fighting and blood; maybe some civilian injuries during a protest. (hide spoiler)]...more
This Hugo finalist novella was lovely: it’s a post-apocalyptic story about a floating garbage island and the people who live among that trash after thThis Hugo finalist novella was lovely: it’s a post-apocalyptic story about a floating garbage island and the people who live among that trash after the land is gone. Tetley Abednego sees beauty in this wreck of civilization and has a memorable voice that balances fearless optimism with deep grief over everything that's been lost. There’s no attempt to make the science tightly defined and plausible (this is more post-apocalyptic fable than science fiction), but the tone makes it flow beautifully; as always, Valente knows how to turn a phrase. A few spots dragged, but other passages are searingly bright and gorgeous.
// Somewhere around 3.75 or 4 stars to me. Gorgeous fairy-tale tone and a memorably weird setting, but I wanted something more from it-- more humor? More conclusive ending? RTC, I need to chew on this one for longer.
Other recommendations: -If you're interested in more melancholy-but-hopeful tales, try Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker's first short story collection. The title story is available here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi... -If you want another climate fiction story with a little less fairy tale and a little more infrastructure, try The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed. That one has some lovely twists of magical thinking and a lot of reflection around "what do we owe to our communities?". The two novellas would be a great book-club discussion pair. ...more
This was 4 stars for me; it's a solidly executed sci-fi adventure in sort of a Golden Age style with a lot to offer, but you need to get past some uncThis was 4 stars for me; it's a solidly executed sci-fi adventure in sort of a Golden Age style with a lot to offer, but you need to get past some uncomfortably bad dialogue in the middle sections.
Content warnings: minimal; (view spoiler)[there’s some existential dread at the threat to humanity and sadness at waking up near corpses, but nothing graphic. (hide spoiler)] Strip out one use of “holy fucking shit” and some awkward sex-related dialogue and I’d give this to a precocious ten-year-old who loves space; the text seems like it’s already angling for a PG-13 rating.
I think this book is best if you go into it without knowing much, so let’s start with generalities for those who have managed to dodge the marketing. This is the oldest-school science fiction I’ve read in a while, focusing almost entirely on the nuts and bolts of solving difficult problems with scientific know-how, creativity, and careful engineering. Our protagonist wakes up in a mysterious room with no idea where he is and only gradually starts to recover memories of how he got there and what problem he needs to solve. If you liked other Andy Weir books and are prepared for this one to be longer and a bit less funny/ more contemplative, you'll enjoy this one. If you didn’t like The Martian at all (or most enjoyed it because of Mark Watney’s snarky voice), maybe skip this one. It’s pushing 500 pages and you’ll be able to see it in a few years when the inevitable movie comes out.
On to the light-spoiler version! (view spoiler)[The book bounces back and forth between astronaut Ryland Grace’s experiences trying to solve a problem far from home on a spaceship and the history of how the people of Earth noticed the problem (and how he became involved in studying and solving it). The present-day science stuff has this earnest “gee-whiz, what a puzzle” vintage story vibe to it that reminded me a lot of the Before the Golden Age 1 collections at times-- it even name-checks Heinlein at one point. That’s not a bad thing (the thought that went into the biology of the threat to Earth is quite well developed), but it does inform the way the story ticks. If you're interested in characterization or the social fallout of this threat to Earth, you'll be disappointed. The flashback arc set on Earth has a few good moments but is mind-numbingly repetitive (there’s a problem, the save-the-Earth dictator makes people solve it, repeat ad infinitum) and features some of the worst dialogue Andy Weir has ever written. I didn’t notice it so much due to the structure of his previous books not having much dialogue, but I had to stop and put this one down a few times. (hide spoiler)]
And now for a heavier spoiler that still made it into some of the marketing. (view spoiler)[The best element of the book was by far the odd-couple friendship between Ryland and Rocky, an alien who resembles a rock spider and has come to the same star system in a desperate attempt to save his planet from the same threat that’s damaging Earth. The back-and-forth of learning language and culture is quite fun, and I found myself enjoying the book less once those initial sources of confusion were resolved. Scientific collaboration between two people of different species is a good hook, and I enjoyed their engagement. (hide spoiler)]
Overall an engaging read (I whipped through it in a few days) if you focus on its strengths and enjoy a lot of science chatter, but it would have been better minus 50-100 pages worth of flashback/backstory material....more
L (Nineteen Adze)
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hugos-2022
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