Tag: SFFgenre

Categories
Books Recommendations

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine
A Memory Called Empire (GoodReads)

Mahit is deputed as ambassador from the tiny Lsel Station to the mighty Teixcalaanli Empire when her predecessor, Yskandr, dies in mysterious circumstances. More curious still is the fact that Lsel Station possesses a secret and unique technology: the imago machine. Imago is essentially a bio-chip that carries the endocrine memory of a person, and can be embedded and integrated into the brain of another person. (Phew, hope I got the description right!)

The trouble just keeps on piling up from there. Mahit finds that Yskandr’s imago in her brain has been sabotaged! Also, it seems imago technology isn’t so hush-hush after all — and several people are fighting over it… And the city where Mahit has been posted is an AI hive-mind which is malfunctioning… Oh, and there are new monstrous aliens at the gate…

Continue reading “A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn

//Who drew the patterns of the stars, if not a god? Who designed the marvellous cycle of cloud and rain and river, if not a god? Who made you— and you— and you too— if not some god whose name we have forgotten?//

The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn is the third book in her Samaria series. It can be read as a standalone, as long as you have some background information of the past centuries on Samaria (which I am happy to provide below).

Here’s the deal:

We find ourselves on a different planet, where the Samarians, Edori and Jacobites co-exist. Samarians worship the God known as Jovah. When they ‘sing’ to Jovah, Jovah instantly (and I do mean instantly) sends help within the hour, in the form of rain, medicines and grain.

The Edori are nomads and sailors who believe that somewhere out there is a supreme universal being, but they’re not sure whether that being is Jovah or not. And then there are the Jacobites, bitter agnostics, who claim that Jovah is not a God — instead, Jovah is a machine!

Continue reading “The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Tooth and Claw

Oh, what an absolute gem of a book. Quiet and unassuming on the surface, yet so utterly charming and thought-provoking.

Bon Agornin dies one day, leaving behind two sons and three daughters. His sons, Penn and Avan, are in the clergy and government respectively, and his eldest daughter, Berend, is the matron in a wealthy family. The youngest daughters, Haner and Selendra, are unmarried, and are forced apart when their patriarch dies. Much of the story is about Haner and Selendra being uprooted from their old home and settling down in their new environment: Haner with Berend and her husband, and Selendra with her parson brother Penn.

The real pivot of the story?

They are all dragons. And dragons have a singular custom — that of eating dragon flesh of the deceased, because that is the only way they can increase in power and sustenance. Walton gives them other dragon-like characteristics and rituals too, but at the heart of the story is the grim truth that dragon eats dragon to flourish. It is to Walton’s credit that she makes dragon customs like these feel real but empathetic.

Continue reading “Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton”
Categories
Books Miscellany Music & Poetry Watchlist

Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2021

May 2021 was a slow reading month for me. I blogged much more than I read, which was unusual, but all thanks to the wonderful Wyrd And Wonder challenge. The link has all the posts for that challenge, most of these being SFF rec lists, but one standout read was Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.

Aside from that, here’s a wrap-up for the month.

Lang Leav’s The Universe of Us

A very short book, with poems of varying length. These are all love/ heartbreak poems, but I think we can view them from a non-romantic lens too. I’m sure we’ve all had friends and loved ones with whom we had a parting, Lang’s poetry would ring true for those relationships as well. Rating: B–

Continue reading “Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2021”
Categories
Best of List Books Starred Recommendations

Five Star Reads in Five Words Each #WyrdAndWonder

(PEGASUS IMAGE CREDIT: Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com)

It’s time to wrap-up the wonderful Wyrd and Wonder challenge. The rule for this last prompt is to describe your five-star reads in five (or near five) words each. Well, I do keep a running list of all my favorite SFF reads HERE, but trying to describe them each in a phrase or less was a completely new exercise!

Continue reading “Five Star Reads in Five Words Each #WyrdAndWonder”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Bulfinch Encyclopedia of Mythology states that the twelve most illustrious knights of Emperor Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire were called Paladins. Lois McMaster Bujold took this term and applied it to the hero of her 2003 book, The Paladin of Souls, for which she got her fourth Hugo Award. 

Paladin of Souls is a fantasy work set in Chalion, a land where religious practice is split among the Five Gods: Father of Winter, Mother of Summer, Son of Autumn, Daughter of Spring, and the Bastard (God of Death). The Five Gods put a curse on Chalion a long time back, and people still suffer from the after-effects. The mythological world-building in this book is absolutely gripping.

Continue reading “The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold”
Categories
Art & Illustration Best of List Books Memes Watchlist

Desert Island Reads #WyrdAndWonder

(PEGASUS IMAGE CREDIT: Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com)

For the Wyrd & Wonder challenge, throughout May 2021 we have a series of challenge prompts. I’ve managed to tackle most of these by now, and our favorite Desert Island Reads are next on the list. You choose 8 (audio)books, 1 piece of media, and 1 artifact.

As our hosts put it: “Imagine yourself cast away with nothing to do but read. Okay, so this doesn’t sound entirely awful – but choosing our limited island library is the real challenge. We’re not going to worry about solving the challenge of survival, just how to while away the days (weeks? months?) until we’re rescued.”

Continue reading “Desert Island Reads #WyrdAndWonder”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is fantasy fiction but at its heart, it is a mystery. And what a mind-boggling, thought-provoking mystery it is.

A house with at least 7000 halls, giant statues, sea tides and migratory birds has only 2 inhabitants: Piranesi and The Other. Where have all the other humans gone? Does the House leave secret messages for Piranesi, even as he struggles to record all that he sees there? And why is The Other searching for secrets of immortality and other occultist knowledge?

Continue reading “Piranesi by Susanna Clarke”
Categories
Best of List Memes Watchlist

Page to Screen Adaptations Some Day #Wyrd&Wonder

Screen Adaptations - Asterix GIF

The Wyrd and Wonder challenge is running through this month. Today we are talking about any Page to Screen adaptation / dramatization that we would really like to see get made. I thought I’d have a go at this for the SFF genre, and I think many of these may already be in the works.

Continue reading “Page to Screen Adaptations Some Day #Wyrd&Wonder”
Categories
Books Long Posts Memes

#WyrdAndWonder Book Tag for May 2021

#WyrdAndWonder Book Tag
(PEGASUS IMAGE CREDIT: Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com)

For the Wyrd & Wonder challenge, throughout May 2021 we have a series of challenge prompts. I thought of linking them all up with a single mammoth #WyrdAndWonder Book Tag (because book tags are cool and I’m still new to them). So, here it is:

Continue reading “#WyrdAndWonder Book Tag for May 2021”