This was a great read. This book tells a fast-paced story where celestial and infernal forces vie for influence in the mortal realm and where a plethoThis was a great read. This book tells a fast-paced story where celestial and infernal forces vie for influence in the mortal realm and where a plethora of different wonderists (wizards) mainly work as mercenaries.
It was definitely a 4-star read for me in terms of enjoyment and also the originality of the plot. I almost deducted a full star for the - in my opinion - really unnecessary - inappropriate demand from Corrigan and its subsequent scene. It is not that I dislike any of the more inappropriate jokes in the book or that I found it terribly offensive. I just thought that the scene did nothing for the ending, was not called for by any of the previous scenes (including the other scene where the object of said scene was discussed). But hey, de Castell wrote this story for himself, among other things, to shake off all the restrictions like keeping things appropriate and unoffensive. So perhaps it is just that. And the rest of the book was really good.
Okay so that being said, in this story we are looking through the eyes of Cade Ombra, a smart mage with a mysterious past. He tells us in a bit of sarcastic/cynical tone about the world in an almost noir-style. As we follow him, he ends up in a situation where his past and his future are consistently interweaving.
The Malevolent Seven is filled with humour, cynicism and hateable people. It is a world in which being an asshole helps in surviving through getting jobs for bigger assholes who are either commanded or manipulated by even bigger assholes. (sounds familiar?) The book is both tropey and subverting tropes. I love how it is the old 'seven ...'-trope, where shit hits the fan and people are kind of forced to gather up a group of seven to defy the odds.
The magic system and world building was splendid. I think the theory of magic being attuned to a plain which translates into very specific forms of magic is very nice. It makes the different wonderists stand apart very clearly. Also the relationships between these the plains (for example celestial or infernal) and the mortal realm are very interesting.
Saying anymore would kind of enter the spoiler sphere I guess. So if you like action, a bunch of magical and rowdy people from different realms trying to do the impossible with a creative plot, read it. Don't read if you dislike swearing, rudeness or (but that is just my opinion) are looking for a slow burn or deep character studies....more
This was a great collection of short stories about assassins. Of course as with all anthologies there were some stories that resonated more than otherThis was a great collection of short stories about assassins. Of course as with all anthologies there were some stories that resonated more than others but overall most of the stories were really fun and exciting to read.
I find that generally two things can go wrong with the stories in these type of books. First, we must acknowledge that these anthologies are both a way for authors to promote their writing and the worlds they created, as well as an opportunity for authors to experiment and do something that lies outside their regular series. The former leads to authors overfeeding too much world building information about their main body of work into the short story. It means they will provide details, names etcetera that are not that relevant to the plot. Because it is a short story that does not work very well for the readers immersion. The latter is just really hit or miss. If you try something new it can be awesome and it can be disappointing. And after an author's put quite some effort in the experiment I'm sure it is hard to evaluate for themselves whether this was the right one.
That being said, I think most experiments or showcases really worked in this book and I had a really good time reading each story. I would especially like to give some appreciation to the stories of M.L. Wang, JA Andrews and Terry Mancour.
Wang somehow succeeded to tell a completely thematic story with sociological, ideological themes and interesting sci-fi world building, while still packing it with a bunch of action. Awesome work!
Andrews has written very compelling characters and moral discussion, while also adding an interesting story plot. I loved the flow of the story. Although it is one of the longer stories, it felt like the rush of wind that the story references.
Finally, Terry Mancour (and not this is not recency bias towards the last story), really subverts expectations, while also (I'm a sucker for this) adding the title of the anthology to his story. I loved reading the dialogue and seeing the plot unfold. ...more
A solid four star book. After some time I'm picking up the discworld books again. And as I've read up until this book in publication order years ago, A solid four star book. After some time I'm picking up the discworld books again. And as I've read up until this book in publication order years ago, why not start where I left off. The last hero is a wonderfully illustrated and comic tale about the elderly heroes of the discworld who want to do one last badass thing and it involves the gods...
Of course hilarity ensues as we find out that they might destroy the world and we need the inventiveness of Leonard of Quirm, the combined effort (or lack thereof) of Unseen University's wizards (including Rincewind) and one of the watches most wholesome guards.
Pratchett revisits his criticism of and themes surrounding religion, heroism (and its aftermath), and the woes of the world from previous books, while somehow also retelling the story of the first man on the moon? Ah well, it's pratchett, its fun and its beautiful book....more
A wonderful story collection. Where the short stories of Ken Liu that I read this year are highly emotional, the stories by Chiang lean more to the inA wonderful story collection. Where the short stories of Ken Liu that I read this year are highly emotional, the stories by Chiang lean more to the intellectual (although both collections have stories that evoke a lot of emotion and stories that evoke none). The intellectualism to me is also a reason for giving it a 4-star rating. While the stories are of impeccable quality and I really enjoyed reading this collection, I felt that I really needed my basic background in science and biology to understand several of the stories. I could follow it myself, but I generally feel objections when I notice that stories with a great message or story, are unnecessarily inaccessible.
That being said, it was a great experience reading this story collection. Chiang methodically explores futuristic scientific breakthroughs. In my experience the stories vary between those that are an awesome thought experiment and those that are meant to expose some human or contemporary mechanism by exploring it in a hypothetical situation, rather than the contemporary one. In this way we can more easily reflect without it becoming contaminated by our own personal experiences and opinions.
With a lot of nuance Chiang explores the positives and negatives of his hypothetical innovations. What does it do and what does it not do? For example in the story "understand" we dive into what might happen if we can make our brain function grow exponentially. It becomes a story about how values, regardless of brain function will dictate how this hyperfunction will be used. And also, how lonely and scary it is to function at such a high level compared to your surroundings.
My favorite entry was "The story of your life". It is a great story that flawlessly combines an answer to the thought experiments how we would communicate with aliens with very human experiences in parenting, mental health and relationships. As a parent I could not help but be emotional about this story. Especially the raw imperfectness of the situation.
In summary, not a bad word about this book and a minor remark about complexity. If you have affinity with Sci-fi and like to be challenged to rethink the world, I would really recommend this book to you....more
This was a wonderful book. I've seen so many people comparing it to The Sword of Kaigen, Wangs masterpiece that was published before this one. And yesThis was a wonderful book. I've seen so many people comparing it to The Sword of Kaigen, Wangs masterpiece that was published before this one. And yes that book is even better, but let's be fair. Sword of Kaigen was off the scale and this book is 5 stars on the scale. Not comparing it, it was a great creation.
In this book Wang explores contemporary society through the lens of the world of the Tiranish, where Kwen (people from outside of Tiran), but also women are treated awfully. A city that is build on continuously exploitation on the rest of the world. It explores both how privilege is revealed and processed, but also common defense mechanisms that privileged people (consciously or unconciously) apply to justify their privilege.
It is hard to tell anything more about the book without spoiling anything of the story, so I'll just reflect a bit on the craft. Wang has created a great cast in this book and through the relationships the characters have we can really get a realistic view of how dealing with racism, mysoginy and privilege is not black and white. There are no easy solutions.
I feel the book is very clear in the themes it explores, but really balances well in articulating issues and drawing parallels to contemporary events while not being on the nose or patronising (or matronising if you will). There are even men that mansplain something and are right ;) But I just really loved Thomil. On the other side Sciona was very hard to love at the start but her growth and learning really warmed me up to her.
The book read like a train, had very nice pacing, an interesting story, good character work and a rewarding ending. Definitely recommend!...more
A beautiful anthology, which I plan to reread some time when I'm mourning anything. It is rare for the majority of stories to connect with me in such A beautiful anthology, which I plan to reread some time when I'm mourning anything. It is rare for the majority of stories to connect with me in such works, but they did. There is some great writers in here who really made some great stories, even though their general work is more long-format.
The themes of grief and hope are very much core to the human experience and this book captures it well.
Thanks to the authors for this beautiful gift to the world....more
Just like in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Liu gives us beautiful stories. The quality is very similar between the two books. Liu is a masterJust like in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Liu gives us beautiful stories. The quality is very similar between the two books. Liu is a master in telling powerful stories and evoking strong feelings in a very short time by connecting to the core of being a human being. Although I liked the former slightly better. It hit me in the heart, the guts and the brain even more than this story collection (and this collection also hit hard) Somehow, these books are hopeful about humans and humanity, but also hold to a bleak view of the same humanity.
The Hidden Girl though is more internally consistent in terms of themes and setting. Many of the stories take place in a context of digitizing society and consciousness, physical bodies coming obsolete. And in these stories we engage with shortage of resources in the world, colonialism, but also of course family relationships. In many a story, dysfunctional or atypical parent-child dynamics are being explored.
I had a bunch of notes, but honestly, I think you'd want to make your own notes if you pick this book up, or read it fresh. There are many wonderful stories and almost each of them warrants careful reflection and consideration if you're up for that. If you're not they're evocative in the moment as well. I cannot recommend Liu's work enough....more
This was a hard book to rate. If judged by what it seems to be it'd be an objective 4-4,5 stars, but from my personal enjoyment I'd say it's 2,5-3 staThis was a hard book to rate. If judged by what it seems to be it'd be an objective 4-4,5 stars, but from my personal enjoyment I'd say it's 2,5-3 stars. So I'll first discuss what I think it is and what I liked about it and after I'll give the things I missed or did not like. I did have fun reading it for the most part.
What it is and what makes it great This book reads like a great movie in the action genre. It has wonderful cinematic blood and gore scenes. The main protagonists are 7 very distinct magnificent villains (or gray area heroes) with awesome powers. The antagonist has seemingly unsurmountable power. And the plot really leans into all these action scenes to close in on the final face-off. It is generally a fast-paced read, with lots of fighting and banter that we see in action movies. The last third of the book is one big sequence surrounding the last battle, which was fun to read albeit somewhat long for my taste.
What I did not like Well this is exactly what I missed. At many points I kind of felt like watching an action movie with all the drawbacks that entails. While the action itself was great and the 7 villains great fighters, they all had just 1) their superpower, 2) a reason to want to fight that somewhat ties into their back story and 3) a personal quirk or pet peeve. I feel the character work was not one-dimensional but too superficial to my taste. Relationships are mostly limited to banter, intense hatred or slight appreciation. I felt nothing when someone died and was not particularly excited when someone won (let me reiterate again though that the whole plot and action were hype). So the story did kind of fall flat for me. At times I wanted the book to go faster because it was engaging enough to want to know how the story goes, but not interesting enough to savor every scene or page.
To summarize: if you like action-packed stories with awesome magic and steel battle prowess you will enjoy this immensely. If you're looking for great character work, interesting relationships or interesting fleshed out themes, I would personally go look elsewhere....more
This is a beautiful set of short stories. Without exception they made me cry, reflect upon life, ponder human nature or all of them simultaneously. I This is a beautiful set of short stories. Without exception they made me cry, reflect upon life, ponder human nature or all of them simultaneously. I found these stories by Ken Liu, truly beautiful, engaging and so so deliberate.
As I see it, Ken Liu, takes sci-fi and fantasy elements to really explore or comment on human nature. Why do people behave like they do? How do people grow? how does history shape us and how do we shape history? How would we deal with the opportunities that new tech offers us and what does that say about us as the human race?
The other thing that Liu does brilliantly in many of these stories is to take something that is ugly or horrible about human nature or human experience and somehow uses that to emphasize the fragile beauty of that same human nature and the human experience. By contrasting these two the stories are very emotionally engaging to me.
These stories are mostly set in Asian or Asian-American settings or centered around people with a personal history rooted there. To me personally that was very interesting and educational, as I have limited knowledge of the history of that part of the world. I think the additional sources that Liu gave at the end of several stories helped me learn even more.
I read one story a day and only if I had some time afterwards to reflect. Literally, each story was worth the read and made me glad I reserved the time to really process it actively.
Another great entry in the Dresden Files. Solving a set of seeming suicides and accidents that definitely have something off about them, brings DresdeAnother great entry in the Dresden Files. Solving a set of seeming suicides and accidents that definitely have something off about them, brings Dresden into conflict with old and new enemies and unlikely alliances.
Meanwhile we get some updates on the conflict between the Red court and the White council and see some development in Molly's apprenticeship.
All in all, great fun, action and a few feels, both as a standalone story as well as in the series' character development....more
This story was a great read and, in my personal opinion much better than its sequel/predecessor Priory of the Orange tree. I would give it a highly apThis story was a great read and, in my personal opinion much better than its sequel/predecessor Priory of the Orange tree. I would give it a highly appreciated 4,5 stars. To be clear, I do not mean to say the sequel is not worth your time, I just had a nice time reading it and an awesome time reading A day of Fallen Night.
In this Prequel Shannon brings us into her world 500 years before Priory. The Nameless One has been subdued for 500 years now and most people have forgotten the horrors of that time. The Berethnets of Inys in the west continue their beliefs that their Queen keeps the nameless one in check and in the south there is the priory, that was founded after the defeat of the Nameless One, ever to be vigilant. The rest of the world does not much care. In this world we follow the perspectives of Glorian, the princess of Inys, Wulfert Glenn, housecarl to Glorian's father, Tunuva, Tomb Keeper of the priory, and Dumai, a godsinger in the east where their gods are water/storm dragons. As the world is stirring and dark events arise their stories intertwine in a beautiful and captivating way. We see these characters and several around them develop, which brings me to the first part I really liked about this book, especially in comparison to the Priory.
Where the Priory of the Orange tree seemed somewhat hasty and packed with mostly only character development for a few characters, this book focused very much on the characters in my experience. Themes like love, trust and betrayal are explored in many different story lines. On top of that, the whole book centers much around the theme of parenthood, which is amazing. The love, the doubt, the struggle, the vulnerability and the pain that parenthood bears is laid bare for both mothers and fathers. And likewise the relationship that children have with their parents is also explored as three of the 4 perspectives are of the younger generation in this book. As a consequence, many human experiences and emotions were presented, which made it so much easier to attach to the characters. This in turn, made the story that much more impactful.
Besides great character work, I feel the plotting of this book was also much better than the priory's. The mysteries and court intrigue that are presented created much more tension for me than in the previous book. A special shout out to Dumai being pestered and bullied at court and how that was written. I really hated reading it, because it was done so well :) I cannot say much else about plot as part of the fun in this book is really discovering each story line.
Another praiseworthy thing, which was already laudable in priory, is how Shannon equals the playing field in relation to gender and sexual orientation. I really appreciate how she increasingly presents the reader with strong women, same-sex marriages and relationships, and this time even a transitioned person and a non-binary person. What makes it beautiful is that it is very much part of the story, while at the same time it receives no special attention. Not in this world, nor by the writer. There is no on-the-nose morality regarding inclusivity and gender equality, it just is. The best example of this was with the Alchemist in the east. When Dumai asks for mistress Kiprun and the Jekhen tells her it is Master Kiprun now. And without any word or question, Dumai and her company now adress Kiprun as such. What I really like in the sense of equality is that it is really presented as equality. For example, while the book is filled with women in powerful positions, with great wits and agency, men are not diminished. Men in this book are equally relevant and capable within the positions they are in. And both men and women have flaws. Similarly, while this book pays a lot of attention to sapphic intimacy, heterosexual relationships are not diminshed or marginalized. That both are slightly overrepresented compared to contemporary society is something I think corrects very well for the time we live in.
Finally, what I did not like as much was having read the Priory of the orange tree before this book. Having read the sequel diminished the stakes somewhat for me and therefore reduced the impact of several scenes, which would otherwise have been blood chilling. Reading the priory tells us much about what houses, regions, people and places survive the catastrophe in this book. As a consequence, I would like to encourage you to try and read this book first. It is really worth it, I think and I would still say that the sequel would be enjoyable, maybe even better, because you now know what happened 500 years earlier. Both books are filled with dragons, intrigue, magic, action and awesomeness. I hope you will find the time to dig in at some point! ...more
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