I heard almost immediately from friends and friends of friends that this was really sad, so I waited months to read it, when normally I’m all over new Saga like cat hair on black pants. It’s like, I get there are going to be sad installments of this series. I do. This is the story of Hazel’s life from beginning, to, well, I don’t know if they’ll end with her being old, but certainly with her as an adult. And there is no way that […]
There’s more than one way to be human
A year ago at this time, in the wake of our devastating presidential election, I reviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, two treatises on racism and oppression in America. As I read N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy, it occurred to me that her novels present a perfect fictional account of the same topic. These Hugo-Award-winning stories take place in a world where racial difference leads to oppression, exploitation, and genocide. As a result of this […]
A great Afro-futuristic novel, still good on the re-read
The first time I read Who Fears Death, I was grabbed by it. I was so compelled by Onyesonwu, our protagonist, that I didn’t have a critical eye for anything else. And that’s the beauty and frustration of a re-read. You see good things you didn’t see before, but your blinders also come off and you see other things that you missed on the first go. Sometimes, that means a formerly five-star book comes down a bit, and that’s the case with this one. I […]
An okay prequel.
I’m embarking on a new research project, and I’ve followed several ideas up by reading books that I think will fit this budding thesis. I had read Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death two years ago for CBR7, and I didn’t know until recent that she had published a prequel of sorts. I wasn’t sure if either of these books would fit my project so a read/reread was in order. I do very much like Okorafor’s concentration on Afrofuturism, about which I know relatively little. I’ll […]
Dark high fantasy that just didn’t do it for me.
Many years ago, my sister had told me about the Way of Shadows, a fantasy novel and part of a trilogy that she had read. I was sufficiently intrigued and added it to my TBR. Two CBR Book Exchanges ago, Malin had graciously added it to my book haul and hoped that I would enjoy the reading experience. And, while I admit that this book was not my cup of tea, I am grateful for the experience and the diversity in reading material that she […]
Arabella’s second foray is not as successful as the first.
Last year (JUST KIDDING, CBR informed me it was actually February; OMG we have lived ten years since the election, you guys), I enjoyed David D. Levine’s Arabella of Mars, which was billed to me as Jane Austen meets Jules Verne. It’s an accurate comparison. I was excited to see a new adventure come out a mere year later. I immediately grabbed it from the library and read it on top of my unread-stack. Because this is a direct continuation of the first novel, I’ll […]