Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire is the latest addition the the Wayward Children series. Like several Wayward Children books (but not the most recent few) it stands alone and just follows one child on her journey through a door to another world. You can read it first or last or in between. (If you want a bit more background on the setting, you can check out my review of Every Heart a Doorway, the first Wayward Children book, but it's not necessary to have read it first.)

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

There are several themes explored in this book. First off, Regan is a horse-loving girl, so it is no surprise she ends up in a world full of magical horse-adjacent creatures like centaurs, unicorns, kelpies, and so forth. The reason she ends up there is a bit less common, from what we've seen in the other Wayward Children books. Regan does not come from an unhappy home, but inadvertently finds herself in a difficult social situation, which is what triggers the door. 

The other really interesting thing about Across the Green Grass Fields is the way in which it subverts the portal fantasy genre. Allusions to Narnia and the Wizard of Oz serve to emphasise how silly the child-as-chosen-hero narrative is. I won't spoil the ending, of course, but I found it extremely satisfying and sensible.

Overall, another excellent read from McGuire. I highly recommend this book to fans of the Wayward Children books and general fans of portal fantasy. As I said at the start, you needn't have read any other books in the series before picking this one up, so it's a perfectly good place to start.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2021, Tor.com
Series: Wayward Children book 6 of 6 so far, but stands alone.
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker is the book featured/quoted in Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, written by McGuire so that she could more easily refer to it. You absolutely do not have to have read Middlegame to read this book and, if anything, reading Over the Woodward Wall might add to your experience of reading Middlegame (but I did read them in the other order). Also, completely unlike Middlegame, Over the Woodward Wall is a children's/middle grade/pre-YA book, where as Middlegame is an adult book.

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

This book is definitely not similar to Middlegame, it merely exists in the universe of that book. I cannot stress this enough. If you are looking for a similar companion novel to Middlegame, then you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a portal fantasy book featuring children from a non-specified time period finding themselves in a slightly nonsensical magical world, then this is the book for you.

I liked Over the Woodward Wall. There were a lot of interesting side characters, who added to the story. There were also some creepy villain characters that the children had to contend with. There were a variety of small lessons for children to learn over the course of their adventure, which were not heavy-handed. One thing that I was not expecting is that this ended as the start of a series. This might have been mentioned in Middlegame, but for whatever reason I had been expecting a standalone story, so that's something to keep in mind if you prefer tidy endings.

Overall, this was an interesting portal fantasy for children, especially if you hold it up against the ideas explored in Every Heart a Doorway. Over the Woodward Wall is absolutely not set in the same multiverse, and has its own unique voice more suited to the kind of book it is trying to be — one that is not juxtaposed against other ideas of portal fantasy. (That said, it put me in mind of The Wizard of Oz, but that's mainly because both are portal fantasies with a road for the protagonists to follow.) I recommend this book to readers, both old and young, who find appealing the idea of two very different children thrust into a magical world together.

4 / 5 stars

First published: October 2020, Tor.com
Series: Apparently this might be a book 1 of a continuing series (based on Goodreads)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Hugo Novella Round-up, 2020

I'm a bit late in posting this, even though I finished reading all the Hugo novellas weeks ago. As for many people, I'm sure, life has been a bit exhausting lately.

Anyway, below are brief summaries links to my full reviews of the Hugo novellas. The only exception is for the Ted Chiang because that's in a collection that I haven't finished reading, so I've included my full (not especially long) review in this post. Order is that used by  , out of laziness.

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Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)

I really enjoyed this novella. It is possibly my favourite take on the manyworlds hypothesis/parallel timelines. The story follows a few different people as they interact with a new technology that allows them to communicate (via digital information only) with parallel timelines. The character driven story is interspersed with explanations of the technology, which I thought worked well and were not at all boring infodumps (though others might disagree). Overall, a very interesting and enjoyable read.

The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes

A key idea explored in The Deep is that if societal memory and specifically memory of trauma. The situation when the story opens is like this: one member of the wajinru people is the historian and only that person holds all the memories of past wajinru and events. ... As well as exploring how intergenerational trauma should be remembered, and by whom, The Deep questions whether it should be remembered at all, as Yetu grapples with some of these issues.

The Deep was a good read, though I found it was a little slow to start and not the sort of book I could read quickly. I recommend it to people interested in the premise and, perhaps, to fans of merpeople.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark

In this story, a couple of public servants are tasked with fixing the problem of a haunted tram car in an alternate-world Cairo. Hijinks ensue. In this world, djinn exist and have helped cement Cairo and Egypt's significance on the world stage, including from a technological standpoint. (The steampunky cover is a pretty good representation of the setting, in my opinion.) Our put-upon agents have to contend with identifying the possibly dangerous being possessing the tram and then have to safely remove it. And all this is set against the backdrop of a Cairo-centred campaign to give women the vote.

In an Absent Dream, Seanan McGuire

Lundy was a mildly unhappy child before she found her door and her particular fairyland wasn't everyone's idea of a good time. But she liked it and she made friends and she felt like she belonged. She even made several trips between the two worlds, which isn't something we've seen close up before. The story spans years as Lundy goes back and forth and is more the story of her transitions than the story of adventures had on the other side of a door. It's the story of choices made, of fair value — because that's what the Goblin Market is all about — and of family.

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

This is a remarkable book, told in a very poetic style, with chapters alternating between snippets of our characters’ lives and the letters they send each other. Although it is written as prose, one feels as though one is reading poetry. The use of imagery and metaphor is strong and frequent and the relationship between the characters shifts as they become more obsessed with each other as they learn more about the other.

... It is the kind of book that demands your full attention to properly take in its words and worlds.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers

The premise of To Be Taught, If Fortunate is quite straightforward: a small group of scientist-astronauts are on a multi-year mission to investigate four habitable planets and catalogue whatever lifeforms and other interesting things they find. The novella is basically a chronicle of their journey and the main interest in the book is the explanations of science and discovery. ... 

I wouldn't call it fast-paced, by any stretch of the imagination, but it worked for me.

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire is the latest novella in the ongoing Wayward Children series. It’s another ensemble story, but as you can probably guess from the title, the story is mostly about Jack (and to a lesser degree, her sister Jill). While I have enjoyed all of the Wayward Children books, only a couple of the prequels are needed, in my opinion, to enjoy and make sense of Come Tumbling Down. The first Wayward Children novella, Every Heart A Doorway, can be thought of a direct prequel to Come Tumbling Down, and Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a prequel to both, giving the origin story of Jack and Jill. The other novellas are great and provide background on the side characters in Come Tumbling Down, but aren't as essential to following the story.

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister--whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice--back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.

Again.

This was a pretty dark story. But that's true of this entire series, so if you've come this far (even if you only read the prequels to this book), you should have some idea of what to expect. Come Tumbling Down engages more directly with what it means to be a monster and about becoming monstrous. As the blurb suggests, there is also a quest, which a band of heroes sets out on. Although Jack's story is the most central in this book, I enjoyed the way in which the narrative jumped around to follow different characters as they stepped into or out of the action. It was Jack's book, but Christopher and Kade and Cora and Sumi were important parts of it, and they all had a little bit of character development.

It seems that this marks the end of Jack's story (for now, anyway), which seems fitting after playing a central role in three books. I have enjoyed the story of Jack and Jill, and I have also enjoyed the ensemble cast nature of this book (and also Beneath the Sugar Sky). Honestly, I will be happy to read either type of story (ensemble or single character focussed) set in the world of the Wayward Children.

If you haven't read any Wayward Children books, I highly recommend them. In particular, I suggest starting with Every Heart A Doorway, both because it's the first book written and also because it's where we first meet Jack and Jill. It's not that Come Tumbling Down doesn't work standing alone... but I don't think it would be as enjoyable without at least some background on the characters and world building.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2020, Tor.com
Series: The Wayward Children book 5 of 5 so far (ongoing series)
Format read: ePub
Source: Publisher via NetGalley and also purchased from Apple Books

Hugo Novella Roundup

I was in the fortunate position of having read almost all of the Hugo shortlisted novellas before the list of nominees on the ballot was announced. This meant that I didn't have much reading to do before writing this round-up, but on the other hand, some of the shortlisted books have faded a bit in my memory, since I read most of them very close to the release dates. So ranking these novellas, all of which I enjoyed, is going to be a bit tricky.

Before I get to the novellas, if this is the first of my Hugo round-ups that you're seeing, you might be interested in my round-up of Hugo shortlisted short stories, which I prepared earlier. Discussions of (some of) the other categories to come!

The full Hugo shortlist with links to my review of each novella is below, if you want to quickly scroll down to have a look at it. The list is in no particular order — I think I grabbed it from Tor.com — because it's quite tricky to rank these novellas, for a few reasons. Artificial Condition and Binti: The Night Masquerade are, respectively, a middle and final part of larger stories. Even though I very much like those stories (Murderbot 5eva), I'm not sure they work very well as standalone novellas, which they should for this award, in my opinion. In contrast, Beneath the Sugar Sky and The Tea Master and the Detective are both parts of ongoing series but stand alone perfectly well. Beneath the Sugar Sky has some characters recur from earlier novellas in the series, but is a fully self-contained story. The Tea Master and the Detective may have direct sequels or companion novellas in the future, but for the moment it is merely set in the same universe as many of the author's other stories (the overall series is also nominated for a Best Series Hugo Award). That leaves Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and The Black God's Drums as completely independent and self-contained stories (or at worst, self-contained first books in series, but I'm not sure on that last point).

But which book did I like best? It's currently a three-way tie between Beneath the Sugar Sky, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, and The Tea Master and the Detective. Right now I'm leaning towards putting Beneath the Sugar Sky first, then tossing a coin for second and third, and for the remaining places. Once again, this is a very strong ballot and I wouldn't be disappointed by any of these novellas taking home the rocket trophy.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press / JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire is a standalone novel set in a world similar to the real world, but bursting with alchemy. As far as I’m aware, it is not linked to any of McGuire’s other books or series.

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

The opening of this book grabbed me immediately with the in media res working particularly well thanks to the unusual timeline structure of the book. While we do get a lot of the main story in chronological order, it is interspersed with bits that come out of order, as well as the point of view sections of the antagonist and a thematically-linked children’s fairytale. Overall it makes for an interesting reading experience. That said, I did feel like the book dragged a little in the middle and to me it felt quite long, which is the worst thing I can say about it. (Note, also, that it is objectively on the long side, but it still should not have felt that way.)

Back to the content, this is a story of alchemically created twins, separated by the length and breadth of the USA, and left to grow up in isolation. They were created to channel immense power for their maker but a lot of their upbringing was left to chance. We follow them through their lives as they learn about each other, push each other away, meet by chance, push each other away and so forth. At first I found the story a little confusing — while the start grabbed me, it took a little while to fully understand what was happening. Then I grew more invested in the characters and wanted to know what would happen next, despite the slower middle section. The climax came not a page too late, to kick off the last portion of the book.

This is a dark fantasy book, shading to the horrific, that I expect fans of McGuire’s other books will enjoy. In general tone I found it most similar to the Wayward Children books, although the story structure (and length) was quite different. It’s certainly not science fiction horror like the Mira Grant books are, though this was not immediately apparent to me when I started reading. All in all, a structurally interesting read that I recommend to fans of dark fantasy.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2019, Tor.com
Series: No.
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

#ReadShortStores while travelling (20 to 25)

A mixed bag of stories this batch. I did a lot more reading of stories that interested me in the moment than I usually do. It can be fun to read without much obligation.

Articulated Restraint by Mary Robinette Kowal — A short piece about a training session intensified by a life-or-death situation in orbit and a sprained ankle. It was nice to get back to the Lady Astronaut world, even for a brief read. I can’t tell how well this story stands without the background reading, though. Source: https://www.tor.com/2019/02/06/articulated-restraint-mary-robinette-kowal/

Come Home to Atropos by Steven Barnes — Told in the form of a horrifyingly unsubtle infomercial, this story is about assisted dying and euthanasia tourism. The overtones of historic and modern slavery seemed a bit gauche for an infomercial but certainly added to the plausibility of the story overall. (Also, the story was more a a take on racism than an interrogation of the concept of assisted dying.) Source: New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl

The Fine Print by Chinelo Onwualu — The premise of the story was a bit unpleasant (from a feminist point of view) and I didn’t feel the story itself really made up for that, despite acknowledging it. The writing was fine but I didn’t really enjoy the plot. Source: New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl

Threnody for Little Girl, with Tuna, at the End of the World by Seanan McGuire — A story about the last tuna in the world and the woman that got to name him. I hadn’t been sure what to expect from the title, but I got an interesting read, set in a not so distant future. Source: Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

A House by the Sea by P H Lee — A weird story. Not sure what it’s meant to be about, other than open to some interpretation. And probably something sinister like abuse. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a-house-by-the-sea/

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire is the fourth published book in the Wayward Children series, and is another prequel. It does not particularly require having read the earlier published books to make sense, but I feel like Every Heart a Doorway is a reasonable introduction to the world, if one is desired.

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well

I started reading this book without actually remembering who the protagonist, Lundy, was. The name was vaguely familiar so I knew she'd shown up in other stories, but I completely misremembered her future story. This was an enjoyable read despite that, which suggests to me that this novella stands alone completely, if necessary. I think the only thing that would be lost to someone who hadn't read any of the other novellas in the series is the background of the school and the sheer number of different types of doors to different worlds that exist. But that's almost completely irrelevant to this story about Lundy and her life travelling to and from the Goblin Market.

Lundy was a mildly unhappy child before she found her door and her particular fairyland wasn't everyone's idea of a good time. But she liked it and she made friends and she felt like she belonged. She even made several trips between the two worlds, which isn't something we've seen close up before. The story spans years as Lundy goes back and forth and is more the story of her transitions than the story of adventures had on the other side of a door. It's the story of choices made, of fair value — because that's what the Goblin Market is all about — and of family.

I really enjoyed this book. It had its melancholy and bittersweet moments, but overall I found it less depressing or distressing than the other prequel, Down Among the Sticks and Bones. Overall, it was an interesting conversation with the idea of portal fantasy, focussing on a subset of the ideas raised in the first novella, Every Heart A Doorway. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the concepts. And generally to fans of deconstructing fantasy tropes and/or portal fantasies.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2019, Tor.com publishing
Series: Wayward Children, fourth published book of ongoing series. A standalone prequel.
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased from Apple Books

#ReadShortStories to kick off 2019 (1 to 5)

A mixed bag of stories in this batch, although most of them are from Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina, an anthology I am approaching the end of. I've also thrown in a few miscellaneous stories since I have quite the backlog of free-floating stories awaiting my attention (as in, not part of an anthology or collection).

Trouble by Kelly Gardiner — A story of non-conforming girls in 1950s Melbourne. I enjoyed the local colour even if the end was not quite as I had hoped/shipped. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Sweet as Sugar Candy by Seanan McGuire — For a story billed as ruining marshmallows, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I’m not sure it was marshmallows, per se, that were “ruined” or the source of the horror. In any case, despite expecting something strange to happen I was a little surprised when it did. A delightful read. Source: Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

Planet of the five rings by Marissa Lingen — A funny flash story about first contact that I found quite unexpected (but was probably quite topical when it was first published). Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/549302a

Sheer Fortune by Jordi Kerr — A more Australian story that I would have expected from a short summary of it, with some strong New Zealish elements thrown in via the second character. Shifters, lesbians, high school. A nice read.  Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Telephone by Yvette Walker — A timey-wimey story in which the main character receives a phone call from her teenage self. As she talks to this version of herself that had been trying to call and LGBT support hotline, she reflects on her life and how she got to where she is now (happily living with her wife). A sweet story, overall. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

#ReadShortStories of various provenances (141 to 145)

A varied batch this time, breaking up my anthology reading again. Mostly based on whim. And I'm afraid I'm too tired for much of a preamble today, so here are some story mini-reviews!

Loss of Signal by S.B. Divya — A near future space programmed powered by human minds who have been extracted from their non-functional bodies. This story raised a lot of ethical points, not all of them explicitly, and made me feel a little uneasy. The premise is interesting but I’m ultimately not sure how I feel about the story (though I definitely liked it more than I disliked it). Source: https://www.tor.com/2018/08/01/loss-of-signal-sb-divya/

Sugar Ricochets to Other Forms by Octavia Cade — A pretty weird story. On the one hand, we have a couple of women running a brothel staffed with magic automaton boys made out of sugar and cake (who often come back with parts missing in the morning). On the other hand, there is a clockwork witch made of brass I love with baby crabs lured by sugar. A compelling read, but also a strange one. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

The Flower of Arizona  by Seanan McGuire — A story set in the 1920s about a cryptozoologist and a circus performer. And a spate of murders. I enjoyed it and, since it seems to be the set up for more stories about these two characters, I looking forward to reading more about them. (I picked this story to try because the blurb on the author’s website had the greatest promise of Aeslin mice, and I was not disappointed.) Source: Hugo voter packet

Frozen Voice by An Owomoyela — Children living in a post-alien invasion world. Aliens who force their language on humans and technically prevent starvation etc by having killed most of the population. Also, they’re afraid of books. The writing style was quite visceral and I enjoyed being drawn into the story. Source: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/owomoyela_07_11/

Kill Screen by EC Myers — A teenage girl makes an AI program of her recently deceased best friend. It was a bit morbid, mostly because it dealt with the question of why the friend had killed herself, but also for other reasons (spoilers). I mostly enjoyed it, but it also made me feel uncomfortable (intentionally, I assume), especially near the end. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire is the second book in the ongoing InCryptid series. I recently read and reviewed the first book, Discount Armageddon, and then accidentally fell into this one, despite owning it as a paperback (of the unpleasant cheap US stinky variety — a plight that even sitting on my shelf for a few years can't fix). As with the first book, I read it in less than two days.

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity--and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and when her work with the cryptid community took her to Manhattan, she thought she would finally be free to pursue competition-level dance in earnest. It didn't quite work out that way...

But now, with the snake cult that was killing virgins all over Manhattan finally taken care of, Verity is ready to settle down for some serious ballroom dancing—until her on-again, off-again, semi-boyfriend Dominic De Luca, a member of the monster-hunting Covenant of St. George, informs her that the Covenant is on their way to assess the city's readiness for a cryptid purge. With everything and everyone she loves on the line, there's no way Verity can take that lying down.

Alliances will be tested, allies will be questioned, lives will be lost, and the talking mice in Verity's apartment will immortalize everything as holy writ--assuming there's anyone left standing when all is said and done. It's a midnight blue-light special, and the sale of the day is on betrayal, deceit...and carnage.

This is a direct sequel to Discount Armageddon and I advise reading it after that book, despite the relatively episodic and self-contained nature of both books. Midnight Blue-Light Special builds on the relationships established in that first book and the two of them can be seen as a two-part mini-series within the larger InCryptid universe. (I am basing that on a few assumptions since I haven't read the later books, but according to the afterword book 3 follows a different protagonist, so I think it's a fair statement.) If you enjoyed the first book, I definitely recommend picking up this sequel.

Set a few months after the events in Discount Armageddon, the new problem facing Verity and her friends is the Covenant of St George — the secret monster-killing organisation — who have sent a few more representatives to New York to see what's really going on over there. This is a problem since what's going on is a lot of peaceful supernatural beings are calling New York home and Verity is the main person standing between them and the Covenant.

I enjoyed this book for much of the same reasons as the first one: it's a fun read, populated with all sorts of female characters. As a bonus, the shift in the romantic plot line from introductory to more established and with higher stakes was more fun to read. Aside from the antagonists, there aren't many new characters introduced in this one, which mostly builds on the character relationships established in the first book. In particular, Sarah, Verity's cousin, gets to play a larger role — to the extent of appearing on the cover and having a few chapters from her point of view.

Overall, I recommend this series to fans of urban fantasy who enjoy fun and fast-paced reads filled with female characters, most of whom kick arse. I strongly suggest starting with Discount Armageddon, but I expect Midnight Blue-Light Special would be readable on it's own (but would lose a lot of emotional impact with less backstory behind it). I plan to keep reading the series, but since the next book follows a different character, this seems like a good place to take a break and read some other books for a while.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2013, Daw
Series: InCryptid book 2 of 7 so far with more coming
Format read: Paperback, the horror
Source: An Australian online book shop, who had it for a steep discount a few years ago

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire is the first book in the author's InCryptid urban fantasy series. I've previously read many books and stories by Seanan McGuire (and her alter ego Mira Grant) but this is only my second foray into her urban fantasy novels.

Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...

When I was pressed for time towards the end of Hugo voting season, I decided to make my last few decisions by reading the first couple of chapters of the remaining books, this one among them. After that I had to get back to other (review) books, but when I had the chance, this was the book I wanted to pick up the most. It was the sentient, religious mice that really won me over.

The protagonist of this story is the scion of a family that used to be part of the "exterminate everything supernatural" society (aka the Covenant) until her great-grandparent defected. Now they study and protect the supernatural and stop the more aggressive members of that group from preying on humans. Verity in particular is well trained in fighting and enjoys cryptozoology and ballroom dancing. She's making a go of in New York: dancing, waitressing in a strip club (hence the cover art) and keeping the peace. The main story happens when a chap from the Covenant shows up, intent on a purge, but not responsible for a spate of recent disappearances...

This wasn't a complicated read but it was a fun one. As I said, I really liked the mice and most of the other characters also made for fun reading (basically, except for the bad guys). I felt a bit meh with regards to the romantic storyline, which was simultaneously a bit underdeveloped and predictable — the latter partly because there weren't many other male characters around. (On the other hand, yay for lots of female characters!)

I quite enjoyed this book and found it enough of a fun read that I am definitely interested in continuing with the series. I definitely recommend it to fans of urban fantasy looking for a fun read with a bit of a scientific take on different supernatural creatures. As it happens, I picked up book 2 on sale in paper (urgh) several years ago, so I already have it waiting on my shelf, huzzah. So I will be getting to that just as soon as I can bring myself to read a paper book again.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2012, Daw
Series: InCryptid book 1 of 7 so far with more on the way
Format read: ePub
Source: Hugo Voter Packet (in this case, from the publisher via NetGalley)

#ReadShortStories and poems that are more varied (121-125)

This batch represents the end of Uncanny Issue Twenty-One, a short detour and the start of a new anthology: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts. I was a Kickstarter backer of Mother of Invention and I see it's full of authors that I like (starting with Seanan McGuire as you'll see below) so that should be a good read. Stay tuned for more.

Old Habits by Nalo Hopkinson — Ghosts living in a mall and replaying their deaths daily. Not a cheerful read, but I enjoyed it overall. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/old-habits/

Swallow by Hal Y. Zhang — Kind of a weird poem. Clearly I struggle with reviewing the more abstract ones. About fish and reincarnation maybe? Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/swallow/

A View from Inside the Refrigerator by Andrea Tang — I had to read this one twice to take it in properly, the second time after having reminded myself of the title, which explains it well. The poem of a fridged woman, the hero’s motive. A concept I can always get behind the dissection of. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/view-inside-refrigerator/

From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (A Lady Trent Story) by Marie Brennan — An epistolary story told through letters to the editor. More specifically, we see a dispute play out between Isabella, the protagonist of the Memoirs of Lady Trent series, and another naturalist. I found it very amusing, but I’m not sure that it stands well outside of the context of the series, but it slots in quite nicely after the third book, Voyage if the Basilisk (with only the most minor spoilers for that book). Source: https://www.tor.com/2016/04/05/from-the-editorial-page-of-the-falchester-weekly-review-a-lady-trent-story/

Mother, Mother, Will You Play With Me? by Seanan McGuire — A story about an AI child learning through games and growing up. I enjoyed it, although it wasn’t what I expected (from the title and author I expected something creepier). I liked how many different ideas it explored, and also the ending. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Hugo Ballot Discussion: Novellas

Since the Hugo ballot was announced over the weekend, I'm going to run a few blog posts discussing the works in the fiction categories. This is the first post in that series, in which I will talk a bit about the shortlisted novellas (and link to my earlier more detailed reviews of them). Why am I starting with novellas? Because I happen to have read the entire shortlist already.

In the meantime, if you haven't yet, you can check out the full Hugo ballot at Tor.com. Below I have reproduced the novella shortlist with links to my reviews of each novella. Each got a full standalone review except for "And Then There Were (N-One)" by Sarah Pinsker, in large part because I read that one in Uncanny and didn't realise it was a novella at the time.


Best Novella

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
“And Then There Were (N-One),” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

This is a really strong category and, for me, ranking these novellas comes down more to personal preference than any sort of objective writing quality. Some of these just resonated more with me than others. All of them tell interesting stories from interesting and relatively uncommon points of view, and there's quite a bit of diversity on display. The struggle to rank them is real.

That said, my favourite, long after reading them all, is All Systems Red. But I wouldn't put any of the others out of the running (not even River of Teeth, which made me sad with its hippo violence). This is a category that could swing in any direction.

(What exciting times we live in that there aren't any Puppy nominees to discount. Hopefully, we're passed all that now.)

Have you read these novellas? Which was your favourite?

#ReadShortStories (51 to 55)

Another mixed bag of stories. I am not keeping up with Uncanny, despite my subscription: I read one more story in the Jan/Feb issue and, meanwhile, the March/April issue arrived. Whoops. But hey, better than nothing and I think I'm a reasonable way through the fiction. The other stories were a bit random and older. I realised that sorting my Pocket queue by oldest at the top was going to make getting through the stories I've had on there the longest easier. We'll see how that goes.

The two best stories in this batch were easily "Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage" by Marissa Lingen and "Fiber" by Seanan McGuire (which I just really want to spell correctly — ugh, US English, why?). Both were funny, in different ways, and thoughtful too.


The Egg by SB Divya — Sad flash about uterine replicator-type technology as a solution to infertility. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/519256a

Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage by Marissa Lingen — A delightful story about a sorceress who was betrayed and who went on to solve a somewhat military problem with communication rather than force. I quite liked it. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/lines-growth-lines-passage/

Fiber by Seanan McGuire — A really fun and entertaining story about cheerleaders with supernatural inclinations, yoghurt and other monsters. A very enjoyable read. Source: http://www.tor.com/2015/12/01/reprints-fiber-seanan-mcguire-unbound/

Ten Days’ Grace by Foz Meadows — A story set in a dictatorially Christian future, about a woman who was forced to marry a stranger to be allowed to keep her daughter. Not a bad read. Source: http://www.apex-magazine.com/ten-days-grace/

Let There Be Light by Chen Quifan  — A series of glimpses at a high tech future world where, despite convenient technology, people aren’t magically happy. Some interesting ideas, but light on plot. Source: http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/future-societies/chen-qiufan-translated-by-ken-liu-/let-there-be-light_scifi

Short Stories 30 to 35

Another mix of stories this batch. The first two finished of Seanan McGuire's first collection of superhero stories, Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots, so you may have already seen my reviews of those two.

I found the middle two stories particularly powerful and I definitely recommend those to fans of horror, in the case of "The First of Her Name" and adorable robots in the case of "The Secret Life of Bots". Both were excellent reads.

Velveteen vs Patrol by Seanan McGuire — A first look at Velma’s new life superheroing for Oregon. Mostly a pleasant read about her working out her new life, with and additional dollop of foreshadowing doom thrown in. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs8.php

Velveteen vs the Blind Date by Seanan McGuire — Velveteen is set up on a blind date with another freelance superhero. It seems like a terrible idea at first, but they have complementary powers and hit it off. Another entertaining read. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs9.php

The First of Her Name by Elaine Cuyegkeng — A pretty horrifying story told from the point of view of a young insect in a colony. I mean, the horrifying part isn’t the insects but rather what happens to some of them. And the tone. It was chilling. Source: https://lackingtons.com/2017/02/09/the-first-of-her-name-by-elaine-cuyegkeng/

The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer — A delightful story about an ageing maintenance bot on an ageing spaceship that has been pulled out of a scrap yard for a last desperate mission. This story strikes a perfect balance between informing the reader of the human-centred happenings and the struggles faced by the bots. Source: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/ 

The Ouroboros Bakery by Octavia Cade — An interesting idea and I liked several aspects (who doesn't like magical bakers?) but I found the story a bit too wordy overall. Source: http://www.kaleidotrope.net/archives/autumn-2017/the-ouroboros-bakery-by-octavia-cade/

Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire is the first collection of the Velveteen vs stories. It's out of print in ebook so I wasn't actually able to get the book, but the stories themselves are all available to read on the author's website, so I'm counting it as having read the book. Because of how I've been reading and posting mini-reviews of short stories, you might have already seen my comments on some of the stories, but I still think it's nice to collect them all in one place.

Velveteen: How dare you? I never asked for you to hunt me down!

No, Velma Martinez hadn't. But when you had once been Velveteen, child super-heroine and one of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, you were never going to be free, even if your only power was to bring toys to life. The Marketing Department would be sure of that.

So it all came down to this. One young woman and an army of misfit toys vs. the assembled might of the nine members of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division who had come to take her down.

They never had a chance.

Velveteen lives in a world of super-heroes and magic, where men can fly and where young girls can be abducted to the Autumn Land to save Halloween. Velma lives from paycheck to paycheck and copes with her broken-down car as she tries to escape from her old life.

It's all the same world. It's all real. And figuring out how to be both Velveteen and Velma is the biggest challenge of her life, because being super-human means you’re still human in the end.

The stories in this collection are set in a world with superheroes and, more importantly, organisations managing the licensing and public appearances of superheroes. It's also set in the US, which gives it a pretty different vibe to Girl Reporter and the preceding stories by Tansy Rayner Roberts, even while it deals with some of the same themes. (For the record, I like the Roberts series more, mainly for its Australian-ness and humour, but that's not to say I'm disliking the McGuire which, as I said, is a very different take.)

The Velveteen stories deal with Vel's life as an adult after having been a child hero and after quitting the life before turning eighteen and hence avoiding some legal troubles. However, as an adult, she's not allowed to be a superhero without going back to the organisation she's escaped and wants nothing to do with. Her only hope in escaping them is to make it to Oregon, which has different state laws and  where she can be safe. Meanwhile, she's been working minimum-wage jobs and living pay-check to pay-check, so life hasn't been super fun. The stories in this collection follow her journey and eventual arrival in Oregon with a few detours for world-saving and flashbacks.

Overall these stories had a bit of bleakness to them, especially when the Junior Super Patriots were juxtaposed with Vel's adult life. Some of the stories felt more like chapters or instalments in a bigger story, which was fine since I was reading them in order (although not all in a row). For others looking to dip into the series, many of the stories work fine out of order, but some don't quite stand alone, in my opinion (as noted below). In general, I recommend these stories and this collection to fans of superheroes, especially more cynical takes on the superhero genre.

And now the stories:

Velveteen vs the Isley Crayfish Festival — A quick, fun introduction to a retired (for now?) superheroine, who features in several more stories. Recommended for fans of Tansy Rayner Roberts superhero stories and vice versa.

Velveteen vs. The Coffee Freaks — A fun superhero story about a retired child hero that just wants to get to her job interview in Portland.

Velveteen vs the Flashback Sequence — More of a chapter establishing character than a properly stand-alone story in its own right. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read.

Velveteen vs the Old Flame — A less fun read that dredges up some unfortunate back story from Velma’s time as a junior superhero. As with the previous story in this sequence, it feels a bit more like a chapter than a self-contained short story.

Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots West Coast Division — The plot thickens as Velma, our retired superheroine, faces off against the new generation of her former child hero team. New characters with interesting back stories are introduced and Velma’s road trip comes to an end.

Velveteen vs the Eternal Halloween — A story set entirely during Velveteen’s teenage years and featuring a Groundhog Day-like Halloween and the world of Halloween. A solid story. It inadvertently had me wondering how the world of Halloween would fit in with the Wayward Children, but this story was, of course, written much earlier. It was also kind of more fun (less cynical) than adult Velveteen.

Velveteen vs the Ordinary Day — Another chapter in adult Velveteen’s life. Having made it to Oregon, Velma reunites with some friends. An entertaining read.

Velveteen vs Patrol — A first look at Velma’s new life superheroing for Oregon. Mostly a pleasant read about her working out her new life, with and additional dollop of foreshadowing doom thrown in.

Velveteen vs the Blind Date — Velveteen is set up on a blind date with another freelance superhero. It seems like a terrible idea at first, but they have complementary powers and hit it off. Another entertaining read.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2012, ISFiC
Series: Yes. First collected volume of 3 so far
Format read: Individual stories online on the author's website
Source: Author's website

Short Stories 26 to 30

This batch of stories brought to you by me being really into the Velveteen vs series by Seanan McGuire and also thinking that I had a short wait at the physio which turned out to be long enough for three flash stories PLUS their mini reviews. Oh well.



Velveteen vs the Eternal Halloween by Seanan McGuire — A story set entirely during Velveteen’s teenage years and featuring a Groundhog Day-like Halloween and the world of Halloween. A solid story. It inadvertently had me wondering how the world of Halloween would fit in with the Wayward Children, but this story was, of course, written much earlier. It was also kind of more fun (less cynical) than adult Velveteen. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs6.php

Velveteen vs the Ordinary Day by Seanan McGuire — Another chapter in adult Velveteen’s life. Having made it to Oregon, Velma reunites with some friends. An entertaining read. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs7.php

Kai Ling's Tree by Joyce Chng — A short vignette of a story, illustrating a piece of life on a Mars being terraformed. It was a nice glimpse into a possible future. Source: https://jolantru.dreamwidth.org/16009.html

Unterminator by Zen Cho — A touching flash piece about a robot sent from the future to avert an apocalypse. (Also, just first thought was that the title referred to the night/day divide kind of terminator, so, um, that was briefly confusing.) Source: http://zencho.org/unterminator/

See DANGEROUS EARTH-POSSIBLES! by Tina Connolly — A short/flash story about travelling to parallel universes where fighting monsters can be more appealing than what’s happening at home. A solid read. Source: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/see-dangerous-earth-possibles/

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire is the latest instalment in the Wayward Children series. I have previously read and reviewed Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones, both of which I loved. Happily, beneath the sugar sky continues this trend. It is set after the events of Every Heart a Doorway and does hark back to some of them. While it would probably work read in isolation, I recommend reading (at least) Every Heart a Doorway first. And it’s such a wonderful series, why wouldn’t you want to read all of them?

Beneath the Sugar Sky returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.

Sumi died years before her prophesied daughter Rini could be born. Rini was born anyway, and now she’s trying to bring her mother back from a world without magic.

Beneath the Sugar Sky introduces a new character, Cora, recently arrived at the school for children who want to go back through their doors, and from whose point of view we see much of the story. In the real world, before Cora went through her door, she spent a lot of time being teased for being fat and only really found her place on the school swimming team as an endurance swimmer. Knowing this, of course her doorway lead to an underwater world where she was a mermaid.

But that's not actually the main plot of this story. The real plot starts when a girl falls from the sky into the school's turtle pond. Her mother was one of the girls that died in Every Heart a Doorway and now she's disappearing out of existence as her world (where time is running on a different schedule) realises that she was never born. A team of students — Cora, Kade, Christoper and Nadya — set out on a quest to fix things and stop Rini from disappearing. The quest takes them through a couple of different worlds, including Confection, Rini's home where everything is made of sugar.

This was another gorgeous story — a portal fantasy about portal fantasies. I really enjoyed reading Cora's reactions to their circumstances and, well, I always like a badarse character who doesn't look it. We also get to learn more about the pasts of the other characters in the book, adding layers to the story. Some day, when there are a lot more books in the series (I hope), I want to reread them all in quick succession, to keep everyone's stories in my mind better instead of reading a sequel two years after the first book. The only thing that bothered me about this book was the grammatically incorrect Russian name of Nadya's world. But this was very minor compared with the rest of the book.

I highly recommend Beneath the Sugar Sky to fans of the Wayward Children books. I recommend reading this book after Every Heart a Doorway but it's not completely necessary. I especially recommend Beneath the Sugar Sky to readers who enjoy reading about a fat protagonist who deals with a lot of real-life issues, as well as magical problems. I hope there will be more Wayward Children books. This is a wonderful world and I would be happy with a long series set there.

5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2018, Tor.com
Series: Wayward Children book 3 of 3 so far
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased on iBooks

Some short stories to start off the year

On the back of my victorious short story reading challenge in late 2017, I have gotten into the habit of reading short stories.

I also have a great way of managing the stray short story reading: Pocket. It's a "read later" article manager that I'm only using for short stories (I theoretically also use Instapaper for non-fiction articles, but rarely check it). Pocket has smartphone and iPad apps as well as the website and all of them sync your stories and your place. I also discovered a Chrome extension, Accelereader, which tags all the stories in Pocket with reading time (which you can even adjust to your actual reading speed) so you can get an idea of the time commitment before you start a story. Very handy (apart from the need to open Chrome to get those tags on newly added stories). It's also supported by my Kobo, which does time estimates without the chrome extension. Recommended if you're looking for a way to keep online short stories for later perusal.

Anyway, here are the first five stories I've read in 2018:

Velveteen vs the Flashback Sequence by Seanan McGuire — More of a chapter establishing character than a properly stand-alone story in its own right. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read.  Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs3.php  

Velveteen vs the Old Flame by Seanan McGuire — A less fun read that dredges up some unfortunate back story from Velma’s time as a junior superhero. As with the previous story in this sequence, it feels a bit more like a chapter than a self-contained short story. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs4.php 

Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots West Coast Division by Seanan McGuire — The plot thickens as Velma, our retired superheroine, faces off against the new generation of her former child hero team. New characters with interesting back stories are introduced and Velma’s road trip comes to an end. Source: http://seananmcguire.com/velvs5.php 

I Won At NaSuHeMo! by Marissa Lingen — A fun, quite short story written as diary entries of someone pursuing National Super Hero Month — a quest to get super powers in the vein of nanowrimo. Source: http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/superhero/marissa-lingen/i-won-at-nasuhemo 

A Hundred and Seventy Storms by Aliette de Bodard — A story of a young mindship, her keeper and a dangerous storm. An interesting read. I particularly enjoyed seeing a relatively young mindship who still has close living relatives. I am enjoying the Xuya universe and will definitely be reading more stories. Source: http://uncannymagazine.com/article/hundred-seventy-storms/