#sffbookclub

I generally enjoyed this, but not as much as I hoped I would gives how much I love Nghi Vo. That’s not to say this was bad compared to their other works, just that the characters didn’t grab me nearly as much. I felt the true strengths here were the setting, an early 20th century Hollywood where the magical realism is so honed in, most of the time it almost feels like poetic analogies of reality. I think this time period is under represented in fiction, at least in my sampling, and I found it refreshing; especially with queer representation, we were always here, just beyond the sight of society.

The main character was well developed, I could sympathize with their motives, and their decisions followed their persona. I just don’t relate to people that are reckless while having it all, which of course is an oversimplification because at what cost does having it all come at? I think it revealed to me how much more I will prefer safety to recklessness (or rather expressing your true self in the face of oppression), so I learned more about myself, albeit in an uncomfortable way. The rest of the cast didn’t do it for me and were there to support the MCs narrative, which I believe was intentional, it was always about the MC.

I think the real draw here is the setting and how it’s in conversation with historical (and modern) social power structures and the cost not only existing as a marginalized person of society, but what success looks like and at what costs does it come?

#sffbookclub

The Library of the Dead is the October #SFFBookClub pick. Overall, this was just ok for me.

Ropa is a scrappy fourteen year old dropout who is supporting her family as best she can by charging for passing messages from the dead to the living with her necromantic telepathy. She ends up taking on a pro bono case to find the child of a ghost at the behest of her Gran. I think my favorite part of the novel is that Ropa's got a frenetic teenage voice that goes a long way to carry the novel.

One element that didn't work for me is that this novel is clearly the first book in a series. It's laying out a lot of threads to pick up later. The Tall Man. The Library of the Dead itself. Gran and her magic. Sir Callander's motives and relationship with Ropa's Gran. Gran herself. The everyThere. This near future Edinburgh that's had a catastrophe of some sort and is decaying and flooded. The authoritarian King that gets invoked at every turn.

But the end result of all of these threads is that this book feels a bit haphazard and the plot feels loose. Some of the threads tie up to resolve the mystery that Ropa is chasing down, but a large part of the book's work feels unresolved and preparing for the rest of the series rather than furthering the main plot of the moment.

If anything, the titular Library of the Dead feels like an optional side quest that's not quite as relevant to the plot as the title might imply. Sure, Ropa gets some magical defense and offense there incidentally but I was surprised by how little the plot hinged on this. This is not a book about the library or about learning magic. (In the end, I'm not even sure I understand why this magical library was a library "of the Dead" either.)

I read Remnant Population from the #SFFBookClub backlog. I had a lot of fun reading this. This is a first contact novel with the main character being an older woman in her seventies. At the start of the book, Ofelia is living with her only remaining adult son and his wife. When the colony she is on loses their contract and evacuates, and she decides to hide and stay. It turns out that the planet had undiscovered intelligent life, and these aliens come to investigate her. In the end, she's caught in the middle between these friendly aliens and returning humans.

I think what I most appreciate about this book is the wry internal perspective and character development of Ofelia. She is an old woman who has put in the work, and whose primary character trait is that she's just tired of putting up with other people's expectations and attitudes. Her daughter-in-law harangues her about how she dresses, and the fact that she will be free and able to live blissfully in solitude is the real motivating factor for her to not leave with the rest of the colonists.

When the aliens show up to curiously investigate her, Ofelia begins by treating them like irresponsible children; when they track mud in her house, she tries to teach them how to mop. The aliens certainly interrupt her solitude, but ultimately give Ofelia the community and respect that she never previously had, even despite the language and species barriers.

When more humans show up, they're a threat to the aliens, but they're just as much as threat to Ofelia's new-found independence. These new humans treat her more or less the same as the previous ones (via an ageist and ableist lens), rudely unable to take Ofelia or her experience seriously or believe that she can communicate in rudimentary ways with the aliens, let alone that she has an accord with them. In the end, it's an opportunity for Ofelia to come into her own and be able to finally ignore the people-pleasing internal voice that tries to keep her small.

Ofelia reminds me in some ways of the aiji-dowager Ilisidi from CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series. Ofelia is not crafty and maneuvering like Ilisidi, and instead leans on her own introverted stubbornness. That said, they're both irritated at all of these condescending youngsters who think they know better, who can't even bother with politeness or sharing some tea. And, when confronted with the unknown, they both treat it with kindness and courtesy.