LRRC Week 30

Apparently it's going to be August tomorrow.

Hmmm.

Pro: my birthday is soon, going to spend some (distanced) time with family.

Con: man what a bummer trying to celebrate things is at the moment; also, god, the passage of time.

#59: CRIER'S WAR by Nina Varela

Honestly I am all the way here for fantasy robots. Hell yeah.

Crier's War is the story of a robot princess (Crier), who doesn't agree with her father and believes in being a decent person and NOT oppressing the humans that they rule. She ends up falling for Ayla, a human servant whose main goal is to kill her and bring down the robot rulers (this is not a spoiler, you 100% picked this book up because it was marketed as gay). (Also, yes, I mean Automae, but like, they're robots. Let me say robots.)

I think the standout thing about this book is the world-building, which is interesting, and the characters and relationships were decently well-developed. I'm invested enough to pick up the next book in the series, but I'm not necessarily waiting with baited breath for it, if that makes sense.

Yes, this book involves a romance between an oppressor and an oppressed class, which is perhaps worth warning for. It's not something that necessarily bothers me, particularly in fantasy where the robots are not necessarily meant to be stand-ins for any specific real-world oppression, but I understand where criticism of this trope comes from.

All in all, yeah, I had fun with this!

#60: AN UNKINDNESS OF GHOSTS by Rivers Solomon

A review I saw before starting this book read "This book is very good, but I did not like it" and while I'm not sure I entirely agree, I understand the sentiment.

"An Unkindness of Ghosts" is heart-wrenching and at times very horrible; Solomon does not flinch away from depicting the horrors of oppression, and it makes for a fascinating, but sometimes very unpleasant, reading experience. Major, major cw for racism, sexual assault, and homophobia/transphobia if you do end up picking up this book.

The book follows Aster, aboard a ship with the rest of humanity, heading for a new home. Humans have been on the ship a long time, and it is segregated into different decks, and ruled over with religious fervour (never a good sign). She's trying to investigate her mother's death, while also dealing with the day-to-day awfulness of life on the ship, and continuing to pursue work as a doctor alongside a mysterious Surgeon.

The depictions of found family and of the characters' relationships to gender/sexuality are beautiful, if somewhat fleeting, which in itself has its own statement about the harshness of their world. I get pleasure when reading from the craft itself, and it's very well done here, so I wouldn't say I didn't "like" this book. Liking/disliking almost seems too simplistic for something like this, though frequently the book was difficult to read (but honestly, I've 100% read things that made me unhappier. This I was at least able to FINISH).

I would say that I thought the ending was a little unsatisfying, but at the same time, I have no idea what a satisfying ending WOULD look like. And maybe the dissatisfaction is kind of the point - real life rarely has satisfying endings, after all.

NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA:
#61: The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
#62: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia