meanwhile, i read
Mar. 16th, 2022 09:49 pmSound of Music will have to wait til tomorrow; turns out there's a lot to say. At least I'm writing about it.
Meanwhile, it is Wednesday.
What are you reading now?
A little over halfway through Fonda Lee's Jade Legacy, third and last in her Green Bone Saga. These books collectively do something I've not seen before, which is really neat. Imagine if, say, Hong Kong in the 1960s had access to a supply of a magic rock that could be used to perform all the feats one sees in martial arts movies, and this rock ("jade") is primarily used by criminal societies ("clans") for power and status in a sort of parallel governmental system. So that's pretty neat: a new, Asian-inflected setting.
The first book, Jade City, tells the story of a war between the two biggest clans. The sequel, Jade War, could have just carried on with the clan war story. Instead Lee expands her reach. The No Peak clan and its ruling Kaul family remain the focus, but this time the action shifts to outside the city of Kanloon, and even off the island into global politics in a Cold War analogue. And then in Jade Legacy she stretches out again, but now in time. So far the book's covered fifteen years (twenty years since the start of Jade City): children grow up, mentors die of old age, relationships start and end, the global politics shift in directions both expected and un. It is all amazingly ambitious and I am pretty sure she's going to stick the landing.
What did you just finish reading?
Jade Legacy is a big book and it's taking brainpower to get through. And brainpower has been in short supply this year, which is why I've been reading it for over a month. I did read the first two stories in Merc Fenn Wolfmoor's collection Friends For Robots, on Marissa Lingen's recommendation. The first was a lovely sad hopeful meditation on abandonment and the end of a Martian colonization venture. the second was "it me, ur smol", which I'd read when Wolfmoor put it out some years ago and is a Catnet-type friendly-AI tale that made me smile.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'd like to actually read Pratchett's Guards!Guards!. Hardcopy, probably Max Gladstone's Last Exit since that showed up and a couple folks on Twitter have been singing its praises. Oh, and I should put in my preorder for Aspects, too.
Meanwhile, it is Wednesday.
What are you reading now?
A little over halfway through Fonda Lee's Jade Legacy, third and last in her Green Bone Saga. These books collectively do something I've not seen before, which is really neat. Imagine if, say, Hong Kong in the 1960s had access to a supply of a magic rock that could be used to perform all the feats one sees in martial arts movies, and this rock ("jade") is primarily used by criminal societies ("clans") for power and status in a sort of parallel governmental system. So that's pretty neat: a new, Asian-inflected setting.
The first book, Jade City, tells the story of a war between the two biggest clans. The sequel, Jade War, could have just carried on with the clan war story. Instead Lee expands her reach. The No Peak clan and its ruling Kaul family remain the focus, but this time the action shifts to outside the city of Kanloon, and even off the island into global politics in a Cold War analogue. And then in Jade Legacy she stretches out again, but now in time. So far the book's covered fifteen years (twenty years since the start of Jade City): children grow up, mentors die of old age, relationships start and end, the global politics shift in directions both expected and un. It is all amazingly ambitious and I am pretty sure she's going to stick the landing.
What did you just finish reading?
Jade Legacy is a big book and it's taking brainpower to get through. And brainpower has been in short supply this year, which is why I've been reading it for over a month. I did read the first two stories in Merc Fenn Wolfmoor's collection Friends For Robots, on Marissa Lingen's recommendation. The first was a lovely sad hopeful meditation on abandonment and the end of a Martian colonization venture. the second was "it me, ur smol", which I'd read when Wolfmoor put it out some years ago and is a Catnet-type friendly-AI tale that made me smile.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'd like to actually read Pratchett's Guards!Guards!. Hardcopy, probably Max Gladstone's Last Exit since that showed up and a couple folks on Twitter have been singing its praises. Oh, and I should put in my preorder for Aspects, too.