Robots vs Fairies

Robots vs Fairies, 2018 anthology edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, the same team who did the Starlit Wood fairy tale anthology in 2016. (But not related to the Zombies vs Unicorns anthology from 2010.) I didn't think this was quite as outstanding as Starlit Wood, possibly because the theme wasn't quite as much a personal favorite, but it was a good anthology with some good stuff. Some standouts: Alyssa Wong's "All the Time We've Left To Spend", about pop idols and versions of yourself and change vs stasis, my favorite story in the anthology. Madeline Ashby's "Work Shadow/Shadow Work", about aging and belief. Mary Robinette Kowal's "Sound and Fury" has some fun giant robot action. Maria Dahvana Headley's "Adriftica" features an aging dude rock journalist rhapsodizing about the power of rock and I won't lie, I was rolling my eyes pretty hard, but Headley actually pulled it off and I found it surprisingly moving. And Tim Pratt's "Murmured Under The Moon" features a human librarian working for a fairy library and dating one of the books, which is a pretty great concept. The authors got to pick whether they were on "Team Robot" or "Team Fairy"; Wong and Ashby and Kowal all chose Robot, Headley and Pratt chose Fairy, so I guess I'm Team Robot.

Kingdom of Copper

The Kingdom of Copper, S.A. Chakraborty, 2019 sequel to The City of Brass, which I talked about here. I think this one was even better than the first one, there's a lot happening and some interesting character development.

Spoiler cut so I can say more:( Read more... )

Playing the name-that-sequel game: could be something bigger than a kingdom (as kingdom was bigger than city) and more common/less valuable than copper (as copper was to brass), so, "The Empire of Ash"? Or maybe get out of the literal geography (although that's what I guessed last time) and go for a more metaphorical "bigger than", like something about The People (what's that Muslim word for the community, the ummah? although they're not going to put that in a title) or legacies or something. "The Heritage of Pearl". Ok, I have now looked on Goodreads, and apparently the title is already announced and it's "The Empire of Gold". I was half right! :)

Oh, also, Chakraborty's up for the Campbell, and now that I've read both this and the end of Arden's trilogy I have no idea which of them I'm voting for. But they're probably one and two unless Kuang knocks my socks off.