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Lodestar progress
May. 7th, 2024 09:32 pmLiberty's Daughter, Naomi Kritzer, 2023 YA (at least somewhat a pasteup of some earlier stories in F&SF, I think). 16yo on a libertarian seastead solves a series of mysteries. I enjoyed this, although I don't think it's as strong as the Catnet books. A fine thing to hope teens reading Moon is a Harsh Mistress or L. Neil Smith's Pallas might also read, what life might be like in an isolated and resource-limited libertopia for the less lucky.
Unraveller, Frances Hardinge, 2022 YA (2023 in the US, I think, thus the Lodestar qualification). A fantasy world where hate can lead to fairy-tale type transformative curses. I was pretty into this, and then kind of hit a wall somewhere around the two-thirds mark. Did eventually finish and I liked it, just, some kind of a momentum hiccup there. Some interesting, weighty stuff about trauma and fear and recidivism and decarceration, although Hardinge's ultimate conclusions on these topics fell a little flat for me. (I think she came across as a True Believer in Therapy in a way I'm really not, personally, although I realize cultural orthodoxy is on the therapy side here so it will probably work fine for most people. The book, not therapy, although I also recognize that therapy does seem to really work for some people.)
Unraveller, Frances Hardinge, 2022 YA (2023 in the US, I think, thus the Lodestar qualification). A fantasy world where hate can lead to fairy-tale type transformative curses. I was pretty into this, and then kind of hit a wall somewhere around the two-thirds mark. Did eventually finish and I liked it, just, some kind of a momentum hiccup there. Some interesting, weighty stuff about trauma and fear and recidivism and decarceration, although Hardinge's ultimate conclusions on these topics fell a little flat for me. (I think she came across as a True Believer in Therapy in a way I'm really not, personally, although I realize cultural orthodoxy is on the therapy side here so it will probably work fine for most people. The book, not therapy, although I also recognize that therapy does seem to really work for some people.)
