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psocopteraThe end of March suddenly seems much closer, as I think about recommending more 2013 books as potential Hugo contenders... I was just reading an argument that the nominating season really should be a minimum of 4-5 months after the last eligible works come out, to give people more time to read. I'm curious whether my reading will look different this year, knowing from the very beginning of the year that I plan to play this game again, instead of deciding at the last possible minute like last year?
Anyways. Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni is a fantasy set in 1899 New York, and it is excellent. It's about a golem, and a jinni, and the immigrant experience, and I would recommend it highly to people who love New York City, people whose ancestors came through Ellis Island, people who love reading about robots and Vulcans and other such outsiders, and anyone who wants to request it for Yuletide next year, because I would love to offer it. (I don't feel the fannish impulse about everything I read - I have no desire to write Ancillary Justice fic, or Stranger in Olondria fic, for instance - but this just has so much potential.) Also recommended, as implied by the previous paragraph, to people who might still have open Hugo-nomination slots. (I think I personally would still vote for Ancillary Justice but I see no reason not to use all five of my slots if I have five worthy candidates.)
I loved the rich cast of secondary characters, and the little details about what various people's lives were like. (My intuition as a 21st century American is that in many (although not all) contexts people with Eastern European Jewish ancestors are "white" in a way that people with Syrian ancestors are not, so it was really interesting to see the immigrant communities as comparably insular and "foreign" in 1899.) I loved - I'm going to have to go to a spoiler cut here:
I loved Schaalman, who was in some ways a very sympathetic character, when we learn his backstory (both in his own life, with the dream of being shut out, and then all of his poor reincarnations) and simultaneously a very creepy villain (we never do find out where he got the fingernails, or the eyes...). I loved Sophia (I want her to have SO MANY ADVENTURES in WARM CLIMATES) and Matthew (you know he's immigrating back to New York as soon as he's old enough, so... 1910?) and Saleh (wah, Saleh...). For awhile I felt like the Golem and the Jinni were curiously momentumless in their own book - that the stories of the humans around them were much more heart-wrenching than their own frustrations - but eventually I totally fell in love with them too. The Golem with her baking and sewing, the Jinni making his little figurines - I just had no idea where their stories might be going. Was this a romance? Were they going to team up and FIGHT CRIME? (Two sleepless, bored, super-powered beings in New York City looking for something to do at night... I'm just saying...) Even Schaalman's plan at the end, would that really have been so bad? (The AU where Chava and Ahmed travel the world together finding and helping their master's incarnations is a pretty awesome AU...)
Anyways. Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni is a fantasy set in 1899 New York, and it is excellent. It's about a golem, and a jinni, and the immigrant experience, and I would recommend it highly to people who love New York City, people whose ancestors came through Ellis Island, people who love reading about robots and Vulcans and other such outsiders, and anyone who wants to request it for Yuletide next year, because I would love to offer it. (I don't feel the fannish impulse about everything I read - I have no desire to write Ancillary Justice fic, or Stranger in Olondria fic, for instance - but this just has so much potential.) Also recommended, as implied by the previous paragraph, to people who might still have open Hugo-nomination slots. (I think I personally would still vote for Ancillary Justice but I see no reason not to use all five of my slots if I have five worthy candidates.)
I loved the rich cast of secondary characters, and the little details about what various people's lives were like. (My intuition as a 21st century American is that in many (although not all) contexts people with Eastern European Jewish ancestors are "white" in a way that people with Syrian ancestors are not, so it was really interesting to see the immigrant communities as comparably insular and "foreign" in 1899.) I loved - I'm going to have to go to a spoiler cut here:
I loved Schaalman, who was in some ways a very sympathetic character, when we learn his backstory (both in his own life, with the dream of being shut out, and then all of his poor reincarnations) and simultaneously a very creepy villain (we never do find out where he got the fingernails, or the eyes...). I loved Sophia (I want her to have SO MANY ADVENTURES in WARM CLIMATES) and Matthew (you know he's immigrating back to New York as soon as he's old enough, so... 1910?) and Saleh (wah, Saleh...). For awhile I felt like the Golem and the Jinni were curiously momentumless in their own book - that the stories of the humans around them were much more heart-wrenching than their own frustrations - but eventually I totally fell in love with them too. The Golem with her baking and sewing, the Jinni making his little figurines - I just had no idea where their stories might be going. Was this a romance? Were they going to team up and FIGHT CRIME? (Two sleepless, bored, super-powered beings in New York City looking for something to do at night... I'm just saying...) Even Schaalman's plan at the end, would that really have been so bad? (The AU where Chava and Ahmed travel the world together finding and helping their master's incarnations is a pretty awesome AU...)
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Date: 2014-01-27 04:37 pm (UTC)