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psocopteraI love a deliberate theme but this time it was just by coincidence that I ended up reading, back to back, two books about humans in faeryland that I was really unenthusiastic about at first but did eventually warm up to somewhat.
Holly Black's The Cruel Prince is the first in a new trilogy. All of her Faerie books take place in the same larger universe, and characters from some of her other books have cameos in this one, but you don't need to have read any of them to follow the story here. I loved Darkest Part of the Forest, her most recent previous Faerie book, so I was excited to read this one, but Black's main characters are hit or miss for me in whether I enjoy them and their often messed-up motivations, and I had a really hard time getting onboard with this one, a human stolen with her sisters by the fairies at a young age and now determined to make a place for herself in their world. For most of the book I just wanted to see her get *out* - there was this heartbreaking flashback early on where (spoiler) her older sister did manage to get them all out, but was just a kid herself and had no idea how to try to access real-world resources for support or recovery, and so after awhile the younger sisters ask to go back, and, augh, I know "this abusive home is my home" is totally a real thing but it sucked to be asked to sympathize with it in the service of the narrative. Black did eventually convince me that the protag's motivations made sense as a response to the profound trauma and abuse of her childhood but, still, one of those stories where you wish the protag could escape from the plot and get therapy instead. The romance aspect also seems to be proceeding along (spoiler) "let's humanize a bully and forget about some really awful things he did early on" lines, which, yes, is perennially popular, but never my favorite thing. (Although by the end it is now mixed with an overt power-exchange dynamic which I was totally into, so clearly I too am going to be a sucker for sexy bad boys for the sake of my narrative kinks, oh well.) Black's court-intrigue plotting is solid, though, and by the end I was well suckered in and I'll probably read the next one. If you like both Tithe and Game of Thrones, you'll probably like this from earlier on than I did.
Under the Pendulum Sun, by Jeannette Ng, is about a pair of brother and sister missionaries who travel to the land of the Fae to bring Christianity to the fairies, which goes about as well as you might think. This is very slow Gothic theologypunk - seriously Gothic, in the classic "woman sits around a spooky house and waits for the plot to happen to her" sense - but does eventually hit some interestingish beats, if you can get there. In general, I find book-characters' Christianity hard to take seriously (as opposed to made-up religions that are clearly metaphysically true in the book's universe, which I often find quite powerful, as in Curse of Chalion or Kushiel's Avatar) - this is a book where characters really care about the details of transubstantiation or biblical inconsistency, and I do not. But what *Ng* cares about is both bigger/more historical (how the attitudes of Victorian Christian imperialism towards other peoples run aground on the power and incomprehensibility of the Fae) and more specific (in the main character's reactions and choices). I had picked up a spoiler somewhere for a certain aspect of the story, which added to the interest for me, but might be a no-go for others: content note for (spoiler) brother-sister incest. People might enjoy this who like Sandman, or Gaiman's adult work in general, or A.S. Byatt's Possession. There is an excellent spoilery Q&A with Ng here that talks about some of the textual references and ideas behind the worldbuilding, definitely recommended afterwards if you read the book.
And now I'll leave a little space, and then discuss my ballot ranking for the Campbell Notahugo behind another cut.
A space!
My best guess is that Solomon is going to win this, or possibly Arden.
My ballot:
1. Vina Jie-Min Prasad
2. Katherine Arden
3. Rebecca Roanhorse
4. Jeannette Ng
5. Sarah Kuhn
6. Rivers Solomon
I didn't rank either of Prasad's short fiction works first in their categories, and actually ranked the one below Roanhorse's story, but I ranked them both second, which is a pretty good case for my considering her the most exciting new writer to me on this ballot. 2 vs 3 - I find it a little awkward to have to compare one short story to a novel - who knows how Roanhorse will do with a novel (her first one comes out later this month and I look forward to finding out), but for that matter, who knows how Arden will do with a sequel? (Already out but I haven't had time yet.) 4 vs 5 - Ng's book started slower and duller than Kuhn's but I ended up feeling like there was a lot more there. Solomon's book I profoundly disliked and seriously considered ranking below no award, but, I don't know, a bunch of people liked it who I like and respect and who generally seem to share my interests for what I want to see in the genre, so I guess I don't want to note an objection to it in the interest of political solidarity. And I suspect I'll enjoy Solomon's speech more than I liked their book, if they win.
Holly Black's The Cruel Prince is the first in a new trilogy. All of her Faerie books take place in the same larger universe, and characters from some of her other books have cameos in this one, but you don't need to have read any of them to follow the story here. I loved Darkest Part of the Forest, her most recent previous Faerie book, so I was excited to read this one, but Black's main characters are hit or miss for me in whether I enjoy them and their often messed-up motivations, and I had a really hard time getting onboard with this one, a human stolen with her sisters by the fairies at a young age and now determined to make a place for herself in their world. For most of the book I just wanted to see her get *out* - there was this heartbreaking flashback early on where (spoiler) her older sister did manage to get them all out, but was just a kid herself and had no idea how to try to access real-world resources for support or recovery, and so after awhile the younger sisters ask to go back, and, augh, I know "this abusive home is my home" is totally a real thing but it sucked to be asked to sympathize with it in the service of the narrative. Black did eventually convince me that the protag's motivations made sense as a response to the profound trauma and abuse of her childhood but, still, one of those stories where you wish the protag could escape from the plot and get therapy instead. The romance aspect also seems to be proceeding along (spoiler) "let's humanize a bully and forget about some really awful things he did early on" lines, which, yes, is perennially popular, but never my favorite thing. (Although by the end it is now mixed with an overt power-exchange dynamic which I was totally into, so clearly I too am going to be a sucker for sexy bad boys for the sake of my narrative kinks, oh well.) Black's court-intrigue plotting is solid, though, and by the end I was well suckered in and I'll probably read the next one. If you like both Tithe and Game of Thrones, you'll probably like this from earlier on than I did.
Under the Pendulum Sun, by Jeannette Ng, is about a pair of brother and sister missionaries who travel to the land of the Fae to bring Christianity to the fairies, which goes about as well as you might think. This is very slow Gothic theologypunk - seriously Gothic, in the classic "woman sits around a spooky house and waits for the plot to happen to her" sense - but does eventually hit some interestingish beats, if you can get there. In general, I find book-characters' Christianity hard to take seriously (as opposed to made-up religions that are clearly metaphysically true in the book's universe, which I often find quite powerful, as in Curse of Chalion or Kushiel's Avatar) - this is a book where characters really care about the details of transubstantiation or biblical inconsistency, and I do not. But what *Ng* cares about is both bigger/more historical (how the attitudes of Victorian Christian imperialism towards other peoples run aground on the power and incomprehensibility of the Fae) and more specific (in the main character's reactions and choices). I had picked up a spoiler somewhere for a certain aspect of the story, which added to the interest for me, but might be a no-go for others: content note for (spoiler) brother-sister incest. People might enjoy this who like Sandman, or Gaiman's adult work in general, or A.S. Byatt's Possession. There is an excellent spoilery Q&A with Ng here that talks about some of the textual references and ideas behind the worldbuilding, definitely recommended afterwards if you read the book.
And now I'll leave a little space, and then discuss my ballot ranking for the Campbell Notahugo behind another cut.
A space!
My best guess is that Solomon is going to win this, or possibly Arden.
My ballot:
1. Vina Jie-Min Prasad
2. Katherine Arden
3. Rebecca Roanhorse
4. Jeannette Ng
5. Sarah Kuhn
6. Rivers Solomon
I didn't rank either of Prasad's short fiction works first in their categories, and actually ranked the one below Roanhorse's story, but I ranked them both second, which is a pretty good case for my considering her the most exciting new writer to me on this ballot. 2 vs 3 - I find it a little awkward to have to compare one short story to a novel - who knows how Roanhorse will do with a novel (her first one comes out later this month and I look forward to finding out), but for that matter, who knows how Arden will do with a sequel? (Already out but I haven't had time yet.) 4 vs 5 - Ng's book started slower and duller than Kuhn's but I ended up feeling like there was a lot more there. Solomon's book I profoundly disliked and seriously considered ranking below no award, but, I don't know, a bunch of people liked it who I like and respect and who generally seem to share my interests for what I want to see in the genre, so I guess I don't want to note an objection to it in the interest of political solidarity. And I suspect I'll enjoy Solomon's speech more than I liked their book, if they win.
