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The Murderbot Diaries 1-3

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Katy K.

I read the first of this on-going series of novellas back in January, and squeezed in the most recent two now, before buckling down to full-on Cybils reading. In the meantime, the first book, All Systems Red, won this year’s Hugo for best novella. Congratulations, Ms. Wells!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Tor.com, 2017.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. Tor.com, 2018
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. Tor.com, 2018

“Murderbot” is the name the security unit gives itself – part synthetic, part organic, somewhere between robot and human. It prefers to be left alone, even more preferably with lots of downloads and entertainments, but still does everything in its power to save its clients, and always with a dry and self-deprecating sense of humor.

In All Systems Red, Murderbot has been assigned to a scientific research planetary expedition, run by scientist Dr. Mensah. The group is uncomfortable having a SecUnit, but it’s a requirement of the bonding company that’s underwriting their expedition. This proves to be a good thing when one of the scientists is attacked by an enormous monster that wasn’t listed in the planetary security briefing. Soon, Murderbot and the rest of the team are racing to find out what else has been left out of their briefing and why.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells In Artificial Condition (avoiding spoilers as much as possible, Murderbot has been traveling around on unoccupied space ships, bribing their intelligent operating systems to let it onboard by sharing its entertainment series. Murderbot has only the vaguest of memories left in its organic parts of the horrible incident where it helped kill thousands of people, since the memories were deliberately wiped from its construct parts. But what would cause it to do such a thing? A particularly annoying system helps Murderbot create a disguise as a normal augmented human so that it can gain access to the planet where the horrible incident takes place. One hitch: Murderbot is forced to take a job as a security consultant to yet another group of too-trusting scientist types.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells In Rogue Protocol, Murderbot is on yet another ship, this one with people, trying to investigate the shadowy GrayCris Corporation that seems to be behind so much slaughter. Mixed in with all the plot action of these books has always been the awkwardness of a sentient machine that looks mostly like a human but isn’t quite one. Here, the awkwardness is dialed up to 11 as Murderbot has to befriend a sweet, trusting robot named Miki, who’s treated as a pet by its owners. Miki, of course, has never had to deal with the gruesome situations that Murderbot has been put into, and so has a level of trust with humans that’s never been possible for Murderbot. They’re going to have to find a way to work together, though, to deal with the giant and very hostile combat robots that turn up.

I’m going to join with Ann Leckie (whose blurb is on the cover) to say that I love Murderbot. Anyone who doesn’t always like dealing with frustrating, inconsistent humans will find Murderbot instantly relatable. Thanks to Charlotte, who pointed out on her blog that these novellas, all around 150 pages, are perfect for the reluctant teen reader – short, with lots of action and a great character to pull things along. There is enough foul language to give kids the thrill of reading adult stuff, while Murderbot has a disdain for “sex parts” that also works well for those who don’t care for romance. I’m now reading the first book aloud to my son, with explicit instructions that he’s welcome to read ahead any time he can’t wait to find out what happens next. We’ll both be waiting for the next book in the series!

Posted in Adult, books, Print, Sci-Fi | Tagged artificial intelligence, robots, science fiction, space travel | 11 Comments

Sci-Fi Classic: The Girl with the Silver Eyes

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Katy K.

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts. Scholastic, 1980.
This book appeared in several of the wonderful themed lists put out by Stephanie at Views from the Tesseract, a personal favorite from her own childhood. I’d never read it, so I snatched up a used copy when it came my way. Katie has glasses and silver eyes that make everyone uncomfortable around her, even her mother. Though she doesn’t tell them she has telekinesis, everyone still blames her when things go wrong, whether or not they’re her fault.

The story follows a short time period when Katie has moved back in with her mother after the death of her grandmother, who had been caring for her. It’s far from smooth – her mother’s boyfriend won’t use her name, a rude apartment adult neighbor verbally bullies Katie and hits on the beautiful single woman nearby, while Katie is basically trapped in the apartment. But then Katie finds a hint that there might be other children like her and sets out to find them. It didn’t feel like a large, satisfying plot or character arc to me – but it was satisfying on a smaller level to see Katie succeed in finding a place to belong. This felt like it could work well for readers on the younger end of the middle grade spectrum, looking for low fantasy closely integrated into the regular world. Though the plot is very different, Stephanie’s love for this book reminds me strongly of my own feelings for Parsley Sage, Rosemary and Time by Jane Louise Curry, a book which has a permanent place on my shelf in honor of all the times I read it as a child, even if I saw quite a few holes in it when I tried reading it to my son.

Posted in books, Middle Grade, Print, Reviews, Sci-Fi | Tagged classics, youth science fiction | 2 Comments

The Penderwicks at Last

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Katy K.

Now is the time of year when I look at the seven pages of notes on books waiting to be reviewed, and think ahead to next week (*gulp*) when approximately 150 more will be added to my TBR. How much of my review queue can I clear out to prep for the reading feast ahead? Not much if my attempts at writing short reviews keep coming out like this!

The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall. Alfred A. Knopf, 2018.
The beloved Penderwicks story closes out 13 years after we first met them (but a little longer than that in book time) with a return to Arundel, the vacation home where the first novel was set. Lydia, born partway through the series, is now 11 and our point of view character. She and Jane are going to Arundel ahead of the rest of the family, who will be joining them later for Rosalind and Tommy’s wedding. Lydia makes friends with returning character Cagney’s same-aged daughter Alice, and they have fun making movies with Ben, sending hopefully jealousy-inducing photos to Alice’s older brother, who’s spending the summer in Canada, and playing with the sheep.

All of the older sisters have romance or romantic issues of one type or another. Jane is struggling with heartache after deciding to break up with a sweet but unreliable boyfriend with a dog, Hitch, that everyone in the family adores. Skye is in a long-term relationship with fellow scientist Dushek , from the Czech Republic (the closest to any kind of diversity in the book.) Even Batty, 11 in the last book, is now an adult and old enough for a romance of her own, though as this develops through the book, I won’t spoil it here.

There are so many things to love about these books. Let’s start with Lydia, who really comes into her own as a character here. She’s passionate about dancing while working through some big thoughts – the role of destiny, trying to come up with a motto for herself (which her father, the Latin professor, will be able to translate for her), and deciding if she still fits the role her family has cast her in, the one who likes everyone. Will this be good or bad when Jeffrey’s mother Mrs. Tifton, the villain of book 1, turns up again? It was a relief that while Lydia’s going through these classic middle grade struggles, the book avoids the extreme depression levels of The Penderwicks in Spring. I also appreciated that while technology was clearly part of life, it was used to enhance and create adventure in the real world, not to substitute for it.

My one point of discomfort probably stems from the makeup of my own social circle as well as my more recent focus on reading diverse books, making this book about all white, cis-gendered people feel artificial to me – four sisters old enough for romance, and all of them straight? Not one friend or neighbor of color to bring home? This world will feel more or less comfortable to the reader depending on their individual viewpoints.

The story is rambling and episodic, which may be good or bad, depending on your point of view, only loosely focused around the wedding preparations. There’s time catching up with old familiar characters as well as getting to know Lydia, which is great for fans of the series – though if you’re new to the series, you’ll want to go back and start at the beginning. It’s been long enough since I read the first one that I couldn’t honestly tell you whether I liked this one more or less – but I did like it a lot. It’s only a year or two now until my daughter is old enough to enjoy this series herself. I’m looking forward to it.

Looking for more? There’s a list of classic family fiction at the end of my review of The Penderwicks in Spring, or try the more recent The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy or A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano.

Posted in books, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic, Reviews | Tagged youth fiction | 1 Comment

#SummerSoLit final round-up

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Katy K.

My blogging friend Akilah at the Englishist invited me to participate in this summer reading bingo. I thought I’d give it a try, even though I’ve had a lot of personal stuff going on this summer and have been much more reading things as they come than usual this year. I had a hard time coming up with titles, or motivation to look for titles – that’s me, not the bingo itself. My super sweet colleague H searched out several for me, including the fireworks on the cover one. I read lots of books and a couple that I wouldn’t have read otherwise, and had fun, even if I only kind of completed the challenge.

1 Heat in the Title – Thor: Son of Asgard: the Heat of Hakurei by Akira Yoshida (pseudonym), Greg Tocchini, and Jay Leisten – this is a youth graphic novel, one of only three youth or teen books I found at my library with heat in the title. I picked it because it looked to have an author of color. Then I found out the whole scandal of Akira Yoshida being a Marvel editor who used a Japanese pseudonym to write under and got mad about this now years-old scandal – but still didn’t have a better choice in my preferred areas. Sigh.

2 Graphic Novel with a POC in it – Monstress: the Blood by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takada – Monstress book 2. Beautiful, dense, detailed, and very violent.

3 Last in a Series – Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff –I don’t know if I loved this as much as the first two, but it was still good fast-moving sci-fi fun.

4 Island setting – City of Islands by Kali Wallace – middle grade fantasy with a Caribbean-feel setting.

5 Collection of Short Stories by a POC – I meant to read A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh, but though it was on order in June or early July, my library hold still hasn’t come in. So close!

6 Read 11+ books this summer – yes! My spreadsheet tells me I’ve finished 38 books since June 22.

7 Non-fiction about a POC – not finished, and not all POC, but I’m reading Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls with my daughter, which includes lots of short bios of WOC.

9 Fireworks on the Cover – Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz – contemporary YA about a Filipina-American high school senior who finds out she’s undocumented. She was too perfect, but the book still made me cry.

11 Made into a Movie – I don’t think I read a book – though I did watch the new To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before movie on Netflix – so sweet!

13 Free Space

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip

14 LGBTQ Main Character – Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente – this is glittery, slow-reading fun – Eurovision meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

15 Road Trip – Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartmann – more in Seraphina’s world. Also, the first book I’ve read with a love interest in a wheelchair.

17 Latina Main Character – nope. I almost checked out A Festival of Ghosts by William Alexander, too, but I put it on display instead and a kid took it before I went back for it.

18 Camping – close again! I finished Be Prepared on June 12, 10 days too soon for this challenge.

19 50-year-old Sci-Fi – Does modern sci-fi set in the 50s count? It’s close, right? The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal is excellent regardless.

21 Beach on the Cover – The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip

Dread Nation: Rise Up by Justina Ireland

22 New York Times Bestseller – Dread Nation: Rise Up by Justina Ireland

23 One Word Title– Warcross by Marie Lu

24 Muslim Female Author – Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

25 Historical Fiction with Asian Main Character –Bluecrowne by Kate Milford – this sequel to the Left-Handed Fate is a little marginal, as most of the story is from Lucy Bluecrowne’s point of view. But it’s about Lucy and her half-brother Liao, and I think some of the chapters were from his point of view. His mother Xiaoming is not POV but a really fabulous character anyway! And hey, it has fireworks on the cover, too!

Thanks to Mocha Girls Read, the Englishist, and Book + Bass for hosting this book bingo!

Posted in books, Challenges, Lists | Tagged #SummerSoLit #ReadDiverse2018 | 3 Comments

Cybils Judges Announced!

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Katy K.

I’ve mentioned before how much I love the Cybils awards. Not only is it super fun to be a judge and do a deep dive into recent books in the category, but I use the finalist lists all the time in my work as a librarian. Got a kid who only wants to read graphic novels, or fantasy, or needs a poetry or nonfiction book for school? Pull up the guide with the covers of the most recent finalists, and scroll back through the years in the same category to help them pull together a list of titles that appeal to them.

So I am very excited to be a Round 1 Cybils Judge! This year again in the Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Category.

Joining me this year are Kristen Harvey at The Book Monsters, Jenni Frencham at From the Biblio Files, Brenda Tjaden at Log Cabin Library, Beth Mitcham at Library Chicken, Sherry Early at Semicolon, and Cheryl Vanatti at Reading Rumpus.

Take a look at the Cybils blog to see the Round 2 judges and the fantastic panel of judges in all the other categories! And then start thinking back about your favorite kids and teens books of the past year. If there’s something you think might be worth nominating that you haven’t read yet, now’s the time to get to it. Nominations open October 1, and the more books we have nominated, the better we can do at putting together a great list of finalists!

Posted in books, Challenges | Tagged Cybils | 5 Comments

The Underwater Ballroom Society

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Katy K.

Oh, look! Even though I bought this book on its release date, I ambled my way through it, so that I’m just now getting to writing the review as the beautiful stand-alone cover of Stephanie Burgis’s novella, included in this anthology, has been released.

The Underwater Ballroom Society edited by Tiffany Trent and Stephanie Burgis. Five Fathoms Press, 2018.

This is a collection of speculative fiction stories by a diverse array of authors with just one requirement: include an underwater ballroom somewhere in the story. Whether that ballroom is considered magical or prosaic, fantasy or science fiction – all up to the author. I probably would have gotten this anyway just to read the prequel novella to Burgis’s the Harwood Spellbook series, Spellswept, set before Snowspelled and told from Amy’s point of view. There’s also a story from Patrick Samphire in his Victorian Mars series, featuring teen detective Harriet. But I was excited to see a story from Y.S. Lee – a story set after the Twelve Dancing Princesses and thus going nicely with another small reading obsession of mine – this one about sisters helping each other out of an abusive situation.

Ysabeu S. Wilce tells a story of an aging rock diva tracking down her former lover, stolen by the king of fairies. Iona Datt Sharma’s features a female smuggler and the interesting opportunity that comes her way. In The River Always Wins by Laura Anne Gilman, the underwater ballroom is a leaky cement basement punk rock club, now past its prime. Attending for the first time in years – despite the itchy gills it causes – brings terrible repressed memories back to our heroine, but friendship holds true even in the grim setting. This contrasts strongly with the glamourous setting of Shveta Thakrar’s high society underwater ballroom, where an Indian-British undercover agent works to keep all of fairy from being sold to the highest bidder.

Spellswept by Stephanie Burgis

There are more stories, of course, but I’ll stop there in the interests of getting this published. I savored these stories on my work breaks over several weeks, enjoying all of them, and was sorry to come to the end. My only regret is that since I already have Spellswept in this collection, I don’t need to buy it in its soon-to-be published stand-alone edition with this gorgeous cover – but as the cover I have is also lovely, it’s a pretty small regret.

Posted in Adult, books, Fantasy | Tagged Fantasy, short stories | 4 Comments

Cybils Call for Judges

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Katy K.

Can you feel that fall is just around the corner? Fall is now Cybils time for me – time to get a list of books that other fans of books for young readers have nominated and curl up with a big stack of them. Then, I get to discuss them with a group of other passionate readers and pick a list of the best of them to be announced January 1.

The call for Cybils judges is open now through September 9! Take a look at the judging criteria – pick your favorite categories – and put your name in! If the idea of trying to read a hundred or so books in a few months seems a bit much, you could always sign up to be a Round 2 judge, and pick one winner from the finalists selected in Round 1.

If you aren’t a book blogger or booktuber, you can still participate – brush up on the nominating rules and categories now and pick your favorite recent titles for when nominations open up at the beginning of October.

Happy reading!

Posted in Blog, Challenges | Tagged Cybils | 7 Comments

Heroine Complex and Heroine Worship

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Katy K.

Who says a book starring a person of color has to be dark and realistic? Or that it takes darkness and realism to make a serious statement? I finally tracked down these books that I’d been wanting to read since I first read about them on the Book Smugglers.

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn. Daw, 2016.
Evie Tanaka is the personal assistant to San Francisco’s favorite superheroine, Aveda Jupiter. They’ve been best friends since grade school, when Evie and then-Annie Chang were best friends who stuck up for each other in the face of the teasing they got for being the only Asians in school. Now, though, demon portals are opening up all over San Francisco, and Evie’s in charge of making sure that Aveda Jupiter has everything she needs to slay the demons and look good doing it. Also on Aveda’s team are the lusty weapons master and bodyguard Lucy, who can charm every woman she meets except the owner of the trendy cupcake shop where demons most recently appeared, as well as the team’s handsome but antagonistic scientist and doctor Nate. In addition to managing the team, Evie also has to deal with her rebellious teenage sister, Bea, and Scott, who used to be part of a trio with her and Aveda but now won’t talk to Aveda. Meanwhile, they’re followed by a backstabbing blogger, Maisy, who only pretends to be friendly. There’s a lot of facing down personal demons and some romance (including sexytimes), as well as fun San Francisco locales and time in the karaoke bar, all while battling demons who take the shape of whatever they first find when they cross through – like cupcakes. Issues like racism and sexism are present but take backstage to the sheer awesomeness and fun of the characters. Really, how can you go wrong with demon cupcakes?

Heroine Worship by Sarah Kuhn. Daw, 2017.
In book two of the trilogy, Aveda Jupiter takes center stage, set against a bridal industry that’s literally possessing brides. There’s been no recent demon activity, so Aveda pours all of her considerable energy into planning Evie’s wedding as her maid of honor. Aveda’s perfectionism runs head-on into Evie’s much more casual style, causing problems between the best friends. Things go from bad to worse when the designer chiffon dress with red flowers at the neckline that Annie loves is literally possessed, first trying to kill Evie and then turning her into a bridezilla. Soon, Bridezilla fever is spreading through San Francisco. With Evie affected, too, Aveda turns to her old, estranged friend Scott for help. We also meet San Francisco’s other superheroine, Shruti, whose powers have been stepping up even as she’s running a successful vintage clothing business. Blogger Maisy is still present, supposedly reformed – but can she really be trusted? And Evie’s little sister Bea is taking on increasing responsibility, getting ready to take center stage herself in the third book in the series. Heroine’s Journey is out this summer, just in time for me to try to track it down.

Posted in Adult, books, Fantasy, Print | Tagged #OwnVoices, adult fantasy, San Francisco, superheroes | 1 Comment

Aru Shah and Kiranmala

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Katy K.

I’m always on the lookout for more books for Percy Jackson fans, especially from non-Western European cultures. Happily, Rick Riordan has started his own imprint to do just this thing – but Scholastic also recently published a book with a similar feel based on Indian mythology. Two in one year, when I hadn’t seen any since Sarwat Chadda’s The Savage Fortress, back in 2013.

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi. Disney-Hyperion, 2018.
Aru lives in the Atlanta Museum of Ancient Indian Culture, and is often left alone while her mother travels to find more artifacts. She’s settled on fibbing as a way to gain popularity, though this unsurprisingly doesn’t really work. When some of her classmates stop by the museum and don’t believe that the lamp on display is really magical, as in Aru’s stories, she lights it. But lighting it frees an ancient demon and kicks off a freezing plague, so her classmates aren’t awake to appreciate it. She has woken the Sleeper, and is off to stop it, together with the requisite snarky animal side-kick and her sister-of-legend, Mini (who is part Filipina! Hooray!). Unlike Aru, Mini has grown up training to be a Pandava hero. I also found her a much more sympathetic character. Aru, Mini, and sidekick (whose name I neglected to record – oops!) have many exciting and humor-filled adventures, including a journey to Death, finding magical weapons, and visiting a Night Bazaar disguised as a Costco. I liked it about as much as the Rick Riordan books, which is to say that the adventure rushes by so quickly I didn’t have as much time as I liked to get to know the characters, but it feels pitch-perfect for more plot-oriented readers.

The Serpent’s Secret. Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Book 1 by Sayantani DasGupta. Scholastic, 2018.
Kiran in Parsippany, New Jersey, is the daughter of convenience store owners who nevertheless insist that she dress as a “real Indian Princess” every Halloween, even though she doesn’t like princesses and her birthday is on Halloween. But on her twelfth birthday, she comes home from school to find a birthday card and a cut-off note from her mother saying not try to rescue her and her father but to trust the princes. Kiran’s reading of this is interrupted by a rakkhosh, a very large monster of Indian legend, destroying her house. As this is happening, two very cute brothers only a little older than she is show up: bored, sarcastic Neel in blue, handsome and chivalrous if slightly incompetent Lal in red. They take her out of the “2-D” world, and work to rescue her parents (despite the warning) and stop the end of the world. There is also an adorable wisecracking and prophesying bird named Tuntuni, lots of death-defying adventures, a touch of awkward romance, and some thoughts on how much our parents do and don’t make who we are. An afterward goes into the original stories that inspired this tale that draws characters and settings from many of them. This book had a less frenetic pace despite hitting all the key notes to make it work as Riordan read-alike. I’m definitely on board for the sequel and am curious about DasGupta’s older book of straight-up retellings of Bengal mythology, The Demon Slayers.

Posted in books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged India, mythology, Rick Riordan, youth fantasy | 13 Comments

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Katy K.

Look! I read one of the books on my missed-from-2017 list. This is a lovely Snow White retelling for a teen audience with an LGBT spin.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust. Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda. MacMillan Audio, 2017.
In alternating narrations, we hear the stories of two girls growing into women: Mina, whose alchemist father pushes her to use her beauty to gain advantage, telling her that she’s incapable both of loving and of being loved for herself. Partly with his pushing, partly with her own skill, she earns a marriage to the grieving widowed king living in Whitespring, where winter never leaves.

Linnet is the daughter of that king, and has grown up idolizing her stepmother. As a girl, she craves adventure, climbing trees and walls in the courtyard whenever she can. Her father, though, wants her to be delicate and refined, just like the dead mother she resembles. The older she grows, the more she’s torn between her desire to please her father and her need to be her own person. The beginnings of change to this unhappy balance come when a young female surgeon, only a year or two her senior, comes to work at the castle.

The relationship here is a lot more interesting than in the typical Snow White story – Linnet loves Mina wholeheartedly, while Mina believes she’s incapable of love and is also pushed by the king not to try to replace Linnet’s mother. There’s a lot here of women discovering their own power and their own way to love outside of what they’re told is proper. Jennifer Ikeda’s rich voice works very well for this fairy tale setting which conveys classic magic in a historic setting despite the more modern romantic aspects. Though I’ve focused on the personal aspects in this review, there are also quite a bit of politics as Mina and Linnet must work to keep the kingdom together, as well as thoughts on the worship of the past queen who caused the everlasting winter. Highly recommended.

Here are some other Snow White retellings I’ve read, in order from middle grade to adult.

Snow in Summer by Jane Yolen (billed as middle grade, but very dark)
Winter by Marissa Meyer (straight-up teen and high adventure)
Snow by Tracy Lynn (adult, I think? It’s been a long time.)

Posted in Audiobook, books, Fantasy, Reviews, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged fairy tales, LGBTQ, teen audiobooks, teen fantasy | 2 Comments