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Wednesday reading
May. 17th, 2023 03:48 pmRecently finished:
I took a break from Melville (who can be a bit much) to read Simon Jimenez's The Vanished Birds. This was published in 2020, an unfortunate time to put out a challenging science fiction novel; it was nominated for Locus and Arthur C. Clarke awards in 2021, but I can't remember anyone at all talking about it. Which is unfortunate, because it's extremely good.
It's about . . . human settlements in space, colonization, corporate greed, hard decisions, science and/or magic, love, the failure of love, the not-failure of love, memory, and whatever home might be. Some quite bad things happen in it, including to major characters. But it's not a grimdark hopeless dystopia, though you can kind of see that story around the edges of the story Jimenez actually tells, which is both smaller and larger. I'm trying not to reveal the plot because, while it's not really a plot-focused story, I think it's better to go in unspoiled.
There's a lot of good literary craftsmanship here, but Jimenez (who specifically calls himself a science fiction fan) doesn't make the familiar mistakes of a literary novelist dabbling in sff; nothing in the plot itself is likely to blow your mind, but it's clear that Jimenez is playing with tropes, not believing he invented them. His style is sharp and interesting without being show-offy, he writes nuanced characters, and above all he knows how to structure. I especially admire the first three chapters, each of which is a beautifully self-contained short story from a different POV character; taken together, the effect is almost like a zoom-out in a film (although it's clear that no one character's viewpoint is actually definitive).
The Vanished Birds is also queer sff by a gay man--there's not much of that! And Jimenez's take on colonialism is clearly shaped by his experiences as a Filipino-American.
The book has some weaknesses. Jimenez tackles a lot for a standalone novel, and partly as a consequence, the ending doesn't quite work for me. There's a strain of sentimentality and perhaps a bit too much mysticism for my taste.
It's still the best sf I've read in a long time.
Currently reading: more Melville short stories await.
What I'm reading next: I've heard good things about Jimenez's 2022 fantasy novel The Spear Cuts Through Water and I'm eager to read it.
I took a break from Melville (who can be a bit much) to read Simon Jimenez's The Vanished Birds. This was published in 2020, an unfortunate time to put out a challenging science fiction novel; it was nominated for Locus and Arthur C. Clarke awards in 2021, but I can't remember anyone at all talking about it. Which is unfortunate, because it's extremely good.
It's about . . . human settlements in space, colonization, corporate greed, hard decisions, science and/or magic, love, the failure of love, the not-failure of love, memory, and whatever home might be. Some quite bad things happen in it, including to major characters. But it's not a grimdark hopeless dystopia, though you can kind of see that story around the edges of the story Jimenez actually tells, which is both smaller and larger. I'm trying not to reveal the plot because, while it's not really a plot-focused story, I think it's better to go in unspoiled.
There's a lot of good literary craftsmanship here, but Jimenez (who specifically calls himself a science fiction fan) doesn't make the familiar mistakes of a literary novelist dabbling in sff; nothing in the plot itself is likely to blow your mind, but it's clear that Jimenez is playing with tropes, not believing he invented them. His style is sharp and interesting without being show-offy, he writes nuanced characters, and above all he knows how to structure. I especially admire the first three chapters, each of which is a beautifully self-contained short story from a different POV character; taken together, the effect is almost like a zoom-out in a film (although it's clear that no one character's viewpoint is actually definitive).
The Vanished Birds is also queer sff by a gay man--there's not much of that! And Jimenez's take on colonialism is clearly shaped by his experiences as a Filipino-American.
The book has some weaknesses. Jimenez tackles a lot for a standalone novel, and partly as a consequence, the ending doesn't quite work for me. There's a strain of sentimentality and perhaps a bit too much mysticism for my taste.
It's still the best sf I've read in a long time.
Currently reading: more Melville short stories await.
What I'm reading next: I've heard good things about Jimenez's 2022 fantasy novel The Spear Cuts Through Water and I'm eager to read it.
