Review: Arkwright by Allen Steele

Arkwright by Allen Steele

Published: Tor, 2016

The Book:

“Contemporary of science fiction masters Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.

Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.” ~Allensteele.com

This is technically the first novel I’ve read by Allen Steele, though I enjoyed his stories about the colonization of the planet Coyote as serialized in Asimov’s Science Fiction.  This novel was identified by the community at World’s Without End as one of the award-worthy books of 2016.  

My Thoughts:  

Arkwright is a very different kind of colonization story than you’ll find with Steele’s books about Coyote.  Instead of focusing on the details of the project and the people who eventually live on the alien planet, Arkwright primarily follows the Earth-side humans who are behind this monumental effort.  The story explores what would drive Nathan Arkwright to establish his foundation and how subsequent generations react to their unchosen connection to the generations-long undertaking.  It is a difficult thing to dedicate oneself to a project that spans longer than a human lifetime, and I can’t imagine that everyone would be able to handle such pressure. I’ve had similar thoughts about the architects behind the great cathedrals of Europe, wondering how they might feel knowing that they will not be able to see their life’s work come to completion.  This is a relatively short novel, and it spans several generations of Arkwrights who have very different ways of coping with their family heritage.  I enjoyed seeing their range of reactions to the Arkwright Foundation, but I felt like I didn’t have enough time with each cast to feel an emotional attachment to the characters.

In the build-up to the establishment of the colonization project, it becomes clear that Arkwright carries a lot of love for the social scene of 1950s science fiction.  There are a number of scenes featuring fictional and actual authors of the era, and involving their interaction in conventions and elsewhere.  I was a little impatient to get back to the future-focused story, but these nostalgic parts helped me to understand Nathan Arkwright’s motives.  I also enjoyed how it highlighted the role of science fiction in inspiring scientific development, something that certainly happens in reality.  Science fiction can help us imagine a path to the future, even as it also can point out potential pitfalls of developing technology.  In this case, Arkwright’s vision created a foundation that would define his family for many years, and would spur technological development along the way.    

After all of this, we do eventually get to see the final outcome of the colonization project.  Separated as it is in physical distance and time from the Arkwright family’s story, this part of the novel felt like an extended epilogue.  I would have been disappointed if there had been no closure on what happened to the colony ship, so I was happy that this part was included.  However, there’s only really enough time to see the situation in broad strokes, when I would have liked to see more detail. Despite the brevity, I appreciated the author’s choice to let his readers move into the future, to see the ‘cathedral’ that was completed long after the builders we met had passed beyond knowing.  

My Rating: 3 /5

Arkwright has an interesting premise, focusing on the human side of the development and execution of an extrasolar colonization project.  It has a clear fondness for the history of science fiction, and the way that science fiction can inspire developments in technology.  It’s also a relatively short book that covers a lot of content, from the inception of the colonization project, through multiple generations of the Arkwright family, all the way through to the project’s culmination.  As such, there is not a ton of depth to each segment or each set of characters.  I’m still happy I read this one, and I will probably read more work by Steele in the future.

Review: Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

Published: Gollancz/Tor, 2015

Series: Book 1 of Luna

Awards Nominated: BSFA Award

The Book:

“The Moon wants to kill you. Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations--the Five Dragons--in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon's newest "dragon," Adriana has wrested control of the Moon's Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation--Corta Helio--confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies... and each other.” ~goodreads.com

Surprise, I do actually still write book reviews!  One of Ian McDonald’s other novels that I have read is The Dervish House, which made me want to visit Istanbul. I still hope I can one day, since it sounds like a beautiful city, rich in culture and history.  Anyway, though it also had a very vivid setting, Luna most definitely did not make me want to visit the moon!

My Thoughts:

I’ve heard this book often described as Game of Thrones on the moon, but it seems to me to be closer to a multicultural, lunar Godfather (even to the extent of featuring five families). The original lunar colonists did not set about to shape a new society, but instead allowed their new world to be shaped by market forces and corporations that form around, essentially, mafia families.  The end result is a society with no criminal justice system, where charisma, money, physical violence and connections can get one out of any tough spot.  The only form of law is contract law--which contributes to making lunar relationships strangely businesslike--and contract conflicts seem to be resolved primarily by razzle-dazzle and single combat.  This all makes for one of the more unusual societies I’ve seen fiction, but it’s also one I would never want to live in.  

My favorite character in this novel was, by far, the elderly Adriana Corta.  I loved the chapters where she narrated her extraordinary life: her immigration to the moon, her romantic entanglements, and the building of her empire.  It was fascinating to see lunar society in these early stages, and Adriana’s story was full of intense risk, loss, and success.  Her children, on the other hand, seemed petty and overly fond of posturing.  Unfortunately, the younger generation makes up most of the story’s viewpoint characters.  This did not help me to become emotionally engaged. On the positive side, I enjoyed how the five families represented such different cultures, with origins from Ghana, Australia, Russia, China and Brazil. I enjoyed reading about Adriana’s childhood in Brazil, and in seeing the ways the younger generations, which can never physically return to Earth, hold to their cultural heritage.  We spend most of the time with the Brazilian family in this first novel, but it would also have been fun to get more insight into the other families.

The story built up very slowly, and seemed sometimes to not have much focus.  It seemed to bounce from one subplot to another--Adriana’s amazing life story, Lucasinho’s teenage rebellion and sexual conquests, Rafa’s relationship problems, Ariel’s career, and so on.  However, the story eventually comes together into a climactic final act.  It was an exciting conclusion, which both resolves this novel and points the reader toward what to expect in future novels.  On the other hand, I felt that the way some of the characters resorted to violence diminished the meaning of the maneuvering that had taken place earlier in the novel.  At least, it was very effective in showing how close to the surface chaos and violence lies in the kind of society the five families have created.  Though I did enjoy aspects of Luna: New Moon, I doubt I’ll be continuing on to the rest of the series.

My Rating: 3/5

Luna: New Moon is a family drama about essentially mafia on the moon.  It takes place after the moon has been colonized by humans, and a society dominated by five crime families/corporations has been established. The five families represent interesting selection of different Earth cultures, with the main focus on a family originating from Brazil.  For me, the history of the colonization of the moon, as related through the matriarch Adriana Corta’s life story, was the most fascinating part of the novel.  I was less into the family squabbles that engaged the younger generations of Cortas, which took up the bulk of the novel.  The story didn’t seem to have much focus in the beginning, but it did eventually culminate in an exciting conflict between families.  I think this is ultimately not the series for me, but it has a lot to offer readers who have more interest in organized crime stories and family dramas.

Review: Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

Published: Small Beer Press, 2005

Awards Nominated: Locus Fantasy, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards

The Book:

“Toni Beauchamp never liked her mother's world of magic and visions and six strange gods that took over her body at will. So when her mother died, Toni and her sister Candy thought it meant a new beginning, a life free of magic. But Elena had one last gift for her daughter - a sip from the Mockingbird Cordial. And from the moment Toni held the drink to her lips, her life would never be the same…” ~SeanStewart.com/novels

This is the second book I’ve read by Sean Stewart, and I bought it at the same time as Galveston. Both books are fantasies set in Texas, but I had a really hard time with Galveston’s unlikeable protagonists.  I’m happy I gave Stewart’s work another shot, though, because I enjoyed Mockingbird.

My Thoughts:

Mockingbird is a story primarily about familial relationships between women, identity, and coping with the unexpected.  The Beauchamp family was affected by the everyday presence of magic, but I think they were more significantly influenced by their relationships to one another.  For example, Toni disliked the magic because it made her mother an unreliable parent. Toni never knew, when she came home, whether she would be interacting with her mother or with one of the spirits whose fetishes her mother kept in a cupboard.  Toni and her little sister Candy learned from experience which of the personalities would be kind, and which were cruel or abusive.  Their close, dysfunctional family shaped both Toni and Candy’s lives, but in different ways, and it was interesting to see them come to terms with each other as the adults they have become.

While the story has its share of dramatic twists and turns, the focus is always more on the characters and their connections to one another.  Rather than an adventure that has a set beginning and end, this is the story of a specific period in Toni’s life, a time where she struggles to define her chosen identity and path. Toni initially tries to define herself through contrast to her mother--she has a stable job as an actuary, a reliable, self-sufficient personality, and can even take reproduction into her own hands.  The truth is, though, that no one can plan and execute their life with perfect control. Toni’s first curveball is her inheritance of her mother’s magic, but it is by no means the last unwelcome twist in her life.  In a way, it is a kind of a 30-something maturation story, and I enjoyed following Toni as she struggled to find the shape of her future life.

The magic is very naturally woven into the lives of the characters, and I would say this is more of a family drama than a fantasy.  I felt like the it mostly served the story by providing symbols and emphasis to specific events in this part of Toni’s life.  The novel is pretty slow-paced, as well, so I think the plot might risk feeling a little aimless if one is not invested in the characters. Altogether, it’s not the usual style of novel I read, but I enjoyed the change of pace.  Thus far, this is my favorite of Sean Stewart’s novels, and I can see why it received award nominations.  

My Rating: 3.5/5

Mockingbird is more of a character-driven story of female relationships and identity than a fantasy, though magic does play a seemingly natural role in the characters’ lives.  It is a slow-paced novel that follows Toni Beauchamp’s life in the wake of her mother’s death, as she passes through the journey “from being a daughter to having one”. Toni plans for her future to be organized and stable, in contrast to her mother’s magic and unreliability, but life has other plans.  I think the novel relies heavily on a reader’s investment in the characters, and I was very easily emotionally invested in Toni.  This is not my usual style of novel, but I’m glad I decided to read it.

Review: Strange Toys by Patricia Geary

Strange Toys by Patricia Geary

Published: Bantam Spectra, 1987

Awards Won: Philip K. Dick Award

Tbe Book:

“Pet is the youngest daughter in an unusual family.  Her parents—known to her as Stan and Linwood—take a non-traditional approach to childrearing, but their sophisticated home is turned upside down by Pet’s oldest sister, Deane.  Deane, the ‘bad child’, became interested in voodoo and unsavory company, leading to her eventual arrest. When Stan and Linwood go on the run with their other two daughters, Pet begins to realize that she also has some natural talent for the occult.

Pet will have three chances to confront the supernatural, to either use its power or allow it to use her.  First, when she is a confused child, trying to protect the people she loves.  Second, when she is an irresponsible teen, desperate to find some kind of truth.  Third, when she is an adult bodybuilder, dedicated to becoming a powerful woman. Pet must find the strength to understand both Deane and herself.” ~Allie

This is my first review for WWEnd’s Women of GenreFiction.  Therefore, this is my first Patricia Geary novel, and I picked it up at a secondhand bookstore.  This is the second of her four novels, preceded by Living in Ether (1982) and followed by The Other Canyon (2002) and Guru Cigarettes (2005).

My Thoughts:

Strange Toys was separated into three parts, the three periods of Pet’s life when she encountered the supernatural.  Pet was a very different person at each point of the journey, and I thought the distinction between child, teenage, and adult voice was very well done.  Since the supernatural part of the story involved voodoo, the stories tended to revolve more around New Orleans than Pet’s childhood home of southern California.  Each story built to a climactic event, but the first two ended before actually reaching it.  I found it a little irritating to only see the conclusion through flashbacks.  However, this story is really about Pet and her development, so I can appreciate that it is more important to see how she incorporates events into her identity after the fact.  Since the story is broken into three parts, I’m going to address each stage of Pet’s life separately.

In terms of both story and character, I felt that the section featuring Pet as a child was the strongest part of the novel. It seemed to me that Geary captured the perspective of a child remarkably well. Pet’s information and understanding was limited, and her stable world was as small as her immediate family. Many of her experiences left me feeling nostalgic for my own childhood,such as the long car trips, the engrossing games she and her sister June played with their toys, and the affectionate/bullying relationship they shared. Since she was a child, she approached the supernatural in a very matter-of-fact way, with little doubt of the reality of her experiences.  Pet didn’t really understand what had happened with Deane, but she knew that her family was in danger.  It was her desire to protect her family that pushed Pet towards the occult, and pushed the story forward.  The tension in the situation always left me wanting to read more, and I found Pet to be a very sympathetic child protagonist.

I was less engaged with Pet’s teenage incarnation, though I enjoyed how different she was from child Pet. It seemed that Pet was portrayed as the popular idea of a typical teenager—preoccupied with makeup, sex, and partying, and possessing almost no ability to make sensible decisions.  I enjoyed learning more about voodoo in this section, though I wasn’t completely thrilled with how the information was imparted. Most of it was given through conversations with the extremely stereotyped Alonso, a much older Native American man with whom she had a brief sexual relationship. The plot seemed mostly driven by Pet making a series of remarkably bad decisions, which left me feeling more exasperated by her character than drawn in by the story. 

As an adult, Pet was much more in control of herself and aware of what she wanted out of life.  In several ways, I could see how different aspects of her past shaped her adult identity. She lived a strict healthy bodybuilding lifestyle, and, in a very literal sense, she had made herself very powerful.  However, her disdain for less fit people was a little grating to read. In terms of story, this section seemed mostly about Pet achieving a sense of closure, so it lacked some of the momentum and tension of the earlier stages of her life.

Though I favored the story of Pet’s childhood, I enjoyed the treatment of the supernatural through all three stories. It was always in the background, and never completely understood. Most of the things that were affected by magic could also be explained through overactive imagination, drugs, or simply coincidence.  As one of the strictures of the novel’s voodoo claimed, “Coincidence is the perfect texture.” The story seemed to stress that there would always be a large element of unknown in the supernatural, and this was also shown to be true in more mundane life.  For instance, though Deane was a major force in Pet’s life, Pet and the reader only ever know very little about her. This emphasis of the unknown is also seen the in conclusion of the novel—the significance of the final events is left open to interpretation.  Most questions were not explicitly answered, which I think it was a fitting end to this kind of story. 

 My Rating: 3.5/5

Strange Toys tells the story of the three times Pet encounters the supernatural: once as a child, once as a teenager, and once as an adult.  Her voice and character are dramatically different in each segment, but I was most impressed by the portrayal of Pet as a child.  I felt like the first section of the story was also the most interesting narrative, with clear stakes and constant underlying tension.  I found it difficult to care about Pet as a teenager, as she continued to make one extremely bad decision after another, and the final section seemed very mild in comparison with the others. Overall, though, I liked how the supernatural parts were never fully explained, and how so much of the meaning of the story was left to the reader’s interpretation.  The ending may be too open for some readers’ tastes, but I think that the conclusion fit the style of Pet’s story very well.  

Review: Among Others by Jo Walton

Among Others by Jo Walton

Published : Tor, 2011

Awards Won : Nebula Award, Hugo Award, British Fantasy Society Award (Holdstock Award as of this year)

Awards Nominated : Locus Fantasy Award

The Book:

“As a child growing up in Wales, Morwenna played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her half-mad mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to a father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England-a place all but devoid of true magic. There, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off….” ~WWend.com

I’m getting the feeling my blog is going to fill up with a lot of Jo Walton titles in the coming years!  She’s a very talented writer, and I love how each of her novels feels so different from the ones before.  Among Others seems like a book that was written with a specific audience in mind. As someone who falls (at least partially) into that audience, I found a lot to love in Among Others.   

My Thoughts:

The story of Among Others is told through Morwenna’s journal. The novel was convincing as the journal of a teenage girl, but it was also satisfying as a work of fiction.  I think this is a very difficult balance to achieve.  It was well written, but it felt like the voice of a teenager. There was a certain necessary detachment from the events of the story, but it was compensated by the closeness to the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings.  Telling the story through Mori’s journal also resulted in a slow, meandering plot that was more like a ‘slice-of-life’ story than a traditional narrative structure. 

Mori’s journal felt at times like a teenager’s SF review blog, a mild teen drama, or a fantasy story.  I think it is the first of these points that is the most polarizing.  Mori spends most of her time reading, so she comments constantly on the science fiction novels she consumes.  Later in the story, she even recounts discussions about various authors or works that took place in the book club she joins.  For readers who aren’t well-read in 1960s/1970s science fiction, I can see how this might really bog down the story.   I’ve read a fair amount of the works Mori mentioned,  so I think that I fit into the target audience for these portions of the book.   However, even I have to admit that Mori’s comments about the works were often not particularly important for the story.  Her love for the novels—and her ability to connect with others through that love—was central, but the specific name-dropping seemed mostly present to invoke nostalgia in the reader. 

In addition to her love of science fiction, Mori’s belief in magic shapes her world.  I thought Walton’s treatment of the fantasy elements in Among Others was especially interesting and poetic.  There are no fireballs, magic wands, and magical-lightning-filled showdowns.  Walton’s magic is, as Mori would say, “always deniable.”  Even if a spell appears to have worked, it would do so through ordinary means, leaving always the possibility that the success was merely a coincidence.  Mori sees and talks with fairies, but they can only be seen if one already believes in them.  This mundane treatment of magic makes it possible to see the story either as fantastical, or as the tale of a highly imaginative girl.  I liked how skillfully the story walked between the two interpretations, so that it is never completely clear whether magic really does exist or whether Mori just uses her belief in it to give a meaningful shape to the events of her life.

In addition to the science fiction discussions and quiet fantasy elements, the character of Morwenna is another determining factor for the audience of the novel.  Since this is a story of her daily life, told through her journal, the entire story revolves around her thoughts, her opinions, and her experiences.  I think that it might be difficult to become invested in the story if one did not feel any kind of kinship towards Mori.  I doubt that many people can relate to her specific situation—being crippled in the event that killed your twin sister and then being shipped off to an English boarding school.  However, I think a lot of science fiction fans could probably identify with her struggle to find a group of people who shared her interests.  I particularly connected with Mori’s social problems at her new boarding school.  I know what it feels like to move into a closed system of friendships, and find that no one is particularly interested in involving the “weird new girl”.  Despite Mori’s problems, her narrative remained refreshingly low in self-pity, and I enjoyed getting to know her over the 200-odd pages of Among Others.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Among Others is an unusual book targeted towards a specific audience. The story, told through Morwenna’s journal, is a kind of slice-of-life fantasy story about a teenage science fiction fan searching for a community in which she feels she belongs.  Along the way, Mori constantly discusses the many science fiction novels she’s read (mostly 1960s/1970s SF), in a way that will likely be charming to some readers and off-putting to others.  The magic in the story is “always deniable”, where successful spells can easily be explained away by coincidence.  I loved how this created an ambiguity about whether the magic was real, or it was just the frame Mori used to make sense of her life.  Despite differences in the specific circumstances, this story resonated well with me, and I think it will also resonate with many other fans of science fiction.

Review: Elfland, by Freda Warrington

Elfland by Freda Warrington

Published: Tor, 2009

Awards: Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award

1^st Book in the ‘Books of the Silver Wheels’ Series

Sub-Genres: Contemporary Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy

The Book:

Aetherials, the elemental creatures some call the faerie folk, live in two worlds.  Some stay in their homeland of the Spiral, while some choose to spend their lives on Earth, blending in with the humans around them. Between these two worlds is a series of Gates, governed by an ordained Gatekeeper.

Elfland tells the story of two Aetherial families, the Fox family and the Wilder family, who live on the Earth.  The Wilders are seen as cold, haughty, and distant, while the Fox family seems full of love and laughter.  While these two families might look very different at first glance, they are hopelessly intertwined, past and future. 

The patriarch of the Wilder family, Lawrence, is the Gatekeeper.  He has angered the entire Earth-based Aetherial community by refusing to open the Gates.  He claims he is protecting them all from some terrible danger, but he is unable or unwilling to explain the situation more clearly.  The Wilder and Fox children now face their life on Earth, without the possibility of ever even visiting their ancestral home.  Some of them are obsessed with penetrating the closed gates, while others desperately want to turn their back entirely on their heritage in order to live a ‘normal’ life.


I have never read a book by Freda Warrington before, and I picked this one up to participate in the Women of Fantasy Book Club discussion. I had no idea what to expect going into this book.  While it is the first of a series, Elfland also works as a stand-alone novel.

My Thoughts:

Elfland seemed to be primarily a romance and a family drama, rather than a fantasy.  The characters and their personal relationships are really the driving force of the story.  The Fox and Wilder families seem rather isolated, as they are almost never seen interacting in a significant way with anyone outside of their small, closed community.  The story follows the Fox and Wilder children from their childhood through their growth into young adults, with all the mistakes and false starts they make in their lives along the way. 

The style of writing was very meticulous about physical detail, particularly visual detail.  I felt like every character was always completely described, down to every strand of hair and facial expression.  All of the characters and important locations were brought to vivid life.  I still have a clear image of each person burnt into my mind, and I finished this book weeks ago.   The prose kept me interested in the book, even at the low points of my interest in the characters and the plot.

The viewpoint jumps a lot throughout the book, but Rosie Fox could be considered the main character.  Rosie is flighty and overdramatic, and she has a very hard time trying to figure out what shape her personal life should take.  Her mistakes along the way tend to be incredibly emotionally destructive to both herself and the people around her.  Her older brother Matthew wants to turn his back on his Aetherial nature, and live fully as human, while her little brother, Lucas, just wants to make the people he loves happy.  The Wilder children, bad-boy Sam and charismatic, druggie Jon, each have their own troubled character arcs that interweave with the Fox children’s.  The older generation has its share of drama as well, and there’s a small group of human friends who find their place in the tapestry of the story.  Overall, it seemed like something of a soap opera, and this feeling was intensified by the absence of anything outside their small community. 

The fantasy elements were the Aetherial nature of the characters and the world of the Spiral.  For much of the book, one could just think of the Aetherials as an isolated ethnic group, since they did not seem much different from humans psychologically. Some of their physical abilities do set them apart, however. Aetherials can travel into the ‘Dusklands’, which is kind of an Aetherial perception overlaying the human world, and transform into more elemental shapes there.  They can also magically will their body not to become pregnant or contract STDs—a useful way to eliminate some of the consequences of sex in the narrative.  Aetherials also live for longer than humans, and are reincarnated in the Spiral after death.  

The humanity of the characters certainly made them feel more real and relatable, but it did result in one small drawback.  It irritated me every time a character blamed their behavior on their ‘wild Aetherial spirit’. They also tried to claim that Aetherials are ‘not bound by human vows’ a few times. I found this a little strange, since no one is literally bound by a promise.  You don’t have to be a fairy to break your promises; anyone can do that.  It was annoying to hear the characters glorify a lack of integrity as a noble trait.

My Rating: 3/5

Since I am usually not a reader of romance, this was not really my type of book.  However, the prose was lovely, and the Foxes, Wilders, and their few friends really sprang to life within the story.  Even so, outside of Lucas and Faith (Rosie's childhood friend), I rarely had positive feelings towards the characters.  Since, in this case, the characters really make the book, I think this affected my ability to get into the story.  I will probably not read the rest of the series anytime soon, but I may come back to it someday, when I'm in the right mood.