Read-Along: Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey, Part 1

It’s time to kick off a community read-along of Kushiel’s Justice, the fifth book in the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey!  This week’s discussion covers chapters 1-7 and Susan of Dab of Darkness has provided our discussion questions.  Beware of spoilers for these seven chapters, as well as for the previous four books.  If you’d like to join in the read-along, feel free to check out our Goodreads group and and check out SFFReadAlongs on Twitter.

1) Imriel wraps up some left over business - meeting with Bernadette de Trevalion. What do you think of the way Imriel handled the meeting? Will the peace hold? 

I think he handled it pretty well.  She seemed very surprised that he was not going to retaliate against her, but I think the peace will hold.  I think it also helped that he proved he had not been conspiring with anyone.  Bertran’s apology came far too late to preserve their friendship, but at least he did apologize.

2) Imriel first hears of the Bear People or Bear Witches from Alais and later a little more from the Alban honor guards who attend the Bard, and still a bit more from Phedre. Simply a spooky story or more to it? Does the tale remind you of any myth or legend? 

Is it ever just a spooky story in these books ;)?  It reminds me a bit of Darsanga so far, but I hope we don’t go anywhere that dark again. The story about the man-bear reminds me of the story in Brave.  I don’t know if that was in turn reflecting a true legend.

3) Mavros accompanies Imriel on their visit to Bryony House, where Imriel wins them tokens for the Longest Night. What did you think of how Imriel won the bet? Mavros shares a bit of wisdom later, pointing out that Imriel isn't really enjoying sampling all the Night Court Houses before his wedding and that it is somewhat of an injustice to Naamah. Do you think Mavros is right? 

I have to agree with Imriel that thinking about Darsanga is the ultimate anti-aphrodisiac, but also that it wasn’t really worth the win.  Imriel didn’t really seem into the Night Court party anyway, so it would have been fine (and much more pleasant for him) if he’d just lost. 

Imriel does seem to have a way of taking encounters that are meant to be happy and making them very sad.  I think it was good of Mavros to notice this, and to suggest they stop their tour of the houses.  That’s a shame, though, because I’m really curious to see the rest of them.  I also think Mavros is right about giving offense to Naamah, and it was good of Imriel to acknowledge this and make penance.   

4) In this section, Imriel visits Kushiel's Temple and then later Naamah's Temple, wishing to atone in both for various slights and actions. Which would you find more cathartic? Do you think Imriel has a deeper understanding of himself, and perhaps Phedre, now? 

I think he does, though I honestly wasn’t sure he’d make it through Kusheline penance without having a breakdown.  I feel like he really understands the importance of consent now. His time in Kushiel’s temple is not like Darsanga because it is something he chose to endure.  As for me, I am not really a fan of pain, and I don’t think it would make me feel absolved.  I think Naamah’s release-of-dove ritual is more beautiful and inspiring. 

However, while he got peace from Kushiel, I think he got a little more than he expected from Naamah.  Even the priest warned him about asking for Naamah’s blessing, and it seems like that blessing led him to love as he wanted—and to that interesting encounter with Sidonie.

5) Finally, we have the Longest Night. What stood out the most for you? If you could join Imriel's little group, what philosopher would you choose to dress as? 

Well, there was that brief meeting with Sidonie to think of!  I also thought it was nice that Imriel returned to Elua’s vigil at the end of the night.  I feel like he’s still trying to define himself, but now in a bit more of a self-forgiving and open way.

As for the philosophers, I don’t really know all that much about philosophy.  I suppose I would go as Voltaire, if he were to exist in this fantasy world!  He’s one of the great d’Angeline philosophers, and I bet he would have a nice costume.

Other Things:

On reading these chapters, I realize that Imriel still doesn’t have a good grasp of what makes up romantic love.  He seems to think that passionate, lifelong love strikes at an instant when two people’s eyes meet.  This came to my mind because he keeps mentioning how he knows he’ll never have the passionate romance he craves with his betrothed, Bredeia. He really doesn’t even know her, though. 

When he compares the situation to Joscelin and Phedre, I think about what the two of them thought of one another when they knew each other about as well as Imriel and Bredeia do now.  They certainly weren’t in love, and any suggestion that they were soulmates would probably have been met by either laughter or a cold stare from Phedre or Joscelin, respectively.  Their love was something that grew slowly over time, through many experiences. Imriel only saw the end result of all those years they spent together.  I’m not saying that he and his fiancée will necessarily fall in passionate romantic love, but I don’t think he should discount the possibility just yet.

Also, on the cover: It looks like Sidonie?  I'm not sure why, since she's not the main character.  Were they just really opposed to putting a boy on the cover?  I'm sure Imriel would make a lovely picture.  

Review: Finch by Jeff Vandermeer

Finch by Jeff Vandermeer

Published: Underland Press (2009), Corvus (2010)

Series: Book 3 of Ambergris

Awards Nominated: Nebula, World Fantasy and Locus Fantasy Awards

The Book:

“In Finch, mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers.

Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels. Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever.” ~WWEnd.com

Somehow, I completely missed the fact that Finch was part of a larger series until after I’d finished reading the novel. I don’t think the series is a continuous story, but I suspect some details might have been a little clearer if I’d read the other two first.  Anyway, this was a bewildering introduction to Jeff Vandermeer for me.  In any case, I’m open to trying more of his novels in the future, because of his unusual style. 

My Thoughts:

From the very beginning of the novel, I began to suspect that I had picked something completely outside my comfort zone.  I’m not really a huge fan of horror or noir, and I think Finch can be best described as a mix between the two.  Also, I am intensely disgusted by fungus, to the extent that it’s difficult for me to even prepare mushrooms (though I do eat them). The setting of Finch placed a lot of emphasis on feelings of dirtiness, lack of physical integrity, and disgust, through descriptions that lingered over various forms of fungi, fungal infestation and living fungal creatures.  I guess the setting achieved it’s goals with me, though sometimes it was so gross that I had to stop reading for a while.  It’s really a testament to the creativity of the story that I always wanted to come back and read it later. 

Aside from the revulsion factor, I enjoyed the strangeness and complexity of the situation in Ambergris. Though the story started with the usual noir “detective with a sad past investigates a mysterious murder” line, the investigation was really not the point. Finch told us from the beginning that he wasn’t really a detective, and that he was just going through the motions in hopes of surviving the occupation. It took me a long time to get a clear understanding of Finch’s past and of the different political human factions, and I think there’s quite lot that I never managed to grasp. In retrospect, I wonder how much clearer things would have been if I’d read City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword first.  Even without the grounding from the other Ambergris books, though, it was entertaining to try to make sense of everything that Finch uncovered. 

In addition to the fungal grossness, the overwhelming atmosphere of despair in the novel kept me reading it in small bites.  Finch had lost everything except his life, and he was forced to live in a never-ending nightmare. Ambergris was taken from the human inhabitants and transformed into something unrecognizable to them, as Finch’s partner Wyte was colonized by a fungus that was destroying both his mind and body. Finch’s sense of hopelessness gave the narration a feeling of detachment, which might have been part of why I never felt much of an emotional investment in the secondary characters. The end of the story was pretty exciting, but it also left a fair number of open questions.  Overall, this was a difficult book for me, but I appreciated it’s creativity.

My Rating: 3/5

I didn’t realize that Finch was the third Ambergris book until after I’d finished reading it, so I probably lacked some foundation in understanding the complicated world.  That, among other things, made this a challenging novel for me.  I’m not a huge fan of weird horror and noir, which this book combines, and I had a strong disgust reaction to the fungal setting.  Despite this, I really enjoyed the strangeness and creativity of the story and of Ambergris, and I’ll probably read more of Vandermeer’s work in the future.  I think I’ll pick a novel with less fungus next time, because his writing on that front is too evocative for me to handle!

2016 Hugos: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

Hugo Award Nominations are open until March 31st, and I’m in the process of organizing my thoughts about which works to nominate.  I’m going to write a series of posts talking about each of the fiction categories, and what makes my best-list of the year.  If I’ve missed your favorite, please let me know in the comments.  There’s still time before the end of the month to enjoy more science fiction and fantasy!

Today, I’m going to start with the category of Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form).  This is usually “Best Film”, but it can also be given to a season of a television show.  This past year has been incredibly rich in science fiction television, so a few of them ended up on my long form list.  As of the moment, my Hugo Nomination Ballot is going to include:

1) Predestination:  This is the most interesting science fiction films I’ve seen in a long time, and it has had its eligibility extended to this year.  It stretches the limits of what kind of story you can tell with a time travel premise, and it also features some excellent performances by Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook.

2) The Martian:  It’s a shame that previous self-publication kept The Martian novel out of eligibility last year.  Luckily, we get another chance to recognize the story through last year’s movie.  I have this on my list both to recognize an excellent novel by Andy Weir and all those who worked on the faithful and entertaining movie adaptation.

3) Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Okay, so maybe the plot echoed the original trilogy a little too hard, but there’s no way I could leave Star Wars off this list.  It was a truly fun movie, and I am on board for following Rey and Finn into more adventures.  I hope they don’t make this trilogy about redeeming Kylo Ren, though.

4) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: The first fantasy to make my list, and a Regency era fantasy at that. If you’re unfamiliar with it, this is the story of two magicians in an alternate history 19th-century UK.  I loved the novel, and was excited to share the story with my husband through this television adaptation.  I feel like the show stumbled a bit at the end, but it did so much more right along the way.  Even my husband, not at all a fan of the Regency era style, agrees that the miniseries deserves its place on this list.

5) The Man in the High Castle:  A science fiction drama from Amazon Prime, I was curious to see what the series would make of the novel.  It has diverged quite far from the source material so far, but I think it’s tonally consistent.  This was an engrossing and disturbing show about living in an occupied country and the level of atrocities that can become accepted as the new normal.

Honorable Mentions: There are many other shows and movies that I would also agree deserve a Hugo nod.  In movies, I’m sure Ex Machina will be on many lists.  I thought it was an interesting film, but a little slow for my tastes.  Mad Max was unique, but it has been a polarizing film in my household (I think it’s neat, my husband is less tolerant of extended car chases). In television, Jessica Jones season one nearly made the list, and it was the conflict between Jessica and the mind-controlling Kilgrave that sold the show for me.  ‘Kilgrave’ has even become a verb that I use in describing other shows. I have been surprised to realize how common Kilgraving people is in speculative fiction.

What do you think?  Did I miss anything amazing? If so, do tell!