scifi

A Review of Anthropocene Rag by Alex Irvine

This novella is described, right on the cover, as being part Willy Wonka and part Huckleberry Finn, and let me say, that description is exceedingly accurate. It’s a description that, at face value, I feel like I should enjoy, but ultimately this sci-fi dystopian novella about magical realism and robots left me wanting more.

About 90% of the novella follows six people from across America as they make their way to a city in the Rockies that has become more myth than reality, Monument City. Making their way across the country, however, proves to be a little less than normal given that billions upon billions of nanotech-like robots have taken over America and mold the land and the people to whatever story or Americana lore it wishes to see. This is where the intersection of sci-fi and magical realism starts to come into play. Honestly, I loved these parts of the novella. One character describes how “The Boom”, the technology that rules the land, turned thousands of people into a baseball stadium just to watch a historic game played out on it.

This take on our already waning bodily autonomy as we enter into the late stages of capitalism was a very interesting facet of the story and I was intrigued by all of the characters, especially Geck and Teeny. Geck is especially interesting to this ever-present technology because he’s a twin. Like the billions of nanos that make up The Boom, Geck and his twin, Kyle, are coded exactly the same but yet still turned out to be two different people with two different personalities.

I found each character’s journey to Monument City to be fascinating, including Prospector Ed, the robot or “construct” that was assigned to find these six characters and bring them to Monument City. I wanted to know more about The Boom and the kind of world America is now and what Monument City really is. I know the nature of a novella means I won’t get all the answers and should figure some out for myself, but I felt like the plot could have been structured with just a little bit more emphasis on the arrival to Monument City.

Overall I really enjoyed this story and loved the combination of magical realism with science fiction. I also loved the message about American culture and history that Alex Irvine was trying to get across, I just wish there was more of it!

Thank you to NetGalley and tor.com Publishing for the free galley version of this book for the purpose of this review.

Anthropocene Rag comes out this Tuesday, March 31! Check out the links below to learn more.

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

A Review of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

I was about 100 pages into The Night Circus, which I had been told time and time again I needed to read if I loved The Starless Sea as much as I proclaimed to, when my other half finished Gideon the Ninth. As soon as they finished it, they insisted I read it and when I learned it was about a buff, kind of naive, lesbian and her pointy, angry, elf-like necromancer friend, I knew I had to listen.

I put aside The Night Circus (don’t worry, I’m back in it now) and finished Gideon the Ninth is a rip-roaring, spell-binding, heart-aching two days. When I say this book reached into my chest and pulled out my still beating heart and then ate it in front of me straight up Khaleesi style, it’s not an exaggeration.

Gideon is a fighter, in pretty much every sense of the word. She’s an orphan who was all but abandoned on a desolate planet under…shady circumstances, but she’s never let that stop her from being a badass. The only other person remotely near her age on the planet is Harrowhawk, the princess of the Ninth House, and stone cold bitch extraordinair. They hate each other, but, when a call is sent out for the necromancers of each planet, or House, to enter a competition that hasn’t happened in a millennia, Harrow and Gideon join, reluctant, forces.

The cast of characters that Muir manages to each give distinct personalities and backstories is insanely huge. Despite the host of characters, they all feel unique and they all play a significant role in the story and, thematically, help force Gideon and Harrow closer together.

There are some issues with pacing, I feel, in the second third of the novel, but it more than paid off in the end when, as I said, my heart was ripped from my chest. This blood-thirsty, gut-wrenching, bone-crunching novel got me so good in the “feels” I took a few days to not read anything else and let the story process. I legitimately think *SPOILER WARNING* that I was in some sort of mourning.

I eagerly await the second book in the series, Harrow the Ninth, of which I have already read the prologue for. You can find it here. The second person fucked me up emotionally, man, my heart isn’t ready for that shit. Now I just have to somehow survive until June without gnawing my own fingers off and trying to resurrect my fractured soul from the bones. Damn you, Muir!

PS: If Gideon and Harrow aren’t endgame at the end of this trilogy I will, first, grind my bones down into dust, and then sprinkle them in Tamsyn Muir’s cereal.