Valerie

For anyone who thinks protagonists have to be likable in order to enjoy a book, give this one a try. June is pretty horrible, the human incarnation of “I'm not racist, but...”, and yet Kuang preserves her humanity and allows the reader to feel empathy with her. She's awful, but she's not a caricature. She's a very real person, probably all too common in Kuang's publishing spheres. As a white woman with dreams of traditional publishing myself, I can't help but read her as a cautionary tale.

Yellowface is a major departure from Kuang's epic fantasies, but her writing is strong enough to cross genres effortlessly. I wouldn't call it a “fun” read. It's frustrating, complex, and frequently disheartening, but it is a good story that is vital and incredibly relevant in our social media fame-obsessed age.

Amazing book. Another SF classic that passed me by when I should have read it. Having finally done so with the perspective of an educator who has spent her entire adult life learning how to work with young minds, I'm deeply impressed by Card's impression of them. The children in the story all feel like very real children despite their intellectual advantages. Real children who have seen and experienced far more than they are supposed to have done. The idea of applying playground psychology to interstellar war is absolutely brilliant, and I understand why this book is as famous as it is. Not sure if I'll get to the sequels. There are a lot of them and my catch-up list is very long, but even without them ths book holds its own.

I was in the mood for classic high fantasy, and this book certainly captured that. It's a pretty straightforward quest story about a boy discovering his mysterious past and how the fate of the world hangs in the balance. It is very obviously the first of a trilogy, and as such primarily feels like exposition, but I think it will probably feel better as part of a whole rather than a stand alone. This book was written before 900 page fantasy novels were a norm, so I'll cut it some slack there. The series has been sitting on my shelf for a while in the “classics what I should have already read” section, so I'll likely finish it out.

Jemisin is a modern master of world-building, and this plane is no exception. You can sense the research she devoted to ancient cultures woven in with yet another unique magic system that bears no resemblance to any I've ever read before. She also masters incredibly complicated relationships. Ehiru and Nijiri are mentor/student, father/son, path brothers, mutual caretakers...There is romantic love and spiritual love and doubt and longing. No relationship she writes is clearly labeled; they are all as messy and complicated as real life. This along with her skill at inventing new cultures are what sets her writing apart.

Back during the election, I think I remember Octavia Butler and this book specifically being referenced as eerily prescient. I don't think I clued in to how specifically prescient it was in that the nation would elect a reactionary demagogue working from a elitist form of Christian values who literally uses “make America great again” as his tag line. Guys, we weren't even recovering from an Apocalypse when it happened...

But unsettlingly accurate future visions aside, this is an unsurprisingly amazing book. It is vast, encompassing both Olamina's story after founding Acorn and her daughter's story and opinions as a frame. It speaks a lot towards the imperfections that come with being human, the betrayals which can so quickly escalate to horrific, as the traitors and bystanders repeatedly justify their actions and move along. It forces us to look at even what the protagonist justifies, and then what excuses we ourselves make, what moral compromises would we rather just not think about.

Butler pulls no punches, and I often struggled to get through because I couldn't handle that much vicarious suffering. Her prose makes Sharers of us all. She was a master, fully deserving of her acclaim and reputation, and this duology in particular are necessary reading in America's current climate.