Happy New Year! The holidays were a stressful time, but I still got through a few great reads. I also have several that are halfway done that will be carried over to next year, which drives my INTJ personality insane.
Speculative Fiction
Evershore by Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson – A great ending to the novella trilogy, and in its way, a better ending than Cytonic. I really enjoyed the discoveries in this book and the exploration of Jorgen’s character and the burden of leadership. Some really great things to think about here. Easily the strongest book in the trilogy. I look forward to reading more.
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell – I resisted reading this book for months. Much like the protagonist Emilio, I had been traumatized by the events of The Sparrow. Though I recognized it as a really important book (especially for those interested in SF explorations of religion), I was absolutely terrified to return and find out what else Mary Doria Russell had in store for these characters.
Well, I finally took the plunge, and I should have known that Russell would handle this beautifully. She steps straight into the religious trauma that her characters have suffered, gradually allows them to recover, and then plunges them into the fray again. There are also some really interesting narrative techniques used to cover decades of history on the planet while waiting for time-dilated space travel to occur.
Overall, this book is not an easy, comfortable read by any means. But the questions it asks and sometimes leaves unanswered are vital ones, especially for our time of faith crisis and colonialism fall out.
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Smoke and Shadow – I didn’t enjoy this one as much as some of the previous volumes. Azula seems to have completely reverted to her old self in spite of the possibility of redemption is The Search. There’s a good amount of backstory in here for Mai, which reads really differently in a post-January 6th world. Overall, it’s fine, but not great for me.
Fiction
Irreversible Things by Lisa Van Orman Hadley – Listed as fiction, but largely drawn from the author’s life. Reading this book is one of the few times that I’ve felt truly jealous of another author. I wish I had written this book. It’s full of interesting creative experiments that work out wonderfully. It tells simple stories about an ordinary life and yet is compelling. If you are a fan of creative nonfiction or memoir, I highly recommend this slim volume.
