Argle Blargle

1st up, "The High Sierra", subtitled "A Love Story", by Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020, 625 pages, 170k words. KSR, the dean of climate fiction, has been hiking in the California Sierra mountains for almost 50 years. It is indeed a love story. It covers a lot of different topics: geology, locales, types of trails, history, people, equipment. I have labeled this as travel? KSR is lucky to have formed such an connection with such a beautiful place. I certainly have nothing comparable in my life. I bought this in hardcover, others might like it as a vacation book.

Next, "Attack Surfact", by Cory Doctorow, 2020, 531 pages, 144k words. I also bought this in hardcover, so as to spread the memes. That is why I just got around to reading it.

Doctorow is the bard of the revolution. This story is a continuation of the story arc of 2008's "Little Brother", blogged here, and 2013's "Homeland", blogged here - no wait, I haven't read "Homeland" yet! This is what comes of buying hardcovers! Oh boy, I got that going for me, I needed something good to get rid of the bad taste in my brain left by the last 2 books (below).

In "Attack Surface", we go from teenagers vs the evil Department of Homeland Security to 20-somethings vs evil private security government contractors. Great insight into the tech & tactics of the burgeoning surveillance state.

3rd, "The Iron Gate: A Twenty Palaces Novel", by Harry Connolly, 2022, ? pages, ? k words. I liked this series years ago, then its publisher discontinued it. Connolly did a kickstarter for this book & 1 more in the series. It was a nice, diverting read. The mystical Twenty Palaces society continues to protect earth from extra-dimensional horrors with a taste for human minds.

4th, "Victories Greater Than Death", by Charlie Jane Anders, 2021, 373 pages, 101k words. This is billed as YA, which I generally do well with. This seems to be targetted to younger YA readers, tweens maybe - agonizing on "should I kiss them", etc. If you have seen the movies "Jupiter Ascending" and/or "The Last Starfighter" you have most of the plot. But these aliens are so much more considerate and advanced than the aliens in those other stories - they always introduce themselves both by their name and their gender pronouns. I won't be continuing this series, it's just too juvenile. I think I got spoiled by the YA novels of Paolo Bacigalupi. Cory Doctorow, & others.

Last, "A Half-Built Garden", by Ruthanna Emrys, 2022, 345 pages, ? k words. An interesting premise - 50 or years in the future, aliens show up just in time to help us emigrate from Earth to their Dyson sphere, before Earth becomes unlivable. Earthlings in 2080 feel they have the climate crisis under control such they can save the Earth & not abandon it. Conflict.

Ok, starting to get weird. Local government on earth is ... watershed watch networks?!?!? My wife has collected water samples from local creeks for Kentucky River Watershed Watch for many years. I act as her 2nd pair of hands and puller-out-of-the-creek. I have attended KRWW meetings. It really, really seems like an unlikely group to be running things - and to have succeeded in banishing the corporations & capitalism to New Zealand and other island sanctuaries. I'm guessing the author is active in their local watershed watch.

Plus, above & beyond the expected gender pronouns, the corporations use gender pronouns based on role-playing roles - 6 of those. The author in the acknowledgements calls out their gender pronoun wrangler - maybe something you didn't used to need to write a book. By the end of the book you are guessing that words are gender pronouns with no idea what they are supposed to represent. There should have been a table.

Most annoying of all, the protagonist (& the author?) is a kosher-keeping practicioner of Judaism. So the aliens offer her food in greeting & she can't eat it because she doesn't know if it is kosher. The book should have come with a large-type warning label:

WARNING: CONTAINS BRONZE AGE RELIGIOUS BULLSHIT!!!

The protagonist (& the author?) is a nursing mother, so we get lots of detail on breast pain & letting down, etc. My wife nursed our 4 kids, it is a wonderful thing, but I don't think all the breast-feeding detail added to the narrative of the novel.

The watershed watch society is based on social media reputation-based governance, with algorithms for everything. I have been off social media for years, it is toxic, & I think as stultifying as the society in this book seems to be.

Then at the end, the big reveal: the wife of the progagonist (& the author?) used to be a male.

The book seems like the author constructing a narrative where all her interests & life choices are what will save the earth, defeat capitalism, & provide a safe & just place for all. To me, that seems, what, narcissistic? Solipsistic? Self-centered?

Meanwhile, the pacing is totally odd - "hi, we're aliens, can we come in?". There was a trip to visit the aliens during a hurricane that was suspenseful, other than that the drama is fairly minimal.

I almost quit reading this book several x, but I wanted to see if it got any better. Not particularly. Interesting that I can write so much about a book with no Spoiler Alert. I'm giving you a precis so you don't have to read it.

On to "Homeland", yay!