Book Review: Machine by Elizabeth Bear

 I'll start of this post by giving my rating of 1/5. This book absolutely didn't work for me and in the paragraphs below I'll highlight why. I'd recommend you read the book before reading this review as it contains spoilers. There'll also be a brief comparison with Ancestral Night (the first novel in the series) because I actually did enjoy Ancestral Night.

1. The main character (Brookllyn Jens). It felt like Bear wanted to create a nice and caring character by creating "Llyn" but imo failed quite massively at it. In theory (I say theory because it didn't come across on the pages) Llyn is a doctor. However, throughout the book she acts mostly like an angsty, self-absorbed, and reckless teenager. She's also very much a Mary Sue who can do everything if necessary for the plot. Apparently she's great at relationships (despite telling us throughout the book she really isn't) and care (This being illustrated when other characters recognize her skills and send her to help a mentally unstable AI and a newly re-awakened human from a few centuries ago through talk-therapy) even though there is constantly a lot of emphasis on how she didn't get along with her wife and doesn't really speak to her daughter (like at all). She's also super strong due to her exo-suit and super knowledgeable about just about anything. The only things she can't do (there are a few, such as find an anti-virus for a virus that's been rampaging through most of the book) is done off screen within two pages- so not really an obstacle.

2. So much internal dialogue and ranting! I have absolutely no patience for these kinds of books. There were multiple times where Llyn (the main character) just went off on tangents in her head about various issues that had nothing to do with plot. There was a ton of social-just-warrioring, browbeating people who don't think "a certain way", tons of hypocrisy (example: Llyn really likes a character who is homophobic- although he really isn't- despite being a lesbian), and virtue-signalling. After approximately five such scenes, I very much had enough and started to skim the rest. I get it. Bear thinks humans are all bad and we need devices installed in our head to tell us how to behave. Oh-kay... I was very much on the side of the characters (the "archaic" and "atavistic" humans who did not have such devices) because yes please I'd love to keep my emotions and integrity of thought even if they're sometimes destructive. (Never mind that in the novel, even the people who have such mind-altering boxes behave "wrongly" and have mental breakdowns, make the wrong choices, are not always pleasant.)

3. The mystery had a cool setup- This is why the book is actually getting a single star (even though as a whole I'd probably rate it 0). The book introduces an emergency doctor who breaks into spaceships to save the people (potentially trapped) inside. She's been sent to an old generation ship that's been traveling for 600 years and hasn't gotten very far because they didn't have warp drive back then. She finds it abandoned- when it shouldn't be- and all its citizens in cryosleep in the hold. There's only one alive (sentient) being on the ship and that's the shipmind called Helen. (Hellen Alloy, which somehow is supposed to read as a pun on Helen of Troy, which has no impact on the story since Helen doesn't turn out to be a/the Trojan horse and also why the fuck would a spacefaring civilization that's had aliens around and various other things going for centuries still remember Helen of Troy unless they were a historian- which Llyn decidedly isn't? There are so many of such historical reference in the novel... I can't even describe how jarring it is to stumble upon these and be like "wtf why does Llyn know about Cromwell and Helen of Troy?") So, the setup is curious, but unfortunately, there's where the story's integrity stops.

3. There are so many things that pissed me off towards the end.

So there are conspiracy theorist rebels who are trying to uncover a devastating secret about "the hospital". The only issue is that the secret is neither very horrible, not even illegal, and the motivations for having/keeping this secret are much, much more reasonable than anything Llyn angst-warbles about in her internal monologues.

The secret is that rich people (how can they even become rich? I thought this society was utopian and had some communism thing going on. This isn't at all explained.) are cloning themselves and downloading their brain (via the aforementioned mind-altering boxes) into the new body. The issues the main character has with this is:

But the clones are peeeeople!

And also: These rich people are so baaaad! They're getting better treatment than anyone else! It's not faaaair!

Oh and: The doctor who set up this scheme is baaaad! This one is the worst. The doctor who set up the scheme was doing it to obtain resources FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOSPITAL. Literally the space-spanning intra-species hospitel WOULD NOT EXIST if this doctor had not started the program to let rich people download themselves into cloned bodies! All throughout the book we're told how Llyn looooves the hospital. The hospital is her life and the only thing she believes in. Then she learns The Secret (TM) and decides "this doctor must be punished" and "the cloning and brain transfers must stop"... like what? You realize that this doctor saved the hospital in its infancy and that you'll run out of funding if you actually do stop them?

But no. This is not the kind of logic Bear goes with. Instead it's all about how wrong cloning is and the clones (who're only sleeping in their pods but are "individuals because they dream") are being treated unethically! This isn't really explained or extrapolated on. It's just: "they dream so it's unethical to load them with new brains". There's also a character who was a clone and who woke up and freed herself. That's fine. I liked her. But then the "good guys" fucked with her brain and so she's also a victim.

I don't even really know where to begin picking this apart. Sure, I can get behind the "the clones dream so they are people" but on the other hand the author goes into much detail how all the clones experiences and physical exercise are done by the evil doctors through stimulating their muscles and their brains. So there's no real experience and the clones don't "live". They just dream. Ok. I still think this is valid. The clones dream. They're real people when they wake up. But who's to say the downloaded brain of the old rich person whose clone it isn't wouldn't a) enhance the clone's own experiences and life (such as it is) and b) allow them to actually live? I guess there's some ethics there that I can't unravel.

The huge gaping hole (that bugs me the most) still remains: supposedly Llyn loves the hospital and lives for it. But she still easily decides that the clone doctor is wrong (hello, newsflash, the hospital wouldn't even exist without her!) and that she must be punished (hey, newsflash again, your own fucking ambulance ship will probably be decommissioned/not have any more resources if you reveal the clones and clone doctor and secret). Through this punishment the hospital will suffer/lose funding/perhaps be closed down entirely since basically all the funding (according to the book) for the hospital and all its operations comes from these rich people who want to live forever in their own clones.

This is grossly glossed over in the book and comes to no real resolution. It's just how it is. Llyn doesn't even try to empathize with the doctor who made her whole life as it is and her love of/belief in the hospital possible. Her only thoughts on the matter are: You're wrong and what you're doing is unethical. Thus I will smite you.

??

At least here an angsty passage about what might happen if she reveals the secret would be appropriate (unlike the other 600 times Llyn just goes off topic and warbles about unrelated things to the scenes previously or adjacent).

All right. This section has gone on very long. I guess it shows how annoying it is to have to deal with illogical character decisions and nonsensical plots. Was Bear trying to make a point about AI/clone ethics? I can't say. I would have been along for that ride and I would have loved to get the above argument resolved. Is it okay to make a few clones suffer in order to help thousands of thousands of people of various species (human and alien)- especially if these clones don't have any personal experiences and are basically made for the purpose in as little an invasive procedure as possible? Do the clones even care (unless they are woken prematurely like the one character I mentioned). They didn't get a choice in being made- they don't get a choice in whether they want to be awake or whether they would find it okay to serve as a "new body" for another person either. This is another huge problem with the book and these are questions that need to be answered when you're dealing with sentience (in the form of AI, clones, whatever) and it wrong-footed me that Llyn became a social justice warrior for people who she doesn't know/in a situation where she doesn't know what they want.

The entire book has the same issue with AI. The AI are basically like humans but with more information storage and nothing else. All the aliens are. There is no distinction between their psyches. The only differences are physical (most aliens are either trees or animals slightly changed) and most of them are quite... boring. The mantis-like AI that eats its males after mating? The giant elephant/hippo alien that trumpets and walks around the hospital like "an elephant in a china store"? Their descriptions are uninspired to say the least. Their speech (or: communication to put it more accurately) and their motivations are very human. There is no thought given to what a different species (AI or alien) might think/articulate differently or whether they're thinking in the same way as humans at all. There's nothing to distinguish aliens from humans. The characters could all be human and nothing much would change about the book.

This is getting long.

So to sum up: while the book was overly critical about issues such as gender and race and had plenty of passages browbeating the reader into what the author wants them to think it utterly failed to take into a count diverse minds. The book continuously blabbers on about how we shouldn't assume gender and how the "ancient" humans from the spaceship are wrong because the one guy Llyn speaks to has an emotional outburst (never mind that she has plenty of those on the regular) and because he says "I am not gay" which is taken to be homophobic (I don't see it). He's also "afraid to cry" (like a few masculine stereotypes) even though he comes across as otherwise pleasant. Llyn, a lesbian, still seems to have no problem with him anyway. So is he homophobic (and then I'd expect her to have an actual problem with him) or not? Never mind here that this all starts BEFORE she even meets one of the "ancient" humans (in particular the one guy she does meet) alive/talking. The rest (before the dude is thawed) is just her projecting and complaining about how bad it will be to wake them up because they're all archaic and don't have mind-adjustment boxes in their heads.

I can't really explain how hypocritical the whole books sounds to me. The above is really just an excerpt. The rest contains endless musings about how it is wrong to do x, y, and z and how this is all because humans are so archaic and don't have mind-control boxes. According to Bear, we're apparently all too stupid to get along if we're not brainwashed, so brainwashing is the solution! Yeah, I don't buy it. Especially because all the brainwashed people still act dumbly, wrongly, make terrible decisions with terrible consequences, don't treat each other that nicely, and still suffer under various doubts and angst in their own heads.

Yeah, gonna be a nope from me to install this kind of brain-control-box utopia.

The remainder of my thoughts really circles back to the uninspired aliens. Sure, they look like something in my mind because Bear described them physically a lot, however, they're just like a human wearing a costume, and nothing special. They all have the same goals as humans, they're all very humanoid (in manner, thought, communication, goals), so there was nothing really special there. No mystery, like there sometimes is in Star Wars about various creatures (not that Star Wars is that much better, mind), so for a book that tries very hard to invent a ton of alien species, even explaining some of the science (methane-breathers for example) well, it fell completely flat in the sociology department.

4. Lastly, a small comparison with Ancestral Night, which was published a few years ago in 2019: Ancestral Night was fun. There was some philosophical yapping but not nearly as much as in this book. The main character was a lot more interesting and easy to form a connection with. She was just a spacer doing her thing. Llyn, on the other hand, has very rigid morals (for a supposedly free-thinking character) and agonizes constantly about various bullshitty social issues of 2021/22. Her baseline is: ancient (21st century) humans are bad. Only humans with mind-control boxes are good. It really makes me wonder why she knows so much about "ancient" humans and why she (a very supposedly-liberal) character constantly sees the need to point out to said ancient humans how wrong they are for thinking like they do. So maybe the "ancient" guy mentioned previously is slightly uncomfortable with homosexuals (though nothing in this text actually convinces me he is) but it doesn't reflect poorly on him so much as on Llyn. Llyn treats him differently/thinks poorly of him because she thinks he is archaic/homophobic/"ancient" even before she meets him! He does not treat her any worse/different after he learns she is a lesbian. He remains cordial and in the end saves her life. And was he ever homophobic in the first place just because he told her that he is not gay? (In no way it is even hinted at he sees "being gay" as a bad thing. He just tells her he isn't gay and has a wife. So?) I believe Bear's own vendetta is coming out a bit too much- despite agreeing with the general idea that homophobia isn't desirable. I want to liken the homophobia (as portrayed) a bit with the aliens and especially "ancient" guy's reaction to them. Ancient guy is initially worried/afraid of the giant mantis introduced to him. He gets over it within the course of a scene. So what if he was initially worried about people different to him (homosexuals or otherwise?). He gets over it very quickly (if it was even there in the first place) and acts perfectly fine towards everyone (homosexual, butch girl, and aliens). And I think that's reasonable. If you're not used to something, it can take you a while to get used to it, and yes, this includes different sexualities and different skin colours. It's all in how once you've gotten in contact with new experiences you react to them and behave around them. It's all in whether you're an asshole to someone (for reasons not limited to the aforementioned) or humanity in general or if you are decent even though initially you were worried. (Worry usually comes from fear. It's all about how you deal with that fear.)

I guess this has gone long enough and I've gotten angry enough in the course of writing it that it's turned into a small essay. The last thing (seriously. This is the last) I want to say is that I don't think Bear's intentions are bad. She's made an effort to be inclusive and speak about recent topics. I just don't think she's done any of them justice and some of her views (or her characters' views) are contradicting and hypocritical. That's fine. The book is long. I know from experience of being a writer myself that you can't keep track of every single detail. But then again: maybe she should have cut out all of Llyn's internal rants and the chunk of text minus those 300 pages would have been easier to manage. /shrugs I'm not a doctor, but I'll prescribe Bear a healthy dose of reading Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark and Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith to iron out the issues with her non-human characters.

Book Review: Baru Cormorant (first three books)

 This review contains spoilers. It also has very strong opinions.

The Traitor

The Traitor was hands down the best of the three books. I sucked it up and got super excited when there was a tense moment (panicking slightly at the battle of Sieroch!) but was disappointed at the end. The twist was great but Tain Hu's fate absolutely didn't work for me. I thought she might die in the battle and was worried, because it felt like the kind of book where this could happen, but then she didn't and I was relieved. I wanted to see more interactions between her and Baru and how the following books might develop their relationship.

Instead, Dickinson decided to kill his gays after all, and the death just didn't work for me. This isn't because of the twist- the twist was actually really good. But I didn't buy the hostage situation of the cryptarchs and I found it laughably stupid how it was handled in the remaining books. The end of book one promises 'oh look Baru has no hostage so she will wreck fucking havoc'... and then book two lets the reader down completely because Baru doesn't do anything of notice (or at all). I'll talk more about this later.

So, the relationship wasn't shown and Baru hides her feelings, doesn't think about her relationship to Hu, doesn't pine for her, doesn't consider anything related. All she does is express her lust a few times and there's some description of how hot and strong Hu looks, but nothing really about how Baru feels about her. Thus the relationship is non-existent and I could not feel any pain when Hu dies. Added to that, the whole situation felt unreal. Surely, if cryptarchs without hostages are so dangerous/powerful, then the cryptarch with Baru at the end (Apparitor) would not let her kill Hu? The book constantly tells us about how dangerous she will be if she has no hostage... and then this supposedly super-brainy institution of the Throne and its cryptarchs just lets her hostage slip out of her hands/die. I imagine the possibilities for book two if Hu had lived as a prisoner/hostage... and I can see so much potential for this series not to collapse!

The book has other problems too that I could ignore because the plot was good (until the last few pages). The characters (though likeable) are very shallow and not even Tain Hu is more than that. Dickinson made a good sketch but didn't really fill it out with any of the characters but (slightly) Baru. Baru usually acts like an idiot in social relationships but was adept in her plotting. I also had hopes for the second book and Baru's character development- which is entirely thrown away when Hu dies.

There are quite often way too many descriptions and too long-winded ethical discussions.

 

The Monster

I read this book because I liked the first one (sans the ending) but primarily because I wanted to know what actually happened to Tain Hu. I couldn't really believe Dickinson would shoot himself in the leg by killing her... but then throughout book two he kept shooting himself by mentioning her all the time. It got annoying quick. There are many reasons why the Hu-is-guiding-Baru thing doesn't work. The biggest of all is because Hu and Baru didn't really have a relationship- at least not one that was shown enough in book one to make me really feel for them. I'm usually a crier when good characters die- but I didn't cry when Tain Hu died. I thought she was a cool character with a lot of potential... but considering Baru's relationship (of lack thereof) with her and her weak character beyond the sketch of a headstrong warrior woman trope she wasn't really much of interest (Hence why I read the book to find out that she was still alive- so her character could really be developed and loved before she actually dies.)

The plot of this book was very weak. A lot of nonsense things were happening but nothing of substance. Baru didn't do anything except throw a party and then sail to another island. There was nothing of notice here that made me want to read book three... and I also didn't like the new additional character view points. I didn't like any of them and felt like they were poorly handled. A sailor on shore leave does nothing but fuck... in very graphic ways. A non-binary character does... absolutely nothing except hate on their friends. Oh and there's a woman who survives everything because she won't let herself be mastered bla bla bla. Her reasons are very weak and so is her vendetta. It gets worse in the third book too. (More on that later.)

The things Baru does do (does she actually though?) fall together by coincidence and are very weak. There is no real plot. A lot of space is wasted by additional viewpoints and endless discussions about loyalty and other repetitive things (such as the cryptarchs' purposes and the feud between two of them). Yes, I get it, one is trying to prove his theory, the other is trying to prove another. The book mentions these are twenty times each and I got bored after the first two times.

The characters are even worse. There's a bunch of secret super brain people (the cryptarchs)... and they sit together on their little ship and bicker and bitch like teenagers. The intelligence Baru showed in book one is gone. Any 'threat' I might have felt from the other cryptarchs (Apparitor and Durance) evaporated by them standing around and yapping about nothing of import.

This book wasn't for me but I did finish it. I constantly hoped Tain Hu had somehow survived just to put some tension into the plot. If she lived as a hostage... The stakes would be so much higher and perhaps there'd finally be some insight whether/why/how Baru loved her.

But no. Hu's dead. So is the tension in this book and the stakes of the series.

 

The Tyrant

This third book is the hands down the worst. The second book was so-so and the third book degenerates from there.

At the end of book two Baru is captured after having done nothing whatsoever the entire 100k+ words. In the third book she gets hit by painful injuries (that she and none of the other characters should survive by the way) one after the other. It reads like Dickinson thought: 'I heard somewhere you should hurt your characters! There we go!' and went with it without considering what was really meant by those words.

There is again no emotional impact on anything Baru does (or rather doesn't do). Baru's dragged around by this group and then that. She suffers constantly from various injuries (missing fingers and various brain damages and being almost-keelhauled at some point) and it just gets too much. At this point I've lost every hint of why Baru might be likeable or how she plans to do anything when she's going from unconscious and suffering to unconscious and suffering every other chapter with no real progress in the plot.

The main antagonists don't do anything either. They're just trying to run away.

The main villain doesn't show up except in the scenes happening in present tense.

Baru's smarts from the first book are gone entirely. There's no agency and no emotional investment in anything... and then plot twist she finds out half of her brain is someone else's (or at least she thinks it is) and suddenly after that her character takes a 180 degree turn from what she was before. There is no hint anywhere before around the 40% mark that she's going to change and how it might happen. Then suddenly after 45% Baru is a completely new character. She turns from calculating and smart and sacrificing for the greater good to 'we must save everyone! Hippie-Yay-Yay-Yo!'

And it's just not believable. I get it- reversals and changing characters are cool. But there needs to be some setup! There needs to be a believable change! The only reason she may have changed is the book's version of karma and some pseudo-enlightened dude telling her 'what goes around comes around' (Don't get me started on this tangent of the boring and weak side-main characters...)... but it's not clear in the book? I'm also thinking the change might be because she couldn't sacrifice 'her oldest friend'... but she can sacrifice the woman she ostensibly loved (after not interacting with her in any meaningful way except having sex once?)? Eeeh?

I am so not buying it.

Final Thoughts:

I read somewhere that Dickinson might not publish another Baru book.. He's lost his wind and is no longer super interested in it... and no kidding of course not! He shot himself in the foot so massively killing the love interest at the end of book one that he had to come up with enormous amounts of bullshit to even fulfill his three book contract! He's also removed the main adversary (while hinting at others... laughably) by the end of book three and there is just no more juice unless he wants to build up a whole new villain and... well. I imagine he's exhausted about the drivel of books two and three. 300k words of absolutely no emotional investment and random non-plots will do that to you.

In summary:

Read the first book and leave the other two. You think you're in for a great political/economic epic? You're not. You're in for boredom and senseless plots after the first book. Save yourself the trouble and the money.

(Writing) Things I can't show my mother.

This time of the year seems when I do a lot of thinking and find some things to regret. This is one of them.

There seems to be a kind of trend where writers are afraid to show their work to their families, most often their mothers. There might be violence in your book or copious amounts of blood. There might be political opinions that differ from those of your parents or your protagonists are hooliganish liberals when your parents are on the more conservative side. There might be sex. There may be guns and swords and religious views that don't line up with what your family believes.

What if my mother sees this? appears to be a question that holds many a writer back from digging deep.

I have that problem in a different but similar way. I'm not worried my mother will read my books (she doesn't know about them and her English isn't good enough. The best she'd do is an attempt at the first page before giving up.) but at the same time I'm sad that I'll never be able to show her what I do and the art I create.

It's not about sex (although she'd frown upon this) or religion or differing political views. The one big thing she'd never understand about my stories is the violence and the realism. Unlike my grandmother, dearly missed, who was a realistic and headstrong person much like myself, my mother is more of the head-in-the-clouds type.

If she read any of my stories, her first question would be:

"But why does it always have to be violence?"

Just like when in my younger years I was still optimistic enough about her to share it was always:

"Why must all the characters be gay?"

There's a reason I don't shy away from violence in my books and think that those stories that have some aspects of it are my best. As much as I hate it and would love to read/write about unicorns and gentle fairies in beautiful forests every day, violence is a part of real life, and if I am writing about real life (which I try to do) then there will be injustices. There will be psychological pain, there will be real pain, and sometimes there will be murder, abuse, and occasionally even darker themes.

Don't get me wrong. It hurts to write those things. It hurt deeply. But in the world we live this represents real life. And that's the reason why I can't show my mother or even tell her about it. My mother lives in her own fairy world. In her opinion, if you ignore violence, it doesn't exist. If you don't think about murder, then murder doesn't happen. If you don't think about blood and someone getting beaten up and worse because of the colour of their skin or their sexual preferences, then racism and homophobia doesn't exist. If you don't talk about injustice, political and otherwise, then injustice will eventually go away.

Mother, this is not reality, but I am too tired of arguing about this any more. I argued about my gay characters too often. I argued about why I drew two boys kissing. I defended why I liked seeing two gay men openly hold hands in Germany (the most progressive place I'd been on holiday back then). These days, no more.

Mother, you are free to think what you please, but that does not mean your opinions are free of consequences. On the contrary, it's the reason why we can't be friends, as much as that hurts me. But I'm not prepared to defend again and again why I must write about things that are real. I'm not prepared to argue with you (again) why it is important to speak about unpleasant things in order to change them in real life. Finding these things out is every person's own responsibility and it's not like I haven't tried. I understand now that some minds resist change or don't want to see it because it's too painful. I find it difficult to respect those minds. I'd prefer to live in a painful world that I can hope to better than to live in a made-up fantasy where nothing bad ever happens if you don't think about.

That is the reason why my mother will never see my work. I'm exhausted and my heart is tired. I can't convince her. And I'll not keep defending myself for trying to improve the world.

Tally time coming up and other Christmas things...

It's almost the end of the year. I'm shortly going to publish the list of what I've read this year (It's pitiful) and my thoughts on it. I'm not extremely happy with how many books I've read, but I am happy I took the time to re-read some favourites and try things I normally wouldn't due to random reading challenges. I'm also happy I spent a lot of the time I didn't read on more important things.

Yesterday, I watched The Age of Adaline, and beyond the main character being boring and not at all the 'remarkable woman' everyone in the film seemed to think she was, it was quite a decent film. At least for the the hour and 45 minutes it lasted I was entertained. (Though a lot of the romance is very cringey...)

Also yesterday, I made a whole turkey, for two people. The breast parts are so dry, they literally stick in your throat, but the rest of the meat, the filling, and the veggies were great. The veggies stuck to the pan and the turkey almost did too. But hey! It was fun and delicious.

I drank some unicorn wine. I got some presents. I gave some presents. All in all, a nice Christmas.

How did you guys celebrate? Put your own festivities in the comments! I'd love to hear about them.

Other news...

I've given up on my Wartales party because of (something like?) ADHD and it being a little bit too difficult on hard mode (uh-oh). I might actually have some sort of ADHD-condition without being diagnosed (yet). It's very difficult to stick to a single task at a time. The older I get, the less I can make myself focus, and difficult tasks especially are quickly dropped. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What can ya do? I'm just happy to try new things and weed out things that don't work for me (any more).

Playing video games... Wartales! (Early Access)

 I recently started playing Wartales (currently in Early Access) and it's extremely fun! Of course, being the masochist I am (just kidding, I actually really, really don't like pain!) I'm playing the game on hard mode. That means I'm reloading... a lot of them time. But the fun of the game (for me) is really in trying to puzzle out tough combat. It's turn based and complex enough it takes me a few tries on most battles (I don't want any of my mercenaries to die). Add to this that I didn't recruit any new mercenaries beyond my starting 4 for a really long time (got to an entire new area with 4) because I couldn't find a female mercenary. Don't laugh. This is very important to me. I'd love to have a group of all girls exploring, being cut-throats, killing guards, refugees, and stealing their way around town. That's just me though. I'm sure some people have a conscience when playing games.

Anyway, point of this: add more female characters to the game. Rotate mercenaries you can hire. (No, I don't want another anger, brute, or warrior. I'd like a spearman or some archers next.) I'd also like to be able to start with more than 1 female character in a group of 4. So far, just trying out different 'new game' loads, I've not managed to get even 2/4 females in about 10 new loads. I think 3 male and 1 female characters is the default, at this point.

Here's to hoping there'll be an option to choose gender of your starting mercenaries in the future!

PS: I did finally find another female mercenary... and then another that I rescued from burning at stake! And after about 40 hours of playing one more. So now my group boasts a total of 7 mercenaries. The ratio is now 4/3. Still looking for that hot spearwoman to join my troop though...

Cheers!

Reading Summary (September-late October)

I usually read about 40 books a year. Last year, I managed only 34 books. (That's 24 fiction and 10 non-fiction). In 2021, however, I'm already far behind my usual numbers.

To date (and keep in mind the year is almost over!), I've read 10 fiction and 5 non-fiction books.

That's a bit sad, isn't it? I'm trying to pick up the pace in the last three months of the year and hope to at least finish ten more. (Actually I'm hoping to get to 35. But who knows.)

On the other hand, I've been writing a lot, so maybe that's taking some time out of my reading... time.

There are a few books I'd like to talk about in this blog post. They're still fresh in my mind and I have plenty of opinions on them.

1. Lost Connections by Johann Hari

if you struggle from any mental health issue, especially depression or anxiety, you need to read this. It's a story, like any other about mental health, but this is a story that made a huge impact on me. It seemed to help.

if you have read it, let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts (comments are open and free, as always!)

2. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

This is a bit of an older book. 1983 – that's older than I am! But it's the best book I've read so far this year (if you don't count my re-read of The Windup Girl, and even then, it's close.). I'm aware that many readers will call this book old-fashioned, sexist, or unnecessarily complicated, but I absolutely loved it. On goodreads, you'll find plenty of reviews complaining about the language, the prose, and how it's written 'ponderously'. Plenty of readers tossed it down for that reason and never picked it back up. But I? I absolutely loved it, despite the horrible clown. I just wished it hadn't ended so soon (she says, after almost 400 pages) and that there were a sequel. That's literally the only quarrel I have with the book (or rather, Tim Powers).

Other than that (and here is the point where I wish I had a few millions to convince Mr. Powers to write more in this universe), this book has everything. It's set in the past (mostly), deals with ancient sorcerers and magic, has a plucky female character, and a male main character who's just... trying his best even though he isn't really good at it. All he knows is poetry and poets, and the book is delightful in how it uses the character's particular knowledge and genius.

It popped so many chicken-vs-egg and grandfather paradox questions into my mind while reading, giving me food for thought, but it never slowed down enough for me to get bored. There's a werewolf (an ingenius combination of the usual trope and a dead Egyptian god), there's magic that doesn't work with stupid rules (such as wands) but feels magical and mysterious rather than a science project, and there's homunculi who are basically doppelgangers of people who exist. There's also other homunculi. And I love it.

I'm gonna say: You have to read this book. There's just so much delight and fun in it without it getting silly. I absolutely loved (ok, ok, we get it) and recommend it. I'll probably re-read, soon.

3. Howl's Moving Castle

This was supposed to be its own blog post. It might become one. But let me here note down some quick thoughts about HMC.

It was fun! It was silly, but the voice didn't annoy me, like it usually does. I listened to this in audiobook format and the only section I didn't like came in the middle of it. There's a part where Howl, the titular character, goes to 'a different world', but it felt strangely out of place and Narnia-ish to me. I was glad when this was over. It didn't really have much to do with the plot either. Why does the witch/demon want to go to this 'other world'? To catch Howl? But he's mostly not there. So yeah. That part didn't make too much sense.

HMC was a lovely light read. I'd definitely recommend it. The only issue is...

4. The Problem with Howl's Moving Castle (the film)

The movie made on the basis of the book doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's Studio Ghibli, so what am I expecting in terms of plot? Not too much, but even so, HMC was a severe let-down.

Caveat: I did enjoy watching it. It was emotional. I'm a crier and so I cried. (I actually hid in the bedroom to watch it so I wouldn't get teased about this.) However... The plot made absolutely no sense.

*The main villain was just dumb- This is a witch called Sulliman. A royal witch (as in, in the service of the king). Apparently this witch started a war to get back something Howl had lost and make him realize 'the truth'. After telling the main character of the movie, Sophie, that she wanted to destroy Howl's powers and (possibly) kill him.

Ok? I'm all for the reversal- the villain did it because of loooove! But a royal advisor starting a devastating war just so she can help a single child? I mean, it can be seen as love, but it sounds borderline obsessive. The witch isn't even Howl's mother.

*Howl's firm (an admittedly cool-looking bird) is never linked to anything... but apparently he is a 'monster' because of it. I don't... buy it? I'm thinking this was set up to imply Sophie loves Howl despite him being a 'monster'... but he isn't really a monster and doesn't act like it. He'd a kind dude. Who is apparently part bird. What's wrong with that?

*Howl is perfectly friendly and very kind. He's not even vain or in any way as cruel as in the book. Despite that, the film insists he has no heart (physically), and it repeatedly hints at Howl's heart being important for... something. This something is not explained, nor is it explained what will happen to him if he doesn't regain his heart, or what will happen when/if his heart is returned. Him lacking a heart is just thrown out there without reason or rhyme, labeled as a 'bad thing' without any consequences shown or any other plot related to it. In the end, he does get his heart back, of course, but this doesn't seem to change him all that much either or has any effect on the plot.

*Unlike in the book, there is also no explanation about Howl's pact with Calcifer (who was admittedly the almost-best character in the movie and book). The movie shows us briefly how the pact was made to explain why Howl has no hear (he gave it to Calcifer) but no reason for this generosity is named and Calcifer doesn't seem to be evil (implying something baaad will happen if he keeps Howl's heart). In the book, of course, Howl saved Calcifer by giving him his heart and Sophie is able to keep them both alive when she returns Howl's heart to howl. In the movie, however, none of this is explained and Sophie doesn't even seem to have magic.

Ugh.

*The best character of the whole movie was the Witch of the Waste. As much as I love Calcifer and the fact that, while the others are animated and drawn cute-ly, he's just a flame with googly eyes, hands down, the Witch of the Waste was the better character. The Witch, unlike all the other characters, has a single purpose: She wants to have Howl's heart. She was in love with him once and he with her. She wants to have his heart again.

Her goal, her entire raison d'etre is to get back Howl's heart. This is what she does throughout the movie, the consistent goal that thrives her to do bad things, such as turning Sophie into an old woman, such as setting her goons on the hunt for Howl. In the end, she realizes, even when her memory seems to have been half-wiped by Sulliman, that Calcifer has Howl's heart. The Witch is willing to kill Calcifer to get it... and she succeeds, at least at stealing it. Then, however, as she watches Sophie's pain and grief, her fight to save Howl, she is moved. She hands Howl's heart over to Sophie.

Isn't that great character development? The Witch, a caricature of the character she is in the book, turns from 'his heart is mine' and being willing to murder for it to 'here you go, dear' when she realizes Sophie loves Howl more/differently than she ever did/could. She is willing to surrender her goal, the reason she fought so hard, because she has been moved by Sophie's kindness. She, who was, if not the villain then at least an antagonist, changes, and she is the almost only character who does. (The dog, Hine, changes too, from his loyalty to Sulliman to a loyalty to Sophie and her found family. However, I'd argue that the Witch's change is the most profound in the movie.)

Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer, on the other hand, all stay the same throughout the movie. Nothing changes in their character.

I'm not sure if it'd be silly, here, to argue that the Witch is the real heroine of the story, at least in the movie, but I definitely feel like she was more heroic than either of the other characters (safe perhaps Howl) in the end.

 

 

The other books I've read the last month and a half are a bit easier to judge:

1. House of Hollow: I read this for the Fantastic Fiction Book Club as October's read. I'd definitely say it was okay. The story wasn't super unique and nothing special (I've read better changeling literature), but the plot was decent, the characters entertaining, the narrative tightly written and always full of mystery and intrigue. I liked the book, but I wasn't super impressed by it. It seemed derivative, using a lot of common tropes, and the main character was annoyingly powerless most of the time. I kind of wanted the villain to win. He had real motivation and seemed to be the only character with a clear and realistic goal. A small spoiler: The villain is the main character's father. The main character's mother on the other hand was hysterical and... I really cannot emphasize with her at all. Her children were killed... and she forgives their killer and invites her into the family? Oh-kay? I get that grief does weird things to people. But really?

2. This is How you Lose the Time War: What complete bull-shit. I've heard tons of good opinions on this one and was curious what the hype was about. People seemed to praise it left right and center. Then I got into it.

And what absolute crap it was!

I get it, I get it, it has so much purple prose the plot almost drowned, which some readers might find beautiful. It has imaginative imagery and imaginative settings (although most of that is literally just taken from historical moments) and it just oozes... something. I'm not even sure what. It just oozes.

It's supposed to be a love story (I guess?) but despite the characters playing with each other and circling each other for millennia (through space and time, nonetheless), none of this is ever shown. I don't understand why Red likes Blue and vice versa. I didn't see them play, didn't see them circle one another, didn't see the challenges that placed them together and took them apart. It's a kind of Romeo and Juliet- The two main characters are from different 'factions'- but written in a way that absolutely doesn't work. I'm not sure what readers are drunk on these days. The whole 'exchange of letters' the book is based on is absolutely garbage and definitely not emotional enough to be considered a love story.

It reads more like something where the concept became more important than the story. The concept, a huge war between factions across space and time, whose outcome is never explained so hard to care about, and changing history to suit one faction over another, sounds like fun. It's a very complex and interesting concept. But except for a few scenes in which the main characters hide a note to each other, we're not shown the time war, not explained how it works, what the end goal is (beyond one side winning over the other, as in every war), and there seem to be no stakes for the outcome that make the love story 'tragic' (as the writers intended).

The characters, too, are bland, and if the names hadn't been evident in their correspondence with one another I'd not have been able to distinguish who sent which letter. They're this similar, and this bland. Their alleged character traits (Red being bold and very direct in her approach to battle whereas Blue is more mellow, smart, the poisoner rather than the warrior) don't come through in any of the scenes. The hiding places of their messages have no distinct qualities to them that make you instantly know who hid which message.

The ending was wrapped up neatly- I could believe that Red might save Blue the way she did- and set up meticulously. However, the other ending, the one where they communicate again with one another, was just as stupid as the rest.

Am I supposed to believe that two people who never touched and barely caught any glimpses of one another across time and space can actually feel enough love toward one another to sacrifice themselves entirely? That screams teenage LDR fantasy to me. (And that's coming from someone who's met almost all of her friends and previous partners in online settings and games.)

In short, I don't buy it. The prose was too purple, the story unnecessarily convoluted, the setting much too whimsical to allow for any real feelings to grow.

3. Dune (Movie):

I know the movie isn't out yet in the US- so proceed with caution if you don't want to be spoilered. I'm going to keep plot spoilers to myself despite the age of the book but there will be some general rants about Chosen Ones, visions, and prophecy.

First of all, it's clear from the beginning of the movie that a few things will happen:

Paul is the Chosen One (TM).

Paul will master 'the Voice'. (Is this a Star Wars rip off?)

The girl in his vision won't kill him- even though it looks like it where conveniently the vision cuts off!

They will kiss (confirmed in later scenes by another vision).

Paul will kill/incapacitate/overthrow the emperor.

The villains are all Star Wars villains- old men in hoods and robes- but fat.

I cannot take the Baron seriously. He literally floats like a fucking balloon! He even bounces.

All that out of the way, the movie was enjoyable, the graphics and CGI super neat. I love the desert atmosphere, the great spaceships coming down, the battle scenes. I love all of that for its visual aspect. It's just so fun to watch! The space ships are designed absolutely wonderfully (I love the square black ship hovering over the desert city in one scene), as is the desert city, as are the enormous sandworms (although sandworms have looked the same for ages) and the tech they wear/use.

The one problem I had with the movie was... women. There are none. Almost none. All the warriors of Paul's family are men, the army is male-only, and women feature very lightly in any battle scene. I remember one female warrior, a spear-woman, but she's shown for a fraction of a second and then disappears (dies).

The other females are this:

1. Paul's mother: I have to admit she's great. There is femininity and vulnerability to her, she's the member of some ancient secret nun clan, and she's immensely powerful. Her control of the force Voice is great (and absolutely awesomely portrayed in the movie) and she is a physical fighter as well. She can hold her own, and she does, when threatened. She's also vulnerable and able to cry when bad things happen to her. Solid 10/10 character with the one caveat that she's still very attached to her not-even-husband and it feels a bit cringey in some moments.

2. Dr. Kynes. This character is supposed to be 'cool'. Very aloof and 'hands-off'. Roguish with a heart of gold. Yada yada. You get the stereotype. Mystical woman saves Paul and his mother and is generally 'badass'. There isn't much more to her than that. I suppose she'll become a mentor to Paul or something in the future.

That's in terms of the main characters of the first movie. And before you jump down my throat there these two more: love interest mysterious desert girl and old woman cult leader nun. They're... just your standard token woman character fare. Paul needs a love interest, of course, and of course she has to be the mysterious desert girl of his visions! The cult leader nun doesn't have much of a role or anything else (I don't get the box test in the beginning- what was this even for?) so I'm not going to elaborate on her. There's really nothing to elaborate about.

In summary, then, there's only really one female character with impact: Paul's mother Jessica.

The rest of the characters are male. The advisors to the house are male: The army-leader-general (?) dude as well as the fat spymaster dude. Also the dude (Duncan Idahoe) who is some sort of fighter person and used to be Paul's teacher (I'm gonna need to call him Obi Wan even though he looks more like Quigon Jin).

The villains are of course all male too. There isn't a single woman (except the extras with their shaven heads- but I'd call those androgynous rather than female.) in the opposing house or anywhere else in the empire's ranks.

That being said, you can throw at me the usual 'but it's an old book' or 'but we must stick to be book'... but really, we mustn't. Dune, the movie, could have chosen a more progressive path while keeping all the tropes intact. Duncan Idahoe is the character that instantly comes to mind who could have been a woman. As could have both of the advisors. As could, actually, have Paul's father. Or, the villains. Rabban could have been a woman. The emperor could be an empress. There is no reason that we had to watch this dick-fest for two hours and the women had marginal roles only.

Listen, Paul's father at some says to Jessica, the cool mother, 'I should have married you' and all I could think was: What in the ever-loving hell? I get it, he's the one who makes the decisions, but really? This felt so denigrating to hear that it turned my stomach.

I'm finding it difficult to put into words why. I get that they love one another, and there's nothing wrong with that, and there would have been nothing wrong with them being husband and wife either (in fact, the mention that they're not is jarring, as it has no bearing on the plot and no one cares whether they're married or just together because.). However, the fact that he tells her HE should have married HER, as opposed to 'We should have married' or 'I would have liked to be married' or something that doesn't make it seem like he is the only one who gets to make that decision would have been... just great. This is why Jessica is a 10/10 with a caveat. How can this powerful woman let herself be treated like that?

Anyway, again, a lot of people will probably have some sort of argument along the lines of 'But that's how it was in the book'. And I ask you back: So what? The book is old. The book was written when stuff like that was... not acceptable, but still widely practised. These days, it's all about equality, about eradicating sexism, and the film had such a great chance to do that.

So why didn't they? Why isn't Duncan a cool warrior woman? Why isn't Rabban an angry, evil niece? Why is Paul's father a sexist asshole?

These issues really didn't have to exist. The book might have been out of date in social regards, but the film didn't need to be. And still it is.

So, isn't Hollywood trying to become more diverse? Isn't sexism an issue, everywhere? As a woman, the film disappoints me, and it's not because of the hundreds of tropes and the tired old stereotypes it is full of. It's because there's almost no representation of an actual woman in a cast of around 20 actors. There's one. 1/20. As a society, is that the rate of inclusion we're going for?

I've social anxiety and problems with society enough not to want to be part of it in many regards, but this just makes me want to not be part of it at all.

 End Rant.

Here are some articles I've found interesting this week:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Fear-Based Decision-Making in the Publishing Industry Part 6 (Fomo and the Indie Writer)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Fear-Based Decision Making in the Publishing Industry Part 7 (All Writers)

 

Dean Wesley Smith on Thinking like a Publisher #6 (Covers and Publisher Looks) 

Dean Wesley Smith on Cover Basics 

 

Dean Wesley Smith on Why to Avoid Traditional Book Publishers 

Dean Wesley Smith on Deadly Problems for Writers (Spoilers: It's Money.) 

Dean Wesley Smith on Why he is so Against Traditional Publishing

 

Enjoy!