Four books this month and not a murder mystery in sight! Instead: a book of scifi shorts, a sort-of historical fantasy, a non-fiction history, and a fictional sort-of romance. Apparently a month when I felt the need to shake things up!
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 24th Annual Edition, Daryl Gregory
I found this hefty book of 28 science fiction short stories in a second hand store and purchased it for the trivial price of fifty cents. I hesitated at first because all of the stories are from 2006 which seemed a bit limited, but … fifty cents!!! I love love love science fiction short stories. Mostly it’s because science fiction typically requires a degree of explanation to put the story into a futuristic place in space or time or technology, and I’m always impressed at how well the short-story authors achieve this when words are limited. It helps that, while I appreciate the imagination and detail required, I’m not a super-fan of books with extensive world-building (sorry, Frank Herbert!) and short stories are great at circumventing this. In one of my favourites of the 28 stories, two inter-planetary miners come to despise each other so much that they start plotting each other’s murder. When they suddenly find a wealthy vein of ore and get to retire back to earth, they manage to pretend they weren’t about to murder each other, cordially shake hands and go their separate ways. I’m not describing it well … it’s much better written than how this sounds!
Written on the Dark, by GGK (Guy Gavriel Kay)
This latest GGK book takes us back to the familiar world of the Sarantine Mosaic, about 1,000 years in the future from that duology (my favourite). For those who know and love Kay’s work, this puts us in the vicinity of The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Brightness Long Ago. Not that it really matters, unless you are keeping an eye out for easter eggs, which Kay will occasionally sneak in. I don’t have a good enough memory of the details of what I’ve read for easter egg hunting, but my friend Warren finds a lot of them and reports them to me, so that’s a win! The Sarantine Mosaic tells the story of people seeking immortality through art, specifically mosaics, in case the title didn’t give it away. In Written on the Dark, Kay revisits this theme, except this time immortality is sought through poetry. It’s a nice touch given that Kay himself is a poet.
I have always described GGK books as “historical fantasy” but while attending a book signing event – here in Picton believe it or not!!! – Kay corrects this, describing his books as “historical with a quarter turn to the fantastical”. He said that while he would like to write historical stories, he himself feels dishonest writing about the thoughts and feelings of real people, since we can never actually know the truth about their inner selves or what motivates them. Thus, he is more comfortable writing fictional characters inspired by real people, such as a character in this new book called “The Maiden” who is obviously modelled after Joan of Arc. I should add that it’s not necessary to have a love for or interest in history for GGK’s books to be great reads!
The Inconvenient Indian, by Thomas King
What saves this book from being a totally depressing look at ourselves (White people, that is) as deranged genocidal and ecocidal maniacs is King’s disarming sense of humour and sarcasm. I laughed at places when I should have cried for the loss of natural habitat, native culture, mutual cooperation, and childhood innocence. King’s book is partly about the systemic and systematic attempt by European colonists to completely erase native populations from North America. For being a fairly easy-to-read, if not digest, book, it is dense with facts about the oppression and marginalization of Indian (King’s word) tribes across the continent. After being summarily shamed in a way that we all need to be, King ends on a slightly more hopeful note with two examples of where, perhaps, some level of equity with our indigenous populations might be reached. One of these examples is the formation of Nunavut and it remains to be seen if governments to come will respect the agreements that have been put in place for autonomy and self-government. History would, of course, suggest this is unlikely.
How To Read A Book, by Monica Wood
A really sweet book, recommended by my friend Erin, and worth reading. But if a hard-luck character narrating how some stranger did them a good deed for no reason other than kindness is something that (also) makes you cry, then have some tissues handy. This is a book that has the ability to restore your faith in humanity, without comprising the realities of how people struggle with acceptance and forgiveness.
Great reviews. I think that the only one I will look for is “how to read a book”. That looks like it is right up my alley….