storyorc's reviews
642 reviews

Fun to see the iconics in medieval fantasy AU and the art is GORGEOUS.

As with Paul Atreides, you haven't done Ender justice until you've read his sequel. Speaker for the Dead differs in setting, cast, and pace, but it retains the human heart and takes its time to reckon with a version of humanity that survived - thrived - off of technology won from xenocide. The narrative doesn't pull punches or excuse Ender, despite how he was manipulated, but nor does it leave him to wriggle on the hook of his own guilt. This reckoning is mournful, but productive, much like the duties of a Speaker.

Over everything, Speaker is an ode to empathy. It stands unashamed in its endorsement of the Saturday morning cartoon friendship-is-magic style of empathy, but also extends and deepens that to acknowledge how painful and difficult it can be to reveal truth and still choose understanding over hatred. Perhaps it's not realistic, but it's optimistic enough to suggest it could be. If nothing else, every chapter makes it more irreconcilable that this attitude of relentless, courageous kindness was penned by someone who campaigned against gay marriage.

The appetite for sci-fi is also well and truly filled by the mystery of a new alien species, the 'piggies', who kick off the plot with ritualistic murder of a human, putting humanity's lofty ideas of remorse for their xenocide to the test as well as calling into question how moral a Prime Directive-esque policy of non-intervention actually is. Card has obviously devoted great thought to their species and culture, and doles out hints as well as any murder-mystery author.

Of course, none of us are perfect. Orson Scott Card remains one of the worst namers in SFF, adding "piggy" and "ramen" aliens to a lexicon already burdened with "bugger".

The cadence of this book is like: pleasant, pleasant, pleasant, startling fact you have to rewind to make sure you heard right and miss the next few sentences pondering, pleasant, pleasant, pleasant - and so on. The stories feature people going above and beyond making the most of strokes and accidents that give them brain damage and interrupt their perceptive abilities in various ways. Some of their adaptations - like a blind man who plays chess via echolocation and a mute woman who communicates via a very long list of words - verge on superhuman (though the author prefers the more scientifically-accurate term "supernormal"). I found the first 3 chapters most impressive.

A bunch of creative writing students trying to make boyfriends with varying degrees of success makes for an interesting expression of the creative process. The critique of elitism is a guilty pleasure on the side but done with more depth than you'd expect from the opening - both the main character and the prose itself can't deny the allure of abstract pretension that haunts the literary world. 

Slightly saggy middle which felt like it was dwelling on points already sharply-made by the various experiments. A good mystery too - the kind where it's still thrilling to get to the end even if you suspect the right perp. Mostly, I just enjoyed how bizarre and violent Awad went, though even enjoying that from the comfort of my safe home is somewhat Bunnyish.

This book does a great job of clearly stating principles most people know to be good manners but probably don't adhere to as well as they should. It also follows its own rules in giving its reader an appetite to follow the advice with endless success stories.

The almost mathematical clarity does lend a sinister shade to the advice, no matter how many times Carnegie insists we must be sincere in our appreciation and apologies, because under the pleasantries, this is a guide to manipulation. Many of the featured testimonies are heartwarming but many also feature the teller getting more sales than they expected, a free car, a career - and an unspoken sense of having outsmarted the person who handed over their reward. Similarly, the book never touches upon assholes, situations where one party will lose, or convincing people to act against their interests. It is left to the reader to interpret whether this is for the sake of their morals or because those cases are beyond these techniques.

Carnegie claims to have had the resources to read a hundred FDR biographies and hire an employee to do the same but I would have traded that for a few studies, even if informal. Claims such as 'people like conversation partners who use their name often in conversation better than those who don't' and 'a person is more likely to agree to your proposal if you get them to agree to some inconsequential statements first' could be tested with a few dozen university students, like all good psychological studies back then were. Instead his evidence is wholly anecdotal. It may be true, or these could be cherry-picked examples, already collected in a biased way because how many people are going to write to him admitting that following his expensive advice worsened or had no effect on their interpersonal skills? Also, honestly, we could have done with about half as many anecdotes since many seemed to tread the same ground.

The historical anecdotes Carnegie assembled from famous leaders were a surprise favourite aspect, however. At least for Americans, Ancient Greeks, and a few Chinese thinkers, it is interesting and just plain nice to hear that wise people have been preaching thoughtfulness and empathy for generations upon generations. 

This sweet romance is elevated by its humorous voice, an original fatigue-transfer superpower, and tone juggling those with its backdrop of anti-Asian hate crime. Very handy ace rep too.

Got to see a dude eat a guy in some detail, that was new. The meat on these grimdark bones isn't really enough to satisfy this time around though; laughable dialogue about Guts learning/re-learning having feelings. May hit harder in retrospect once Guts gets his dose of character development. Monsters still gross though (positive)!

Tickles all the high concept neurons of classic sci-fi but with characters who emote like real people too. Very evident that Chiang has a lasting interest in real-world science and it's such a treat to get a taste of some fascinating higher-level theories via such lively stories.

Leech is a gothic tale, featuring howling winter winds, a decrepit old mansion and a rotting noble family inside for our physician protagonist, "the Institute", to treat. As a secret, parasitic hivemind of doctors rather than a single person, the Institute makes for a fresh point of view for the genre. They are driven to untangle the mystery of what killed their predecessor (also part of their hivemind) by extreme curiosity, have little regard for personal safety, and can access expertise from their vast network of bodies at any time - a perfect Holmesian detective, until the situation begins to challenge those advantages.

Both setting and characters enjoyed depth and nuance. The noble son and his wife show their wounds as well as their cruelties, and their land has beautiful ice-monsters as well as lethal storms. It also supports a dwindling native culture of people who lived in caves, sported tails, and worshipped dog gods fallen from the sky. The baron's mute house boy, Emil, is one such descendant and a welcome, though mysterious, bright spot amidst all the rot.

It's a shame the focus drifts away from the Institute as the story unfolds. It leaves in its place a solid gothic mystery and tale of rebellion but these didn't quite fill the hole for me, since exploring such an unusual, morally-grey narrator was my main point of fascination. Learning that the author is a medical student frames the criticisms of the Institute in an interesting way, however; there is much to critisize. The book also continues to explore identity, just

less the Institute's and more its hosts.

Some lines will ring especially true to queer readers.

Recommended for fans of: classical gothic literature, Mexican Gothic, Pathologic (the game), Sherlock Holmes (specifically if you read the books because of the BBC show, not because this is like the BBC show but because if you were a big enough fan of the show to read the books, odds are you're in gay tumblr crowd that would also be into the identity exploration in the second half)