Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel

 I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I find Emily St. John Mandel's writing delicious. Science fiction written as literature more than as a genre novel. Time travel stories are pretty much all the same in their impossibility, and this one doesn't break out of the mold. But what Mandel does within the mold is highly enjoyable. The characters and situations are something you can feel deep sympathy for--Olive Llywellen's book tour exhaustion at the end of normal life, Gaspery's obsessive pursuit of the novel's central mystery, all the other supporting cast that built out the story--very satisyfing.

To me it feels like a more ambitious, less conventional novel was within reach here, which is why I hold back a bit in my review. Loose ends could have been left untied. But it's very good as is.

Mandel discusses the simulation hypothesis a lot, since it's a central part of the plot. Personally I think that if time travel is possible then the simulation hypothesis pretty much has to be true--events are foreordained. But here, as in most time travel novels, the simulated beings can somehow affect the simulation, and I don't think that would be possible.

But Mandel has the very best answer for simulation-obsessed folks--so what? Simulated lives are still lives lived.

My Goodreads Review

The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal

A lot of critical readers are being hard on this one. I think it's better than that, but in the end still not amazing.

The setting is a space cruise liner on a trip to Mars, set in the late 21st century. The author gives us touches of background that can help with understanding some of the plot elements, but it's such a light touch that it's easy to miss. Dogs are very rare and only the wealthy can afford them, thus her little Westie (a darling breed) is much doted upon and useful in our protagonist's crime solving. How this came to be the case would have been helpful, though it might be hard to know when to stop (it sort of seems like our present conditions continued in a straight line, with income inequality getting more severe?). But this story is all about the crime solving. The protagonist (Tesla Crane) is a daughter of privilege but has suffered a horrific accident that has left her in chronic pain. Her pain and her wealth feature prominently in the crime solving.

As a mystery though, it's not a great one. I won't totally spoil the ending except to say that I don't think it works given the state of technology at the time, or even now for that matter. Tesla Crane is concerned about equity and treating less powerful people well, but that goes right out the window when her new husband is accused of the murders. Some find that to be a bug, but it might be a feature for me--Tesla is a pretty accurate portrayal of white privilege, in that she makes full use of it when she feels that she needs to.

It's a decently fun read, but not super compelling. A generous 3 stars.

My Goodreads Review

Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree

So I now have a name for this genre of fantasy--cozy fantasy. I have read things like it but didn't have a name.

Other reviewers have said it quite well--this is a very comfortable and comforting book, nothing challenging, all plot twists fully anticipated. Warm, likeable characters except for the few obvious villains. The romance is lesbian, which is by now not challenging either. The restaurant the retired adventurer Viv builds works its way up from an abandoned livery to a lively coffee bar, with the help of unlikely and oppressed employees with underappreciated talents When disaster strikes and it is burned down Viv has enough social credit to build it back better than ever. This is not a spoiler because there cannot be spoilers for this story.

Two questions arise:

1) Why is this so incredibly popular? I get that. There's always a large audience for stories that are comforting and not challenging, and our times are so incredibly scary that there's simply no more room for dystopias. Those are all coming true. Now we want escape.

2) Why is this nominated for so many awards? This is a harder one. It's a writing exercise that got popular, not unlike Andy Weir's The Martian, but a whole lot of research and effort went into that work of fiction. I've been playing with ChatGPT and it isn't quite up to writing Legends & Lattes yet, but we're maybe six months away. It is a well crafted story but there's not enough to it to justify the buzz.

A fatigue nomination maybe? Award committees are simply worn out with reading challenging, sound-the-alarm material and sorting out its merits? I would understand, I'm feeling that too. All the same, there is a good argument for critical acclaim to be different from popularity. Critics need to stake out a space to lift up difficult, experimental, or provocative work. In these times that's been lifting up stories of and by marginalized groups. Legends and Lattes will still manage to get banned by our latest round of conservative Christian bluenoses because it does not suit their reading of the Bible. Some might say that's enough. But there are still important stories to be told, and lightweight fantasy/romance novels don't need critical attention in order to get readers' attention.

My Goodreads Review