The Prayer of Ninety Cats, by Caitlin R. Kiernan

The Prayer of Ninety Cats would probably be in the novelette category in awards other than the World Fantasy Awards--it's a pretty substantial piece--but there it is in short fiction.  It seems more lengthy as it is one of those artistic stories that is somewhat hard to read.  It's written in the second person, a really difficult perspective to pull off.  The setting is a theater where you are supposedly viewing scenes from the seriously debauched life of Lady Báthory Erzsébet, minor Hungarian noble from the 17th century.

For me it's odd and chunky and never quite comes together.  The prayer of the title is supposed to be a protective incantation, but doesn't really inspire awe.  Kiernan is a pretty good writer so this almost comes off, but it just seems to me like it needs more work or something.  The artistic manner is intentionally there to take the edge off some pretty revolting acts, but doesn't end up being quite up to making them art.  It's an OK story, but not in my mind a good one.  2 stars from me.

The Sun and I, by K. J. Parker

The World Fantasy Awards are out, and K.J. Parker has a nominated story, The Sun and I.  It's an interesting take on founding a religion, starting out like L. Ron Hubbard and ending like Ludwig Feuerbach,

Our protagonist, Esp, is one of five college students gone dissolute, begging for money and running small con games together.  They seem bound only by their failure to make anything of their privileged backgrounds.  Esp has the brilliant idea of founding a religion, and discovers some skills as a preacher.  They end up with momentum through some fortuitous predictions and  breaks, and as time and success roll on they start taking themselves seriously.  I'll save the really fun reveal, but it is safe to say that they grow into their roles in mostly good ways, even without wanting to.

It's all told in fine and competent fashion.  I really enjoy K. J. Parker as an author, and think she is destined for fine things.  This story should be a contender for an award, but it's missing elements I am finding in common in the other nominated stories:

1. LGBT characters, love or sex
2. Indications of racial diversity

It is a commentary on western and middle eastern culture's attraction to big religion that has been done before.  The setting is vaguely southern European but made up, and reads in such a way that one presumes the characters are white.  So in the end I don't think it will get traction--there's a pretty open field of social commentary in sexual and racial diversity being explored for the first time, so a more throwback tale, even a good one, isn't going to make it on the strength of social observation.  But do read it anyway.  Four stars from me.

Hild, by Nicola Griffith

I've been reading Hild, Nicola Griffith's novel that was nominated for a Nebula last year.  It tells the story of St. Hilda of Whitby as a young woman.  Not much is known about her, other than a very scant historical record, so Griffith made up a childhood and young womanhood worthy of St. Hilda.  Considering that she started as a younger child of a killed noble and ended up a key advisor to kings, she must have been pretty special.

Hild becomes a "seer", mostly by being very intelligent and observant.  She has a true feel for politics and guides her king (Edwin, overking of the Angles) through a lot of tough scrapes.  The book has both sex and violence, but isn't particularly dramatic.  It is, however, interesting, and held me to it all the way to the end.  I wouldn't say it builds, but it never lags.  The characters are strong and fully developed.  It's a good read.

What it's not is speculative fiction.  There are absolutely no fantasy, supernatural or speculative scientific elements in it anywhere.  It's historical fiction.  That's fine, but why a Nebula nomination?  The author?  Griffith is best known as a speculative fiction writer, so she has fans willing to vote for her work and get it an award nomination.  But if this is speculative, anything is.  Two stars for breaking category.

Strange Bedfellows, by Rusty Rhoad

I read Strange Bedfellows some time ago, and for whatever reason did not publish a review of it.  The following review is also posted on the Amazon page linked above.  I did in fact read it when it was free.
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Walter is a numbers guy, an accountant who numbs himself to the dreary misery of his life with attention to meaningless detail at work and random internet surfing at home. Watching him leverage a break in his life will take you from pity to envy to admiration, with a side of Morgan Le Fay. You can practically hear the sultry contralto as you read Le Fay's dialog. It's a great romp that leaves you with a smile. And pirates. There are definitely pirates.

Rhoad has a real sense for what heroism means when the protagonist doesn't wear tights and a cape, literally or figuratively. Look for more from him for characters you'd be lucky to have as friends in the world we actually live in.

The Life and Adventures of Sir Kay, by Rusty Rhoad

I have recently caught up with an author friend's new novel, The Life and Adventures of Sir Kay (draft serialized here).  Rusty Rhoad writes "romantic Arthurian fiction" with an interesting twist--the stories are told from a man's point of view.  The stories center on men on paths of self-discovery, overcoming challenges and winning women's hearts along the way.  They are eminently likeable fellows, the kind of men a guy would like to have as a friend, and any gal would want to marry.

Sir Kay definitely fits into this mold.  Rhoad's other published novels, Strange Bedfellows and Return from Avalon, are set in the present day, with Arthurian influences coming from the past.  This novel is set in the time of King Arthur, and aims to give some attention to a character one can tell Rhoad believes has been shortchanged.

Sir Kay, like Walter and Arnie Penders, is a nerdy numbers guy.  Unlike the other two, he's seen plenty of combat and is really a pretty competent fighter and soldier--unless you are comparing him to other Knights of the Round Table.  In that company he doesn't measure up as a warrior, but has earned the respect of Arthur and others as an excellent seneschal--manager of the King's castle and attendant logistics.  Now that Merlin is gone, he is "the only person in the kingdom who can do long division".

But he yearns for adventure and true love, so he takes on a squire (the redoubtable Oswald--you'll like him, everyone does) and asks his king for knightly quests.  Along the way he is challenged with a Grail quest, and meets the lovely Elaine, sister to Morgan le Fay and Morgause.

All of Rhoad's work is helped by a familiarity with Arthurian literature, but this one is the most directly dependent on that history.  If you spend a lot of literary time in Camelot, you won't want to miss this one.  Four stars in that genre.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler writes very literary speculative fiction--heavy on character development, speculation to enhance it.  This is the pattern in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves as well. 

The narrator, Rosemary, takes us through her life, which is challenging but not particularly extraordinary until she reveals that her sister was, in fact, a chimp.  Taken in as her psychologist father's experiment.  Her complex relationship with her sister and mostly absent brother carries us through the book.

We get to know Rosemary awfully well.  She's not a particularly colorful person--not close to anyone, not violent, not...really very much.  Her life is a reflection of the people (and primate) around her, and she pretty much knows it.  Rosemary seems a familiar sort--a rather dry person who simply never expects to be happy, and made peace with that a long time ago.

It's pretty challenging to make an interesting story out of such a person, with no gunfire or magic to sustain it, but Fowler manages it pretty well.  The book is entertaining and satisfying in a personal sort of way.

I'm not sure how I feel after finishing--not exhilarated, or bored, or intrigued.  Just there.  Rosemary and her ape sister Fern make their animal rights point fairly gently and move on.  Read this as an interesting side track.

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie

Distributed consciousness is probably an underutilized  trope in SF--it's a lot of fun if done well.  The best example I know of is Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, which included a doglike species where an individual was a pack. Ancillary Justice is centered completely on this concept, taking it to another level and exploring it thoroughly.

The novel is pretty much straight up space opera.  There's some interesting social speculation here--the protagonist is a citizen (sort of) of the Radch, a galactic civilization that until recently was completely devoted to expansion.  They are pretty ruthless about the process, but direct and fairly honest.  At the time of the novel they have been stopped by the Presger, and our protagonist is working on the last colonizing "annexation".

The protagonist herself (gender is not a factor in the Radch, the default is "her") is an Ancillary, a person whose individuality has been removed and is now part of a group consciousness, usually a part of a Ship.  Our protagonist is the sole survivor of this Ship's disaster.

I'd say the work is a little subdued for a space opera, but the exploration of distributed consciousness and imperialist social structures is worth the read.  Have fun and think a little.  Three stars from me.