The Future of Another Time Line, by Annalee Newitz

So this is a pretty straightforward time travel story, meant to use time travel as a way to talk about our present. Which it does, very effectively. The main point of the book is a feminist vs. misogynist time travel edit-the-past war, and it stays logically true to what time travel would accomplish, but with a very interesting twist that in this telling, everyone has known through most of human history that time travel is possible. The premise is a side note to the main story, but brings up some interesting points Newitz kind of throws in along the way. The time travel machines no longer have an interface--worn away over geologic time--but are usable anyway by tapping on the rocks they appear to be. Travelers have gone back far enough to see the interface, and it has lights and buttons. Yet there is a discussion about whether they are made or a natural phenomenon. It seems obvious that they are made, but should it be? I think if I were living with something like this I would entertain the natural hypothesis, without any other evidence of other intelligence involvement. It's a lot like Intelligent Design.

The main story is a very 201- telling of a time edit battle, which serves as a platform to talk about feminism, lesbianism, and the lengths one can go to in defending an idea. It ticks all the boxes, from White Supremacy to moralism to abusive fathers. It's well done, but been done. The plot twists are worthy ones. A self-conscious time travel story is rarely explored territory--most of the others I know of are one-off events or secret societies. One very large exception would be the Terminator series, where it's invented and seems to be generally known about at the end of the future human-AI war. So overall, I'm glad I read it.

Goodreads Review

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

I'm really starting to dislike time travel stories, because this is pretty much how you have to tell them. They aren't "stories" because stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. Time travel stories have no end. So the description of how a time war would work is pretty right on. And it's good to have an accurate framework to hang your "story" (narrative, tale, whatever) on.

The book is a love story, unapologetically so. Some are reading this as LGBTQ+, but the relationship between Red and Blue is not in any way sexual--it is agapic, if anything. The love is fueled by the highly cryptic means by which they communicate--letters as patterns in feathers, burning paper, flavors, etc. The descriptions of the form the letters take is probably my favorite part of the book.

That said, in order to truly enjoy it you have to enjoy romance of this sort. While I value it, it doesn't excite me the way a good space opera does. It was an interesting read, and well executed, but in the end just OK for me.

Goodreads Review

The Deep, by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes

This is about a 3.6 rounded up. My opinion improved as I read some of the supporting material, and understood this as an origin myth. It reads like one and the protagonist is imperfect in the way that godlike originators often are. So many heroes are unflinching, or have misgivings but no real weaknesses. Yetu is sensitive and struggles under the pressure of being the Historian, and even runs away from her problems.

The pain of the Middle Passage is central to this book but is not extensively dwelled upon, though there are a few graphic descriptions. The writing style actually reminds me of Nnedi Okorafor, in that it is very direct and can seem a little stiff. It's a fine story, especially as an origin myth. Am glad I read it. 

Goodreads Review

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow

As this book got rolling, I really began to enjoy it. The prose is a bit self-conscious, but January Scaller is a fine protagonist, at the end truly grounded in herself and very honest with the reader all the way through. The plot twists nicely and the story thoroughly explores how hard it is to go against one's instincts, and against someone you love and loves you, even if you must. I am glad I read it.

But I do have my misgivings. Seanan McGuire has been doing a YA series on magical doors that lead to fantastic places and appear to only certain people, and that series has been up for most of the same awards. The style of prose is even similar, kind of flowing and self-conscious in the same way. Maybe I have had enough of Doors? Possibly I have even had enough of people who have decided, against all evidence, to believe in magical things. We have a lot of that going on right now and it has gotten us nowhere good.  

My Goodreads Review

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Like a lot of other folks, when I started this book I kind of struggled with it. The formal setup, combined with over-the-top frenemy rhetoric (which never lets up but makes more sense later) and some unfortunate teen-speak made me sad. But it takes a lot to make me DNF once I start, so I persisted. And for me, I think it picked up before the 300 page mark. The author is very good at action scenes, and leads up to them in promising ways, so I began to get motivated. By the end I had trouble breaking off to go to bed, so all that is good. We get a great development of the relationship between Gideon and Harrow, and the ending is an excellent twist. You sort of see it coming, but *how* it's done is great.

There is some button pushing that is probably more natural than it sounded to me. Gideon presents as female, and describes both viewing hotness and being hot, so there is a lesbian element. But she has bulging muscles and a masculine approach to fighting, so sort of gender dysphoric too.  There is a brief mention that she is a person of color (a "ginger").

It pretty much reads as a YA novel--most of the characters are teens, and the action centers on them. It is highly structured (9 houses, the naming conventions) in the way YA fiction often is. I ran from that stuff as an actual teen, but am able to see the value in the plot more now. I am definitely glad I persisted and read the whole thing. Came away very entertained. Three stars is because I am a hard grader.



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The City In the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm going along with many others here saying that this is in many respects a well-written book, but not a great one. Might be a dearth of candidates for the Hugo, or maybe they need to continue to look farther afield. People trying to survive on an alien, tidally locked planet are not a new thing, but there's a lot of room for experimenting there and Anders does some things really well.

There are some things about it I liked that other reviewers may have missed. The Gelet (natives) are a decently strong presence in the book, and toward the end of the book are revealed to have a lot more going on than meets the eye. They are performing great feats of semi-natural geoengineering to keep the planet habitable. And they have incredible communication talents. These speculations should be enough to keep most of us SF fans happy.

The central characters, Sophie and Bianca, are there to demonstrate the complex pitfalls of blind, stupid love. Interestingly, not really romantic love, something more of a Platonic crush. Sophie makes bad choice after bad choice to keep her hope of a relationship with Bianca alive, and Bianca uses her mercilessly. These kinds of relationships are frustrating to read, and can color one's whole opinion of the book even when they are successfully depicted.

The surrounding plot, though, just kind of bumps along, and while there are some exciting moments it's not enough to forgive the frustrating, one-sided relationship. I am glad I made it through, and overall I would say I enjoyed it, but it's not great.



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Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Sylvia Garcia-Moreno

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36510722-gods-of-jade-and-shadow" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Gods of Jade and Shadow" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543268579l/36510722._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36510722-gods-of-jade-and-shadow">Gods of Jade and Shadow</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4088550.Silvia_Moreno_Garcia">Silvia Moreno-Garcia</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3404295082">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This book has its good moments, but overall I just couldn't get into it. The story is entirely familiar--Hero's Journey meets Love Story. I have now spoiled the plot. Our protagonists, the god Hun-Kame and Cassiopeia Tun, end up as stereotypes--something the author kind of lets us in on, telling us that gods cannot have the complex inner lives that people can. <br /><br />What should have been a strong point was the setting--Mexico in the 1920's was in a fascinating phase of post-colonial cultural imitation of Europe. They had their own interpretations of all the American and European trends and fashions of the time. We were promised a look at these, but a look was all we got--a bit of fashion commentary, some broad cultural brush strokes. There was so much potential here that didn't get realized. Instead, the narrative focuses on the growing humanity of Hun-Kame and the solidifying of Cassiopeia's personality. Very nice, but done a million times--it needed that fresh period staging.<br /><br />What was a strong point was the relationship between Cassiopeia and Martin, her cousin, heir to the well-off Leyva household. He was the villain, but Moreno-Garcia skillfully portrays him as a clueless, privileged oaf who cannot understand why his "overtures" (occasional politeness when ordering her about, rather than belligerence) are not better received. Very timely. Not enough to really save it for me.
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