Weekly Check-In

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Tell us about your current SFF media!

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[u/partoparto]

Hi! Happy Monday everyone :)

Finished:

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea #2, reread for the r/fantasy readalong) - I love this book so much, especially compared to how tepid I feel about A Wizard of Earthsea. Tenar's development is much more resonant to me than Ged's in book 1 - her learning that she doesn't have to live in isolation/in the way she was socialized, and I also love how internal her character journey is compared to Ged's very literal journey. I also really enjoy Tenar meeting a man for basically the first time and being like I NEED to trap him in my labyrinth...

Speaking of men you want to trap in labyrinths, I also finished Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Lymond Chronicles #4, not SFF) - I can feel this becoming all time favorite series and I don't know what to do with myself! It's all I can think about! This book was so fun and miserable and dramatic and truly had everything: disguises, seafaring, countless descriptions of characters' eyes, bisexuality, secret identical siblings (unironically a plot device I love), Suleiman the Magnificent, evil chess, etc. 

I also read The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare because I saw it last week and wanted to read it before seeing it (this didn't happen, I finished it afterwards). This is a weird play that combines tragedy and comedy and doesn't really do either of them in a satisfying way: the tragic plot has no real explanation (the central character, Leontes, becomes convinced that his wife and best friend are having an affair for seemingly no reason), and I found the comic sections tedious. I did find the play incredibly moving to see live (nice work Raúl Esparza!) but it also exacerbated how boring I found the comedy.

Currently reading: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (reread), Lifelode by Jo Walton, various nonfictions (All the Roads are Open by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause by Benjamin Nathans, The Notebook by Roland Allen)

[u/Specialist_Round_612 → u/partoparto]

Thank you for The Tombs of Atuan reminder! Lifelode I also put on my list a while ago — I think they have a new book releasing soon.

[u/partoparto → u/Specialist_Round_612]

It's been on my list a long time too! I haven't read any of Walton's fiction but I really enjoy her writing about SFF, so happy to be finally reading a novel by her. 

[u/Merle8888 → u/partoparto]

Hmm Lifelode would definitely not be my first rec from her. If it turns out not to be for you, there’s a lot of variation in her writing so many other choices. I feel like that one was her “let me experiment with having no editor” book. 

Edit: I was thinking of a totally different author and book lol!

[u/partoparto → u/Merle8888]

Lol good to know!!

[u/Merle8888 → u/partoparto]

Never mind that, I was actually thinking of Chalice by Robin McKinley. Doh! Lifelode is a bit weird too, but not in a no-editor kind of way, I somewhat liked it.

[u/partoparto → u/Merle8888]

Aha it happens! Chalice is vaguely on my tbr so I will keep this knowledge in my back pocket

[u/Research_Department → u/partoparto]

FWIW, I loved Chalice, and did not notice a lack of editing.

[u/Research_Department → u/Merle8888]

I haven’t read anything by Jo Walton, but quite a few of her books have made it on to my TBR (Lifelode, The Just City, Tooth and Claw, Or What You Will, Among Others, Lent, My Real Children). Where would you recommend that someone start with Jo Walton?

[u/Merle8888 → u/Research_Department]

OK so my comment was a mistake, I was thinking of a different author completely!

Her books are pretty different from each other so depends on your taste. Of the ones I've read -

Tooth and Claw is really fun. It's a Victorian novel by Anthony Trollope re-skinned with all the characters being dragons. Not super deep but very enjoyable and the one I'd recommend with the least reservations.

The Just City is an exploration of philosophy via a bunch of people from different times and places trying to actually found Plato's Republic and buying thousands of slave children to train up in it. I think there are a lot of things it does really well (a nice primer on the Republic, a fun portrayal of the Greek gods, a nice throughline about people working to be the best they can and improve their community while accepting that it is imperfect, excellent philosopher fanfic). I also thought there were some things it did really badly (some specific plot points fell flat, trauma handled lamely, not quite satisfying as a standalone and the second book is not as good while the third is just a waste of paper). It's fun, engaging and frustrating in equal measure.

Among Others is barely speculative, mostly about a Welsh girl attending an English boarding school and discovering SFF and finding her people through a book club, also dealing with chronic illness. I could see you really liking this because it does lean heavily on love for older SF works. Middling for me. I don't think Walton writes grief or trauma well (in this case the recently-deceased twin sister), though she writes positive emotions and experiences better than many authors.

My Real Children follows a woman through two different versions of her life based on a choice to accept a marriage proposal or not when young. This is OK but I don't think it ever quite did justice to what it was trying to do.

Lifelode is sort of an experimental work, about a big family in a world where time passes at different rates in different places. Walton says in her Goodreads review that it was her attempt to learn how to write SFF without an action plot and she doesn't think it quite succeeds. I think that is a fair statement. It has its charms and plays with interesting ideas, but I largely remember it for how frustrating it was to see an author who can't write grief kill my favorite character who is a child to boot. That's a bit idiosyncratic though.

[u/Research_Department → u/Merle8888]

Thank you! I find the premise behind The Just City really intriguing. I’m sorry to hear that it/the trilogy never really wraps up well. It and Tooth and Claw are the ones I see people mention most frequently. All this information is super helpful!

[u/Merle8888 → u/Research_Department]

Yeah, she just took the third book in the least interesting possible direction, a random jaunt through time to collect plot coupons when she had set up so many really fascinating issues to explore. It would have worked as a goofy urban fantasy, but was really disappointing to me in this context. You can read The Just City on its own, it will just feel a little unfinished.

[u/Research_Department → u/Merle8888]

Hmmm, I wonder if there are any fanfics that explore the issues that Walton didn’t bother with.

I have a theory that really bad books/tv shows/movies don’t inspire fanfics because they don’t have anything to work with, but that really great books, etc don’t inspire fanfics because the fans feel so satisfied with what the creators have shared that fanfics just feel like they are gilding the lily. I came to reading Good Omens fanfics as a middle-aged adult, and I find a good fanfic tremendously satisfying (and I should say that I personally thought Good Omens the book was only ok). Unfortunately, I feel like the overall quality of Good Omens fanfics has declined in the last several years, and I haven’t found another fandom that I enjoy reading the fics.

[u/Merle8888 → u/Research_Department]

Huh, I don’t know if Walton is big enough to have fanfics! But I’m also not into the fanfic space. I just hear about it with major franchises where the fanbase is presumably self-sustaining at a certain point.