I
kicked off April with A Closed and Common
Orbit. Described as Wayfarers Book 2, it's more of a spin-off from Becky
Chambers debut novel, The Long Way to a
Small Angry Planet, following the past and present fortunes of minor
characters from that novel: technician Pepper, her artist boyfriend Blue, and
Sidra, an AI from the first novel now illegally embodied in a humanoid form; as
well as Sidra's new friend Tak, an Aeluon. Sidra is completely lost in the
limits of a human form, having been built to integrate into the systems of an
entire spaceship, and moreover as a result of the events of the previous novel
this is not a fate that she chose, it
instead having been intended by her previous self before she had to be reset.
This novel follows two threads: Pepper's, and later Tak's - attempts to help
Sidra adapt to human form, and flashbacks to Pepper's childhood as a
genetically engineered child-slave and her search for the AI that saved her
from that life, but was confiscated from her when they reached 'civilised'
space.
A Closed and Common Orbit is a much more compact and intimate tale
than The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet,
and for my money is all the better for it. The first novel had a breadth of scope
that acted against its strengths, which mostly lie in the characters and their
small and personal interactions. A Closed
and Common orbit is about the quest for identity, and that works with those strengths. Sidra's viewpoint(1)
continually refers to Sidra's thoughts, but to the kit's hands; the body she
has been given never really feels like hers. This enables a particularly neat
scene in the closing chapters which I won't spoiler. I am also particularly fond
of the ending, which does not involve
Sidra neatly coming to realise that human is best, although I won't say more.
Next
up was Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura's limited comic book series I Kill Giants, which has been adapted
into a movie which I might see sometime(2).
Barbara Thorson is a troubled girl, obsessed with the idea that she has a calling. "I find giants," she says when questioned abouth er future on careers day. "I hunt giants. I kill giants." Her friend Sophia and the school guidance counsellor grow concerned as she seems to slip further out of control, fighting violently with the school bullies and threatening to unleash Coveleski, the magic warhammer in her handbag. Is Barbara simply retreating into fantasy to avoid her own pain, or are there truly giants causing the grief in the world? Or is the answer not so simple as an either/or?
Barbara Thorson is a troubled girl, obsessed with the idea that she has a calling. "I find giants," she says when questioned abouth er future on careers day. "I hunt giants. I kill giants." Her friend Sophia and the school guidance counsellor grow concerned as she seems to slip further out of control, fighting violently with the school bullies and threatening to unleash Coveleski, the magic warhammer in her handbag. Is Barbara simply retreating into fantasy to avoid her own pain, or are there truly giants causing the grief in the world? Or is the answer not so simple as an either/or?
Illustrated in stark, black and white lines, I Kill Giants is a comic with emotional punch. Barbara is an abrasive character. She is not remotely likeable, but is still deeply sympathetic, surrounded by well-meaning friends and adults who don't know how to offer the help that she needs, and whose assistance she doesn't know how to accept. The giants - real or not - loom large over Barbara's bleak world as dense patches of shadow, and must be fought - one way or another - before she can find any kind of peace.
I
managed to find time to finish up another Harry Potter novel, this time The Half-Blood Prince, which means I
only have the one left to go. Book six is where Shit Gets Real™, as Harry
returns to Hogwarts only to find that his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, seems to be
intent on some secret mission for Lord Voldemort, in which he may have the
assistance of Professor Snape, and no-one else seems to believe him when he
tells them. Also, Dumbledore wants him to spy on the new Potions master, and
after the false start of Cho Chang, Harry is finally discovering girls.
The Half-Blood Prince marks the end of the Harry Potter series as
it began. The Deathly Hallows is a
radical departure from the pattern, which I'll talk about when I get that one
finished, but it was about time the series had one, and the old school framing
device is looking a little worn. Harry attends barely any lessons, and it's
clear that Rowling recognised that Hogwarts had more or less served its
purpose. There's a core of a very strong story in The Half-Blood Prince, but the setting which was such a strength in
the previous books is here more of a burden.
A
bit of a departure now, as I spent a few days with the pilot of the future, in
Big Finish's Dan Dare: The Audio
Adventures. Normally I do audio plays over on My Life as a Doge, but I
picked this up in an offer through Audible, so here we are.
Fifties
comic legend Dan Dare joins the Big Finish stable of updated retrofuturist
icons in a series of six plays: 'Voyage to Venus', 'The Red Moon Mystery',
'Marooned on Mercury', 'Reign of the Robots', 'Operation Saturn' and 'Prisoners
of Space'. A full cast portray updated versions of the characters from the old
stories: Daring test pilot Dan Dare, Lieutenant Albert Digby, Professor Peabody
and Sir Hubert Whatsisname are all present and correct, or... Well, working
class hero Digby is now a gruff, professional soldier with little time for
fancy flyboys, Professor Peabody is a corporate shill, and Sir Hubert is all
about the military-industrial complex.
So,
this is a much more dystopian view of the solar system than I remember from the
little Dan Dare I know, with corporate shenanigans on top of the threat of the
Mekon, weird, totalitarian superstates among the outer planets, a conspiracy
which led to the death of Dare's father, and even the complete conquest of
Earth at one point. It's bleak, and doesn't have a neat ending where everything
is explained and okay; or even fully explained and not okay. To date, there is
no second season of Dan Dare audio adventures. That makes me sad, although I
know I'm contributing by buying through Audible and cutting down Big Finish's
margins.
I
did buy Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords
through Big Finish, although in a sale. This series of audio plays is the first
of several based on one of the Adventure Path sets for the Pathfinder RPG, following
four of the game's iconic characters(3) - Ezren the human wizard, Harsk the
dwarf ranger, Valleros the human fighter, and Merisiel the elf rogue - through
one possible iteration of the published adventure(4). From the quiet village of
Sandpoint to the ruined city of Xin-Shalast, this band of heroic adventurers pursue
glory, vengeance, profit and vague hints of romance(5), and seek to thwart the
return of Karzoug, the Runelord of Greed.
Rise of the Runelords is an action-packed adventure, and this is
both a blessing and a curse. Action is hard to do well in audio, although in
the hands of veteran director John Ainsworth and Big Finish's stable of writers
there is a pretty good balance of sound effects and description. The characters
are strongly drawn, although there are aspect that are inconsistent between
writers; in particular, Merisiel and Valleros seem to fluctuate between
friendly antagonism and shared attraction to the local innkeeper, and some sort
of Sam and Diane dynamic. Still, overall it's good fun, and I'm likely to pick
up the other series that have been released when I have the funds.
Finally
for the month, John Gwynne's Malice is book one of
a series called The Faithful and the
Fallen, a fantasy epic set in a world where a war in heaven long past
caused the local creator to up sticks and go off in a huff, leaving the titular
faithful and fallen angels - called the Benelim and Cadushim - to duke it out
for the fact of creation. Malice
follows multiple viewpoint characters in a time of upheaval, as strange
creatures stalk the land, giants emerge from the forests, and the rulers of the
human kingdoms of the Banished Lands seek for a saviour, the prophesied Bright
Star to battle the Black Sun who will champion evil.
Malice is one of those books that upholds the principles of Dark Helmet; that
evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. The well-meaning persistently
fail to spot glaringly obvious warning signs, and openly pick fights with
numerically-superior douchebags. One blindly follows a master who believes
himself to be the promised saviour, despite every indication that he's the
opposite. Our actual hero neglects to mention a key fact which not only could
have - as he himself realises - proved a significant asset during the climactic
siege, but also have prevented, or at least slowed, the complete collapse of the
defence.
If
that sounds harsh, it's mostly because otherwise Malice is pretty good, and I wish it hinged less on such omissions(6).
The characters are sympathetic, the untried youth with a great destiny much
better written and more sympathetic than many, and the villains at least a
little complex. Well, most of them; the sex-crazed witch queen seems pretty one
dimensional(7), although we've not had much from viewpoints close to her as yet. I
may well pick up the next book in the sequence.
(1) The
narrative is third person limited.
(2)
You know; if it ever shows up in a cinema near me and/or comes to a streaming
service I have.
(3) Pathfinder's
iconic characters are archetypal characters designed to illustrate the classes
of the game system.
(4)
I presume. It seems too acclaimed to be a complete railroad.
(5)
Like... really vague, which in fairness is pretty much the level your typical
tabletop RPG relationship gets to before everyone starts to feel hella awkward.
(6)
It's also possible that some of these would be less egregious in someone
without the reader's overarching awareness of the various plot threads,
although I would still tend to scoff at those who chose to back the 'Bright
Star' whose methodology involves totalitarian, dictatorial rule and brutal,
'greater good' pragmatism in the face of ethical dilemmas.
(7) There are much better female characters in the novel, but far fewer than there are men, and only one is a viewpoint character.
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