Also let’s go to the cinema together! Movie night! 🍿 https://youtu.be/n9xhJrPXop4

BSFG Reads

Becky Chambers “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet” – Sci-fi, humanistic, funny, queer, and wholesome! A BSFG favourite!

Roshani Chokshi “The Gilded Wolves” – Poco, fin-de-siècle YA fantasy, a great heist

Genevieve Cogman “The Invisible Library” – Various parallel universes more or less chaos-infested, book heists, dragons, funny!

Bridget Collins “The Binding” – Slightly Gothic, queer, bind your memories in a book

Philip K Dick “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” – Where does personhood begin, are androids persons, weird owls, dystopia

Meg Elison “Book of the Unnamed Midwife”* – Feminist / Queer dystopia that is better than “Handmaid’s Tale”

Hank Green “An Absoluteley Remarkable Thing” – Social media, fame, is it sci-fi???

NK Jemisin “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” – Enslaved Gods, a heterogenous Empire, Othering

Dianna Wynne Jones “Howl’s Moving Castle” – Witches, old crones, flamboyant wizards and a lot of cleaning!

Mary Robinette Kowal “The Calculating Stars” – Alternate History, Sci-fi set in 1952, dystopia?

Ursula Le Guin “The Lathe of Heaven” – Sci-Fi where a man can change the world in his dreams, would you end racism, for example?

Kirsty Logan “The Gloaming” – Queer, mermaids, Scotland, beautiful prose, a bit weird, a BSFG favourite

Seanan McGuire “Every Heart a Doorway”* – What happens when you return from the Rabbit Hole? Murder, mystery, queer representation

Naomi Novik “Uprooted” – Fairy tale-ish fantasy standalone novel inspired by Slavic / Russian mythology

Nnedi Okorafor “Binti”^* – Himba math genius goes to space university, Nausicaa in space?

Terry Pratchett “The Wee Free Men” – Comic fantasy with Witches and Wee Scotsmen, fairy tale-ish, smart, one of Marthe’s absolut favourites

Natasha Pulley “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” – Magical realism, romance, Victorian London, a cute mechanical octopus named Katsu, a Japanese watchmaker.

Rebecca Roanhorse “Trail of Lightning”* – Indigenous urban fantasy, tricksters, trauma! A BSFG favourite!

V.E. Schwab “A Darker Shade of Magic” – 18th century, four Londons, magic, entertaining

Martha Wells “All Systems Red” – Murderbot with social anxiety and a Netflix addiction has to save humans in space

* Trigger Warnings for Violence. Also in general, ask when in doubt, different things can be perceived as triggering for different people!

What we enjoyed about the novel:

• Setting, science was cool, early space flight cool
• Depiction of racism and sexism
• Elma was partly self-aware of her being part of the problem
• Setting was surprisingly well done and even for people not interested in the technicalities
• Good book even if you don’t love science fiction
• Knowing “Hidden Figures” before made picturing the book even better
• Sexism and racism very important especially for today
• Mansplaining!!!
• Beginning was very well done, in medias res, “where were you when the meteorite hit?”
• Alternate History beginning cool, point of diversion was efficiently done yet subtle
• Note by the author in the end: newspaper clippings were actual newspaper clipping (mostly)
• Alternate history and actual history are well connected
• Competitions between Russians/Chinese vs. the Western world: Cold War in this alternate history
• Climate change aspect very strong, hauntingly realistic
• Annoying and frustrating with how people refuse to deal with antisemitism, sexism, racism, and climate change
• Balance between her being oppressed as a woman vs. her being very self-conscious when realizing that she is part of the oppressive group!
• Heroine makes mistakes, very good
• Parker: interesting figure, misogynist but also a good teacher and scientist or a brave man
• Relatable Elma
• Elma smart, learns from her mistakes, some did not find her captivating, some steps in her career feel too fast, anxiety very realistic, some of us would like to have more astronaut stuff and less personal stuff
• Elma’s husband cool, nice person, not a “chauvinistic jerk”, also focusses as a counter to Parker’s sexism
• Math fascinating, Elma very impressive, calculations as a technique to calm herself down, women can also be good at maths! Empowerment!
• Very urgent reason to go into space: planet is doomed, loads of pressure on the ‘computers’
• Some of us will read the sequels as the book got us hooked from the start
• Impressive research, very well done
• Not only American astronauts in here! Internationality well well well done! Communists aren’t the ‘baddies’ here
• “I really enjoyed it. It’s a book I would’ve never picked up”
• Happy with the ending, comfortable

What we discussed / did not enjoy:

• Some things were predictable (vacation, for example)
• Too much focus on Elma as a person, not enough science?
• Too many characters, partly confusing, maybe even interchangeable in parts (nuancing could’ve been better)
• Pacing of the story could be better in parts: very strong start, middle part a bit too slow, shift to politics could’ve been done better; ending comes super-fast
• Parts of us disliked the plot, boring, also has to do with personal preferences (not being into the 50s setting, rockets or travelling into space, hate maths)
• 50s full of too much kitsch? Romanticised? Corny?
• Perspective on World War II very American – with a German background problematic
• Nathaniel a too perfect husband for the 50s? Passive? Also plays with the roles? Supporting husband and not supporting wife?
• Elma a bit too good: so smart, pretty, good with the kids, great pilot, great at maths, doctorate, brother also a scientist, husband leading engineer – very coincidental!
• Prose neutral-good, not very aesthetically, conventional writing style
• Sex scenes weird, very cringey, funny, too many for some; Elma uses sex to get what she wanted?
• A bit bland in parts, unused potentials in many parts

What we liked:

• World building and setting “amazing”, well crafted
• Idea of mere mortals controlling Gods a nice change, biggest amount of power in the hands of mere mortals
• Different take on fantasy, cool
• Take on the Gods great, Sieh the best character
• Gods can change their shapes, Sieh could be a small child or a grown man, interesting, Gods more of an idea we have in our heads, no fixed shape
• World building: not an info-dump, vastness of world becomes palpable
• Yeine’s mind-set cool, very human, especially in comparison to the Gods
• Gods as the creators of the world in contact with mere humans, ‘enslaved’
• Language-point of view: Yeine as a focal point to understand this new society she has joined, see everything “through her eyes” à language very straight-forward and to the point, great to understand the elaborate world building, ploy to help us readers
• Murder mystery aspect of it was cool, strong in the beginning, died down, and came again
• Level of detail can feel overwhelming as well as the amount of politics, but it was very well done, and it kind of Jemisin’s style – breaks it down
• Memories / visions cool
• Imagine of the War Goddess: Warrior Woman
• Othering well done
• Feminist take cool
• Postcolonial / Colonial issues
• “The barbaric North”; Scimina others Yeine a lot, Yeine does not do it herself (we’d love to know more about her upbringing), Yeine refuses to join the conflict, “they think we are barbaric”, but she knows she isn’t and think the others barbaric but doesn’t tell them
• Yeine uses the clichés that are wielded against her, using against the perpetrators their own arguments
• Partly funny / light-hearted, very dark setting
• Enslavement of the Gods very strong, touching (Gods powerful need to be controlled in the beginning, but then you can see that the High Family enslaves them)
• Blood idea interesting: High Bloods have power over the Gods
• Gods want to be set free, time for the Gods is nothing, cool
• Pacifist themes vs. War-makers
• Slavery is outlawed, but there are different names for it (also in our primary world)
• Ending: Gods are gone, Sky will have to take charge without their otherworldly powers
• Empire-metaphor great, how will the countries cope?
• Nahadoth not romanticised, complex character, ambiguity well done
• Nahadoth’s perspective interesting, tragic backstory
• Yeine very self-aware when she is falling for her; “thrill of danger”, doing something reckless, Nahadoth not a good guy, but that he is ambitious; linguistic concept for it in her mother tongue great
• Enough closure in the novel, no need to pick up the sequels, but Fifth Season was picked up
• Some of us might pick up the sequels but they’re not on top of the tbr pile because the story has closure; tempted to buy sequels

What we did not like // what we discussed:

• Many parts of the story aren’t that original despite the fantastic world building: outsider girl with special abilities going to hostile place, fighting rivals
• Many Gods inspired by other mythologies: Sieh Loki-esque; deities inspired by Christian mythology
• Relationship with Yeine and Nahadoth was a bit cliché: dark supernatural evil dude and the good, innocent girl? YA-ish even?
• Hunger Games-ish? Darr as District 12?
• Loads of references to other novels
• Confusing bits: relationship between Nahadoth and Yeine unclear; side that comes out at night in a relationship with Yeine; daytime Nahadoth a different person
• Nahadoth = Darkling from the Grishaverse, very YA cliché, not too much, but it’s predictable and obvious
• Details lacking in the great world building, psychological depth missing?
• Confusing names, depth in world building partly lacking
• The 100k Kingdoms as title, but no King and we also do not see much of the world
• Nahadoth’s two personalities confusing
• Fighting for the Throne, Game of Throne-ish; no challenges or anything like that, more like intrigue and sabotage; how was this contest working? Yeine’s role became clear later, but contest a bit pointless?
• Contest: “I lost the contest” – where, when, what?
• Political dimension a bit confusing, Arameri: head of Empire, imperial ancient Rome, Renaissance mafia-clan (Grandfather = the Godfather), Baroque in parts; maybe even inconsistent? Intrigue / games vs. order and control; hard to fill gaps; Gods as the heavies / captains in the Mafia, kingdoms need to pay tribute
• Second half: Y. knows she’s going to die and that her kingdom is under attack (she’s a figurehead for that kingdom) à why didn’t she protect her kingdom? She would be dragged kicking and screaming from the battle; fell away; wasn’t their leader anymore? She just kind accepted it?
• Contest is all for show; striving for power is useless; it’s about keeping power; how should they prove of being worthy of leading the family?
• Contest also full of gaps: what is the point of it? Or is this the point? That this doesn’t make any sense
• Succession and being the heir super important when it isn’t in the end
• If the contest was made more clear, point could’ve been more easily understood; were they even checking?
• Stewart T’Vril: role could’ve been used more effectively to explain the contest better; previously it has been done like this etc.; Yeine even visited the library!
• Dark sexy villain always a bit weird, here it is okay-ish; why are the innocent girls drawn to someone dark, older, manipulative?
• Weird incest-ish thing in the God’s relationship? Polytheist idea, Cosmic dimension; Gods beyond our ken

Interesting things to check out:

Magic system: http://nkjemisin.com/2012/06/but-but-but-why-does-magic-have-to-make-sense/

How to pronounce the names: http://nkjemisin.com/2010/02/a-name-pronunciation-guide-for-100k/

Due to popular demand…

Join us! 🙂

Sorry for the messed up date on the flyer, but we’ll watch Pom Poko tonight! It’ll be weird and fun!

Read up on Tanuki fighting with their balls here: https://hyakumonogatari.com/2013/08/30/tanuki-no-kintama-tanukis-giant-balls/

What we enjoyed / found interesting:

• Idea of a big library collecting books from different dimensions great
• Irony with which the Fae were portrayed, lots of references to other stories / intertextuality, Fae living as the protagonists of their own stories
• Dragons cool, human form but also a dragon-form; reminded us of the Witcher
• Idea of being bound to a library, work cool
• Concept of Immortality of Librarians cool; they do not age as long as they’re in the library
• Chaos vs. Order / Reality and how Fae and Dragons are aligned to that
• Alberich as the villain, working with chaos, interesting
• Writing style made it easy and fun to read, fit the story very well
• Well done, no info dump by Irene, one received information bit by bit
• No problems imagining the world, very immersive
• Setting-wise a bit of a mix between a portal fantasy also an intrusion world (we are familiar with landmarks or places like London); all the perks of having a historical novel + the magical portal bits, loved the mixture
• Setting gives Cogman so much freedom to mix genres and narrative traditions
• Beginning: in medias res, action
• Irene’s job not easy, badass Librarians, but the new job is very difficult, experienced Librarian, not a novice like Kai
• Magical language: tell things what they ought to be doing and it happens; escapism and wishful thinking at its best; very realistic bit of world-building, has a realistic feel to it; doesn’t always work, you have to pay attention and be precise and the magic doesn’t always work out how you want it to work; you can’t force it
• Kai: straight-forward, bit mysterious / special powers; connection between him and Vale: very different from each other, but when they work together they have a great chemistry
• Irene: strong, independent woman without being on your nose about it; felt very natural; felt like a person, not like a character
• Dynamic between Irene & Kai: supervisor/teacher/mentor vs. pupil/protégée, but also female gaze? She thinks that being interesting in him is not proper, even though it wouldn’t be uncommon in the Library system
• Some of us picked up the sequels, liked the ideas, great fun, take it for what it is: good, entertaining, not too deep
• Easy read, nice to escape our reality a little bit, 4 Stars
• Rating 3+ Stars mostly, most would pick up the sequels

What we disliked / discussed:

• Kai super boring name 😀 😀 😀 Name doesn’t fit the person (but the person got used to it)
• Irene’s parents are Librarians, but it seemed unimportant for the story; it would’ve also been interesting to have her as a normal librarian, because then the getting into the system could be explained / learning more about her previous home; but also goes against Irene being established as a grown woman who’s quite good at her profession
• Learn more about the city outside of the Library where nobody ever is?
• Some of us plan on reading the sequels
• Confusing why the library exists at all: Vale also questions Irene’s motives; she has to question the Library a little bit more; he’s very skeptical about the entire system; Irene’s answers weren’t that satisfying
• Some of us are quite unimpressed; characters nor writing style nor plot were extraordinary; it shows that the writer did a lot of video game writing, lot of tropes were pointed out but it didn’t make it better that Vale, for example, was a Sherlock Holmes version; Kai’s cheekbones so sharp like they could cut through diamonds not funny for some (also funny for others)
• Simplistic writing helpful to keep up with the story
• Ironic part of it, self-awareness of the references enjoyable
• Mindset when reading it very important: approached as a light, fast-paced read, it’s okay, but if one expected it to be very poetic and deep, it’ll disappoint
• Lots of loose ends, things are hinted at but not fully realized; not always clear whether it’ll be important or if it’s just dropped, sometimes a bit sad; too much in it, and Cogman won’t be able to follow up on all of this?
• B. relationship: self-awareness and trope-awareness; perfect performance of femininity; caricature of the femme fatale; friendship and support between female characters should’ve been introduced earlier
• All characters SO beautiful annoying, epitome of perfection; prefer ideas like in the Gloaming: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
• For Kai okay because he’s a dragon, but everybody else? Bit over the top.
• Irene seems more normal in comparison to it?
• Lots of unused potential
• Cool that the true intentions of the library are kept in the dark; makes the reader question stuff; also makes you interested in reading the sequels
• Bothering why the manuscript is so important??? Grander scale explanation please!

What you liked:

• Individual characters, very character-driven, varied experiences, insight into the different personalities and backgrounds and ‘races’
• Acceptance as a main theme
• Amazing world-building: interesting universe, realistic, positive mindset, feels real
• Space opera without too much negativity
• Fun to read, entertaining, makes us relate to characters
• Light-reading, world-building easy to digest, no info dump, entertaining
• Person who does not enjoy science-fiction: easy to read, species a bit confusing, not too complicated, got very interesting in the end
• Down to earth, not military, not about guns and battles, wasn’t super science-focused, not boring; has its own niche
• Slice of life in space wonderful, overall story, more about the characters and how they came to be there, how they became themselves
• Amazing: touched upon difficulties in the entire universe, not every planet at peace, universe not perfect, but quite close to perfect, lot of peace; not too optimistic but optimistic; not crisis after crisis
• Outside perspectives on humanity hilarious; little moments that get you to think about things we take for granted in our human life; puts things into perspective; outside perspective makes us question the importance of certain things
• Feather-family idea super cute
• Queerness is normalized
• Intercultural relations superb, different species, different ideas of intimacy
• Use of pronouns wonderful, very inclusive, normalized, you want to be polite
• Non-human persons also very understanding, culturally flexible; humans also try to be polite to other species, does not escalate into a fight, positive
• Natural thing: specific pronouns to talk about people; from the very start it is made clear that assuming a gender would be impolite, natural
• Adapted issues from our time to the context of the novel, e.g. pronouns
• Fun to image how the crew members looked like
• Normalized sex and attraction also between same-sex attraction
• Poly species beautiful, sweet
• Rosemary chooses her own family and fate
• Does not shy away from sad moments and serious questions: Are you allowed to hurt somebody if you help them?
• Crew very loyal to each other even if there are differences, responsibility for each other well done
• Species does a thing in a specific way, might make others uncomfortable; acknowledges diversity, Hatchlings ask before they touch Rosemary
• Kizzy best character, wanna be her friend
• Jenks great, funny, imagined to look like Peter Dinklage
• Sissix & Dr Chef were great, no nonsense policy: how humans dealt with their feelings; Dr Chef so passionate about food; Sissix very loveable also when it came to touching; made us very happy
• Dr Chef: father figure, doctor and chef was weird and funny, species development is super interesting
• Kizzy bubbly and a bit naïve but also funny and smart, knows how to handle things, strong female character without the stereotypes
• Rosemary sorta bland compared to the other characters; shy; not that outgoing; maybe because she’s our main focalizer who is told how things go
• “Close and Coming Orbit” also great, less space-ship, more construction workers in space, felt like “Blade Runner” + a heist + YA; great setting
• Amount of detail with which some world-building elements are described: soap-description so good as it was described that neatly
• Writing style is great
• Will pick up the other books, first book felt complete
• Refreshing that the sequel does not cover the personnel from the first book; makes us mad and happy

What you disliked:

• “For me, the novel was perfect”; one major flaw: too much positivity; hero-bias: every conflict is easily resolves, every endeavor is a success, felt too nice, too positive ending for O.
• Storyline concerning with L. and J. hard to understand; human and AI interaction / relationship a bit weird; made one of us uncomfortable
• Glossary would have been nice, or a map? Hard to follow in parts as someone who’s not a regular reader of science-fiction
• Connecting all the different issues effortlessly, the only thing that one did not like was that a more in depth introduction to the species would have been nice; it’s fine without
• Science fiction will never be “my cut of tea”, but the person enjoyed it a lot
• Too many different characters, sort of confusing, makes sense in that context, diversity is great
• Difficult to get into in the beginning, not a great start, too slow?
• “For me it was the perfect thing […] I’m not used to reading perfect books”
• Cover is beautiful ❤
• How do they handle crime? Is there a police? We want more! Give me more storylines!
• Becky Chambers can do no wrong and we love her

Our July read will be Genevieve Cogman’s “The Invisible Library”. Goodreads sums the novel up as the following:

“Irene must be at the top of her game or she’ll be off the case – permanently…

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene’s new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.

Soon, she’s up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option – the nature of reality itself is at stake.”

“The Invisible Library” is a funny, fast-paced and light read, perfect for hot summer days!