miscellaneous reading wrap up

 

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

rating: 5 star

summary: what if it won’t leave you alone until you put it to rest?

comments: you guys. you guys. literally the other writers aren't sofia samatar and that will NEVER be ok. this book is like tangentially related to the winged histories...in a good way!! its set a bit before it in a fascinating manner. and tialon is there! the moment when i realized that the prince’s war some characters vaguely mention wanting to go fight in is dasya’s...PAIN. anyways. in this book the main character falls in love with a ghost/angel he is also being haunted by, AND that haunting ultimately snowballs into a massive uncontrollable political/religious disaster for the entire country of olondria. its amazing. jevick is a wonderful protagonist...his is a fascinating perspective to be saddled with! im writing these comments too long after i finished this (back in utah) to fully articulate how much i love it but seriously i couldn’t put it down. miss samatar i love you so much. prose was drop dead gorgeous as always.

highlights: 

• Tears filled my eyes. The desire to confide in him made me tremble. / “What is your trouble?” he whispered. / “A dead thing. Something dead.” / He leaned close, urgent. “An angel?” / Yes. Yes, I said. An angel.  

• The sound of something shifting inside the box knocked at my heart; my hands were sweating, and when I had positioned the coffin I wiped them on my coat. The house observed me, silent. Miros and Auram were there, but no one looked out; they had left me to complete this ritual alone. I am the last thing you will see, I said in my heart. I am the last, I have carried you in my arms, I have brought you home.

pages: 304

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

rating: 4 stars???

summary: what if there was gender. and violence.

comments: i literally cannot articulate what happened to me when i read this book. i finished it in one day and then just sat there in silence looking at the brick wall outside my window. narrator/main character is (intentionally) unbelievably insufferable but the writing is so fresh and funny that i never minded. eliza clark YOUR INSANE and i need your hand in marriage NOW. btw basically every content warning imaginable on this one

highlights: 

• He’s a vision in polyester, he’s a checkout movie star; he’s the Oscar Isaac of random boys who work in Tesco.

• It isn't him. It never is.

pages: 217

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

rating: 5 star

summary: what if jesuit priests went to space and it wasnt fun?

comments: okay well im obsessed with this now. this book has my number in the sense that a) it’s essentially anthropological science fiction, b) the protagonist is a linguist, c) it’s a first contact story and d) there is gross body horror and stuff gets Dark. since reading dune last year i have been enjoying sci fi that interrogates religion quite a bit (partially because imo sci fi is extremely well equipped to do so) but have been putting off the sparrow for a while, in that weird way where i knew i would love it but wasn’t ready yet? well i was right and i do love this…i love emilio sandoz as a protagonist and i loved every other main character to bits too. i especially loved the crisis of faith that basically glues this book together. there’s an ongoing disagreement between characters in this book about why god gets credit for good things that happen, but none of the blame for the bad, which culminates devastatingly into; if god is real and all this terrible stuff happened, he must answer for that. which is way more compelling than just wondering if god is real or not. the authors writing is so easy to read but still clever and entertaining and cutting…i can’t put my finger on why though!!! also the framing device of half the chapters morning forward through the mission to space while the other half look backwards on it as emilio is questioned about what happened after returning is soooo great….very I’m Telling You What Is Going To Happen Right Now On Page One And You Will Still Be Shocked and Appalled by These Events as They Occur. i also want to credit the author for having an actual serious grasp on linguistics!! the language puzzles and discussions that happened in this book were very entertaining for me. content warnings for body horror involving hands and general illness, rape, and sex trafficking if you are looking to pick this one up. if your threshold for being uncomfortable/disturbed isnt super high you probably shouldnt read this

highlight: 

• Now you have to live with knowing. But it was my body. It was my blood. And it was my love. 

• He thought sometimes of the peculiar peacefulness he’d experienced towards the end of the voyage back, watching blood seep from his hands and thinking, This will kill me, and then I can stop trying to understand. 

• “Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine,” Vincenzo Giuliani said quietly. “Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” / “But still, the sparrow falls,” Felipe said. 

pages: 496

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

rating: 3.25 stars

summary: what if you knew god and he died

comments: this may as well be titled DUNE For People Who Didn’t Understand DUNE. and i mean that as a compliment. basically if you got tricked into thinking paul is a Good Guy in dune this book is here to be like, just in case you didn’t notice, this guy started a religious cult and then used it to exact revenge over familial disputes which eventually resulted in the deaths of 60 million people. haha. there is an interesting aspect re: paul's ability to see futures, so all this terrible stuff is justified via paul's knowledge that its the least awful path available to take, but. still doesn't make him a good guy! not sure what it makes him really. anyways this was weird but fun in the same ways dune was…#PaulAtreidesIsOverParty i think its epic and hilarious that he walked off into the desert to die at the end. duncan idaho’s corpse being reanimated and given as a gift to paul wildly entertaining as well. too much discussion of incest and having babies but thats just frank herbert for you i guess.

highlight: 

• Here lies a toppled god – his fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, a narrow and a tall one.

pages: 334