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Oct. 15th, 2025 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretI read this year's Hugo and Nebula winning novels.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
I wasn't planning to read this until I saw Wiswell's presentation at Readercon, which went deeply behind the scenes and made this sound thoughtful and interesting.
I had a rant a while back about my growing frustration with the Minority as Monster metaphor, where in order to accept the premise of the story you have to accept that there is something monstrous about the minorities. I think maybe it was in my review of one of the Cadwell Turnbull books? In any case, this book is doing something subtler with this, but I kind of suspect that some readers are reading it in that Minority as Monster vein. The trick here is that Wiswell isn't asking you to empathize with that which is monstrous about Shesheshen. Shesheshen knows that eating people is wrong, and is ashamed that she eats people, but it has been a survival tactic in a world that persecutes her because of who she is. This lets Wiswell explore the monster metaphor in a much more satisfyingly moral way, with twists that flesh out the metaphor and profoundly ask the question of who in fact actually is a monster. But it's only profound and interesting if you don't read the ending as a happy ending, and I think that is a big ask because it does have such cozy vibes.
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
skygiants said in her review "genarti tells me Ana Dolabra is not a Holmesalike but a Nero Wolfe-alike" but I don't think that's quite right. It's true in the sense specifically that Ana stays inside and sends out her assistant Din to do the boots on the pavement investigating, and then Ana solves the mystery, and yes, that is the fundamental premise of the Nero Wolfe series. But Din is not an Archie-alike and the storytelling is not very Stoutlike at all, so I was thrown a bit in the first couple sections before I started to vibe with it.
Archie Goodwin's narration has very little explicit interiority. I mean, that's not fair, Archie is very open with you about when he is upset or amused or hungry, he wears surface level emotions on his sleeve. But Archie will never muse about the nature of justice, or bemoan the position of the detective in a city built on corruption. Not that he doesn't have opinions about those things, but you are left to infer them, Archie will never tell you. And Bennett hangs a lot of his story on Din doing precisely that, and asking what it means to be part of an Empire. Also Din is very bad at lying! Archie looks askance.
But I liked this very much, it is one of the fairest and most well-told fantasy mysteries I've ever read, the worldbuilding is compelling and suits a murder mystery extremely well. I have already checked out the sequel; I'll report back.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
I wasn't planning to read this until I saw Wiswell's presentation at Readercon, which went deeply behind the scenes and made this sound thoughtful and interesting.
I had a rant a while back about my growing frustration with the Minority as Monster metaphor, where in order to accept the premise of the story you have to accept that there is something monstrous about the minorities. I think maybe it was in my review of one of the Cadwell Turnbull books? In any case, this book is doing something subtler with this, but I kind of suspect that some readers are reading it in that Minority as Monster vein. The trick here is that Wiswell isn't asking you to empathize with that which is monstrous about Shesheshen. Shesheshen knows that eating people is wrong, and is ashamed that she eats people, but it has been a survival tactic in a world that persecutes her because of who she is. This lets Wiswell explore the monster metaphor in a much more satisfyingly moral way, with twists that flesh out the metaphor and profoundly ask the question of who in fact actually is a monster. But it's only profound and interesting if you don't read the ending as a happy ending, and I think that is a big ask because it does have such cozy vibes.
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
skygiants said in her review "genarti tells me Ana Dolabra is not a Holmesalike but a Nero Wolfe-alike" but I don't think that's quite right. It's true in the sense specifically that Ana stays inside and sends out her assistant Din to do the boots on the pavement investigating, and then Ana solves the mystery, and yes, that is the fundamental premise of the Nero Wolfe series. But Din is not an Archie-alike and the storytelling is not very Stoutlike at all, so I was thrown a bit in the first couple sections before I started to vibe with it. Archie Goodwin's narration has very little explicit interiority. I mean, that's not fair, Archie is very open with you about when he is upset or amused or hungry, he wears surface level emotions on his sleeve. But Archie will never muse about the nature of justice, or bemoan the position of the detective in a city built on corruption. Not that he doesn't have opinions about those things, but you are left to infer them, Archie will never tell you. And Bennett hangs a lot of his story on Din doing precisely that, and asking what it means to be part of an Empire. Also Din is very bad at lying! Archie looks askance.
But I liked this very much, it is one of the fairest and most well-told fantasy mysteries I've ever read, the worldbuilding is compelling and suits a murder mystery extremely well. I have already checked out the sequel; I'll report back.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-20 05:43 pm (UTC)The second book is less like an Attack On Titan fanfic. Not sure that I have much to say beyond that, honest.
They are not super literary, and it is hard to make the argument that this is a deep, meaningful book. But -- oh man, it was so much fun. And I missed reading that were just that for me, and I am looking forward to the third one an unreasonable amount.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-21 02:48 am (UTC)