Aurora's Sundry Notes

I thought I'd try a thing where, in place of the standard Reading Wednesday that goes around, I'd have a general What Culture I Have Been Consuming Lately feature. That'd also get me to handily talk about the podcasts and TV episodes and things like that which I've been into, without needing to have the energy to do a Proper Post about them otherwise. We'll see how this turns out! And I know it's not Wednesday now, hush.

Books

It feels like in the early weeks of the year, I've been reading but not progressing. But recently I got properly back on the reading track again. I've started the year with a couple of f/f romances - Melissa Brayden's Back to September, a contemporary romance, and Olivia Waite's The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, a historical romance with science women. I enjoyed both of them very much. I had some writing-related issues with the latter, but on the other hand it was full of stuff I'm crazy about - f/f, early 19th century history, history of science, women doing science, women supporting one another, and women's crafts. And the writing-related issues didn't keep me from enjoying the story, it's just that it could have been even better if some of those had been fixed. Stuff like pacing - the romance develops a bit too fast for my liking - and some POV issues and overuse of epitheths.

Now I'm just planning to get back to Tasha Suri's Realm of Ash, which I've neglected too long when trying to finish other books, because it's amazing and I want to focus on reading it properly.

Though I feel like I haven't read a lot of books, I have been reading an awful lot of fanfic lately. Especially in the podcast fandoms! Should maybe get into the habit of rec posts.


Podcasts

I've been listening to so many things! I finished The Bright Sessions early this year (other than the post-series specials, which I haven't yet started listening to because I need a breather) and that definitely still needs its own proper post. I love it deeply, though.

There has been more podcast-finishing and podcast-catching up recently. I finished S1 of The Strange Case of the Starship Iris and S2 of Moonbase Theta Out slightly before Christmas, and I think I finished S2 of The Far Meridian in early January. Just recently I finished Midnight Radio, which is a beautiful one-season, ten-episode complete story in 1950s radio show format, with queer women, and I love it so much and find it unfair there's hardly any fic. I should probably write some. And I need to do a proper mini-review or rec post on it so I can get other people to listen to it and talk about it with someone. I already started listening to it again because it's just so lovely.

Recently I started listening to The 12:37, which is a new show involving a time-travelling train and lots of queer folks including an f/f ship, and honest treatment of mental illness. So yeah, lots of things I'm so there for. There's one season out and I already finished it. In probably less than a week? So, so much recommended! Also, it's British, which is a nice change, as most shows are US-made with US actors, and my ears are a bit more comfortable with British accents.

I also started listening to The Pilgrimage Saga, which is a small-cast spacefaring show about a spaceship on a mission to return humanity to the Earth after humans had to flee to another planet when Earth became uninhabitable, and this new planet is already inhabited by aliens. I've listened to five episodes so far, and I find the characters and their interactions delightful, and there seems to be some kind of a plot cooking up and I'm curious about what it'll be. Also, it has gorgeous music.

I've started on S2 of The Penumbra Podcast. Though I'm taking it a bit slow because the Juno Steel stories nearly always find a way to break me a bit. There are more Second Citadel stories in this season, and they're starting to find their voice and are getting delightful. I've recently encountered Sir Damien, Rilla, and Lord Arum, and if anyone who listens to the show is reading, I'm sure they know just how delightful that is. I hope I get around to doing a proper spoiler-cut Penumbra post where I can just ramble and rave about the episodes I've heard lately.

Also, I kind of got going with EOS 10 after all. It turned out that after the first couple of episodes, the alcoholism/addiction content dropped to a level I was okay with (I'm fine with people being messes and having bad ways of dealing with stuff, I just don't like plots being focused on addiction/alcohol). By "I kind of got going" I mean that I've already made it through the first two seasons. In about two weeks. Oops. I think I'm taking a break now before going on to S3. Anyway, I find the characters' relationships delightful, and the quirky humour is mostly starting to find its mark for me. I love the bickering relationship that's grown between Ryan and Dr. Urvidian, and I just love Jane. Jane is fabulous. I also rather love that her name is Jane, because Janes of fiction aren't often badass powerhouses.

Most recently I started listening to Ars Paradoxica. I'd had the first episode saved for a while, and after getting through The 12:37 far too quickly, I decided I needed more time travel shows. I've only listened to one episode, but I really enjoyed it.

I continue listening to S1 of Tides, which is a show about a scientist who lands on an alien planet and explores the life there while trying to get in touch with her spaceship crew again. It feels like a podcast version of Becky Chambers's To Be Taught, If Fortunate; it has that same degree of "OMG isn't life and xenobiology amazing, let's just talk about how weird and fascinating life could be and how weird and fascinating it is even on Earth" and I love it. It's not really something to binge the way some of these other shows, but I listen to roughly one episode per week or thereabouts.

Also, I've already started to re-listen to Kaleidotrope, and am through the first four episodes again. It works excellently as a comfort feel-good listen the second time around, too.

Okay, I went on for so long about the podcast dramas that I'm not even going to mention non-fiction stuff. Maybe I'll do those on occasion, too, if I get around to doing this regularly enough that I don't have a million things to update at once!


TV and films

Most weeks I won't include films in this part, because I'm not a big film watcher, but this time I actually have one! I recently watched Ocean's 8 - had borrowed it on DVD from the library. I'm really bad at watching films, so I hadn't got around to this one either. But it was lots of fun! Loved the characters and the hijinks. Such a breezy fun heist story.

As for TV, I've mostly been watching the newest Doctor Who season, as you maybe can tell. But I also have started a little on S2 of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. That show is so pretty and fun, and usually has the perfect-for-comfort-viewing ratio of gorgeous 1920s outfits, and flirty banter to sleuthing and mysteries. But the end of S1 got kind of dark - the second-last episode creeped me out so much I couldn't continue for months, and when I tried watching the last one, it was too violent for me, so I just read the summary to know where the overarching plot was going. But I seem to do all right with the second season.

Other

I can't often afford going to the theatre these days, and also I don't always have the spoons for it. But last night I got the opportunity to see some theatre for free, so I took it. It was a preview of a new production of Wuthering Heights. It was… very good, in that it was extremely intense and powerful, and it did not romanticise the story. Ever since I actually read the book, I've not been able to understand people who think Wuthering Heights is some kind of great tragic romance. But this one treated it as it should, that is, a story about terrible people being terrible and making each other more terrible in the process. It was extremely powerful as such. On the other hand, it made for really uncomfortable watching seeing as I was recovering from a couple of not-so-great mental health days. The director's style is very powerful, visceral and weird, and I think it's a good match for the story but it was too much for me. I had to look away from the stage sometimes, and it still left me feeling quite dire.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed how they used music in the play, though it was no musical. Also, the actors and visual design were great. But when I got home, I had to spend quite a lot of time eating cheap chocolate and reading fluffy/comforting fanfics before I trusted myself to feel calm and balanced enough to go to sleep. Well, I'm all right now, after sleeping the night. But I think I want to see something fluffier the next time I go to theatre!

ETA: I'm a bit behind on comments once again, sorry about that, and I haven't commented on other people's posts much. My brain hasn't been helpful with that kind of stuff lately - it took me long enough to get this written. But it's still easier to just babble about media I've enjoyed that it is to respond to other people in a way that makes actual sense. I'll try to get there!

Here's a quick Reading Wednesday-No-Thursday-Actually post, because I should be doing useful things and I don't want to! (Perhaps I need to make more tea first. More tea is often the answer.)

What I've Read Recently

The last book I finished was A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland, which I enjoyed a lot. Deliciously rich and detailed worldbuilding (though I'm a bit iffy about so many names directly from our world's languages appearing in a complete fantasy world), lots of things about storytelling and narrators and the power of stories for the good and the bad, everyone is super queer. I really look forward to getting my hands on the second book, especially as that'll feature my favourite character as the narrator.

What I'm Reading Now

A lot of things! I'm rereading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet for the Xth (maybe 4th?) time because why not, and that books keeps making me very happy and comforted. Otherwise, all my library holds insisted on coming at the same time, so I'm a bit swamped, but I've finally started Gideon the Ninth so that I have time to read it before I have to take it back to the library. I'm not far into it enough to say what I think of it yet. It seems entertaining but maybe has more reanimated corpses than I strictly like? I really want to get back to Empress of Forever which I enjoy a lot but which I requires more of my brain than the others do, which is why it's been slow. I've recently been reading some Finnish poetry to enjoy things in my own language as well.

What I'm going to read next

Well, the library books with a definite due date to them include The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri, and Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I'm not convinced I can read all of them in the time I've got left, but I can't decide which one to take back to the library without reading, because I super much want to read all of them. Wish me luck, or something. Anyway, once that situation is done, we'll see, but I might want to tackle some of my own books for a change, and I have a bunch of stuff I want to reread, like the Imperial Radch books and In the Vanishers' Palace. Oh, and there are lots of history books I want to get down to. I've realized I've spent too much time in the 19th century Europe and would really like to read more about other historical periods.

So, trying to keep up with new, recently published stuff is turning out difficult for me. Maybe I should go back to being late for each and every book and fandom? That's usually more my style. Then again, I've discovered some fabulous books by keeping up with the current releases, so ah, it's hard to know what to do.

Okay, I'm going to stop procrastinating for real now.

I haven't done a book post in a while! And I've actually read lots of books I enjoyed lately. In lieu of a Reading Wednesday post on a Wednesday, I'm now going to list and briefly describe a bunch of books I've enjoyed particularly in the past weeks.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. (First in her Teixcalaan series - the second volume will be out next year, but the first is also a self-contained story, you're not left at a huge cliffhanger with nothing resolved.) This is a really interesting science fiction story about a space empire and a woman who arrives there as an ambassador from her home station to find out what happened to her predecessor. It's more political science fiction than space opera, since it mainly stays in one planet and looks at the space empire and its conquests mainly through political machinations in the capital. I liked it a lot, in particular the fascinating worldbuilding, the richness and detail with which the empire's culture was described, the delightfully weird mind-implant technology that is in the centre of the plot, somewhat reminiscent of Ninefox Gambit yet not at all like that (you'll know what I mean if you read it), and great characters. I loved the main character as well as sooo many supporting characters. Mahit, the main character, is lots of fun, a very active, curious and determined character who's sure to keep the plot moving and keep things interesting. Lots of queer characters and relationships. The main character is a lesbian and there's some f/f content, although it's not a romance-centric story and you shouldn't expect that; also she shares her head with a delightful disaster bisexual guy.

I also really enjoyed how this book explored the themes of empire, culture, cultural imperialism and colonization. The description of what it is to love a culture that threatens to drown your own while you know it felt like the author knew what she was doing. I'm saying this as someone who's far too in love with many British and North American cultural products while also conscious of the hegemony and what it's doing to smaller cultures, including my own.

Okay, on to the next book.

Siren Depths (Book #3 of the Books of the Raksura) by Martha Wells. I'm turning into quite a fan of this series! I started reading it last year when I was voting in the Hugos for the first time and it was a nominee in the series category. I didn't manage to read enough in the category to vote for it, but I stayed interested in the Raksura, and continued reading the series this year. Anyway, it's a fantasy series about these shapeshifters called the Raksura who are sort of human/reptile people/dragon shapeshifters with very particular social structures, matriarchy, no concept of monogamy, very different gender roles than we do, fascinating culture, and lots of arguments with each other. The main character is a sardonic loner who suddenly becomes a part of a very social community and doesn't know how to trust people or believe he belongs, and the characters are lovely. I thought this book was the best yet, I was riveted and loved it all so much. And oh, all the feels! There are still two more novels, and some short stories, and I look forward to them all.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's alternate 1920s Mexico, Mayan gods, and a girl on a heroine's journey. This was a bit of an uneven reading experience, and there were parts in the middle where I had trouble staying into the story, maybe because of some pacing issues. But overall I really loved diving into this colourful world, and I loved the heroine a lot. I also enjoyed how it handled the romance aspect of the story. I often have issues with het romances in books and other media, as I've mentioned before, but I had no problems with this one, it worked well enough for me.

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee. It's a collection of short stories set in the universe of the Machineries of Empire novels as well as a novella taking place after the last novel of the series, Revenant Gun. The short stories were fun and/or interesting glimpses into the world, characters, and history of the novels. The novella, Glass Cannon, just, OMG OMG!!! So much what I was left wanting after finishing Revenant Gun, and also wonderfully over-the-top, and a really satisfying resolution for the main characters. And ended in such an exciting place, OMG. I want the non-existent sequel right now. I may have to yell and flail about these books properly in a separate spoiler-cut post at some point.

I've also been able to read and finish some beautifully written books in Finnish, which is really nice, as I often have trouble finding books I enjoy in my native language, other than modernist poetry and non-fiction.

And I finally bought myself the first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red, by Martha Wells, which I hadn't previously owned because I first read it from the library. And that meant I of course had to read it. I mean, I don't always read books immediately (or even reasonably soon) after buying them, but well, I opened it, my eyes fell upon the first sentence, and then I couldn't not read it. And now I'm all into rereading all of the Murderbot novellas soon. Well, this is a very appropriate time since the first Murderbot novel, Network Effect, is coming out next May. A whole novel of Murderbot! I was privileged enough to get into Martha Wells's reading in the WorldCon (ie. I and one of my friends went to queue early enough to fit into the room), and she read an excerpt from Network effect. It was brilliant and so much fun, and I can't wait to get my hands on the whole book.

Currently I'm reading Sarah Pinsker's first novel, A Song For a New Day. It's a interesting and largely well-written, but I'm bothered by some of the vagueness of the worldbuilding, because it just makes certain things not feel realistic. I may try to say more when I've finished it and know how I feel about the whole book.

Next, I hope to start with Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone - I've heard a lot about it, and after loving This Is How You Lose the Time War I want to read more of the authors' work. Also, I'm so much in the mood for badass lesbians in space, which this should deliver.

As I'm slowly crawling my way back towards health (damn this bug has been persistent! but I have a little bit more energy each day), LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A BOOK I READ RECENTLY. Because it's wonderful.

When I first heard about Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's novella This is How You Lose the Time War, I knew I had to read it once it came out. Time travel! Two (female) time agents on opposing sides, exchanging letters! And f/f love! I was sold on those points alone.

Yet I wasn't prepared for how good it would be, and how unusual.

Here's the cover blurb: Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.

Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

I'll try to avoid spoilers as I describe my experience, though if you don't want to know anything about a book you probably should skip the rest of the post. But oh, I loved it. I loved the exquisite poetry of the letters Red and Blue leave for each other across time streams. I loved the poetry of the increasingly impossible ways in which those letters were delivered. I loved the development of their relationship, and gradually learning to know their strange worlds through their letters, and how the book left much unexplained, for the reader to guess, or dream. I loved all the myriad time streams and the careful ways in which each side wove their own patterns in time and just, I don't know, everything. Including the multitudes of names Red and Blue call each other.

The book stole my heart and did exquisite things to it. I can't get Red and Blue and their world and their times out of my mind. And that's a good thing.

I hesitate to say more. Except, perhaps, that if you only want straightforward books which don't leave anything unexplained and do not enjoy poetic language at all, then this book may not be for you. But then again, it would be worth it to try, anyway. Maybe you'll discover that it is for you after all. But if you have any level of tolerance for the poetic and the unsaid and the inexplicable, I recommend this. Especially if you want awesome female characters and time travel and beautiful (f/f) romance, or at least some of those items. This a novella, so it won't take long to read. And it's so, so worth trying.

It came out in July 2019, so very very recent! I was lucky enough to get it from our library's e-books this soon, but I know I'll have to own it.

If you need to know more spoilery things before reading, or if you've read this and want to discuss it, drop me a comment or something! I can DM you or set up a spoilers-allowed post, whatever seems the most convenient.

I wanted to do the reading meme yesterday but I didn't have the required cooperation of the brain, so I'm doing it today.

What I've read recently

The last thing I finished was Tell It To The Bees by Fiona Shaw, which was really wonderful. I picked it up from the e-library by chance and turned out to love it. Before that, I've recently finished a few other books I want to mention, because I haven't done this meme for a few weeks. I finally finished This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, which has been reading in the long time, because I don't always have the headspace for reading about climate change and climate politics, but it's really great, important and also empowering.

I also read one of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novella, P. Djèlí Clark's The Black God's Drums, which I loved very much and I want to read a whole book series from that universe, thank you very much. And I finally got around to reading Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and oh my stars that was great, even if it took me some time to figure out well enough what was going on so that I could just focus on reading the story. But I gather that's a rather common experience.

What I'm reading now

I've been reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik for a while now. I really like it, though every now and then I need to read something else, either because I'm too worried about the main characters, or because the book is just thick and heavy physically. I do expect I'll be done with it fairly soon, once I have the right headspace to continue.

For lighter reading, both physically and mentally, I started book #2 of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, A Local Habitation. Really enjoying it, and don't expect to take long with it.

In the non-fiction front, I've got my usual novel research books, but I also started reading Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger, because it sounded like something I wanted to read, and I was able to get the e-book from the library. It's great so far.

What I plan to read next

I'm really starting to feel the need to read some fiction in my own language dammit. I borrowed a couple of books to that effect from the library as I went there today (and filled my backpack with books, I should never be allowed into public libraries). Other than that, once I've finished Spinning Silver, I expect to read Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera, or the Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, whichever appeals to me more at the moment. Space Opera is a Hugo finalist for the best novel (as is Spinning Silver), and I need to read Raven Stratagem before I can read the third book in the series, which is also a best novel finalist. (Plus, the whole series is a Best Series finalist.) But I totally would want to read them both soon anyway.

And I do expect to read more October Daye in the near future, as well.