Mixed bag in May - busier month too, both emotionally and practically.

Long awaited: Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Stories of Your Life absolutely blew my mind, and so I was eager to read more. Original, smart, vibrant, deep, basically the best science fiction (but is it science fiction?) that I’ve read in, well, forever. The issue is that Ted Chiang is a low output author - his stories are probably lovingly grown and ripened. It may well be that Exhalation contained his second best, because he simply doesn’t write that much. Either that or having learned about his style and obsessions, finding them again in his second published set of short stories doesn’t produce the same wonder. His second best is still beautiful.

The Outcast trilogy by Keri Arthur: ‘myeah’-y set of books, taking place after a future war where humans created a race of super soldiers, and there’s only one left, the protagonist. A different take on shifters, vampires, and mixed-race people, but I wouldn’t say it’s massively original in plot and execution. Would make for a pretty dark action flick I suppose.

The Tensorate series: I recently learned of the existence of the ‘silkpunk’ genre, about traditional asian societies with future tech. Think silk robes and tea ceremonies with some AI participants, or exquisite lacquered fusion bombs, or whatever. In the Tensorate series, the world is ruled with an iron fist by the protectorate, a dynasty, and tensors (yes, I know) are the ruling class who possess powers to shape reality around them. There’s a non-binary and transgender angle in that people can choose the gender they’ll go with (or not) when they reach adulthood. The combination is quite readable.

Persuasion by Jane Austen: I heard that Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both set in Bath, and offered an informative view of society at the time (Bath as a marriage market amongst other things). And indeed, they did. I read all of Austen’s work as a younger woman, when perhaps the romantic aspect was what drew me. It’s interesting to reread them now, probably not too far from the age Austen wrote them - it’s actually very clear-eyed and unromantic about who’s making what kind of money and who’s suitable for whom. It was fun to place the action in a setting I know. Austen had no love for Bath, preferring the country, and it shows.

Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor: YA sci-fi with a young african heroine leaving her village as the first to go to a far away space university. Like silkpunk it brings the flavour of a different culture to fairly standard science fiction. I decided to finish the trilogy after reading ‘Who fears death’, which was arresting at the very least. Binti was much more YA, simpler plotline, and I had trouble feeling empathy for the protagonists impulsive behaviour.