Reading Wednesday

[redbird]

Here's what I read in the last few weeks. I had expected to do more reading on the trip to England, but so it goes.

On the Steel Breeze and Poseidon's Wake, by Alastair Reynolds. These are the second and third books of a trilogy (after Blue Remembered Earth) but I think could be read separately. They're about several generations of human exploration and settlement of the outer solar system and then the planets of some (relatively) nearby stars, based on a couple of (completely handwaved) physics breakthroughs. The human characters also interact with several machine intelligences--"artificial" suggests more deliberate intent on the part of the humans who created them. Stronger recommendation if the idea of elephants in Space appeals to you.

"This is How You Lose the Time War," by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. This was recommended by lots of people, and I liked it a lot, despite, or perhaps because of, the sparseness of the characterization.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge. This book grew out of a blog post with the same title; Eddo-Lodge talks about the frustration of being asked to explain the same things over and over, by people who didn't seem to take in what she told them, and of being asked to center white people's emotions when discussing racism.

As the author notes, the book is addressed mostly to people of color, but the nature of publishing meant she had to talk to some white people about race to get the book out there. I knew a lot of the ideas here -- though, as a white person who hopes to improve things, it's worth me seeing them again. I highlighted quite a bit in reading this on the kindle. The context and specifics are very British, and she talks about the fact that what she learned about civil rights an black history, in Britain, was almost entirely about the US, not about the history of the slave trade in England, or racist treatment of people of color in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries. I'm glad I read this, and recommend it, especially to people in the UK.

*Minor Mage," by T. Kingfisher. The "minor mage" of the title is a 12-year-old boy who only knows three spells. However, he's the only mage his village has, so when the village is hit by a drought they send him off to bring back the rain. There's a good mix of adventure, humor, and people actually talking to each other; some of the humor comes from the boy's familiar, a sarcastic armadillo. This is a short book--tkingfisher notes in an afterword that she thinks it's a children's book, but none of the editors she showed it to agreed with her. ("T. Kingfisher" is Ursula Vernon's pen name for adult and YA books.)

Comments

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[minoanmiss]

Oh man, ten year old me would have loved the premise of the "Minor Mage". *sigh*

I need to read "Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People ABout Race". Just from your description I know I've seen these patterns, and also seen them in regards to many disprivileged groups.

Re: *

[cjsmith]

I need to read that one too. Not least because I'm white and I would like to not be a complete twit about it.

[coth]

I enjoyed Minor Mage. I don't think publishers could market it as a modern children's book, feeling it should not be quite so gruesome, no matter how light the touch. It would sit perfectly well on a shelf alongside The Tiger Who Came to Tea or any of the older children's books that did not realise what they were evoking for their children in peril - a path the conversation has not taken.

I have bought the Eddo-Lodge - thank you.