wolffyluna

So, I haven't done one of these for awhile. One may think that's because I have not been reading. But I have! Just... one book. Slowly. And then a bunch of shorter books that I inhaled this afternoon.

The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence by Peter F Hamilton

This is the one I was reading very... slowly... It's a sprawling sci fi epic, so sprawling that what I read is technically not the first book, it's the first half of the first book.

A friend recommended it to me, because they thought it would be the sort of thing I would like. And they weren't strictly speaking wrong?

It has a lot of interesting worldbuilding (a LOT of worldbuilding) and it drip feeds it to you, which I am a sucker for. You really get the feeling that it's a big galaxy out there and you are just getting to witness a small part. A small part that occasionally makes you go "wait, what?" and I'm not sure all of the questions were intentional*, but I'm fairly sure a bunch were.

It's got a lot of visceral violence in it (one of the traits said friend knew I liked in sci fi) and is a "in the far future, lots of people choose to slut it up" (ditto.)

But. In many ways the things I liked are the thing that made me read it slowly and have mixed feelings about the whole thing.

The worldbuilding is vast and expansive and Hamilton is having to set up a lot of moving parts for his plots to work-- which makes the pacing toffee slow and there's the whole thing where the first novel was so big they had to split it in two. The Big Reveal hasn't even happened yet. The book just stops at a cliffhanger in the middle! After spending most of it just being set up!

And... the free love far future. Man. I would have liked to like it? But the way women and sex and the intersection of the two were portrayed-- I cannot articulate why it came across a sexist and objectifying and kind of unpleasant? But the fact I can't explain it in some ways makes me more confident that there is Something Broad and Systemic Up with how the women are portrayed. (The best I can do is that the female characters are much more likely to be About Sex, the way they are more likely to be belt notchees than notchers, and the pervasive thing about Youth combine in a way that makes me go >:|)

I guess whether I recommend it depends on how much great worldbuilding is a selling point vs how much slow and sexist is an unselling point.

*There's a planet that is very Deliberately being Regency England in Space. Romani people live there, and there is a tension between the implication that they are marginalised (because it's Regency England in Space) but also that they colonised there ?deliberately? I'm not sure if Hamilton meant me to be thinking this hard about a relatively throwaway detail, but it's an example of the "wait, what?" worldbuilding.

Madgic #1 by Mori of LB Lee

This is a 52 page zine that's a personal perspective about how to balance magic and religion when you have mental health problems and the general thing of "I mean, this problem isn't... just magical, but it's not not magical?" In particular, it's an interesting analysis of how symbols work, the fact you don't necessarily need to 'believe' to have something work (for good or ill) and the idea of things being 'otherordinary' (which is used because terms like "supernatural" can make things sound exotic and unnatural when a lot of times it's more useful to think of it as something natural and normal, even if it's harder to poke at with a stick than something more ordinary-ordinary.)

It's really interesting, and I can highly recommend it. I can't necessarily speak to how useful it is to it's intended audience, because I'm not, but it's definitely going on the metaphorical shelf of "in case of: you best start believing in ghost stories, wolffy, because you're in one."

(General note: the author is having some money trouble, so now is An Especially Good Time to buy yourself a book about DIY magic.)

Coming In Or Staying Out by Rogan and Biff of LB Lee

A sexy comic about getting it on in a public bathroom... because you have no better place to get it on.

I initially saw the panel of the clown jesus apartment I went "Oh. I have to read this." And reader? I do not regret this, my first instinct was entirely right, this is great.

The way the physicality of the intimacy is drawn is just so good. And I'm not being prudish by saying 'intimacy'-- the way the hugs are drawn is great. There's a mixed expressiveness and solidity that is just wonderful.

But the main reason I'm recommending it so highly is that it is hilarious. I cackled out loud multiple times while reading this. The expressiveness that makes the intimate scenes so good makes the comedic ones an utter gut buster. Just. The jesus clown apartment, y'all. It's going to live in my head forever. At some innopportune moment, I'm going to whisper-shout "SILENCE! This is a library!" and then I'm going to have to somehow avoid explaining where that came from.

(General note: the authors are having some money trouble, so now is An Especially Good Time to buy yourself a smutty e-comic.)