sophia_sol | Entries tagged with author: catherynne m valente

Woohoo I finally got through another Hugo category! Here's how I'm voting for the novellas this year. Links to full reviews in the titles.

1. Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I LOVED THIS. I was not expecting it at all and it blew me away!

2. The Past is Red, by Catherynne M Valente

Yes, I'm surprised as you are that I'm ranking a Valente this high, but you know what, every now and then she manages to write something that really works for me, and this does.

3. Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard

Loved everything about this one except that the romance felt too rushed.

4. A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E Harrow

Although I don't love everything this book is doing, I still really liked it!

5. No Award

6. A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

I've loved most of the Becky Chambers books I've read in the past, but this one just really rubbed me the wrong way in a number of aspects. DNF.

Not ranking: Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire

I find myself so deeply irritated by something or other about every single book in this series I've read over the years for the Hugos and I'm not gonna keep on trying.

In a surprising turn of events I actually really liked this book. I often do not get along with Valente's writing, but on rare occasions she manages to write something that works for me, and it turns out this is one!

This book began life as a short story in 2016 (The Future Is Blue), which is now the first 32 pages of the published novella. I enjoyed the short story back in the day, and it was fascinating to see where things went from there, after what was the end at the time!

It's a post-apocalyptic climate disaster story, but told from the perspective of someone for whom the flooded and garbage-filled earth is the only world she has ever known, and she loves her world and her people and her life, even though/even when things are really hard.

And a lot of really hard things do happen to her! But she always finds something to love, something to live for, something to hope for. I loved Tetley, and I loved getting to see the world through her eyes.

Let's move on to the novelettes! These are also, like the short stories, all available to read for free online.

1. Colors of the Immortal Palette - Caroline M Yoachim
Wow, this is really incredible. It isn't a story that I personally love, but I really respect and admire all the excellent things that it's doing so skillfullly.

2. That Story Isn't the Story - John Wiswell
I missed this story when it first came out, and....huh. It's real good at getting the reader into a mindset, at creating a mood and a feeling. I'm impressed.

3. Bots of the Lost Ark - Suzanne Palmer
I found it mildly interesting, but it didn't really move me.

4. Unseelie Brothers, Ltd - Fran Wilde
There are some very interesting elements, but I felt like the characters were all pretty flat, and I don't think I followed the thematic arc of what the story was trying to do.

5. O2 Arena - Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Again, some interesting elements, but doesn't come together well for me.

6. No Award

7. L'Esprit de L'Escalier - Catherynne M Valente
Ugh, retells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice as disaffected miserable modern young people in an unsuccessful marriage, and it's just not....not a version that I care to read about even a little bit.

Hugo finalists are out, and alas I'm not hugely excited about the results in a lot of the categories. BUT She Who Became the Sun is a finalist for best novel, and that's the most important thing!!! I was also very pleased to see "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" and "Unknown Number" in the short story list.

I've now set up my spreadsheet of all finalists in the categories I am able to engage with cogently, to keep track of what I've read and what my opinions are! So get ready for posts to trickle out over the next months with hugo opinions.

Let's start with going through all the short story nominees, since those are quick reads that are all available to read for free online.

1. Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather - Sarah Pinsker
I may agonize a bit longer about which order to place my top two stories in this category, as both this one and the next one are SO brilliant, but they're doing such different things that it's hard to actually compare them head-on. I love the way it engages with the folk tradition, and internet message boards, and also how it plays with how to communicate information to a reader beyond what is explicitly stated in the text.

2. Unknown Number - Blue Neustifter
The other story that's tied for first place! I love the premise of two versions of the same person from alternate universes communicating with each other by text message, and it's full of so much of both compassion and radical honesty about accepting who you are, it's incredible.

3. Proof by Induction - Jose Pablo Iriarte
Over the years I've read a number of short stories on the topic of a recorded copy of a person remaining after they're dead, and the living loved ones of that person interacting with the copy, and although this one's fine, I just don't feel like it's top-of-the-line in its particular subgenre.

4. Mr Death - Alix E Harrow
I can see and appreciate what this one's doing, but it just doesn't work for me personally. Plus the ending really irritates me, it feels far too facile that in the end it's actually TOTALLY fine what he did and it just means he gets a different job, even though he was gearing up to make a real sacrifice for something he thought was worth it.

5. Tangles - Seanan McGuire
This appears to be Magic: The Gathering fanfic, so I come at it with a disadvantage of knowing nothing about Magic other than that it's a deck-building card game, but not knowing canon has never actually a barrier for me in reading fanfic, lol. But I just found this story so uncompelling! I think there was a kernel of something mildly interesting in it, but the way it was expressed didn't work for me at all.

6. No Award

7. The Sin of America - Catherynne M Valente
When this first came out I think I gave up on it PRETTY early on. I have now tried reading it again, to give it its proper chance against the rest of the slate, but I found it SO boring that my eyes glazed over enough while reading and I definitely missed things. So like. I tried to read it again but I don't know if that really counts! But no thanks, this one's not for me.

I found a Valente book I'm capable of enjoying!

I read her Orphan's Tales duology a number of years ago because it sounded SO MUCH up my alley, but I just found it overwrought and uninteresting. And since then I kept on hearing about her new books and going "OOOOH" because the ideas and themes and whatever are things I enjoy! (for example: SHE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT PRESTER JOHN.) But having the Orphan's Tales as an example of her writing was a warning to me.

Eventually I decided to give her a second chance and began the first of her Fairyland books because I heard it was more accessible than her other stuff, but I just....nope. And I decided it was time to give up and acknowledge that Valente was not for me.

And then Deathless came out and it sounded EVEN MORE up my alley than any of her previous works (A RETELLING OF KOSCHEI THE DEATHLESS!!!!) and I was like, do I dare give it a try? And I waffled for years and finally I just couldn't resist. (and to tell the truth, the degree to which I love the cover of the book was an important factor in my decision)

AND IT TURNS OUT I LOVE IT.

I mean, it still has some of her usual issues. Occasionally it is weird in ways that don't actually add anything to the book, occasionally she's too opaque (WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE LAST PAGE OF THIS BOOK, I'M NOT CONVINCED I'M UNDERSTANDING YOU CORRECTLY), and quite often she tips over into overly-purple prose that just makes me roll my eyes and skim.

But overall it is atmospheric in a mostly good way, feels marvelously and gloriously like a fairy tale, and blends the fairy tale impressively well into real life Russian history. And I find Marya Morevna very interesting, and love her complicated relationship with Koschei.

It's the novelized retelling that the story of Koschei the Deathless deserves, and I'm very happy I read it.