Jimmy Brewster

I purchased Trey of Swords by Andre Norton as part of a Humble Bundle of women science fiction & fantasy authors. I have wanted to read something by Andre Norton and thought this was a good opportunity to check out her writing.

While this is technically part of the Witch World series by Andre Norton, I found that it was easy to jump into this series. Perhaps there was some back story that may have been lost on me, but the core elements were explained well enough that I enjoyed the experience.

The story is broken into three parts. The first two parts follow Yonan, a young man who is below average in terms of being a warrior. Upon finding a magical sword of legend, he unleashes another character from an age of legend and finds himself in the middle of an unfinished battle between good and an evil godlike figure. The third part follows a young woman who is introduced in the first part and then left behind in the second part. She is magically inclined but has not had much experience or training.

The story has a few tropes you would expect from high fantasy. It was written with a touch of old-fashioned high fantasy language style which I found added positively to the story. The weakling character becomes an unlikely hero. However, it manages to avoid some tropes such as the damsel-in-distress and romantic desire being the main characteristic of the woman. It touches on these tropes to acknowledge what the audience might have been expecting but then twists them into a more positive feminist ending.

Additionally, there is a non-human lizardman character who assists our heroes. There is also a godlike figure who is described as being neither or both genders. I appreciate that Andre Norton included these elements. It adds a dash of diversity and antifascism that I am happy to see in a novel published in the early 1970's.

I would recommend this novel to fans of traditional high fantasy.

I bought this book while visiting Tokyo, mostly on a whim, because I enjoy translated fiction as well as workplace fiction.

This book is accurately summarized by the synopsis on the back and there is not really much more to the story than that. It is a slice of life workplace centered story that involves a lot of food. The characters are mostly unlikable. There is not much of a plot, and I did not find it very deep or revelatory. It examines workplace culture, specifically Japanese office workplace culture, eating, and unwritten societal rules. I think it falls a little flat because it does not delve into absurdism far enough.

I would only recommend this to fans of literary fiction or workplace fiction. This novel will not appeal to most people.

I wanted to read Driven by Mason Coile because I have previously enjoyed William and Exiles by the same author.

This novella did not hook me at all. I did not find the story to be creepy or interesting in any way. Unlike previous novels, there was not even an interesting twist at the end. It was mostly just a simple revenge fantasy.

I do not recommend this novella. Read William or Exiles instead.

I picked To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers to listen during a road trip because it was short enough to fit into one day of driving. I have also previously enjoyed this author.

This novella was enjoyable, overall. It leans more heavily into aspects of hard sci-fi than previous things I have read by Becky Chambers. The story teeters between hope and despair, making it a heavy contemplative story packed into a short novella.

I recommend this novella to anybody looking for a quick hard sci-fi story.

My partner and I stumbled across this book in Exile in Bookville, an independent bookshop in Chicago. As a leftist who enjoys reading international fiction, I was immediately interested.

This story tells a fictionalized version of Kang Juryong’s life in the 1920s-30s during Japan’s occupation of Korea. The novel imagines what life might have been like for an uneducated woman who was forced to marry and found herself in the middle of a liberation movement. She experiences many trials and tribulations, as well as a few fleeting moments of happiness. Eventually she becomes involved in labor organizing and the communist movement. The story explores patriarchy and intellectualism in leftist organizing. It wonders what might create tipping points where a person feels they have no choice but to get involved and take a stand for something.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys feminist fiction, international fiction, and especially to anyone who is involved in leftist movements.

I wanted to read Exodus: The Helium Sea by Peter F. Hamilton because I have heard of this author but never read anything by him before this.

This novel is the second part of a two-part book series which sets the stage for an upcoming videogame called Exodus. The story is set 40,000 years in the future. There are several factions vying for control of the empire and known galaxy. The cast of characters includes basic humans, as well as Celestials, which are decedents of the original colonizers who have physically modified themselves into immortal super beings.

This book is long. There is a glossary of characters, places, and other details which takes up nearly 100 pages before the story even starts. The bulk of the 752-page book is world building. The author does a fantastic job of creating an extremely in-depth history, economy, and political system. While reading the book, it piqued my interest in the video game.

Unfortunately, I found the plot to be straightforward and the characters were shallow. Additionally, there were so many characters and locations it was impossible to keep track of it all, even with the glossary. The perspective changes regularly and there are 6 or 7 different perspectives from which the story unfolds.

Overall, I would only recommend this to readers who really want deep world building rather than a story or if you find yourself needing more content after playing the video game.