Sahi

I've only read one book by Becky Chambers before - To be Taught, if Fortunate - which was interesting and contemplative, so I decided to pick this new story be her, also because I have really come to appreciate the novella format. And this was just.... something !!!!

I won't by any means call this a perfect book, but it was utterly perfect for me. Just like her previous book, the writing in this is also very calm, quiet, soothing, requiring a bit of introspection from the reader and also thought provoking. It may not be everyone's speed but this slice of life story is just right if you are in the mood for it. Bex is a character whom I related to so much, because of the way they felt about their life and their struggles felt so familiar. The way they try to be a good listener to everyone and help others feel a bit better through their words, but is ultimately unable to feel better themselves - it just hit me too hard and I couldn't stop reading because I badly wanted to know how they would ultimately come to terms with their feelings. And then entered Mosscap, a robot, and I can't tell you how fascinating it is to listen to a human created object essentially give a philosophical sermon about life to a monk. But these life lessons about the meaning of purpose, and if it is really essential for a human being to have purpose to feel fulfilled and lead a meaningful life - is a question that is explored thoughtfully and I really appreciated that, because it is something I'm always thinking about. There may not be complete answers to these questions, but there's enough thoughts to ponder about.

In the end, I don't know whom to recommend this book to because it feels too personal to me. But I guess like what the author says in the dedication, pick this book up if you need a break from life. And in these times full of anxieties, not just about the pandemic but so many other issues, this short novella might just provide you some respite.

When I first saw the blurb of this book, I was excited for it. It seemed like a promising entertaining rom-com (which I enjoy a lot) with a political/royal backdrop that felt like icing on the cake. However, this has just turned out to be soooooo much more. I don't even have proper words to describe how much I loved it – just know that I have already read it twice in three days because once was definitely not enough. This book has brought me lots of smiles and tears, joy, hope and optimism; so be prepared for a very rambling incoherent mess of gushing words masquerading as a review below.

I will be upfront and tell you all that I am a “The West Wing” (TV Show) junkie. There's just something so hopeful about watching a group of people working so hard in politics for the sake of the welfare of the people, without cynicism, with a lot of positivity and genuine interest in public service. Especially considering the dog whistle politics of our current times and the sh*t show we have been subjected to for more than two years now, I am very much thankful for the escapist/alternate reality setting in this book where a Female Texan Democrat with biracial children got elected as President in 2016 and is now up for reelection. It's probably too unrealistic but it's also something I didn't know I needed and the experience has been wonderful. The people working in the White House, the members of the First Family and everyone around them, the Senators we do get to meet in this book are in it for making the world better in the midst of hate and vitriol and scandals and I totally lapped it up. I sincerely hope we do get to see a President Ellen Claremont in our reality too.

Now coming to the characters. I usually prefer first person dual POVs in romance novels but this story being told in third person from Alex's perspective just felt too perfect. He is such a wonderful protagonist. He is America's heartthrob, charming, attractive, funny with massive approval ratings but that's not all he is. He has aspirations of his own – he is super smart and extremely politically aware, wants to be an active part of the reelection campaign even before he is done with his college graduation, and is already working hard towards his goal of being the youngest member of Congress in modern history. He can also be pretty hyper and over involved in things and forget the whole world around him, but as the story progresses we realize it is more like a defense mechanism that he uses to get past the things that are the root of his anxiety. I completely fell in love with him from the get go and it was great following his story.

Prince Henry of England is pretty much the opposite of Alex, atleast in appearances – beautiful and stoic and reserved and I loved the initial antagonistic nature of their interactions. It's pretty much obvious right from the beginning that their “arch-nemesis” vibe is less to do with not liking each other and more to do with the unresolved sexual tension but I appreciate the author for developing their friendship first. Through his conversations with Alex, we see that Henry is unlike the other royal family members, is very soft-hearted and thoughtful, doesn't want to take the traditional military route and concentrate more on his philanthropic aspirations that he shares with his best friend Pez. There is also an underlying sadness to him due to losing his father at a young age and watching him go through his periods of (possible) depression made me very sad. However, Alex understands and falls in love with all of him and the progression of their relationship from friendship to love was a beauty to behold and completely warmed my heart.

As theirs is essentially a long distance relationship, we get to read a lot of text messages, group chats and emails. And god those long emails.... I've seen a couple of reviewers complain that they didn't like them but I was living for them. They were pure, unadulterated, heartfelt love letters and my sappy heart was just waiting for more and more. Alex and Henry just pour out their hearts into words and they are beautiful to read. And these characters are complete nerds, so they also quote love letters from iconic historical figures and those were so much fun. I actually googled more of these historical (some possibly queer) love letters and it was an amazing experience. And the names and titles that Alex and Henry use to refer to themselves and each other are downright hysterical and I have to commend the author for her inventiveness. Their chemistry is absolutely delicious and the intimate scenes are written in a way I've not read before – very steamy and fun and full of feeling but with none of the usual vocabulary that we are used to in a New Adult book. I was totally impressed by the writing in every scene where they are together.

The advantage of a book with more than 400 pages is that it provides ample opportunity for well fleshed out side characters and I think the author does a bang up job at it. Alex's sister June is the one in the trio who keeps them steady when both Alex and Nora are too absorbed in their work. She is a journalism graduate and it was interesting to see her struggle with being unable to pursue her dream job because of journalistic neutrality and through the book, we see her figure out what other dreams she can pursue and how much she wants to be involved in her mother's politics. Nora, the Veep's granddaughter is the smartest of the trio, the data analysis guru (à la Nate Silver) who is always crunching numbers and may not seem good at emotional bonding, but is actually pretty good at giving pep talks when absolutely required. On the other side of the Atlantic are Bea – Henry's older sister who has her own issues from the past but is an absolute rock in support of her brother. And Pez... probably my favorite of the Super Six. He is like the shining star, charming and absolutely flamboyant and colorful, very comfortable in his own skin and wants to establish his charity organization internationally. All six of them may come from rich, political and royal backgrounds but they all felt so real and representative of the millennials and Gen Z – very aware of the society around them, both the good and the bad, and having a fire in their belly to do something to leave the world a better place than what they started off with.

The author also did a wonderful job in dealing with sexual identity in the book in different ways. Alex has always assumed he was straight but his realization that he may be bisexual, his introspection into all the little things that he may have dismissed before and finally being comfortable with his realization is all done with a lot of sensitivity and I really appreciated it. It also goes to show that sexuality is not set in stone that you have to decide on in your teens, people evolve and understand themselves better and sometimes, you realize things about yourself in your 20s and that's totally okay. And the genuine support he gets from his family is awesome. A female President's half-Mexican son getting outed in an election year is definitely a political hurdle, but it was good to see the family and the staff rally around him and prove that they actually do stand for the principles they espouse. In the case of Henry, he has always known that he is gay but he has to deal with the burden of the monarchy and their extreme regard for legacy and what it means to choose happiness over his birthright and country. Nora is also bisexual but she literally has no time or interest in dating and is too busy with her computers and numbers. We also have a host of other diverse characters and it all felt like a group of people around us in the real world and not tokenism.

Casey mentions in the author's note that she wanted to write a “trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality, a believably f**ked up world, but just a little better, a little more optimistic”. And she succeeds brilliantly in this endeavor. It definitely filled me with joy, gave me some hope that it is still possible to change our ugly reality, defeat the hateful, and maybe finally turn those unwinnable “red” states to “blue”. I love the way the author managed to keep the perfect balance between a swoon worthy love story and the reality of being a public figure with huge aspirations for the future.

I don't know if I have made any sense in the above almost 1500 word rant and I don't think I have truly been able to express everything that I felt while reading it , but to sum it up, this book is wonderful and it made me very happy and I recommend it to everybody. If you love pure, heartfelt love stories, then this book is for you. If you have ever binge watched The West Wing and loved it, then this book is for you. If you have felt dejected and exhausted with politics in the past two years and want to enjoy a little escape from reality, then this book is for you. In the author's own words - “I hope you found a place in here, even if just for a few pages. You are loved. I wrote this for you. Keep fighting, keep making history, keep looking after one another.”

I've been trying to read through some of the novel and novella nominees for the Nebula awards this year, and that's when this collection of stories came onto my radar. I was also quite disappointed in myself that I had never heard of such an accomplished Asian SFF author and immediately decided to read the whole collection, not just the nominated story. And wow was this a revelation. The stories here are written beautifully and they cover such a wide range of topics and I was also impressed by how scientific and technical the author could be in his writing while also raising some immensely philosophical questions which would make us think for a long while. And I was even more fascinated by the reasoning behind why the author chose to tell each story and what was his inspiration behind them. I'm totally gonna checkout his other works and I would recommend you do the same.

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

A very beautifully written philosophical tale about past and future, the importance of forgiveness, repentance and atonement and the joy in following God's teachings. The story within a story within a story format was very intriguing, and while I was confused slightly sometimes, the stories were like parables with interesting lessons and I enjoyed them a lot.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Exhalation

This was very sciency and full of technical jargon, but the idea of an augmented human performing brain dissection on themselves to understand its working mechanism was fascinating to read about. There is a lot more going on here but ultimately, it's about marveling at the life we have and the universe we live, gain knowledge and take joy in all our experiences without worrying about the end which is inevitable.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What's Expected Of Us

This was a fascinating tale about what would happen if humans realize there is no such thing as free will and everything is predetermined, and what kind of consequences can occur due to this shattering of the illusion. And even though I didn't understand it completely, that last line was a master stroke.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Firstly, this was too long compared to the usual lengths of short stories and I won't deny that I got bored quite a bit. It raises a lot of philosophical and ethical questions about creating digital animals in the virtual world and then raising them almost like children, what types of expectations can we have from them, can we apply human growth and cognition standards to them, how much consent can they give, what's the difference between an AI that develops through experience vs an AI that is developed algorithmically etc etc. These are all interesting questions to ponder and kept me engaged for a while, but when the discussion turned towards the morality of humans having sex with actual animals, I kinda lost it. And the ending is also very open and I felt like such a long story deserved a more concrete conclusion.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny

Another intriguing story about how a child's cognitive and physical development depends on the kind of care they receive in their infancy and early years. The implications of the use of a mechanical nanny as described in the story are so fascinating and it definitely makes me think how the use of devices by children since very young is affecting them in our present day and age.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling

Told through two stories - one historical and one in a technologically advanced setting, this has many philosophical questions but ultimately it's about the nature of truth and memory - how there is written word or digital memory which can be relied upon to be objective truth, but there's also oral history or the memories that we remember which are a part of who we are and in their case, their objectivity doesn't matter because they are the truth that we believe. The story goes quite deep into these discussions and I found it very fascinating.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Great Silence

A heartbreaking story narrated by a parrot, this is about the creation of the universe and the huge aspirations of humans to contact extra terrestrial life but how we continue to ignore and neglect the species that coexist with us.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Omphalos

Written as a series of diary entries by a scientist addressing God, this is about her complete faith in God and her belief that her scientific and archeological endeavors are all in tune with her faith, finding out more about how God created humanity. But when some contradictory scientific claims are made, she has to grapple with uncertainty in her faith and what it means to have a purpose that is not in service of God. Another fascinating story with lots to think about, and definitely one I found very relatable.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom

A story about quantum divergence and how our actions or any small change in weather or anything not even related to us occurred, it would be spawn multiple timelines of ourselves . I found the idea of communicating with our alternate selves using devices utterly intriguing but it was the myriad of questions it raises about free will, actions and consequences, how much different or similar we can be across the different timelines, the morality of being able to communicate or selling such devices etc was what that made it so compelling. I know I'm probably not explaining it well but this was a great story and I definitely understand why it's a Nebula nominee.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who is only trying to get into sci-fi this year, I know my limitations well and I would never have picked up this critically acclaimed award winning book by my own volition. But one of my book clubs chose this as our May BOTM and I decided I should atleast give it a try. And after finishing it, I'm both blown away by it and also a bit sad, so let me try to articulate my thoughts.

It has not been easy to maintain focus for long periods of time on a book during this pandemic. Part of why I have been gravitating towards more short fiction these days, but when I committed to this book, I wanted to see it through. For someone who almost always finishes any sized book in just a few days, this one took me almost 20 days to read. While one part of the issue was the external circumstances, the other was the subject matter of the book itself. I found the idea of first contact with extra terrestrials very fascinating and there were some chapters which completely held my interest, but I couldn't sustain that for the whole book.

The translation of this book is excellent and it never had that choppy feeling that can sometimes occur in translations. And however it might have been in the original, the book never felt difficult to read (which was how I thought it would be for me). Even the story being told in two timelines felt very easy to follow. I especially found the chapters during the Cultural revolution very fascinating, because I'm not much aware of Chinese history and it felt like a very honest look at the struggles and lives of the people of the time, on both sides of the civil war. The book is also extremely science heavy, and while I could understand what was going on in the context of the story, I could not tell you a single thing about the physics that was discussed. There were paragraphs and chapters devoted to physics discussions, most of them going over my head.

What really impressed me and what I feel is the soul of the book is the philosophical questions it asks. We have a group of humans who are fed up of humanity because we are destroying nature and environment without a care; we have another group which still cherishes humanity and wants to do anything to survive. And the author discusses both their POVs without clearly judging any of them, because they all have their valid points to make. And then there is the important question of what will happen if we do make contact with extra terrestrials - should we expect them to be a higher evolved intelligence than us and hope to learn from them?? Is it even possible to coexist with an advanced civilization? And why do we humans who can't coexist with the people who live in other countries, who wage wars constantly and perpetuate mass killings of people, expect an outside civilization to be benevolent and grant us knowledge? These are some very interesting questions to ponder on and I know I'll be thinking about them for a while.

I was initially intimidated when I saw the cast of characters at the beginning, but I quickly understood who were the main influencers in the story and was able to follow along. However, being used to first person POVs, this third person narrative felt very distant and I couldn't connect to anyone. Even when I could objectively understand that something bad was gonna happen, I wasn't emotionally attached to any of them to care enough. Also, except one main protagonist, there are hardly any female characters around which I thought was a real miss; and among the ones who were present, I felt that none of them were shown in any good light.

In the end, this is a book that definitely deserves all the prestige bestowed on it because of the concepts and philosophies it discusses, in a mostly accessible manner. It is more of an introspective book than an action packed alien invasion adventure novel, so you should keep that in mind before deciding to pick it up. If you are someone who is new to sci-fi like me, I would suggest reading more science fiction novels before venturing into this series. But if you are a science/physics nerd, then this would probably feel like home. I still haven't decided if I want to continue with the series, but we shall see.

First things first, this post is going to be less of a review (totally full of SPOILERS) and more of gushing and fangirling, because I have read this series multiple times and this book is my absolute favorite. This book is totally action packed but also full of emotional moments that make this an amazing read. But everytime I read or listen to this book, all I hope is to see all these amazing scenes on the screen, because this book will make for an even better TV show. I guess it's not a surprise then that the (hopefully) upcoming show is named Queen of Shadows.

Aelin is at her best in this book. She is finally ready to accept her heritage as Queen and kick some ass. But it's a long list to get through before she can go to Terrasen - save Aedion, figure out how to deal with Dorian, free magic and kill the King and boy does she do all of it.... with a BANG!!!!!

The whole sequence of saving Aedion on his execution day is absolutely perfect. The planning, the dramatic backdrop, the impossible rescue, the moment Aelin and Aedion's eyes meet - OH GOD this whole episode gave me chills (happy ones, ofcourse) and was terrifying because I didn't want anything to go wrong. And then the first scene where they finally talk to each other.... I SOBBED A LOT!!!!! Beautiful and poignant and emotional... They are technically not siblings but I think they have one of the best sibling relationships I have ever read.

Aelin and Rowan's reunion and the following banter and angst throughout this book is just HOT!!!! Swoon worthy... I can't wait to see the fireworks that will explode when they finally make love and I really don't mind the wait. They share some amazing moments together and if I start listing them here, my post will be as big as the book. I also loved that Rowan and Aedion got through their initial territorial issues and formed their own bond to protect and serves the ones they love.

The newest addition to my list of favorite characters here is Lysandra. Her history and backstory is heartbreaking, so it was good to see her finally making friends - ones who were ready to risk their lives for her just as much as she did. And she has some of the BESTESTTTT scenes in the book. She is totally badass and I can't even imagine what Aelin and Lysandra will do together from now on. Anyone who takes them on is as good as dead - which is what happened to the King of the Assassins. I didn't think I could hate Arobynn anymore than I already did, but he is truly worse. Though I am glad he is gone, I still think he should have suffered more.

Manon goes through a lot of character development in this book. From being the obedient, disciplined, bloodthirsty witch to one who questions about right and wrong, I never thought I will come to like her. Elide is a very underestimated character but I commend her quiet strength and courage and hope. The whole ending episode in Morath where Kaltain changes the fate of the war completely just blew my mind and I felt bad for misunderstanding her so much. Asterin's backstory is one of the most emotional and heartbreaking moments in the whole series and I weep even thinking about it. It's possibly the single most important moment in changing the character arc of Manon and the Thirteen and I can't wait to see what they do next. Now I have to mention one of the most anticipated scenes I was dying for - Manon and Aelin coming face to face. WOW was that a sight... EXPLOSIVE!!!!! I can't wait to see more of them together and hope they never fight on the opposite side - I don't think my sensitive heart could handle that.

And now coming to my sweet baby Dorian - I wanted to cry every time his chapter came up. Why the most adorable and kindest character in the whole series had to suffer such unspeakable torture, I still don't understand. And what an ending that was - the whole action episode was thrilling and emotional and watching Dorian finally free was unexplainable. The ending again proved why Aelin and Dorian make such a formidable pair (I still ship them in a teeny tiny part of my heart though Rowaelin is perfect) and even if they can't be together, I just hope that they remain BFFs.

I don't even want to talk about Chaol. The ending is very sad for him but it was also good that he finally decided to make it count. However, for most part of the book, I hated him. He was very rude and mean to Aelin and I just couldn't tolerate him blaming her for everything bad happening in Rifthold. He better do something phenomenally great in the upcoming books if I have to like him again (even a little).

I could go on and on and this would never end. This book has great writing, lots of plot twists and revelations, amazing action sequences and deeply emotional episodes. In simple terms, it's a complete package and has everything I could ever ask for in a book.