To Be Taught, If Fortunate

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (2019)

My excitement when I learned that Becky Chambers had a new book out quickly turned to disappointment when I saw that it was a novella. After reading the three thick books that make up the Wayfarers series I was hoping for another big story, and as someone who tends to enjoy short books I don't know why I was afraid it wouldn't be good. Spoiler alert: it was very good.

It opens with a plea to read it to the end. It's from an astronaut, Ariadne O'Neill, who left Earth fifty years ago with her crew. The other three are Elena Quesada-Cruz, Jack Vo, and Chikondi Daka. Their mission was to visit four habitable worlds called Aecor, Mirabilis, Opera, and Votum, and their communique is coming from the last one. What follows is the story of their flight and their experiences on all of those planets, and then at the end you get the explanation for why they are sending this missive, which of course I won't spoil for you but it is not disappointing. It is kind of open-ended, if you care about that kind of thing, and I am already sorta dying to know if there will be a sequel but mostly I just care that Becky Chambers writes more books about something.

I love reading books that contain alien life because it's so fascinating to see what comes of writers' imaginations. There was life of some sort on all the planets they visited, as they suspected, and I loved seeing them described. (Oh, if only there were illustrations!) The characters were great too, which is one of this author's strengths. They are pretty diverse in terms of sexual orientation and race, though it's not actually spelled out and is kind of irrelevant to the plot. Which I like because diversity should just be a thing that exists and not there for the sake of being diverse, if you know what I mean. If you want specifics, there was bi/poly/ace representation, and the racial diversity is obvious from (and only identified by) their names.

Throughout the book I kept wondering what the crisis would be. Like, they were just visiting these planets and making amazing discoveries and as much as I loved reading about this, it's not a story. I kept wondering when the actual plot would start. The conflict comes very late, and it's great!

I hope we don't have to wait very long for another book by Becky Chambers because her books are so imaginative and fun to read. Anyone who likes science fiction in the style of The Martian would probably enjoy Becky Chambers. If you haven't read anything by her, please consider it!

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy (Reluctant Royals #2.5) by Alyssa Cole (2019)

Back in A Princess in Theory, Prince Thabiso had an assistant named Lakotsi who I liked a LOT and now she has her own story. It's just a 120-page novella but I'll take it. During the events of A Princess in Theory, Lakotsi spent a weekend with a woman named Fabiola while in the US, knowing that it was just a fling because she'd be returning to her home of Thesolo. But during that short time she fell for Fabiola, and was hurt on the last night they were supposed to get together when Fab sent her a text just cutting her off. Now, back in New York again, she runs into Fab by chance on the train.

The story shifts back and forth from their first weekend together to the present day, and we get both Lakotsi and Fab's perspective. We know that the reason Fabiola cut contact with Lakotsi had to do with a family situation that arose suddenly, but that story comes out slowly over the course of the novella. In the present day, Fab convinces Lakotsi to go to brunch with her, and then do a couple of other fun things, all the while evading answering the obvious question of why she ended things so abruptly. Lakotsi still wants answers but she goes along with the activities, warning up to Fab again as she remembers why she fell so hard for her in the first place.

Lakotsi is very dapper and suave, always impeccably dressed, and her practice has always been to hook up with women in her free time, wherever in the world she happens to be. She's very dedicated to her work and considers her long-standing job as Prince Thabiso's assistant to be a lifetime career. She's really good at anticipating the needs of others, which she needs for her job, but which also serves her personally. I love her and was so glad she got a book of her own. Initially I was disappointed that it's just a novella, but the length was right for this particular story.

Fabiola is a jewelry designer trying to build her craft into a career, but now she has the added pressures of her current family situation to contend with. I won't spoil it, but will just say that she has become responsible for caring for a family member, which is a huge change for this young single woman. Her artistic and spontaneous personality comes through in this novel, as she leads Lakotsi around the city doing different interesting and fun activities, but she's clearly not flighty or irresponsible as one may be led to believe based on the last time she and Lakotsi were together.

This was short enough that I didn't get as invested as I would had it been a full-length novel where you can really get to know the characters and their histories more and have a slow build-up of the relationship. But for what it is, I thought it worked well - it was fun, had an interesting story that I wanted to know more about, and I really wanted things to work out for Lakotsi and Fabiola because they're both great people who deserve love. It's a romance novel, so of course it had a happy ending. All in all, it was a win! I'm actually behind on this series, having read only A Princess in Theory and this one, and I think there are two more full length novels now and another novella. This was a great reminder to get back to this series!

Binti

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015)

As you may know, Nnedi Okorafor is a hot new science fiction author. Every time I turn around someone is recommending one of her books, either at work in the library or on one of the many book blogs that I read. I've been wanting to read her since I saw one of her books listed on For Harriet's books by black women that everyone must read, which I used for a display last January. Finally I requested a copy of her novella, Binti, which is hard to come by since it is pretty much always checked out.

Binti is the first of the Himba people to be offered a place at the elite Oomza University, and her family would not have approved, but it's an opportunity she can't turn down. So she leaves home secretly at night to travel to another planet. Aboard the ship she stands out, with her clay-covered skin that is the hallmark of her tribe, but she quickly makes friends. But just days before arriving at their destination the ship is infiltrated by a deadly enemy.

This is one of the most creative stories I've read, and I can't even compare it to any other scifi I know of. I loved some of the details of this story - for instance, Binti was essentially traveling through space in a giant shrimp. A shrimp! That was their ship! And I don't mean that the ship was made to look like a shrimp - I mean that it was an actual living creature and they were all inside it. WHAT. Also, Binti was super into math in a way that I barely comprehended, but that was one of her special gifts. Her people were very talented with technology, but she went beyond what was usual. She was considered a harmonizer, which had something to do with the way she understood and communicated with circuits and currents. The enemies that board the ship were also fascinating: jellyfish-like creatures called the Meduse who wreak havoc but are strangely unable to harm Binti.

I always appreciate books that are character-driven, and it makes it immensely happy to find character-driven science fiction. This was all about Binti and her experiences, hopes, and fears. As I mentioned it's a novella, but even at 90 pages there was a lot going on and a great deal of world-building. This is a planned trilogy, with the third installment due in January. Highly recommended!

Level Up

Level Up (Fandom Hearts #1) by Cathy Yardley (2016)

Tessa Rodriguez works at a video game company and is dying to be promoted to engineer, but she isn't taken seriously enough. When she meets a group of sisters who are worried about losing their bookstore (and home), she decides to create a video game to enter in a contest for them. She has only three weeks to do it, but she enlists the help of her roommate and co-worker Adam and some of the other guys from work. The projects brings Tessa out of her introvert shell a bit and much closer to Adam, but should she risk their good roommate relationship for something more?

This contemporary romance novella is everything that's right about self-publishing. Traditional publishing doesn't give us a lot of novellas, first of all, yet sometimes your book only needs to be 150 pages to tell its story. Secondly, a romance novel about a Latina woman working in the video game industry? Yes, please. This story is so obviously filling a gap, yet I don't know that a traditional publisher would see it that way. They might just view is as a risk because it's too niche.

The cover art is also perfect, and captures the feeling of the story. It's cute, but not cutesy and doesn't take itself too seriously. The comic book style is totally appropriate to the story and characters. It's a welcome departure from the typical glamour and overly sensual facial expressions that grace most romance novel covers.

I loved everything about Tessa: her career ambition, her hermit-like tendencies, and especially her desire to help her new friends. She went way out of her comfort zone to even meet these women, and it was great to see her form friendships with them right away. The women in this story were all unique and atypical for romance novels and I found them totally refreshing.

I heard about Level Up on the DBSA podcast, which did an entire episode about this short book. They talked a lot about the world-building and how true to life it is for women working in the tech industry. Like many women in the tech industry (apparently), Tessa is in the situation of having to either be one of the guys and taken seriously, OR considered an actual woman who is datable. It was a great discussion and there was no way I wasn't going to read this afterward - it is rare that DBSA does an entire episode about one book, and their praise was too enthusiastic to ignore.

Although Tessa wasn't treated as an equal, don't think the guys in this book were boneheaded jerks. I found them very true to life based on men I know who work in the tech industry. I've never worked at any kind of software company myself so I can't really speak to the work conditions, but I know these guys. They are decent people, but not terribly bright about interpersonal relationships sometimes, and their occasional off-color or slightly sexist jokes aren't mean-spirited, just....clumsy. They kind of know when they're being dicks, but are sometimes a bit helpless to stop it.

There are some definite feminist messages in here, but Yardley doesn't whack you over the head with them; they are seamlessly integrated into the story. The romance, too, progresses naturally and I found it both sweet and realistic. Adam was a bit more enlightened than the other guys from work and despite his occasional missteps was super nice, considerate, and totally appealing. He is what I guess they call a beta male? He's not forceful or possessive or any of those other qualities I can't stand in many romance heroes. I can see why Tessa likes him.

The book could have been a tad more polished - there was awkward wording in a couple of spots - but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Level Up is free on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, but I hope she charges for future installments in this series. I want her to make a living at writing so she can do more of it!

The Victorian Chaise-Longue

The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski (1953)

I recently read about this short book on the bookarahma blog, and immediately requested it through interlibrary loan. I had just finished How To Be a Victorian and was really in the mood for some Victorian lit, and this little time travel novella fit the bill.

It's the early 1950s and Melanie, who has recently had a baby, is recovering from tuberculosis. She's been on bed rest for several months and hasn't even been allowed to hold her baby yet. But she's doing better, and is allowed to move into another room and lie on the ugly Victorian chaise longue she bought just before getting ill. Then she falls asleep, and when she wakes up she's on the same chaise longue, but in 1864 and everyone is calling her Milly.

This is where it gets kind of creepy. She can look down and see that she is in someone else's body, and she has limited access to Milly's thoughts - certain people look familiar to her and she has some vague memories. Although she is from a very different time, when she speaks the right phrases for the Victorian era come to her lips. Conversely, she cannot seem to say anything that is too inappropriate to that time. In desperation she wants to prove that she is from the future by telling the people around her about future events, but she physically can't say the words. But worst of all, Milly also has tuberculosis but she's not recovering as Melanie was in more modern times.

Everyone is so condescending to Melanie, acting very stern every time she gets the least bit excited or upset about anything. Of course it's even worse when she is Milly because she's farther back in time when women were looked down upon even more. This all reminded me a bit of The Yellow Wallpaper, in that Melanie/Milly was cooped up and infantilized and heading down a pretty dark spiral.

Melanie tried to figure out what caused her to travel back in time, and thus, what could possibly get her home. But she was helpless in her illness, unable to even get up. All during her ordeal, she kept thinking that in her present, everyone was dead, including Milly.

"This body I am in, it must have rotted filthily, this pillowcase must be a tatter of rag, the coverlet corrupt with moth, crisp and sticky with matted moths' eggs, falling away into dirty crumbling scraps. It's all dead and rotten, the barley-water tainted, the nightgown threadbare and thrown away, these hands, all this body stinking, rotten, dead."

If that's not a vision of horror, I don't know what is.

There's more to it too, a secret that Milly has kept from her sister, and another that they both share, but Melanie doesn't discover them until very late in the story. She has no real allies at all, and must endure this bewildering ordeal alone.

A pretty satisfying little story, if you like that sort of thing, which obviously I do. And it qualifies for the very conveniently-located time travel space in my Winter Bingo. I didn't even plan that!

The Mussel Feast

The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (1990)

A mother and two teenage children prepare for the man of the house to return from a business trip. They prepare a feast of mussels, scrubbing them in the bathtub and putting them in a huge pot to boil. The evening gets later and later and still he does not arrive home. Narrated by the teenage daughter, this brief novella recounts complicated family dynamics as they sit around the table drinking wine and talking on what has turned out to be a very unusual evening.

I made it almost to the end of this delightful monologue before realizing that none of the characters have names, so artfully is it crafted. There is no actual dialogue either, the conversations being woven into the lengthy - but not cumbersome - sentences:

"I don't think we ever ate with a knife and fork when my father was away. We let our hair down while you were away, Mum said when my father asked, what did you get up to without me; it's really nice to let your hair down a bit sometimes, Mum continued slightly wistfully, because she had as much fun as we did and less work, too, when we were alone with her."

At first, we learn how important it is to the father that he have a "proper family" and the way his family attempts to conform. The mother slips into "wifey mode" when her husband comes home from work, being agreeable and accommodating. Gradually we learn just how strict and controlling he is with his family and just how much of a relief it is when he is not there. As the family sits over their ruined meal, drinking wine and talking, they become bold in their criticism and start to feel how much better off they would be without him. Indeed, after a brief period of worry, they seem not to care whether he ever arrives home or not.

After ordering this book (and paying international shipping, because it's not available in the US) I worried that it might be dry and literary. But I was pleasantly surprised that it is just exactly the sort of book I like. I could see myself reading it again because at just 105 pages it's a very small investment of time for a great deal of enjoyment.