Not really a reading Wesnesday post

[dhampyresa]

WHAT I FINISHED READING

REMEMBER THAT TIME SOMEONE WROTE ME A NOVEL? THAT NOVEL IS WHAT I READ THIS WEEK.


WHAT I'M READING RIGHT NOW

People's requests for history_exchange (sign-ups are open!) . I need to check each requests individually to make sure people don't game the system, but I haven't any problems so far either this year or last year. My participants are cool people.

(Also, the story I'm doing art for in WIP Big Bang -- I dropped out on the writing for that, I have too much going on. Art occupies a different space in my life than writing does, and I was going to have art in it anyway, so now it's art-for-someone instead of art-for-me. But no pressure!)


WHAT I'M READING NEXT

Books that I have already:

• Pyramids of London by Andrea K Höst


• Prisoner (Echo's WolfBook 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver


• Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett


• February by Lisa Moore


• The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan


• The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett


• Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown


• Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico

Books that are out and that I haven't got: L'armée furieuse & Temps Glaciaires by Fred Vargas, Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw, The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett, Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and Untamed by Anna Cowan.

Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.

Also, This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian, via brigdh .


TV

IS ANYONE WATCHING CLEVERMAN IS IT ANY GOOD TALK TO ME PEOPLE I HAVE CONFLICTED FEELINGS OVER THE TRAILER

"CLEVERMAN - OFFICIAL TRAILER - ABCTV and Sundance TV" (Watch on YouTube)

And by "conflicted feelings", I mean: It looks awesome! But it's yet another dude getting superpowers and there's a kid getting shot in the trailer, sooooooooo idk. On the other hand, it seems like it could be a really interesting story! Also, the characters aren't quite grabbing me yet. Are there some prominent female characters? (Then again, I don't think I'm in any fit state to judge the merits of anything based on a trailer right now, so idk.)

Comments

[saturnofthemoon]

I'm confused. What do you mean by "gaming the system?"

[dhampyresa]

As the rules are currently set up, it's possible for someone to request, say, "Catullus + Roxelana" five different times. It's set up this way because otherwise there'd be no way for someone to have three requests that had overlapping characters (ex: "Catullus + Roxelana", "Catullus + Sappho" and "Roxelana + Suleiman"). Requesting the exact same thing several times is what I mean by "gaming the system".

Examples chosen at random and the characters would have to have been nominated, but hopefully you get my meaning anyway.

[saturnofthemoon]

Huh, I didn't know you could do that.

[dhampyresa]

On the plus side, you still have time to change your sign-up!

[st_aurafina]

I will talk Cleverman with you!!

I loved the pilot - there was a lot in there. I love the cast (which is 80% non-white), I love the world building and the slightly futuristic setting, I love that there are complicated, imperfect characters heading it up. I love that there's a wide range of body types represented. I love that one of the writers created the character so that his son would have someone of his own race to look up to. I love that instead of a conlang for the Hairies race, the writers got permission to use a Northern NSW language.

It has a feel similar to Fringe, I think? There's medical/science stuff, there's spiritual/supernatural stuff, there's complicated social stuff, there's intense family stuff.

From an Aussie point of view, I think it was really clever with a lot of topical issues without being ham fisted: our treatment of refugees, the gentrification of urban communities of colour (the Zone is basically Redfern, I think), voyeuristic journalism/.

There are three (four? five?) potentially prominent female characters, but they didn't have as much to do in the pilot as Koen and Waruu (Koen is the one who gets the powers, Waruu is his brother) - I'm hopeful that they'll have more to do, or at least two of them do. You wouldn't cast actors of that calibre (Deborah Mailman and Frances O'Connor) and not give them good roles. I HOPE.

It is a story of a boy getting superpowers, it's true. And yeah, a child gets shot in a bungled police raid. If it helps, it's not glamorised - it's presented as horrible and clumsy and a failure of the system. There's also (so far) no visible queer presence. But overall, I think the wins outweigh the fails in this one.

I'm really looking forward to the next episode. (Can you tell?)

[dolorosa_12]

From an Aussie point of view, I think it was really clever with a lot of topical issues without being ham fisted: our treatment of refugees, the gentrification of urban communities of colour (the Zone is basically Redfern, I think), voyeuristic journalism

I'm really looking forward to this aspect. I'm an Australian living in the UK (hence the reason why I haven't watched the show yet - I'm waiting for it to air here), and I'm absolutely starved for Australian media. It's so rare that you get a work of fiction that's so unapologetically grounded in Australian politics, landscapes and culture, and that it's a majority Indigenous cast, with Indigenous writers and production team, just makes it a hundred times better.

[dhampyresa]

Next episode's out, right? What did you think?

Tbh, it was the combination of "boy gets superpowers" + "little girl gets shot" that made go "... :/", so I'm glad to hear there are more wins than fails. I think I'll give it a go.

[st_aurafina]

I haven't seen ep 2 yet! (We were going to watch it last night, but work was intense and I was too stupid. Too stupid for Cleverman, sigh.)

Did you see the thread on the last meme post? It was short but someone (not me) said that the 2nd ep definitely had more character development for the female characters and introduced a couple more.

[dhampyresa]

OKAY SO I WATCHED THE FIRST EP IT WAS GREAT (Slightly more coherent thoughts possibly forthcoming)

I had! That's excellent news.

[geckoholic]

So I'm not Aussie so I can't give as nuanced a reply as the previous commenter XD but I did enjoy the pilot and I'll keep with it to see how it goes. There is a bit of a lack of significant female characters rn, but I agree, I hope it improves because, yes, you don't cast actresses like that and then not use them much.

[dhampyresa]

Thank you! I think I'll try watching it.

[ljwrites]

THAT IS SO AWESOME THAT SOMEONE WROTE YOU A NOVEL. (Well, the pedant in me says it's more of a novella, but the pedant in me needs to shut up.)

Hmm, that history exchange looks very very enticing! My head says NO you'll have a million things to do in early July right after you wrap up the thesis but my heart says YES I haven't written a word of fiction in months and I'll be doing mostly cleanup after mid-June and it's only 500+ words anyway. Except there's no way I'll be content with a 500-word story so it'll probably be longer and then I'll agonize over it and... crap, I really want to. I'll see if I can put together a letter over the weekend. (Edit: Oh God I actually signed up I can't believe I did that but I'm SO EXCITED)

It doesn't look like anyone is requesting the characters I'm most interested in writing, though. If I put several characters in my offer they don't all have to be in the same story, right? That's effectively several different offers, to cover both what I want to write (in case someone requests it) and what is likely to be in demand (based on current requests)?

I'm not watching Cleverman yet, but I'm really really interested! I get mixed feelings from the trailer, too, and for reasons that may overlap with yours. It seems to have all the emotional subtlety of a sledgehammer? Put another way, I don't particularly like it when characters die and suffer horribly without my getting a chance to invest in them emotionally. It feels exploitative and objectifying, as though I'm supposed to gawk at their suffering instead of empathize with them as people.

[dhampyresa]

The Nebula Award says 40k+ is a novel.

YAY YOU SIGNED UP! Er, how familiar with exchanges are you? I need to know how much detail you need before I answer this. (Fyi, as it stands now, there is at least one person who can write for you and at least one you can write for.)

Emotional subtlety, at least for me, is very hard to judge based on trailer. Given the positive comments above, I'll give the show a go, see what happens.

[dhampyresa]

If I put several characters in my offer they don't all have to be in the same story, right?

Nope. To reuse an example upthread, if you offered Catullus, Roxelana, Sappho and Aaron Burr, you could be matched to someone requesting "Catullus + Roxelana", "Catullus + Sappho" and "Roxelana + Suleiman". You could write any of their requests, including the one you didn't match on ("Roxelana + Suleiman"), but you wouldn't have to write Burr too. You would have to write Catullus + Roxelana + Sappho either (unless they requested it and you wanted to, obvs).

Basically, the offers guarantee that you (think you) can write for your recip, but what matters to fulfilling your assignment is what they requested.

Does that make sense?

[ljwrites]

It does, thanks! Sorry for the belated response.

[dhampyresa]

You're welcome.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm Australian, but for reasons outlined above in a reply to st_aurafina, have not been able to start watching Cleverman yet.

I'm really looking forward to it, partly because it's so rare to get Australian genre shows, and mainly because it's so unapologetically grounded in Australian politics, culture and landscape. It's meant for Australian audiences, Indigenous viewers in particular, and I'm really, really happy about that.

I've been spoiled in terms of the characters, so I know that although it focuses on the stories of two brothers, there are several prominent female characters, but I don't know what their arcs will entail. But I trust the writers, and I've wanted a show like this so badly (and set in my city) that I'm prepared to overlook elements that would have made me switch off a US or UK equivalent show.

[dhampyresa]

You know, I don't think I've ever watched an Australian genre show? NZ, yes, AUS, no. Clearly I should change this.

It's good to know you trust the writers. I'll try doing that too.