Entries from March 2016 ↓

2016 Reading List

March 30th, 2016 — Books

This is a record of everything I\’ve read in 2016, with the new-for-2016 work separated out so I can identify Hugo-eligible works.  (See also my 2015 reading list.)  2016 works that I read in 2017 (before the Hugo nomination deadline) are also listed, marked with an asterisk.  As usual, the bolded works are the ones that I plan to at least consider for inclusion on my nominating ballot.  (Which isn\’t to say I didn\’t enjoy the other ones!  Even trying to define a bar for what\’s worth nominating is hard.)

2016 Novels (at least 40,000 words):

  • Javelin Rain, Myke Cole
  • Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
  • Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer
  • Brute Force, K.B. Spangler*
  • Four Roads Cross, Max Gladstone
  • Once Broken Faith, Seanan McGuire
  • Ghost Talkers, Mary Robinette Kowal*
  • Infomocracy, Malka Older*
  • Chaos Choreography, Seanan McGuire
  • Velveteen vs. the Seasons, Seanan McGuire
  • Mechanical Failure, Joe Zieja
  • Heroine Complex, Sarah Kuhn*
  • Crosstalk, Connie Willis*

2016 Novellas (17,500 to 40,000 words):

  • The Devil You Know, K.J. Parker
  • Lustlocked, Matt Wallace
  • Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire
  • Izanami\’s Choice, Adam Heine
  • Run Time, S.B. Divya
  • The Iron Tactician, Alastair Reynolds

2016 Novelettes (7,500 to 17,500 words):

2016 Short Stories (less than 7,500 words):

2016 Graphic Novels:

  • Saga, volume 6, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

2016 Collections (not sure how I\’m handling these yet):

  • Cobalt City Christmas: Christmas Harder, Eric Scott deBie, Nathan Crowder, Jeremy Zimmerman, Dawn Vogel, Amanda Cherry*
  • Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi*

Non-2016 works read in 2016:

 

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Review: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold

March 18th, 2016 — News

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is Lois McMaster Bujold’s latest novel of the Vorkosigan Saga, and it is one of my recent favorites from the series.  It is also practically impossible to talk about without discussing plot details from earlier in the series – this is perhaps the least stand-alone Vorkosigan book yet, steeped as it is in the history of its characters.  So, stop reading now if you haven’t at least finished Cryoburn, the end of which I will be spoiling shortly.

I’ll also be discussing Gentleman Jole’s plot in more detail a little later, but I’ll warn you before I get into anything that isn’t apparent within the first chapter or two of the book.  Ready?  Here we go.

Cryoburn was one of my least favorite books in the series, but its ending makes it hugely important: its themes of handling mortality and death are capped off by Miles learning of the death of his father, Aral Vorkosigan, who has stood astride Barrayaran history like a colossus for the last forty years.  Aral served as Admiral, Regent, and Prime Minister of Barrayar, as well as Count Vorkosigan, and Miles’s entire life had been lived under that shadow.  But naturally, Miles is far from the only one to be affected by Aral’s death.  Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen examines the echoes of Aral’s life and the shape of the hole he left in his passing by returning to the viewpoint character that started off the entire series, and perhaps the only person who grokked Aral in fullness: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Aral’s widow and the Vicereine of Sergyar.

Cordelia isn’t the only protagonist, though.  The narrative flows relatively fluidly between her and the other main character of the story, Admiral Oliver Jole.  (Jole was first introduced in The Vor Game, though I had honestly forgotten about his existence until this book.)  And as not only an old friend of the Vorkosigans but also the senior Barrayaran military officer in Sergyar space, the former Viceroy’s passing left a hole both personal and professional in Jole’s life as well.  Aral has been dead for three years by now, but his ghost is essentially the third main character of the book.

(And here is where the spoilers for the latest book begin.  You have been warned.)

In fact, Jole’s relationship with the Vorkosigans is much more profound than we had been able to see from Miles’ point of view in The Vor Game.  Gentleman Jole opens with Jole in his role as Admiral greeting Vicereine Cordelia upon her return to Sergyar space, and they arrange for a more unofficial reunion – whereupon the reader learns that Jole was, for many years, effectively the third person in the Vorkosigans\’ marriage.  And Cordelia has a proposal for him: she is going to use some frozen gametes to have some more daughters, and offers her former co-spouse the use of her “eggshells” (i.e. enucleated ova) and Aral’s X-chromosome-bearing gametes so that Jole could have sons by Aral.

Cordelia’s return to Jole’s life, her offer, and the emotions redeveloping between them naturally turn his life upside down (in a way that only entanglements with Vorkosigans can), and the bulk of the novel is the two of them navigating the new opportunities that they see in front of them and the memories they have behind them.  The story is, at heart, a romance; it is clear well before the midpoint that Cordelia and Jole will rekindle their relationship, but the questions of how and for how long remain open.

The structure and setting of this book – a romance between Cordelia and a Barrayaran admiral taking place on and above the planet Sergyar – mirror that of Shards of Honor, the very first book of the series, and in that way I see Gentleman Jole as a bookend to the series, wrapping up the story of Cordelia and Aral with a bow and a happily-ever-after (at least to the extent that Aral can get such an ending posthumously).

Which leads me to the question: is this the end of the Vorkosigan Saga?  It very well could be.  If so, I found it an extremely satisfying one, both structurally for the series and as a story in its own right.  Cordelia Vorkosigan is one of my favorite characters – not only in this series, but across all of science fiction – and she deserves all the happiness that this ending gives her.

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My 2015 Hugo Nominations

March 18th, 2016 — News

See also my 2015 reading list for all the fiction I chose from.  Nominations are in no particular order (though mostly in the order in which I read them).

Best Novel

  • The Flux, Ferrett Steinmetz
  • Apex, Ramez Naam
  • Seveneves, Neal Stephenson
  • Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear
  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

Best Novella

  • Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, Kai Ashante Wilson
  • Binti, Nnedi Okorafor
  • The Last Witness, K. J. Parker
  • “The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn”, Usman T. Malik
  • Envy of Angels, Matt Wallace

Best Novelette

  • \”Fabulous Beasts\”, Priya Sharma

Best Short Story

  • “Variations on an Apple”, Yoon Ha Lee
  • “Some Gods of El Paso”, Maria Dahvana Headley
  • “Damage”, David D. Levine
  • “Oral Argument”, Kim Stanley Robinson
  • “Schrödinger’s Gun”, Ray Wood

Best Related Work

  • Writing Excuses, Season 10, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells
  • The Wheel of Time Companion, Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, Maria Simons

Best Graphic Story

  • Schlock Mercenary: Delegates and Delegation, Howard Tayler
  • Gunnerkrigg Court, Tom Siddell
  • Erfworld, Rob Balder, Xin Ye, Laura Ahonen
  • Order of the Stick, Rich Burlew

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

  • Inside Out
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

Best Editor (Long Form)

  • Marco Palmieri
  • Beth Meacham
  • Lee Harris
  • Joe Monti
  • Harriet McDougal

Best Professional Editor (Short Form)

  • Ellen Datlow
  • Ann VanderMeer
  • Liz Gorinsky
  • Beth Meacham
  • Carl Engle-Laird

Best Professional Artist

Best Semiprozine

Best Fanzine

Best Fancast

Best Fan Writer

Best Fan Artist

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

  • Andy Weir (for The Martian)

Remaining categories to be filled in soon!

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