Book Review: Invisible Library

Title: Invisible Library

Author: Genevieve Cogman

Genre: Steampunk/Sci-fi/Fantasy

Page #s: 329

Publication Date: 2015

Summary: The Library exists between worlds, an inter-dimensional collection of alternate universes’ important books. To keep the collection up to date Librarians need to collect rare or valuable or simply important books from alternate worlds. Irene is a mid-level Librarian who, upon returning from one job, immediately finds herself assigned another. She is also assigned an assistant.

There is more to the assignment, and her new subordinate, than meets the eye. 

Good Points:

• Irene is a likable enough character.
• All she wants is a good book and maybe a cup of coffee.
• She’s mousey and enjoys detective stories.
• Thinks well on her feet in regard to things trying to kill her but a little clueless about people not trying to kill her.
• Hints of bisexuality.
• Kai is of indeterminate, but likely Chinese, heritage.
• Our handsome and personable Sherlock stand-in, is actually personable. Tiny bit of an ass but personable.
• Personal headcanon has them as trans.
• A believably antagonistic work relationship between Irene and Bradamant, a former superior.
• Very interesting world setup!
• The Library has windows, as many libraries do, that look out on a green space that… no one ever walks through. No one knows how to get to. No one knows what would happen if you did get to it.
• Nice setup for later book, possibly.
• Alternate worlds operate on a Kinsey scale of Very Techy to Very Sorcerous with some mixing it all up.
• All sorts of fantastic creatures exist but Fae, werewolves, and vampires are forces of Chaos while only Dragons are forces of order.

Bad Points:

• Extremely unsurprising.
• Every plot twist comes with a setup that makes it obvious a mile away.
• Reads very much like the authors first novel and like many first novels feels very young in tone.
• The bisexuality is only implied and when the incident that hints at Irene’s bisexuality is actually explained it turns out that she never actually slept with the woman in the first place.
• Very disappointing as this was 90% of the reason I got the book.
• I am unsure of Kai’s feelings towards Irene as he is extremely mercurial without ever being called out on his constant shifts of emotion.
• Okay, not entirely true, Irene comments on Kai’s shifts when they’re about how he presents himself.
• It’s hard to get a handle on Kai’s characterization as it does shift constantly. Now, that could simply be the author attempting to portray a young, unsure but gung-ho individual but they don’t pull it off.

Triggers:

Off camera skinning of a human being.

Mentions of a cesarean at the end of the book.

Cruelty to animals (mind-controlled alligators being slaughtered)

Honestly, I was just kind of disappointed with the book. It’s a fun concept, I did like the characters (barely sketched out as they may be) but the plot was formulaic, the reveal made me want to smack myself and every character involved and the bad guy, once they were actually confronted, kept stalling for time.

Rating: 3/5

Book Review: My Real Children

Title: My Real Children

Author: Jo Walton

Genre: Speculative fiction (aka fancy sci-fi)

Page #s: 317

Publication Date: 2014

Location in Series: 1/1

Summary: Patricia Cowan is spending the last days of her life in a nursing home. She sees her children, sometimes, but which children are they? Does she see Pat’s children or Tricia’s children? Because Patricia Cowan has lived two very different lives, a split in her timeline caused by her decision whether to marry Mark. This split seems to have effected more than just her as along with remembering different events that happened to her she remembers two very different worlds.

At the end of the day, which world will she chose?

Good Points:

•  Seriously well written.
• Set after WWII in Britain, it’s a slightly different look at post-war life than I’m used to reading.
• Brilliant descriptions of the places Patricia is living.
• Fantastic, realistic characters and character development.
• Interesting alternate history Earths.
• The end of the book really leaves you thinking. Which life is Patricia going to chose? Which would you chose? The nicer world or the nicer life?
• The chapters are headed with Patricia’s chosen nickname, Tricia for one life and Pat for another so you don’t get confused.
• Lesbians! (Always a plus.)
• Poly-relationships.
• Character with a disability! (She loses her legs partway through the book.) 

Bad Points:

•  Very white.
• Pat is a lesbian but has sex with a man (just one, but a few times) and Tricia only ever has romantic and sexual relationships with men which leaves me feeling complicated. They are two seperate lives, I am not the identity police etc... (But it feels like bisexual erasure to me and IDK, I feel like the author could have addressed that somewhere.)
• Extremely depressing (to me, there were a lot of points where I was reminded of my own grandmother who lived in the same time period, was a teacher like Pat, and died in a retirement home while suffering from dementia).

 Triggers:

• Rape
• Mentions of past rape by Bee
• Repeated spousal rape by Mark
• Spousal abuse
• Forced impregnation
• Miscarriages/stillbirths
• Limb loss
• Cancer

 Rating: 4/5

Book Review - The Gumshoe, the Witch and the Virtual Corpse

Titles: The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse & Gumshoe Gorilla

Author: Keith Hartman
Genre: Sci-Fi/Mystery
Page #s: 429 & 382
Publication Date: 1999 & 2001
Location in Series: 1 & 2 but series is unfinished

Summary: Drew Parker runs a detective agency (which advertises as three) with his partner, Jen Grey. Together they tackle cases both weird and downright bizarre. Drew, being gay, and Jen, being wiccan, steer clear of the overly religious cases, of which there are many. In a world where the witches truly have magic, there is a prenatal test for the ‘gay gene’, the Cherokee are suing the government for illegal land seizure, and you need five actors to play one part there is plenty of detective work to go around.

Good Points:

• Interesting, WEIRD storyline
• Like I can’t reiterate this enough
• Weird as fuck
• Good, solid mysteries that build the evidence slowly
• Transgender character! (In the first.) Ice in Summer is MAAB but refers to herself and is referred to by others with female pronouns.
• Interesting tech ideas, for being written at the millennial turn.
• Really loved the ideas about where T.V. could be headed. They have filters set up so if you wanted to watch, say, Sabrina The Teenage Witch with lesbian sex and lots of violence, you could, and if you wanted to watch Lost Girl or Spartacus with a religious message and absolutely no sex and violence you could also do that.
• Loved the idea of the Cherokee suing the government in world court, probably inspired by the U.S. vs. Sioux Nations case.
•  All of the characters are interesting and well-rounded, with faults and issues and feelings.
• Also, Peckers is a restaurant that exists. Yes. Peckers, aka, the reverse Hooters. They advertise with a wood pecker and I love it.

Bad Points:

• Racist depictions of Cherokee
  • I hate to say this, as I thought the Cherokee plotline was really interesting but when the characters are referred to as ‘Ice in Summer’, ‘Roaring Grizzly’ and ‘Laughing Bear’… (and it’s not just a translation, they introduce themselves this way)
  • Laughing Bear also belongs to a native American group (not tribe, just, group) who do things… backwards? It was weird sounding. Something along the lines of acting silly on purpose when the matter is serious and vice versa?
  • Ice in Summer is a… seer? Shaman? Has precognitive powers (again, this is a world where people actually have magical powers so it’s not just her).
  There are ‘returnees’ and 'purebloods’, creating tension within the Cherokee b/c the purebloods have learned to play the 'white man’s game’ and the returnees don’t want that
• Speaking of Ice in Summer, despite the fact that she refers to herself as female and everyone else does Drew has several points where he refers to her as a crossdresser.
• First book is a clusterfuck of PoVs. Imagine reading GRRM in 1st person with headings like ‘The Gumshoe’ and ‘The Witch’ instead of their names. On the first introduction. Second book is easier read, you know the characters and there are less random PoVs.
• GW&VC also reveals the villain about ¾ths of the way through which leads to frustration (on my part at least) as the characters continue to fumble.
• Anti-religious?
• Unfinished series, which might be a godsend as if Drew had become a seer for the Cherokee tribe or had to face down Roaring Grizzly I may have had to beat my face in with the book.

Triggers:

• Murder
• Violent murder?
• Desecration of corpses
• Televangelists
• Racist depictions of Cherokee tribe
• Slurs (gendered, sexual, and racial from the villains of our novels, light)
• Misgendering of transgender character
• Kidnapping of a child
• Abusive relationship
• Drugs

Rating: 8/10