Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it💖
Image: Geometric neo-Pharaonic buildings and palm trees look down at a busy city crowd (remember those?), mysterious blue electric lights and a complicated steampunk um, thing. Further above, suspended trams rattle across the hazy yellow sky.
No intro, let’s go. Obligatory link to September’s books.
Welcome to early 20th century alternate-Cairo, where steampunk trams rattle across the skies and suffragists stage protests in the neo-Pharaonic transportation hub. P. Djèlí Clark’s The Haunting of Tram Car 015⭐⭐⭐ follows agents Hamed and Onsi of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities as they try to fix a tram haunted by a very disagreeable spirit. While the mystery itself is solved more by coincidence than actual deduction, this novella is worth reading for its brilliant world-building (Related: Sign up for Tor.com’s eBook club for an occasional free novella).
Since Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a door-stopper of a novel, I chose to read the much-smaller, but equally-hyped Piranesi⭐⭐⭐⭐ and wow, just wow. The plot was astounding, the foreshadowing was brilliant, the House was magnificent and good. I highly recommend going in blind, which is why I’m not squealing over my favourite parts right now.
In the way-too-short Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders⭐⭐, Aliette de Bodard brings us a series of deaths in a strange underwater empire. As in The Haunting of Tram Car 015, the mystery is somewhat underwhelming.
Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ is so good I could cry. In their journey across the continent, gifted healer and ‘sorcerer’ Demane and the beautiful, fast-footed Captain Isa protect their mercenary Brothers through the judicious use of their demigodly powers. When the caravan is imperilled by a gruesome necromantic terror, Demane may have to trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his lover and friends alive. I can’t believe everyone’s sleeping on this book. Isa and Demane were so precious, I could never imagine more beautiful love (Remember Tor.com’s eBook club? Yeah, that’s where I got this one too).
Visit four (yes, four) alien planets teeming with six-limbed ‘mammals’ and glowing underwater ‘worms’ and juicy microbial action in Becky Chambers’s To Be Taught, if Fortunate⭐⭐⭐! Meet an adorable (and diverse) cast of spacefarers! Learn about evolutionary biology, exo-meteorology and citizen-funded spaceflight! Ponder difficult questions about life and the purpose of knowledge!
This time I mostly read novellas, but if you’re looking for something even shorter, consider E. K. Weaver’s web-comic The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal⭐⭐⭐, Zabe Bent’s flash fiction Sela, Thief⭐⭐⭐, or Vanessa Chan’s surprisingly wholesome short story called The Ugliest Babies in the World⭐⭐⭐⭐.
This month has been a turning of the wheel, a changing of priorities, a putting-on of winter socks for a long-awaited hike into the mountains (it’s really because my assigned readings take up so much time, but shush I’m making a metaphor). Here’s a sneak peek for next time: I’m currently reading Foucault’s History of Sexuality Vol I and Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis.
Image: Cover art, The Haunting of Tram Car 015
Thanks for posting regularly and writing! Really appreciate your dedication and commitment. I am excited to discuss about Foucault and shall catch up on Umberto Eco! Best of Luck for your hike into the mountains! Would you mind if someone joined you in one of your adventures this winter?