Kam's Reads and Recs

The Devil and the Deep by Ellen Datlow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Almost since the beginning, humanity has simultaneously loved and feared the ocean. This ambivalent relationship is most clearly illustrated by the many gods and goddesses associated with the ocean: at times benevolent, at other times vengeful and full of wroth, ocean deities were a constant reminder to their worshipers that the ocean was never to be underestimated, that it was to be treated at all times with respect.

That is a trend that continues into the present day, with or without the gods. For every story that presents the ocean as a tropical idyll or a means to adventure, there are others that present its dangers. The movie Jaws is a powerful, visceral reminder of the threats that inhabit the ocean, and though Titanic is more known for its love story, it is also an excellent reminder of how thoroughly human hubris collapses in the face of the threats the ocean presents. Even being near shore does not guarantee safety, since people can and often do die of things like riptides and jellyfish stings. And this does not even take into consideration the things that lurk deep in the ocean’s depths, in the places where humans have yet to explore.

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Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It is frequently said that we should not forget history, lest we forget the lessons it is meant to teach us. There are of course many variations to that old hobbyhorse of an idea, but the fact remains that it is true - especially so today. In my country we seem to have all but forgotten the lessons of the Marcos dictatorship, what with Duterte’s government silencing dissenting voices, while simultaneously putting his cronies into power. This, on top of the spate of political assassinations of mayors and vice mayors seems to indicate something sketchy is afoot in Philippine politics. Those of us with enough good sense not to have forgotten the lessons of history are watching politics with a leery eye, because we know full well what could happen next - and none of us is interested in a repeat of martial law.

Unfortunately, the above situation is not unique to my country. The rise of totalitarian regimes and the increasing popularity of fascism or fascism-adjacent ideas is happening all around the world. There are those who fear that at some point in the near future, we will see the rise of a state very much like Nazi Germany - except it will soon be followed by even more, similar states. Those of us who have not forgotten our history are doing what we can to prevent the coming storm, however we can manage it, because none of us wants to see history repeat itself.

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The Stolen Child by Lisa Carey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Magic does not exist - at least, not in the sense of what it means in fairytales and fantasy novels. Some people equate the word “magic” with “wonder”, and claim that in that sense, magic has not really disappeared from the world. It still exists: in the old myths and legends, in the superstitions we practice - and in the hopes and dreams we hold close, but are too afraid to tell others about. Such things can be good or bad, of course - not all dreams are good, after all, and not all desires are healthy - but that does not make them any less magical. Dangerous, perhaps, but no less magical for all that.

It is that duality between the magical and the mundane that is among the themes crucial to The Stolen Child by Lisa Carey. The novel is set in the fictional St. Brigid’s Island on the west coast of Ireland: an isolated scrap of land where the islands inhabitants rely on the sea for their survival. But eking out that living can be difficult, and makes for tough, resilient folk, and a tight-knit community that keeps its secrets well and close.

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The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Lately I’ve noticed something interesting in the media I’ve been consuming - specifically: in the video games I have been playing. I’m currently on my first playthrough of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, in which Geralt of Rivia goes on a quest to find and protect his adopted daughter, Ciri. Though I’m not quite finished yet with the game (as I’m easily distracted by side-quests), Geralt and Ciri’s relationship is the primary lynchpin around which the rest of the game revolves. There are plenty of things the player can choose, or not choose, to do - the Witcher games are (in?)famous for giving the player difficult moral choices - but no matter where the plot takes Geralt, it always comes back to Ciri. Various reviews make mention of how Geralt’s decisions concerning Ciri will have a big impact on the game’s ending. I’m not sure yet just what sort of impact and which specific choices those are, since I am only on my first playthrough, but I find it interesting that Geralt’s parenting choices have an impact on Ciri’s fate.

Something similar occurs in the game Horizon: Zero Dawn, though in that game, the relationship between father and daughter is not as central to the story so much as it is a vital component of the protagonist’s characterisation. The protagonist, named Aloy, is adopted by a man named Rost, who raises her to become an excellent hunter and survivalist, teaching her how to live in a wilderness populated by dangerous robots. Throughout the game’s prologue (which also functions as a tutorial for the gameplay mechanics) and for the first portion of the game, the player comes to a fairly good understanding of the kind of relationship Aloy has with Rost, as well as see Rost’s influence on Aloy’s outlook on life and, therefore, what happens later in the game.

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Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I don’t quite remember when I first read Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I think it might have been somewhere in the first two years of my time at university, when I was reading in wide, near-indiscriminate swathes because there was still so much that I had not yet read and would need to read if I wanted to be ready for the degree I’d chosen to specialise in. Access to a proper university library was certainly helpful in that regard, because I don’t remember seeing Dorian Gray in the library of my rather conservative Catholic high school.

It was also a case of “right place, right time”: I doubt I would have enjoyed Wilde’s writing style while I was in high school, and I rather doubt I would have liked the titular character enough to want to keep on reading. But by the time I was at university I was ready for it, and though I can’t say I enjoyed it (I think I’d need to read it again, now, to see if I actually do), I appreciated it for its merits, and for the influence it and its author exert in various corners of the arts.

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Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I come across writers at various stage of their career. Sometimes I get lucky, and come in at the ground floor, as it were, picking up an author’s debut novel and then following them as their career (hopefully) grows and flourishes. Sometimes I come to it at the end, when the author has either not written anything in a very long time or (as is more often the case) already passed away. And then there are those times when I start reading an author’s works in the middle of their careers, when they already have a few (or several, if they are prolific) books under their belt and are still capable of producing many more.

That was the case with Brandon Sanderson. The first book of his that I ever read was The Final Empire, which is the first novel in the Mistborn series. To say that I was blown away is something of an understatement; after reading that novel I practically inhaled the two other books in the first trilogy, and while I haven’t gotten around to reading the sequel trilogy, it’s because I got sucked into the even more epic (and even more delightful) Stormlight Archive.

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America Is Not the Heart: A Novel by Elaine Castillo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It’s not often that I write a review this early, in the first raw, blistering moments immediately after a really, really good book. That’s not how I was taught to do it. My professors always taught that these kinds of things require separation. I’ve been told that it’s always best to put some gap between the self and the experience, some breathing room, the better to see things clearly.

Except I cannot do that right now. I feel it would be almost a disservice to put that distance, to let these new-formed wounds scab over for later contemplation.

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Free Chocolate by Amber Royer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This review is based on an ARC given to me for free by the publisher, Angry Robot Books. This does not in any way affect my review. This book is slated for release on June 5, 2018.

I’ve loved chocolate since I had my first taste of it when I was a little girl. It was a piece broken off of a Nestle Crunch candy bar, handed to me by one of my parents, though I don’t remember which. That first taste created a love for chocolate that lasts to this day (though nowadays I eat more dark chocolate than milk chocolate, due both to changing tastes and health reasons). Indeed, there is no flavour quite like chocolate - and I and many chocoholics both in the past and in the future will agree that chocolate is one of the most sublime foodstuffs ever discovered.

The sublimity of chocolate was first discovered by the Mesoamericans, who first started harvesting and then cultivating the cacao plant for use in rituals and medicine - and later, when the Aztecs came to power, as currency. When the Spanish conquered Central America they brought chocolate over to Europe, where it became a popular foodstuff; as a result, plantations were set up all across the world, most of them in colonies falling within a narrow band of twenty degrees north and south of the equator. Most of the world’s chocolate now comes from countries that fall in that band: the Ivory Coast and Ghana are the leaders of production, with Indonesia, Cameroon, and Nigeria close at their heels. The Philippines is a very small producer, comparatively speaking, but the quality of the chocolate produced is exceptional, if the results from the 2017 Academy of Chocolate Awards are any indication.

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A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I confess to having a slight mistrust of grimdark stories, mostly because the quality can be rather uneven. Violence and despair are part and parcel of grimdark fiction, but all too often I read stories that seem to make use of those elements for no other reason than to add shock value to the story. In stories written by men, especially, it seems like the female characters get the short end of the stick. If they are not killed, raped, or tortured as part of background events or as character development milestones for the male protagonist, then they are little better than sex dolls for the male protagonist to use when he has an itch to scratch or some more brooding angst to work out. In many male-written grimdark tales, to be a woman is to suffer, whether literally in the course of the story, or metaphorically because the author does not really value female characters enough to want to actually develop them.

This is why I’ve dodged around the genre for a while now, dominated as it is by male authors, and indulged in it only when a female author comes out with something in the genre. For a while now my reliable standby for female-authored grimdark stories has been Kameron Hurley, who’s proven more than handy at telling gruesome, violent stories with all the blood and guts and gore a reader could ask for - all while featuring female characters who are fascinating to read about, and entirely human in their strengths and failings. When a grimdark story puts female characters front and centre, not as victims, but as oppressors and perpetrators of violence in their own right, then it becomes worthy of my attention.

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Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This review is based on an ARC given to me for free by the publisher, Tor.Com Publishing. This does not in any way affect my review.

This book is slated for release on July 10, 2018.

I have been watching the changing landscape of Lovecraftian literature with great interest ever since I read The Ballad of Black Tom a few years ago. As I have mentioned in my other reviews, it has changed to suit the times and the writers currently shaping it, but this also means working with material that has some deeply objectionable themes at their core - no surprise, given Lovecraft’s equally objectionable politics which are also embedded in his writing. But, though Lovecraft is one of the most influential writers in genre fiction, and though his Cthulhu Mythos might be one of the most influential creative works in the same, like all works of art the Mythos is open to reexamination, reevaluation, and recreation. That is what is happening now, with women and people of colour - those who have the biggest axes to grind, in other words - altering the Mythos into something more open, more altruistic, and more generous than it or Lovecraft ever was.

Last year I picked up Ruthanna Emrys’ Winter Tide, the first in The Innsmouth Legacy series, and fell absolutely in love with it. Set in the United Stats post-World War II, it introduces the reader to Aphra Marsh, her brother Caleb Marsh, and their friends as they confront an eldritch threat to American national security. Along the way, Aphra rediscovers the meaning of family and builds a new one consisting not just of her blood relatives, but also of her friends. By the end of the story, she and her newfound family are beginning to rebuild Innsmouth, hoping to repopulate and resettle the town so it can once again become a safe haven for the Chyrlid Ahja, the People of the Water.

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