Two Novellas

These two novellas were my last reads of 2024:

This World is not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

As Many Ships as Stars by Weyodi OldBear

Both were well reviewed by "Publishers Weekly," so I decided to give them a shot. I've been trying to read more diverse books, especially in science fiction and these two sounded perfect.

They both were enjoyable, but they reminded me of how much I dislike reading short stories. They're too short, and read in places like a synopsis. The character development is basic and I found it hard to care about what happens to most of them, especially those in This World is not Yours. Both had places where I wanted to know more, but there was no more.

This World is not Yours is a bit of a horror story in a work of science fiction. Two women in a romantic relationship and their male friend are part of a team colonizing  a remote planet that features something they call the Gray, something that the planet produces to violently remove anything it perceives as a threat. I understand the importance of diverse characters so readers of all ethnic groups and sexual orientation, but I felt like those characters could've been anyone and the story would've worked pretty much un changed.

As Many Ships as Stars is more ambitious, covering 30,000 Earth years, with a few time jumps that had me wishing for more. A work of Indigenous Futurism, the story focuses on Leia, a Comanche woman working as an engineer on the spaceships that will take the richest families off a dying Earth (due to climate change), while knowing people like her will be left behind. So she decides to steal one of the ships. 

The first third of the book shows how tough life is for her and her people, but the scenes felt too similar and I almost stopped reading because nothing much was happening. The book finally takes off pun intended, when she and her family and friends launch the spacecraft. Things get interesting, and the cultures of the Indigenous spacefarers come into play. But after the slow moving opening section, the rest feels rushed. I'd love this to have been at least twice as long. One quibble: the typesetting is awful, with words being split at the right margin in weird places with not a hyphen in sight. I do hope OldBear tries her hand at novels.

Two Memoirs

I hadn't planned to read these actor memoirs one after the other, preferring to mix things up, but here we are. 

Damn Glad to Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches by Tim Matheson, an actor whose work I've enjoyed over the years, is a fast, easy read, covering his time as a kid actor to the present. Probably best known for playing Otter in "Animal House," he takes the reader through the good and bad times a working actor/director faces. He writes a lot about needing to reinvent himself as he outgrows certain types of roles while wanting to improve his performances and break out of typecasting. Peppered through the book is acting advice, something not relevant for me but enjoyable none the less.

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne is a more serious book, though also very readable. I had a hard time putting it down. Dunne brings his well-known family to life, including his father, Hollywood producer and writer Dominick Dunne; his uncle, writer John Gregory Dunne; and aunt, author Joan Didion, as well as his indominable mother. There is no glossing over family dysfunction and addictions, but the murder of his sister, actress Dominique Dunne, by her former boyfriend hangs over the lives of Griffin and his family. The opening chapter covers Dunne's mother getting a visit late at night by a police officer there to give her the awful news; the last section deals with the aftermath, with the court case and the emotional toll on Griffin and his family, making this more than a typical actor's memoir

Echo of Worlds

TITLE:  Echo of Worlds

AUTHOR: M. R. Carey

The sequel to Infinity Gate. This seemed to have more techy info dumps and I had trouble with some of the science, but that didn't hurt my enjoyment of this fast-moving story of AI versus organics across the infinite Earths of the multiverse. The war between the Pandominion (sentient organics, including humans) and the Ansurrection (AIs) has ratcheted up and the Pandominion has a plan to destroy the machines. Rupshe, a powerful AI on a non-affiliated Earth that suffered a decimating war a decade ago has its own plan, along with a small team of organics and AIs to help.

Aside from my poor job of summarizing the plot, this is a immensely readable book, with memorable characters, especially Paz, a teenaged girl from Ut, a version of Earth where the main sentient species evolved from rabbits instead of apes. Paz, with her digital implants (including  part of her brain as part of a life-saving surgery), becomes the key to ending the war. This is a story with a lot of heart.

Translation State

TITLE:  Translation State

AUTHOR: Ann Leckie

Set in the universe of Leckie's Ancillary/Radch books, which I loved, this is a standalone novel that explores identity issues while also exploring the nature of the alien Presger aliens, specifically the Presger Translators. Told in three alternating POVs, the main characters come to life, and despite their differences, they each want to be their authentic selves.

Enae, on her own for the first time since her grandmother's death, takes on a diplomatic job and is tasked with finding a fugitive missing for two centuries. Reet, a mechanic adopted as a baby by a human couple, longs to find any info about his birth parents, discovers more than he bargained for. And Qven, the only one of the three who has a first person pov in their chapters, is a rebellious would-be Presger Translator who wants a different life than the one they were created for. It's no surprise that these three characters cross each other's path, leading to a confrontation that puts the treaty between the Presger and humans at risk. 

The story is fairly basic, especially when compared to the Imperial Radch trilogy. But the usage of a wide variety of personal pronouns, along with a discourse on what it means to be human, as well as three likable protagonists, elevates the story. I hope Leckie continues to write in this universe.

Downloaded

TITLE: The Downloaded

AUTHOR: Robert J. Sawyer

In 2059, the crew of a starship scheduled to travel to a planet in a different star system, have their consciousness uploaded to a quantum computer and their bodies placed in cryosleep for the long journey. Also uploaded in the same Canadian facility are a group of convicts who chose to serve their sentences in a virtual prison. When something goes horribly wrong, everyone is downloaded to their waking body500 years in the future. While the facility is intact, the outside shows signs of a plent-wide disaster. The astronauts and ex-cons must learn how to work together in order to survive.

This short novel is a quick read, told in alternating points of view. The narrative gimmick has many of the characters answer questions from an unnamed interviewer. The characters are all interesting, though at times, their voices seem a bit too similar. But the keep the story moving forward and there's a real sense of them as people just trying to deal with the unexpected reality in which they find themselves.