Fiction I've Been Reading Lately, #3

(In this case, for a loose definition of "lately"; this post has been sitting in my drafts for a while.)

Online

Lady Archimedes by White Squirrel (link) -- 7/10. A worthy conclusion to The Arithmancer. Similar review to my first: comforting, not ultimately all that standout, but still a fun read.

Worth the Candle by Alexander Wales (link) -- 9/10. In terms of sheer writing quality -- plot pacing and humor especially -- Worth the Candle is one of the top things I have ever read. I do not say this lightly; I give up on many works that others enjoy because I consider the writing quality too low. It's better than most published fiction I've read.

Wales has a talent for making it feel like the most extreme thing possible is happening, in almost every set of chapters he releases. Surprising and world-shaking information is revealed, fascinating character interactions happen, and most of the main characters face life-or-death challenges.


I will say-- I do dislike the harem elements. I appreciate the amount of disclaimering and qualification and analyzing-to-death of the trope that happens in-story (it gets pretty meta sometimes), but ... it's still, fundamentally, a choice that Wales is making to make the story about that. And it makes me even more uncomfortable that most of the fandom seems to be coming from the perspective that they'll just barely tolerate the feminist disclaimers in exchange for the rest of it, whereas from my perspective it's just the opposite. It also sometimes bugs me how lacking in self-awareness the main character is about certain things, but that also gets called out by the narrative most of the time.

The rest of it is worth it for me, but it does diminish my enjoyment of the series somewhat.

Marked for Death by various authors (link) -- 8/10. Marked for Death is in the "online fiction" section of this post, but to be clear, it is not exactly just fiction. It's not exactly Naruto fanfiction, either (although that's a lot closer). It's something called a "quest," which is essentially a roleplaying game played by post on a forum. However, unlike most instances of the genre, Marked for Death is not just choose-your-own-adventure -- nor is it collaboratively written by all its participants. Instead, the thread participants discuss and vote on plans for the protagonist, and a set of authors take turns writing chapters about what happens based on those plans.

You don't need to know any of that to read it, however. I knew nothing about Naruto or quests when I started reading it, and have gradually picked up the necessary parts of worldbuilding and a little bit about the hivemind that produces the work over time.

It's very, very long. Like a D&D game, there's no fixed end, so plot arcs rise and fall. I tend to prefer longer works because I like following the same characters over a long period of time. It's also pretty compelling, though I've found it to be slowing down a little bit recently.

Skip the Chosen for the Grave interludes.

Manga

What Did You Eat Yesterday by Fumi Yoshinaga (vols 1-13) -- 10/10. This caters to my extremely specific special interest of "home-cooked Japanese cuisine," and thus may not be of great interest to others. But in addition to lots of great recipes, the story depicts what it's like to be a long-term-partnered gay person in Japan, internalized homophobia included. The characters are likeable and the story is interesting, ranging from sad to heartwarming to funny. I also like that this is a story about older people (40s and 50s), which seems to be uncommon.

I liked this manga so much that I got significantly more serious about learning Japanese, just so I could read the next volume before it gets translated into English. I still haven't reached the required level yet, sadly; it's an adult manga, so it lacks furigana and has pretty complex conversations.

Oishinbo by Tetsu Kariya & Akira Hanasaki -- 5/10. This is more of an Iron Chef-style food manga, where Manly Men compete to make The Best Food Possible. I'm not really a fan. I did enjoy their recipe for "eggplant for people who don't like eggplant." It's also interesting to read because it's a bit older, and shows how environmentalist sentiments manifest in Japan (ex.: "eat local" is taken to mean, in part, "eat Japanese varieties of vegetables, because they are obviously superior").

Published Fiction

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (5-book series) -- 9/10. Along with Temeraire, this fiction takes its place in the very small "feminist historical fantasy about dragons set near 1800" genre. Along with Temeraire, it's truly excellent. One of the few series that tracks a set of realistic scientific discoveries (the main other example I can think of is the sadly-unfinished Steerswoman series), and the characters and plot are also pretty great. Highly recommended.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon -- 7/10. I read this series because I was tired of reading stuff oriented towards the male gaze, and wanted something with a hefty dose of heterosexual female gaze. I was not disappointed in that regard. Plenty of "his iron-hard thighs covered with soft golden down", et cetera. It does, however, adhere to the unfortunate trope of romance novels not really getting what consent is. (This is mostly in the first book or two, though.)

I also learned, from these books, what all those people on Tumblr were talking about when they complain about gay characters being depicted as villains or, at best, never achieving true happiness. I can't comment on the depiction of Native Americans in later books, due to my own lack of knowledge, but I suspect that someone more informed than I would not be pleased.

The plot of these books is just ... truly weird, and doesn't conform at all to normal narrative expectations about the setup. It's a time travel story, but it's mostly not about time travel at all. In fact, a lot of it is more ... slice of life.

Some of it is also, frankly, just plain gross. The main character is a surgeon and the books go into a remarkably unpleasant level of detail about certain operations.

Overall, though, I found these enjoyable, with a number of caveats. (I also learned a surprising amount about Scottish and early American history.)
I wouldn't recommend them to everyone, but they are certainly good for what they are.

Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin -- 8/10. I liked these, but not as much as I'd hoped to given how highly they came recommended. I spent half the series on the edge of my seat waiting for the big backstory/explanatory reveal about the Moon, which never really came; the mechanics of the world were much less fleshed-out and much more handwavy than I was hoping. It's nevertheless very good; I think I've just been spoiled by rationalist fiction and Brandon Sanderson, where there's always some greater mystery that gets revealed and makes sense of things in some satisfying fashion. This book was satisfying, but not in that particular way.