I took a deep breath and reined in my wayward body. “I want many things,” I said honestly, “but I should get up.”
In a nutshell..
The Sidney Bristow (not really her name) of Space Princesses runs away from home rather than be the trophy wife in a high-stakes Game of Thrones style space monarchy. She runs, she dives, she shoots, she kicks ass in no uncertain terms, all in order to find a safe haven away from those that want to take away her freedom.
Uninvited Insight
This is not a romance book - despite the quote above, but rather a satisfying hard science fiction novel with a character that doesn't let the fact that she's a science fiction character in a science fiction world subsume her drives, emotions and carnal wants, while at the same time foregrounding her brilliance.
Ada von Hasenberg is on the run from her family so she won't be married off as part of a political gambit. She is an educated and trained Lady of her House that uses all her wit and skills to stay one step ahead of her family and rival families. Then she meets Marcus Loch - a man with a dark history - who seems to have recognized an opportunity in Ada. The interesting thing is, Ada recognizes an opportunity too, thus setting these two on a collision course with...everyone.
Regarding Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold, noted award winning author created a strong dynamic female character when she was fleshing out the backstory for her most famous character, Miles Vorkosigan. Cordelia Naismith, Mile's mother was herself a Captain and Leader of the Betan Expeditionary Force Ship (deep dive - sorry) who fell in love with a man who came from a backward space-faring gender role defined Empire.
In the books, Shards of Honor and sequel, Barrayar, Cordelia with grit and determination fights for the man she loves - by taking on his lover, a mad cruel despot, then reshapes the planet and Empire of Barrayar with a swing of a sword. Cordelia was a revelation, an icon that was missed because the assumption was that hard science fiction does not have these characters. With Polaris Rising, another watershed moment, Jessie Mihalik creates a dirty, messy science fiction heroine who changes her world, her universe by her actions and deeds. Her wants and yearns are earnest and real, while once again, at the same time, we have vivid descriptions of jump gate procedures and the need for engine cooldown periods.
Regarding the Female Gaze in Genre Writing
Yes please. Loch is not the co-lead in this book - we see him through Ada's eyes, from his brutal take-downs of enemies combatants to the lines his muscles make under his top. Mihalik never devolves Loch to eye candy, although who knows what would happen if the character roles were reversed, and the moments of intense wanting/yearning behavior are never cheap - they resonate with emotional context and agency.
Librarian's Final Word
Read this book. It breathes fresh life into Science Fiction and reinvents the type of character only glimpsed at in early Science Fiction novels, for today. And Jessie Mihalik, where Bujold ended with Cordelia, she takes up anew with the brilliant Ada. Disclaimer This is my first semi-regular review thing where I will randomly drop an interesting bit of prose from the book I am currently reading and discuss or muse - generally just wax lyrical in an attempt to be reasonably smart - ish. My guiding principles for reviewing books are: Be kind. Dump some uninvited insight in the most entertaining way possible. Just have fun with it to draw your fickle attention to a writer(s) that's put their heart and soul into this, their creative endeavor(s)
This is my first semi-regular review thing where I will randomly drop an interesting bit of prose from the book I am currently reading and discuss or muse - generally just wax lyrical in an attempt to be reasonably smart - ish. My guiding principles for reviewing books are: Be kind. Dump some uninvited insight in the most entertaining way possible. Just have fun with it to draw your fickle attention to a writer(s) that's put their heart and soul into this, their creative endeavor(s).
Today's book is:
Aurora Rising
"Everything it's touched.
Absorbed.
Embraced
I'm everything.
I'm nothing.
I'm me.
I'm ... "
In a nutshell..
Near Future Girl gets flung into the Far Future, complicates some lives while acclimating to Aliens, new rules and warrior Space Elves!
Uninvited Insight
Aurora Rising is an adventure filled drop into the future. Aurora our titular character is a young woman from the future catapulted into the further future by a space anomaly, which in turn triggers a vast conspiracy that plunks her into a rollicking space opera adventure that reminds me so much of Mass Effect, Farscape with echoes of Valerian and a hint of David Weber's Honor Harrington style of Military Science Fiction.
So to unpack some of the above references:
The Mass Effect of it.
A squad of interplanetary universal peace keepers led by Tyler and Scarlett - twin siblings, with Ace pilot Cat, and the bottom of the barrel crew of wonderfully rendered misfits Zila (Mad Science Support), Kal (Warrior Space Elf!) and the wonderfully complicated Finn (Tech Support and Sarcasm) - they are the Z-list squad given the mundane task of dropping off some medical supplies - in other words "a simple job". Side note: "Simple Job" should be added to the genre lexicon of things not to say while out on business, or buying eggs. A simple job, is rarely simple, however a simple job in space - an environment designed to suck your insides out - is just asking for adventure or death, possibly adventurous death.
Farscape - Trouble and then some.
The shifting character perspective in each chapter gives us good insight into character motivations and their unique alien perspectives of future humanity - we are walking-talking hopeless causes, tilting at windmills as we blunder through space armed with limited knowledge, well meaning intent and the survival instincts of fruit flies. Aurora's disrupt intro Tyler's carefully prepared strategy for squad selection so he can be the kick ass hero of the Legion, is when the characters start to shed their various boxes defined by their military roles. When they finally realize their importance in helping Aurora, the story picks up speed and tension as relationships start to strain between the squad members.
Honor Harrington - Kicking ass in the name of the Legion
The world-building is solid science fiction and presents a universe that is still mired in political intrigue and (surprise-surprise) war. A peace keeping force (The Legion) keeps everything from sliding into entropy - this is Tyler and his crew. Each member has their own reason for joining and that is slowly revealed as the novel rockets along - the comfort of regulations and rules offers some solace for all and their various issues but the wildcard Aurora shakes loose the personal issues for all us dear readers to see, and it's wonderful. So do read this fun first book of the Aurora series. If you looking for hard science fiction, go read Asimov, if you looking for a ripping story that is a YA, science fiction, action/adventure, with added Space Elf - Aurora Rising is the book you're looking for.
Librarian's Final Word
If you're in the library and you've blown through the Heist Society series but want something different yet with the same free-wheeling adventure with some high stakes action - this librarian says take it for a week loan, because you're bringing it back in two days.
If I was your girl is a novel written by Meredith Russo. It's an engaging, emotional, at times harsh story of a girl finding love and life in small town America. This idea is not new - it is the starting premise for many YA novels in the last 50 years. Probably before YA novels knew they were going to be called YA novels.
Girl. New Town. Boy. Friends. Relationship drama. All staples of the story . In this book: Amanda is sent by her mother to live with her father, leaving a History and Past behind, hoping to start fresh. She enters small town America with a secret that will definitely change how people will think of her. Her new friends are queens of the school - popular girls who sit at the top of school social order, and there's a popular boy that for some reason seems to like her a lot. Against her better judgement, she likes him too. And there you have it. I would say it would be a boilerplate story if I knew what boilerplate actually meant. The comfort of predictability laced with our own assumptions of what the typical normal story should be is the reason you will read this book. You understand what you're getting out of it, because you understand who you are when you are reading the "typical" YA novel. It's reflected in your empathy or disdain of a character as they move through the book, touching on events in your life that have meaning. That's okay, that's normal. If I was your girl offers a different perspective within what you might consider a typically normal YA story and this might shake up your touchstones as read this novel: Nobody's normal. As I said, Meredith Russo has created a story that is engaging, evocative and nuanced, as Amanda Hardy tries to navigate her own YA story with a sense of self that is literally being formed on every page. Amanda is transgender, and her YA story is anything but typical. Uncomplicated and normal is what she craves, but how can you be who are when you've only just started being you, when everyone has years to find their space to be who they are whether it's Cheerleader, Jock, Goth, Nerd, Boy, Girl. The book starkly alternates chapters between Amanda's previous life and her current one, written beautifully by Russo, as she renders the idyllic small town life with the same care as she does Amanda's harrowing life Before - giving each equal emotional weight, whether it's running away to avoid getting beaten, or going to friends for her first sleepover. Amanda's journey is typical, she's not conquering an empire, or dying due to sunlight exposure, she wants a life we assume we are entitled too. A normalcy that comes from knowing who you are. Amanda wants to be the normal American girl she always was and in the reading of this fantastic book, for this extraordinary girl - we want it for her too. So read If I was your Girl, because it's not normal, it's brilliant.
Trigger warning: Drug use, Abuse, Toxic relationships. We are all a little bit broken, or so I’m told. Our collective damages sustained but not limited to those darn teen years which define and shape us into the adults which we (reluctantly) evolve into. YA offers us a way to touch on those defining moments that is safe, providing enough of an emotional reverberation to feel the emotions of the characters in the stories we read without taking on the baggage. Without the triggers. It’s riding a roller coaster to try and experience an earthquake. There are a few writers that write with an emotional clarity that pushes us beyond the safe zones that separate the adult and the teenager. The characters they create we feel intensely because the emotional reverberation is not safe, it’s deadly - the harsh shout in the dark is a gut wound, the betrayal is a river of tears and the final twist is an unexpected stomach churning fall into oblivion.
Mine by Sally Partridge is a story about love. Fin and Kay find each other in the broken wreckage of their lives amidst the constricting reality of high school, Mean Girls and Family. Kay believes she is unloved and unworthy. Fin is angry and lost, looking to find someone to save. They find in each other exactly what they want. This is not the standard YA novel. No glowing vampires are finding redemption while a dying boy looks for a world famous author to impress a dying girl – this is not that book. Mine is real. The characters you can see in the faces of that kid in the back row at school, in the sad glance across an office cubicle, in the overheard conversation in the queue and in the douche nozzle that feeds you that line at a club – Mine is real broken people, trying to find redemption in love. In other words, a perfect read for someone wanting more than just the typical YA novel.
There is a past to everything. In South Africa we have a Past. And until someone invents a memory wiping device that won't turn your brain to pudding, we dealt with the Past in various ways. Here was one way, here is another.
And recently this happened:
Libraries, particularly Public Libraries have remained insulated from the ramifications of dealing with the Past, and except for a notable few people, no one has decided to take a long hard look Back.
Sometime ago a thesis was released and made available publicly on one of the local university websites. The thesis takes a good long hard look at the Past of the Cape Town Public Library Service between 1952 and 1972. Now I don't review books because my tastes literally change every second, like a bibliographic goldfish and its 7 second memory (unproven). So this is not a review but rather a commentary of the thesis and a story of a librarian who had to deal with her Past in a real concrete way.
Let's start off with this from the thesis: "Librarians are not concerned with distinctions of race, class or creed. Their object is to provide facilities of the most useful kind to all members of the public – not only those who can read, but to all those who can be persuaded to read (Varley, 1950)." If you are swelling with pride - don't. It's a premature swell. Ms Laishley documents that although the above statement was the official line, based on minutes and the like, there were consistent attempts to bar persons of color from libraries that were exclusively for white people.
By 1961, the following was implemented in line with the governments Separate Amenities Act:
" It listed what had been accomplished to implement separate facilities in the library service including:
The provision of new and separate libraries in non-White council housing areas and library depots in factories employing non-White labour;
The provision of two traveling libraries giving alternative service to non-Whites in predominantly White areas;
By drawing to the attention of all new or re-registering borrowers the appropriate clause in the Ordinance and advising them where the alternative library service is to be found
Visits to school principals and advising them of the position;
The employment at predominantly White libraries of White professional staff only;
The employment and supervision at predominantly non-White libraries by non-White staff only.
At the head office non-Whites, although they may be professionally qualified, do not do professional work such as cataloging, as this would involve working with White staff (City of Cape Town, 1961a)."
Consider this: all the libraries on the Main Road in Cape Town - Woodstock, Rondebosch, Claremont, Wynberg had a twin library that was only for people of color, with less books, less amenities and just less of everything. The hardships of the 1980's and the fiscal toll of separate facilities closed some of these separate amenities and now they only exist in the memories of those who worked there. Censorship, Ms Laishley tells us was carried out with ruthless efficiency by librarians.
In Cape Town - Books were most likely burnt.
"From interviews with staff, none could recall the burning of books although all remember
the list of books sent to branches that had to be returned to head office: 'Banned books were kept in the chief librarian’s office and books had to be taken off the shelf and returned to head office and were kept in a cage. Banned books could be requested for study. I did not know about burning books (Jansen, 2013).' 'Banned books weren’t destroyed but were kept in a locked cupboard. The cupboard was there when I started in 1970. Not sure if all banned books were kept. There might have been books burnt but I didn’t know about it (Epstein, 2013).' "
Ms Laishley looks lastly at the treatment of staff in the Library service during apartheid, and this brings me to the itchy little festering sore driving my brain to distraction. Organizational memory lasts longer than human beings because policies (which tend to hang around much longer) shape behavior and that behavior in turn informs the way in which people relate to each other in that organization. Old patterns of behavior become embedded in the organizational DNA, passed down or up to people who pass through the organization, and in turn carry that behavior on to other places. What I am trying to say, is this: Institutionalized behavior doesn't disappear overnight without some major intervention like the TRC did for the South Africa, or the first Democratic elections in 94. It was necessary so forthcoming generations could not only have a barometer for how shitty things could get, but it could serve as basis for tackling new battles. The Library Organizational Memory is like any organization, slow to change without intervention. Changing policies doesn't necessary have the same effect when dealing with an organization with so many disparate parts. The Library service did not have its TRC nor did it have its Rhodes Must Fall. And rationally, I would as a librarian question the need for anything like that since Librarians are evolved understanding individuals who can see the crap when its tossed their way. But as librarians we're also stickler for the rules.
We find solace in keeping to the policy, it is our shield that protects us from harm - from our own need to question. Following the organizational rules, no matter how bad is an act that we would condone.
Hold on you might say. I'm a librarian (of a certain age) I didn’t oppress anyone, I followed the rules and when things changed I changed too. We don't need to acknowledge past organizational behavioral patterns, it not necessary because we are enlightened. Right? I have a story: A library worker that worked in a library in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town once described to me her typical work day in the 80's, the late 80's into the early 90's. She would get in at 7, and sign the register. Once the register was signed she went to the colored work room (a windowless room) and put her bag away and put on her blue overall. She and the other 11 colored persons would start shelving, taking instruction from the white librarians as to what they needed to do. Some of the librarians were notably younger than the coloured staff. This library would open at 10, so they would shelf the books until then and then go to the colored work room where they would sit around a table and mend books for the rest of the day and listen for the bell. You see, every colored staff member was assigned a number, and when that particular staff member was needed to tidy up some shelves or look after a child, the librarians in front would ring the bell. Each ring of the bell corresponding to the number assigned to that worker.
The librarian who worked at this library (Number 8) went on to eventually become a Senior Librarian (post 1994 of course), and once a month she would go to a management meeting and have to sit across or next to the Head Librarian of that library who rung the bell to call her. There are other stories of course, some cautionary tales others downright horror stories, but the consistent theme in all these stories is that the victims of such appalling behavior are still working in the Library service. Ms Laishley hopes to continue developing a paper based on her thesis I can only hope that when she next writes about this particular subject she will document a profound if late "sorry" if not a heartfelt "please tell me your story" that originates from within the organisation in question. I leave you once again with a quote from a her thesis:
"Shireen Osman mentions an incident at head office when colored staff members were waiting for a meeting and a white librarian came in and turned off the lights without saying anything. 'We were sitting in the dark and had to open the curtains, they thought it was funny...
(Osman, 2013).'
'When you went to [head office]. you greeted everyone but not all greeted back- they looked at you - Who are you?' Those were the early years. (Osman, 2013).' "
FANCON is an ongoing comic book and popular culture convention based in Cape Town. This is unusual because events in Cape Town hang around for 2 years then fall out of the public eye. Fancon has been around for years longer than two, and despite being the most niche-niche of events still manage to be somewhat diverse and representative of the comic book reading community in Cape Town - students, old persons like myself and people who have watched Marvel movies who decided to check this weirdness out. And it is weirdness. Fan is after all a truncated form of fanatic, and there were many of those. They were easy to spot, wearing their homemade costumes of their favourite comic book or TV characters, hidden behind masks, cardboard, fabric and lots of tape. Bespoke wish fulfillment worn on the skin like a totem to demonstrate your passion and your belonging. I wore a costume too. A Lord of Time and Space: No wish fulfillment there. My highlights were the Highest of Highs, and my lows were the Lowest of Lows: Mainstream comic book artist for DC and Marvel, Yanick Paquette provided an astounding context to his collaborations with Grant Morrison and Alan Moore. Grant is notoriously mercurial in his scripts and often depends on his artists to interpret an evocative phrase or idea into an integral story element. Alan Moore is meticulous in his scripting, giving the artist leave to venture from his script only on his own terms. Yanick graciously allowed me time to ask questions and make inane comments. In hindsight I should've made a list. I expected queues of artists and fanboys wanting to bend his ear but Cape Town's ignorance was my boon.
There is a hunger inside our comic book creators in South Africa but it's tempered by resignation and caution. Rightly so - South African comic book artists and writers have day jobs that demand their attention, so their works are true labours of love. However it is a creation that no one can afford except for those who have the means. South African comics as I was told by a creator is a "niche-niche" endeavour that cannot pay the rent until there is a seismic shift in the physical production of books, and a release of the stranglehold that one bookselling monopoly has on the selling of books. The Lowest of the Lows is not what you think.(If you're thinking it involves a wand, a temple priestess, masking tape and a Deadpool impersonator - you're wrong.) Fancon being over - that's sad. Food being extremely expensive was downright heartbreaking. No, the simple sad truth of the Lowest of the Lows at Fancon lies in the past, on a well walked pavement in a coloured neighbourhood in the Southern Suburbs. Where three coloured comic book nerds walk the distance from Grassy Park to Blue Route Mall circa 1998, talking about comics, books, science fiction and one day, sometime far in the future, attending a comic book convention. The Lowest of the Lows is that only one made it to Fancon. ...and a good time was had by all.
