sixthlight | Book round-up: August 2020

I started out August thinking I might not read too much because I had some books I wasn’t enjoying that much to get through for obligatory reasons, and also Auckland went back into Level 3 because of community cases and my fiction brain went on temporary strike, but then I came out the other side and suddenly there were books I enjoyed! Plus, HARROW THE NINTH.

Fiction

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
Definitely do not read this before reading its predecessor (Gideon the Ninth); in fact, even if you have, a re-read is more or less mandatory and you will still be confused for 80% of the book. I realise this does not sound like a recommendation and it does have a touch of hot mess about it but...lesbian necromancers in space! More 2010s memes than you can shake a stick at! Extremely Kiwi In Every Way! I cried about Gideon Nav AGAIN! Difficult, weird, beautiful, funny, disgusting (see: necromancers), nothing I list in my things I like in fiction, I love it anyway. I JUST WANT MY GIRLS TO BE HAPPY IN THE LAST ONE, TAMSYN YOU MONSTER

The Old Guard: Opening Fire (Greg Rucka)
Background reading for my new fandom; unfortunately, I commented after the movie that it felt like feminist fanfic of a much dumber movie and, uh...the comic kinda is that dumber movie, complete with racist caricature level art (sorry Joe and Nile), the team demonstrating their affection via casual murder threats rather than baklava bets, and a whole sequence of Andy being very naked and having one-night stands. Gina Prince-Blythewood, Charlize Theron, and the rest of the cast and crew made coal into diamonds. I hear the second run is not a massive improvement. Ulp.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo)

Lovely novella set in Fantasy Medieval China about the rise of an unlikely empress, as told to a travelling cleric by an old serving woman. Layers upon layers, beautiful imagery, a deep focus on unremarked people helping each other, and a finely rendered fantasy world. Highly recommended.

The Sugared Game (K J Charles)
Sequel to January’s Slippery Creatures, featuring the further 1920s pulp adventures of Will, an ex-soldier bookshop owner who is a little too comfortable with stabbing, and Kim, a bin fox aristocrat who is a little too comfortable with lying. Trademark K J Charles m/m romance, trademark excellent supporting ladies, also trademark K J Charles deep contempt for the aristocracy and a cameo that will make long-time fans scream out loud. Content warning for mention of a miscarriage. I am on tenterhooks for the third one.

The Unspoken Name (A K Larkwood)
I saw this grouped with Harrow the Ninth as part of an alleged trend of lesbian necromancers; there are both necromancers and lesbians in this one but nobody who is both at once, and in any case the two books are nothing alike. Csorwe is the chosen sacrifice for a death cult; she runs away with a wizard instead, and then the real fun starts. Compelling and I really liked the choice to use traditional fantasy humanoid races but not name them as such (Csorwe is an orc, other characters are humans and elves, but none of them think of themselves that way). Borderline on my ‘some of these people need to like each other’ metric but it kept my attention and the main plot twist was really good.

Tales From The Folly (Ben Aaronovitch)
Kinda cheating to include this; it’s a compilation of all the published short stories associated with the Rivers of London series, all of which (except the one new one to this book) I have previously read through means fair and, uh, less fair. But the one new story (Three Rivers, Two Husbands, and a Baby) is very sweet and involves BABY LUGG and VICTOR AND DOM GETTING MARRIED, and it is great to have a legally available collection of all these stories, so I’m content and recommend acquiring it if you too are a completionist for this series.

Non-fiction

A Short History of Farming in New Zealand (Gordon McLauchlan)
Book club book; what it says on the tin. Unfortunately, as an agricultural journalist in my book group expounded at length, its view of farming in New Zealand is very much stuck in the 1970s (there are WAY too many explanations of the price per pound of butterfat) and it has one (1) short chapter on Māori before ignoring them for the rest of the book. Can’t really recommend it.

For the Love of Soil (Nicole Masters)
Also for a book club, but a different one. Very interesting look into the world of regenerative agriculture; unfortunately I think it would come across to the layperson as very scientifically authoritative, when it actually veers between the commonplace, the unproven, and actual pseudoscience. I appreciate the author’s love of soil; I am much uneasier about her assertions regarding soil microbiology.

Burn: How Biochar Can Save The World (Albert Bates and Kathleen Draper)
The authors of this book have one thesis (it’s in the title) and are determined to exhaustively list every possible use for their chosen product. If you’re unaware, ‘biochar’ is essentially charcoal used for purposes other than burning; it does have a lot of potential uses, but whether it is superior to the alternatives very much depends on what you’re making it from, where it came from, and where it’s going. Can really only recommend if you have a sudden need to know about the world of biochar.

Dirty Politics (Nicky Hager)
The blockbuster expose on New Zealand politics that failed to change the 2014 election (largely because the opposition were not organised enough to take advantage). I was busy with my PhD, and in America, at the time it came out; when Judith Collins finally ascended to the throne of the National Party, it seemed like time to give it a go. The really shocking thing, quite frankly, is how many people who feature in it as just terrible human beings are still active in National - in Collins’ case, now running it. This week’s events demonstrate that the leopard has not, in this case, changed its spots. I can honestly say after fifteen years of involvement in politics that people do not act and talk like this in other parties. Mostly made me feel sorry for the ground-level National volunteers who are working for a party with this much cruelty baked into its politics.