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2016 Book Reviews
Jan. 10th, 2016 06:39 pm#1: One Eyed Jack by Elizabeth Bear. 3.5. Spies and vampires and the spirits of cities, lost in Las Vegas, in the wreckage left by the Promethean Age books. Fun, although as always I feel like I'm missing half the information she's trying to convey. I only finally figured out the media ghosts when she thanked the fandoms in the afterwards; I hadn't watched some key classic spy TV shows, and had no idea who she was referencing.
#2: Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky. 3.5. I'm not quite sure how to rank this one. An attempt to be the hotel version of Kitchen Confidential, it was addictive while reading. Tomsky has a fluid, funny style, and I was genuinely interested in his stories. But the difference is that Anthony Bourdain wrote from the position of having made it in his industry--the book is about all his various screw ups, but he eventually gets his act together and becomes a respected chef (and a celebrity as a result of the book). I was kind of expecting a similar arc here. This is a spoiler, but I think you're better off spoiled--Tomsky does not get his act together. At the end of the book, it turns out that he's not a respected hotelier with a slightly rough past--he's still stuck in a dead end job for people he hates, by the grace of the union. It suddenly recasts everything before not as the anecdotes of an older-but-wiser expert, but as kind of sour grapes by someone with a major chip on his shoulder and no way out. I still think it's really interesting, but I wish I'd realized that going in.
#3: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. 5. Turning the post-apocalyptic and "chosen ones recruited and trained in mystical powers" tropes on their side, this seriously dark fantasy is an impressive character study even while (literally) blowing up half the planet. (And I don't mean dark as in "I am a vampire and I'm going to mope a lot" or as in torture porn. I mean in seriously considering the ramifications of prejudice, slavery, and gross power imbalances.) It's non-linear in a way that really works. And devastating for it. And oh man, the last line. I can't remember being so eager to read a sequel in years.
#2: Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky. 3.5. I'm not quite sure how to rank this one. An attempt to be the hotel version of Kitchen Confidential, it was addictive while reading. Tomsky has a fluid, funny style, and I was genuinely interested in his stories. But the difference is that Anthony Bourdain wrote from the position of having made it in his industry--the book is about all his various screw ups, but he eventually gets his act together and becomes a respected chef (and a celebrity as a result of the book). I was kind of expecting a similar arc here. This is a spoiler, but I think you're better off spoiled--Tomsky does not get his act together. At the end of the book, it turns out that he's not a respected hotelier with a slightly rough past--he's still stuck in a dead end job for people he hates, by the grace of the union. It suddenly recasts everything before not as the anecdotes of an older-but-wiser expert, but as kind of sour grapes by someone with a major chip on his shoulder and no way out. I still think it's really interesting, but I wish I'd realized that going in.
#3: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. 5. Turning the post-apocalyptic and "chosen ones recruited and trained in mystical powers" tropes on their side, this seriously dark fantasy is an impressive character study even while (literally) blowing up half the planet. (And I don't mean dark as in "I am a vampire and I'm going to mope a lot" or as in torture porn. I mean in seriously considering the ramifications of prejudice, slavery, and gross power imbalances.) It's non-linear in a way that really works. And devastating for it. And oh man, the last line. I can't remember being so eager to read a sequel in years.
