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The rest of the Lodestars
Jul. 15th, 2021 10:01 pm-Legendborn (Tracy Deonn): So this was a fun romp: Black UNC student, Bree, meets King Arthur-themed Secret Magic Conspiracy to Save the World from Monsters. (Or: American POC future author gets imprinted by Susan Cooper at a young age and grows up to be like, well, why can't I write fantasy about King Arthur?? I... have a lot of empathy for that.) There was a lot to like about it: the writing is quite compelling; I loved the through-line about Bree's family and mother, and the way that magic can be different in this world and the way her heritage connected with that, and the ending was just awesome!
It was... also very YA, complete with ~romance~ that is at least as important to the characters as the part where monsters might take over the world. And the worldbuilding was also, um, well, it benefited from being read after Harrow the Ninth because I had most of my critical worldbuilding circuits turned way down, but even so I was like "how... how does this American King Arthur thing even work?? Because it Makes No Sense." Also, I thought it was hilarious how it's like this Soooooper Sekret Thing That Must Be Kept From Muggles but the characters are constantly texting each other about it; in the world I live in it would be showing up on the news in a couple of weeks.
The afterword made it clear that Deonn was putting in some of her own life experience with regards to Bree's mom (which I'd kind of suspected from the tone of those parts), and I think I kind of wish that it had been a different book in that regard, because it's a little hard to take that pain as seriously as I think it should be taken, in a book that was as extremely and dramatically YA as this one was.
So, like, I wouldn't buy this for myself, but eh, I'll probably rec it to E in a few years (after warning her about the worldbuilding).
-Cemetery Boys (Aiden Thomas): So, I liked the magic system and it is cool to get a trans gay Latinx protagonist, but gosh Yadriel is such a whiny kid. I mean, I see that he has a lot to whine about, being trans and gay and no one really understanding that, but a) after reading a whole book about him I still can't tell you very much about his personality except that he angsts a lot about being trans and gay and no one really understanding that. (Okay, and that he likes Julian and cares about school.) And b) I have passed the stage in my life where I empathized with that kind of thing and have passed on to another stage where I find it annoying to read about. (sorry teenagers everywhere! sorry teenage!me who was also very whiny!)
Also, the plot was a bit... ( Spoilers )
-Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger): This was a fun one for me; it reminded me a lot of those meandering children's books I used to snarf up regularly as a child. (It does have an overarching plot/mystery, and Elatsoe is 17, although I think it kind of wanted to be a meandering children's book instead (there are lots of meandering parts that don't really seem to have much to do with the main plot, and there was something about the sort of arch and aware-of-itself-as-a-book nature of the dialogue where the book really coded to me as one of those 12-year-old child detective books rather than a YA/teen book.) After reading Cemetery Boys, I really, really liked that Elatsoe is Not Whiny. Sometimes crap things happen to her (she is Native American and sometimes racism is A Thing. and sometimes there are vampires, because it's that kind of book) and she acknowledges it's crap, and gets on with her life (sometimes by damaging the vampires). Not that I'm suggesting that this is the way everyone has to be (it's not like I'm that way), but it was restful to read, at least right now. (Not going to rec to E, at least given her preferences right now, because it's soooo slow to get action started that she'd probably nope right out -- she strongly prefers action that starts earlier in the book.)
-A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking (T. Kingfisher) - Pretty obvious that Kingfisher/Vernon was the other author on the ballot (besides Novik) who, uh, has actually written more than one book. The thing I enjoyed most about this book (as opposed to the three above and Raybearer, all of which were first books) was that there was a sense of a whole community, not just one love interest and a couple of friends sprinkled in for diversity's sake. And I loved the defensive baking!
That being said, I thought this was a reasonably slight book -- dealing with some major issues, of course, but I sort of felt like it wasn't as ambitious as Raybearer (although better written) and somewhat one-note in what it cared about thematically, though that theme was interesting (what makes a hero, what does it mean to be a hero).
Voting:
Honestly I'm going to be seriously annoyed if anything but Deadly Education wins this, but on the other hand, whenever I feel this way, Hugo voters tend to disagree strenuously with me (like the last time Novik had something on the ballot I thought was miles better than any of the other nominees), so maybe I should just get used to being annoyed :P And I liked all of them better than No Award, so go Lodestar nominators :)
IDK, I feel like the four in the middle could be moved around some -- maybe I will -- but right now I am thinking
Deadly Education >> Raybearer > Baking > Legendborn > Elatsoe > Cemetery Boys
It was... also very YA, complete with ~romance~ that is at least as important to the characters as the part where monsters might take over the world. And the worldbuilding was also, um, well, it benefited from being read after Harrow the Ninth because I had most of my critical worldbuilding circuits turned way down, but even so I was like "how... how does this American King Arthur thing even work?? Because it Makes No Sense." Also, I thought it was hilarious how it's like this Soooooper Sekret Thing That Must Be Kept From Muggles but the characters are constantly texting each other about it; in the world I live in it would be showing up on the news in a couple of weeks.
The afterword made it clear that Deonn was putting in some of her own life experience with regards to Bree's mom (which I'd kind of suspected from the tone of those parts), and I think I kind of wish that it had been a different book in that regard, because it's a little hard to take that pain as seriously as I think it should be taken, in a book that was as extremely and dramatically YA as this one was.
So, like, I wouldn't buy this for myself, but eh, I'll probably rec it to E in a few years (after warning her about the worldbuilding).
-Cemetery Boys (Aiden Thomas): So, I liked the magic system and it is cool to get a trans gay Latinx protagonist, but gosh Yadriel is such a whiny kid. I mean, I see that he has a lot to whine about, being trans and gay and no one really understanding that, but a) after reading a whole book about him I still can't tell you very much about his personality except that he angsts a lot about being trans and gay and no one really understanding that. (Okay, and that he likes Julian and cares about school.) And b) I have passed the stage in my life where I empathized with that kind of thing and have passed on to another stage where I find it annoying to read about. (sorry teenagers everywhere! sorry teenage!me who was also very whiny!)
Also, the plot was a bit... ( Spoilers )
-Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger): This was a fun one for me; it reminded me a lot of those meandering children's books I used to snarf up regularly as a child. (It does have an overarching plot/mystery, and Elatsoe is 17, although I think it kind of wanted to be a meandering children's book instead (there are lots of meandering parts that don't really seem to have much to do with the main plot, and there was something about the sort of arch and aware-of-itself-as-a-book nature of the dialogue where the book really coded to me as one of those 12-year-old child detective books rather than a YA/teen book.) After reading Cemetery Boys, I really, really liked that Elatsoe is Not Whiny. Sometimes crap things happen to her (she is Native American and sometimes racism is A Thing. and sometimes there are vampires, because it's that kind of book) and she acknowledges it's crap, and gets on with her life (sometimes by damaging the vampires). Not that I'm suggesting that this is the way everyone has to be (it's not like I'm that way), but it was restful to read, at least right now. (Not going to rec to E, at least given her preferences right now, because it's soooo slow to get action started that she'd probably nope right out -- she strongly prefers action that starts earlier in the book.)
-A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking (T. Kingfisher) - Pretty obvious that Kingfisher/Vernon was the other author on the ballot (besides Novik) who, uh, has actually written more than one book. The thing I enjoyed most about this book (as opposed to the three above and Raybearer, all of which were first books) was that there was a sense of a whole community, not just one love interest and a couple of friends sprinkled in for diversity's sake. And I loved the defensive baking!
That being said, I thought this was a reasonably slight book -- dealing with some major issues, of course, but I sort of felt like it wasn't as ambitious as Raybearer (although better written) and somewhat one-note in what it cared about thematically, though that theme was interesting (what makes a hero, what does it mean to be a hero).
Voting:
Honestly I'm going to be seriously annoyed if anything but Deadly Education wins this, but on the other hand, whenever I feel this way, Hugo voters tend to disagree strenuously with me (like the last time Novik had something on the ballot I thought was miles better than any of the other nominees), so maybe I should just get used to being annoyed :P And I liked all of them better than No Award, so go Lodestar nominators :)
IDK, I feel like the four in the middle could be moved around some -- maybe I will -- but right now I am thinking
Deadly Education >> Raybearer > Baking > Legendborn > Elatsoe > Cemetery Boys
