Perseus Spur by Julian May

Originally published 1998; this edition 1999

Publisher: Voyager

M

(V, S, L, D)

Violence

Sexual References / Mild Sex Scenes

Coarse Language

Drug Use (Medical, Augmentative, Social Drinking)

Representations

Gender:

1st-person narration by a male character, most of the other characters are also men. The only conversations we become aware of that took place between women also concerned a man. Gender roles are superficially egalitarian.

Sex:

Story is infused with presumed heterosexuality. One character is asked if she might be in a relationship with another woman, but denies this and later engages in a heterosexual relationship.

Race & Ethnicity:

Most characters are white, those with known origins being from North America. One minor character is black, one major character is Mexican - there is Spanish sprinkled in the story from both him and the protagonist - one major character is from off-world by way of the Caribbean.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

One character spends much of the novel in recovery from serious injuries.

Awards

None of note

Trying to work on being more clear with some of these details, such as how much items contribute to the final age-rating and for what. Probably won't come through with that for a while, as these are backlog from the weeks I was AFK (which I shouuuld get round to saying something about too, when I find the time). Also noting where I got them from.

This book and the next one, by the way, I bought cheap at a newsagent years ago because I'd seen them round lots and got curious. Hadn't read them until now 'cause of the half decade I spent not reading fiction. Liked them a lot despite the book making my editing fingers twitchy to fix it at first. Very trashy, straightforwardly fun space opera.

The narrator has a tendency to infodump, and recap excessively, and there aren't counterbalancing positive qualities unless you want to read a lighthearted thriller set in space, which I did. Made a nice change in tone from what I'd been reading the previous couple of months.

What else? The book features single-biome planets, but at least they are more interestingly described than e.g. "desert world". Also liked that the future depicted is a corporate colonialist dystopia, that the main character is a beneficiary of this system and committed to its abolition. Although he still definitely slips up. I find the biological liberties harder to go along with than the physics ones, but still managed for the sake of the story.

This all sounds a lot more negative than I feel, I think. It's fun! But probably only fun for people who enjoy the genre? Or maybe just me; it's hard to get copies of these now and they used to be everywhere for several years.

Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott

Originally published 1868; this edition 1991

Publisher: Exart Pty Ltd

G

(L, D)

Minor Coarse Language

Minor Drug Use

Representations

Gender:

Almost all the characters are female, leading to thorough Bechdel-passing. Notions of ideal womanhood are strongly tied to self-denial and sacrifice for others, and duty. Jo struck me as rather delightfully genderqueer (at least), and very disappointed to see her praised for gradually losing this aspect of herself.

Sex:

Implicitly heterosexual only.

Race & Ethnicity:

When I read the book I had a strong suspicion their maid is black, but I did not notice any direct indication or acknowledgement of race or ethnicity, apart from some US-English rivalry in which the English characters unsurprisingly came off worse.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

One character suffers a serious illness during the course of the story.

I was rather puzzled when I finished reading this (on New Year's Eve, at Sydney Harbour waiting for the fireworks), because much of what I had picked up about the book from popular culture did not seem to be present. A possible reason presented itself when I tried to add the book to my library on LibraryThing - despite claiming on the cover to be 'complete and unabridged', the copy I read was missing the sequel volume Good Wives, which seems to be pretty consistently packaged together as part of the same novel, to which further volumes are considered sequels. So, it could be that much of what I thought would happen actually takes place in that volume.

While I often enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and especially Jo, I don't think I'd like to read any further of this. The moral thread of the story was a bit too dissonant for me to want more.

Dragon's Treasure by Elizabeth A. Lynn

Originally published 2003; this edition 2004

Publisher: Tor

MA15+

(V, S, L, D, N)

Some strong violence

Sexual references / A sex scene

Coarse language

Mild drug use

Some nudity

Representations

Gender:

Easy Bechdel pass. Although only one of the major viewpoint characters is a woman, her scenes frequently feature conversation with other women about matters of daily life. Sexism is primarily displayed by characters we are not intended to sympathise with.

Sex:

One of the main characters is bisexual, carries on a relationship with a man and a woman in parallel, and expresses an intention not to choose between lovers.

Race & Ethnicity:

The kingdom represented in this novel contains a variety of ethnic groups, some with tension between them. A month after reading I don't recall any specific racial representation, which suggests everyone may have been white. A major region within the story felt coded Italian to me.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

One character is mute and communicates by signing. Some other characters suffer PTSD and / or continuing effects of injuries sustained in the previous novel (which I have not read). One character loses an arm and gets on with eir life.

Awards

19th place: Locus Poll Award, Best Fantasy Novel 2005

I don't think there was anything epic going on in this book, and I quite liked that. Much of this novel featured the characters going about their daily lives with sides of intrigue and relatively ordinary personal drama. It made a nice change from just about everything else I read, a pleasant surprise. There was no incest in this book, maybe in the next one, if ever that is published?

Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks

Originally published 1998; this edition 1999

Publisher: Vintage (first published by Hutchinson)

R18+

(V, S, D, N)

Some violence

Sex scenes (including sexual violence)

Frequent drug use

Nudity

Representations

Gender:

Bechdel technical pass. The lead female protagonist has a conversation with her flatmate / landlady at the beginning. Otherwise, all conversations between women either concern men or are not directly depicted in favour of conversations with men.

Sex:

Gay people are acknowledged to exist, but not spoken of favourably by the characters. I did not notice any being present in the story.

Race & Ethnicity:

Most characters are white English or white French. Some appearances by white German and white USAian characters. Several important characters are Jewish French and Jewish German; the story being set during WWII, anti-Semitism features prominently. The primary character is a white Scottish woman. Regional diversity within France is acknowledged.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

The lead character suffers from depression and experiences a couple of episodes during the story. Another character suffers from PTSD.

Awards

1998: Bad Sex in Fiction Award

1998: Shortlist, James Tait Black Memorial Award, Fiction

This one got to me toward the end, despite my disappointment with the previous book, Birdsong (and the end of the other book by Faulks I read, The Girl at the Lion d'Or). But, it touches on the fringes of the holocaust, and it is difficult not to be moved by that even if you are generally unimpressed with the author's writing. Really, I picked this up because I have been able to read again lately, at a slightly decent pace, and I didn't want to leave the trilogy I'd started reading unfinished despite swearing off his books previously.

Well. I found the romance unconvincing and that was my main complaint to start, although I think romance in general is very difficult to do other than the "and then abruptly he / she became the centre of my world despite our barely having met or interacted" that we get here. The plot itself when it started was decent enough for me not to consider quitting though, and like I said, it is difficult to remain unmoved when characters are being fed unaware to the Nazi death machine.

Had a few botherations with parts of the writing too. Often a segment of the story would be followed by a description of time passing and some "this is how life was for a while" description, only to drift into an account of events that happened hours or a day after the previous scene, rather than weeks or months as the beginning of the passage suggested. It made my editing fingers twitchy. Also found the way children were described disturbingly fetishistic, although that style in general seems a bit endemic in the modern 'literary' fiction I've read (not applied only to children, and hardly a huge sample in my experience, nor unique to it).

Um, anyway, this was okay. I intend not to read anything else of his if I can manage it, although parts were good. The interconnectedness with the other books was nice, and plot was okay. It's a shame there was no hint the Nazis targeted anyone but Jews. The main reason the rating assigned was so high because of a single scene which combined sexual content and violence, I wrestled with the scheme a while to make sure I was applying it strictly, and still ended up 'houseruling' a little to get coherence out of it. Otherwise it would have been a step or two lower, unless perhaps I were also factoring in 'themes' which I don't do because I don't trust myself to assess something so subjective.

Typing stop now.

Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

Originally published 1981; this edition 2000, 2004 printing

Publisher: Gollancz

MA15+

(V, S, N, D, H)

Violence

Sex scenes (including off-screen sexual violence)

Nudity

Drug Use

Supernatural themes

Representations

Gender:

Once again, first-person male protagonist. Little or no interaction between female characters, very few female characters. Very gender-essentialist depiction.

Sex:

The narrator is homophobic and sexist, with no indication these values aren't shared by the world at large.

Race & Ethnicity:

There may have been some racial variety, but the only indications I received for specific characters is that they are white; whiteness as a sign of aristocracy. Similarly, the most ethnic divisions presented took the form of social castes. Some other species present which may or may not be human-derived, some brief presence of alien non-humans.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

The highest aristocratic caste are distinguished by their great height, and the narrator often claims to possess an absolute or perhaps merely eidetic memory. One character is a cyborg.

Awards

Winner: SF Chronicle Award, novel

Nominee: Ditmar Award, best long fiction

Nominee: Hugo Award, best novel

1st Place: Locus Poll Award, best fantasy novel

Nominee: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award

Winner: Nebula Award, novel

Nominee: World Fantasy Award, best novel

I nearly quit this book at the point where the protagonist became a rapist, especially as the atmosphere of homophobia and essentialist sexism in the text were already suffocating. But I wasn't certain he did what I thought he did, as the actual rape happened off-screen, so after a while I picked it up again to continue, hoping to be proved wrong. Also I still tend to be a bit bloody-minded about finishing the books I start. Since the only other story I've read by Wolfe (The Ziggurat, from Year's Best SF) was also mired in sexism, I'm now dreading any further of his stories. Shall see how that goes.

Presumably I am not literate or perceptive enough for this sort of thing anyway, since while I noticed plenty of symbolism, allusion, etc. going on, all the parts I 'got' seemed either shallow or hollow, and the plot ordinary. Well, at some point I shall read the other two books in this quartet and find out, but so far it looks that either I am inadequate to appreciate this work, or his reputation is overstated.

Might not be another of these ratings for a while - despite repeatedly forgetting to write these up and post them, I've now caught up with where I am in my fiction reading since I started. The last two books I read were non-fiction - The Rough Guide to The Beatles and Classical Literary Criticism - so I won't be rating those. May have to do a detour sometime and build up a different sort of backlog.