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anthimeriaDoes what it says on the tin.
No spoilers: Orleans, by Sherri L. Smith
First came the storms.
Then came the Fever.
And then the Wall.
A few decades in our future, the Gulf Coast Delta has been quarantined from the Outer States of America for fear of Delta Fever, which struck after a series of devastating hurricanes and which discriminates solely by blood type. In Orleans, your blood tribe is all.
I snagged this as soon as it came out and read it in three gulps. It's a thick enough book (not page count, really, but amount of action and information per page) that I needed some time, but by those last 100 pages I was flipping as fast as I could. It's really good near-future with a disease-based social sci-fi twist, and I loved it.
Fen de le Guerre is a phenomenal main character--practical, emotional, absolutely nothing unnecessary about her. Daniel, a surprise second POV character, is exactly what he is--and I as a reader spent a lot of time on Fen's side, wanting to smack him. Fen is that wonderful kind of character who immerses you in her world, to the point where Daniel--who comes from outside Orleans, who in a less well-told story would be our audience-POV character--comes off as a bumbling fool. Or, at least, naive in a well-educated and privileged way. The reader belongs to Fen, which is as it should be.
If you like well-told adventure stories that don't hold back from social-sci-fi darkness, with impeccable characterizations, and don't mind getting punched in the gut a few times, Orleans is for you. It's fantastic, thoughtful, and doesn't ever stop.
So many spoilers:
Saw it this morning, still a little bit on an endorphin high. Tony's breakdowns make SO MUCH MORE SENSE in this one than in 2, the pacing is good, I LOVE that they had good, solid parts for Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and JARVIS (JARVIS! Dummy! EEEE!), I love how Tony deals with people (and kids--he was right at that twelve-year-old's level. Oh, Tony). I love that he had a mental issue that made sense and was effecting his life, that wasn't an easy fix, that he got to keep being a hero and a good guy anyway. I love Maya Hansen's impeccable manipulation, and I loved the whole Mandarin plotline (and I was going in prepared to hate it because--flipping heck, guys, the Mandarin is like my go-to example of supervillains with their roots in racism--though I'm not sure reducing a canonically Asian character to, essentially, a marketing gimmick, is of the good, even a supervillain as problematic as the Mandarin. It's at least not as terrible as I was expecting, and a great reason to have an actor whose roots are Indian play a character called THE MANDARIN).
Also, anybody else notice that we're on the third Iron Man movie now where Pepper is the one who ultimately takes down the foe? IM1: she hits the switch that kills Obadiah. IM2: she makes sure Justin Hammer gets arrested. IM3: she delivers the final blow for Killian. And she and Tony have, like, a real grown-up relationship with issues and problems that they have to compromise on and take care of each other and--it's just wonderful.
Now, there's gender issues and disability issues GALORE in this thing, but I'ma have to see it again to get at it more. Right now I'm still in "EEE Pepper Tony JARVIS Rhodey Maya Bruce EEE!"-mode.
So, all in all, I'm doing fairly well on stories consumed today. Now I have editing to do in prep for WisCon, so that'll be interesting.
No spoilers: Orleans, by Sherri L. Smith
First came the storms.
Then came the Fever.
And then the Wall.
A few decades in our future, the Gulf Coast Delta has been quarantined from the Outer States of America for fear of Delta Fever, which struck after a series of devastating hurricanes and which discriminates solely by blood type. In Orleans, your blood tribe is all.
I snagged this as soon as it came out and read it in three gulps. It's a thick enough book (not page count, really, but amount of action and information per page) that I needed some time, but by those last 100 pages I was flipping as fast as I could. It's really good near-future with a disease-based social sci-fi twist, and I loved it.
Fen de le Guerre is a phenomenal main character--practical, emotional, absolutely nothing unnecessary about her. Daniel, a surprise second POV character, is exactly what he is--and I as a reader spent a lot of time on Fen's side, wanting to smack him. Fen is that wonderful kind of character who immerses you in her world, to the point where Daniel--who comes from outside Orleans, who in a less well-told story would be our audience-POV character--comes off as a bumbling fool. Or, at least, naive in a well-educated and privileged way. The reader belongs to Fen, which is as it should be.
If you like well-told adventure stories that don't hold back from social-sci-fi darkness, with impeccable characterizations, and don't mind getting punched in the gut a few times, Orleans is for you. It's fantastic, thoughtful, and doesn't ever stop.
So many spoilers:
Saw it this morning, still a little bit on an endorphin high. Tony's breakdowns make SO MUCH MORE SENSE in this one than in 2, the pacing is good, I LOVE that they had good, solid parts for Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and JARVIS (JARVIS! Dummy! EEEE!), I love how Tony deals with people (and kids--he was right at that twelve-year-old's level. Oh, Tony). I love that he had a mental issue that made sense and was effecting his life, that wasn't an easy fix, that he got to keep being a hero and a good guy anyway. I love Maya Hansen's impeccable manipulation, and I loved the whole Mandarin plotline (and I was going in prepared to hate it because--flipping heck, guys, the Mandarin is like my go-to example of supervillains with their roots in racism--though I'm not sure reducing a canonically Asian character to, essentially, a marketing gimmick, is of the good, even a supervillain as problematic as the Mandarin. It's at least not as terrible as I was expecting, and a great reason to have an actor whose roots are Indian play a character called THE MANDARIN).
Also, anybody else notice that we're on the third Iron Man movie now where Pepper is the one who ultimately takes down the foe? IM1: she hits the switch that kills Obadiah. IM2: she makes sure Justin Hammer gets arrested. IM3: she delivers the final blow for Killian. And she and Tony have, like, a real grown-up relationship with issues and problems that they have to compromise on and take care of each other and--it's just wonderful.
Now, there's gender issues and disability issues GALORE in this thing, but I'ma have to see it again to get at it more. Right now I'm still in "EEE Pepper Tony JARVIS Rhodey Maya Bruce EEE!"-mode.
So, all in all, I'm doing fairly well on stories consumed today. Now I have editing to do in prep for WisCon, so that'll be interesting.