Sorry, no post today!
Author: roseywaters
How To Tame Your Duke by Juliana Gray
“I keep forgetting is my turn for Robots Read,” I said to Dany this morning. Seems like it shouldn’t be that hard to remember, but I have now forgotten it three times since then.
Luckily, I just remembered again and am ready to talk about… well I’m going to talk about something that drove me crazy when I read this book:
I’m not actually going to talk about the plot, so you don’t need to worry about knowing what happens. I’m going to be discussing the mistake the author kept making and why I think it happens.
Here’s an example of what happens: We’re reading, interested in what’s going to happen! Emilie is riding a horse with her soon to be step son, BUT there is word out that the men who have been after our heroine for the entire book, are in the countryside. We’re left with a sense of tension — the pair are about to go around a corner and THERE IS A FLICKER OF MOVEMENT.
By now we’re all expecting the bad guys to appear and for there to be quite a fast paced scene with a chase. There may even be a chance that our heroine will get captured and spirited away, never getting the chance to tell the hero, and employer, that she’s been masquerading as a man. WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
As you rise to the edge of your seat, you are prepared
And then you turn the page, and we’re back with the hero, who is bumbling around and yelling for his son to show up.
Okay, you think, giving the benefit of the doubt to the book. Surely something exciting will happen here, something worth tearing us away from the expected chase for. Plus, it builds tension. You settle in.
And then Emilie walks in the door with her soon to be step son, and they say, very briefly, that they were chased.
Wait, WHAT?
The build up to the chase, and the break away were supposed to build tension. There was going to be a fun chase scene with lots of wild riding, and a daring leap over a canyon (… okay, probably a ditch) and instead we’re sent sprawling into the scene between the hero and heroine.
This happened a couple of times in the book. It was only this bad once, but there were other times when the author cut away from the action only to break it all down in the next scene.
“TERRIBLE!” you cry angrily (while gathering your pitchforks). “THAT SOUNDS AWFUL!” (… no, no pitchforks?)
Here’s the thing — cutting away from a scene to build tension is a common technique. You see it in movies as well — the moment where the tension feels like it can’t be born anymore, and suddenly you’re in a tea shop and there’s the soft murmur of voices, but you know there’s a super hero fight about to arrive. It’s gives the reader a moment of seeing the future — something I am thoroughly convinced helps with the build up of tension.
If this had been played well, we would have seen it as building tension and it would have been great.
BUT, as a writer, reading it I felt a familiar creep up my spine as I read. You know what else authors are told to do — end chapters on cliffhangers. It’s a surefire way of making it impossible to put the book down. Build the tension, make them ask what’s going to happen next? and force them to turn the page.
I think the break down happens when you break for the cliffhanger, but don’t continue the scene you were in. Sometimes I stop writing in the middle of a scene for this reason, and, before I really think about it, I’m writing a scene that has nothing to do with it. Sometimes I break a scene because there’s a line that would be a great cliffhanger, and I jump onwards, without thinking about why the rest of the scene might matter.
You know why this happens a lot? Cause as a writer, I feel the tension building and I want it to stop. It’s a natural human reaction to want to take it easy (I kept on “forgetting” to write this post for example), and as a writer I needed a break from the tension.
After reading this book though, with this HUGE stumble, I have paused every time I’ve written a cliffhanger break and ask myself if I’m breaking because I’m trying to take the easy way out, or am I breaking because it will increase the need to finish the book?
Next week, Dany and I will be back with a mystery book! (Okay it might be The Thief but no promises).
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Dany: I think there were some interesting ideas in Binti, but I’m not sure the execution always worked.
Rosey: Yeah… I found myself confused.
Dany: It’s just that I’m not sure if Binti, the main character, did all that much to drive along the plot. It felt a little like the author knew where she wanted the book to go but she was so focused on that that Binti didn’t really get to do all THAT much to get there
Rosey: ooo, I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s true.
Rosey: Some of it was totally the way that it was written…
Rosey: Maybe it would have felt more like Binti did more if we had been introduced to the Harmonizer stuff more… viscerally? Like, instead of Binti telling us, we get it through seeing her doing stuff with her dad…
Dany: I definitely feel like the parts about Binti being a Harmonizer could have been done better. I felt… very removed from what was going on at times.
Rosey: ah yes, and some things happened too easily for Binti?
Dany: Yeah, definitely.
Rosey: “I want to talk to the chief!” despite it being a huge deal and no human having been on their ship before, and she gets to do it. I think the best parts were the parts about her family and the feeling of fear and worry that came from doing what she felt she needed to do, versus what her family wanted of her and her clinging to the idea of herself going back despite changing.
Dany: Yes, I agree. I also liked the relationship between Owku and her.
Dany: Truth be told, novellas always seem to have that problem for me. They just tend to be too short. And I keep craving more depth, more explanations, and I’m usually always disappointed by the endings.
Rosey: haaaa, yeah. Problem with the medium. I wonder if the novel that comes after this feels more complete.
Dany: Yeah, I was wondering that too. I might read the next one just to see. Also it IS longer, so yeah, maybe it’ll feel better to me because of that
Rosey: I was trying to think of any other novellas that we’ve read, all I could think of was The Warrior, the Healer, and the Thief
Dany: I like to read them because they’re short, but I also tend to have trouble with them because they’re short.
Rosey: I think novellas work well as inbetween books for series. Most of the ones I like are .5s of series.
Dany: Ooooh yes, that could be it! And would also make sense, since you’d already know either the characters or at least the world the novella is set in that way
Rosey: yes!
Dany: So you don’t end up feeling like you’re missing out on any important info/depth
Rosey: yup, EITHER WRITE THE BOOK OR DON’T! This in between stage is annoying when it’s stand alone! I say, completely generalizing
Dany: I mean, I get it on one hand. On the other, I totally agree with your statement. ‘Cause the novellas I DID like I was always a little sad about because I kept wondering how much more awesome things could have been if the author had written 200 pages more. Double-edged sword, really
Dany: I guess, in general I liked some of the ideas presented in Binti but also thought they are worth exploring much deeper than they actually were. AND I wish the author would have made things harder for Binti as far as the Meduse were concerned (clearly leaving her home was superhard, and I think that part came across really well and believable, it’s just the rest that left something to be desired).
Rosey: I’m glad we read it and I think I’m interested enough to read the novel.
Dany: Me too!
Dany’s rating: 3/5 stars
Rosey’s rating: 3.5/5 stars
SINCE WE KEEP LYING TO YOU, faithful readers, about our next book, we’re not gonna announce what we’re reading next. Wanna know what it is? CHECK BACK IN TWO WEEKS!
Fox and O’Hare by Jannet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Dany’s sick, so I’m taking over the blog today, mwahahahahaha… oh no, what have I even read this week?
I guess the answer to that is The Animorphs series and the Fox and O’Hare series. Also Feet of Clay by Terry Prachett.
Despite having a lot of feeling about the Animorphs (far too many for a middle grade set of books that I rip through in an hour), I don’t actually have a lot to say about them. Feet of Clay, on of Prachett’s City Watch books is similarly out of the running. Which, I suppose, leaves me with Fox and O’Hare.
Oh boy. You might want to buckle up.
I tried Jannet Evanovich’s first series — Stephanie Plum two years ago while driving across the country. It was light fare, with a heroine that I distinctly disliked. I thought about starting the second book over and over again, but could never quite get myself to do it.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, when in a fit of trying to look up heist books (for research), I couldn’t get away from the Fox and O’Hare series. I stared at it, I tried to find a way out of reading it.
I read it.
If you’ve watched White Collar, you know the plot. FBI agent catches a master con artist, flips them, and takes down bad guys. Neal–I mean Nick, is always three steps ahead, and interested in cons for the challenge, not for the money. White Collar is better. Leverage outstrips them all.
Let me first explain why I didn’t like the first one. The major problem with this book is that the characters are about as three dimensional as pancakes. Nick especially, but even Kate, who ends up being the audience’s ears and eyes most of the time, comes across as little more than a badge and gun with boobs. She is your classic Uptight Woman Who Will Be Magically Set Free By A Man’s Penis (can you guess which penis?). She’s married to her job, and ‘by-the-book’ in that way by the book agents always say they are, but aren’t because BUREAUCRACY IS BAD! Fine. Kate’s kind of a cookie cutter agent.
But Ne– Nick, this really is getting bad, isn’t much better. He’s a con man with a strict moral code to never get bystanders hurt, and only to steal from those who deserve it. Which apparently in this universe is just “rich people”?
I mean, fine, we get shown that they are bad people plenty of times, but there’s definitely an angle that flattens out the emotions of the bad guys, and makes Kate and Nick the Official Good Guys with very little thinking on the part of the audience. No moral ambiguity here!
The first book was all of these tropes dropped together and left to warm under a hot sun. It was… fine. I felt very little of the excitement of the plot, in part because the plot kept starting and stopping. The cons all went according to plan, until they didn’t, and the end was an exciting blow out.
Plus an uninspired, far too obvious kiss, that made me question if flirty Nick and stoic Kate ever had any romantic tension between them.
“You continued to read?” You ask, now holding a glass of champagne Nea–Nick has put in your hand.
Yes, dear reader, I did indeed keep reading. I can tell you why too. In case you hadn’t already figured out, I live in LA, where traffic rules supreme, and it was while i was in traffic that I listened to this book (at 1.75x the normal speed). I got to the end, and discovered that I liked the narrator’s voice too much to stop listening to it. It was calming while trying not to murder other LA residents in our mad rush to get into the Valley.
So I started the next one.
The Chase faired a little better than the last one. Evanovich and Goldberg seemed to have figured out their tropes enough to play with them a little. The characters were still a little flat, still played in their corners a little too tightly, but you could feel the tension between Nick and Kate, and they had started to think like one another in a way that made them interesting.
By the time I got to book three, they had fleshed out enough that I felt gripped by the story. I didn’t want to stop reading.
Book four was certainly the peak of my liking this series. It was fast paced and well plotted. There were plenty of twists and turns and there was a lot of delightful banter that had me laughing out loud. I finally understood why everyone else liked Evanovich so much. But it took me four books to get there.
Still, it wasn’t a deep read. There were a lot of descriptions of cities, buildings and so on. The bad guys were always pure evil. The Good Guys were always EXTRA good. The plots always went off with only minor hitches. I never worried that our heroes wouldn’t get out of their predicaments (because really that’s what they were).
Indeed, I think that’s what sunk the fifth book. Suddenly the stakes were raised to a global threat, and I knew it couldn’t go wrong, so there was a decrease in the urgency of the book. I didn’t need to finish it to find out [SPOILER] LA would be safe from small pox.
Was the series enjoyable? Certainly there was something there or I wouldn’t have read all five books in a little more than one week. Would I suggest them to anyone?
Eh…
Dany and I will be discussing our joint book next week How To Lead a Life of Crime.
All good wishes for health can be sent directly to Dany via the Robots Read Good Wish Foundation*.
* Not a real foundation.
Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Rosey: I was very startled when the book ended
Dany: Was it too abrupt for you?
Rosey: I can’t tell, I just know I turned the page expecting there to be more, and… it was done. It was a very odd experience.
Dany: Haaaah. Yeah, it was a little odd. I kinda liked it though, ending on a note of not knowing I mean, although I can’t tell if it was a copout or not
Rosey: Usually I would say it totally is and glare at the book, but apparently she’s written several other books in the universe, so who knows?
I feel this Arab-coded world is kinda racist. – Rosey on Goodreads
Dany: In general I really LIKED the idea of the book but the execution didn’t always feel… right.
Rosey: agreed, the execution got weird at times.
Dany: I agree on the Arab-coded world you mentioned. It does seem racist.
Rosey: the Arab-coded world really was bad.
Dany: Ugh, it was.
Rosey: Just… no.
Dany: Yeaaaah. It was full of prejudice and cliches. Also Thora being the one to lead those women to freedom felt wrong. Like they needed an outsider to be “saved”. So yeah, that whole part was just a big no and I was glad when it was over.
Dany: There were also some things in the book that also felt ableist.
Rosey: oh very much so. I thought she was going to be going somewhere with the stuff about scrubbing Thora’s brain of her psychotic break, but… it didn’t pan out in the direction I thought it would and we’re kind of left with the impression that any mental differences are crushed.
Dany: BIG wince there.
… >___> – Dany on Goodreads
Dany: I did kinda find Torobe the village interesting and their whole way of experiencing the world and the differences (even though ugh gender roles why).
Rosey: yeah it was interesting thinking about a community that lives completely in the dark, and the way everything became tactile and touch based.
Dany: yes
Rosey: and some of the stuff with Thora… losing her sense of herself was very visceral for me.
Dany: What do you mean, visceral?
Rosey: Something about it brought to mind being in the dark, and like… you lose the sense of where your body ends?
Dany: oh yes, that was really well done in my opinion!
Rosey: yes!
Dany: also the spatial distortions etc were interesting in the way they were described.
Rosey: yes! I thought there was a lot there.
Dany: like the first time they’re in the “forest” and Thora “falls”. I got a bit lightheaded sometimes; it was cool.
Dany: I think the descriptions of the setting and the feel of it were probs the best part of the book, so I’m glad we read it, for that.
Rosey: Unfortunately, for me, some of the parts that made me sit up and want more were the parts that were kind of glossed over. Like, how traveling between worlds takes years, and a person loosing the moorings of their place in time.
Dany: I’m sad that got glossed over too! Wasters… such an interesting idea
also how their concept of time differs to the concept of those staying in one place/one time
Rosey: Yes! It reminded me of Six Wakes. It certainly alerted me to the fact that the theme is something that I’m interested in reading about and thinking about.
Dany: Also just the theme of “people turn into who we think they are” was great, but it made it all the more ironic, that there was racism and ableism in this book.
Dany: Also sci fi books about space are just so cool. I am really enoying them.
Dany’s rating: 3.5/5 stars
Rosey’s rating: 3.5/5 stars
Sign us up for class with our next book:
Self-Inflicted Wounds
Chris Fox said in 5000 Words Per Hour that mindset is a huge thing, and when you decide and know where you’re going to go, your brain starts picking up on signs that will lead you to success. It’s a ridiculously upbeat statement, that I fully endorse, cause it’s true. Our brains are weird things that take in everything, but only show us a small range of things.
Why start by talking about this? Am I diving into Chris Fox’s other book I read in the last week? Nah. I’m bringing it up cause my brain’s selective attention has all been on risk taking, taking chances, and failure.
If you don’t know Aisha Tyler, you should check her out. I knew her first from Friends and then when she took over Whose Line is it Anyway? but then I checked out her stand up and found her to be quite funny. She’s not my favorite comic, but I definitely like her.
Her book, as the title might indicate, is all about the times she’s failed. Told in funny anecdotes, Tyler manages to make you relate with her (well, maybe just the people who were far into sci-fi and fantasy as a kid), and also see how her failures have shaped her.
My love of self-help books makes it clear that the only way to learn is through failure, and Tyler certainly agrees with this (I suppose that means it’s probably true, DAMNIT!). But Tyler’s book seems to really drive home the fact that you can’t fail unless you do something.
Stand ups seem to really hold true to this idea. They live and die on instantaneous feedback. Failure for them is the crickets when a joke doesn’t land. But if you do nothing at all, then you’re going to get silence anyways. Might as well share an idea and get the blank reply than stand for nothing.
So what does that have to do with what Chris Fox was talking about? Well, I am a ball of anxieties, pretty much all the time, but lately I have noticed more and more of the message that doing something is better than doing nothing. You can fail both ways, but it’s better to fail at something.
Terrifying as that idea might be to me (you mean having dreams about being forced on to stage with no lines memorized isn’t normal?), it also means a lot. I struggle, often, with wanting to do things. It’s much easier to stay at home and play in my corner. But that’s not the kind of failure I want to learn from (cause I’ve already learned about doing nothing).
This book reinforced the message.
Don’t worry universe, I’m about to go do some things.
Check back in next week with us for a discussion on Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Dany: I really liked her diaries, to be honest.
Dany: I’ve read people saying they’re all emo and/or hipster but… *shrug*
Rosey: snicker, I mean, she was… 19?
Dany: I really liked her voice and thought 19/20-year-old Carrie was already very interesting. And I can relate to her quite a bit, tbh.
Rosey: oh yes!
Dany: I also found her descriptions of Harrison hilarious
Rosey: haha, yes.
Rosey: I was left feeling extremely weird about him at the end, but while reading the diaries, it was very amusing. I think I got caught on the whole “he was married” part of it and the fact that Carrie was so young, I just wanted to cuddle Carrie and protect her.
Dany: Yeah, I felt super protective of Carrie.
Dany: But honestly, was also amazed at how much she seemed to try and understand herself, and how much time she spent figuring things out and just thinking about them. I loved her mixture of contempt and fascination for Harrison probably for personal reasons, because I know I’ve felt that way before, and it’s an odd place to be.
Rosey: Mostly, I felt a very close kinship with younger Carrie and the like, trying to sort things out but also being so sure of herself one moment and then unsure the next.
Dany: Yes!
Rosey: I mean, I still do that all the time (/not almost 30 what are you talking about).
Dany: I do too. We’re always in our heads, trying to find ourselves make sense.
Rosey: can’t tell if it’s a good thing or not…
Dany: I personally think it’s good as long as one doesn’t overdo it. So… like a lot of things in life, I guess. It can totally be exhausting though. I could relate to that too.
Rosey: oh yes.
Rosey: I kept remembering how Mark Hamill basically said he never noticed Carrison because he was so wrapped in himself.
Dany: hahaha. Oh Mark.
Rosey: he was young and handsome, what wasn’t there to love? *Hamill Hairflip* (not a real thing)
Rosey: I think this was an interesting look at a relationship but I ended it confused about how Carrie felt about Harrison, I mean, now. Given the way she was still trying to work out what their relationship had meant but then she also seemed to be carrying a torch? Except was that her being flip about it?
Dany: Yeaaaah, I wasn’t sure either, but I think she was just trying to be flip about it. But in the end I don’t think she’d have said no to Harrison if he’d “changed his mind”
Rosey: /sits in her ace corner and twiddles thumbs
Dany: We don’t have to talk about it.
Rosey: oh no, I’m just like attributing it to my inability to understand.
Dany: I think Carrie was more like, in love with the idea of him, and she knew that. But “knowing” her, I don’t think it would have stopped her from going all, “oh sure, let’s give it a try” after… 40 years, but that’s just… me wildly guessing.
Rosey: I’d take your guess over mine
Dany: hahaha
Rosey: for some reason I feel like you know more about her?!
Dany: Do I?
Rosey: *not sure where this implication came from*
Dany: Uuuuh… I’ve read her three books… as have you.
Rosey: I have no idea
Dany: and I watched some interviews with her? But like, that’s… it.
Rosey: hahahahaa
Dany: Maybe the Carrison bit just feels familiar to me. I know what it’s like to have that mix of contempt and fascination for one person
so maybe… that’s why? I have no idea.
Rosey: Maybe? I dunno, I’ve definitely felt this way for ages but I might have mixed you up with someone on tumblr though. I was like “haven’t you reblogged tons of her gifs?!”
Dany: … I’ve reblogged quite a few, definitely
Rosey: hmmm… That’s probably it.
Rosey: Oh Carrie Fisher
Dany: I’m gonna miss her. I mean, I already miss her, but you know.
Rosey: yeah… It was so bittersweet reading this. I was so melancholy when I finished cause… her last book…
Dany: Yeah, same here.
Rosey: I feel like we need to do a recap of our Star Wars experiences?
Dany: … We do?
Rosey: well, we don’t have to.
Dany: I mean, we can, certainly, I’m just not sure where the thought is coming from (other than it’s Carrie Fisher, of course).
Rosey: mostly from the end, where all her fans would just… spill everything all over her…
Dany: Aaaah, yes. That. Oh man.
Rosey: Most of that actually made me SUPER UNCOMFORTABLE and I ended up skipping over some of them
Dany: HAHA. Yup. Definitely agree with you there.
Rosey: I really liked the diaries part, but I also found the rest of the commentary to be… lacking? I don’t know, I also found it hard to follow in some points; there were sentences that seemed to be going in circles.
Dany: I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed Shockaholic
and I really liked the diaries and Carrison part of it, which I feel like made up a good part of the book anyway. I… can’t recall much of the rest.
Rosey: Neither can I to be honest.
Dany: But yes, it was a little rambly, as Carrie tended to be.
Rosey: Indeed. It sounded like her, which isn’t a bad thing, I just know I probably would have enjoyed listening to it more, as a result of being rambly. Reading rambly makes my dyslexic brain hurt
Dany: Oh, is she the one narrating?
Rosey: Her and Billie [her daughter in cause you didn’t know].
Dany: Awww.
Rosey: I think that means she reads the older parts and Billie read the diaries? But who knows, I didn’t get the audiobook.
Dany: Yeah, that would have been nice!
Rosey: Anything else?
Dany: Yes. Carrie I LOVE YOU, SPACE MOM.
Dany’s rating: 4/5 stars
Rosey’s rating: 4/5 stars
Join us in two weeks to talk about:
Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland
Writers read. That’s the basic thing we hear all the time. It’s kind of why Dany and I started up Robots Read — to encourage us to read more and talk about what we’ve read.
Despite it being recent, I can’t remember where I read that writers should read books on writing craft at least once a year. Maybe I should have read The Elements of Style (oh I should go read that at some point…) but instead I read Creating Character Arcs.
K.M. Weiland runs Helping Writers Become Authors, an interesting and informative website that does just as it says on the tin. I wasn’t really aware of the connection until later, when I looked her up and was surprised to find they were one in the same. The point being, Weiland writes a lot about writing, to our benefit.
Well, at least mine.
For the past five years I’ve been working on a story that feels deeply personal and big in a way I didn’t really understand. I’ve struggled through rewrite after rewrite, restructuring the problematic areas over and over again. It felt like it was saying… something, but never quite what I wanted it to be.
I have a strong main character, who I love to bits, but also torture incessantly. I have a world with a variety of mysteries that are begging to be solved. My main character even has a solid story goal. I thought I had it down finally.
Then I read this book, and got slapped with the realization of what wasn’t working in my novel. I was trying to write two different character arcs in the same person.
Weiland explains that there are three kinds of arcs — a positive change arc, a flat arc, and a negative change arc, the first and third being mirrors of each other. This is the kind of character arc we usually think of while writing and reading — a character has an internal problem that they have to work on and become a better person in order to solve the problem they’ve been facing.
I thought I was writing a positive change arc. I struggled to make my characters fit into this mold. I came up with a solid internal issue that needed to be worked out, and could be via the story. My beginning builds this up — it was a positive change arc! My main character was going to face a lie about the world that shaped her, and come to terms with it!
Only problem, the character wasn’t built for a positive change. The big lie felt pinned on to her, forced on her in order to make the positive change arc work. But I thought it had to be, I thought that if I didn’t do it, my story wouldn’t be structured correctly, and instead of a story, I would end up with a situation.
Then I read this book. She starts in the positive change arc, and I kept comparing this novel with her plot points and wincing slightly because they didn’t meet with what she was saying, and thinking about how to pull my story in line with these plot elements*. It didn’t really work. I was getting frustrated, because how was it that my novel, the novel I thought was finally structurally sound, not fitting into this neatly?!
Then she started talking about flat arcs, and my mind was blown.
Flat arcs involve the main character knowing a truth, and bringing it into a world where a lie is accepted as truth. It works well for dystopias, and for spies and action books (based on my favorite kind of books, no wonder I like it). I was listening to it, and it called to me, dreadfully, since I had just spent a year trying to get my novel to fit into a positive change arc. But here, finally, I realized why my novel wasn’t working — I was trying to do both character arcs for my main character. She needed to bring the truth out to the world, while also battling her inner demons.
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with this yet. I’ve been working on a different novel for the past two months (better organized and structured because of what I’ve learned from working on the current novel), and letting the thoughts settle in my head. I’ll have my work cut out for me when I get back to it though.
This book isn’t revolutionary. It’s something you could get from other books about structure. It’s common sense. But it rocked my view on my novel, and shook me out of a frustrated stupor I was in with it. It probably won’t do that for you, but I think it does speak to what I said at the beginning of this post — writers should read about craft. You never know what’s going to come out and hit you in the face.
In a galaxy far, far away, Dany and I are reading The Princess Diarist for next week’s post.
* But Rosey, you say, shocked, why do you have to adhere to her plot points?! Writing should be by the numbers! Lest this digression turn into a giant commentary on structure and it’s importance, let me just say it is. Structure is what takes an idea for a novel, into a novel. As readers, we expect certain things to happen at certain times, and breaking from that for the sake of being ‘different’ is only going to make your readers mad. I want thing to happen for a reason, and I see no reason to change the way people view novel structure in my novels (thus far, I could in the future). Do I need to use her plot points exactly? No. Will I? Probably. Let’s be honest — someone else did the work! Why would I expend my energy is redoing someone else’s work?
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Confession: Me and Dany didn’t finish this book in time for our post today. That being said, we’re still putting up a post. Dany is 37% of the way through the book, and I am 61%, so we’re sharing our predictions for the book today and will come back for an official post Sunday.
I’m gonna white out some spoilers for people, so if you don’t mind learning these things, highlight to see what I’ve said.
Six crew. One ship. On murderer.
Plus, clones. Who wake up with their memories of 25 years wiped, and their dead bodies floating around in a malfunctioning ship that is trying to take them back to earth.
It’s a murder mystery on a space ship and very cool.
Dany: Right now things point in Hiro’s direction, as in, like maybe he was set up by someone (either someone else, or by a former version of himself? I have no clue) but I have no idea what’s gonna happen.
Rosey: I agree with that.
Rosey: Looking at the 37% mark of the book, I was all “It looks like Hiro, SO IT CAN’T BE HIM!?!”
Dany: Yeaaaaah, things point towards him so badly right now that it’s a little too easy.
Rosey: Far too early in the book for us to have our murderer, though it was interesting. cause I liked Hiro. I still do.
Dany: I also like Hiro.
Rosey: I also was looking at the book and being all “He’s one of the narrators!” … but uh, this book is not limited in it’s POV, so that was just me reading wrong.
Dany: part of me wants to be all “IT’S ALIENS!!!”
Rosey: hahahaha
Dany: “they’ve been taken over by aliens!!”
Dany: I also like Maria. I think… like, it’s hard, the characters that are painted in a slightly better light, are also the characters I feel like I should be MORE suspicious of even when I do like them or maybe especially because I like them.
Rosey: YES! I am starting to feel as paranoid as all the characters
Dany: It’s good. I like it so far, the writing isn’t perfect
but it’s definitely an interesting mystery and I’m really curious to find out what happens next and how it ends
Rosey: yes!
Dany: I also think the idea is just REALLY cool. Like, murder mysteries in space??? yes pls.
Rosey: I’m really into the themes it’s exploring with like, immortality and cloning laws. I think that there’s a bunch of info dumps, for sure, but I kind of am okay with them? Cause I’m all “This is fascinating!”
Dany: yeaaaah. Though I think the whole cloning law is… frightening, in some ways. It’s definitely an interesting topic and theme
and one I’m sure we could discuss more deeply once we finish.
Rosey: okay, so, predictions?
Rosey: I’m going for IAN went mad and killed them all… wait no he has no arms.
Dany: hahahaha
Rosey: hm…
Dany: I think maybe IAN and someone from the crew were trying to prevent something… I’m not sure why I think that. It was probably the whole turning around back to Earth + manual thing that happened though now there’s been some explanations about that I’m not sure.
Rosey: I’m going to guess wildly, and say Maria killed them all, as she looks the least suspicious right now.
Dany: I’m curious to see if any crew members die again… like, I almost want you to spoil me and tell me if anyone has died again at 61%…
Rosey: Be strong! [spoiler: no one has died yet, BUT, three people are basically out of commission as a result of Hiro’s alternative personalities.]
Dany: I’m hoping for another (attempted) massacre because I’m TERRIBLE. ALSO I wonder if the humans in cryo come into play like maybe what’s happened on the ship has to do with them as well, in some way.
Rosey: I wanna predict that Wolfgang is gonna come out with a clean nose. He’s far to suspicious for him to be a murderer.
Dany: I agree on Wolfgang.
Rosey: [spoiler: Being further along than Dany, I also am pretty suspicious of Paul. I mean, we’re practically told that he has a grudge against everyone on the ship for being a clone. Did he murder everyone? Maybe, but I’m more thinking he put hemlock in Maria’s food, and someone else murdered everyone else.]
Dany: I wanna say that the food printer was switched deliberately, like, that for some reason the newer technology wasn’t their first food printer because it would have been harder to manipulate it, and that was why the older food printer was in place at first. But maybe I’m reading too much into details
Rosey: No, no, it’s a good point, like… why did they have these two different sized printers?!
Dany: yes, and it gets mentioned that the newer one fits much better into the place than the old one, like it was supposed to be there anyway
Rosey: I really like Katrina
Dany: that scene, with the fedora, and the suit. I read that and was all “gaaaaaaaaay”
Rosey: yuuuuup
Were we correct? Check back again on Sunday for our updated information!
A Sunday Update!
Rosey: D’you wanna discuss Six Wakes? Which, I think I have to reread a bit of, cause I do not really understand the solving of the mystery… though I can’t tell if its cause I was distracted or not.
Dany: haaaah. I got confused too. Yeah let’s discuss Six Wakes.
Warning: Uncensored Spoilers Ahead!
Rosey: The basic shape of it is that Sallie Migon was doing it all for revenge, and put them together to… murder everyone without getting her hands dirty
Dany: Yeaaaaaah. I was a little disappointed at that, to be honest. Like, I don’t mind Sallie Mignon being behind it, but I was hoping it would be for more political reasons.
Rosey: I also wanted there to be more political reasons for Sallie’s revenge, cause the set up of the clones/humans was interesting and there was so much in there that could have been explored so much more but somehow, Lafferty seemed unable to understand the human side of things? Then again, she did attach it to a lot of religious ideas… I dunno, I just feel like there was so much more room to explore and instead she went “but everyone would want to be a clone except stupid people!”
Dany: hmmm, I’m not sure. It didn’t feel as judgy as that to me. Like, yeah, she focused on the clones, definitely, and there was only one human on board but… well, it’s hard for me to separate because I also view the clones as human, so a commentary on the clones was also a commentary on humans for me. But I agree, there was so much more she could have explored.
Rosey: Oh yeah, I mean, I don’t think that the commentary on who becomes clones was necessarily intended, more that it was an unintended side effect.
Dany: I do think that six wakes is really interesting because of the way it talks about identity / personhood, and how it handles these topics.
Rosey: Between the mind maps, and the never really dying situation, there was a lot of really interesting stuff!
Dany: Yes!
Rosey: Maria getting to fiddle around with people’s minds, and the memories they have, like, the way she changed Wolfgang, commenting out the part of him that cared, it made him a whole different person. So fascinating!
Dany: I found the ending to be weird, because it doesn’t seem like she really learned her lesson. or that any of them did.
Dany: Yeaaaah. I definitely changed my mind about Maria. It was mostly their decision to use Paul as an AI that irritated me
Rosey: Yes! It was brushed off.I felt for Paul, especially when he was cloned against his will. But it seems almost like the feeling wasn’t intended because Paul’s story seemed like the one Lafferty didn’t care about at all.
Dany: Oh, that’s true!
Rosey: I wouldn’t want to spend time with him, and I think he’s probably the least interesting of the characters but… it felt like a necessary counterweight to the pro-clone world the others existed in, with accidental relatablness.
Dany: I honestly felt for a whole lot of them. I started feeling less and less for Maria or like, less and less understanding of her, at least.
Rosey: yes! For me, it was a little bit that every time something happened, Maria had the answer. Jonanna needed another doctor: MARIA WAS A DOCTOR! They needed someone to do the coding: MARIA CAN DO IT! (why bother hiring Paul?)
Dany: I didn’t mind that. I got annoyed at her for the same reason Wolfgang got annoyed at her, which was her being all “oh I didn’t know! I was missing weeks and didn’t know what I was doing!”. At one point I was just all “BITCH, you figured it out! Take responsibility!”
Rosey:I felt like the book gave Maria a HUGE free pass on self awareness, and it was… weird
Dany: Agreed.
Rosey: since the others weren’t granted that.
Rosey: APART from the fact that there was so much potential and the characters kind of… shifted and moved around in terms of relatablness, I actually quite enjoyed reading the book.
Rosey: It was well paced, and engaging.
Dany: Me too! It wasn’t perfect, but it was good.
Rosey: I didn’t even mind the info dumps that much
Dany: I did think the whole discussion in the gardens, and them figuring out what happened that way was a little weird/confusing, but in general I’m happy we decided to read the book because it was really interesting, and I liked the premise, and it got me thinking, so that’s always nice.
Dany’s rating: 4/5 stars
Rosey’s rating: 4/5 stars
Join us when we’re back together to discuss:
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Some of my favorite books are alternative histories — okay, all works of fiction are alternative histories in my head, but that’s a whole other post — but never really the books where the Nazi’s won WWII. The joy in alt history is seeing the way the world is both the same and different, teasing out the differences that come from small, and large, actions.
In that regard, Underground Airlines was great.
In this book, the Civil War never happened, and slavery still exists. The ramifications of this fact spread out from this. Some alt histories like to show that a single, tiny event can have long lasting, and far casted effects. This is not one of them.
The basic shape the country is the same — though Texas would probably be blue in this history, what with it trying to gain independence via immigrants and abolitionists heading down there to fight a war — the celebrities are the same — Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., among others, show up. History, this book seems to say, is not something that is easily changed. Indeed, it almost seems like fate exists, guiding us along.
It was fascinating to see these changes. The fact that the United States is failing due to other developed countries refusing to trade with any place that has racial slavery permeates the novel. The treatment of Black Americans is both the same and different in chillingly creepy ways.
So I enjoyed it, for the most part.
The problem that I kept bumping up against was how bleak this picture of America is. I will happily admit to being not the most patriotic of people — I never have been, even before the days of Trump — but the kind of bleak, ‘nothing will ever change’ attitude of this book was upsetting to me.
The parallels you can draw between this alternative history of slavery, and modern day slavery, which is easier to hide as, while there are racial factors, is different in it’s invisibility, are easy to make. Yes, people will still shop at Walmart. Yes, people will see the horrors behind modern wonders and do nothing. Does that mean we shouldn’t try and stop it?
By placing so much weight on history, this books looks at our world and answers with a ‘no’. It glories in the terribleness that the world is, and the end result is bleak as hell.
Add to that the main character is a black man, escaped from slavery, but forced to recapture other escaped slaves, and you gather an impression from this white author, that there is simply no hope. The juxtaposition of the white author and black narrator that makes it feel extra uncomfortable.
This book was published last year (ah, such innocent times when Trump was just a candidate), so I can’t exactly say that it was written in response to the current political situation. But it seems a common theme in writing these days for there to be a bleak outlook on life.
Art imitates life, but life also imitates art. The very fact that we’ve been seeing a rise in dystopian fiction feels like a self fulfilling prophecy right now. I’m not saying that people wrote dystopia and so we are in a world that is rapidly crumbling, but I do think art can change the way people view the world.
How about, instead of glorying in the pain and horror that Winters didn’t really have a place to be writing in, we start to move our art out of dystopia? I realize this is kind of a hard thing to ask of writers, and readers. We read what we want to read, and we write what we want to read, but I honestly think that as our real world gets darker and darker, small things can make a difference.
We don’t have to stay in the dark.
Rosey’s rating: 3/5, though it’s a complicated feeling…
Ready for Six Wakes next week?
robots read 