OS Book Club Pt II

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

I just realized I don't really have a good idea of what the title refers to which is now going to be bother me until I either forget this series altogether or reread it ten years from now. Then, realize why I never really wanted to reread this series in the first place.

Basically, we have THE END* to Schwab's Darker Shade of Magic series. A series that follows magicians, pirates, thieves, and princes across four Londons that exist on different magical planes. It is a very interesting premise, but one that isn't fully fleshed out or integrated fully into the overarching narrative. It was one of the bright spots from the first book that pulled me in, but something I felt was opportunity lost by the end of the series. Red London is the primary setting and the background pieces of the narrative all revolve around Red London's political seating. The other Londons exist in various states of decay, but none of them are really fleshed out to involve their own politics.

Personally, this was my least favorite of the trilogy. The first book finds it's footing as the promise of a universe unfolds and opens itself up across the pages. The reader follows two fantastically written characters across the first book and throughout the rest of the series picking up more characters to follow in books two and three. While the promise of the universe doesn't pan out fully Schwab can certainly write interesting characters and by the end of book three we're connected to four main characters with their own motivations, flaws, confidences, and self-doubts.

My main criticism is the book felt aimless for most of the time. Dark force comes and invades. Dark force is kept at bay. Dark force chills for 3/4 of the book while the main characters do research and development so they can come back and whip some dark magic ***. I didn't really feel any sense of urgency. The threat isn't realized - at least not in the sense where the danger is worsening or at risk of being out of hand.

Like I said previously, Schwab can write some great characters, but there is much to be desired with regards to the book's universe and it's main narrative. Frustrating is the best word I can describe the series at this point. Frustrating because Schwab comes close to knocking it out of the park. Frustrating because the final book is a slog at times. Frustrating because this series is so widely revered, but I just don't see it.

Spoiler

Only fools are certain.

Love and loss,” he said, “are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be.

Scars are not shameful, not unless you let them be. If you do not wear them, they will wear you.

What are we drinking to?"
"The living," said Rhy.
"The dead," said Alucard and Lila at the same time.
"We're being thorough," added Rhy.

Death comes for us all," said Holland evenly. "I would simply have mine mean something.

Lila smiled at that, one of those smiles that made Kell profoundly nervous. The kind of smile usually followed by a weapon.

A myth without a voice is like a dandelion without a breath of wind.
No way to spread the seeds.

*Ok. Maybe not the end. Schwab has announced a sequel trilogy to follow-up 5-10 years after the conclusion to Darker Shade of Magic.

I've been reading Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I read Haunting of Hill House last year and was pleasantly surprised by how well I enjoyed the book, but more importantly how well Shirley Jackson puts you into the mindset of the protagonist. She does the same ********* work here putting the reader in the shows of Mary Katherine Blackwood. Like Jackson's Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle thrives on the tension of personal dynamics both mentally and from outside forces. It's a slow start, but ravels and reveals layers at a pace designed to drop information periodically, and to build the need to figure out what the hell is going on with the Blackwoods.

I should have this finished in the next couple of days and then jump into some Bradbury (The Halloween Tree) and Dahl (Witches!).

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson's name will invariably pop up when discussing scary stories. While I have no hesitation recommending her work to any reader I feel I should explain what type of scary stories Jackson writes. She is not your typical horror writer. Stephen King she is not. There are no monsters. No corn children. Certainly no shape-shifting, inter-dimensional killer clowns. Jackson's horror springs from the trappings of everyday life - forced isolation, encroaching confines, and mental fatigue and anxiety. The best description I can think of is Gothic drama. Unsettling, no-relief tension, and a sense of foreboding that seems to follow her protagonists around.

Similarly to The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson puts us in the head of a protagonist that is just a little off. From the on-set it's certainly clear that Mary Katherine Blackwood (nicknamed Merricat by her older sister Constance) is at least a little eccentric. The eighteen year old lives in their family's house isolated and locked off from the nearby village. For the past six years she has been living in the house with her older sister Constance, old Uncle Julian, and her cat Jonas. She enjoys burying and posting objects to fences and trees in order to ward off unwelcome guests on the property as well as wishing everyone she dislikes would die so she could walk over their dead bodies.

The book is unsettling from the start and becomes moreso. Six years earlier was a public and traumatic event for the family that resulted in them living isolated from society. Mary Katherine is afforded the opportunity to go to the village for groceries several times a week. These trips are tests of endurance and will-power as the townspeople gossip behind her back. Others are more aggressive. There's a scene early on where a man physically blocks her path out of a diner. As the book progresses other outside forces attempt to come to the house in an effort to change things in some way. Mary attempts to rid the house of these forces with varying degrees of success. While the reader is treated to Mary's perspective and understand her motivations the sense that Mary is not quite right is always there. It creates and drives home Jackson's perfectly crafted atmosphere surrounding the book. One that puts the reader at unease, a tension that rides throughout most of the book, and an overall sense of foreboding that never quite leaves even at the end.

Like Haunting of Hill House a lot of the details I would consider spoilers. The reveal of the event six years prior is a major point in the book though Jackson treats it as another, simple detail to include. No bat of the eye. No raise of the eyebrow. It's told and the book moves on. There's this push and pull of sorts that Jackson uses to control the pacing masterfully. Important details are circled around to build up tension. Each reveal is a slow dance to the center before moving to the next movement.

There's clearly something off with the Blackwoods. While the book feels like there is some mystery to solve by the end there's no real distinct answers. Hints and subtle details are sprinkled throughout to give the reader some kind of idea, but there is nothing concrete here. By the end that unsettled feeling really sinks and lingers. It is a book written simply, but mechanically executed in a wonderful way. It's been on my mind ever since I started it last week and I expect it to linger, and send a chill over me as I remember it's unease and foreboding.

Spoiler

It was as though the people needed the ugliness of the village, and fed on it. The houses and the stores seemed to have been set up in contemptuous haste to provide shelter for the drab and the unpleasant.

In this village the men stayed young and did the gossiping and the women aged with grey evil weariness and stood silently waiting for the men to get up and come home.

I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.

When Jim Donell thought of something to say he said it as often and in as many ways as possible, perhaps because he had very few ideas and had to wring each one dry.

"I can't help it when people are frightened," says Merricat. "I always want to frighten them more.

The thought of a ring around my finger always made me feel tied tight, because rings had no openings to get out of.

I disliked having a fork pointed at me and I disliked the sound of the voice never stopping; I wished he would put food on the fork and put it into his mouth and strangle himself.

Going away this weekend so I haven't started anything yet. Not sure if I want to jump into Halloween reading yet or not. Either way I have two Shea Serrano books tugging at me (The Rap Yearbook, Movies and Other Things). The Rap Yearbook is going to be the easier of the two to do pre/follow-up research. Glancing through Movies (and Other Things) there's quite a few movies I have not seen yet including the three in the very first essay.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

School has killed reading for fun with fire, but outside of textbooks, I've had some kinda interesting stuff in one of my classes. Not stuff I'd ever choose to read on my own, but stuff that I don't regret having spent time reading after the fact, which for school is a feat in itself.

On the Incarnation by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Evidently, in the 2nd and 3rd century, in trying to develop an orthodox interpretation of the Bible, there were warring factions as to who Jesus really was. The Arians believed that Jesus was closer to a man chosen by God to carry out the mission of salvation, while Athanasius and others believed it important to maintain both natures in one being. He basically tells a narrative of how the Son/Word of God, in its role as creator and redeemer of the universe, descends to Earth and takes on a human nature to repay the Father the debt that humans could never repay. A lot of it dragged, but my favorite part is his explanation for the necessity of the crucifixion, basically answering why God would need to go through such a brutal ceremony to get everything done. His answer is that Jesus couldn't choose the punishment, it had to be left to his punishers, and had to be the most unbearable thing they could imagine so that there could be no questioning who he is when he was resurrected. Not a great read, but beat the hell out of Augustine's Confessions.

Spoiler

"The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death ; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father's Son, was such as could not die. For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through His indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human .brethren by the offering of the equivalent."

"Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once : the death of all was consummated in the Lord's body ; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death there had to be, and death for all, so that the due of all might be paid."

"A generous wrestler, virile and strong, does not himself choose his antagonists, lest it should be thought that of some of them he is afraid. Rather, he lets the spectators choose them, and that all the more if these are hostile, so that he may overthrow whomsoever they match against him and thus vindicate his superior strength. Even so was it with Christ. He, the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those others His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced ; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognised as finally annulled. A marvellous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonour and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death's defeat."

"When the sun has come, darkness prevails no longer ; any of it that may be left anywhere is driven away. So also, now that the Divine epiphany of the Word of God has taken place, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are enlightened by His teaching."

Cur Deus Homo by Anselm of Canterbury

Follows in the same vein, the title translates to "Why God Became Man", it's written as a conversation between 2 monks, Anselm and Boso. The main question is why God, who is all-powerful, would need to take on a lesser human form for redemption and couldn't just snap his fingers and make it so. They lived in a time of feudalism, so their image of God is based largely around their image of society as hierarchical, with kings and lords and peasants, and everything stemming from the honor of the king. Humans, as the peasants in God's kingdom, have disgraced His honor by sinning, but a sin against an infinite being incurs an infinite debt, which humans cannot repay. Jesus, having both divine and human nature, offers himself as a gift to the Father, who being God has no use for gifts, and gives it back to Jesus, who also being God has no use for gifts, so he uses it for the salvation of humanity. Maybe it was the conversational layout, but I thought this was much more interesting to read. It's cool to see logic used in theological settings.

Spoiler

"For although they appeal to reason because they do not believe, but we, on the other hand, because we do believe; nevertheless, the thing sought is one and the same."

"For we affirm that the Divine nature is beyond doubt impassible, and that God cannot at all be brought down from his exaltation, nor toil in anything which he wishes to effect. But we say that the Lord Jesus Christ is very God and very man, one person in two natures, and two natures in one person. When, therefore, we speak of God as enduring any humiliation or infirmity, we do not refer to the majesty of that nature, which cannot suffer; but to the feebleness of the human constitution which he assumed."

"Anselm. Therefore to sin is nothing else than not to render to God his due. Boso. What is the debt which we owe to God? Anselm. Every wish of a rational creature should be subject to the will of God."

"Of forgiveness, indeed, I speak briefly, for, as we said above, vengeance in no sense belongs to you, since you are not your own, nor is he who injures you yours or his, but you are both the servants of one Lord, made by him out of nothing. And if you avenge yourself upon your fellow servant, you proudly assume judgment over him when it is the peculiar right of God, the judge of all."

"For if that which to-day you promise of your own accord you will give to-morrow, you do give to-morrow with the same willingness; though it be necessary for you, if possible, to redeem your promise, or make yourself a liar; notwithstanding, the recipient of your favor is as much indebted for your precious gift as if you had not promised it, for you were not obliged to make yourself his debtor before the time of giving it: just so is it when one undertakes, by a vow, a design of holy living."

A lot of the stuff we've read is as boring as you'd imagine, but we did have 2 pretty good essays on the meaning of atonement. One by Dolores Williams focused on how the image of Jesus as a surrogate, taking on the punishment of mankind, played into and reinforced the oppression of Black women as surrogates in various roles of society. And another by J Denny Weaver who took non-violence as Jesus's defining quality. But yeah, a lot of it sucks. I want to make time to at least read The Water Dancer. Also found out the Kindle app isn't in the MS store but is only on Amazon for some reason for PC...anyway, at least now I can read comics. Already got Superman Birthright and Batman: The Court of Owls so I'll be going through those.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I've been in a little bit of a funk lately. I'm going to assume it's some type of acute seasonal depression with the weather getting colder, daylight savings time, etc. Whatever the reason I just haven't had it in me to read much, if anything, really since the middle of Summer.

I completely botched my October/Halloween reading only finishing Roald Dahl's Witches. The book itself was great. It definitely has that Dahl uniqueness to it as a young boy is tasked with eradicating the coven of witches in England with the help of his Norwegian grandmother. It's a fairly simple story, even by Dahl standards, and while it never reaches the level of Dahl's more popular works there are times where it genuinely endearing and heartbreakingly poignant. The relationship between the boy and his Grandmother is fantastic and moving. Considering the context of these moments it speaks to Dahl's talent in finding heart and raw emotion in the most simplistic of places.

I finished that up about two weeks ago. I'd been wanting to start something else, but nothing really caught my attention until this past weekend. I had considered All the Pieces Matter, the companion book to the fantastic TV series The Wire, but wanted to save that after finishing up my latest watch of the series. Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings caught my eye for a second, but diving into a 800-1000 page tome when my motivation is already lacking sounded like a bad idea. I have had Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer since it released in September, but hadn't so much as cracked open the cover until this weekend. To be frank I really didn't know what the book was about until I read the inside jacket Sunday morning. It was enough to intrigue me so I dived in.

I'm about 1/5 of the way through, but I am really enjoying the book so far. The Water Dancer follows a young slave named Hiram as he maneuvers his way through slave-holding Elm Country, Virginia. So far there's a lot to unpack simply from the backdrop of the time-period itself. Virginia is on the decline as the soil has been over-worked and not rebuilt. Families are heading West for fresh, black soil and new starts. Meanwhile, Hiram is moving up in the world - so to speak - as he heads from the fields to the house, Lockless.

I've only been familiar with Coates' articles and memoir-style writings so this side of his writing is new to me. His writing is just as fluid and floral as everything else I've read from him. I look forward to the rest.

Anyway, I'm hoping that leads to a rejuvenation of sorts. Next week, Starsight, the second installment in Brandon Sanderson's Skyward series releases. I loved the first so I'm excited about this. In December, another second installment is coming from Tomi Ademeyi for her Legacy of Orisha series - Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Two books I've been excited about ever since I finished the first ones.

Hopefully that'll set me up for a much more fruitful 2020, because I definitely realized my goal of reading less. I just did not intend to read this much less. I'm starting to map out some books for my Jesus year, but not really sure of anything yet.

[KSUowls]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

How did lord of the rings become such a huge movie trilogy?

I started reading fellowship of the ring. It is about 440 pages long. I'm 120 pages in and they havent even left the shire yet (which was like the first 10 minutes of the movie).

I'm going to continue to read it and hope that it gets better, but so far it's basically a walking simulator.

Sent from my S10 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The first one took me the longest to "get going", so to speak, but once you reach Two Towers or the end of Return of the King its all worth whatever trudging you do at points.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I've been meaning to post some updates, but haven't really found the time to do full write ups yet.

I've finished Coates' The Water Dancer which was a fantastic debut novel. The climax didn't pack the emotional wallop I would have expected, but overall it's a great read. It reaxmines and realigns the perspective of slavery from something abstract to realizing it as a truly terrifying infrastructure that was literally built with blood, bone, and broken families.

After that I went right into and flew through Brandon Sanderson's Starsight - the second novel of his Skyward series. An amazing book. It flipped my expectations of the series upside down and built a fantastic universe around an already interesting set of characters and world. Prior to this my reading had been fledgling since the Summer, but I felt that old spark come back and I'm hoping I can keep the motivation going.

I went to start Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second novel in her Legacy of Orisha series, but quickly realized I have little memory for the last half of the first book. It has been almost 18 months since I read the first, but still I was reading the first ten pages of the new book with a puzzled face. "That happened huh? Well ****." So I decided to reread Children of Blood and Bone first. It shouldn't take long as I remember the writing being somewhat simplistic and linear.

My wife and I will be doing our Jolabokafold on Monday evening. Excited to see what she picks out for me this year. I bought The Design of Ordinary Things and Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. Ordinary Things is the backup in case Medieval Lives comes in late, but they both sounded really interesting to me.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Literary hype feels foreign to me. With visual media there's a long procession of marketing and hyping up beforehand. With books - not so much. There's press. Maybe a book tour. Maybe some talk shows. Hype feels a bit of a misnomer in that universe, but perhaps the word fits for Coates and his debut fictional novel.

Coates isn't exactly an under the radar author. His two memoirs have a fervent following and has provided his fanbase a foundation to attach to. His work on the Black Panther and Captain America comics pulls in some more attention. Benefiting from being selected by Oprah for her book club Coates debut novel still somehow feels like it's flying under the radar. At least mine. Perhaps my isolation from suburban mothers and urban literature aficionados allows me to view Coates in a bubble. One without a string of hype attached to his body of work.

The most striking aspect of Coates writing has been his ability to vividly recreate emotions and feelings on his pages. He puts in the shoes and head of somebody entirely different. His memoirs and articles showed this time and time again resulting in powerful moments and eliciting powerful emotions from the reader. Coates uses his ability tremendously in The Water Dancer.

The book follows the journey of Hiram Walker as he travels from the plantation he's know his whole life to Philadelphia in his quest for freedom and all it entails. At a young age he's tasked with being the valet/assistant to his technical half-brother, Maynard, son and future inheritor of the plantation. One day while driving back his brother Hiram rediscovers a power he had forgotten he once tapped into. Hiram is thrust into a world that is threatening to dramatically change around them as the future of the plantation hangs in doubt. So many other plantations have failed or are in the process to move West as the fertile land around them is overworked and wasted. Hiram must maneuver his way towards freedom if he ever wants a chance at controlling his own destiny.

Coates does a fantastic job of putting us in Hiram's head. From his perspective we experience the twisted familial strings of the Lockless plantation. The family is at the very heart of this book and is full of heartbreaking imagery. From families being split apart by violence and force to to the twisted sense of familial obligation to their masters there is no aspect of the family unit left untarnished. Children and spouses alike are stripped from their loved one arms as the plantation begins to falters and slaves are sent further South - basically cementing their eventual doom at the hands of slavery. As a result the family is extended to include all those suffering under the yolk. At times this sentiment is heartwarming, but its a depressing warmth - one that comes from the realization that these people are trying to survive as best as they can.

The book begins wonderfully. Full of Coates' rich style and emotional weight. Coates falters somewhat as the pacing feels somewhat off at times in the middle. For better or worse there's also some points throughout where Coates' becomes a little wordy opining a little too long on a single point. Still, these moments are few and worth the push through. My biggest fault on the book is my surprisingly lack of emotional climax. Having read Coates' previous work there have been moments where I'm literally weeping as I'm reading. Here, I felt like the climax was a bit too on the nose and obvious. The emotional weight did not really connect with me at the end. Considering how emotional the narrative is throughout I felt like the ending should have been more powerful and foundation shaking than it was. Then again I was expecting it to happen so that took some wind out of the sails I'm sure.

While the book never fully realized itself as an instant classic it's a story that I feel will never really tire because of it's focus on family, freedom, and the ties that bind us down. It's not necessarily a harsh look at slavery and while it focuses on the destruction of families, bodies, and spirit it's not overly gross in a way that prevents the reader from pushing on. Honestly, this perspective felt fresh and eye-opening as Coates doesn't necessarily rely on the emotional weight of slavery itself. Coates establishes his own weight with the focus on family and it's constant tearing down. Imaging the scenes from the book is nearly brain-deflating, but then to try and wrap your head around the actual numbers and it is damn near soul-shattering.

Spoiler

I can now say that slavery murdered him, that slavery made a child of him, and now, dropped into a world where slavery held no sway, Maynard was dead the minute he touched water.

Even when she swung her broom at us, I sensed the depth of that loss, her pain, a rage that she, unlike the rest of us, refused to secret away, and I found that rage to be true and correct. She was not the meanest woman at Lockless, but the most honest.

My father, like all the masters, built an entire apparatus to disguise this weakness, to hide how prostrate they truly were.

The jail was a daily reminder that no matter their freedoms, these coloreds of Starfall existed in the shadow of an awesome power, which, at a whim, could clap them back into chains.

A man is blooming inside me, Georgie, and I cannot shackle him. He know too much. He seen too much. He has got to get out, this man, or he cannot live. I swear I fear what is coming. I fear my own hands.

My power was always memory, not judgement.

There was no peace in slavery, for every day under the rule of another is a day of war.

To fully accept his betrayal was to accept the fullness of what had been done to us, how thoroughly they had taken us in, so that even our own heroes, our own myths, were but tools to further maintain the Task.

If you can't stop them from breaking us up, as they do, if you can't pus us back together, then your freedom is thin and your church and your city hold nothing for me.

We are all divided against ourselves.

This is war. Soldiers fight in war for all kinds of reasons, but they die because they cannot bear t o live in the world as it is.

Got to love who love you.

But the fall was always ordained, because slavery made men wasteful and profligate in sloth.

All of nature seemed in on it, so that when I tasted the rum of her mouth, it was the sugar of life.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

For Thanksgiving 2018 Brandon Sanderson gifted his fans the gift of a new young adult series about Spensa, an aspiring space pilot living on a human colony being policed by aliens. I spent part of my November and all of Thanksgiving reading and falling in love with Skyward. I still have fairly vivid memories of the parade on TV and the book in my hand. It was with great anticipation that I awaited the second book, which was thankfully announced soon after Skyward's release and would be released by the end of 2019.

I spent about a week or so reading the new book before Christmas and craved it nearly the same way I did the first. Continuing to follow Spensa and M-Bot, her AI controlled jet, Sanderson takes us on an adventure that expands and builds the universe Sanderson introduced in Skyward. After the events of the previous book, humans have pushed their alien wardens further into space allowing the humans to retake defensive measures and stations on their colony planet. In hopes of providing the humans with the secret to Faster Than Light travel and thus escaping their oppressive jailers Spensa is sent on a mission to Starsight to try and gather the information. While stationed there, she begins to unravel a plot that will reverberate throughout the galaxy and change the course of Starsight forever.

Starsight is a fantastic read. While the book does a little bait and switch in the beginning, I loved the direction Sanderson went with the book. On the whole almost all of the characters and the revolving narrative circle around the theme of tactfully disobeying orders and chain of command. It is an interesting theme to explore as we are introduced to a non-aggressive society that controls FTL travel. This gives them the power to essentially rule as the big dog - exchanging their FTL technology for alliances and trade. Those not willing to cooperate are left to their own devices which typically means being left behind as a backwater planet without the benefit of trade or technology.

Of course there's a lot more to the story and more going on, but at the heart Sanderson has a wonderful set of characters that feel pressured, but that burden is not each character's only driving force. A lot of young adult authors create flat, cardboard characters that run on two or three different emotions. Sanderson gives us characters that are rich and actually develops them in organic and interesting ways. He introduces lore and political details without confusing the reader choosing instead to basically piece together his world rather than do a large exposition dump. This creates an universe that feels alive and changing.

With this as the foundation I greatly enjoyed reading the book and look forward to more Sanderson in 2020.

Spoiler

"The entire galaxy will be safer once every race makes use of the Superiority's hyperdrive ships. This is the the express implication of our offer: if you provide us with pilots, we will grant you citizenship - and the right to passage on our safe FTL ships. You don't get the technology itself; we must keep it secure. But your merchants, tourists, and officials can use our ships, just like everyone else int he Superiority."

"It's how they control their empire," I said, "by deciding who gets to move where, and who gets to trade. I suspect that if a species falls out of favor, their taxes for travel suddenly go up - or they suddenly find that transports are visiting their world far less often."

I had stumbled into something important here among them. Scud. Politics made my brain hurt. Couldn't I just be shooting things instead?

"Look back through the archives, and you'll find that the humans are supposedly always close to escaping. Indeed, flare-ups in their resistance always seem to coincide - somehow - with times when the Department of Protective Services needs to pass some important funding bill."

"This is the Kitsen Unity Ship Swims Against the Current in a Stream Reflecting the Sun," Hesho's voice said. "Recently named. All systems operational. This ship even has a very nice captain's chair."

Human domination altered the future of your planet.

"It is just a term, not an actual measure of their relative intelligence," Hesho said. "From what I've been able to gather, it means their species has created a peaceful society, where crime is reduced to near nonexistence."

"The Superiority gave my parents good lives - it gives millions of beings good lives. By controlling hyperdrives, we prevent so much suffering. There haven't been any major conflicts since the human wars. If a species gets rowdy or dangerous, we can just leave them to themselves. It's not so bad. We don't owe them our technology, particularly if they're not going to be peaceful."

"Something new is needed. Something to keep everyone in line, and prevent wars."

"I don't know what any of this means," I said to Cuna. "But I'm not interested in your political games."
"Unfortunately, Alanik, the game takes no care for your interest. It plays you either way."

"That's what war is," Cobb told me. "A bunch of sorry, desperate fools on both sides, just trying to stay alive. That's the part that those stories you love leave out, isn't it? It's always more convenient when you can fight a dragon. Something you don't have to worry you'll start caring about."

"Luck is for those who cannot smell their path forward," Vapor said. "But...perhaps today that is us. So good luck to you too."

In the meantime I've read two books: a reread of Children of Blood and Bone and then the second book which just released titled Children of Virtue and Vengeance. I'm currently reading the companion book to The Wire titled All The Pieces Matter.

I also ordered Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. That might be next, but hopefully by next time I'll have some kind of Jesus Year list for my 2020 reading goal.

[KSUowls]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm a fan of Sanderson. He is one of the few authors that i have found who can do a female protagonist justice.

I need to check these books out.

Sent from my S10 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm a fan of Sanderson. He is one of the few authors that i have found who can do a female protagonist justice.

I need to check these books out.

Sent from my S10 using Operation Sports mobile app

My first encounter with him was his Mistborn series and it's been a pleasure reading his stuff ever since.

I actually bought my brother the Mistborn hardcover trilogy set and my sister-in-law the first book. I've been hankering for those amazing leatherbound editions for awhile, but man they are pricey.

[Chip Douglass]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Just read Barton Gellman's book Angler on Dick Cheney's vice presidency. Probably one of the best books I've ever read on the raw exercise of power by one man.

Came away thinking that Cheney was even more influential in the Bush administration than even I already thought. The chapter detailing Cheney's role in diverting water from a river basin in southern Oregon to help struggling farmers, causing a mass die-off of a certain breed of salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act, was just mind-boggling.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Around Christmas I reread Children of Blood and Bone and started off the New Year with Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Considering the hype of the first book the second book's release has been silent as far as I can tell. Whether either treatment is warranted doesn't really affect the quality of the books. This is a series that leans heavily on the young side of the young-adult demographic. The rhythm of the pacing is measured and easy to pick up on largely walking a two steps forward, one step back routine. Likewise, there's much hand-holding regarding the in-between-the-lines. There's points in the narrative where a character will literally rise both physically and emotionally, mentally. A harder hit on the nose than most series of its peers.

Still, while in the world it's easy to become engaged and entangled in the drama of Orisha. Dramas caused by low self-esteem, insecure, emotionally driven, emotionally unstable children that are tasked with the burden of suddenly being in control and in charge. The political landscape of a kingdom that purged magic and it's sacred users a generation ago as the royalty allow the few which remain to live only as dogs and slaves. A frightful journey to bring magic back and the responsibility of doing so.

The first book becomes a bit too teen romance in parts as the good girl and bad guy inevitably fall for one another. Adeyemi is efficient in her world building and does enough to pique the interest and hook you in parts, but the canvas felt empty to me in large parts. Thankfully, the second book does a much better job of expanding the world to truly feel like a world beyond the main characters.

Spoiler

The guard runs his eyes up and down my frame, a warning of what he can take.

They built this world for you, built it to love you. They never cursed at you in the streets, never broke down the doors of your home. They didn't drag your mother by her neck and hang her for the whole world to see.

Our only salvation is power.

In between then and now the wife and I watched Netflix's The Witcher so that quickly prompted me to reread The Last Wish. I think I had picked it up and read it between the release of The Witcher 2 and 3 video games - so awhile. For being a self-proclaimed man of few words Geralt is a talkative, witty, cleverly arrogant bastard. Normally the author doesn't poke fun at his main character, but Geralt has moments of being humbled. Fortunately, he also has his own share of humbling others both with his charming, witty vernacular and, as the situation may dictate, his sword.

Basically weaving a series of short stories within a short story itself The Last Wish is a prime introduction to the witcher. Each short story has a morale and they all build to a sense of destiny and the circle of time. Typically fantasy doesn't bother to dive into the gutters of humanity - offering different creatures and monsters for stand-ins. Geralt skewers this thought with each story featuring humans and monsters often existing in some grey area. Fairy-tales aren't exactly flipped upside down here, but there's a harsh reality applied to them and then follow the logical results.

Spoiler

The beer, when it arrived, was cold and frothy.

All decent predictions rhyme.

People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
A book podcast I listen to was all over recommending this and it'd been a while since I had some time to get into something so I figured I'd try it out.

The main premise is Emira, a 25 year old Black babysitter for a 3 year old from a rich White family, gets into an incident at a grocery store with a security guard and everything goes from there. There's no lasting consequences, they just call the kid's dad to clear everything up, but a bystander records it and runs into her later who turns out to have a history with the kid's mother. The book switches back and forth between the perspectives of Emira and the mother who's trying to befriend and help her. It's super easy to read, I definitely enjoyed it, pretty funny. There's a flashback in the second to last chapter that re-contextualizes all of the decisions of the mother, and not in a good way to me, definitely reads better without it. It turns her into a more one dimensional character than she probably needed to be, but didn't ruin the whole thing.

It's not really a book to take quotes from, but what hit me was the relationship between Emira and the kid. It's probably mostly because we're so close in age, but reading how hard of a time she was having finding what she wanted out of life really hit home with me. It's hard trying to figure **** out, and then she finds this kid, who she ends up loving like a sister and kinda builds her life around her. It reminded me a lot of Lester telling McNulty "the job will not save you" or my guy Orrin Bach on Billions telling Connerty "your job is not your identity" or when he was getting too into the cause "you know you just work here right?" Not to make leaving a babysitting job into an existential crisis, but it just felt like a really good analogy for the idea that things are constantly changing and you have to have a good gauge on the things that make you you and be careful with what you let dominate your time.

Starting the Sellout by Paul Beatty, been wanting to read this one for a few years. Want to get into Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter before the end of the month.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - As told to Alex Haley

I'm sure most, if not all, of what I'm about to say about this phenomenal book has been said by now. Most of it, again, has probably been said so much since 1965 that it may sound trite. In my little vacuum of the world I'm not sure if that is true, however, since I had very little knowledge about Malcolm prior to reading his book. Sure, I knew of Malcolm. Knew that he existed. Knew that he had a brand of fire (and violence) attached to his image. Knew that he was shot and killed.

I'm not even sure where this prior knowledge came from. I don't remember sitting in my social studies or history classes and discussing Malcolm is or his words. It certainly wasn't from any media. Heck, we're within a week of the 55th Anniversary of his execution and there's essentially no press. If not for the timely release of a six part Netflix series titled "Who Killed Malcolm X" I doubt his assassination would even be anywhere near the news media as the Manhattan District Attorney's office has apparently re-opened the case and to review “new information.” Read through the right books, however, and you catch glimpses of Malcolm and the esteemed reverence his followers still pay the man. In Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give a picture of Malcolm X hangs on the kitchen wall right next to (black) Jesus. Read Alex Haley's wonderful transcription of Malcolm's life and you'll know Malcolm.

Alex Haley does a masterful job of putting us firmly in the head of Malcolm X. The prose is measured, eloquent, and commanded masterfully by a writer who channels X's voice and instills each page with it. By the end you feel like you've been in the room with this giant of a man. A man who was always learning and applying new knowledge to old and new problems. His pursuit of knowledge and truth combined with his fascination with linguistics gave us a man who commanded attention and whipped the entrenched superiority with nothing more than words. Aggressive no doubt, but words nonetheless. He recognized life is full of changes and embraced it fully. Changes which took him as low as the slums of Harlem and prison to the highs of making his pilgrimage to Mecca. Changes that happened so quickly that he was addressing and meeting with Afro-political leaders from around the world during his last year on Earth. It is absolutely incredible how much Malcolm jam packed into nearly forty years of living and it is absolutely maddening feeling robbed of yet another great man whom was executed well before his prime.

There are the life stories of several men in this book. The fact Malcolm X not only did as much as he did, but changed as much as he did in forty years of life is incredible. There is a fascination with each and every page as Malcolm goes through his life's history occasionally offering present day analysis and insight. Running throughout is the prophetic paranoia of his life ending violently. Partly due to his present day situation, but also because it is the reality of the world he was born into. The reality of black men dying violently every day. So much so it's common place and expected. By the end Malcolm admits he never expected to live as long as he did and with the death threats coming in he treats everything like borrowed time. Reading the book it isn't so much a change of thinking as a continued knowledge of finite time. Even as a young person he knew how limited time was. His watch kept him mindful of time and appointments. If he wasn't busy with someone he was reading or learning about something. He cherished intellect and relished in whipping somebody with nothing more than words.

For all of the fire, aggression, and violence that has been and is assigned to Malcolm it's not an image crafted by the book. Passionate and aggressive. Certainly and in large quantities. Notwithstanding the extreme Nation of Islam stories (truly fascinating if not clinically insane) I never got the sense Malcolm was for hatred. For equal prejudice, yes. For responsibility and accountability, yes. The need to defend these values by any means necessary - most notably, yes. Yet, Malcolm was measured. He knew what and how he was saying things would garner him attention - he learned that early on in life. He preached from his own perspective with truth and an uncommonly astounding way to say that truth concisely and with maximum effect.

Throughout the book I ran through many emotions while reading. Firstly, reading about how much and how often Malcolm changed himself was astounding. This was a man who had three different names throughout his life. It was completely mesmerizing reading his tales about the jazz greats and his relationship with Cassius Clay. Not to mention his completely offhanded name dropping of Maya Angelou. Truly prophetic. His pursuit of gaining knowledge, continuing to learn, and applying the new knowledge to his life is inspirational. His time management is certainly commendable and militant and made me quickly realize how much time I myself am wasting. Haley offers truly fascinating insight into Malcolm’s mind and it’s power. While dictating to Haley Malcolm would write random thoughts and comments on any scrap paper around him (often planted there by Haley for this very purpose) and they often were completely different topics than what he was speaking on. By the end there was impending doom seated in my stomach as Malcolm’s words and thoughts ended and Alex Haley picked up for the last days and weeks of Malcolm’s life in the epilogue. Sadness and frustration certainly. We were all robbed of a great man and leader who hadn’t even begun to reach his prime or potential. It’s somewhat fitting that the one feeling that stands tallest at the end of this book is one of anger. Fire branded anger at everything Malcolm was fighting against. The very system that shaped him in the first place. Anger at the loss of life. Anger at the miniscule amount of progress since Malcolm’s execution. Anger at the very same old song and dance that Malcolm traced back 400 years.

Thankfully, Malcolm used that anger as his fuel rather than fester in it. It urged him to seek and speak the truth. It guided him as he realigned his faith and guided him further when he started connecting with African leaders to facilitate a worldwide brotherhood. Perhaps most importantly the book truly gives you Malcolm’s perspective. For many of my peers it’s a perspective we are never familiar with although Malcolm’s perspective was far from uncommon. Still, the man was uncommon. Shaped by common experiences and molded into a truly remarkable mind. Whenever I think of him and this book nothing but pure admiration and fascination fills my mind. And then the anger starts to trickle in and I know that’s his legacy, too.

Spoiler

It has always been my belief that I, too, will die by violence. I have done all that I can to be prepared.

So early in life, I had learned that if you want something you had better make some noise.

Knowing that my mother in there was a statistic that didn't have to be, that existed because of a society's failure, hypocrisy, greed, and lack of mercy and compassion. Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.

All praise is due to Allah that I went to Boston when I did. If I hadn't, I'd probably still be a brainwashed black Christian.

But things never are fully right again with anyone you have seen trying to kill you.

But people are always speculating - why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us in as ingredient.

Any person who claims to have deep feeling for other human being should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars - caged. I am not saying there shouldn't be prisons, but there shouldn't be bars. Behind bars, a man never reforms. He will never forget. He never will get completely over the memory of the bars.

They asked me if I knew what "conscientious objector" meant. I told them that when the white man asked me to go off somewhere and fight and maybe die to preserve the way the white man treated the black man in America, then, my conscience made me object.

In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.

I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land - every color, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike - all snored in the same language.

It takes no one to stir up the sociological dynamite that stems from the unemployment, bad housing, and inferior education already in the ghettoes. This explosively criminal condition has existed for so long, it needs no fuse; it fuses itself; it spontaneously combusts from within itself.

Well, if this is so - if the so-called "Christianity" now being practiced in America displays the best that world Christianity has left to offer - no one in his right mind should need any much greater proof that very close at hand is the end of of Christianity.

To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to it that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred percent dedication that I have to whatever I believe in - these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age.