Holiday reading

[dolorosa_12]

I didn't read quite as much as I expected on my most recent Baltic holiday, given that large stretches of it involved long train journeys, or international flights — I found myself spending much of this time just looking out the window, marvelling at the lakes and clouds below, or the apple trees flying by. But I did read some books at least, and they were as follows:

The Love Hypothesis (Ali Hazelwood), read on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, and the train from Tallinn to Tartu. This is a romance novel that originated as a piece of Reylo fanfic, and in spite of the AU setting (contemporary academia), once you know the book's origins, the serial numbers are not filed off so much as half-heartedly obscured. It was fun enough for travel reading, but the premise was ludicrous (would any Ivy League university pay that much attention to its academics' love lives that a fake dating scenario would be enough to convince them that their star professor wasn't planning to jump ship for another univeristy?), although I felt its depiction of academia was relatively true to life, if exaggerated for dramatic effect.

He Who Drowned the World (Shelley Parker-Chan), read on the train from Tartu to Riga, and Riga to Vilnius. The second half of the epic fantasy Radiant Emperor duology, inspired by Chinese history, and as staggeringly brilliant as the first half. This is a story about power, and about people who were made vulnerable and afraid, and whose reaction to that powerlessness, fear and vulnerability is to set about creating a situation in which they will never feel such things again, even if they have to destroy the world and make a bonfire of their every relationship to do so — which is one of my very, very, very favourite arcs and plotlines. It also features one of my favourite types of characters in Ma (a woman whose manner of exercising power is overlooked and unnoticed), and in general is just an incredibly accomplished debut work of fiction. My only small quibble is that I feel it didn't quite stick the landing, and certain aspects of the ending felt too easy and unnearned — but the journey to get to that point was so flawlessly executed that I don't really mind.

The Friend Zone Experiment (Zen Cho), read on the plane from Vilnius to Stansted, and the train back home. This is marketed as a romance novel, but feels more accurately described as contemporary women's fiction. The best way I can sum it up is Crazy Rich Asians meets Persuasion: the story of a thirtysomething couple who never quite managed to make their relationship work when they first met as university students in their twenties, against the backdrop of the financial and political corruption of southeast Asia's super rich, and their own respective family dramas. It's written with deep affection for the city of London, and the southeast Asian (specifically Malaysian, although there are also characters from Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam) diaspora community who have made it their second home, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In a Garden Burning Gold (Rory Power), read this weekend, but since it's a long weekend in the UK I'm counting it as 'holiday reading.' This is the first in a fantasy series inspired by the history and mythology of various countries around the Mediterranean. At its heart is a dysfunctional family of characters with godlike powers and immortality who maintain their position through a mixture of coercion, bargaining, and profoundly unequal exchange (of the 'you give us one of your citizens to marry our daughter, you'll get bountiful harvest in return, and at the end of a season, she'll kill her spouse as a sacrifice' type). This state of affairs has continued unchangingly for close to a century, but inevitably, rebellion is simmering beneath the surface, and by the end of the book, all is in flux, with relationships ruptured and a new world in the making. Certain parts of the book are done very well: the sense of place, the characters' specific supernatural abilities, the experience of being adult children of an abusive parent, while other areas are perhaps weaker, but I enjoyed it a lot, and will certainly look out for the sequels.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Oh! I didn't know Zen Cho had something new out. Have to hunt that down.

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you like it!

[tetralogy]

This is a story about power, and about people who were made vulnerable and afraid, and whose reaction to that powerlessness, fear and vulnerability is to set about creating a situation in which they will never feel such things again, even if they have to destroy the world and make a bonfire of their every relationship to do so

This sentence single-handedly made me immediately add this series to my TBR list.

[dolorosa_12]

It's one of my favourite character arcs, and I so love to see it being portrayed competently. I highly, highly recommend Parker-Chan's duology!

[lilysea]

The Friend Zone Experiment (Zen Cho)

I liked this!

Not as much as I have liked some of her other novels/short story collections

but enough that I was very glad that it existed, and that I read it

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I think I have other favourites by Zen Cho as well (Spirits Abroad remains the best, in my opinion), but this was definitely worth reading.

[nerakrose]

when I read The Love Hypothesis I kept messaging my friend (who told me to read it) "I can't believe I'm reading Reylo fic and ENJOYING it". I really did enjoy the book, but good lord it does a poor job of hiding the origin. it even kept the 'Kylo Ren has an eight pack' joke in.

I didn't realise The Friend Zone Experiment had come out already! I need to hunt this down, I generally enjoy her writing and I've been looking forwards to this.

I've had Shelley-Parker Chan on my TBR for a while but haven't got round yet, so will bump this up my list too.

[dolorosa_12]

I was — like you — pleasantly surprised by The Love Hypothesis. If nothing else, Reylo fans do seem to have a lot of fun with whatever they're writing — including the profic versions.

The Friend Zone Experiment came out a couple of weeks ago, midway through my trip, so I preordered it and it popped up on my Kindle at exactly the point I wanted to read it.

The Radiant Emperor duology is really, really good (but very grimdark) — one of the few recent pieces of acclaimed SFF that definitely lives up to the hype.

[wearing_tearing]

Glad you enjoyed most of your reads! :D

[dolorosa_12]

Thanks! I definitely did!

[scintilla10]

Sounds like some excellent holiday reading! I have my copy of The Friend Zone Experiment, and I'm looking forward to reading it. :D

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you enjoy it!

[svgurl]

The Friend Zone Experiment sounds interesting! I'm definitely going to have to check that one out. :D

[dolorosa_12]

It's great! Not my favourite book by Zen Cho, but a lot of fun!

[lokifan]

So excited for He Who Drowned the World! I loved the first one. And yeah Ma is so great.

The Rory Power sounds intriguing!

[dolorosa_12]

It's rare these days that a wildly acclaimed SFF series lives up to the hype in my experience, but that duology has definitely earned all the hype it's received.

I hope you like the Rory Power book, if you give it a try.

[chestnut_pod]

Have they never heard of the SPOUSAL HIRE? Now *that* would be an academic fake-dating book I could get behind.

(I was recently at a big conference, and went to a panel for "how to get an academic job" -- out of six, four were spousal hires.)

The Friend Zone Experiment was already on my holds list, because I love Zen Cho's books, but hearing that it has a bit of a Persuasion/second-chance thing going makes me all the more excited!

[dolorosa_12]

I was recently at a big conference, and went to a panel for "how to get an academic job" -- out of six, four were spousal hires.

Wow, that is demoralising — and also a very different world to my experience of academia in Europe, where I don't think spousal hire is really a thing. It's much more common (at least in my social circles of medievalists) for academic couples to end up in long-distance relationships with e.g. each half of the spouse based at institutions on opposite ends of Britain, or, like one in Germany and the other one in Sweden or something.

But from the sound of things, it would make a more plausible fake dating scenario for a romance novel set in academia in the US, that's for sure!

I think you will like The Friend Zone Experiment, particularly if you like all of Zen Cho's books. The Persuasion element was one of my favourite things about it.