Woman on the Edge of Time is a sci-fi or “speculative fiction” classic originally published in 1976. Author Marge Piercy has had critical success as a novelist and poet over a span of several decades, and I remember reading some of her poetry in college but it was a recent NY Times interview with Gloria Steinem that brought Piercy and this particular novel back onto my radar. Woman on the Edge of Time is a provocative tale of time travel that addresses poverty, race, sex, politics, […]
Amster-Dayum!
Jessie Burton’s debut novel The Miniaturist packs a lot of plot and history into its 537 pages. The action takes place in Amsterdam over the course of 3 months, from October 1686 into January 1687, and focuses on the oppressive social and religious restrictions that operated within a booming and expanding economy during the Dutch Golden Age. Eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman, whose family name is old and respected but whose fortunes have faltered, has made a fine match with Johannes Brandt, a successful businessman some 20 […]
On “Significance,” Asimov’s Zeroth Law, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Book 3 of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, featuring corpse soldier (ancillary) Breq, sort-of/kind-of/not completely concludes the tale of Breq’s quest for justice. In Book 1, Leckie sets up her Radch Empire and Breq’s background — how she went from being the artificial intelligence of an imperial ship, serving her captain and able to see and know all through her ancillaries, to being an isolated and separate individual with the formidable strength of an ancillary and a powerful desire for revenge. In Book 2, the […]
All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
Purely by coincidence, I read Solar Storms during the week that included Columbus Day — a holiday that made me uncomfortable for some time and now makes me sick. Solar Storms is set amongst Native Americans living in northern Minnesota in 1972-73 as their lands are being overtaken for development. Author Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw writer, uses her gifts for language and character development to tell a spellbinding story of connectivity, brokenness, environmentalism, and spirituality with a focus on four incredibly strong and thoughtful women […]