Review: Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone

Not the last book, so you know. Gladstone’s crazy complex magic system really sings here…although I definitely wouldn’t recommend trying to read this one without the earlier books in the series. Gods, witches, interdimensional spiders (demons? They aren’t called that, but they kind of are).

And the people who hold that power being taken apart, put back together, working out how they fit together and love each other, because this book is, at its heart, about love. Not just romantic love, but all kinds of love. Friendship between powers is powerful…but so is friendship between people.

Evil is treating people as tools or weapons. Good is simply loving them.

So maybe this book isn’t that complex after all, but the worldbuilding reaches depths here that might intimidate some readers. The economy ties to the magic ties to reality, for one thing. Capitalism powering the world or being powered by it.

Maybe this world kind of needs to end, in the sense of become something new, but there’s an argument made many times.

The world may need to change, but what about the people just getting by?

I received a copy of this book for award consideration purposes.

Review: Machine by Elizabeth Bear

I’ve always had a soft spot for White’s Sector General novels. Machine is a direct, obvious, homage, and this universe is a good place for it - huge numbers of aliens, none of them of the funny forehead variety, an interesting political system, and the right physics to make space emergency medicine fun.

Our protagonist, Dr. Brookllyn Jens is an emergency medicine doctor, because in the future, the role of the EMT is taken by full MDs. (This might have something to do with the complexity of treating multiple species and also, people live a bit longer). She has an ex wife she doesn’t talk to, a crew she loves, and a chronic condition that leaves her in constant pain and dependent on an exo to function.

(I’m betting some of the chronic fatigue/chronic pain people I know would like that exo…and we’re making progress in that direction).

When her ambulance, Sally, finds an abandoned generation ship it looks like a complicated rescue…but there’s more to it than that, including a conspiracy at the heart of Core General, the space hospital, and…yeah. There’s even a redemption arc of a very classic kind (almost too classic for me).

I will note, though: Spin gravity doesn’t just cut out because there’s inertia. That’s why even if you had artificial gravity, you would probably still use it for large enough objects (like Babylon 5). It’s more reliable.

But that’s a minor technical side note. All the stuff that matters is…really solid.

I received a copy of this book for award consideration purposes.