Jekyll2023-12-30T20:45:22+00:00http://hillarychoyt.com/feed.xmlWhat I've been up to Hillary C Hoyt2023-12-30T20:14:30+00:002023-12-30T20:14:30+00:00http://hillarychoyt.com/2023/12/30/the-succession-duology-review<p>This is a review of Scott Westerfeld’s sci-fi duology <a href="https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/succession-series/">Succession</a>, consisting of <em>The Risen Empire</em> and <em>The Killing of Worlds</em>.</p> <p>I’ve read a few of Westerfeld’s YA books (the Uglies series and Midnighters series), and was surpised to see that he’d also written adult hard sci-fi. I think he did equally well in creating a world and investigating a lot of issues relevent to the times.</p> <h2 id="summary">Summary</h2> <p>There’s a conflict in the universe between an empire of the living and the risen dead who worship their Undying Emperor, and different empire who is extremely technology focused. The Undying Emperor knows how to raise the dead, and first did so because his little sister was dying of an unspecified illness. The book opens with the little sister (who is eternally a 12 year old child, the age that she died and was resurrected at) being trapped on a planet that the Rix, the technology focused empire, is trying to turn into a giant planet-wide AI who they worship as gods. Our main character is Laurent, the captain of the Lynx, a military ship who was sent to safely extract her from this hostage situation. Their operation is mostly successful, until it is sabotaged by secret agents of the government, who are trying to protect a “secret”. The Rix succeed in turning all the technology on the planet into an AI.</p> <p>Laurent takes the fall for the failure and is supposed to commit ritual suicide, but he receives a note from his lover, a Senator who is serving on the main planet, not to do it. This results in a lot of tension, and the whole ship is then sent on a suicide mission to prevent the AI from escaping the planet, or even allowing it to broadcast to any Six ships. Nara, the Senator love interest, is against raising the dead and is a moral pacifist but still ends up on the War Council representing her faction. She has to make decisions that get people killed and reveals the horrific lengths (as in, nuclear destruction) the Emperor is willing to go to to not allow the Rix to contact the planet-wide AI, since the AI has learned the secret about the Emperor that he doesn’t want anyone to know. The Lynx eventually goes to extreme measures to defeat the Rix ship, Laurent and first mate Hobbes deal with a coup who are upset that Captain Laurent didn’t commit ritual suicide and got the rest of them stuck with the consequences, and Nara is able to politically maneuver into revealing the secret in order to save her own skin and also her lover’s.</p> <h2 id="the-secret">The Secret</h2> <p>The secret is that the supposed immortality bestowed by being Raised (from the dead) is not absolute, and the Childlike Empress was rapidly deteriorating. She was killed by government agents to prevent this secret from getting out. The AI had to be destroyed because it learned this secret, and actually went through a lot of effort to tell people about it. There are a lot of world building details that support and foreshadow it, like the Risen doing a lot of pilgrimages (space travel warps time, so traveling people experience a stretched linear amount of time), and the Risen being segregated into low technology communities where they aren’t to be bothered. I realized what the secret was about halfway through the first book, although it wasn’t revealed until the end of the second book. I’m not sure if this is just due to a lot of exposure to this kind of story or genre that an early 2000s audience wouldn’t have had (my thoughts on finishing the duology was that it was like a cross between Gideon the Ninth, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and the Star Wars prequel trilogy), but it felt like it was very dragged out and obfuscated, despite several characters knowing the secret and talking around it in the second book.</p> <h2 id="extending-sci-fi-concepts-to-interesting-implications">Extending Sci-Fi Concepts to Interesting Implications</h2> <p>The technical aspects of the sci-fi drag, although there are interesting points to it. There is a lot of detail that goes into the remote controlled done space battles, which is pretty boring due to the details sounding plausible but being recognizably made up. I do like the way that a lot of implications of highly integrated technology and space travel are explored. Huge amounts of information are taken in and processed by people’s brains, and the ability to interact with so many layers is specifically due to induced synesthesia. This is a super cool concept, and there’s also a character where that process to induce synesthesia went wrong, and created an incredibly debilitating sense of empathy in Nara, rather than allowing her to interact with huge levels of information.</p> <p>There’s also a big emphasis placed on relative vs absolute time, since there are so many planets that time doesn’t necessarily pass the same on all of them, and space travel means that everyone has their own relative timeline of existence and aging. Some people deal with this using cryo-sleep, but many people just give up on being able to see people again b based on the fact that their families will have aged and died on their home planets while only a few years might pass in space.</p> <p>Another interesting thing is technology itself. There are planet-wide AIs that are worshipped by the Rix, who themselves are human-cyborgs that are extremely enhanced by technology. There are also AIs of varying awareness that some members of the empire use, and interact with in extremely different ways. Nara acquires a house built and run by an AI that is extremely self-aware, and interacts with it with this in mind. The house is capable of predicting her needs, expanding, and makes things beautiful and functional.</p> <h2 id="background-societies">Background Societies</h2> <p>There are a lot of different political stances described, concerning space travel, body modification, raising the dead/immortality, and genetic diversity (very interesting, since the book came out in 2003-ish). Factions tend to be one per planet, which makes sense considering most planets aren’t super densely populated, and it would be distracting to keep track of otherwise. It was really good at fleshing out the society, and explaining different political factions and how they feel about each of the four things above, and who they are willing to agree with based on similar opinions. This was more relevant for Nara trying to gain support, but people from different backgrounds are also on the Lynx and interact with each other in varying ways.</p> <h2 id="pov-switching">POV Switching</h2> <p>There is a lot of point of view switching. This was pretty annoying early in the first book, because it made it confusing to understand what was going on or who the main characters were, but it grew on me throughout the two books. It was really good for introducing minor characters and emphasizing their skills, which would be important later. It was also really good for fleshing out some of the political views/planet backgrounds, since each person could reminisce a little bit about their home, and how their views and values influenced their thoughts of other people that they were dealing with. It is also what allowed for Laurent, Nara, and Rani, who was on the planet that the Rix turned into an AI and became an accomplice of the Rix, to be seen from outside perspectives.</p> <h2 id="romantic-subplots">Romantic Subplots</h2> <p>There were a number of romantic subplots going on. The most important one was between Laurent and Nara, considering it was what drove most of the actions in the plot- them trying to keep each other alive and well to see each other again. Their romance is revealed in a few interludes, and consists entirely of their meeting at political party, and then one multi-day date at Nara’s AI house where they share all of their trauma, and then are separated for ten absolute years based on Laurent’s military assignment. This is the basis on which both of them betray their government. It could have been a lot stronger, but it did well enough to explain their motivations.</p> <p>Another romantic subplot was between Rani and the Rix agent that kidnapped and impersonated her, and also helped treat her mental health and empowered her to learn lots of new things. I actually really liked their relationship, although the timeline is really unclear. It was developing really well and then suddenly turned into the super fast romance that the author seems to favor (based on Laurent and Nara). The whole two books takes place over a few weeks.</p> <p>The last romantic subplot is that Hobbes, the first mate, is crushing super hard on the Captain and has a moment where she thinks he likes her back and is then disappointed (Laurent never realizes that she liked him). She is supercompetent otherwise, both at her job and at dealing with the coup, and I really liked her as a character. She is able to accept and get over it quickly enough. Unfortunately, Hobbes comes from a planet where people often do body modification and is extremely beautiful, which plenty of people make comments about and assume that she isn’t smart or competent and only got her position for sleeping with people. This is the only reason that I hate the romantic subplot. She otherwise has a number of reasons for the liking the Captain, but I’m just over the whole “beautiful woman not taken seriously and assumed sleeping with people for rank actually does want to sleep with her superior officer”.</p> <h2 id="the-childlike-empress">The Childlike Empress</h2> <p>The last point I want to go into is the whole character of the Childlike Empress, who’s name is Anastasia. As I said before, she’s an eternal 12 year old girl, little sister of the Emperor (who looks to be in his 30s, according to Nara). She’s known as “the Reason”, since she is the reason that the Emperor came up with necromancy. She is literally most known for her death being a motivation for a male character, and is fridged almost immediately towards the beginning of the book, therefore kicking off the plot for out main male character. She has very little characterization and could be replaced with a lamp, considering she takes no action and doesn’t interact meaningfully with any character. She is like a mascot, to be protected and coddled and also obeyed. She does seem to be bit tired and accepting of the possibility of her death, but there is otherwise very little investigation into what it would be like to be trapped developmentally as a child for thousands of years, despite accumulating a lot of knowledge, and not being taken seriously because she looks like a child. She could have been an interesting character, both in herself and her views, as well as being the only person actually capable of standing up to the Emperor.</p> <h2 id="conclusions">Conclusions</h2> <p>In conclusion, both books should have been one book. The first really ended right on a cliffhanger, with no climax or anything, and the books were later published as one edition. This is acknowledged by the author, since they were one manuscript that had to be split for publshing reasons at the time. There was a lot of interesting ideas, and it felt very different from a lot of the current sci-fi that I’ve been reading. I appreciate just how much complexity, world building, and background information that Westerfeld was able to fit into the story. My main criticisms were the pacing of the romantic subplots and how stretched out her reveal of the secret was. It was really spelled out for the first time when Nara revealed it to the Senate and the livestream, but it could have been interesting to see some of the characters who knew ruminating on it before that happened.</p> <p>The last question I have after finishing is actually about the planet-wide AI (this one calls itself Alexander)- what do they do? What could it possibly want? What role does it actually play in society? It’s a really interesting concept that maybe someone else has written a story about. I thought it could be like the House on a planet-wide scale, making things happen to its own satisfaction, but this AI has left it’s home planet, and has the whole universe as its sandbox.</p>Hillary C Hoyt

This is a review of Scott Westerfeld’s sci-fi duology Succession, consisting of The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds.

2023-12-28T05:00:00+00:002023-12-28T05:00:00+00:00http://hillarychoyt.com/2023/12/28/2023-books<p>Here are all the books I read in 2023!</p> <ol> <li>Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in the Jazz Age of New York by Deborah Blum</li> <li>Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>Packing for Mars by Mary Roach</li> <li>City of Miracles of Robert Jackson Bennett</li> <li>A Discovery of Witches (All Souls #1) by Deborah Harkness</li> <li>A Court of Thorn and Roses (ACOTAR #1) by Sarah J Maas</li> <li>The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1) by R.F. Kuang</li> <li>Life’s Edge: the Search for What it Means to Be Alive by Carl Zimmer</li> <li>The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon</li> <li>A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR #2) by Sarah J Maas</li> <li>A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR #3) by Sarah J Maas</li> <li>A Court of Frost an Starlight (ACOTAR #3.5) by Sarah J Maas</li> <li>A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR #4) by Sarah J Maas</li> <li>A Forgery of Roses by Jessica Olsen</li> <li>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot</li> <li>A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood</li> <li>Atomic Habits by James Clear</li> <li>She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan</li> <li>Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro</li> <li>A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine</li> <li>The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>A Theory of Birds by Zaina Alsous</li> <li>Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong</li> <li>Shadow of Night (All Souls #2) by Deborah Harkness</li> <li>The Book of Life (All Souls #3) by Deborah Harkness</li> <li>Time’s Convert (All Souls #4) by Deborah Harkness</li> <li>Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride</li> <li>All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen</li> <li>Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #4.5/ 6?) by Martha Wells</li> <li>The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin</li> <li>Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater</li> <li>Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater</li> <li>Longshadow by Olivia Atwater</li> <li>Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi</li> <li>The Odyssey by Homer Translated by Emily Wilson</li> <li>Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson</li> <li>Nineteen Ways of Looking At Consciousness by Patrick House</li> <li>The Iliad by Homer translated by Stephen Mitchell read by Alfred Molina</li> <li>Love Poems by Pablo Neruda translated by Donald D Walsh read by Armando Duran</li> <li>Works and Days by Hesiod</li> <li>A Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna</li> <li>Rivers of London (/Midnight Riot) by Ben Aaronovich</li> <li>Theogony by Hesiod</li> <li>Buddhism 101 by Arnie Kozak</li> <li>Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong</li> <li>Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells</li> <li>Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin</li> <li>The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine</li> <li>Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood</li> <li>Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James</li> <li><a href="/2023/12/30/the-succession-duology-review.html">The Risen Empire (Succession #1)</a> by Scott Westerfeld</li> <li><a href="/2023/12/30/the-succession-duology-review.html">The Killing of Worlds (Succession #2)</a> by Scott Westerfeld</li> <li>The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War #2) by R.F. Kuang</li> <li>Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver from Pushkin</li> <li>The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander</li> <li>The Iliad by Homer translated by Caroline Alexander</li> <li>The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson</li> <li>Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance by Elise Vernon Pearlstine</li> <li>This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone</li> <li>System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells</li> </ol> <p>Links to come for some reviews!</p>Hillary C Hoyt

Here are all the books I read in 2023!

2022-12-31T05:00:00+00:002022-12-31T05:00:00+00:00http://hillarychoyt.com/2022/12/31/2022-books<p>Here are the books I read in 2022!</p> <ol> <li>The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan</li> <li>Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir</li> <li>Uprooted by Naomi Novak</li> <li>The Spirit of our Work: Black Women Teachers (Re)member (ARC) by Cynthia Dillard</li> <li>Anxious People by Fredrik Backman</li> <li>Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse</li> <li>Spinning Silver by Noami Novik</li> <li>The Mouse Guard (Fall 1152) by David Petersen</li> <li>The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time #2) by Robert Jordan</li> <li>Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch</li> <li>The Dragon Reborn (Wheel of Time #3) by Robert Jordan</li> <li>Autonomous by Annalee Newitz</li> <li>Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir</li> <li>The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink</li> <li>American’s favorite poems: the Favorite Poem Anthology by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz</li> <li>Mediocre: the dangerous legacy of the white male by Ijeoma Oluo</li> <li>Piranesi by Susanna Clark</li> <li>Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod</li> <li>The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time #4) by Robert Jordan</li> <li>City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett</li> <li>One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston</li> <li>The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution has transformed our lives, our bodies, and our world by Bee Wilson</li> <li>No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald</li> <li>A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Jacobs</li> <li>City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennet</li> <li>She Walks in Beauty: a woman’s journey through poems</li> <li>Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo</li> <li>The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel Wilson</li> <li>Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Shaefer</li> <li>Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir</li> <li>This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan</li> <li>Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #3) by Tamsyn Muir</li> </ol>Hillary C Hoyt

Here are the books I read in 2022!