Book Review: Oyster War, by Ben Towle

Writing Quality: 4/5
Personal Enjoyment: 3/5
Wider Appeal: 3/5

I bought Oyster War for the children's graphic novel section of my library, but I think it's appropriate for teens and adults as well. I feel like that's pretty rare: a book that can be enjoyed equally by all ages, without the adults feeling like they're being talked down to.

I'm not really sure what genre to categorize this book in. Historical fantasy? Magical realism? Mythology and folklore? Based on the Oyster Wars in the Chesapeake Bay that took place from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, this story draws on superstition, real history, and local tall tales to create a fantastically fun book.

The characters are fun, if a little one-dimensional. The ending was fairly predictable, but I enjoyed the process of getting there, and there were a few surprises along the way.

Oyster War is a graphic novel, and it's one of those spectacular examples of the format that's written in such a way that the writing and the art cannot be divided without losing all the meaning. The art is beautiful and also super cool. :) I also loved that each character's face was so distinct! So many comics and graphic novels have characters whose facial features look so similar that they get confusing in busy panels, but take a look at the individuality of these characters:

While there is a good amount of text and dialogue, there are also quite a few wordless panels, and Ben Towle tells so much of the story so eloquently and without a single word.

At the end of the book, Towle writes about different aspects of Oyster War: what was true, what was made up, what was pulled from local folklore... I loved learning a little bit, while also being able to enjoy something that was so fantastical.

I would recommend Oyster War to any reader who seeks out unique graphic novels, and doesn't mind sacrificing depth of character for the sake of an interesting story. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in the history and legends of the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding areas.

Recommended ages 10+. Portland: Oni Press, 2015. Print. 167 pages. ISBN: 9781620102626.

Book Review: The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin

Writing Quality: 5/5
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Wider Appeal: 5/5

The Fifth Season was the absolute perfect choice for my first read of 2016. It's the most innovative book I've read in a very long time, challenging the genre format and the idea of what fantasy traditionally is. The Fifth Season is not traditional genre formula fantasy.

N. K. Jemisin starts the book with the end of the world. This is already genre-shifting. Because in fantasy, the world doesn't end. That's the point. Someone is chosen to save the world, right? Here, she tells you right at the beginning: this story does not have a happy ending where a chosen one saves everyone from certain death, their loved ones survive, and they get the girl. The world ends. And the main character is a woman, and middle-aged, and a mother, and she has already lost her son.

The world ends, but the world has ended before. The land is rocked by frequent large and small quakes, and its population includes orogenes (aka roggas), people who can sense the vibrations and also control them, stilling or creating earthquakes. I can't tell you too much about the plot without giving it away, because Jemisin weaves tiny surprises throughout the book, slowly peeling away the story bit by bit to show you how characters are connected, and their histories and scars. There is not one big twist, but dozens of tiny ones, and the complexity of this story is absolutely beautiful.

The characters, Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, are all roggas of different ages and different stages in life. Damaya is a child, taken from her family to be trained. Syenite is a four-ring orogene who is beginning to realize that she is really just a slave. Essun is a free woman, hunting down her husband after he murdered their son.

I loved so much about this book. The ideas were amazing, and one part in particular was utterly awe-inspiring when I imagined what it looked like (which was easy, given Jemisin's excellent writing). The characters were believable, and it was easy to empathize with them. It was especially easy because Jemisin (again in a very uncommon choice) wrote all of Essun's chapters in second person. I also loved her casual attitude toward gender and sexuality. Gay, bi, straight, trans, poly...It's all here, and while it's commented on, Jemisin writes it in the same way you might write that a character has kinky hair, or they went for a run this morning. It just is, and it's nothing overly special. Why can't more books be like this?

I always end my reviews by telling you what types of readers would particularly enjoy a book, but this one is difficult, because I'm having a hard time pinning down a particular audience to the exclusion of others. This book is for readers who enjoy fantasy in which the magic system is actually an integral part of the story and not just a sideshow, readers who like strong female protagonists who are also realistically flawed (not just clumsy) and complicated, readers who like their books to be multi-racial and/or multi-gendered without making a thing of it, readers who like stories that are so well-constructed that by the end you can practically trace the lines of each moment back to something in the past that caused or influenced it...

If you're reading this review, The Fifth Season is probably for you.

Recommended ages 16+. New York: Orbit, 2015. Print. 498 pages. ISBN: 978-0316229296.

Book Review: You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost), by Felicia Day

“The internet is amazing because it connects us with one another. But it’s also horrific because...it connects us with one another.”

I was reading You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)  at the reference desk when a 70-something library patron asked me what I was reading. I proceeded to try to explain who Felicia Day is to a woman who's never heard of YouTube and whose idea of online gaming is Words With Friends. You have no idea how hard this is until you've tried it. :)

For those of you who don't know who Felicia Day is, she's an actress and producer whose career has landed solidly in the geek world. She's especially well-known for her webseries The Guild, about a group of gamers.

I waited a month to get my hands on my library's copy of this amazing book, and I kind of wish I'd pulled my librarian status and snagged a copy earlier. Like probably every other geek girl ever, I wish Felicia Day was my friend. Nearly every sentence I read, I was like, yes, this! In this book, Felicia is very candid about her experiences, describing her addiction to gaming, her procrastination, her perfectionism, and her depression with a kind of open generosity, and I felt a lot of the time like she was writing about me, but with a few quirky details added and changing my career choice from librarian to actress/producer. A little more glamorous. :) Her book describes her road to success, her tips for other people to do what they love, her love of and participation in geek culture, and her thoughts about the positive and negative aspects of the internet.

Felicia's writing feels like she's just talking to you over lunch. It's funny, vulnerable, and infused with awkward charm - in short, exactly what I expect Felicia herself is like. Her honest it's-hard-but-it's-worth-it approach to being successful at something she loves is utterly inspiring. If I wasn't already working at my dream job, I'd be going out to get it after reading her book.

I'd recommend You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) to anyone who likes Felicia Day's work. Honestly, I'd recommend this book to anyone who's ever felt like success is easy for everyone but them. Now please excuse me while I go re-watch The Guild and follow Felicia on Goodreads.

Book Review: The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu

Writing Quality: 5/5
Appeal/Enjoyment: 5/5

I picked up The Grace of Kings because I've heard so much amazing stuff about it. At first, though, I was a little hesitant about this book. The language brings to mind the stiff, impersonal style of a legend or a myth, with crystalline moments of poetry, like, “He was like a seed still tethered to the withered flower, just waiting for the dead air of the late summer evening to break, for the storm to begin.” These are characters who are almost gods themselves, and it's difficult to care about characters like that. As the story progressed, though, the themes started to emerge, and Ken Liu's ideas brought me back to the book every time I set it down.

The Grace of Kings is about war, empire, and revolution. It's also about the idea that war cannot be governed by the same moral code as life, because it cannot be won that way. In the same manner, life cannot be governed by the loose morals necessary for success in war, because peace cannot be maintained in such an environment. Ken Liu also writes about love, marriage, and fidelity, and his ideas are surprisingly feminist and progressive in nature. Maybe I'm only surprised because I don't know anything about Ken Liu other than the fact that he's Chinese American, he wrote this amazing book, and he translated The Three-Body Problem, which won the Hugo Award for best novel this year. Liu writes about equality in relationships, he writes a very liberal interpretation of marital fidelity, and he uses a misogynistic society to show how elevating women to positions of equality can improve an entire nation.

I'll be nominating this book for a Hugo next year. Frankly, I wish I could quote every single page of this book, but I'll stick with these:

“The heart is a complicated thing, and we're capable of many loves, though we're told that we must value one to the exclusion of others...You can be loyal to your husband at the same time that you take a lover for your own sake, though the poets tell us this is wrong. But why should we believe that the poets understand us better than we do ourselves?"

“I've always thought it nonsense to believe something true simply because it was written in a book long ago.” 

I'd recommend The Grace of Kings to readers who are interested in Imperial China (the inspiration for the setting of this book), fantasy where magic doesn't fix everything (or even take a major role), and readers who are in the mood for excellent writing and a slow, epic pace.

Recommended ages 16+. New York: Saga Press, 2015. Print. 640 pages. ISBN: 978-1481424271.