The Oversight, and some other things

[raven]

So if you know my real name, you (may?) know I have a grown-up blog elsewhere. This is not, by the way, intended to imply that fannish/DW blogs in general are not grown-up - just that mine joyously, unrepentantly isn't. Anyway, thanks to a kind friend who sent me a review copy, I carried a heavy proof of Charlie Fletcher's The Oversight all the way to Seattle and back, and didn't actually get past the first chapter; then I got home and resolved to give it the good old try and read it far into the night and screwed myself where jet-lag is concerned, but again with the unrepentance because I loved it. I wanted to write it about somewhere that's easy to link to publicly, so there's a nice long chewy review on my other blog, but sadly, I have no one to flail about it to because it doesn't come out till the beginning of May. Not to reiterate the whole review here, but gothic, macabre, lady-driven (pirate ladies! magic-using ladies! ladies rescuing ladies!) fiction that is objectively good and also hits about a thousand of my fantasy kinks (mysterious other London, check! Mysterious society of guardians and watchers, check! People carrying their lost cause banners to the bitter end, check!) - aaaaah. I like it a lot. I like it a whole whole lot, and if you like the sort of things I like, it comes out very soon, please read it and come talk about it with me, I am a fandom of one.

Since I started writing for myself again, rather than just fannish writing, I've had more than a passing interest in science fiction fandom more generally, and while I don't want to put too much weight on it and things like in terms of what is good and what isn't, I am pleased Ancillary Justice got a best novel Hugo nomination and I do hope it wins. It's lady-driven SF that does interesting things with gender, and while it's not the very best thing I've ever read, or anything, I enjoyed it very much as a novel of ideas. I feel like I came to fandom in the first place to find women in SFF - creating, consuming, politicising - and I'm emerging a little after ten years and finding that women in "mainstream" SFF are much more of an organised force than they were. Mainstream is in quotation marks because respectability isn't majority. For one thing, why do we want to be respectable, as fannish fans - we are queer, we are brown, we are women, we are intentionally and politically disruptive - and someone told me recently that more people participate in yuletide than vote for the Hugos, which is the sort of statistic that lingers in your mind.

Urgh I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, I meant to just write, please read this book, you guys, it's great. Tomorrow I am spending an entire day in my house for the first time in several months, it's gonna be awesome.

Comments

[spiderwolves]

I've a copy of this on its way! I'm so excited.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I will read it! (I have, admittedly, bought thirteen books over the last few weeks, so have plenty to read, but books are my favourite thing in the world, so I am always very happy to have more.) And I didn't know you had a grown-up blog - would you mind linking me? (On email or FB if you don't want to post a link here,)

Enjoy the day in your house. I hope you don't have to leave for anything.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I love how much you love books. It is so delightful. :) Seriously, though, I think you would like this one. I shall link you to the Proper Blog forthwith!

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you. (R and I were in Oxford at the start of the week, and we went to Blackwells because it is deeply enticing. I kept clutching at him and rambling about how I couldn't understand how people managed without reading, how did they live? Large amounts of books do that.)

Oh, I just bought The Ladies of Grace Adieu - I'm not sure if you've read it or not, but if you haven't, are you likely to want to borrow it? You're welcome to.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you, but I do have that one! it's lovely, though, I re-read it very recently.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recommendations! Pre-ordered one and just ordered the other.

That's fascinating about Yuletide/Hugos. I do think it says something about fans as well as about the Hugos.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Aha! I hope you enjoy them both! Do let me know what you think of them. :) The detail about the Hugos and Yuletide always makes me pause - I mean I think it's possible to read too much into it, but it does make me wonder what "mainstream" really means in this context.

p.s. I saw this and thought of you (http://cosmictuesdays.tumblr.com/post/83335717282/jesuisbavarde-marry-me).

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Ha! Thank you! Poor Colin. Well, I liked him!

And I will let you know what I think of the books. Thank you again for mentioning them!

[bibliotropic.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, about Yuletide! The Hugos have barriers to entry that Yuletide doesn't, namely, paying for a WorldCon membership, which in turn connects to so many other factors. Money, mobility and/or geographic proximity to a WorldCon-hosting city, time/time off to travel to WorldCon. I know they sell supporting memberships as well, for those who can't or won't attend but still want to vote, but I suspect a lot of otherwise fannish folk can't do that; I'm oversimplifying, of course, but "mainstream"/"respectable" and "has $40 in their pocket to pay for a vote" are connected in a lot of ways. Yuletide and other web projects create space for all kinds of different possibilities (even as they have drawbacks and barriers of their own).

Ancillary Justice has been on my to-read pile for a while.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

I'm in the early days of being inspired to read properly again (my brother bought me a nook for my b'day, and I've been taking it to work packed full of Lovecraft and Gaimen I've been trying to read for the past six months) so I will definitely look it up and have a go!
xx