Review of Jade City by Fonda Lee

Fantasy (or perhaps just me?) is always looking for the next fresh thing—story which combines the familiar and the innovative in engaging fashion. Tell us the story we've heard a thousands times but do it in a way that we don't realize it. Perhaps Fonda Lee's 2017 Jade City has done it?

Jade City is, at its heart, a conception of an urban world where Asian mafiosos rule and jade is their Dune-esque drug of power—both in terms of money and granting super powers. Like The Godfather, it makes organized crime cool but does so from a distinctly Oriental perspective—more yakuza than any Italian mafia one can name. It's Hong Kong and Tokyo, not Sicily or NYC.

Jade City is not centered on one gang. Lee spreads the love across several rivals, all vying for power. And the characters Lee chooses from each to represent are archetypal in nature. The hot-blooded thug who thinks he's the best. The woman with martial prowess who wants to keep out of family business but gets drawn in. The young man forced to choose sides. The ruthless gang leader. The good guy among the bad guys. And on and on. Most of the time, the characters feel more like action figures bouncing around on the screen than human.

Article: Tailspin: The Decline of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale Series

If there is a pantheon of dystopian novels, then Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, Zamyatin's We, and Huxley's Brave New World are chiseled there. As is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale—the fourth face on the Mt. Rushmore of doomed futures. The book features a Christian version of ISIS taking over a massive chunk of the United States in the chaos of an infertility crisis, a takeover that subjugates women into servant roles and forced reproduction. Frighteningly realistic seeing the far right emerge from the West's woodwork the past decade, it makes for engaging story and thought-provoking reading material.

1990 saw the release of a feature film based on The Handmaid's Tale. A solid production, it generally does the book justice. But like a lot of movies which adapt books to the screen, it is clear that two hours was not enough to contain June Osborne's powerful tale. Fast forward the clock to our Netflix world and the possibility of creating a ten-episode series to tell the story became real, something Hulu did starting in 2017. Season 1 a faithful and excellent adaptation, it captures Atwood's novel in ten episodes almost as one imagines it while reading. A popular success as well, Hulu quickly signed on for more seasons.

Review of Tyll: A Novel by Daniel Kehlmann

Who doesn't like the idea of a jester? Perhaps getting a bad rap for the modern conception of a playing card which can mess up the most well made game plans, the actual historicity of the figure is something more nuanced and diverse, from king's diversion to soothsayer. Most often a side character, Daniel Kehlmann, in his 2017 Tyll: A Novel, puts the jokester front and center in 16th century Germany. The playing card comes to life.

Skeptic and cynic that I am, what follows should have a caveat: I am a sucker for books which cleverly poke at the absurdities of the human condition. Yes, Robert Sheckley is amazing, and while Kehlmann's style is one altogether different than Sheckley's, the two both keep a distance from their characters such that their true humanity can be boiled down to its bones, many of which are irrational. Here are a few of those of Tyll:

Non-Fiction: Review of The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar

If there is any part of the globe which has a giant question mark stamped on it in most people's minds, it's the Stans—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Of course for people living in Central Asia there is no mystery. But it is a giant swathe of land for which most Westerners have little if any knowledge. Looking to alleviate this situation while delving into personal mysteries is Sofia Samatar's 2022 travelogue-cum-historical examination, The White Mosque: A Memoir.

To my admittedly limited knowledge, Sofia Samatar is predominantly known for her fiction. (Check out A Stranger in Olondria if you are interested in a well-written, non-generic fantasy novel that cares about culture and language.) At least that is how I know her—I even jumped on The White Mosque initially thinking it was fiction. To be clear it's not, but the style of writing leans in that direction.

Cardboard Corner: Review of Ashes Reborn (aka Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn)

Note: This is purely a review of Ashes Reborn. I have not played the original Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. and therefore cannot comment on the differences between the two, except to say that many people say Ashes Reborn is Ashes1.5. The rules are apparently the same, but card effects have been refined and better balanced.

It's been said before, and it's worth repeating to kick off this review: Magic: The Gathering is one of the largest inflection points in the tabletop games industry. Thirty years and counting, fresh content is still being released. The community and tournament system still exist. And with unique cards and rarity, the after market is literally a million-dollar industry. But it's not a perfect game. Obscure combos can destroy an opponent before they have effectively had a chance to play. The overly large decks combined with the randomness of card shuffle is an extremely strong factor in outcomes. And mana screw is a real thing. As a result, many games have since looked to put their own spin on dueling wizards but optimize the model to balance gameplay. One game which has done this extremely well yet in its own unique fashion is Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, now being printed as Ashes: Reborn (2021).

While technically playable 3-4 players, Ashes is essentially a two-player, PvP game that sees players talking on the roles of powerful phoenixborn (magic wielders) trying to reduce their opponent's life total to zero. Players choose a phoenixborn (of which there are six to choose from in the core box), build a deck of cards around it (spells, events, upgrades, etc.), and try to defeat their opponent by playing said cards over a series of phased rounds. At this high-level, the experience is certainly Magic-esque. A level deeper, however, shows what makes Ashes special.

Review of Birds of Paradise by Oliver Langmead

In case you weren't paying attention. In case the same-ness of the fantasy market has drowned your hopes of innovative, fresh fiction. In case you've given up and fallen into the generic arms of fantasy published today. Fear not. Look to Oliver Langmead. His debut Dark Star, while cyberpunk-y in nature, was written in epic verse. His follow up was the dreamscape Metronome, a book that doesn't have a comfortable genre niche. His fourth, Glitterati, is the most unique dystopia you will ever read. But what about his third, Birds of Paradise (2021)? Let's get into it.

Birds of Paradise is the story of Adam in the modern world. Adam? Don't worry, you know him. It's that guy from Christianity's origin story. You know, Garden of Eden, forbidden fruit, serpent, fig leaf. Now fully clothed, he has drifted immortal through human history, constantly reinventing himself into our modern world. Not forgetting his friends of old, however, they stick together to protect the wonders of nature. A rose forever in bloom here, a fruit tree that perpetually produces fruit there—these are just a few of the things that Adam and his avian coterie protect. And who are they protecting them from? The ravages of human advance and growth.

Cardboard Corner: Review of Space Hulk: Death Angel

I am not a Warhammer 40K guy. All respect to those who are, orcs and elves in space doesn't click with my imagination for whatever reason (and aliens do for some other reason...). But I cannot argue the popularity of the IP across seemingly all media. Video games, books, movies, board games, and especially tabletop miniatures games, there is a discussion to be had whether it is mainstream or not. Also, I cannot argue with the success that is Space Hulk: Death Angel (2010). A small game with meaty choices (of grilled Tyranid) it wholly engages despite my lack of Warhammer lore, and I assume even more so for people in love with the universe.

A cooperative card game for one to six players, Space Hulk: Death Angel boils the Warhammer universe down into classic encounters between Space Marines and the bug-like Tyranids in the tight corridors of a derelict spaceship. Working together, players must use the limited actions of their Space Marines to blast their way through the swarming Tyranids and survive to the meet the last corridor's objective. If there is at least one marine alive at that time, the players win. If the Tyranids kill all the Marines beforehand (which will happen more often than not), the players lose.

Review of Spear by Nicola Griffith

It's obvious, but with the fantasy market flooded authors are looking for ways of keeping things fresh. One trend that has emerged in the past decade is for writers to re-tell classic tales from a different perspective. These efforts, like all writing, vary in success. Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, for example, tells of Odysseus' wife Penelope while he was off having adventures. Pulling back the proverbial curtain on an area of history/legend for which we have less information, the book is a success for the manner which it captures the spirit of Greek myth while injecting new life into story and theme. Nicola Griffith's 2022 novella Spear likewise looks to retelling, but on the northern side of European history/legend. Let's take a look.

Spear is Arthurian legend through and through. But instead of a young man of mysterious parenthood who finds himself and gains knighthood through feats of honor and virtue, it's the story of a lesbian woman who does the same. I normally provide a short plot summary, but that's it. Replace character A with character B, and voila, the same cake but with different color frosting.

Review of Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

In the primeval phylum of genre, there is perhaps no stronger or more long-lasting line than the Western. While it's popularity today is not that of Louis Lamour or John Wayne's generations, there are modern iterations which have kept the form viable, from Cormac McCarthy to Westworld. The untamed frontier a natural canvas for dynamic story, Kay Chronister adds her name to the line with 2023's Desert Creatures. Question is, how does it stand with the century+ of fiction before it?

Set during an unnamed time in the future after a nuclear apocalypse, civilization is in tatters in Desert Creatures. Across the Arizona desert a father and his club-footed daughter, Magdalena, make the dusty pilgrimage to Las Vegas where Magdalena hopes to have a healing miracle performed at what remains of the Catholic church. Never arriving at the crumbled neon city, the pair find themselves waylaid in a small community of men, women, and children, a community which is surviving but only through the strictest of civil codes. The women branded and travel to and from their collective strictly regulated, Magdalena and her father find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. A situation that can be resolved only through drastic decisions, Magdalena finds herself at odds with her beliefs and the practical necessities of survival as they struggle to survive in the wilds beyond.

Review of Hopeland by Ian McDonald

I have read almost every novel Ian McDonald has produced. The man is a wonder of technique and imagination. Technique is technique, but in McDonald's case it's the ability to write vibrantly in almost any style, from gonzo to core genre. Imagination is more subjective, but he has written everything from market-conforming fiction to fiction which has inspired others to imitate it. Whenever I hear of a new McDonald coming down the pipe, I get excited. In 2023 I was ready for a pair of collections that have been announced for years. But it was a novel which popped out instead: Hopeland. (Still waiting for the collections...)

An amalgamation of his oeuvre to date, Hopeland is squarely an Ian McDonald novel. There is a bit of the eccentric, magic realism of his early novels (Out on Blue Six, Desolation Road, etc.). There is a near-future tangibility not unlike his so-called globalization novels (Brasyl, River of Gods, etc.). And there is a continental social concern which stems from his Chaga series. McDonald's DNA is woven throughout Hopeland. So what is the novel about?