"The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

(This was the February 2019 Chicago Nerd Social Club selection.)

A post-apocalyptic indigenous YA story, The Marrow Thieves follows a teenage protagonist on a journey for survival across Northern Canada. In a world wracked by complex climate disaster, First Nations people find themselves hunted for their ability to dream, which everyone else has lost.

This was a very good read; I'm not much of a YA-reader, but wasn't put off by it—when the teenage-ness of the characters comes out in the later chapters, it's in very believably-confused attraction and rivalry. I think there's a limit to how well the world-building holds up to scrutiny—at club, we talked about "backpacker pragmatics" and issues of how the journey doesn't match up with calendar/map concerns very well—but the fairly episodic chapter structure keeps the story moving along, and the character interactions work.

Chicago Nerds- Lovecraft Country

For the December meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

Set in the 1950s, Lovecraft Country follows a cast of connected characters from Chicago, all black, who become entangled in a number of supernatural adventures connected to a secret occult organization.

Generally quite liked, and we spent most of our conversation talking about how the novel sets actual Jim Crow evil up against a more pulp-SF, Lovecrafty kind. Notes and possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- Binti

For the November book discussion of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we read Binti and Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor.

The first two parts of a novella trilogy, these works follow the titular character, a mathematically-gifted young woman who is the first of her people to travel off-planet for education. Along the way, she becomes a kind of unintentional liason with the warlike Meduse; Binti: Home follows her first return to Earth.

Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Signal to Noise

For the October book meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Alternating between the 1980s and the early 2000s, the novel follows three friends in Mexico City who discover that their connection to music grants them magical powers.

Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Embassytown

For the August meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social (book) Club, we discussed by Embassytown by China Miéville. His most strictly science fictional tale to date, Embassytown is all about language--a race of aliens with a very weird language, who can't lie, and a disastrous story that plays out when the humans who communicate with them screw it up.

Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- The Prestige

For the June meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed The Prestige by Christopher Priest. A tale of two rivalrous stage magicians in the 19th century, the novel plays with ambiguity and illusion—there are huge plot elements that have to be inferred, and can't be proven conclusively—and has a lot of uncanny doubling and mirroring.

We had a good discussion about this, with lots of references to other magicians (fictional and otherwise) and some discussion of its 2006 film adaptation by Christopher Nolan. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Ninefox Gambit

For the May meeting of the Chicago Nerds' book-club, we discussed Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. This was also our first meeting at our new spot—Volumes Bookcafe, just up the road from our old digs.

Ninefox Gambit is a weirdly inventive space opera, and in fact a lot of our discussion revolved around whether to think of it as science fiction or "fantasy in space". A fairly ruthless interstellar civilization, the Hexarchate, maintains its control through the use of "exotic" technologies, which in turn rely on the "calendar", a kind of consensus reality. When a group of heretics make a particularly daring secession, the Hexarchate pairs a low-ranking soldier with genius mathematical abilities—Kel Cheris—with the imprisoned immortal spirit of one of their greatest and most treacherous generals: Shuos Jedao.

This is a weird, surreal book, setting up a very bizarre world and then not explaining it very much. This is one of the things I like most about it, as I said in my review last year. At club, we had good debates about both how and whether different aspects of this novel work. Brief notes below:

Chicago Nerds- Agents of Dreamland

For the April meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Agents of Dreamland (2017) by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

The agents in question are members of two different shadowy organizations who seem to be combating (or at least monitoring) incursions by some kind of Lovecraftian Elder-God-Type scenario; the novella alternates viewpoints between these two agents and Chloe, a young woman swept up in a sinister cult.

We gave this extremely favorable reviews! Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- A Planet for Rent

For the March meeting of the Chicago Nerd book-club, we discussed A Planet for Rent (2001; English translation 2015) by Yoss.

More of a loosely-braided collection than a single-plot novel, A Planet for Rent follows a motley crew in a future where contact with extremely technologically advanced aliens has reduced Earth to a tourist attraction, with humans semi-permanently stuck as galactic second-class citizens. Drawing on a host of classic SF inspirations, Yoss creates a bitterly satiric world that we found enjoyable in its own right, made even richer by the parallels to and commentary on Cuban history.

Extremely brief notes below!

Chicago Nerds- Every Heart a Doorway

For the February meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we met to discuss Every Heart a Doorway, the newest work by Seanan McGuire.

The novella is set in a boarding school for children who have returned from magical otherworlds—expats from Wonderland or Narnia, essentially.

We had what I think was the biggest crowd I've yet seen for CNSC, good discussion. Brief notes below:

Chicago Nerds- The Left Hand of Darkness

For the first 2017 meeting of the Chicago Nerds' book club, we met to discuss Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).

A modern science fiction classic whose influence is hard to overstate, Le Guin's novel is set in her Hainish future, in which different branches of humanity are reconnecting after millennia spent developing on different planets. The Left Hand of Darkness follows the first official contact between the Ekumen—a loose government of many worlds—and the people of Gethen. Gethenians have developed on a world in the grip of an ice age, and differ from the rest of the Ekumen in their social and biological sexual natures.

Sex and gender exploration is kind of the big-ticket draw of The Left Hand, but it's also brilliantly-written, packed full of profundity, and unusual (for science fiction) in how much it comes down to a deeply-drawn relationship between two people.

Also, it's very appropriate for a January Chicago reading, involving as it does great treks across the ice and snow. Notes and possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Leviathan Wakes

For the last 2016 meeting of the Chicago Nerd book club, we discussed Leviathan Wakes (2011) by James S.A. Corey, the first book in "The Expanse", an on-going series that is also going into its second season as a SyFy television show.

Leviathan Wakes is set in a fairly-near future where humans have colonized chunks of the solar system using an extremely efficient new impulse engine, but have not yet moved on to interstellar exploration. At the book's start, there's a bit of three-way political tension between Earth, a partially-terraformed (and militarily well-equipped) Mars, and the inhabitants of the outer asteroid belts, moons, and dwarf planets. The novel alternates viewpoints between James Holden, who becomes captain and unwitting political player after his original civilian ship is destroyed, and Joe Miller, a detective on Ceres whose hunt for a missing young woman leads him to a plot that killed Holden's ship and threatens the solar system.

Notes & possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

For the November meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe (2016) by Kij Johnson.

The short novel takes place within one of H.P. Lovecraft's worlds, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927, pub. 1943), and includes some crossover characters. Possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Ghost Talkers

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Mary Robinette Kowal's recently-released "Ghost Talkers".

Set in contested France during WWI, the novel centers on an Allied group of mediums who talk to the spirits of recently-killed casualties to gather vital information. It becomes more of a supernatural mystery novel than a war novel, however, as Ginger tries to root out the German traitors or spies who are seeking to infiltrate and destroy the Ghost Talkers.

Possible spoilers below! Also, we were very graciously joined after our discussion by Mary Robinette Kowal herself, who talked with us for a bit.

Chicago Nerds- The Atrocity Archives

For the September meeting of the Chicago Nerds book club, we read "The Atrocity Archives" (2004) by Charles Stross, the first novel in his ongoing "Laundry Files" series.

The novel (and most of the series), follows Bob Howard, an IT worker for the Laundry, a a covert UK agency that deals with supernatural threats. In this universe, Stross predicates a kind of information-based magic, with the result that certain kinds of math and computing can bring about reality-altering affects. However, the backdrop to this universe is a version of the Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos—insane cosmic horrors beyond human ken wait to flood our dimension etc. etc. Oh, and the series also mixes or alternates comedy with the cosmic horror. Good stuff.

We had a very critical but ultimately positive appraisal of the book. Notes and possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- The Winged Histories

For the August meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Sofia Samatar's "The Winged Histories"(2016), the companion to her 2013 "A Stranger in Olondria".

The novel is somewhat difficult to summarize--it's a few different stories of women on various sides of a complicated conflict: a civil war with tangled roots in ethnic and religious history. Also, there are vampires (don't read it for the vampires).

Also, like "Stranger", it's just astonishingly, chest-grabbingly good. On the back of my childhood copies of The Lord of the Rings was that Lewis blurb--"here are beauties blah blah", and I think of that when reading the Olondrian novels. Possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- Barsk: The Elephant's Graveyard

For July's Chicago Nerd Social Club book discussion, we talked about Lawrence M. Schoen's 2015 novel "Barsk: The Elephant's Graveyard".

It's a science fiction tale told tens of thousands of years in the future--after baseline humanity is extinct, in fact. Their descendants are an interstellar community of uplifted mammals. On Barsk, the only world populated by elephants, they have discovered a drug that allows telepathically-sensitive Speakers to communicate with the dead.

The plot kicks off when ancient prophecies and clandestine government interests threaten Barsk's elephants with destruction. Spoilers and brief notes after the jump:

Chicago Nerds- Central Station

For June's meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed "Central Station" (2016) by Lavie Tidhar. It's a "fix-up" novel, stringing together a number of his previously-published short stories.

This should come with a disclaimer if you don't already know: there's no over-arching plot here, so don't hold your breath for one. But at the same time, it's not just an unrelated collection--Tidhar uses a series of interconnected anecdotes to sketch out a setting and his cast of characters with surprising depth.

With the exception of the "no plot" caveat, this was a really well-received book. Possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- United States of Japan

That is a pretty dope cover, though.

Another much-delayed notes-posting! In May, the Chicago Nerds discussed "United States of Japan", the 2016 novel by Peter Tieryas.

An alt-history set in the late 1980s, the novel follows two officials of the Japanese empire, which now rules the Western bits of North America following the crushing victory of the Axis powers in World War II. They uncover a collusion between highly-placed Japanese officials and the "George Washingtons", a heavily-armed guerrilla army trying to throw off Japanese rule. Also, video games are really important? Also, there are mechas.

Super-brief (and rather judgmental) notes and spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- The Fifth Season

For April's book club discussion, the Chicago Nerd Social Club read "The Fifth Season" (2015), the latest by N.K. Jemisin. And we really liked it!

The novel takes place on a planet wracked by periodic geological upheavals; human civilization only survives through a combination of disaster-preparation & rigid codes, known as "stonelore", as well as the intervention of "orogenes", a small minority of humans with the ability to sense and control seismic phenomena. Despite this rather obviously advantageous ability, "roggas" are hated and feared by the general population, and typically killed if they are not trained and licensed by a government body, the Fulcrum.

"The Fifth Season" follows three different viewpoints: Essun, a covert orogene attempting to find her daughter after her husband murders their other child; Damaya, a young orogene being trained by the Fulcrum; and Syenite, sent to train under a powerful senior orogene, who winds up having a pretty far-ranging adventure.

There's also lots of much weirder stuff going on: a possibly sentient-and-malicious Father Earth, some kind of intelligent stone-based life-form, sometimes-functional remnants of some high-tech civilizations, and, no spoiler, it's the first sentence: the end of the world. (Not to be confused with last month's Weird & Wonderful selection). Definitely some other major spoilers below, though:

Chicago Nerds- All the Birds in the Sky

For the March Chicago Nerd Social Club book discussion, we read "All the Birds in the Sky", the 2016 debut novel from Charlie Jane Anders, known to many of us as the editor at influential SF/F/geeky news/media site io9.

"All the Birds" self-consciously straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy. It follows Laurence and Patricia, childhood friends who wind up on opposite sides of a war between magic-users and super-scientists.

This was one of those (exceedingly rare) Chicago Nerds selections that we almost-unanimously liked, and we had a good discussion teasing out some of our favorite parts. Anders was also kind enough to join us via videochat to talk about the book and answer some questions. Possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- Time Salvager

For February's Chicago Nerd book discussion, we read "Time Salvager" (2015) by Wesley Chu.

To summarize: fractally dumb. Astonishingly, breath-takingly bad:

• Painful, terrible writing. Shocking to us that editors of a major publisher would sign off on this.
• Sneaky, creepy sexism. Not as blatantly bad as the puerile wish-fulfillment of "Lives of Tao", but maybe worse for that. Normalizes/excuses abusive, controlling behavior.
• Dumb, dumb, a thousand times dumb. Science, logic, continuity, common sense: leave them behind.
• The cleverest suggestion put forth is that this is actually an ironic work: a poorly-executed, derivative novel about ineptly ripping off the past. Clever! We don't buy it, though.
• Shockingly little time-travel, really.
• I would like to pass a law that when characters do/say something unnecessary purely to drive home that they are villains, they must twirl their moustaches, whether or not that makes sense.
• Despite our opinion of the book, a discussion full of laughter. And groaning.
• We are now completely cynical about blurbs and reviews.

The end! I'll waste no more brain-time on this. I took literally 100 notes on this, in order to stay sane, which I won't burden you with. Indeed, if this novel had been written a little better, I would have stopped reading: it was only a sense of editorial horror--"what basic grammar will he forget next?"--that kept me going page to page.

Next time we're reading Charlie Jane Anders' "All the Birds in the Sky", which narrowly edged out Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach" trilogy. Clearly, we are craving the good stuff.

Also, a reminder: lots of Chicago Nerd stuff coming up, including C2E2-related events and Pi Day.  Keep up to date via the CNSC website and Facebook.

Chicago Nerds- Uprooted

For the last convocation of the illustrious Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik.

"Uprooted" is a fantasy drawing on Slavic fairy-tales, but it's not a retelling of any particular story. It's told from the perspective of Agnieszka, a young woman who is selected from her village to be a sorcerer's apprentice, and who turns out to have great magical aptitude herself. The plot hinges on the battle between humans and The Wood, a supernaturally-charged and malevolent forest.

We were almost astonished at how near-universally high we rated this book, finding it very enjoyable and superbly written. Although we did have a few quibbles with some of the pacing/tone later on, and a few folks couldn't quite get into it, we mostly had nothing but praise for the writing--particularly the way it sidesteps a number of pitfalls that often spoil this kind of story.

Possible spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds- Welcome to Night Vale

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerd book club, we discussed "Welcome to Night Vale" (2015) by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor.

The novel is set in the world of the podcast of the same name, which a fair number of us are completely enamored of. It's a twice-monthly show, a bit like "The X-Files Home Companion": a small community radio broadcast from a town where the strange and supernatural are commonplace. It's a very weird mix of the surreal, horrific, and mundane, that somehow adds up to astonishingly comedic. For some! Not everybody at group is into it.

We found the adaption of that show to a novel format fairly problematic--particularly given the importance of narrator Cecil Baldwin and the music of Disparition to the show's tone. Nonetheless, we had a fruitful discussion, with much attention paid to listening vs. reading. Spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds: Cloud Atlas

For the last book discussion of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we dove into (ascended? attempted to map?) David Mitchell's 2004 novel, "Cloud Atlas".

The novel is actually a carefully arranged mix of six novelletes, with a mirrored structure. More on that below. Each story is a different genre, time period, and style, with a host of recurring imagery and themes.

Our reception of the book was generally positive, modulo some caveats about its "literariness". We struggled with the question of what it's really "about"--always a vexatious question, but the fact that these six stories are presented as a single novel, rather than as a collection, makes one long for a cohesive theme or two. And, follow-up question: is this book optimistic or depressing vis-a-vis the human condition?

Some structural analysis, synopsis, and likely spoilers below:

Chicago Nerds: Lagoon

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerds book club, we read and discussed Nnedi Okorafor's 2014 novel "Lagoon". It's an unusual first contact story--shape-shifting, primarily ocean-based aliens land just off the shore of Lagos, Nigeria, and then...stuff happens.

There is a lot, a confusing lot, going on in this novel--intentionally so, it would seem, with the chaos of the story meant to reflect, perhaps even praise, the chaotic nature of Lagos. Unfortunately, I  found that the intersection of many different codes, coupled with some rough areas in the writing, deflated the novel's impact. I'll try to expand that a bit below.

The biggest consensus from the group, I think, was something along the lines of "we really wanted to like it", but had too many issues in actually reading it. Definitely a worthy discussion, our reservations notwithstanding--possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds: Throne of the Crescent Moon

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerd's book club, we discussed Saladin Ahmed's "Throne of the Crescent Moon" (2012), a sword-and-sorcery tale set in a fantasy version of the Islamic Golden Age.

The novel follows Doctor Adoulla Makhslood and his companions as they battle a supernatural threat. Adulla is a nearly-retired "ghul hunter"; ghuls are sort of golem-y zombie things raised by evil magicians. Joining him are a sword-wielding dervish, a shape-changer, and an eldery alchemist/mage couple.

We had a fun discussion, with a lot of comparison to other fantasy works in the same vein, some critiques of tropey-ness, discussion of "gaming dynamics" for lack of a better term, and a really great list of books for next time. There may be SPOILERS BELOW:

Chicago Nerds: Dark Orbit

Just wrapped up the Chicago Nerds' discussion of Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Dark Orbit" (2015). A good discussion of a book that the group mostly enjoyed, with a few reservations. Most of us found it a pretty quick, engrossing read.

"Dark Orbit" takes place in the same universe as some of Gilman's other work. In discussion, we noted that is a distinctly Leguinean universe--humanity colonized many planets so long ago we've forgot about them, humanity somewhat separated into different tribes as a result  (doesn't seem like a species-level change as in Le Guin), there's instantaneous communication. In "Dark Orbit", a group of researchers is exploring a planet with many dark-matter related anomalies when they discover a settlement of blind humans living underground, whose different perception of reality may have granted them some unusual abilities. Possible spoilers below!

Sherlock 101 Panel

Next Sunday, the Chicago Nerd Social Club is hosting a panel on Sherlock Holmes--including film & television adaptions as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books--at Open Books. 2pm @ 651 W. Lake St.

You can also find more info on the CNSC website & Facebook.

Chicago Nerds: Hyperion

After many nominations and near-selections, Dan Simmons' Hugo-winning "Hyperion" (1989) finally made it to the top of the Chicago Nerds' book-club list.

Structurally, "Hyperion" draws on "The Canterbury Tales" (1390ish), being composed of a frame story of a group of pilgrims travelling together, with the bulk of the novel made up of the individual stories that six of the pilgrims relate; each individual's story is told in a different style, and has a different thematic focus.

I found Hyperion a delight to re-read, as did many others at group; I think we were about evenly split between first-time readers and re-readers. It's one of those books that is a real pleasure to share and talk about. Possible spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds: The Goblin Emperor

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed “The Goblin Emperor” (2014) by Katherine Addison. The novel is currently nominated for the Hugo Award and, if you've been following the whole kerfuffle this year, is one of the non-Puppy nominees.

“The Goblin Emperor” takes place in an alternate world—not Earth-related—in which the dominant civilizations seem to be in the steam age. There are at least two races—goblins and elves—which seem to be more like human races than your typical fantasy species-like races: relatively cosmetic differences, not reproductively distinct, with many characters of mixed heritage and racial “purity” more of a construct than a reality. There is some magic, of a very practical and effective nature, but it is totally in the backseat to a slightly steampunky/clockworky technology (airships and Industrial-Era-type factories loom large). Our titular character, Maia, is the youngest, essentially exiled son of the emperor of the Elflands, to whom the succession rather precipitously shifts. So we follow a young and largely-unprepared character thrust into the highest level of court intrigues, where he must find his way.

THOUGHTS and, just possibly, SPOILERS BELOW:

Chicago Nerds: A Darker Shade of Magic

V.E. Schwab's recently-released novel "A Darker Shade of Magic" (2015) had been getting some pretty good hype, and this past Monday the Chicago Nerds book club met to discuss!

In "A Darker Shade", there are four versions of the world, all of which were once connected by magical gates and doorways--and all through their versions of London. Magic works differently in each, and eventually the worlds are split apart from each other when Black London is overrun with destructive, infectious magic. White London is a dog-eat-dog, power-hungry, seemingly dying world. Red London is in a world rich both materially and magically, while Grey London seems to be our own mundane and relatively magic-less world (somewhere approximately in the mid-1800s). One of our protagonists, Kell, is a Red Londoner with an extremely rare gift for magic, particularly the magic of passing between worlds. Along with Lila--an ambitious thief from Grey London--Kell is caught up in a White London plot for worlds-dominion (that's a fun phrase) which has the side-effect of setting free a sinister force from Black London.

By the way, really dig this cover. Refreshing to see some bold, original design for a fantasy work--designed by Will Staehle (Tor interview about the design here).

We had a VERY high percentage of the group that really liked the book, myself included. Despite this, it's popcorniness and cliches drew our fire pretty good. We really liked it! But many quibbles, and possibly spoilers, below:

Chicago Nerds: To Say Nothing of the Dog

This last Monday the Chicago Nerd Social Club met to discuss "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (1997), a comedic time travel story (and Hugo Winner) by Connie Willis. While the novel takes place within a fictional universe Willis has created, centered around time travel, with significant chunks of it touching on World War II, "To Say Nothing of the Dog" can very much be read as a stand-alone novel.

We had a surprisingly low completion rate for the novel, but those who did finish it all seemed to enjoy it. There may be SPOILERS BELOW:

Chicago Nerds: A Natural History of Dragons

This past Monday night, the Chicago Nerd Social Club discussed Marie Brennan's "A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent" (2013) at our usual spot at Filter Cafe. It was a pretty fun, light read, with correspondingly light discussion; nonetheless there may be SPOILERS BELOW:

Chicago Nerds: The Peripheral

Talked about William Gibson's 2014 novel "The Peripheral" with the Chicago Nerd Social Club on Monday night. I really, really dug the novel; I was a Gibson fan going into it, and in "The Peripheral" he's both returned to a more overtly SF universe and demonstrated yet more growth as a writer. The group generally liked it, and we had a fun discussion. Possible spoilers (and a fair dose of critical meandering) below!

Chicago Nerds: City of Stairs

This week's Chicago Nerds book discussion of Robert Jackson Bennett's "City of Stairs" was a lot of fun. We all enjoyed the book a lot and had very little to nitpick with it: highly recommended! Possible spoilers below...

Chicago Nerds: The Girl With All The Gifts

Good meeting tonight, about a dozen people. I liked M. R. Carey's "The Girl With All The Gifts" (2014) quite a bit, which is saying something--I'm pretty bored of zombie narratives, but this one was well-done. Drew some strong comparisons to the 2013 video game "The Last of Us", Daryl Gregory's 2011 novel "Raising Stony Mayhall", and Jonathan Levine's 2013 film "Warm Bodies".