Two for one

1) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and 2) Elements of Style by Erin Gates

One
This book had a lot going for it [1] - linguistically interesting; big themes of justice (natch), revenge, religion, civilization; no egregious capital letters despite being a sci-fi novel; sentient, AI ships who are sort of like people [2]. It also had some drawbacks - the ever-present weird fantasy names; a lot of complicated social intrigue; lack of explicated emotion due to the main character being AI. And of course, there were some where YMMV [3]: McGuffiny plot, no romance.

Probably the most interesting and compelling thing for me was the attention the author put on language. Thankfully, there were no badly put together alien languages and only few made-up words (I just cannot with those). Rather, the author takes time to point out differences in translation between the within-the-empire (civilized, a la the Romans) humans (known as "Radchaai") and the annexable (uncivilized) outsiders. The difficulties of adequate translation for conveying information and feeling across cultures are real and present problems, and it was refreshing to see it dealt with, rather than just glossed over with babblefish or tardises or whatever. 

But probably the most interesting [4] device was the lack of gender. The empire's (Radch [4.5]) language doesn't code for gender, in any way - in pronouns, common nouns, or names. I'd be really interested to know if there are any actual languages that do this. Tok Pisin doesn't mark for gender in 3rd person singular (everybody and everything is "em,"), which is part of the way there. But absolutely no gender on any nouns whatsoever? I'm not so sure. 

At first, this is unsettling. What are the gender dynamics? Is it men or women that are in charge? Who is hitting on who [5]? But maybe that's the point. Power, corruption, compassion, control, none of them run along gender lines in this universe. Or if they do, the ship is not aware of it. And since it doesn't matter to the protag, it doesn't matter to us. Which, given the intensely important role gender plays in our world, this was quite a good thought exercise. 

Other random things of interest: 
- It would have been nice to see further explored the notion of "building a fence around the law." In an almost throw-away moment, we get the Lord of the Radch (aka the chancellor of the empire) explaining why all the annexations - why the bloodshed, why the nearly Borg-like assimilation of other planets, why the AI ships in the first place: in order to protect and keep pure the core of Radch ("civilized") space. The point of it all is to keep the center clean. And if that need come at the cost of millions of lives and decimation of thousands of cultures, so be it [6]. Anyway, more exploration of this theme - purity vs. depravity, sacred vs. secular - would have been welcome. 
- Lackie also touches briefly on classifications of life. The Presgar aliens (part of the tangled web of sociopolitical intrigue) classify everything as Significant or Insignifcant. Insignificant species can be killed wholesale, no remorse necessary. Nearly everything but the Presgar themselves are Insignificant, reminiscent of OSC's hierarchy of foreignness.


Two
Maybe by this point I should just make two posts, but I'm committed now. No going back. The title's already be made. 

Elements of Style is not, in fact, Strunk and White's prescriptivist how to English guide. Instead, it's a collection of essays and photos (pretty, pretty photos) about house design and decorating. A lovely look at heavily-curated homes, with some funny anecdotes and personal stories thrown in to have something to anchor the photos. Gates gives some helpful tips (use indoor/outdoor rugs for your heavily trafficked areas, so as to be able to hose it down), presents some beautiful rooms, as well as some questionable ones (the leopard-print stair runner). 

A nice "picture book for grown-ups," as the librarian called it.

xo, 
Devo

[1] Cue Hyperbole and a Half's alot beast chasing after a manuscript

[2] It's in good company: "Well my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood."

[3] Well, YMMV on all of the preceding points too, really.

[4] Perhaps annoying, depending on who you are

[4.5] Votes on how to say this? I'm going with a gutteral German sort of phoneticization.

[5] Can't be bothered to figure out which (if any) of these should be "whom". 

[6] Much like the Operative from Serenity: "I'm not going to live there [in the promised land]. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster.What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

Science fiction ≠ fiction about science

As always, spoiler alert

I finished an actual, honest-to-goodness new book, start to finish, in order and everything, and wasn't disgusted with it halfway through; let praises ring. 

What was this novel? Bellwether by Connie Willis, a nice enough little book about a fad researcher, a rancher, a ridiculously sub-par office assistant named Flip, and a chaos theorist. The passages about the proliferation of jargon-heavy paperwork and acronym-laden staff meetings in a corporation made me giggle, as well as cringe. ("What this world needs is more love and less paperwork." - Pearl Bailey. Amen, sister; I couldn't agree more.) The chapter-stating snippets about various fads were entertaining: my favorite was the bit about coffehouses, which "[s]pread to London (1652), Paris (1699), Boston (1675), Seattle (1985)". The characters were interesting enough for the 247 pages in which they needed to be entertaining, and the plot fresh and unexpected enough that I didn't devolve into trope rage/angst.  All in all, a fine read. But. 

But. 

Somewhere, the publishers got their wires crossed and categorized this little novel as "science fiction." I was originally going to blame the library genre stickering system[1], but nope, it's right there printed on the spine: Science Fiction. 

Now, perhaps I have mistaken ideas about what constitutes science fiction, but based on the criteria set out by Wikipedia[2], this book is not sci-fi. Fi about sci, yes. The genre "sci-fi", no. Wikipedia's criteria (have some or all of the following): 
1. Setting: future, alterna history
2. Outer space
3. Aliens, androids, mutants, etc. 
4. "Futuristic or probably technology"
5. Futuristic-sounding science, like time-travel or FTL
6. Dystopia, evil big-brother type governments
7. Paranormal abilities
8. Interdimensional travel

Yep, that's about what I think of. So when I read the book jacket which says "[W]hat better animal [sheep] to illustrate both chaos theory and the herd mentality that so often characterizes human behavior?," I was thinking wormholes, subliminal messaging and mind-altering drugs that force people into complacently following the latest trend, manufactured by an evil alien corporation who is simply using the human race as an experimental subject pool[3]...not at all what this was. 

An amusing, off-the-beaten-path, nice look into what was popular in the early 90s read. Not science fiction. Oh well. 

xo, 
Devo


[1] You know, the ones that look like this; I'm glad to now know that they're standardized. 

[2] The source of all truth; if nothing else, the source of all crowd-sourced truth, which may be more applicable here, anyway

[3] Like unto the evil music corporation in Josie and the Pussycats