My January Reading Log

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction:
Vulcanization by Nisi Shawl is the awesomest steampunk story ever; Leopold II of Belgian Congo colonialist infamy wants to rid himself of visions of the people he’s victimized, using a strange device. After reading King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild a while back, this story is especially satisfying. Shawl has a steampunk novel coming out in September from Tor: Everfair. I am so excited!!!

Here is my enthusiastic preview of Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat, third in the “Captive Prince” series.

I also read a book for anonymous review.

Fanfiction:
Pantheon by Yahtzee is a really cool AU of X-Men: First Class set in 96 AD in which mutant powers are supposed to be gifts of the various Roman gods; but if that’s so, then why do non-citizens and slaves also possess these powers? And how may they be kept in check? The worldbuilding in this story is a lot of fun, and there are several love stories as well.

My Unshaped Form by atrata, a post-Winter Soldier Natasha Romanov/Bruce Banner story featuring the science of memory, trust, and the beginnings of romance.

I’ve recced this author before and doubtless will again. The Dead Forest by hansbekhart goes into the head of Captain America four days after he’s revived from the ice, when he’s subsumed by alienation, loneliness, confusion, and mourning. Historical detail makes everything more resonant.

And now for something completely different: Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Delphi is a short, delightfully filthy crossover story featuring Severus Snape and John Constantine. NSFW at all, at all. John can always tell when the Professor’s in town. The air in Soho grows heavy and hot and thick, and The Whip–grand old dame of the London sex scene–lights up like a birthday cake for those who have the sight. “Hello, sailor,” the magic-soaked building all but calls to him. “Looking for a good time?”

Life After Narnia by Transposable_Element is two stories, all about Susan Pevensie taking care of business, and mourning, after her family is killed. It’s a meditation on death and grief that really connected with me at several points. Characters from Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series appear as well.

A Song for Ruatha by Aishuu is a Menolly story, set during McCaffrey’s Dragonsinger. Menolly travels to Ruatha Hold for a Gather, and stresses about the special song she’s supposed to write for it amid tensions about the young Lord Holder Jaxom and the dragon he recently Impressed, Ruth. Also has Competent!Sebell and of course Master Robinton, and a surprise Benden Weyr guest.

Radio to the Youth by Scappodaqui is a WWII-era Howling Commandos story from the pov of Jim Morita. As you know, Bob, I adore nifty historical detail, and this story has lots. Also there is a sequel!

The Peggers’ Tale by kinetikatrue, for Sybill is medieval-style poetry about Elinor of Aquitaine and her maid, and Henry Plantagenet, and, well, pegging. It is absolutely brilliant.

Comics:
I read Ghost Volume 1: In the Smoke and Din by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Noto, from Dark Horse, for a panel at Arisia, on Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick. This was apparently a reboot of an older series which I hadn’t read. I enjoyed it, but not enough to pick up the second volume; once the central mystery was solved, I didn’t have enough attachment to the characters. The art was nice, though.

In contrast, I adored Pretty Deadly Volume 1: The Shrike, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios, from Image. Sometimes I had a little difficulty parsing the lush art, but I loved it anyway, if that makes sense. This is a Western, with a weird and strange mythology and characters whom I found intriguing even when they only had a few lines. Bonus points for multiple female characters and several characters of color. I will definitely read more of this; the collected volume two will be out at the end of May.

Also from Image, One Weird Trick (Sex Criminals 1) by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky is fun. Two characters have the ability to freeze time when they orgasm, so they decide the rob a bank to save a library – the bank where he works, and the library where she works. As you do. The tone is wry, confessional, rueful, affectionate; it reminded me a bit of Phil Foglio’s XXXenophile, though the humor is in a more subdued key. I will read more of this series, as well, after I catch up on some of what I already own.

I finished up the last two volumes of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel that I had – and realized I should have read these first. Oh well. Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight and Captain Marvel, Vol. 2: Down. I was excited to find Monica Rambeau bantering with Carol Danvers in volume two! I was less excited to realize the story running through these volumes does not conclude in them; the conclusion is in a crossover collection which is, of course, out of print at the moment. Sigh.

In Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed, Kamala thinks she might be falling in love with a boy even her parents approve of; as you can imagine, things do not go smoothly.

A-Force Presents Vol. 1 is a sampler of first issues featuring female characters: Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, and Squirrel Girl. I didn’t realize it was a sampler when I bought it, so I only got three issues I hadn’t already read. It might be good if you want, well, a sampler of several titles! The first issue of Thor did not in fact feature the female Thor until the last page, which was frustrating; I still don’t know if I’ll like the series or not, as I’ve never been a reader of Thor. Squirrel Girl is adorable, though.

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My Arisia 2016 Schedule

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Victoria Janssen

I’ll be attending Arisia January 15 – 18, 2016 in Boston. My panel schedule is below.

Friday, 5:30 pm, Bulfinch
“Guilty Pleasures: The Fast and the Furious”
After appearing to be stalled (so to speak) post-Tokyo Drift, the Fast & The Furious franchise has taken off over the last decade to become a monstrous success. There are few guiltier pleasures, but also few major action movies that regularly feature women and people of color, and certainly few that get praised by the likes by Roxane Gay. Let’s talk about what makes this at-times ludicrous franchise work so well, from the cast to the amazing action sequences.
Terri Bruce (moderator); Michael Toole; Victoria Janssen; Kris

Saturday, 10:00 am, Marina 2
“The Founding Mothers of SF”
As we know, women invented all our favorite stuff! Mary Shelley defined science fiction with Frankenstein; Baroness Emma Orczy invented the superhero with The Scarlet Pimpernel. Let’s discuss the founding mothers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Catherine Lundoff (moderator); Greer Gilman; Debra Doyle; Victoria Janssen; Jo Vanderhooft

Saturday, 7:00 pm, Marina 3
“Haus De Fraction: Milkfed Criminal Masterminds”
With successes like Captain Marvel, Bitch Planet, Hawkeye and Sex Criminals under their belts, comics has a new power couple in Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction. These gifted writers are using the comics medium to address issues regarding representation, diversity and feminism in wildly creative ways. This panel will explore their amazing talents and enduring popularity with their dedicated fans.
Jaime Garmendia (moderator); Mehitabel; Thom Dunn; Victoria Janssen

Sunday, 10:00 am, Marina 1
“Headcanon and SF/F”
In 2013 Michelle Nijhuis had an article in Slate about her daughter’s insistence that Bilbo Baggins is a girl. In 2015, on Buzzfeed, Alanna Bennett discusses the popular headcanon of Hermione Granger as black. This panel is about headcanons. The ones that catch on, the ones that address lack of representation in original works (and whether that is a distraction from the need for more diverse original work), and where headcanons drift into entirely different characters.
A. J. Odasso; Victoria Janssen; Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein; JoSelle Vanderhooft

Sunday, 2:30 pm, Marina 1
“In Which the Author Has Run Out of F!?ks to Give”
Often, over the course of a long series, it becomes clear that the author has run completely out of f!?ks and is spinning their wheels. You can almost see the departure of the last f!?k the author had to give. Let’s discuss series that continue way past the exhaustion of inspiration.
Shira Lipkin (moderator); Meredith Schwartz; Victoria Janssen; Eric in the Elevator, Daniel Miller

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My December Reading Log

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction:
There’s Something About Ari by L.B. Gregg was novella length, I think, a m/m romance that never took off for me, though I did finish it.

I picked up another in a long-running series. Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb was fairly rote, but it was ideal for circumstances in which I was constantly being interrupted. I was very happy each time a new characters/s had to be updated on the crime; that was very helpful in re-orienting me to the story.

And I finally read A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith, character-based military fantasy; if you liked her massive Inda series, this reminded me of it on much smaller scale. A foreign student is sent away from the intrigues of his home country and immersed in training at a legendary military academy, learning more about governing in the process. It’s a very internal book, but I could still see it as a movie as well.

Fiction Re-reads:
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, the second Chalion book. It amused me that the prtagonist, Ista, seemed much younger than she had on my first read, because I am now older than she is. I hadn’t read this since it first came out in hardcover, and had forgotten most of the details except for impressions of the characters and their fates; this proved to be true of my mystery re-reads, too.

I was reminded of Kate Ross by one of my brief holiday visits to Twitter, so I re-read the first three Julian Kestrel Regency historical mysteries: Cut to the Quick, A Broken Vessel, and Whom the Gods Love. I highly recommend this series; there are only four, because of the author’s death. Kestrel is a bit Campion with his mysterious background and formerly-criminal manservant; there’s also a precocious girl who brings faint echoes of the Lymond series.

Comics:
Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson has a special guest! And giant reptiles! And Inhumans! I don’t entirely love the art – sometimes I like the cartoony faces, sometimes it seems a bit much. But I am getting used to it. Though this volume had two different artists, there seemed to be an attempt at unity of style, a style tinged with humor. Maybe because they’re aiming at a younger audience?

Hawkeye Volume 4: Rio Bravo is the last of the Matt Fraction run; the next volume will have a new writer. It was pretty intense, and as usual, I loved, loved, loved the clean and spare art. I did not expect to love Clint’s brother Barney, who hasn’t been that great in the past, but Fraction actually managed it. Also, I have Lucky feels. (Lucky is the dog.)

Captain Marvel Volume 2: Stay Fly by Kelly Sue Deconnick features some Guardians of the Galaxy crossover, and also Chewie the cat.

Captain Marvel Vol. 3: Alis Volat Propriis by Kelly Sue Deconnick was unexpectedly moving, more than once, adventure mixing with poignancy.

Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps by Kelly Sue Deconnick is the first, and possibly only, volume of the new “Secret Wars” that I intend to read. The story didn’t grab me all that much, as there were a lot of new-to-me characters, and I wasted a lot of energy trying to tell them apart. But the whole female WWII-style airplane pilots thing was pretty awesome, and I loved how well the art matched the idea.

I didn’t read a huge amount of fanfiction in December, due to re-reads and traveling and not having much free time, but I loved I’ll build a house inside of you by magdaliny, an AU story about young Natasha Romanov and the Winter Soldier escaping together. With a happy ending, if you’re worried.

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November Reading Log

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction:
A Trifle Dead by Livia Day is a humorous small-town mystery. I enjoyed all the quirky characters and the to-me-unusual setting of Hobart in Tasmania; there’s also a lot of excellent, excellent food description, as the first person narrator owns a cafe and likes to experiment. I feel smug about the mystery because I figured out who the villain was, but that didn’t impair my enjoyment. The only thing that annoyed me a little was the Scottish character whose dialect was written out.

After that, I fell into another reading slump, so I re-read The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. So far as I recall I only read it once, when it first came out, so there’s a lot I didn’t remember about it. The re-read went very quickly, and while it was in progress I didn’t feel the need to stray to anything else. I bought an e-edition of the next one in the series for possible holiday re-read.

I had a couple of DNFs, but I’ll give them another month or so before I record them, in case I go back and finish.

Comics:
Runaways: The Complete Collection Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn has been on my TBR for a while, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. For those not familiar with the series, it’s about a group of kids who find out their parents are supervillains, so they run away and try to defeat them…except one of them might be a traitor to the cause. In the group of kids, girls outnumber boys! Though I identified the Mole among the kids before it was revealed, I guessed other things wrong, and was pleasantly surprised by several plot twists. I have Volume 2 waiting for me; there are four in all.

Nonfiction:
Work/Text: Investigating the Man from U.N.C.L.E. by Cynthia Walker is the book form of the author’s dissertation, so is likely not for everyone, but if you’re a fan of the show as well and like to read about media studies, as I do, then it’s lovely. I had met the author years ago at a convention for media fandom and heard about her research then. I’ve been looking forward to the book ever since! It’s repaid my wait. Once you get through the theoretical section, it’s fascinating to see how many people from how many angles affected what eventually appeared in the aired episodes, and how the success of those episodes altered the rest of the television landscape – and how the rest of the television landscape affected it in turn, for example the success of Batman with Adam West influencing the third season of U.N.C.L.E.. I particularly liked the section about the various tie-in novels, including the juvenile one (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: The Affair of the Gentle Saboteur) that I read multiple times as a kid, despite having never (at that point) seen the show.

Poetry:
Aboard the Transport Tesoro by Lisa M. Bradley at Uncanny Magazine.

Artifacts by Judith Roney at Mythic Delirium.

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Book Sample-palooza

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

I’m going to have some time to read over my Christmas holiday, so I went through my wishlist and downloaded a whole slew of samples (see below). I will report back once I get through them all! In the meantime, if you have read any of these books and either loved or hated them, feel free to let me know in comments.

I can no longer remember who recommended most of these to me. All of the authors are new to me except for Daniel José Older and Kate Elliott.

—The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
—The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
—The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
— Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
—The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1 by R. M. Meluch
—Blanche on the Lam: A Blanche White Mystery by Barbara Neely
—The Complete Check Your Luck Agency by K.S. Augustin
—An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
—The Grass King’s Concubine by Kari Sperring
—One Night in Sixes by Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson
— vN by Madeline Ashby
—Highfell Grimoires by Langley Hyde
—A Blight of Mages by Karen Miller
—School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough
—The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by Zen Cho
—Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho – this one is pretty definitely something I plan to read, I just haven’t bought it yet.
— Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
—Black Wolves by Kate Elliott
—Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

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My Philcon 2015 Schedule

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

I’ll be at Philcon in Cherry Hill, NJ this weekend. My schedule is below.

Sat 11:00 AM, Plaza I
“The Legend of Korra”Victoria Janssen (moderator), Brandon Wright, Laura Kovalcin, Hakira D’Almah, Savan Gupta

While its prequel show “The Last Airbender” had strong appeal for both younger and older fans, Korra – with its older cast and more mature themes- was clearly not intended just for children. Set seventy years after the events of The Last Airbender in a world heavily influenced by both the jazz era and the steampunk aesthetic, our protagonist struggled not with a mere invading army, but with politics, ideological zealots, and the very nature of her world’s reality changing. Managing to explore relationship dynamics without being cliched, the writers of Korra ultimately wound up giving her a happy ending that few would expect to see in an American animated tv show. So what’s next for the Avatar?

Sat 3:00 PM, Crystal Ballroom Two
“Sherlock Holmes in the 21st Century”
Hildy Silverman (moderator), Melissa James, Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Victoria Janssen, Steve Vertlieb

There’s been a lot of activity centered around 221B Baker Street in the last few years. Which adaptations are trying to keep characterizations and plot elements as close to canon as possible, and which are just using the original stories as a jumping-off point? And perhaps most importantly, which ones have you enjoyed the most?

Sun 12:00 PM, Plaza IV
“Romance Novels with SF versus SF Novels with Romance”
Victoria Janssen (moderator), D. Renee Bagby, Michael L. Brachman, D.L. Carter, Maureen O. Betita

When is a romance a plot element, and when is it genre-defining?

Sun 1:00 PM, Plaza V
“Fans, Fiction, and the Formative Years”
Lynati (moderator), Tony Finan, Victoria Janssen, Joseph Berenato

What stories made you first realize something new about yourself? When mainstream media doesn’t depict the kind of person you are, where do you turn to find characters you identify with?

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October 2015 Reading Log

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

October was a pretty sad reading month for me! I was extremely busy, which was part of it, and I seem to be in a bit of a fiction slump as well. The only fiction I finished was 1) a sequel and 2) a book for anonymous review, but I did finish a nonfiction book I’d been working on for months.

Fiction:
I started, but did not finish, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, an author recommended to me by Gardner Dozois way back before this novel even came out. It seems to be a space opera caper novel with inventive worldbuilding, only more complicated, but I just wasn’t in the mood. Later, perhaps?

I also started Opening Act by Suleikha Snyder, a romance featuring a Gujarati-American heroine who is a music reporter and her unrequited crush-since-college, a white guy who’s in a band and feels he doesn’t deserve her because he’s working class (I think, he also keeps her on a pedestal because she’s really smart). I was not in the mood for their early-twenties angst. They had an interesting range of friends as well, so I am guessing there might be more books about their circle. Again, maybe later?

I did finish Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, so I am now up-to-date on the Rivers of London series. I enjoyed the book; I liked the police procedural aspect, and the continuing plot elements that grow more complex rather than less, but I feel the next book is probably going to be more momentous; a lot of future stuff felt like it was being set up in this one.

Fanfiction:
No Yesterdays On the Road by pocky_slash is an X-Men: First Class AU which features a Magneto/CIA!Moira road trip and brief appearances by a six-year-old Ororo Munroe. The setup includes Erik staying with Charles after the movie ends, rather than splitting off from him, but that’s only incidental to the plot. Road! Trip!

Nonfiction:
In And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II by Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee is what it says on the tin. Overall, it’s terrific, except I wish the occasional anecdotes were a little less like well-worn sepia photographs tucked in amongst the facts. I am sure there is more life and significant detail in those stories than is appearing on the page. Or maybe there was, once, and it was lost through repetition. I think some anecdotes came from letters, others from stories told to family, both of which would have been self-censored. Sometimes there’s a bit too much detail for smooth reading – giving people’s full names and home towns and dates things happened tends to slow down the narrative.

The section about the invasion of Italy and the harrowing experiences of the medical personnel on the Anzio beachhead was the most breathtaking part for me, though the horrifying events of the bombed hospital ship came close. The last section on the invasion of Germany felt, to me, more rushed than the previous. I’d also been expecting to hear more about the POW nurses in the Pacific, who began the book, but Victory in Europe was pretty much the end. Overall, I’d recommend it. I haven’t yet seen another like it.

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September 2015 Reading Log

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction:
That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran is the first historical romance I’ve read in, it seems, forever. The characters are intriguing! The hero is a doctor whose brother is trying to bully him into marrying; the heroine is a widow whom he discovered drunk and sleeping under a bush. It turned out I wasn’t as much in the mood for a romance as I’d hoped, but I did really like the complex relationship between the hero and his manipulative brother; they’re at odds, and angry with each other, but love each other at the same time.

Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older is terrific! I met the author when we were in the same reading session at Arisia one year, and absolutely loved the story he read there, so I bought his first novel as soon as it came out. (If you ever get a chance to hear him read, go!) Then, of course, the book sat in the (electronic) TBR for months on end. On the good side, it took me long enough to get to it that a sequel is out, Midnight Taxi Tango. Half-Resurrection Blues is Urban Fantasy, set in Brooklyn, with a strong noir feel. The first-person protagonist, Carlos, is half-dead and half-alive, able to see and interact with both the living and the dead, which makes him ideal for the purposes of the NY Council of the Dead, who use him to deal with ghosts and other supernatural types who are causing trouble. His best buddy Riley is a ghost. Carlos’ understated, sarcastic narration was a high point of the book for me, as was the dense, complex, original worldbuilding (magical and otherwise) with its realistic mix of people and cultures. The Brooklyn neighborhoods in the book, some of them, are gentrifying, which added an element of liminality. This being noir, there’s a Girl of course, who’s Trouble, and also Carlos is a snazzy dresser. I could totally visualize the movie of this book, and it would be awesome.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch is fourth in an urban fantasy series about magical cops in contemporary London that I’ve been reading since the beginning. I’d put this one off for a while because I’d heard it had a twist I wasn’t sure I would like. But as it turned out, I was okay with the twist, and am interested to find out what happens next. I love this series for the characters and worldbuilding – for example, the way Peter Grant’s deep interest in architecture is woven throughout his first-person narration which also contains police jargon, wry humor, and anecdotes about his family. I recommend this series highly.

Comics:
Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton is out! I’d read most of the comics before, online, but it was lovely to find a few things I’d missed scattered throughout. And this volume has my absolute fave of all her comics, Chopin and Liszt. My only complaint is that I wish the print had been a bit larger, particularly when there was a line of commentary, in the author’s handwriting, at the bottom of a page. I had to squint a few times, even while wearing my glasses. Online archive for Hark, a vagrant.

Poetry:
Stars By Snigdha Chaya Saikia at Strange Horizons has a science fiction plot with a mythological feel.

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CapClave 2015

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

October 9-11, 2015, I’ll be at CapClave in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

My schedule is below.

Saturday, October 10, 2015, 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM
“Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance”
Victoria Janssen, Alma Katsu, Dina Leacock (moderator), Sherin Nicole
What is the genre? What authors and works should people be reading?

Saturday, October 10, 2015, 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
“Food In Fiction”
Ann Chatham, Brenda W. Clough, Victoria Janssen (moderator)
Even heroes and dragons have to eat. The food in a work of fiction can be a crucial part of the setting, and sometimes the fictional food enters the real world, as in A Feast of Ice and Fire. What authors do the best job with food and what do they do that’s effective? How do you write about food?

Sunday, October 11, 2015, 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM
“The Appeal of Doctor Who”
Cathy Green (moderator), Victoria Janssen, Alastair Reynolds, Hildy Silverman
Doctor Who has lasted over 50 years and 12 Doctors. Why has this series lasted so long? Why has the revival done so well in the US compared to the original? What are the differences between old and new Who? Has it jumped the shark?

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CapClave 2015

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Victoria Janssen

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Next weekend, October 9-11, 2015, I’ll be at CapClave in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Here’s my preliminary panel schedule:

Saturday, October 10, 2015, 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM
“Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance”

Saturday, October 10, 2015, 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
“Food In Fiction”

Sunday, October 11, 2015, 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM
“The Appeal of Doctor Who”

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