Insert Witty Journal Title Here

Here's some brief thoughts on books I've read recently:

(Historical YA) The Green Glass Sea/White Sands, Red Menace - Ellen Klages

I read these because Ellen Klages is one of the Guests of Honor at this year's Wiscon. I hope she's still doing the Tiptree Auction MCing though, because that was great fun last year. (As I gather is the case every year.) The second book just won the California Book Award in the YA category, so it was timely.

The first book is about two girls whose parents are working on the first atomic bomb and what it's like growing up around all thsoe scientists. It's rather like a true-life version of Eureka. Both girls aren't what you'd imagine a typical 1940's girl to be. This is historical fiction for geeks. Sometimes I do think there should be a category for science+fiction. Like House. Where it's all about the science, but it's just.. there's no extrapolating, so it's not really science fiction.

The second book continues their story post-war, as you might guess from the 'red menace' part.

These books are amazingly awesome and I don't know why I didn't discover them before.

(Science Fiction YA) The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

One of the winners of this year's Tiptree, which is why I read it. I didn't realize going into it that it ends on a HORRIBLE CLIFFHANGER and that the next book won't be published until September. Argh. It tells the story of a boy who grew up in an all-male world, after a disease made all the men's thoughts audible (and sometimes it really does seem to mean audible in a literal sense) and killed off all the women. And I was all set to read a book about an all-male society, but wouldn't you know it? Sure enough a girl shows up. I won't say more about the plot, but the voice of the character is really good and the world-building is also quite interesting. I do have some nagging questions, but perhaps they'll be answered in the next book. It may just be a general sense of 'unfinished' left in my head by the ruddy cliffhanger.

(Fantasy.. also possibly YA) Northlander - Meg Burden

Another book that's number one of a series. I read this one because it promised a deaf character. He's a minor character, but not an unimportant one. The main character is a girl whose father is a healer and who aspires to be one herself. Her father is treating the sick king of the Northlanders, but without being able to use his healing power because there's laws forbidding it. The Northlanders look down on her kind, and she's certainly not of prince standing, but she rather readily becomes friends with the princes. First one, then another, and another.. That combined with the story being told in the present tense gave it a rather fanficky feel to me. Though the plot does take some twists and turns I wasn't expecting, so it was still quite enjoyable.

The deaf character turns out to be one of the princes. A twin. Telepathic. (Did I mention the fanficky feel?) Other than the main character not being able to sign to him, he's treated like anyone else by the other characters in the book. The sign language is always described as involving 'fingers', and never arms, body, expression. So I wonder if it's supposed to be complicated fingersigning, the main character not being able to describe it better than that, or the author not quite having a grasp on the concept.

I do want to read the next book.

For full-fledged reviews of some other books I've read lately, I'm J over on Triple Take.