Here are some reviews of some things I've read recently: The Hounds of Skaith by Leigh Brackett, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, The Children of Men by P. D. James, The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot, and The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente.
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr. was a re-read, but I have not reviewed it on the blog before. I also reread (for at least the tenth time) What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula, which I have reviewed before.
You can also see these and other reviews on my Goodreads.
The Hounds of Skaith by Leigh Brackett
Like the first of the series, The Ginger Star, this one is a fun science fantasy type of thing (think "Conan with space travel") from Leigh Brackett, who was a powerhouse in both science fiction and Hollywood (she wrote an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back among other things). I continue to enjoy the world building, and in fact, my main complaint is that we don't get enough of that. Our hero Stark meets seemingly dozens of different cultures and peoples and we barely get to know them before we move on to the next, often with battles that, for me, anyway, often lack context or really any point or real stakes. Still, I enjoy some of Brackett's prose, and I love the idea of a planet with a dying star opening up to the larger galactic civilization, albeit not without detractors who would rather not do so. This isn't an ideas sort of novel per se, but maybe there is a message about openness to difference buried somewhere beneath the hard scrub of Skaith. Maybe I'll pick up the third in the trilogy sometime to find out.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
A cozy urban fantasy that’s extremely, as the Brits say, twee. Not anything particularly groundbreaking and very tropey (especially for the romance), but a warm hug and cup of tea, which can be a nice read sometimes. I read this on a trip to England, so the Englishness of the whole thing was heightened for me.
(Sorry, this was a short one. I wrote it while traveling and never got around to writing more.)
The Children of Men by P. D. James
I've been wanting to read this since I saw the movie almost 20 years ago. The central idea of both the book and movie is fascinating: what would happen to humanity if we all stopped being able to have children? Not just that some of us are childless, but ALL of humanity loses the ability to reproduce? What would that do to our societies? Our economies? Our politics? Our psyches? Our religious and spiritual strivings? The meanings of our lives?
The novel is a bit less of a conventional sci-fi dystopia than the movie, or at least that's how it played in my head as opposed to on the screen (PD James was best known as a mystery writer, after all). Both are very British. I read this while on vacation in England, so that was fun. The core idea is so interesting that that would have sustained the novel on its own for me. But I also thought the prose was great, having that depth that you could often find in commercial fiction in the 1980's and 1990's that I often find lacking in the 2010's and 2020's (I realize how pretentious this sounds, but alas, such are my feelings...).
James explores the big picture surprisingly well in such a relatively short novel. The main character, an academic who lost a child years before, meets a group of people who have Big Plans. And they need him, because his cousin happens to be the head honcho of Britain. One thing I initially resisted was James's idea that more nationalistic/fascistic governments would take over in this world, but looking at the last ten years of real-world politics, it's hard to fault her there.
The novel has some clear Christian imagery (and maybe, at least on one interpretation, that it was our godless secularism that brought this calamity upon us), and in the end the political world building isn't as strong as it could have been in a longer novel, but the core idea is so well thought out and the writing and story are so interesting, I'm going to call this a great novel. It may someday be considered a classic of dystopian fiction, if it is not already.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
This book has some creepy underground vibes, which is what I was hoping for, but it is a slow burn. I mean, sloooooooow. I think this would be a good novella or even long-ish short story, but I didn't feel like there was nearly enough here for a 400-page novel. There are pretty much only two characters, and I didn't find either of them interesting enough to sustain such a long narrative (not that they're bad characters, I just didn't get a sense who they are beyond their jobs and losses). I would have maybe liked more about the big picture world building or big questions (Why are they mining on another planet? What do humans learn in these caves about ourselves or the universe? What is really down there?). My criticisms aside, there are some creepy parts and you do eventually learn at least some of the details, at least those immediately relevant to the characters. I love good space horror, but this was not quite what I was hoping it would be. Your desire to descend into the depths of this novel may vary.
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot
I've read Harriot's shorter online articles for years, and I was excited to hear he published a book. This is kinda like the shorter things, but longer! And I'm not going to lie: this is a long book. The book format gives him a chance to develop a longer narrative of the history of Black America. I did chuckle a lot, but I learned even more. Harriot has a way of making even the most horrifying history interesting to read. My particular favorite parts are when his uncle takes over the narrative for a whole chapter on at least two separate occasions. That playfulness with the medium greatly amused me.
(Obviously one could say a lot more about this book. But maybe I don't need to white-splain Harriot to you. Just read this book!)
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
"Fun" is probably the wrong word to describe a book about "fridging" (a term coined by Gail Simone for the trope of killing or harming women, especially in superhero stories, to further the plot for the male characters, often when girlfriends and wives of the main hero are left to die in a refrigerator to give him a tragic backstory). But Valente has a way of making this serious topic... fun? Or maybe let's say "engaging" (no pun intended for the unfortunate fiancees of superheroes).
Valente makes her own superhero multiverse and afterlife, where the women who have been "fridged" to forward their male partners' narratives, tell their own stories in a sort of afterlife support group. Valente's prose is, as always, lively and creative. "Punchy" you might say (these are superheroes, after all!). It's a great exercise in centering the narrative around characters who are usually at best a minor subplot/stumbling block along the way to male superheroes' greatness. And the comic book-style illustrations are excellent!
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr.
NOTE: Regular blog readers may recall that I'm a big fan of MLK (see my yearly MLK Day posts). I've read this book a few times; it's my favorite of King's books. This is the review I wrote in 2020. Reading it again in 2026 for my Gandhi, MLK, and Nonviolence course, my feelings are similar, albeit perhaps with a bit more melancholy that humanity learned few, if any, of the lessons we should have learned from 2020. Yet King's question--where do we go from here: chaos or community?--feels more urgent every day.
Reading this again for the first time in 20 years, I think that despite some ways in which King was a person of his times (e.g., his unfortunate sexism and lack of attention gender issues), a lot of this is even more relevant today. I'm thinking especially of King's call to radically rethink everything about American society and the world order, to make a world that is compassionate and person-centered rather than militaristic and profit-centered. That he does this with a realistic appraisal of failures and challenges that verges on cynicism while maintaining a core of hope is what I find most relatable in 2020 as we navigate a pandemic and continuing racial and economic disparities. I wish I could send this book to every white person who posts out-of-context MLK quotes on social media in service of the status quo or to tell Black people how to behave.
This is an absolute classic, so it's hard to know how to write a full review. Two ideas that might do it justice: Either a science fiction alternative history of an America and world that took King's advice from this book or making a bunch of memes of King's most radical quotes from this book to post in response to people who post MLK quotes in service of the 21st century version of the white backlash King describes in this book.
Maybe I'll do both eventually. Maybe this will be an assignment for students when I inevitably teach this book in one of my philosophy classes. In the meantime, here is my assignment to you, dear reader: please read this book.
Note: I've taught this book twice now, once in 2021 and again this year. I did the meme project in 2021, which was fun! And this year a few students are taking my up on my offer to let them do creative projects like short stories, podcasts, etc. I even have a few zines coming! I would also like to write something about King's Beloved Community and Star Trek.
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