One of the blurbs on the cover of this book described it as a ‘Black Mirror’ episode, and honestly, yeah, pretty spot on. Near future techno-dystopia,One of the blurbs on the cover of this book described it as a ‘Black Mirror’ episode, and honestly, yeah, pretty spot on. Near future techno-dystopia, with just enough elements from daily life as we know it to make it feel uncomfortably realistic. Urgh.
My online presence is insignificant. Goodreads, Instagram (so by association, FB) but that’s basically it. I’m just not really interested in more, frankly, and I realize that probably ages me, and that’s fine. So reading a book about people who have taken the idea of influencer to the extreme but logical end of that concept – so people who live almost their entire life fully online, supported by a professional production team… well, that feels both like a thing that will happen any minute now, but it also freaks me out a bit.
Joey is a producer for one such influencer, Indi, basically running his livestream, making sure that he does what’s required to keep his fanbase engaged. This goes from the simple stuff, like product placement and event attendance, to supervising auditions for Indi’s new girlfriend (because her likability might impact his, duh). Rudra is Indi’s cousin, who was mostly estranged from his family, but is brought back into the fold when his uncle dies and begs Indi for a job on his team. The complex family dynamics in place are already making things fraught, but things get significantly more complicated when a conflict with investors come up, and information from both Joey and Indi’s past is dug up and used to threaten them.
This book is short, and fast-paced, and has a lot to say about our addiction to vapid social media and surveillance capitalism. In North America, we worry about it, but in countries like India, the consequences of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could be much more severe than the run-of-the-mill cancellations we see here on an almost daily basis. Samit Basu is a brilliant writer, who managed to get me engaged with his characters immediately and gave me such a rich sense of the settings that I could imagine all the noises and colors and lights and smells of Delhi. But to say that enjoyed a story that focuses on paranoia would not be quite accurate. It’s an incredibly effective story, detailed and precise, and it was a great read, but it draws a bleak and concerning picture of the future. I will be looking for more books by Basu, and keeping an eye out for future publication because this is a talent not to be missed if you are interested in sci-fi. Very recommended. ...more
This was a no brainer pick: books and cats are two things I love, so a story that combines those elements with a touch of magical realism is absolute This was a no brainer pick: books and cats are two things I love, so a story that combines those elements with a touch of magical realism is absolute catnip (ha!) for me. And frankly, life has not really been giving me much of a break lately, so I was definitely on the lookout for gentle escapist reads.
When his grandfather dies, Rintaro inherits his used bookstore, which feels to him like a burden: he is still in high school, and while he loves the place so much, this seems like too much to take on. But then Tiger shows up. Tiger is a talking ginger tabby who enlists Rintaro to help on his mission to… save books? Sure enough, Rintaro follows the little cat in a corner of the store he had never noticed before, and off they are on a strange and wonderous adventure.
I lost count of how many times I must have mentioned in one of my reviews that books are such a crucial part of my life, that they are one of the things that keep me sane and strong, and that I almost consider them to be living things that hang out on my shelves and keep me company. So obviously, a book like that is aimed at the kind of book maniac that I am, and I knew from the get-go that there was no way I wouldn’t enjoy my time with “The Cat Who Saved Books”.
Sentimental? Idealistic? Sure. But it was a much-needed light and hopeful read during a really anxious time, a great reminder that books are a refuge, but that we need to step out of them every once in a while.
If you need a shot of quiet loveliness, this is it! ...more
Zen Cho is quickly becoming an important author on my speculative-fiction radar, with her lovely whimsical style and her stories that are much deeper Zen Cho is quickly becoming an important author on my speculative-fiction radar, with her lovely whimsical style and her stories that are much deeper than they appear at first sight. I had seen her name on my Goodreads feed for a while, and I took the plunge earlier this year with “Black Water Sister” and now I am hooked!
This collection of short stories and novellas touch on similar themes as the ones explored with “Black Water Sister”: immigration, cultural clash, transformation, self-discovery, family (what it actually means and how generations can’t understand each other), and sexual awakening. Those are all very contemporary topics, but I love that Cho chose to explore them through the lens of folklores and legends from South East Asia – with a few Celtic faeries sprinkled on top for good measure! She also effortlessly draws up characters who are beautifully diverse – it never feels like box-checking, it just is.
Vampires, gods, dragons, ghosts, automata, aliens, sentient plants : I learned a lot about mythology reading this book, but I also got a wonderful glimpse of the inner lives of such creatures, their loves, motivations, desires and fears. I think that Cho’s gift truly lies in opening her readers’ heart with her little fables, and while there are a few weaker stories in this book, none of them are bad, and they are all thought-provoking.
A very charming collection, recommended to fans of Asian mythology and soft sci-fi....more
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