First, my apologies for the work-induced absence, it’s s been a tough fortnight. But let’s not dwell. I’m very happy to be back and have some time to write this weekend, so here we go with my belated May wrap-up. Considering the work situation, I managed to read a good amount and loved most of it. I’m attempting to read all novels and novellas nominated for Hugos and Nebulas this year and I just finished the last novella on my list. I’m only going to mention this months’ novellas briefly, as I’m planning a separate post in the coming days. And in case you are puzzled, I read two books on Kindle, that’s why the picture doesn’t quite match the list.

1. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Few things bring me as much pleasure as a complex, well-written, unique science fiction epic. I also have a thing for empires (it’s a theoretical thing, I don’t necessarily want to live in one). I was therefore not surprised to love this book, which is essentially a mixture of Byzantine, Roman, Mesoamerican and Mongol empires projected into space, with a murder mystery thrown in. While I love my hard science fiction, the pleasure in this one comes mostly from the cultural, political and societal side of things. If it reminds me of anything, it’s Ann Leckie in Ancillary Sword, where most of the action is about diplomacy and politics, not fighting and war. There are also shades of Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs, what with the murder of the ambassador and all that colonialism. If you know your taste in SFF overlaps with mine to at least some extent, I highly recommend you read this.

2. Border by Kapka Kassabova. Another big favourite of the month, this is an intelligent, lyrical, haunting look at the concept of borders in general and the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece in particular. I went in fully expecting to like it, but for some reason I expected an easier book, a travel chronicle with some additional insights. Border is much more than that and it’s not a light read, although there is plenty of wit and moments of levity and beauty. In addition to the Bulgarian roses and the oriental tobacco and the romance of the Black Sea, the book tells you about the horrors of the past, be they Soviet, fascist, nationalist or imperialist and also about the reality of the current immigration crisis. It is not preachy, but it’s impactful. I was choking up every three pages. Highly recommended.

3. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente. I love The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Eurovision and Valente (mostly based on Deathless), so I didn’t expect to find this book a struggle. But I did, especially in the beginning. Valente can be extremely funny; unfortunately, she is just trying way too hard here for my taste – every sentence is an elliptic, gargantuan attempt at/display of cleverness and you need to dig through a huge amount of that to get to the good bits. It did get better when she introduced some (admittedly very little) character development and plot to accompany the jokes and everything calmed down somewhat – or maybe I just got used to the style. There are some truly brilliant moments in the book and I applaud the general message that glam and glitter are excellent weapons against fascism (bonus points for the skilful deployment of some vowel-heavy Estonian words). Ultimately, it just felt like a missed opportunity to me, with the wit and fabulousness that were undeniably there getting lost in the relentless pursuit of humour. I know many people loved it, though, so keep that in mind.

4. Gods, Monsters, And The Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson. One of the novella’s nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula. More on this in the coming week.

5. Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield. Another one from my awards readathon, although this one is only on the Nebua list.

6. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi. The winner of the Man Booker International prize is a family saga that takes place in Oman. It is a thoughtful, rather slim book told in fragments, but covers a lot of ground in terms of time and characters. My knowledge of Oman is rudimentary and mostly comes from an Omani cookbook that I love, so it was enlightening to read. I liked it more as I went on (with the exception of the last chapter) and while it can be challenging to follow, I believe the construction of the novel is in fact very clever. The more I think about it, the more I feel it’s a great way to tell a story of a family: no-one knows everything, we all only see fragments of the bigger picture and have to make do. If you like your reading to tell you about other places and cultures and histories, this is definitely worth reading.

7. A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer. I’m not easily intimidated intellectually and am a rather confident reader, be it in Estonian or English. But I think Boyer was beyond my abilities, at last in part. This is a very intellectually ambitious book of essays written in intense, experimental prose. The author is a poet and I often felt like reading poetry when reading this book – I had to constantly try to make sense of what was on the page and I didn’t always succeed. She is clearly brilliant, however, and while I found some of the book unnecessarily pretentious, others bits were great. My absolute favourite essay (maybe because it was accessible and extremely witty) was Difficult Ways to Publish Poetry, which I believe all of you would enjoy.

8. Tea Master And The Detective by Aliette de Bodard. I read this on Kindle, as it’s sadly no longer available on paper. It has already won a Nebula and is also on the Hugo nominees list.

9. Fire Ant by Jonathan P. Brazee. A military SF novella from the Nebula short list, this completes my May reading report.

How are you and what have you been reading? Not that I need any more recommendations, as my reading list is overflowing already…