#sffbookclub

Never Let Me Go is another book from the #SFFBookClub backlog. I content warned this for spoilers, but it's mostly for the "clone" aspect, even as I feel like this was pretty obvious from the get go. I don't even think that this is a "twist" book, but I think the slow building reveal is also effective and I didn't want to ruin it.

This is a first person perspective story about a group of kids in an English boarding school and their lives after. They slowly learn that they are infertile clones, and that the trajectory of their lives is to be organ donors for "real" people. That said, despite being a book about the lives of clones, it isn't a book about that at all.

The reader's guide at the back of the book has a snippet from (presumably) this article which I liked a lot:

But there are things I am more interested in than the clone thing. How are they trying to find their place in the world and make sense of their lives? To what extent can they transcend their fate? As time starts to run out, what are the things that really matter? Most of the things that concern them concern us all, but with them it is concertinaed into this relatively short period of time.

I think this quote really helped put this book into perspective for me. This is not a story about resisting or struggling against an unfair situation. Characters largely move from states of ignorance directly to acceptance; there's no denial, there's a half attempt bargaining (for deferral, not escape), and there's barely even any anger about it--at most, Tommy screams into a field, only at the very end. There's much more anger from the non-clone teachers and guardians about how clones are treated, sadness about the harshness of this new world, and revulsion(!) about the clones themselves.

Instead, it's really a book about poignancy of life and friendships. I think it's trying to ask questions of "what's important (and why do anything), if you only have a finite amount of time to live" as if that doesn't apply to all of us (and as if we all aren't in our own unfair situation, to various degrees).

I have only read one other Ishiguro book, Klara and the Sun, which felt like a sister book to this one. Kathy and Klara both share an optimistic perspective, speak in a similar matter-of-fact tone, and don't struggle against the (horrific) limitations of their world. It's similarly a dystopia and science fiction, but these are at the margins of a personal story.

Ultimately, my feelings about this book are mixed. I think this would have worked much better as a shorter length piece. I found myself much more interested by Klara in Klara and the Sun than I did with the school friendship dance between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy. There was some good school and growing up vibes, but there wasn't enough depth to the foregrounded story to make the its metaphor stand on its on.

A Half-Built Garden is an extremely hopeful climate fiction / first contact / self-proclaimed "diaperpunk" science fiction novel. Lots of Becky Chambers-esque comfort reading vibes here and would recommend this to folks looking for a story about optimism and communities and finding shared values across cultures. Also, the aliens are huge human nerds and have watched too much bollywood and anime.

Personally, I imagine this book's plot hook a bit as an alternate universe Xenogenesis. (Sorry I know I know I bring this book up all the time, but it's one that really sticks to your bones.) Xenogenesis is about the extremely heteronormative patronizing Oankali coming to a failing earth and wanting to save humans and selfishly force them into symbiosis. This book tells the story of a slightly more future earth where corporations have lost power (but still exist) and the earth is being rebuilt by "dandelion networks" who forced corporations into submission and are focused on watersheds and ecological rebuilding. The earth here is a titular "half-built garden" which is still very much in progress when the aliens show up. But instead of the Oankali having so much power that consent cannot exist, the Ringers in this book have power but are more open to discussion and humanity trying to form community with aliens on their own terms.

One of the things I think the book did really well is that there a lot of different identities (parents, Jewish, trans, polyam especially) that are integrally tied into the book's theme and plot. The book largely focuses on the protagonist Judy and her family and is a first contact book about aliens who deeply value children, mothers, and family. Metaphorically, aliens see humanity as small children who don't know how unsafe they are being and a lot of the struggle is negotiating with aliens to be seen as people so to speak. There's a lot going on with gender as well; there's multiple trans folks (with different paths and feelings about being trans), and they use their voices to speak up for giving others the freedom to choose their own paths that are not predetermined. Also, a climactic seder scene! The whole book is ultimately is about what is freedom and dealing with exile and asking questions. I'm not Jewish but this whole scene just worked so well.

On top of that, I do love a book with gender stuff going on. We got multiple trans people. We got corporation folks who put on gender masks (prince, princess, butch, femme, "neither", "naked") in public for power games, but keep their true selves hidden at home. We've got matriarchal heteronormative aliens who have big biological mother hangups and need to get over themselves. We've got multiple novel family structures. We've got multiple neopronouns. We've got pronoun pins. Yes, please!

One small thing I enjoyed is that there's an alien romance that felt very real here? Like, the characters involved all believably talk about the interpersonal reasons why they feel supported and have a personal connection. There's negotiation and awkward discussion of "what all does this even look like" in all senses. There's metamour teasing. It just felt very believable. Also there's an amazing awkward "parents just showed up after alien sex and we have to go downstairs and introduce them" moment.

At any rate, I really enjoyed this book a lot. I need more optimism like this in my fiction diet.

(tagging #SFFBookClub as this was the Sep 2023 book)

Having the #SFFBookClub pick this book for this month was a good excuse to read this book for the third time. My bias here is that I have deeply enjoyed everything I've read from Becky Chambers, so take from that what you will.

This is a slow-moving, character-focused novella that is more focused on existential questions and feelings than on plot. It's got some very funny moments, comfy world-building, and has incredibly endearing vibes. I love the idea of Allalae, god of small comforts so so much. (Also, yay non-binary protagonist, you love to see it.)

The short plot summary is that tea monk Sibling Dex struggles with finding satisfaction with their life and takes a jaunt off the beaten path to find it. On the way, they befriend inquisitive robot Mosscap who is trying to learn about how humans are doing and what they need. This novella is definitely the friends you make along the way. In a strict plot sense, the book ends the journey almost as it is getting started (setting up nicely for the next novella), but the emotional arc is amazingly crafted to deliver a gut punch.

In some ways, Sibling Dex feels like a stand-in for the reader themselves where Mosscap the robot as an outsider is positioned to be able to interrogate Dex about humanity itself and its self-perceptions. Mosscap's quest is to ask humans and find out "what they need", and ultimately this is the same question Dex struggles with themself. Dex feels like they need to get out of the city, or listen to crickets, or become a tea monk, or get away from their routine, or or or

I think it could be easy for this story to feel like it's about something very far from our world. Everybody's basic needs are taken care of. Capitalism seems to be in the past. The environment is being respected and rewilded. The autonomy of rebellious robot workers to stop working and fuck off is respected by all of humanity. All together it's a lovely and hopeful worldview that is hard to hold onto these days. But, the fact that Sibling Dex does not have any easy answers to pin their internal dissatisfaction on some obvious material lack makes their existential struggle and their worries about wasting their life that much more poignant.

I think I keep coming back to this book because it's an extremely hopeful view of the future that I want to hold onto, but also because the message is one I very personally need to keep hearing at this point in my life. It hasn't sunk in yet, but maybe on the next reread...