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The Language of the Night: Free for all [1]

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Date: 2022-08-15

It’s been a decidedly busy couple of weeks at my house and, as usual, I have more plans than time, and therefore have yet again been caught short of the 4 hours I would need to finish my discussion of T. Kingfisher’s horror novels. In my defense, the diversion that’s been monopolizing my days is cutting a 4th tooth and has just started to crawl. The cats are wary, although we’re working on gentle open-handed petting action. They are not convinced.

Rather than opt out for yet another week, though, in the small window I’ve got, I thought I’d invite you to share your favorite recent fantasy/science fiction/speculative fiction/horror reads. But here’s the challenge: it must have been published in this century! It’s a solid plan: we support breathing authors and help build each other’s TBR lists. Deal?

I’ve been reading a lot lately, and reading a lot of great stuff. Tops on my list of the past two decades would be really hard to winnow down, but here are a few:

Most recently, Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series, currently clocking in with Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. Muir’s storytelling is taut, her plotting surprising, her use of hoary tropes innovative, her language impeccable, her narrator unreliable.

Speaking of hoary tropes, you can’t beat Martha Wells’ Murderbot series. SecUnit is a most appealing protagonist, and Wells’ inversion of classic pulp science fiction devices is delicious.

T.J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door is equal parts delight and grief, and a treasure. If your heart has ever been broken, read it.

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves just squeaks into eligibility, having been published...can it really be 22 years ago? Inexplicable and terrifying, pitting generally average people against a universe that’s supremely incomprehensible and indifferent to their suffering. Still keeps me awake some nights.

And finally, perhaps it’s the attack on its author that brings it to mind as I’m hurriedly typing, but Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence is a gem of a novel. Incandescently beautiful with a horrific underbelly.

I’m in mind tonight of Ursula Le Guin’s National Book Award speech, in which she foresaw that we would need, more than ever, writers of the imagination. Rushdie stands in the forefront of the crowd — equal parts innovator, storyteller, fearless speaker of truth no matter how welcome or unwelcome. I hope he recovers and continues his courageous life. I hope for his attacker...well, I’m torn. Part of me wants him to be reconciled and cognizant of his crime, and part of me wants him punished. He too stands at the forefront, but his crowd is made up of religious terrorists, bad state actors, and insurrectionists.

In the Great Sorting, I know which group I’d rather be in. Storytellers are good partiers, too. Imagine splitting a bottle of wine with Geoffrey Chaucer — even today, even with the inevitable language barriers for most of us, it’s an appealing notion.

Okay, I’ve offered up my top five picks of the moment (excepting Robin McKinley’s Sunshine, [thanks for the recommendation, Brian] which is quite charming and for which I think a sequel is due). Your turn.

P.S.

I’d be remiss not to mention the gorgeousness of The Sandman on Netflix. Season 1 covers the first two books, Preludes and Nocturnes and A Doll’s House. It’s painterly in form, reproducing many of the iconic scenes from the comics. The excisions and changes from the original are, on the whole, streamlining and smoothing the rough edges. I was particularly happy with the changes to John Dee’s character from maniac to deliberately and politely insane, and impeccably portrayed by David Thewlis. Neil Gaiman’s fingerprints are all over the adaptation, and it’s worth a trial month of Netflix just to watch it.

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