This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 198 pages

In this multiple-award-winning novella, warring agents Red (of the technology-based Agency) and Blue (of the flora-based Garden) are pitted against one another throughout multiple timelines. Evenly matched in intelligence and warcraft, Blue begins what becomes an increasingly elaborate correspondence through letters left as paper, yes, but also as boiling water, pits on bones, seeds, ashes, feathers, and so much more. As the letters continue, their regard for one another grows into star-crossed love. The story is beautifully, lyrically told and the inventiveness of the authors knows no bounds. I look forward to discussing it with the Orcs & Aliens next Monday night.

An Orchestra of Minorities

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma, 446 pages.

Nigerian author Obioma gives us a tale of love relentlessly blocked by circumstances and family.
Chinoso, a poultry farmer falls in love with a young woman when he prevents her from killing herself. Ndali, his beloved, comes from a wealthy and powerful family. While she loves him, she loves her family as well, and Obioma must deal with their perceptions of him.
In trying to better himself so that Ndali's family will accept him, Obioma finds himself swindled and stranded far from home in Cyprus. Just when he finds a kind stranger who believes him and offers help, his attempt to protect his benefactor, viewed through a xenopobic and racist lens, is viewed as a brutal attack and Obioma is imprisoned. A relentlessly pessimistic tale, told from the point of view of Obioma's chi, his guardian spirit, An Orchestra of Minorities becomes an epic, mythic tale that ties the present to the long history of people who came before Obioma and Ndali and the places they inhabit.

Saga, vol. 9

Saga, vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples, 152 pages

Let's face it: it's flat-out impossible to give any sort of substance in a summary of this book without spoiling the first eight volumes. Suffice it to say that we're well into this amazing story of star-crossed lovers-turned-parents, and the people who want them dead or captured are closer than they've ever been to tracking down the family.

Now, if you haven't yet, GO READ THIS SERIES. Seriously, it's one of the best (if not THE BEST) comics series out there, and we should all just bow down and worship Fiona Staples at this point because her artwork is so incredible and imaginative and evocative. Yes, there's going to be a big wait now for the next volume, but I already know that it will be well worth it.

Saga, volume 8

Saga vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples, 152 pages

Eight volumes in, and there's not much I can say about this story without major spoilers for those who haven't read the first seven other than: YOU SHOULD READ THIS SERIES! (Unless you're a kid. Wouldn't recommend it for kids.) If I want to be nitpicky, this particular volume is a bit too on-the-nose with its politics, which could have been handled much more elegantly. However, the story's still good and, as always, Fiona Staples' artwork is phenomenal.

Saga, vol. 7

Saga [vol. 7] by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples, 152 pages

I feel like I say it every time I write a post on a series, but it's still true: It's impossible to say much about this volume without spoiling the entire story before it. And the reason I do this is because the series, particularly in the case of Saga, is SO GOOD that it simply needs to be read. While many series slump and falter somewhere after the first couple volumes, Saga continues to be absolutely fantastic, with plenty of complex-yet-easy-to-follow plot lines, a just-right touch of philosophical musings, and three-dimensional characters. And then there's Staples' BEAUTIFUL artwork. Her imagination is simply astounding, though definitely not for the faint of heart or easily offended. Volume 7 continues that excellent story, and packs a couple of emotional wallops that I won't touch on here; I'll just say that they're handled excellently.

Saga, volume 5

Saga, volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples, 152 pages

This is the most recent volume in Vaughan and Staples' fantastic sci-fi tale of a new family trying to find their way in the universe. Of course, it's not that easy. Mom and Dad are different races that have been warring against each other for generations, and all of the stakeholder groups are sending their best soldiers, assassins, and revolutionaries to kidnap, kill, or otherwise eliminate Marko, Alana, and their daughter, Hazel. It's a grand, imaginative, not at all kid-friendly tale, and it's well worth reading. This volume follows in the tradition well, with lots of uneasy alliances and backstories. Check it out, but start from volume 1.

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green  318 pp.

Spoiler Alert: This is a book about teenagers with terminal cancer so, of course, there is death among the main characters, who are much to young to die.

That being said, I love this book so much!!! Yes, it's about kids who are dying of their respective varieties of cancer. Yes, there are events that will make you weep. Yes, it stirred up some not too pleasant memories of my own cancer treatment and friends I've lost to the disease. But it's an incredible book! If it is possible to fall in love with a character in a book, then I am totally smitten with seventeen year old Augustus Waters, who has lost a leg to bone cancer. He is funny, intelligent, quirky, and doesn't just sweep Hazel Grace Lancaster off her feet, he takes her on an amazing journey to Amsterdam and back and much more. Hazel has metastatic thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. She has been a Stage IV from the start and so is basically hanging on until she can't anymore. Augustus and Hazel meet at a support group and the rest is an amazing story of love and loss, with terrific dialogue and characters you can't help caring about. These kids are incredibly bright and articulate. The way they talk about their disease is profound. When Hazel compares having Stage IV to being a hand grenade that will one day go off and inflict damage on those around her and that she really doesn't want to be that hand grenade doing that damage, I thought, "That is exactly right." Green has written much more than just another tear jerker. This book is thoughtful, intense, and everyone should read it.

Crossing the Borders of Time: a True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed / Leslie Maitland 494 p.

Journalist Leslie Maitland researched and wrote this story of her mother's flight from Europe during WWII and subsequent life in the United States.  Jeanne, her mother, was born in Germany to a prosperous Jewish family.  With Hitler's rise to power the family moved to Mulhouse, France, then Lyon, and finally to Marseille before boarding a ship to Cuba.  Eventually they were able to join relatives in New York.  During Jeanne's teen years in France she met and fell in love with Roland, a handsome and kind French Catholic.  They were painfully separated in Marseille, and had no contact for 50-ish years.  Their eventual reunion, partially engineered by Leslie herself after her father's death, makes for icky reading.  (As did the descriptions of their adolescent trysts in France; I guess I'm a prude, but I kept wanting to scream "TMI" as I was reading.  Should anyone really write about the sex life of a parent?)

On the other hand, the story of Jeanne's family in Europe was fascinating, and beautifully researched.  As we read about Jewish families during the war, it seems painfully obvious that they should bolt for the New World at the first opportunity.  Jeanne's story highlights how difficult this decision was in real life, and just how much was lost to those who 'successfully' got away.