singlier's reviews
33 reviews

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by
Julian Sancton 4/5 🏔️s

This nonfiction text tells the story of the Belgica, one of the first expeditions to chart the South Pole led, by Belgian commandment Adrien der Gerlach. Although based on diary entries from the crew (of the 18 man crew, 10 kept diaries of the expedition), the book reads in most cases like a novel: it's not sensationalized, but it approaches it's subject matter with unflinching detail. Centering on the first four officers of the ship, de Gerlach, Roald Amundsen, Frederick Cook, and Georges Lecointe, the book paints a vivid picture of each man, laying out their personalities, drives, goals, and ambitious as they impacted the decisions made throughout the expedition. 

See, the Belgica is famous not only for being one of the first ships to map the coast of Antarctica, but for being the first ship to survive a winter in the Antarctic. The extensive record keeping kept by the crew and the ships doctor has made this exploration a case study in human behavior within isolated environments, and has impacted the way humans prepare for space travel, deep sea travel, as well as other forms of extreme isolation. Cook's theories of maintaining mental stability, born out of his experience on the ship, represent some of the first documents indicating a relationship between light and human health (think of seasonal affective disorder). His knowledge of first nations practices of hunting and food preparation are also the main reason his crew survived, and helped legitimize indigenous techniques of health and wellness in the eyes of white scholars during this period.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. The amount of research the author put into it really shows in the descriptions of the landscape and the characterization of the men onboard, helping to humanize this story of nearly one hundred years ago.

Outlawed by Anna North 3.5 🐎s

Outlawed is an story with world building unlike any I've ever seen: set in an alternative, theocratic nation that emerged after a plague toppled the government of United States, it uses the setting of the frontier west to tell a story rich with satire, political commentary, and religious fanaticism. In this society, women's worth is dependent on their ability to bear children, and those who do not or can not are accused of being a witch and hung. Ada is the daughter of a midwife in the small town of Fairfield, who after failing to become pregnant following marriage to her husband, manages to escape fate by joining up with an Outlaw gang known as the Hole in the Wall gang. Run by an outlaw known only as the Kid, Ada learns about the lives and histories of each member: some, women who are infertile, some women who love other women, some not women at all. She also learns about the Kid, who is the child of a pastor who seeks to turn the valley in which they reside into a haven for people outcast from society. Yet, the Kid is not well: struggling with insomnia, night terrors, and bouts of psychosis all while maintaining the facade of a fearless and unfettered leader. In order to make the Kid's plan a reality, they stage a heist of the largest bank in the area, only to end in a fierce fire fight as the gang must fight for their life in the valley they call home. 

I liked this book. I liked the setting, I loved the world building, I loved the descriptions and exploration of a world different yet familiar. I also loved the exploration of gender and sexuality without ever using such terms. But...this story ends so unsatisfyingly 🥲 few of the questions it brings up are ever resolved (especially wrt to the Kid and the fate of the gang). In addition, there are way too many characters introduced at once that I struggled to keep track of who was who and didn't form much of an emotional connection to any outside of two (the Kid and Elzy).

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers 4.5/5 🍰s 

With a heavy heart, I have finished the final installment of the Wayfarers series. I have deeply enjoyed this series, and although not my favorite text within it, this book nonetheless encapsulates everything I love about Chambers' charming slice-of-life sci-fi series. 

This story centers around a small, planet called Gora and the truck-stop esque business run by a woman named Ouloo, whose aim in life is to provide her many-species clients a slice of home away from home. On a perfectly unremarkable day, three travelers stop by, hoping to refuel, stretch their legs, and rest before the next section of their journey: Pei, Speaker, and Roveg. When a crashed satellite halts interplanetary travel for the next five days, these strangers--all hailing from different species, cultures, backgrounds, and professions--learn from and how to live with one another, in ways they never thought possible.

Of the four texts in this series, I found this one to cover some of the heaviest and most precarious of topics: slavery, colonization, systemic oppression, tradition vs free will, bodily autonomy, and reproductive rights. That being said, it is also a text that does not give any answers, either. Characters leave the end of their forced stay changed, but no one way of being is touted above another.

The strongest point of Chambers' books is her characters, and this one is no exception. Every character's personality is bright and vibrant, well-developed in space provided on the page. This being said, not a lot happens in this book. Conflicts are mostly internal, and are played out through conversations or internal monologues. Not a bad format, but not particularly exciting, either.

Overall, I highly recommend this book as well as the entire series, if character-driven, LGBTQ sci-fi is your fancy. 

Babel by RF Kuang 
4.5 / 5 📜s 

I hummed and hawed over what rating to give this book. There is no question if I enjoyed it: I devoured this text in 3 days. I was enraptured with the world, intrigued in the plot, invested in the outcomes. Is this book ambitious? Yes, absolutely. Within it's pages are discussions of belonging, normalizations of abuse, systemic racism, colonialism, and classism. It does not handle all of these topics with depth or complexity. At times ham-fisted and overwrought, the text nevertheless succeeds in creating a compelling story where many others have tried and failed. 

Robin Swift is young Chinese boy rescued from a cholera outbreak in Canton and brought to London to study language in order to someday attend the illustrious college Babel, home of the British translators. In this reimagining of Imperial Britain, silver is the currency of empire, highly prized due to its ability to amplify etymological shifts in words across languages into powerful forces used to strengthen ships, create light, and even turn invisible. In a nation still heavily stratified by race, class, and gender, Robin's position as a native Chinese speaker becomes his ticket to privilege as he joins the ranks of Babel scholars. Through the years, however, Robin learns the cruelty and greed that fund his linguistic endeavors, and must choose whether he will continue to live in comfortable disillusionment, or choose to destroy the system that empowered him at the expense of others. 

Many people label this a quintessential "dark academia" piece of fiction, and I just don't think that's true. There is a school, and studies, and unspeakable cruelties committed described within. But there is also love: an abundance of it. Love for people, love for each other, love for knowledge and love for idle things. Love that, unfortunately and inevitably, cannot permeate the cruelty of the society. But it is important that it was there. 

The text is a word-nerd's delight: the language and etymology research is simply delightful. The worldbuilding is utterly fascinating with how seamless it feels. However, even in the course 500+ pages, many of the characters felt hollow and under developed. Too much time is spent explaining, with not enough time letting the characters breathe into the work. This is a shame, because the crux of the book hinges on the believability of the main four's relationship, as well as the agony of betrayal. 

Lastly, if one excepts a nuanced, critical examination of colonialism and imperialism set within the historical lens of the British Empire, this is not the book for you. Robin is a reader-expy: the book presumes no knowledge of colonialism or it's impact, and hand-holds the reader through repeated exposition and explicit villification, as if it does not trust them to see the cruelty of the system except by spelling it out overtly. As such, it never tackles it's heavy themes with any depth because the time is spent convincing the reader of their badness. 

However, with all my critics, I want to still point to the rating I have given it. I enjoyed this book, immensely, with the full knowledge it is not perfect. For anybody well-versed in colonislist history, this text may be frustrating and lacking. But for those eager to learn about the interlocking systems designed to maintain conditions of poverty, this book offers a way into understanding that may otherwise be inaccessible in rigid, scholarly texts.