#malagash

[treepyful]

3 and 4 for emd of year book asks

3. What were your top five books of the year?

The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

I loved this. In it, we follow a woman who is a "camera", a reporter with VR tech in her brain so she can transmit thoughts and senses directly to her viewers, as she uncovers a conspiracy. This book is what cyberpunk should be, IMO -- I find most cyberpunk to be too far into the techbro mindset, all cold and distant and dispassionate, and while I love the sandbox of trans/posthumanism that cyberpunk is known for, I just couldn't deal with the tone of so many of the books that were lauded for their contributions to the genre. The Fortunate Fall is a distinct and surely deliberate deviation from that trend -- it's warm and human and explores how we can form connection, not fall into isolation. If you like posthumanism but find Neuromancer too noir for your tastes, try this out instead.

Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck

A collection of eerie short stories that I adored, ranging from an exploration of the classic changling child storyline to the unsettling life cycle of creatures on an alien world. I still think about this book regularly and I read it back in April.

Malagash by Joey Comeau

This book had been on my list for a while because its title is the name of a teeny tiny village (more like a couple strips of houses on a spit of land) in my province and anything named that locally needs to be read. Plus, the author wrote the A Softer World web comic, which I love. The book itself is a short but sweet exploration of grief as a teenager navigates her father's last few weeks, even while developing her own tech project to keep him alive.

Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin

I've read Le Guin's more famous books (Left Hand, The Dispossessed, etc.), but I made the decision to tackle her entire list of works, starting at the beginning and going from there. Rocannon's World is definitely more roughly cut than Le Guin is known for -- it's her first novel -- but I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, especially given it was also a lot more medieval fantasy (a genre I don't usually enjoy) than I was expecting it to be as a part of the Hainish Cycle. Even the ""bad"" works from a good author are good, y'know?

Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk

This one was tough to get through, both because of its academic tone (I have little practice reading academic history, so it took time to get into the rhythm of it) and the content itself (heartbreaking, frustrating, infuriating), but it was so good. The author clearly knows this stuff inside out, and he neatly combed through the tangled snarl of events, connections, and decisions to show how disease and famine were used to manage "the Indian problem" in the plains of what is now western Canada.

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

(I'm going to interpret this as "new to me" because I don't tend to read truly new authors -- not intentionally, but just because I'm never on the cutting edge of anything and my TBR list goes back literal decades...)

I came across The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed from a queer spec-fic reclist and in tracking it down, realized it was a lucky time to have tried to find it because it had one printing back when it came out (1996) and nothing again until 2024. Unfortunately for my eagerness to read everything else she's written, The Fortunate Fall is Reed's only novel -- there are a few short stores I plan to track down, but just the one book. However, she posted on Mastodon a couple years ago that she's writing another, so I'll be keeping an eye out for that!

Ask me questions about books!

[dotsunflowers]

"I tell him that a virus need not do harm. That not all self-propagating code is malicious. Our father's virus would never delete files. Would never steal passwords or spy on the intimate moments of strangers. Would not spread like cancer, but like a story. Would slip through fibre optic cables to cross oceans, would pass like radio waves through the walls of houses that nobody even knows are haunted. A ghost story that computers tell one another in the dark."

—from Malagash, by Joey Comeau

[philosophenstreik]

kann ein mensch als computervirus weiterleben? sunday, die protagonistin des romans versucht dies, um ihren vater nicht zu verlieren. die verschmelzung von mensch und maschine stellt die umschlaggestaltung von julian tapprich sehr gut dar, noch dazu die zarte pflanze der hoffnung, die in sunday am wachsen ist... wieder einmal eine hervorragende buchgestaltung aus dem luftschacht verlag. die kritik zum roman ist im vorigen beitrag zu finden.

[philosophenstreik]

malagash

roman von joey comeau

erschienen 2021

im luftschacht verlag

isbn: 978-3-903081-51-2

(von tobias bruns)

sunday begleitet gemeinsam mit ihrem bruder und ihrer mutter den vater am sterbebett. in seiner heimatstadt in der kanadischen provinz liegt er nun im krankenhaus und jederzeit kann er seinem krebs erliegen. nicht nur die drei begleiten ihn, auch geschwister und andere familienmitglieder kommen, um persönlich von ihm abschied zu nehmen, solange es noch geht. sunday möchte es aber nicht akzeptieren, dass ihr vater stirbt. die passivität ihrer familie nervt sie, sie will versuchen, ihren vater am leben zu halten. sie weiß, dass er gehen muss aber sie hat einen plan, wie er dennoch bleibt. sunday nimmt unbemerkt jedes einzelne gespräch mit ihrem vater auf - sogar gespräche ihres vaters mit anderen familienangehörigen. sie hört sie sich hinterher an, dann transkribiert sie diese. sie ist dabei mit seinen worten - einfachen alltäglichen worten - einen computervirus zu programmieren, der sich über millionen computer weltweit verbreiten soll. nichts bösartiges - ihr vater soll einfach auf diese weise für immer präsent bleiben. in der schmerzlichen situation keimt die beziehung zu ihrem kleinen bruder langsam wieder auf, nachdem sie sich lange zeit entfremdet hatten und sunday holt ihn so nach und nach mit ins boot, dem vater das weiterleben zu schenken.

es ist eine an sich sehr traurige geschichte, sehr einfühlsam geschrieben und beschrieben, wie die familie auf einen solchen schicksalsschlag reagiert. doch trotz all der traurigkeit hinterlässt dieses buch, die gespräche, die sunday und ihre verwandten mit dem vater führen ein lächeln im gesicht. szenen, in denen sich sunday mit ihrem vater die todesanzeigen durchliest und sie sich gemeinsam darüber lustig machen, wie standardisiert diese sind und wie wenig sie dadurch über die verstorbene person aussagen, triefen vor britischem humor (auch wenn autor der geschichte kanadier ist....), die idee, wie der vater den krebs besiegen kann, überhaupt die grundidee, eine person mit hilfe eines computervirus ewig am leben zu halten - mensch-maschine... der tod des vaters ist unabwendbar, er geht mit humor, er geht liebend - aber kämpft er um sein leben, wie seine tochter es versucht zu tun? hat er aufgegeben? was bleibt vom menschen - von sundays vater - wenn er geht? ist ihr aufzeichnen der gespräche legitim? heiligt der zweck dieses mittel? joey comeau lässt nicht nur seine protagonistin über all diese fragen reflektieren, er gibt dem leser den gleichen auftrag. doch bei aller reflektion, hellt joey comeau die geschichte immer wieder mit sätzen wie diesem auf: “war das ein lächeln? du kannst nicht über meine witze lachen, ich liege im sterben!”. das buch zeigt ganz einfach eines: lesen macht freude!

[broadus]

How far are you willing to go to keep a loved one alive? What is immortality? Sunday, the protagonist in #Malagash has some answers. The one passage will stick with me: "There are more important things in life than being right" https://www.instagram.com/p/B0MR2l5hhTDSsr2rv1s-nv2wrC20qyW3Gf82Ps0/?igshid=1mk2cz1939s8z

[emstu]

View this post on Instagram

Happy 🌼 #beach #novascotia #northshore #malagash #northumberlandstraight #cottage #ocean (at Malagash, Nova Scotia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BmwGokeHqa9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hdib0ow8k288

[someguyontheinternettalks]

Some Guy: Malagash

“Your father is going to die. He’s very afraid,’ the doctor says.

And then she says it for another half hour.

This was the point where Malagash really took me by the collar and shook me. The context of the writing is already intriguing-- the author is Joey Comeau (of A Softer World fame), after all. But before Malagash I’d only ever read the A Softer World, We Are Become Pals, and the man’s short stories, so whether or not he could really translate the punchiness and good pace of those stories to a novel. Admittedly, Malagash isn’t transversing too far from that terrain-- there’s no traditional plot with a defined looming goal, and the writing is still in the sort of snapshot style used in his writing (And he writes it well).

The novel was an enjoyable read, with the snapshot style of the language vivd without being pretentious-- Joey’s writing style cutting to the bone and core and leaving the bells and whistles behind as always. The writing flows well, and the vignettes really get the most depth and breath of emotion out of the least amount of bulk; I feel that if the novel was written more traditionally it would drag immensely. The scenes about the elephant house especially stick out in my mind as giving a vivid scene. Interestingly enough, the novel doesn’t end when the father dies or when the virus is uploaded-- it ends with Sunday and her brother playing the audio files for the virus for their mother who has been locked up in her room since the father’s death. This, I think, shows (like any good ending) what the book is really about. If you want a good, honest novel about loss, you could do a lot worse and waste much more time than Malagash.

[shawwillsuffice]