#sandra mcdonald

[lythrontiro-argestes]

Grief is the pressure you feel when you're first waking up and know, instinctively, that something immense and terrible is waiting to punch you in the forehead. Grief is the price of denying the razor-sharp fact that everyone you know will eventually die, and that if you're lucky enough to escape sorrow in your early years you're certainly not going to escape it in the later ones.

Sandra McDonald, Messages

[weirdesplinder]

Titolo: The outback stars

Autore: Sandra McDonald

Genere scifi

Inedito in italiano

Trama: Il luogotenente Jodenny è stata l’unica superstite di un terribile distrasto. La sua nave spaziale è stata distrutta e lei stessa non ricorda come si è salvata. Nonostante il trauma subito però sceglie di reimbarcarsi su un nuovo vascello, senza sapere che nasconde al suo interno un segreto. Un segreto che potrebbe condurlo alla stessa fine della sua nave precedente. Jodenny, con l’aiuto di un ufficiale sottoposto, dovrà guardarsi da un gruppo di marinai amorali e violenti, invischiati in un complotto più grande di loro...e nel frattempo svelare la verità di ciò che non ricorda se vuole sopravvivere ancora una volta.

La mia opinione: ok. E’ la seconda volta che cerco di leggere questo romanzo. La prima volta nel 2014 ho attribuito la mia inabilità a calarmi nella storia al fatto che il mio inglese spesso traballa negli scifi a causa di un gergo molto tecnico al di là delle mie conoscenze. E anche nel 2017 ho dovuto gettare la spugna, ma stavolta almeno ho capito qual è il mio problema. Il libro mi intriga: la trama mi interessa, è scritto bene e non con un linguaggio troppo tecnico, i personaggi, sia lui che lei, sono simpatici, c'è pure amore…il problema non è libro, sono io. E non è un problema di lingua ma di mancanza di conoscenza del contesto. Mi spiego meglio. Uno può anche ordinare un ottimo branzino al forno e mangiarlo senza problemi, ma senza contorno saprà di poco. Uno può anche leggere un romanzo ambientato in Italia che parla di un meridionale che va al nord e scopre un mondo a lui estraneo, ma se chi legge è un americano che non è mai stato in Italia e non sa che genere di pregiudizi o contrasti ci sono tra il nostro nord e il nostro sud, quanto ne capirà veramente? Non sarà in grado di coglierne nessuna sfumatura nessun sottolivello. Ecco io sono in questa situazione con The outback stars, non capisco tutti i suoi riferimenti alla cultura australiana, alla cultura aborigena australiana, alla storia australiana, alla geografia australiana e quindi anche se la trama principale la capisco e mi piace, mi perdo tutto il contorno e tutti i sottolivelli insomma metà del libro in termini di bellezza. Peccato.

[bornitereads]

The Outback Stars; The Stars Down Under; The Stars Blue Yonder - Sandra McDonald

Read: Feb 2017

So I find this trilogy super pleasing because it’s science fiction that’s Australian-centric instead of American-centric (which I’m far more exposed to here in Canada). Now the even more interesting thing about this is that Sandra McDonald is American. So I find it even more pleasing that she paid attention to the details of the Australian mythology in the books, and that she captured the feel of Australia colonizing the stars. At least that’s how me, a Canadian with Australian family that he’s never visited, feels about it.

The story follows the course of two main characters: Jodenny Scott and Terry Myell. In the first book they work on a spaceship that plies trade, passengers, military support/force between the seven colonies of Earth (which was fucked up pretty bad as humans ruined the environment). The Outback Stars is pretty solid on the military scifi front, until the end when it goes messing-with-alien-artifacts scifi - which is basically the premise of the next two books.

The Stars Down Under and the Stars Blue Yonder go full Australian mythology scifi with portals, time travel, powerful alien creatures that may or may not actually be supernatural. It’s basically all run around Jodenny and Terry trying to be together through space and time, which I find cute.

I really recommend these three. I think mostly because it’s unassuming Australia (sorry Aussies, but in terms of big scifi Australia is back character mostly) that wins the big space race. It makes the world all that more fascinating.

Info: TOR, 2007; 2008; 2009.

[joncronshawauthor]

The Ray Bradbury Challenge: Day 088

The Ray Bradbury Challenge: Day 088

Short story: When You Work for the Old Ones by Sandra McDonald, listened to on the Nightmare Magazine podcast, from November 2016. Recommended.

Poem: 1926 by Weldon Kees, listened to on the Poem of the Day podcast, from November 2016.

Essay: Jomon Pot, listened to on the BBC’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, from January 2010. Highly Recommended.

What is the Ray Bradbury Challenge?

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[queer-in-the-dungeon]

The first toast will always be to Cthulhu, our Commander in Chief. Each officer must stand with raised glass. Remember not to drain your glass until the last toast, which is traditionally bottoms-up. Do not ask what liquid you have been served.

The Cthulhu Navy Wife - Sandra McDonald

[torpublishinggroup]

Want to read a story? Here you go: "Your Final Apocalypse" by Sandra McDonald.

[stumbling-through-time]

TL;DR Review - Diana Comet & Other Improbable Stories

In honor of International Literacy Day, here is my long overdue review on Sandra McDonald’s Diana Comet & Other Improbable Stories.

Winner of Lambda Award for LGBT SF, Fantasy and Horror works in 2011

TL;DR If I was in charge of the world, every baby questioning or queer will be armed with a copy of this. And I would make this book required reading for all high school students everywhere.

Summary - Through 15 intertwined short stories, DC&OIS takes you on an unforgettable and fantastical journey into a relatable yet mysterious alternate universe with non-heteronormative and POC characters in the front and center as they weave through the all too familiar struggles of poverty, religion, discrimination, freedom, and of course, love. By the end of it all you would rue to say goodbye to this hodgepodge collection of new friends, but still grateful that you had been given the chance to at least catch a glimpse of their lives. 

Good Reads

[stillwanderingflame]

The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald

Way better than I expected. There were a couple so-so reviews on Amazon and Goodreads that kept me from purchasing it when I first found it on Kindle, but then I discovered our library had a copy and picked it up this morning. Spent most of today reading it and just finished a few minutes ago. 

I do agree with some of the complaints in the reviews: there are a lot of acronyms and not all of them were explained, but I could understand enough through the context they were used.  A ton of characters get thrown at you in the beginning and it's hard to remember who half of them were.  At some point, I gave up trying to remember things like "Is this the guy who snubbed the main character in a previous scene?", and just focused on the plot.  That being said, the author clearly knows the subject matter and the story was engaging, so I wouldn't dock any points for those minor complaints. 

Now, and previously when I've finished other great sci-fi novels, I find myself a little intimidated to be tackling the genre (specifically military sci-fi) when I know so little about it. You can read and do a ton of research, but it seems like the best novels are written by people who have experience in the service.  Nonetheless, I'll keep plugging along, if only to someday say I finished a novel.

Next up on my reading list: books 2 and 3 of Fables, and two random volumes of Thor by J. Michael Straczynski, who I always forget has a life outside of Babylon 5. Probably because I'm blinded by my love of B5.