Dear Yoon Ha Lee,

Thank you for the matchless gift of Kel Cheris and Shuos Jedao. They are the quintessential match-up of stern stoicism and absolute ferality, and I fucking live for their uneasy alliance/?friend?ship? (Would we call them friends? I cannot decide. Uneasy allies, anyway!)

I often find it a challenge to read books with a lot of worldbuilding, but I’m so glad that my pal Renay evangelized enough that I picked up Nicefox Gambit a few years back,¹ because it has brought me so much joy. This month, I finally picked up Hexarchate Stories, and while everything in it was terrific, I felt the most exquisite happiness reading “Glass Cannon.” Evidently my heart had been longing for more content in which Cheris finds Jedao maddening and they do murdery adventures together. When my family goes fake-camping (like, in cabins and shit) later this year, I am planning to bring the whole Machineries of Empire series on that trip and do a big reread. I am indescribably excited about that prospect.

Thank you once again for writing these books and creating these characters. I love them so much.

Kind regards,
Jenny

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How did you get into fanfic? Do you remember the first fandoms you read/wrote in?

Technically, the first fanfic that I wrote was a Star Trek parody co-written with a friend when I was in middle school. We’d never really heard of the term fanfic and we weren’t connected to any community of fans. Another friend attended a Star Trek convention that year, but my mom was busy and couldn’t take me.

Anyway, the parody was a (bad) play featuring a Mary Sue character who grew exasperated with the men of the Original Trek crew. There was a terrible running gag in which she would exclaim, “You…you…you men!” over and over, and Very Literal Poorly Written Spock interpreted this as a spaceship name “UUU Men.” As I said, it wasn’t any good, but it was fun to write.

It wouldn’t be until years later that I rediscovered fanfic in college, this time in the context of anime. I came across some Rurouni Kenshin fic on some Geocities shrine, and also a Lovecraft/Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover called “Children of an Elder God,” which I should finish reading since it apparently is still up on the web!

You’ve had the fairly unusual experience of writing fanfic for a thing and then /actually writing the thing,/ with Legend of the Five Rings. What was that transition like? Did your background in writing fic for it help or hinder?

It was a lot of fun but a lot of work! The “ascended fanfic writer” thing was not too unusual in L5R; longtime story writer Rich Wulf was originally an L5R ficwriter with his well-loved “Rokugan 2000” stories, which cast the samurai fantasy setting of L5R in a modern-day cyberpunkish variant, and my friend Nancy Sauer, who also joined the Story Team, started out in fanfic.

The main difference in the transition was, of course, the external constraints. Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), which then owned the L5R property, preferred 2,000-word stories, so I had to confine myself to that length. But my long familiarity with the setting was generally helpful. In fact, before I tried out for the Story Team position, I reread over 1,000 (that is not a typo) L5R official stories from a period of some fifteen years to prepare. Most of those stories were quite short, but some were longer. It was a lot of research!

More broadly, how has fanfic (reading or writing it, or just being in fandom!) influenced your professional work? One thing I’ve noticed about fandom is its focus on bodies and embodiment — did that influence the way you thought and wrote about Jedao, who moves among bodies?

I’m afraid that particular concern predates my exposure to others’ fanfic and comes from the sf/f author Jack L. Chalker. I would not recommend Chalker generally to reader today, but his fiction showed a general preoccupation with bodies and gender and shape-changing/body-swapping. His Spirits of Flux & Anchor series, which I read to pieces as a kid, is in some ways a direct ancestor of my Machineries of Empire series.

On the other hand, the use of crackalicious tropes like amnesia and curtainfic interludes definitely comes from fanfic. I’ve written some short flash pieces in a “seven things” format inspired by fanfic’s “five things,” swapping out the number for worldbuilding numerological reasons. So it’s true that I owe a very large debt to fanfic for broadening my idea of what a narrative can look like.

Are there particular fics or authors that influenced you or that you often go back to?

Yahtzee’s “Phoenix Burning” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for its worldbuilding and clever plotting; Rheanna’s “Vivere” (Angel) for its quiet beauty and psychological depth; Helen Keeble’s “1000 Nights of Darkness” (Legend of the Five Rings/Angel) for its flawless fusion of two disparate settings, humor, and grace notes of hope. Of course, I could list many more, but that’s a start.

What do you love best about fanfic as a medium? And are there things about the fic world that you wish would change/improve?

I love the sheer creativity and joy of the medium, and the fact that it has so many different faces depending on who you are and what you’re looking for. I guess I would change the anti/shipwar culture if I could. These are (generally) fictional characters and I’m a ship-and-let-ship (or not-ship, if you’re writing gen/worldbuilding/etc.) kind of person.

Tell me some of your favorite tropes! And/or: Are there any tropes you really hate except for That One Fic that wore it best?

Oh, gosh, where would I even start? Things I love: Amnesia, bodyswap, curtainfic and fluff, AUs (canon-divergence, coffee shop, high school, IN SPAAAAACE, vampires, anything), crossovers…that being said, I also love weird meta and deconstruction. Honestly, I’m easy.

I wouldn’t say I hate the trope, but I’m usually a hard sell on hurt/comfort because I don’t really get the dynamic. That being said, I have certainly read a lot of excellent hurt/comfort because this is a trope where one is spoilt for choice!

If you’re a shippy fic person, what are some canon things that make you ship people? Or if not, what elements in a canon make you eager to read or write fic of the thing?

Ha, I often go for dark, messed-up pairings between people who are absolutely terrible for each other, and who may also be terrible people. I was an Angel(us)/Buffy shipper precisely because that was in no way a healthy relationship! But I sometimes also enjoy happy ships–pretty much any two of the main characters in The Good Place, for instance.

Could you share some fic recs for fandom newbies?

I’ll have a go at a few that require minimal canon familiarity, in no particular order:

• Sholio’s “Cute But Prickly” (Iron Fist), in Ward gets turned into a potted cactus and Danny and Colleen have to figure out how to turn him back. It’s hilarious.
• For something darker, kangeiko’s “The Harvest of Orhoch” (The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin) stands alone, and is a tragic history/fable.
• For something funny/sexy/heartwarming, friskaz’s “Grande Soy Triple Dirty Chai” (Suits) is a barista AU where you don’t need to know the canon at all. It’s pure enjoyment.
• For any Hamilton fans, Fahye’s brilliant fic in verse “Rise Up” shouldn’t be missed. [blogger’s note: I ardently co-sign this, I adore this fic.]
• And for female friendship and culture clashes, Rheanna’s “Lunch and Other Obscenities” (Star Trek [2009]) is really great.

Thanks so much to the wondrous Yoon Ha Lee for doing this interview with me, and please do check out his Machineries of Empire series. You won’t regret it! He can be found on Twitter and his website!

The post Authors in Fandom: An Interview with Yoon Ha Lee appeared first on Reading the End.

With that said, I had a pretty terrific reading year in 2017. I encountered some new instant favorites, books I loved so much I shoved them at everyone I knew and immediately requested them for birthday or Christmas. I love books and I love reading and I love y’all, so thanks all the way around for being great.

Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Never shall I give up my fondness for monster girls. Monstress is a weird and wonderful comic about a girl with special powers who finds herself at war with the whole world. The art is unfathomably lovely.

Iron Cast, Destiny Soria

Two best friends create magical illusions at an illegal night club in Boston, just before Prohibition begins. Iron Cast features found family to the max, including a best-friendship that’s more central to the characters than their romances (which is rare as hell), and some genuinely cool magic. If you’re a reader on the hunt for more one-and-dones in YA, Iron Cast is for you.

Borderline and Phantom Pains, Mishell Baker

I haven’t read much urban fantasy, but Borderline made me want to change that. Mishell Baker’s borderline protagonist is a double amputee and survivor of a suicide attempt, recruited to work for a mysterious organization called the Arcadia Project. Creepy fairies abound (my fave), plus lots of details about the nitty-gritty of cognitive therapy for BPD.

The Woman Next Door, Yewande Omotoso

Contrary to popular belief, I do not like books solely based on their having French flaps. But French flaps help. The Woman Next Door is a lovely, quiet exploration of the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa: the story of two women whose enmity softens into something that is not quite friendship but no longer exactly hostility. It’s also a story about complicity in oppression that doesn’t insist upon redemption. I loved it.

Testosterone Rex, Cordelia Fine

I mean, obviously. Cordelia Fine remains brilliant, and she is so good at making complicated science accessible to a layperson. My big complaint with Testosterone Rex is that it doesn’t talk about non-cis people hardly at all. However, it makes many brilliant arguments about the role hormones like testosterone play in gender and gendered behavior. Read it, and read Delusions of Gender.

White Tears, Hari Kunzru

I said it when I read it, and I’ll say it again now: What the entire fuck. White Tears is a story about white appropriation of black culture, but it’s also a terrifying ghost story and a wild wild ride. It has one of the scariest endings I’ve ever encountered in a book. It’s brilliant and bananas. Get on it.

Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnolly

Amberlough is a secondary world fantasy (without any magic) about the performers in a cabaret confronting the rise of fascism in their country. If you can’t face that sort of a thing during the Trump presidency, it’s absolutely fair play. But if you are up to it, Amberlough is a strange and lovely book, a fantasy novel for lovers of the darkest bits of Cabaret.

Thorn, Intisar Khanani

One of the truly lovely things that happened this year was Intisar Khanani’s book deal with HarperTeen. Soon you’ll be able to get Thorn in a shiny new edition, and you should. It’s a retelling of the fairy tale “The Goose Girl,” a story that’s sad but hopeful, a story about good people trying their best. Intisar Khanani remains one of my favorite fantasy writers currently working.

Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee

I admit that I was fearful of reading Ninefox Gambit, which I’d heard was a particularly dense bit of science fiction. But I’m so glad I pressed onward with it. Ninefox Gambit might be my actual favorite book of the year; I liked it so much that I ran straight out to the library to get Raven Stratagem. It’s about an imperfectly loyal soldier who has to share a brain with a famously brilliant, famously murderous general from the past. I loved it so much. I want you to love it, too.

Song of the Current, Sarah Tolcser

Such an excellent YA adventure novel. Caro takes to the river with a crateful of mystery cargo in the hopes that she can save her father from prison. But when the cargo turns out to be a boy — a snooty-as-hell boy, but good in a fight — she finds herself enmeshed in more plotting and violence than she’d bargained for. And look at that cover!

Starfish, Akemi Dawn Bowman

In YA as in adult fiction, I tend to gravitate more towards SFF stories. But Starfish won me over. It deals with sexual and emotional abuse in families in a way that I’ve encountered virtually never, and it’s exceptionally honest about the impact of growing up with an abusive parent. I loved Starfish, even more so because the author was able to take critique of some of the language in her book, and make a change for future editions.

Jane, Unlimited, Kristin Cashore

If you’d asked me what I expected as a follow-up to Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series, the last thing I’d have said would have been “Rebecca as a choose-your-own adventure, by way of Diana Wynne Jones.” But that’s what I got: Five separate stories in five separate genres, each most wonderfully stranger than the last.

I wish you strength in the New Year, and all the glorious books you can gobble up. What were some of your 2017 faves?

The post 2017 Reading in Review appeared first on Reading the End.

WHAT A GREAT BOOK. I confess that I delayed reading Ninefox Gambit, recent well-deserved winner of the Locus Award for First Novel, given that all the reviews I read of it said that it was SF as hell and explained absolutely nothing. And look: That was correct information. Several people explained to me in advance the whole deal with calendrical rot and what it all meant, and even so, I was at sea for the first AT LEAST forty pages, like to the point that I did not feel confident I had grasped the meaning of any of the events that had unfolded up to that point.

“Wow you are doing a great job selling this book Jenny” I KNOW I KNOW but let me get to the point.

Well, no, okay, I’ll summarize it first. I’m not going to worry too much about the technical aspects, since you won’t understand them anyway until you’re halfway through the sequel. Bear with me. A very orderly Order Muppet indeed, Cheris, has been tapped to deal with a group of rebels (heretics) who are adhering to a different belief system (calendar) that threatens the stability of the government (hexarchate). But she can’t do it alone. Too Orderly. To help her out, they are depositing the world’s most ever chaotic Chaos Muppet, Jedao, into her brain. Once upon a time he was the Ender Wiggin of the hexarchate, winning vicious battles against impossible odds, right up until the day he slaughtered millions of people — enemies and allies alike — and then turned his gun on his own staff. Does he have a hidden agenda? Read it and find out!

Okay, now I will get to the point. If you have interest at all in watching brilliant people be mercilessly competent while simultaneously battling their inner demons, Ninefox Gambit is your book. (Black Sails may also be your show but that’s going to be a longer, separate conversation.) The trick for Jedao is attaining a victory without any use of the hexarchate’s best magic tricks, against an enemy with unbreachable defenses. The trick for Cheris is not to be (ideologically) seduced by Jedao, who has nothing but his words and his brains for weapons but who tends to triumph against insane odds every time he gets the chance. And the trick for the hexarchate, of course, is to avoid another mass slaughter by a general they chose to put in the field.

I loved this book, y’all. I do not tend to enjoy SF (or fantasy, actually) where there is lots of new terminology to remember, but I fell into Ninefox Gambit like a ton of bricks. I had a severe and annoying case of mentionitis. I drove the far, far drive to a separate, far-away library branch because I couldn’t wait for the library holds system to acquire the sequel, The Raven Stratagem. This is going to be one of my best books of 2017, and I want you to love it as much as I do.

Here is what I can do for you. If you wish to read Ninefox Gambit but aren’t 100% sure you can roll with the very ess-eff-y SF-ness of it, I give you permission to tweet at me (@readingtheend) or email me (readingtheend AT gmail DOT com) with any questions you may have at any stage, and I promise I will answer them, to the level of detail that you require.

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