Dammit! I was really going to start blogging again, at least semi-regularly, but it hasn't been happening. I could blame "too much time spent on Twitter" but there are plenty of times I'm not on Twitter and I think about blogging something but I'm like, "Nah. Not in the mood. Maybe later." It's just habit I think. I used to be in the habit but now I'm out of it and it's not so easy to get back into it. Part of it too, I think, is knowing that I will spend time writing something and maybe three people will read it or maybe none and I'll never know because one has anything to say.
Okay, sorry, I'm starting to whine about how unpopular I am and nobody wants to read that. Let's get to what I'm really here for today: books!
I finished reading The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin several weeks ago and have been wanting to rave about it but I don't know quite what to say other than, "It's fantastic!"
I first found out about it on Twitter. At first I didn't think much about it but then someone said something about a "sentient planet"? So that immediately got my attention and made me want to read it. As it turns out, it's not really clear whether the planet is actually sentient or the people in the story only believe it/he is, like we believe in God but, let's be honest, there's no proof that He/She/They/It actually exists.
Okay, let's quickly leave that can of worms behind us. It's also not clear, to me at least, whether these books should be categorized as science fiction or fantasy and that's one of the things that I like about them - it doesn't matter. Magic is mentioned, not as something that is performed but more like a force that exists, like gravity or magnetism or maybe the weather. But they also mention technology - mostly the technology of dead civilizations that the characters in the story don't understand. And, I don't know, there are just things about the story that seem "science-y" to me, a non-science-y person.
This trilogy has an epic, important, feel to it. I highly recommend it but maybe not to everyone. It is dark and often violent and involves some child abuse so if you're especially sensitive you might not enjoy it. But I really don't have the words to tell you how excellent The Broken Earth Trilogy really is.
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I'm currently reading Persepolis Rising, book 7 in The Expanse series and loving it as always. And there are a dozen or more books that I want to read absolutely right away! One of my favorite things about Twitter is Book Twitter - all the readers and especially the many authors (some of them true superstars, in my mind at least) who freely engage with readers just like ordinary people. I have discovered more Must Read! books in a month on Twitter than I did in a year before I went back to spending time on Twitter.
My final thought for this post: Twitter (and the rest of the Internet) is whatever you make it. It can be politics and ugliness or it can be friends sharing books and cat pictures. It's all up to you.
