Wednesday

[clevermanka]

Guardian/adjacent:
Zhu Yilong lovers, prepare yourselves.
I'll always love this bts shot.
Fanart: All of Yue's work! Old work from Captain that I hadn't seen yet. 

Untamed/adjacent:
Agreed, never not funny.
Wait, people think the CGI in The Untamed is... bad? 

My friend from China (I should start referring to her by her initials of MH since I seem to talk about her so much) has asked for recommendations for SF books. She's coming at it as an academic who wants to be able to discuss things with her colleagues when she returns home, so (in her words) "critically acclaimed" stuff is more desirable than fannishly popular. I asked about her general reading preferences (adventure, romance, plot vs. character-driven) and she didn't have an answer for that, but stated an interest especially in immigrant literature (she currently works in translation and translation studies and her dissertation touched partially on literature of the African diaspora). With vanishingly rare exception, I haven't read original fiction in three years so I could really use help with this. Please send me any suggestions?

Because McK decided that we might as well spend our US dollars while they're still worth something, I suggested we shell out for a Zojirushi rice cooker (the Japanese manufactured one bc it had better reviews). I gave away my old rice cooker (purchased in the early 2000s for $20 at Target) when I couldn't eat grains anymore. Now that I've successfully reintroduced white rice I quickly became Very Much Over the sad, soggy rice produced from cooking it in a pot on the stove. I used it for the first time yesterday and it was delicious.

In other news, I woke at 4:30, 7, and 9:50 this morning absolutely wiped. Today is definitely a caffeine day.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Two authors I can think of fff the top of my head for your friend are Charles Yu and Tananarive Due

and from my Flist :
Conjure Women, by Afia Atakora

[clevermanka]

Thank you!

[jo_lasalle]

Zojirushi!!! Congratulations! I splurged on one a couple of years ago even though it was a maaaaajor investment at the time (they'e not cheap to start with, but to use them in Germany, you have to have the voltage usage adjusted, and that was quite the upmark) and I love it so much. Totally worth it, IME.

Wait, people think the CGI in The Untamed is... bad?

I have heard of this opinion existing, but it always puzzled me...

[clevermanka]

I'm probably going to have rice every day for a week. At least.

And yeah, I don't get people complaining about the effects. Bad CGI what? Where? The only ~bad~ effect I can think of is the giant Wen dog. Out of 50 episodes? Come on, people!

[wrote_and_writ]

Prepare yourself — as if that is ever an option with ZYL.

Does your friend want adult fiction? Because there has been a lot of really good, genre pushing, diverse work done in YA (We Need Diverse Books has lots of booklists). It often doesn’t get much critical respect because kidlit hasn’t, but it also isn’t what I would consider like popcorn books. If she’s interested in that, lmk and I’ll dig up some titles. Otherwise, the big SF author I can think of is NK Jemisin, who I’ve not yet read because, like you, I’m reading mostly fics (and the YA).

[clevermanka]

I think she's mostly looking for adult fiction, yes. She needs to discuss it with ~academics~. *sigh* and *eyeroll*

[wrote_and_writ]

Oh academics. I made ppl in grad school listen to me talk about YA at length, but then, I’m a brat and also didn’t want a career in academia. 😁 Well, Book Riot might also have some lists.

[trobadora]

Zhu Yilong lovers, prepare yourselves.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, the Untamed CGI is fine. Some of it isn't great (I assume that's why they hardly ever have people flying on swords), but most of it is really nothing to complain about. But then people complained about the CGI in Guardian constantly, too, and most of that is perfectly fine as well.

[clevermanka]

There really was no warning sufficient for that...

[yantantether]

I couldn't come up with anything that exactly matches the immigrant literature + sci-fi requirement, but your friend might find Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee or Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor interesting. Also, The Power by Naomi Alderman.

[clevermanka]

Thank you!

[forestofglory]

Hmmm...Allette De Bodard is critically acalamed and her work has a lot of themes related to imgration. My personal favorite is her novella On a Red Station drifting.

A Memory Called Empire is about a character who moves to a new place (she is an ambassador) and just won a Hugo.

I'll try to come back with some more recs latter.

[clevermanka]

Fantastic! Thank you so much!

[forestofglory]

I see that someone else mentioned Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee -- so seconding that.

Anne Leckie's Imperial Radch books are also really good and feel like the kind of thing academics might talk about

[khellekson]

YES to the rice cooker! I love mine, also a cheap one from a Big Box, but it works really well. That said, if you are making rice for a crowd, bake it in the oven in a cast-iron casserole! Perfect.

[clevermanka]

Good to know since we got the smallest cooker they sold!

[nnozomi]

Zhu Yilong lovers, prepare yourselves.
...wait, what? ... .... ....

Seconding A Memory Called Empire, it's not exactly immigrant-themed but I think you could say it's related, and I really loved it. It's not new, but Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed has a lot of themes of belonging and not-belonging within a given society (caveat that there is a sequel which everyone who's ever read agrees should not exist). Also S.E. Robertson's The Healers' Road and The Healers' Home, which are super obscure but recent and interesting and have a lot to do with nationality and identity. Maybe Melissa Scott's Dreamships and its sequel too.

[clevermanka]

Thank you!

(and eeeeee, such an unexpected flash of flesh!)

[naye]

I am SO JEALOUS of your rice cooker. Zojirushi is the Good Stuff.

...there is no way to prepare yourself. I had to pause and screech at the screen. And post a nosebleed gif. Because. HELP. (And then I made gifs so everyone else could flip out over it too! Ah, fandom.)

[clevermanka]

I would be jealous of my rice cooker, too, tbh! It's so cute and shiny and easy omg so easy.

Thank you for your gifs, seriously. his skin is perfect 😭😭😭

[seascribble]

is the US dollar tanking? *glances nervously at Canadian dollar*

[clevermanka]

I can't say for sure, but I feel like it's only a matter of time, you know?

[seascribble]

I've been thinking that for a while, but it didn't seem to happen. I guess November will be an important predictor. The Canadian dollar will not do well if it does.

[calystarose]

I was not prepared enough. *fans self*

*drools a little at that bts* damn

oh my tummy hurts from laughing, I adore that vid

yay re: rice cooker, I'm so happy with mine too :D

ugh, my sympathies over your disrupted sleeping *Hugs*

[clevermanka]

That. Vid. 😆

Crossing fingers for better sleep tonight.

[goss]

I have rice cooker envy -_-

[clevermanka]

I feel very special to own one! 😀

[tinny]

Yay for Zhu Yilong (partly) naked! O_O

I see someone already recced Yoon Ha Lee, which would have been my recommendation as well. I don't really have any African recs yet, only a few books on my to-read list (that I don't want to rec before knowing if they're good).

[clevermanka]

The Zhu Yilong fandom will take any bit of skin we can get! 😄