the borrowed bookshelf Archives - Tachyon Publications

the borrowed bookshelf

October 21, 2020

In their impressive THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES, R. B. Lemberg’s poetic mastery evokes Ursula K. LeGuin at her finest

Rick Klaw blog Der Feuervogel aufersteht, marlene harris, r. b. lemberg, reading reality, review, s. e. fleenor, syfy wire, the borrowed bookshelf, the four profound weaves

R. B. Lemberg’s intriguing THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES continues to elicit amazing responses.

Cover by Elizabeth Story based on initial concepts by Francesca Myman

For SYFY WIRE, S. E. Fleenor praises the novella.

Magic, polyamory, trans solidarity, epic journeys, political intrigue, fear, loss, love, healing, and even Aunt Death all somehow fit — and more impressively come together in a powerful way — in R.B. Lemberg’s new novella THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.

It is a supremely balanced book, focusing only on the most necessary details to get the story across. In that sense, the book is both ethereal and ephemeral: graceful, delicately wrought, and fleeting. That said, THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES has an incredibly layered plot where we find that nearly every new character is someone our protagonists have met before. To me, though, what really distinguishes this work is how it embraces trans elders as leaders, changemakers, rabble-rousers, and magic users.

THE BORROWED BOOKSHELF agrees.

THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is a short book, probably more around novella length. I’m impressed with how much culture and worldbuilding Lemberg managed to fit in, but it never feels too much. As you follow Uiziya and nen-sasair, you get more understanding into the different cultures they’re from and their own relationships with gender. Among Uiziya’s people, transformation is not shameful and she chose to make her transformation at a young age. Among nen-sasair’s people, transformation is not commonly done publically, and he struggles with his new roles the cloistered world of men after having lived as a trader, wife, mother, and grandmother for so long.

[…]

Recommended for: People who love prose, interesting magic, slow stories, and weaving

DER FEUERVOGEL AUFERSTEHT also recommends the tale.

Lemberg’s writing style is poetic without being impenetrably dense, and it reminds me of Ursula Le Guin’s prose at its finest. (I’m sure RB would be pleased with that comparison! I know that “Stone Telling” is meaningful to them.)

I highly recommend this book. You can find it at all the usual suspects.

Marlene Harris at READING REALITY enjoys the book.

THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES has the feel and the sense of a myth in the making, or perhaps a fairy tale. Reading it has filled my head with a weave of more thoughts – profound or otherwise – than one would think that a book this slim would hold between its pages.

It’s the kind of story that, although I’ve finished reading it, I feel like it hasn’t finished with me yet. Perhaps its that the lesson of the fairy tale is still being absorbed.

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Escape Rating A-: I’m all over the map about this one. In the end, I loved it, but the beginning was slow. I think that part of that was because this was my first trip to Birdverse, and it took me a while to get my bearings in it.

Also, the story begins slowly because it feels like it is meant to. Both of the protagonists have spent 40 years not living their truths. That’s a long time to wait for anything, let alone wait to fulfill their dreams. But they’ve been holding themselves back, so it seems natural that it would take them a while to get moving toward a future that they’ve been inching towards at a snail’s pace for so many years.

September 29, 2020

Marie Brennan’s fascinating DRIFTWOOD is the kind of story we really need right now

Rick Klaw blog driftwood, interview, karen mccoy, marie brennan, review, the borrowed bookshelf, University City Public Library Book Challenge 0

UNIVERSITY CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK CHALLENGE praises DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan.

This is a fascinating little book, with plenty to mull over after the final pages are done. And about those final pages… I’m not going to spoil this book by saying that they’re odd. In fact, I’d love it if someone would read this book simply so I can talk about this ending! It’s not my favorite book this year, but it’s definitely thought-provoking and creative, so it gets a thumbs up from me.

THE BORROWED BOOKSHELF concurs.

I do recommend it if you’re looking for something original. It’s also an incredibly hopeful read, about people forming relationships and community in the face of destruction of their worlds and the arrival of the end. And with the state of the world right now, that’s the kind of story we really need right now.

Karen McCoy, on their eponymous blog, interviews Brennan about DRIFTWOOD.

I know what you mean about awkward gaps between YA and adult markets. Speaking of the “in-between”, I love how DRIFTWOOD explores what happens when fragments of different worlds collide. How did this idea come to you, and in what ways do you feel it might be relevant to readers, especially in 2020?

I honestly can’t remember where this one came from! It began with the short story “Driftwood” (which is the opening section of the novel), and I know the idea began with the setting — but what caused me to come up with the idea of this conglomerate place, all about entropy and liminality, I couldn’t tell you.

As for relevance, oof. I would have been happy for it to be less topical, y’know? But the Publishers’ Weekly review calls it “hope in the face of apocalypse,” and I suppose we need some of that right now. All of the stories that make up the book are about things ending, about how individuals and groups respond to the awareness that their worlds are dying and taking them and their traditions with them . . . which makes it sound really grim, but the beauty (ideally) is in seeing how they still find happiness and hope, how they find ways to move forward despite everything. And the frame story that holds the individual narratives together is all about community.