#vajra chandrasekere

[charliejaneanders]

https://wapo.st/3JYmoqw

My new SFF book review column in the @washingtonpost is about four books that will help you cope with the fanatics in our world. Whether it's a cult of personality around a toxic billionaire, or religious zealots, these books will help.

Paywall-free link: https://wapo.st/3JYmoqw

There's so much more I could have said about these books. The Deep Sky does some really fascinating stuff with VR/AR, which I totally didn't have space to talk about. Asuka's virtual world has a glitch that allows her to see other people's virtual worlds, which is really cool.

Also, C.M. Alongi has been saying on Instagram that she read my novel The City in the Middle of the Night after she'd already finished Citadel, and didn't realize how similar the two novels are. And they definitely have a lot in common! They are in conversation delightfully.

Citadel tackles some of the same themes/ideas as The City in the Middle of the Night, but takes them in a very different direction. And in some ways, Alongi's way works better!

There's a special pleasure in reading a book that takes ideas that I've played with in the past, but improves upon my own approach to them.

Citadel explores some of the same territory as my own City, but goes places I never would have thought of in a million years.

The Saint of Bright Doors gets so much weirder than I can explain without major spoilers, and the "bright doors" of the title turn out to have a really fascinating explanation that dovetails with the cult-leader shenanigans in the book.

This book features one of my favorite examples of a horny underachieving protagonist, a type of character I've been seeing a lot lately.

And Counterweight sort of reminded me of the Matrix films??? Not in terms of plot, but the way that action/thriller beats slowly dissolve into just long discussions about philosophy and artificial sentience.

#books #reading #book reviews #book review #science fiction #fantasy #c.m. alongi #yume kitasei #vajra chandrasekere #djuna