I don't often think of genre fiction as a hotbed of philosophy. The characters hve problems to solve, agendas of their own, and a story question they have to solve. I love plot and seeing how things work out.

But several books I've recently read had me thinking about the world and society on deeper levels. No Gods, No Monsters is an adult novel that rambles through lives, alternate worlds, and many characters to question how we would react if monsters popped up. The answer is, for many, let's not believe. This book weaves in people with many different powers and goals, made me care about all of them, and showed how different motives and secrets can se us at cross purposes with those we care about. A complicated read, it made me argue the choices characters were making and set me thinking.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is a YA novel dealing with the problems of being different. Our hero is a by-the-book bureaucrat whose job is to visit orphanages for magical children and make reports. When, against the rules, our bureaucrat becomes involved with the powerful children at one facility, he changes, and the world may just change. The plot implicitly raises questions about how we force people into molds and how we throw them away or suppress those who are different. An uplifting story that kept me smiling.

All of Our Demise is another YA book, the second book concluding the story of a magical tournament to the death. The victor's family will claim high magick until the next tournament. One group of competitors thinks the tournament may be ended and let them survive. People made hard choices, magic battles to keep the status quo, and outsiders interfere for their own ends. The centerpiece of this book is what the battling teens learn of their families' secrets and the choices they make for good or ill. The book poses to various characters the questions of what they really want and what they will sacrifice to achieve a goal they see as necessary. The author pushes the characters to their limits and beyond in a book that was compelling, surprising, and darkly satisfying.