SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I'm starting this thread early in case anyone (*sideeyes Lesley*) is getting an early start...

This is the buddy read for The Breath of the Sun by Isaac R. Fellman, winner of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for best novel in the SF/F/Horror category.

Publisher's Weekly gave the novel a starred review and had this to say: "Fellman’s riveting debut melds prophecy, postcolonial politics, and mountaineering in a nuanced secondary-world fantasy. ... Fellman ably executes an ambitious structure and delivers an atmospheric, poetic, and occasionally wry and brutal story that moves with the gentle but unstoppable momentum of an iceberg. This is a compassionate and finely observed debut from an author to watch."

Also, this, from Fellman's Twitter bio: "Archivist and writer of queer literary fantasy. 2019 Lambda winner for The Breath of the Sun (published under my former name of Rachel). Transmasc, he/him."

*ducks head* I got my copy through ILL (it came from Dallas of all places), but this time they only gave me a week to return it. Of course, now that I’ve read it, I’m planning to buy my own copy because there are so many amazing quotes/passages that I want to be able to go back to. Looking forward to talking about this amazing read with everyone!

To start off the discussion, while I ultimately loved the book, it started off slow for me. General thematic spoilers ahead: (view spoiler)[ It took awhile for me to understand the world, especially the religious systems, and I got tripped up several times in the first quarter to half of the book. I still don’t think I fully understand the religious aspects and everything that the author was trying to convey there. I did like the idea of the mountain as God and that walking on or summitting the mountain was seen as blasphemous. (Though the rock climber in me had a hard time accepting that and I could relate to Lamat’s drive to climb very well.) The mountain was a great metaphor for either the search for God, trying to understand the unseen and unknowable, or just the search for life’s meaning more generally. (hide spoiler)]

Ah I’m sorry I didn’t know this thread had started early and I tried to start it just now. Thanks Anna for alerting me!

Anyway, who’s in for this buddy read? I’ll be starting later today.

I can’t wait to hear everyone’s impressions of this book. I only read it two weeks ago, and I already want to reread it to pick up on the plethora of things I’m sure I missed the first time.

Aboard o/ Half way through, but attention's bit wavery, so I might need to reverse a bit to catch up again this evening.

I'm still to get any major feels from this, but there are a lot of tiny quotable thoughts, and I can't wait to hear other's impressions.

Just read chapter 1, and I’m reminded of Le Guin in the meditative, clean style of the prose, and in the earthy wisdom of the women we’ve encountered so far. The writing itself is lovely, the world evocative and mysterious. Glad to have begun this.

I will try to get my copy today^^

Anthony wrote: "Just read chapter 1, and I’m reminded of Le Guin in the meditative, clean style of the prose, and in the earthy wisdom..."

Yes! I got distinct sense of Le Guin as well, specifically Left Hand of Darkness and some of the character interactions therein. It's validating to hear you say (see you write?) this, as I was scrutinizing my brain's judgement heavily: sure it was just too influenced by the strong visual connection between the book covers.

Edit: the specific cover in question

Ugh. Really wanting to start this, but my copy has yet to come in. I was sure it'd get here by now... Will be joining as soon as I have it!

I picked this up partly because of the award and ratings and partly because I live in a town that's home to famous mountaineers. My spouse and I both used to climb as well (although much more casually). I'm still early in the first chapter but I'm impressed with that aspect of the book. Perhaps I'm reaching here but the start has the cadence and feeling of a mountaineering memoir. Interesting.

Raucous wrote: "...the start has the cadence and feeling of a mountaineering memoir. Interesting."

I believe you're right with that as what it's aiming for, indeed. It's a nice set-up. Interested to hear of possible insight you might have for any technical aspects in the story :D

Raucous wrote: "I picked this up partly because of the award and ratings and partly because I live in a town that's home to famous mountaineers. My spouse and I both used to climb as well (although much more casua..."

I also got the mountaineering memoir vibe from this, but I’m also a climber so that may not be adding much to the diversity of opinion. I’ve also lived in a couple of towns in the western US where climbing culture was dominant, notably on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, so I very much understood Lamat's drive to climb. I thought it was a really unique setting for the story that the author wanted to tell and the mountain itself just adds to the layers of meaning throughout the narrative.

I also grew up surrounded by mountains (first the Sierra Nevadas and then the Cascades), and the absolute worst part about living in the Eastern U.S. is how far it is from them. I've never climbed with gear, but I love mountains like the South Sister that can be ascended with a steep hike.

...this thread is making me realize, how I've never been on a mountain!

Apart from driving through Pyrenees (that's then likely the highest I've ever been) and somewhere along the French/Swiss/German border. On road it's hard to even tell your elevation.

Sounds like we’ve had opposite trajectories, Travis. The mountains are why I moved west from New England after graduate school and have yet to look back. I also appreciate routes like what you’re describing (Mt Whitney comes to mind as well) vs full on multi pitch ascents (so much gear!). There’s something about even just hiking in lake basins and valleys being surrounded by granite peaks that is magical.

Just finished, and flipping back to the front cover, only now saw that "Left Hand of Darkness" is in fact even mentioned on the caption.

Our local peaks are volcanic but that doesn't change that magical feeling of coming into a lake basin tucked in at the base of a cirque. That's part of why we moved back west as well after decades in the east. We still have a bits of climbing gear left that we've repurposed for various things around the house. Those carabiners holding the dog gates closed are over specced for the purpose.

Anyway, Chapter 4: (view spoiler)[I'm still trying wrap my head around the notion of climbing God and a religion with rules that are intended to insure that God isn't hurt by the climbers. It's a wonderful setup, but... The supply caches like the one described here are a classic feature of high altitude climbing but they're an invitation leave gear scattered all over the mountain. That feels irreverent in this case. Perhaps I'm sensitized to this because it's an ongoing controversy on the major Everest climbing routes where the trash left behind has reached mountainous proportions. (hide spoiler)]

Raucous wrote: "Those carabiners holding the dog gates closed are over specced for the purpose."

Ha! Ours are used for securing gear on river trips now, along with an old rope repurposed as a bowline.

Re: ch 4(view spoiler)[I too had a hard time deciphering the mountain-as-God metaphor, but now that you brought up the parallel with Everest, I do wonder if that was part of the author's point, that these places are sacred in different ways to different people. You may see a mountain, you may even revere it in your own way, but we see a deity or important spirituality place. Where I live now, there is actually an ongoing struggle with commercial development on a peak sacred to many tribes in the area (their most important gods live in the mountain), so that makes a lot of sense to me. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished chapter 5.
(view spoiler)[I’m alternately drawn in and kept a little at arm’s length by the spareness of the prose. I think the style is appropriate, because clearly our narrator is a damaged, closed-off person, but it doesn’t always allow me to really *feel* what’s going on. On the other hand, the writing itself really is quite lovely. And the horrifying and deeply sad event of her friend’s body crashing into their tent was vividly and subtly drawn. (hide spoiler)]

Anthony wrote: "Just finished chapter 5..."

Agreed. (view spoiler)[I too felt quite distanced from feeling what the narrator was feeling: although it was clear it was affecting them, it didn't quite carry over. The clarity of the writing is easy to digest however and, as you say, quite befitting of the character. (hide spoiler)]

Anthony wrote: "Just finished chapter 5.
[spoilers removed]"
Totally agreed:) (view spoiler)[And somehow her friend’s body crashing into their tent is even more horrifying for me due to I have no vocabulary(sigh). ...A piece of her parka, I was like, ahh, what is this? Is this some body parts I don’t know? Thankfully, it’s coat. (hide spoiler)]

Wen wrote: "Totally agreed:) [spoilers removed]"

Oh, Wen <:D Ouch. What a way to learn though. Will the word "parka" now be forever linked to this shared experience.

@Anthony, Jemppu and Wen (view spoiler)[ I felt the same way about the beginning of the book too, almost to the halfway point, but I agree that the tone feels right given the trauma she experienced. It wasn’t until more information about Lamat's backstory was revealed that I felt much more connected. That subsequently made me want to go back and read the first half again to see what I’d missed. (hide spoiler)]

For anyone who has read at least a few chapters, I’m curious what you think of the narrative structure.(view spoiler)[ Specifically the tone of the memoir and the footnotes from her current partner. I thought I was an interesting style and helped me to better understand the protagonist, even if it sometimes also took me out of the main narrative. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished and posted my review. To answer your question, Lesley, regarding the structure, (view spoiler)[ my only quibble with it was that I didn’t really feel like the three women’s voices were distinctive enough. Each of them wrote in a lyrical manner, and sounded similar. Other than that, I liked the attempt and approach of structuring it that way. (hide spoiler)]

For a first novel, it’s remarkably self-assured and distinctive. Glad I read it.

Anthony wrote: "I just finished and posted my review."

Good points in your review. (view spoiler)[Especially on the similarity of the voices. I too had occasionally difficulties distinguishing who's views were being expressed. Though some of it I was willing to attribute to the 'edited' nature of the narration perhaps, at times it felt like there was indeed only one voice talking to itself. (hide spoiler)]

Yes, same here. (view spoiler)[I was embarrassed to say that they sound alike; I thought that’s my another vocabulary problem, haha. And I like the footnotes^^ (hide spoiler)]

Thanks for all your responses! I always find the diversity of insights fascinating, especially for a book as dense as this. I find it interesting that (view spoiler)[folks thought the voices sounded the same. For me, the voices, particularly Otile, were pretty distinct. Otile sounded much more real and grounded, whereas Lamat was distant and purposefully so. Disaine's journal entries seemed somehow desperate, like she was convincing herself of a story rather than relating facts. I do agree that Lamat's retelling of her interactions with Disaine are in Lamat's voice, which as Jemppu said, makes complete sense as it is a memoir told from her perspective. (hide spoiler)]

Consequently for me, (view spoiler)[it was the relationships between these women and Lamat's relationship with Courer that were the heart of the book. (hide spoiler)] I still think about the scene in Chapter 9, (view spoiler)[where Lamat miscarries her baby. That scene broke open the emotional shell she was trying so hard to hold onto and broke my heart at the same time. (hide spoiler)]

I finished a few days ago, but haven't been on GR long enough to write anything out until just now. I really loved this book, in part because I read it at a moment that I think was especially conducive to enjoying the particular style and topic, but also because it was an excellent book. I really liked the unusual structure of the book, and thought that it added to the story. (view spoiler)[I hadn't really thought about whether the voices were too similar until just now, and I'm still not sure what I think about that. (hide spoiler)]

While I can see the similarities to Left Hand, the Le Guin book that this evoked the most strongly for me was actually The Telling, due to the shared themes of religion/spirituality, storytelling, and truth.

I also found myself a bit impatient to know more of Lamat's backstory in the beginning of the book, but once it began to be revealed I found myself pulled deeply into the story. Like Lesley, I thought the characters and relationships were the most powerful element - I especially loved how (view spoiler)[Otile became such a strong presence in the story, through her footnotes, even before she was introduced as a character in the narrative. (hide spoiler)]