The Sword and Laser discussion

I was excited to read this book because of the intriguing concept. Dreams are important to me, and I wondered what I would do to get them back if I lost them. I knew this wouldn’t be the main perspective in this book, but I’d expected the motivations to be explored and delved into and they weren’t really. I felt rather disappointed, which is unfair, because I can hardly be upset with a book simply for not telling the story I wanted it to.

This got me wondering what other books might have defied expectations, and whether this was a good or bad thing. Another example for me, and one we’ve read, was Lovecraft Country, which I had expected would continue the creepy inheritance story set in a house in the middle of the woods, and I was surprised, and initially, disappointed when it changed directions. In the end, I found I enjoyed the book all the more for surprising me, though I would still have happily read the story I epected.

I didn’t have any expectations when I read this book, because I went into it cold. I wanted to read something SFF by a Native American/First Nations author and The Marrow Thieves was one of the ones that popped up and was available from the library. Pure coincidence it was chosen as an S&L pick.

But I totally get the tension between expectation and reality. Some of that has to do with marketing and some of it from word of mouth. Often it goes terribly wrong, as when the movie The Great Waldo Pepper was promoted as a comedy when it is a string of depressing vignettes which become increasingly grim.

Sometimes it goes the other way, as with the movie Upgrade which seemed to be a Science Fictional version of Death Wish — which it *is* but it eventually reveals itself to be so much more, to the point where it is one of my favorite films of the last decade.

A book I read recently that did the same thing was Feed by M.T. Anderson. I was expecting a simple YA adventure on the moon, but the book is both deeper and more prescient than that, which really impressed me. I would’ve been fine with an update of a Heinlein juvenile, but Anderson exceeded that expectation.

After hearing about the premise on the podcast, I was really excited to hear about the state of the world and the mechanism for the way dreams were lost and how they are recovered.

While I really did enjoy the book and the characters, I was expecting to see much more about the setting itself.

I had similar issues with the book. The loss of dreams is a McGuffin to get an apocalypse and our heroes off on their journey.

The actual story which centres around the history of indigenous schools and the eradication of culture is the heart of the book and should have been the selling point.

The story has very little SF and with minor variations could have been set in the recent past.

Iain wrote: "I had similar issues with the book. The loss of dreams is a McGuffin to get an apocalypse and our heroes off on their journey.

The actual story which centres around the history of indigenous scho..."

That’s the nature of First Nations/Native American storytelling: they come at it sideways, so what it’s about is never what it’s about.

The people who lost dreams weren't the main characters in this story. This story was about the people who didn't lose dreams.

Iain wrote: "The actual story which centres around the history of indigenous schools and the eradication of culture is the heart of the book and should have been the selling point."

Actually, that premise would really have appealed to me too. I don’t know much about this topic, but I listened to a podcast about a missing and murdered indigenous girl who had been separated from a loving family, and parts of this book reminded me of things that had happened to her - stories like this are very upsetting but important.

I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I was expecting a story like that. As I said, I know those who lost their ability to dream would not be the main focus, but it was the reason why I picked up the book, so I was left craving more of that. Its funny how marketing changes your perspective.

Iain wrote: "The actual story which centres around the history of indigenous schools and the eradication of culture is the heart of the book and should have been the selling point. "

Agreed. This is EXACTLY what the actual Indian Schools were doing.

I hate books where the hype and blurb are a deliberate bait and switch. Consequently I knocked off a star just for that.

Trike wrote: "That’s the nature of First Nations/Native American storytelling: they come at it sideways, so what it’s about is never what it’s about.
..."

Except this is Sword and Laser. Not historical fiction or whatever and The actual story .. centres around the history of indigenous schools and the eradication of culture is the heart of the book and should have been the selling point. ... has me wondering why it's a choice.

We only read 12 books a year. They should fit pretty firmly into the SFF genre in my opinion.

A thought for the future (not just Feb)... A selection or several of African SFF. Afrofuturism, etc. My library is promoting this and it sounds very different.

Rick wrote: "has me wondering why it's a choice."

It’s Science Fiction employed as metaphor, told in an indigenous style.

Using SFF as metaphor for real life has always been a thing, elevated to prominence by The Twilight Zone and Star Trek as they talked about racism and politics and religion and such. The aliens who are harlequined black-and-white talking about how racism utterly destroyed their planet yet they can’t break free of the cycle themselves isn’t “really” sci-fi as it is commentary on contemporary society, but we let it into the genre just the same.

Same goes for books like this one.

Trike wrote: "Rick wrote: "has me wondering why it's a choice."

It’s Science Fiction employed as metaphor, told in an indigenous style.

Using SFF as metaphor for real life has always been a thing, elevated to ..."


The aliens who are harlequined black-and-white talking about how racism utterly destroyed their planet yet they can’t break free of the cycle themselves isn’t “really” sci-fi as it is commentary on contemporary society,

still has aliens etc so it's (on the surface) SF even though it is, of course commentary on society. I was reading that this has no real SF trappings and might have just misunderstood that bit.

A future post-pandemic, post-apocalypse with genetic engineering counts, I think, even if none of that is really front-and-center in this particular story.

Books like Station Eleven, Earth Abides, On the Beach, and The Road are considered SF and they don’t have even as much correlation with SF as this book does.

Haha, speaking of false expectations from book blurbs reminds me of Gideon the Ninth being pitched as lesbian necromancers in space. (I loved what I did get, mind you.)
Do authors have control of their book blurbs?

In terms of this story being a Sword & Laser pick - one of the things I appreciate about S&L is that it exposes me to books I wouldn't pick up on my own. My concern with the choice of this book is that it was picked immediately after Parable of the Sower. To me, the stories had many similarities: Road story, group on the run, Others after the group for Reasons, racism, bad old days come again, climate change effects. Because of the many similar elements, I don't think I was able to take in this book entirely on its own merits. I felt like the story was made darker because I'd just read the darker PotS (disclaimer: I also read Parable of the Talents after PotS, and that was even darker). I think TMT also suffered in comparison for me because it was a YA book - I didn't feel like the characters were as deep as I would have liked, especially the (view spoiler)[jealous angsty-ness with Frenchie/Rose/Derrick (hide spoiler)].

I know this was a guest pick, but I think it would have shone more as a pick at another time.