New York Times SF Column: Lord, Lowachee, and More

My SF/F Chronicle column appears in the New York Times Sunday Book Review this weekend, and the electronic version is already available online. I reviewed novels by Karen Lord, Ian McDonald, Karin Lowachee, and Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud.I enjoyed all of these books, but I must say I haven't cackled outloud at anything quite so hard as I did at some of the more comical scenes in the Karen Lord novel, Redemption in Indigo, nor been so rewarded in that laughter by the grounded seriousness that follows. A highly recommended first novel that doesn't read like a first novel.The Karin Lowachee novel, Gaslight Dogs, was much overlooked when first published in the spring, and I want to thank the site Beyond Victoriana for spotlighting the novel, an act that brought it to my attention. (Slight typo in the review: "distinct" at the end should be "distinctive".) By chance, Clarkesworld just ran an interview with Lowachee.I was unable to talk about the quality of the translation of the Chateaureynaud given space limitations. It's by Edward Gauvin, and it is quite fine.All of these books will be at least mentioned in my "Best SF/F of the Year (Thus Far)" post scheduled for the Omnivoracious book blog next week.I've done two prior reviews for the NYTBR, of Dexter Palmer's The Dream of Perpetual Motion and Marcel Theroux's Far North, both extremely ambitious and rewarding novels.Have a great long weekend!