From a Western Union to East Asia: books read

Much as I like Robert Jackson Bennett’s fantasy such as the Divine Cities trilogy, his SF novel VIGILANCE is the kind of Western Union polemic I can’t stand. In the near future mass shootings have become so common they’ve been turned into a reality show (the victims figure they’re so likely to be shot anyway, they might as well be shot on TV). Alongside AI that can alter even live video to suit the sponsors’ needs and Tucker Carlson-esque talking head pundits the story of one (seemingly) typical shooting spree is a grab bag of current concerns but even though I share much of Bennett’s views, I got tired of the book. While reminiscent of Max Headroom right down to an advertising system similar to the first episode’s Blipverts, it lacks either any protagonists I cared about or the TV show’s black humor; reading it is like getting hit on the head with a warning sign.

UNSAVORY TRUTH: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat by Marion Nestle (no relation to the conglomerate, she notes) details how food corporations have followed in the wake of pharma and tobacco by underwriting scientific research and twisting it to put them in the best light; Fruit Loops, for instance, can be a healthy breakfast choice … if the alternative is donuts. Selective comparisons are one trick to make food look good, as is focusing on a single ingredient (it would take more than a pound of milk chocolate to benefit from the flavanols in chocolate) but it’s often as simple as the industry using grants and other financing to nudge research the way the industry wants it to go, or making specious What About arguments — if you’re a vegetarian, doesn’t that bias your research on meat as much as being financed by the meat industry (Nestle explains, at some length, why it doesn’t). Nothing startling but certainly informative.

Atom Mudman Bezecny’s short story GLASS LADY is part of her Nick Tredor urban fantasy series and free to read at the link. At a strange glass s hop offering unbelievable bargains, Nick discovers an unpleasant opponent — but in a pleasant surprise, manages to talk and reason his way out of things instead of using brute force or magic. I’ll pick up more in the series eventually.LAST TANG STANDING by Lauren Ho is a chick-lit novel that stands out slightly by having a Chinese-Malaysian protagonist working as an attorney in Singapore. Andrea Tang is, however, saddled with problems not that different from similar works in white America: cutthroat competition in her professional field, crappy dating life, a mom demanding Andrea deliver some grandkids ASAP (while there’s a lot about how this is a Chinese cultural thing, it feels pretty universal). Ho writes well — I love a reference to a restaurant staff so young “looking at them makes me express milk” but the book’s 400 pages and the narrative voice and cultural details couldn’t keep me interested after about page 200. And as some readers have pointed out, there’s a lot snarky racist, ageist and homophobic comments hand-waved away as that’s just how the Chinese are.

#SFWApro. All rights to cover image (I don’t know the artist) remain with current holder.