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From the Reading Lounge of Ogawa Yuto

Introduction

So I read a lot - my favorite genres being horror and dark fantasy, but I'll read pretty much any fantasy, sci-fi and urban fantasy in almost any format from novel, to short story, to graphic novel.

I want to start sharing some of that love for reading with the community. Plus it's my chance to pretend my reviews and recommendations are semi-professional.

Feel free to hit up the comments with any reviews you want to see, if they fall into the genres mentioned above!



Recommendations

Today I'm going with a sci-fi theme. So my top pick for an old school sci-fi has to be Dune by Frank Herbert. Don't get me wrong, his work isn't perfect, but picking up the absolute tome of a book that is Dune (and the subsequent novels) is a great indication of the work he put into his craft. The movies are pretty rad too, but the book is such a foundational classic. You can think of it as being a bit like the way The Lord of the Rings is for fantasy, but with science fiction. It's defining of the modern genre.

For my graphic novel pick, I've selected Saga by Brian K Vaughan, and Fiona Staples. The artwork is absolutely breathtaking, and the story is huge. It's epic science fiction taken to a whole new level, with a lot of really amazing characters. I might end up writing a review on it later because it's one of my favorite series of all time. It's got action, planetary politics, and covers the span of years. It also lacks that stale, inhuman energy that can be associated at times with the sci-fi genre. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Finally, for my modern sci-fi pick, I've selected Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. Not only is this the book I'll be reviewing today, it's just a really great example of sci-fi with an interesting and unique universe with a variety of cultures and a deep history. It also has an expansive universe which you only get to see a fragment of in the first (and thus far only) book. The series is going to be expanding in the near future, so if anyone is looking to pick up a series and enjoy it as the books are published, this is a great option.




Review of Winter's Orbit

As you can probably imagine, given that I recommended this book, I rate it highly. I feel like professional critics have unique systems like 5/5 stars! Or things of that nature, so I'll be ranking it similarly and I give it a solid 4.5/5.

To give a little context it's a book rooted in the politics of a small system set in a vast universe. The local space in which the novel takes place is ruled over by an empire, which controls the region around it via alliances made through arranged marriage. These alliances are important because they hold the empire and its connected pieces into the intricate weave of a political juggernaut called The Resolution. The story is about what happens when one of those alliances comes unraveled and threatens to spill the whole of the empire unprotected out into a world which threatens to consume it.

I don't want to go too deeply into detail, but basically one of the main characters, Count Jainan, was married into the imperial family and was part of the tie that held together the treaty with his homeworld. When his partner died, there was a scramble to reforge that connection, which led to him marrying Kiem. Kiem's a lesser member of the imperial family with a history of getting into trouble.

This is basically the starting point for the story, and from there, the book carefully navigates through different layers of political intrigue, a murder mystery, a little bit of romance, and a lot of culture.

The tone is fantastic, with carefully written point of view characters who are fleshed out enough in their perspective that if you removed the names, you could probably still figure out who is speaking. The world building goes above and beyond what's needed to tell the story, but never feels like it's getting stale or boring. The author took great care to introduce concepts in a way that wasn't just a massive information dump, but rather an immersive experience into the world.

I personally like almost all of the characters, because even if they aren't inherently likable, the author writes them well enough to make me see their point of view. And there are numerous numerous points of view about everything from the empire, to how they use resources, to the political megastructure of the universe.

There are a ton of things that come out about different characters in the book, and the way the author writes little clues and hints into the story makes it clear that they went into writing Winter's Orbit with a plan and a fully realized canon.

Also, it just tells a very compelling and enjoyable story.

The only reason I'm not giving this book a top tier score is that it lacked some of the grit that I would have liked. There is absolutely violence, don't get me wrong. There's death, there's violence. People get attacked and even tortured (mentally), but a lot of the way the author handles it lacks the kind of impact I'd like to see for those themes coming into play. Bad stuff happening should FEEL bad. But I fully acknowledge that's a personal preference and may have no bearing on anyone else's rating.

I grew up reading Ender's Game and similar, so for anyone who has read that book (or series), you can probably understand some of the stakes I want to see in play.

The story could also have used a little more in terms of philosophy. It was a great plot, and I like that it was self-contained, but it lacked that feeling of being greater than the sum of its parts, if that makes sense. I definitely enjoyed it, but I don't think I'm going to walk away spending days or even weeks thinking about it and the themes relevant to the narrative.

And that's it for now! Next time we'll cover another of my favorite genres!

If you've read Winter's Orbit, feel free to leave your own ratings or thoughts in the comments, as well as any thoughts about the books I've mentioned above!