#claire-north — Public Fediverse posts

i am unreasonably excited about this book from just the summary and ive never even heard of the author

https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/slow-gods

#SlowGods #ClaireNorth #books

#books #read #reading #bookstadon #clairenorth

Today's quote from a book:

"If you say that it is just business, I cannot guarantee the placidity of my reaction. "

~~from The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

Fantastic Fiction: Fascism: We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and acti… (#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon)

Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

Farah Mendlesohn is a con-runner, a retired history professor, a charity manager, co-editor of the Hugo Award-Winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, author of the Hugo-nominated The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, and is currently working on a short book about Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (preorder Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore). Farah has chaired three Eastercons, has served in various capacities in Worldcons and Eastercons, and is part of the World Fantasy 2025 team. (Farah/they/she)

Now reading Fyneshade [2023] by Kate Griffin which is a pseudonym of Claire North [which also is a pseudonym, this time for her real name - but what shall I say] and this book's again a great inventurous, ridiculous and gritty one of hers <3

"I looked up meekly. "I will take my direction from you. After all it is you who employed me." [...] It was clear that the true meaning of my answer had evaded her. Both of us could defy orders."

#ClaireNorth #KateGriffin #bookstodon @bookstodon #Fyneshade

#rebsReadings in March 2025, so-so.

#DanaSuffrin #MarieDarrieussecq #TomSaller #JuttaSpeidel #MarthaWells #AlixEHarrow #ElfiConrad #ClaireNorth #bookstodon @bookstodon

"I am Nobody.
I am Kepler.
I am Love.
I am You."

From Claire North's TOUCH [2015].

I just finished this book and like[d] it very much.

#Touch #ClaireNorth

I'm loving Claire North [have read THE FIRST 15 LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST, THE END OF THE DAY, and THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE] - and currently I'm reading TOUCH - its idea/storyline is a great one, a real recommendation!

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7976fd23-7b92-402f-8b2d-6d5099f0e089

#bookstodon @bookstodon @thestorygraph #rebcommendations #ClaireNorth

I preordered the forthcoming Claire North novel Slow Gods.

🚀Space Opera!🚀

https://books.apple.com/gb/book/slow-gods/id6738302009

#SciFi #ClaireNorth

Il y a quelques semaines, j'ai vu ici une demande (par @flomaraninchi ? Je n'arrive pas à retrouver le thread, désolé s'il y a confusion) de conseils d'autrices de SF. Une ou plusieurs personnes ont recommandé Claire North, que je ne connaissais pas.

Je viens de lire mon premier Claire North (La Maison des jeux T1: le serpent) et j'en ai encore la tête pleine d'intrigues vénitiennes, des émotions des personnages, le fantastique discret mais omniprésent de lamaison des jeux, sa manière de s'adresser au lecteur, etc. Bref, je viens de découvrir une autrice fabuleuse et :

• soit vous connaissez #ClaireNorth, et la recommander autour de vous ne peut que faire du bien ! (Et merci à ceux et celles d'entre vous qui le font déjà)
• soit vous ne la connaissez pas encore, comme moi hier: vous l'avez compris, je vous la recommande fortement. Même si vous n'aimez pas la SF mais n'êtes pas hostile à une touche de fantastique (au moins pour le T1 de la maison des jeux, seul livre que j'ai lu)

@NickEast The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

#Books #ClaireNorth

Upon reflection I don’t think I have it in me to make another attempt at The Long Cosmos at present.

I might reread Touch by Claire North. I recall thinking it was probably better than The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I’ve just reread Harry August, so I should compare it to Touch.

Goodreads tells me I rated Touch 5⭐️ in May 2015.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22314178

#Books #ClaireNorth #Touch https://mastodon.social/@ianRobinson/112825535705933332

🆕 blog! “Book Review: Ithaca - Claire North”
★★★★★

I'm an absolute sucker for Claire North's books. She has an almost supernatural ability to weave an intricate yet satisfying tale, all while leaving the reader hungry for more. Ithaca presents a God's-eye-view of the story of Penelope. It's a fast, furious, and feminist story which plunges us straight into the middle of the Greek […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/book-review-ithaca-claire-north/
⸻
#ClaireNorth

Book Review: Ithaca - Claire North
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/book-review-ithaca-claire-north/

I'm an absolute sucker for Claire North's books. She has an almost supernatural ability to weave an intricate yet satisfying tale, all while leaving the reader hungry for more.

Ithaca presents a God's-eye-view of the story of Penelope. It's a fast, furious, and feminist story which plunges us straight into the middle of the Greek melodrama.

Kenamon takes his time to consider this. Penelope does not mind. The silence of men is a novel experience, and she is prepared to thoroughly enjoy it.

There are a lot of Greeks. It is sometimes a little confusing to keep straight Agamemnon, Andraemon, Aegyptius, and Aegisthus - but it is just about doable. The various twists of the story are well paced although, being an ancient tale, naturally a little clichéd.

Retelling the classics can be perilous - too radical an interpretation and it loses its timeless qualities, too conservative and you're just repeating work. Ithaca feels modern without being overly fashionable. A good tale, told well, with plenty of heart.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/book-review-ithaca-claire-north/

#ClaireNorth

#ChirpBooks has the audiobook for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North available for just $3.99.

https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/the-first-fifteen-lives-of-harry-august-by-claire-north

This is one of my favorite books, and one I most frequently recommend.

#Audiobooks #ClaireNorth

Claire North - An August 2023 Update.

Claire North is bloody marvellous. If you haven’t read theses books by her then fix that and give yourselves a treat:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
Touch.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope.
The Pursuit of William Abbey.

Remarkable work. The fact she is writing a space opera makes me tingle with anticipation.

#Books #Bookstodon #ClaireNorth https://www.clairenorth.com/claire-north-posts/2023/08/21/an-august-2023-update/

'The lives of humans are not special to the spirits of #sky & #earth; they will not bless us, they will not curse us, they do not care for our names, faces moralities or characters. They care only for the water & the fire, for the #river running & the #mountain standing proud.'

#NotesFromTheBurningAge by #ClaireNorth

HTs #MomentsFromAMovingTrain #Sky #clouds #photography #SilentSunday #London #LookUp

#VendrediLecture
Après avoir fini Terra Ignota, je pense que je vais enchaîner les novellas pour un temps !

Aujourd'hui, le tome 2 de la Maison des Jeux : "Le Voleur" par Claire North.

La construction de l'intrigue - autour d'une chasse - diffère pas mal du premier tome et de ses jeux machiavéliens (l'époque et le lieu aussi), mais le concept mis en scène et la narration à l'efficacité redoutable sont toujours aussi fascinants. J'aime beaucoup.
#ClaireNorth

Trying to come up with a “favourite authors” list, as I’ve seen a few other people do. It’s tricky, because it changes all the time. But here’s a list of authors from whom any new release would be considered as a “must buy”.

#RobbieArnott
#KateAtkinson
#AnthonyDoerr
#TanaFrench
#ChinaMieville
#ClaireNorth
#PhillipReeve
#RichardPowers
#DonnaTartt

Book Review: Notes from the Burning Age – Claire North

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age – a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven’s world, such material must be closely guarded, so that the ills that led to that cataclysm

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/book-review-notes-from-the-burning-age-claire-north/

#/etc/ #bookreview #clairenorth

Book Review: The Gameshouse – The Serpent, The Thief and The Master by Claire North

Everyone has heard of the Gameshouse. But few know all its secrets.
It is the place where fortunes can be made and lost though chess, backgammon – every game under the sun.
But those whom fortune favours may be invited to compete in the higher leagu

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/04/book-review-the-gameshouse-the-serpent-the-thief-and-the-master-by-claire-north/

#/etc/ #bookreview #clairenorth