PoC SFF Book Club discussion

I thought I’d start this off with some questions and post my own answers in a few days.

If you haven’t started the book yet, go ahead and dive in! It’s different from the first, and I ended up not liking it as much, but it’s also a very fun and fast read.

1. Did you like the book? Was it a fun read for you?
2. Who was your favorite character, Quasing and/or human?
3. Did it remind you of other books, movies, or comic books, in English or otherwise?
4. What do you think about Roen Tan’s character development?
5. Did the humor work for you? How big of an issue was the fat-shaming?
6. What were your favorite parts of the alternate history of the world we see presented through Genjix/Prophus conflict?
7. Were the bad guys believable?
8. How do you visualize the characters in your head? Do you think the author successfully gets around the “default white” problem?
9. What did you think about the female characters and sexuality in the story?
10. Did you like this enough to think you might read the sequel, The Deaths of Tao?
11. What would you do if you were in Roen Tan’s position?

Feel free to answer any questions you feel like here or on Tumblr, and have fun with it :-)

Here are my responses under a spoiler tag. And I’d also like to point people to ihavelostdiana's awesome and super thorough responses for a more negative view of this book :-)

While I didn’t like this book as much as the first, it was still a qualified success for me. And I think it’s good to keep in mind that PoC authors can write deep and thick, or write shallow and bouncy—they shouldn’t be held to harsher expectations than white writers, although they shouldn’t be given special passes either. Does anyone else have any suggestions for books in this more light-hearted vein by PoC writers?

(view spoiler)[
1. I liked the first third of the book, was quite bored during the middle third, which suffered from soggy middle syndrome, and enjoyed the last third (with qualifications) as soon as I’d lowered my expectations.

2. I liked Tao most of all. He was an unlikeable asshole in a lot of ways, but he maintained the strength of his convictions and still held on to a moral compass throughout his long life.

3. Someone pointed out that the basic premise of the book is a lot like Scientology, only less creepy and culty! ihavelostdiana also pointed out that it’s a LOT like Guardians of the Galaxy. Fast-paced, shallow, funny at times, basically an adolescent male wish fulfillment story with enough female presence not to alienate too many people who aren’t adolescent males (although YMMV obviously). I also agree the story would probably be improved if it had a visual/kinesthetic dimension. Some of the best parts of the book were the action sequences.

Here’s the bio pic that Wesley Chu puts up on his website! Love it.



I could see this being a great, very entertaining movie if it had a star with perfect physical comedy skills a la Jackie Chan.

4. Roen Tan’s character development was pretty shallow. He became a more likeable person by the end, definitely less whiny, but I didn’t see much of a depth to his transformation. I was looking forward to seeing him mature—I actually loved his depressive conversations with the Yoda-like Peter, I feel like there’s a Peter in everyone’s horrible office—and we get a little bit of maturing, but not much. Mainly he gets fit, grows a backbone, finds a supportive quasi-family, and is still not very bright but at least knows how to fake it.

His relationships with his girlfriend and with Sonya were also shallow. Hell, his relationship with his cat was shallow. I wanted to see more.

5. The humor in the first third of the book really worked for me, and I like Tao’s snarkiness throughout, but ultimately it petered out.

I was hoping there’d be some kind of reversal of the fat-shaming at a certain point, but there wasn’t. Roen’s character development is simplistically tied to losing weight. As a fan of Sammo Hung (aka “The Fat Dragon”) and seeing all the mindbending stunts he could do in his heyday with all his pudginess, I think the book lost a great chance to have fatness be an important part of the book without having such a negative and simplistic message.

6. My favorite parts were the Genghis Khan bits and the conflicts set in medieval Spain. The part where Tao traps Chivya in a baby tortoise had my jaw dropping open with how clever it was. I also liked some of the explanations of which countries and organizations were under Genjix control. China is evil. But so is Canada! It seemed quite even-handed and interesting, and I loved that the history was more Asia-centric than Eurocentric.

7. They were more believable than the typical comic book/superhero villains. They had a narrative in which they were actually the heroes, which made Prophus to Genjix betrayal an actual interesting plot point. So there was a degree of political sophistication. But thinking of truly politically awesome epic science fiction, where moral conflicts are just as complex as in the real world, no, I don’t think they stack up. They’re clearly the bad guys because they’re more violent and, um, bad.

8. I thought of Roen Tan as a little like Masi Oka in Heroes.

Everyone in the book was described in a colorblind way, which has its advantages and disadvantages. There’s enough cues that people aren’t “default white”, like Latino names and Arabic names and passing mentions of “dark-skinned” and so on, but not a single person’s race or ethnicity is mentioned. The colorblind PoV was a little disorienting, actually. I got used to it, and also got used to the fact that every single character had the same basic grammar, dialogue and voice.

9. Relationships and female characters were kind of hopeless. I don’t think the treatment was horribly offensive when placed in genre context (hell Guardians of the Galaxy starts off with a fridging in the first three minutes) and the story isn’t particularly misogynistic IMO, it just casually reinforces sexism. ihavelostdiana has more to say about that.

This is the kind of book I’d recommend to a teenager who loves comic book stories, because it does have positive messages about the value of life and trying to do the right thing and standing up for people.

10. I haven’t decided if I’m going to read the sequel. I might go through some more reviews first, especially negative reviews. The book hooked me with its politics, alternate history and acting descriptions, but I don’t know if there’s anything else to be done in terms of character development.

11. I’m an ambitious and excitable, so if a Prophus ever ended up in me, sure, I’d throw myself into becoming a secret agent for the future of humanity. Plus, I always wanted to be totally buff, like Katee Sackhoff in BSG. I’m way too lazy to ever exercise that much without alien intervention! I’d probably burn out within a year and have a nervous breakdown, though.
(hide spoiler)]