Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for that lovely epilogue, which I'm glad she ended up including!
Happy new year! So glad I kicked it off with another installment in the Hurleyverse.
Much of my rating/feelings towards this book are based on the latter - feelings. I came across Hurley's work mid-2022 and it changed my outlook not just on my own creative writing, but where I want to go, what I want to do, etc. So to open this deeply personal book and learn the remarkable way she pursued her master's degree, her terrifying autoimmune disease, her rallying cries for universal healthcare, and her "grim optimism" only ratified my respect for her. The entire experience was very serendipitous; I just finished playing the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time in November, and here she is, echoing my exact feelings on the series.
This isn't a collection designed to explicitly educate or break down feminist theory. It's the ruminations of a seasoned genre professional, backed up with personal experience and one of the sharpest tongues I've ever had the pleasure of reading. As a writer, it really resonated with me, but it might not have the same impact for someone working in another medium.
The collection isn't perfect, though, far from it. I think the essays are trapped in her blog-writing format (which she is very adept with!) and the collection suffers as a whole for it. The sections are not evenly weighted; the Geek and Revolution sections seemed to bleed subject material into the other pretty frequently. I liked her tone - biting, casual, sarcastic, and wry - but it evoked some of the same criticisms I had with "The Light Brigade;" it couldn't always deliver the profound points Hurley was aiming for.
I also didn't care for her inclusion of trans/nonbinary folks. And this critique would come with a lot more weight if I weren't familiar with her other works, wherein her gender politics, I think, are nothing short of brilliance. Her constant reference to her male contemporaries in the sci-fi space ignoring HALF of their community and audience was often uncomfortable for me. I deeply identify with her GNC/non-binary characters (Taigan being a personal favorite) and I didn't think she was accurately representing us in these essays. Again, this would hurt a lot more if her real work, the fiction she's based her life around, wasn't so spectacular. I just think it was an oversight that should've been rectified in editing for this collection. We were there on the page, but often as an overemphasized addition and not an obvious original tenet of the piece.
I would not have enjoyed this book if I wasn't familiar with her work already, so I caution all readers to check out her Worldbreaker series before reading this. You can feel her passion for that trilogy leaking in these pages -- I think she was working on Empire Ascendant during this time (which I think is the best out of the 3!). But overall, it left a good taste in my mouth. I'm eager to meet the challenge Hurley has presented me with, to go beyond her, tread the ground she placed beneath my feet as a storyteller and a creative, and to push back the established narrative that seeks to erase what it defines as "abnormalities."
Happy new year! So glad I kicked it off with another installment in the Hurleyverse.
Much of my rating/feelings towards this book are based on the latter - feelings. I came across Hurley's work mid-2022 and it changed my outlook not just on my own creative writing, but where I want to go, what I want to do, etc. So to open this deeply personal book and learn the remarkable way she pursued her master's degree, her terrifying autoimmune disease, her rallying cries for universal healthcare, and her "grim optimism" only ratified my respect for her. The entire experience was very serendipitous; I just finished playing the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time in November, and here she is, echoing my exact feelings on the series.
This isn't a collection designed to explicitly educate or break down feminist theory. It's the ruminations of a seasoned genre professional, backed up with personal experience and one of the sharpest tongues I've ever had the pleasure of reading. As a writer, it really resonated with me, but it might not have the same impact for someone working in another medium.
The collection isn't perfect, though, far from it. I think the essays are trapped in her blog-writing format (which she is very adept with!) and the collection suffers as a whole for it. The sections are not evenly weighted; the Geek and Revolution sections seemed to bleed subject material into the other pretty frequently. I liked her tone - biting, casual, sarcastic, and wry - but it evoked some of the same criticisms I had with "The Light Brigade;" it couldn't always deliver the profound points Hurley was aiming for.
I also didn't care for her inclusion of trans/nonbinary folks. And this critique would come with a lot more weight if I weren't familiar with her other works, wherein her gender politics, I think, are nothing short of brilliance. Her constant reference to her male contemporaries in the sci-fi space ignoring HALF of their community and audience was often uncomfortable for me. I deeply identify with her GNC/non-binary characters (Taigan being a personal favorite) and I didn't think she was accurately representing us in these essays. Again, this would hurt a lot more if her real work, the fiction she's based her life around, wasn't so spectacular. I just think it was an oversight that should've been rectified in editing for this collection. We were there on the page, but often as an overemphasized addition and not an obvious original tenet of the piece.
I would not have enjoyed this book if I wasn't familiar with her work already, so I caution all readers to check out her Worldbreaker series before reading this. You can feel her passion for that trilogy leaking in these pages -- I think she was working on Empire Ascendant during this time (which I think is the best out of the 3!). But overall, it left a good taste in my mouth. I'm eager to meet the challenge Hurley has presented me with, to go beyond her, tread the ground she placed beneath my feet as a storyteller and a creative, and to push back the established narrative that seeks to erase what it defines as "abnormalities."
Unfortunately, this is not the kind of feminism that builds up women. It is the kind of feminism that tears down everyone, particularly women. It's incredibly sad.
I got this as an audiobook a while ago and just couldn't finish it. It was so boring. Then again, I'm probably not the author's intended audience.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
A bit disappointed with this one. Even for a collection of essays, this was repetitive. I get the author likes dark sci-fi, I get she lived in Alaska and South Africa, is chronically ill, etc etc. This collection could have been edited better to reduce that.
These were more personal than I expected/was looking for and I didn’t really find much that was new to me as far as looking at pop culture elements through a Femenist lens. Had A younger/less experienced me picked this up my reaction might have been different.
I did like the fact that the author talked about her day job, which you don’t often hear about, and I also enjoyed the chapter about mad max.
Also to note - the audiobook narrator was not good, and I would not recommend the audiobook.
These were more personal than I expected/was looking for and I didn’t really find much that was new to me as far as looking at pop culture elements through a Femenist lens. Had A younger/less experienced me picked this up my reaction might have been different.
I did like the fact that the author talked about her day job, which you don’t often hear about, and I also enjoyed the chapter about mad max.
Also to note - the audiobook narrator was not good, and I would not recommend the audiobook.
I have a lot of complicated feelings regarding this collection. Although I can't fully remove my internal biases from my opinion of this work, I will certainly try to be as fair as I can possibly be.
Bias the first: I have not fully read any of Hurley's works before this one. I tried to read The Mirror Empire and decided that her flavor of grim dark epic fantasy was not for me. I am burnt out on dark and grim stories about the worst aspects of humanity and even if she tries to find what she calls "Grim Optimism" by the end, I do not want to go on that journey in this part of my life.
Bias the second: This collection was compiled in 2015 and it is now 2019. We have gone through 3 years of a Trump presidency, the near dismantling of the ACA, the #metoo movement, the Last Jedi controversy, the female Ghostbuster reboot, the continual rise of incels, MRAs and MGTOW groups and countless gatekeeping attempts in that time.
Bias the third: I want to ensure that I'm treating Hurley fairly and not projecting internal gut reactions to loud women stating their opinion and accolades often and for the world to see. I certainly hope that I am not letting any of those cultural instincts cloud my judgement, as a loud woman who doesn't do well keeping her opinions to herself.
That being said, a lot of this collection fell flat for me. I do not know if this is on Hurley herself or an editor because a lot of my issues with the collection have less to do with the content of the actual essays, but the structure of the collection and how often the same information is presented to the reader. It is very clear that these essays were written separately and put together some time later. The same analogies will be made, same references, same sentences. This is perfectly fine if you are reading that one essay and are unaware of her other works. But going from essay to essay and seeing the same points brought up with the same examples got tiring for me.
I thought going into this collection that the majority of the essays would be about being a feminist in geek and nerd spaces, the struggles we have to go through in male dominated spaces. And... it kinda is. Kinda. Every essay is written from the framework of Hurley's personal experiences, which is understandable, but what that means is that many of the essays speak primarily about the experience of being a sci-fi/fantasy writer. This is less a universal experience and one I struggled to relate to. When you then combine that with the redundant content, I felt myself often times going "yes, I get it. It was very hard to move past your internal biases when writing your award winning novel, God's War (we mention the awards a lot), I'm sure it was very hard and the award is deserving but I GET IT."
This is perhaps the most difficult criticism for me to parse through, because of the 3rd bias: I got so tired of how often she referenced her own books in specific and the award they've won. Perhaps when the essays were originally written it was meant as a way to help explain her credentials from the inevitable nerd men demanding to know why she feels she can speak on this topic. Perhaps if this was an author whose work I liked more I'd not be tired. Would I feel differently if this were a male author? I hope not.
I'm not entirely certain who the intended audience of these essays is for. The title Geek Feminist Revolution appeals to those of us already under that label. I'm a BIG ol' nerd. I'm a loud feminist. Perfect! This book is for me! Except.... a lot of the points aren't anything new. It's things I have read or heard from other writers. There isn't a lot of new perspective. She explains in detail what Gamergate was as if you the reader haven't heard of it. I feel that anyone who falls under "geek" and "feminist" was aware of Gamergate. We were painfully aware of what happened and what could happen to those of us who tweeted about it. You don't need to explain. So, is this collection for nerds who haven't considered these feminist issues? Maybe. It certainly feels closer to them being the intended audience. But if THAT'S the case, the title will not appeal to that demographic. I'm perplexed.
This isn't a bad collection of essays by any means. They're just perfunctory. They exist, they are a very basic "baby's first geek feminism with a white bias" guide. I will say, Hurley goes out of her way to include people across the gender spectrum, which I greatly appreciated. Due to the 2015 timeline, I was concerned that we'd have a very rigid few of feminist, but Hurley seems to understand how that isn't the case. I do think her comments on race somewhat fell flat, as it felt kinda Eat Pray Love-esque to me. "I lived in South Africa and THE DIVERSITY WAS LIFE CHANGING!" I'm sure it was, but the framing didn't fully sit well with me.
I don't know who exactly I'd recommend this too. Maybe male friends who haven't taken up the feminist label yet but I feel I could persuade to join the cause. For myself, I think I'll seek out other voices that go a bit more in depth.
Bias the first: I have not fully read any of Hurley's works before this one. I tried to read The Mirror Empire and decided that her flavor of grim dark epic fantasy was not for me. I am burnt out on dark and grim stories about the worst aspects of humanity and even if she tries to find what she calls "Grim Optimism" by the end, I do not want to go on that journey in this part of my life.
Bias the second: This collection was compiled in 2015 and it is now 2019. We have gone through 3 years of a Trump presidency, the near dismantling of the ACA, the #metoo movement, the Last Jedi controversy, the female Ghostbuster reboot, the continual rise of incels, MRAs and MGTOW groups and countless gatekeeping attempts in that time.
Bias the third: I want to ensure that I'm treating Hurley fairly and not projecting internal gut reactions to loud women stating their opinion and accolades often and for the world to see. I certainly hope that I am not letting any of those cultural instincts cloud my judgement, as a loud woman who doesn't do well keeping her opinions to herself.
That being said, a lot of this collection fell flat for me. I do not know if this is on Hurley herself or an editor because a lot of my issues with the collection have less to do with the content of the actual essays, but the structure of the collection and how often the same information is presented to the reader. It is very clear that these essays were written separately and put together some time later. The same analogies will be made, same references, same sentences. This is perfectly fine if you are reading that one essay and are unaware of her other works. But going from essay to essay and seeing the same points brought up with the same examples got tiring for me.
I thought going into this collection that the majority of the essays would be about being a feminist in geek and nerd spaces, the struggles we have to go through in male dominated spaces. And... it kinda is. Kinda. Every essay is written from the framework of Hurley's personal experiences, which is understandable, but what that means is that many of the essays speak primarily about the experience of being a sci-fi/fantasy writer. This is less a universal experience and one I struggled to relate to. When you then combine that with the redundant content, I felt myself often times going "yes, I get it. It was very hard to move past your internal biases when writing your award winning novel, God's War (we mention the awards a lot), I'm sure it was very hard and the award is deserving but I GET IT."
This is perhaps the most difficult criticism for me to parse through, because of the 3rd bias: I got so tired of how often she referenced her own books in specific and the award they've won. Perhaps when the essays were originally written it was meant as a way to help explain her credentials from the inevitable nerd men demanding to know why she feels she can speak on this topic. Perhaps if this was an author whose work I liked more I'd not be tired. Would I feel differently if this were a male author? I hope not.
I'm not entirely certain who the intended audience of these essays is for. The title Geek Feminist Revolution appeals to those of us already under that label. I'm a BIG ol' nerd. I'm a loud feminist. Perfect! This book is for me! Except.... a lot of the points aren't anything new. It's things I have read or heard from other writers. There isn't a lot of new perspective. She explains in detail what Gamergate was as if you the reader haven't heard of it. I feel that anyone who falls under "geek" and "feminist" was aware of Gamergate. We were painfully aware of what happened and what could happen to those of us who tweeted about it. You don't need to explain. So, is this collection for nerds who haven't considered these feminist issues? Maybe. It certainly feels closer to them being the intended audience. But if THAT'S the case, the title will not appeal to that demographic. I'm perplexed.
This isn't a bad collection of essays by any means. They're just perfunctory. They exist, they are a very basic "baby's first geek feminism with a white bias" guide. I will say, Hurley goes out of her way to include people across the gender spectrum, which I greatly appreciated. Due to the 2015 timeline, I was concerned that we'd have a very rigid few of feminist, but Hurley seems to understand how that isn't the case. I do think her comments on race somewhat fell flat, as it felt kinda Eat Pray Love-esque to me. "I lived in South Africa and THE DIVERSITY WAS LIFE CHANGING!" I'm sure it was, but the framing didn't fully sit well with me.
I don't know who exactly I'd recommend this too. Maybe male friends who haven't taken up the feminist label yet but I feel I could persuade to join the cause. For myself, I think I'll seek out other voices that go a bit more in depth.
I'm not giving this zero stars, I'm just not rating it because I don't feel like I read enough of it to do so. I want to shelve it so I know what it was that didn't work for me, personally.
It's just that this book was not any of the things I thought it would be- it felt to be most heavily about being a sci-fi author and writing, and not enough on being a feminist or a geek. (I realize that writing and sci-fi writing at that is a form of geekery, but I was hoping for something a little broader.) I gave it a shot and read several chapters, but none of them really did anything for me.
It's just that this book was not any of the things I thought it would be- it felt to be most heavily about being a sci-fi author and writing, and not enough on being a feminist or a geek. (I realize that writing and sci-fi writing at that is a form of geekery, but I was hoping for something a little broader.) I gave it a shot and read several chapters, but none of them really did anything for me.
Tengo una mala noticia... Me he sentido un poco "meh" leyendo este libro.
Que empieza genial, que tiene artículos interesantes, todo lo que quieras. Pero quizás no necesito comprar un libro para leer un análisis sobre La jungla de Cristal, Mad max o sobre la tenacidad necesaria para convertirse en escritora y que te publiquen algo. Quizás me he equivocado en la premisa del libro, porque creí que era una recopilación de ensayos sobre feminismo (geek) y al final termina teniendo puntos de "querido diario..." que a ver, que está bien (al final han sido las partes que más me han entretenido).
Reseña completa: http://www.cafedetinta.com/2018/05/resena-la-revolucion-feminista-geek-de.html
Que empieza genial, que tiene artículos interesantes, todo lo que quieras. Pero quizás no necesito comprar un libro para leer un análisis sobre La jungla de Cristal, Mad max o sobre la tenacidad necesaria para convertirse en escritora y que te publiquen algo. Quizás me he equivocado en la premisa del libro, porque creí que era una recopilación de ensayos sobre feminismo (geek) y al final termina teniendo puntos de "querido diario..." que a ver, que está bien (al final han sido las partes que más me han entretenido).
Reseña completa: http://www.cafedetinta.com/2018/05/resena-la-revolucion-feminista-geek-de.html
Not bad, but it didn't seem particularly revolutionary to me, possibly because I'm already familiar with most of the geek feminism topics in here. The most interesting parts to me were about the author's day job writing marketing texts and about US health care. Several of the essays on specific TV shows and films seemed to repeat the same point multiple times within the same essay, so they dragged a bit.
"I have the power to reach back to you long after I'm dead. Through these spidery marks on paper or pixels, and remind you that you have a voice, you have the agency and your voice is stronger and more powerful than you could ever imagine." - What are we fighting for, pg 255