Audely Bensen Writes

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (2021) falls between genres: with lovely, crisp prose and a deepness that sticks with you for long after you put it down, I would definitely classify this book as Literature. At the same time, the casualness with which demons and spaceships and the real magic of music are sprinkled throughout the narrative make this book a sci-fi lover's dream.  A writing group friend who loves space books was the first person to recommend this book to me, followed by a work friend who prefers books with serious sociological questions. I'm glad I listened to them both. This book is beautiful. I especially loved how seamlessly the sci-fi elements were woven in with the pockets of gut-punching feeling. Aoki uses relatively short scenes to do this, utilizing page breaks to move the reader from donut-shop-space-ship to the house you grew up in to thoughts on what it means to have a place you belong and back to sprinkles and the meaning of fresh-baked donuts. ...

Recently I read Sue Lynn Tann's The Daughter of the Moon Goddess (2022).  After seeing this book raging across twitter, I never expected to find it just sitting on the library shelves without a single hold on it. I rushed home with it, eager to find out what the hype was about.  I feel uncomfortable admitting it, but I'm not sure what the interest was raving about. This was an enjoyable book, once I could get myself past the extremely passive voice and the blocks of exposition. The character was engaging, when I could ignore how despite the depth of the challenges, everything always seemed to come out right in the end with minimal angst on the reader's part.  Maybe this book is evidence of what Salesses discussed in Craft in the Real World: that after years of having writing rules hammered in to me, my view of what counts as "good writing" is one very specific style. Or maybe this is more evidence that I need to take a break from reading--I powered through this du...