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Reading as a Writer: Uprooted and Foundryside

The last few months I've been focusing my speculative reading on books that sit on the literary line, and on books that lean more towards horror or sci-fi, since that's more in line with what I've been writing. It's important to stay up to date in the genre and to know what sort of books I'm trying to stay in conversation with. At the same time, I've really struggled to read a lot of recent fantasy releases. While many of them are truly excellent, it seems that the expectation is for tightly coiled tension, and when I already struggle with anxiety, I find it hard to focus on books where I can feel trouble coming. 

And then two fantasy novels landed in my lap. 

Everyone in my writing group raves about Uprooted, and I really enjoyed the other Naomi Novak books I've read. After struggling to read every fantasy book I've tried for the last year or so, Uprooted unspooled in my lap over the course of a lazy weekend. I really enjoyed this book. The tension wasn't so tight that I couldn't stand it, an the characters were people you could root for. I particularly loved the main character's commitment to mess, and how the author never forced her to change who she was as her arc continued. 

Uprooted is staying on my shelf now as a place where I can go when I need a cozy distraction. 

After finishing Uprooted, my appetite for epic was whetted. Luckily, I had an arc of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside on my bookshelf. The top blurb on the back of the paperback was from Tamora Pierce, who remains my all-time favorite author. Unfortunately, when I finally sat down to read Foundryside, it was to discover that the font in the arc I had was so small I couldn't read it! 

Cue two library trips to track down a copy. Once I finally had a legible book in hand, Foundryside progressed very similarly to Uprooted. There's a lot more danger in Foundryside than there was in Uprooted, but I never had the sense that Sancia was in true danger. Instead I could focus on the intricate world, the conversation it seemed to be having with our own arc of technology, and the very fun cast of characters. 

While I wish Foundryside had ended a little more gracefully (maybe with a bit more temporal resolution, and less of a hard-launch into what promises to be an engaging epic), I will definitely keep my eyes open for the next book in the series. 

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