#lavanya lakshminarayan

[wearethekat]

November Book Reviews: The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

Reread, book club book. In a series of interlocked vignettes, Lakshminarayan depicts a dystopian future Bangalore heavily stratified based on a corrupt corporate meritocracy. Some characters rise up the Bell Curve, some characters fall, and beneath it all, rebellion simmers among the outcast Analogs.

Nothing in Apex City is particularly new in dystopia depictions—the AI that controls your thoughts to make you more palatable to your overlords, human beings so immersed in the virtual that they are incapable of managing outside it, the people deemed unfit being relegated to total organ harvesting. However, what I found unique and interesting in The Ten Percent Thief was the structure. Each chapter features a unique character, almost more like a series of loosely connecting short stories rather than a traditional novel. Jumping from character to character lends an immediacy to each story and allows the true nature of the dystopia to slowly unfold, rather than a narrative mediated through a single character's perspective and info-dumping. And from the lofty social media CEO to the character about to have their organs harvested, these people are not having a good time.

I also especially liked the references to earlier chapters seeded into later stories, which makes the overall book feel more cohesive. The tree that the Ten Percent Thief grew returns as the center of a revolution. The teen musician who struggled to win a professional career in the face of prejudice against Analogs is playing in the background of the senior center where people disappear. Former Analog sympathizer John Alvares who had to rewire his entire personality and opinions to win the promotion reappears as head of security.

A sharply pointed debut. Recommended if you enjoy sci-fi with an eye for social commentary.

[charliejaneanders]

Huzzah! My final book review column of 2024 is out in the @washingtonpost! This time, I look at three new space opera books, and see just how varied and exciting space opera is getting lately.

Gift link: wapo.st/3OYUTPH

A few years ago I wrote a piece for Esquire about space opera (www.esquire.com/entertainmen...). The gist was that The Expanse (and Alien) had moved space opera into focus on "blue collar" characters who were thrown into huge situations. There were so many books along those lines.

So it was interesting to look at three new space opera books that don't really fit the Expanse model. Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan is so fun and colorful — it felt like a cousin to Space Opera/Space Oddity by Cat Valente. Space politics seen thru the lens of culture.

Sweep of Stars/Breath of Oblivion by Maurice Broaddus have the feel of an old-school space opera at first. The fate of worlds is at stake, starships are boldly exploring, a lot of characters are leaders. But these are philosophical works about holding onto yourself in extreme situations. So much fascinating stuff about African diaspora and the philosophies behind Muungano come into play in these books. They're so rich and so full of interpersonal, introspective discovery rather than just discoveries in deep space. They're exciting on so many levels.

The Peter F. Hamilton book, Exodus, feels the closest to a classic space opera — it has a lot in common with Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod, some of the stuff Charles Stross was publishing a while back. But the politics get pretty twisty and complicated — mind control is the real killer widget here.

[literary-illuminati]

book recommendation: The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Dystopian SF set in nearish-future Bangalore about a society which sucks. It's not terribly subtle, but the form and craft is really interesting-- it's told through a series of linked vignettes, with no one character ever repeated, that slowly reveals more about how the society sucks.

Okay glancing at the marketing copy I see what you mean by not subtle but that does look pretty interesting and I do definitely want to read more SFF written outside the...okay at this point it's less 'the US' and more 'the Greater Tor Publishing cultural bubble'. But either way, fits the bill! So added to the list, thanks.

[dr-archeville]

There’s a long-standing tradition in the arts, whether it’s literature, film, music, or all pop culture in general: every once in a while, someone comes along and proclaims a genre irrevocably dead. The jury’s been out on cyberpunk for decades.

I’m a woman writer of color from India, something that sits completely at odds with all the canonical cyberpunk I’ve ever read, and I’m here to tell you why the genre has never been more alive.

---

[scififr]

Interstellar Megachef, par Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Solaris, novembre 2024)

Saras Kaveri, une célèbre cheffe sur la désormais méprisée Terre, abandonne tout pour venir participer à un concours de cuisine sur Primus, depuis des siècles le centre incontesté de la culture humaine. Là elle va être confronté à la xénophobie et à l’hypocrisie ambiante, aux ambitions de certains et à ses propres démons.

Je regarde ma bibliothèque et je m’aperçois que c’est peut-être la première fois qu’un ouvrage d’art-fiction (ici, l’art culinaire) évite le ridicule et l’ennui. L’autrice, même si certains passages descriptifs auraient pu être allégés, parvient à écrire brillamment sur la cuisine et notre rapport à la nourriture, tout en nous offrant des personnages intéressants, des intrigues robustes et un contexte riche et complexe. Attention : la couverture ne correspond ni dans l’esprit, ni dans la lettre au contenu réel de l’ouvrage.

Comme le roman s’arrête en plein milieu des principaux arcs narratifs, j’attends avec impatience le volume deux !

[tigger8900]

The Ten Percent Thief, by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

In a far-future city once known as Bangalore — now Apex City — the algorithmic Bell Curve governs everything. Each citizen receives an equal evaluation, being scored upon dozens, perhaps hundreds, of productivity metrics. As the curve constantly re-evaluates the performance of the population, the top twenty percent are allowed to retain their life of luxury, while the unfortunate bottom ten percent will themselves cut off from technology, forced to live an Analog life in the city's outskirts. But when the ten percenters begin to plan a revolution, even the all-powerful Bell Curve might not be able to save the twenty percent from consequences.

I thoroughly enjoyed this corporate dystopia. I thought the algorithm was scarily plausible, reminiscent of ideas such as social credit scores that we've already seen play out. Of course the fusion with a caste system puts a new spin on the concept, sorting people neatly into a firm hierarchy while — in theory — allowing them the fair opportunity to earn a better life for themselves. What makes it scary is I can imagine someone proposing a system much like this, genuinely thinking it's a good idea.

I didn't realize this was a mosaic novel when I picked it up, but the format worked incredibly well for the story being told. Most of the stories connect to each other, whether sharing characters or setting up a situation that's later revisited. Those that don't largely serve to set the scene, demonstrating the status quo that the plot aims to tear down. I'm someone who views the setting of a good SF/F novel almost as a character in its own right, so I loved reading those. If you're more interested in the list of recurring characters or the plot playing out, you might find those chapters to be tedious.

This was the best dystopian novel I've read in quite some time. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on what else Lavanya Lakshminarayan might put out in the future!

[katefathers]

The Starburst Magazine website is back in action, which means my review of The Ten Percent Thief is up! I could write whole essays about this book.

And if you’re interested in my other online book reviews (written during my Tumblr break), you can find them here: What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo and Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💖 Sapphic Books Coming Out November 2024

🩷 Good afternoon, bookish bats. By now, you know that sweet, sapphic romance books have a special place in my heart. Here are only a few of the amazing sapphic books hitting shelves in November 2024.

[ Please share on Instagram ]

💖 Which ones are you adding to your TBR?

Contemporary 💖 Rani Choudhury Must Die - Adiba Jaigirdar 💖 Leap - Simina Popescu 💖 Wake Up, Nat & Darcy - Kate Cochrane 💖 Thanks for Listening - Molly Horan 💖 A New Leash on Love - Jaime Clevenger 💖 Mallory in Full Color - Elisa Stone Leahy

Fantasy 💖 The Lotus Empire - Tasha Suri 💖 A Wild and Ruined Song - Ashley Shuttleworth 💖 The Moonstone Covenant - Jill Hammer 💖 Witch Queen of Redwinter - Ed McDonald 💖 Our Deadly Designs - Kalyn Josephson 💖 The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso

Paranormal/Horror 💖 I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call - Jamison Shea 💖 Dead Girls Don't Dream - Nino Cipri

Historical 💖 Time and Tide - J.M. Frey

Sci-Fi 💖 Interstellar MegaChef - Lavanya Lakshminarayan

[duckprintspress]

Duck Prints Press Rec List Contributors’ Favorite Reads of 2024

As we approach the end of 2024, we wanted to take a moment and ask our usual crew of rec list contributors a simple, yet very difficult to answer, question: what was your one (1) favorite book of 2024? We didn’t require queerness for this list, and we didn’t dictate when books needed to have been published – we just wanted to know what people read that they loved! This is the resulting list.

@crack--attack favorite: Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton

Shea Sullivan's favorite: Greywaren (Dreamer Trilogy, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

@unforth favorite: The Imperial Uncle by Da Feng Gua Guo

@faerytaleonfire favorite: These Burning Stars (The Kindom Trilogy, #1) by Bethany Jacobs

@wmb-salticidae favorite: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

@hullosweetpea favorite: Really Cute People by Markus Harwood-Jones

@not-gwaenchanha favorite: The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

@fpwoper favorite: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

YF Ollwell's favorite: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

@hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon favorite: Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, #1) by Seanan McGuire

@deathbycoldopen favorite: Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) by Tamsyn Muir

@thechaoscryptid favorite: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

@ramblingandpie favorite: Babel by R.F. Kuang

@shamwowxl favorite: We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

@lpetersonwrites favorite: A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

S. J. Ralston's favorite: Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

@Shadaras favorite: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

@tryslora favorite: Wolfsong (Green Creek, #1) by T.J. Klune

Anonymous's favorite: The Charioteer by Mary Renault

@dei2dei favorite: The Viking Way by Neil Price

What was YOUR one (1) favorite read of 2024?

Did you know? We keep a list of all the books we recommend on Goodreads, sorted into shelves reflecting different representation!

Did you know? Our Bookshop.org storefront can be your affiliate there – and we add all in-print queer books we recommend to lists on our storefront! You can find our publications there as well.

Did you know? All our backers on Patreon can join our Discord server and become contributors to these rec lists!

[maryrobinette]

My Favorite Bit: Lavanya Lakshminarayan talks about INTERSTELLAR MEGACHEF

Lavanya Lakshminarayan is joining us today to talk about her novel, Interstellar MegaChef. Here’s the publisher’s description: Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili… and an invitation to compete in the galaxy’s most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus’s…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Moral Hazard

Today on my podcast, I read my short story "Moral Hazard," a madcap tale of fintech, inequality, finance bros, Wyoming, homelessness and bailouts. It's from "Communications Breakdown," a new anthology from MIT Press, edited by Jonathan Strahan, with stories from Elizabeth Bear, S.B. Divya, Chris Gilliard, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Ken Macleod, Tim Maughan, Ian McDonald, Anil Menon, Premee Mohamed, and Shiv Ramdas.

Episode:

https://craphound.com/stories/2023/11/12/moral-hazard-from-communications-breakdown/

MP3:

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_455/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_455_-_Moral_Hazard.mp3

Anthology:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262546461/communications-breakdown/

I know exactly where I was the day I decided to give every homeless person in America their own LLC. I was in the southeast corner of the sprawling homeless camp that had once been Seattle’s Discovery Park on a rare, dry February afternoon. The sun was weak but so welcome. After weeks of sheltering in our tents and squelching through the mud and getting drenched waiting for the portas, we were finally able to break out the folding chairs and enjoy each other’s company. Mike the Bike had coffee. He always did. Mike knew more ways to make coffee than any fancy barista. He had a master’s in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and when he was high he spent every second of the buzz thinking of new ways to combine heat and water and solids to produce a perfect brew. I brought trail mix, which I mixed up myself with food-bank supplies and spices I bought from the bulk place for pennies. My secret is cardamom and a little chili powder. I learned that from my Mom. “Trish,” Mike the Bike said, “I wish I was a corporation.”

[wearethekat]

November Book Reviews: Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

I picked this book up from the new library book section since I liked Lakshminarayan's previous novel, Ten Percent Thief. Professional chef Saras Kaveri flees an uncomfortable family situation on Earth to compete in an interstellar cooking show on sophisticated cultural center Primus in the South Asian space future. Unfortunately, Saras will have more trouble than she expected on a planet that considers her Earth culture barbaric at best, not to mention the meddling presence of tech genius Serenity Ko and her ideas for a food simulation…

As someone who personally didn't get along with Valente's Space Opera, this was a lot closer to what I was looking for. Lakshminarayan pulls no punches depicting the genuine bigotry Saras faces due to her Earth origins, from her accent to her lack of familiarity with Primian-style cooking techniques. This is not meant to be a fluffy, fun cooking show book-- while the plot does pay genuine attention to the meaning of food and cooking, beware that very little of the pagespace is devoted to the actual cooking show. Instead, we're spending time with Saras' fraught family background, Primus history, and the budding relationship with scheming Serenity Ko and her app.

Unfortunately I found Serenity Ko to be the least interesting part of the book and disliked her POV sections. She was a deeply self-centered person, willing to trample over everyone in order to achieve corporate greatness at the tech company she works at, and I wasn't much interested in her learning to use slightly fewer slurs and be incrementally less cruel to people's faces arc. Alas, she is the love interest and no doubt will be recurring.

Pick this book up if you liked Space Opera but are looking for something a little more pointed.

[sobreiromecanico]

No correio (41)

Em Março, a propósito do falecimento precoce de Akira Toriyama (68 anos - a idade dos meus pais - é ainda algo cedo), decidi finalmente aventurar-me a ler Dragon Ball, a icónica banda desenhada que se tornou num fenómeno mundial também - sobretudo? - devido à adaptação para série televisiva. Tenho andado a comprar e ler os livros desde então, e com gosto - é uma história divertíssima, e muito bem ilustrada. Logo falarei dela com mais detalhe num destes dias, agora que já chegaram os dois últimos livros da série original.

Ainda não decidi se lerei também Dragon Ball Z, mas mesmo que lá chegue, não será para já.

Chegou-me também hoje este Deep Dream: Science Fiction Exploring the Future of Art, uma antologia editada por Indrapramit Das para a MIT Press que reúne contos originais de autores de fantasia e ficção científica aclamados, como Vajra Chandrasekera, Aliette de Bodard, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Wole Talabi, Lavie Thidar e Bruce Sterling, entre outros. Alguns destes autores já li, e aprecio; outros ando para descobrir, pelo que vou aproveitar o pretexto.

[ibboard]

Cyberpunk Is Alive, Evolving and More Relevant Than Ever

Closes as an advert for the author's new #Cyberpunk book. But also very true and relevant about classic Cyberpunk, #representation and which voices we hear.

[ryttu3k]

Was tagged by @surreealism, take if you wish!

Last Song: Currently playing is Måneskin - La Fine. Astonishing ;)

Favourite colour: This really specific shade of orangey-yellow.

Currently watching: Gardening Australia? The most recent season of The Great Canadian Baking Show? Honestly I don't watch a lot of TV or ongoing series, haha.

Last movie: jfc I think it was Detective Pikachu.

Currently reading: Just finished The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Not sure what's up next, I'll have to go through my TBR.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: I do have a sweet tooth, but I tend to gravitate more towards salty/savoury/crunchy than anything else.

Last thing I googled: 'bg3 investigate fireworks not ending'. I found out what they were doing, I did what I was meant to do, why is the quest marker still active :(

Current obsession: I apologise to everyone who wasn't expecting me to turn into a Baldur's Gate 3 blog. Those illithid brainworms, man.

Currently working on: Post-Cazador fic. Astarion has trouble coping, his friends try to help.

[storizenmagazine]

#BookReview: "Interstellar Megachef" leaves readers with a mix of satisfaction and anticipation. The universe is richly imagined, but the story concludes with a cliffhanger, teasing more to come in the 'Flavour Hacker Duology'.