Books book review It’s No Surprise Nghi Vo’s The City in Glass is Incredible A review of Nghi Vo’s new fantasy novel By Alex Brown | Published on October 10, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share If you are already a fan of Nghi Vo, I’m not about to tell you anything new in this review of her latest book. The City in Glass is incredible, which is par for the course for her. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet of experiencing her writing then consider this the textual equivalent of me throwing this book at you. Either way, as soon as you’re done reading this, go to your nearest library or bookstore and pick up a copy. The city of Azril belonged to the demon Vitrine, and the demon Vitrine belonged to the city of Azril. Even if Azril didn’t know it. Centuries ago, Vitrine washed up on the shores of the city that would become Azril along with other refugees who sought safety within her borders. With careful pruning, boundless energy, and a penchant for capricious violence, Vitrine shaped and grew her new home into a thriving metropolis. Azril was a mecca for trade and artistry, a place where scoundrels, merchants, mercenaries, families, and immigrants could live in relative harmony. Those to whom Vitrine took a liking would find themselves blessed or cursed, often both at the same time. She whispered lies in their ears and opened their eyes to great truths. She patronized those who needed her support and tested those who needed toughening up. And their stories, with all their passions and tragedies, were recorded in the little book she kept in a glass cabinet inside her chest. Until the day the angels came and destroyed everything. Like titans from the sky, the angels spread across Azril and razed her to the ground with holy fire. Nothing lived, nothing survived, nothing was left standing. A whole city full of dreams and stories and lives only just begun gone in a single night. Unable to stop them, Vitrine used what little power she had and condemned one of the destroyers with a poisonous curse. It nearly cost her her life, but if she were to die, at least it would be in defense of the city she loved. Buy the Book The City in Glass Nghi Vo Buy Book The City in Glass Nghi Vo Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The City in Glass begins with an ending and ends with a beginning. We witness Azril’s destruction and Vitrine’s grief, then both of their gradual recoveries. As Vitrine mourns her loss, the readers get glimpses into the lives of some of the names recorded in her book. We learn how Azril was nothing but a pirate-ravaged port town before our demon showed up and the victories and failures she and her city endured over the years. We see their growing pains and their over-exertions. We learn why she loved her city so much and why it broke her so badly when it was taken from her. She was no benevolent god or kindly fairy godmother but she did want the best for her city, even if sometimes that meant blood and pain.  We also see her relationship with the angel she cursed evolve alongside what is born from Azril’s ashes. What surprised me by the end was how The City in Glass was a love story in all definitions and expressions of “love.” Familial, romantic, sexual, platonic, queerplatonic, the love between a parent and child, the love between people bonded by terrible trauma, the love experienced by someone eating a favorite food prepared by a beloved companion, the love between a pet and their person, the love that blooms in a found family, and on and on. The relationship between the demon and her angel is tempestuous and mercurial. Neither are ever quite sure where they stand with each other, but eventually they realize that doesn’t matter.  Vo has that rare talent of not only coming up with thoroughly unique stories but structuring them with prose so beautiful it almost reads like poetry or a song: Vitrine hit the ground like a star, sending up a wave of dust and grime, sinking into what had been Murrine Square before the angels came. It was where the glassblowers had set up their outdoor stands, puffing out globes of red and green and yellow for perfume bottles, witch’s balls, and amphitres of poison. Sunk a good few feet below the surface of the street, Vitrine could smell decades of copper for blue and garnet-gold for ruby, almost as it was before. In many ways, it reminds me of other speculative stories: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse, Witch King by Martha Wells, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark. Yet it is also wholly itself.  Despite its short length, this novel is packed to the brim with details. Vo offers peeks at other lands and cultures and how they influence the new and old Azril. Human characters come and go, sometimes making only brief appearances and sometimes living their whole lives in a few pages, but no matter what, they all feel fully realized and realistically complicated. I won’t spoil the story of Alex, the trans mercenary, but his is my favorite of the bunch. I want a whole novel from Nghi Vo about his adventures, but if I can’t have that, at least I have The City in Glass.[end-mark] The City in Glass is available from Tordotcom Publishing. The post It’s No Surprise Nghi Vo’s <i>The City in Glass</i> is Incredible appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A German court has found CJ Hopkins, an American writer living in that country, guilty of hate speech, which is treated as an unconstitutional activity. This overturned a previous acquittal by the Tiergarten District Court. “Hate speech” in the case amounts to Hopkins using Nazi imagery to express his protest about Germany’s Covid-era policies, including what he called “New Normal Germany” – a satirical take on how that compares to Nazi Germany. The imagery that caught the authorities’ attention was posted on X, including an illustration showing a white face mask with a white swastika superimposed on it. Even though a lower court in January found this did not represent “hate speech,” on the last day of September, the Berlin Appellate Court disagreed. In a blog post, Hopkins, who has been residing in Germany since 2004, says that “the New Normal German authorities (…) were determined to punish me.” To highlight the absurdity of the situation, Hopkins told the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) that the second trial went with anti-terrorism measures in the courtroom. This meant a small number of people were allowed to attend, behind a glass panel, while journalists could not bring in laptops or even notebooks and pens. Now, the case is back at the Tiergarten Court which is supposed to sentence him – the author is looking at up to three years in prison. And while the Berlin court’s decision itself can’t be appealed, Hopkins told FIRE he would go to the highest legal instance in Germany – the Federal Constitutional Court (ostensibly after the district court rules again). The case has already been ongoing for several years, and that move would mean more time and money wasted because Hopkins, whose writing genre is said to be specifically satire, had posted satirical images on the internet. To make matters look even worse (for Germany’s authorities), Hopkins notes in his blog post that a mere few months ago, major magazines Stern and Spiegel had swastikas as part of illustrations on their covers – but this was a way to discredit (“warn against”) the rising popularity of the opposition AdF party. That, it seems, is an acceptable form of expression in today’s Germany, as there is no word that either magazine is about to be dragged through the courts for their covers. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post American Author Could Face Prison in Germany Over Satirical Swastika appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Blue Wall is Showing Some Cracks

It took two and one-half months for Kamala Harris to agree to an interview with a national journalist. She was interviewed on "60 Minutes" by Bill Whitaker, but her answers are not likely to help her with the few voters who say they are still “undecided.” Asked by Whitaker to explain her economic plan and how it would be paid for, Harris’ response bordered on the meaningless: “My plan is about saying when you invest in small businesses you invest in the middle class and you strengthen America’s economy. Small businesses are the backbone of America’s economy.” Whitaker: “The question was how are you going to pay for it?” Harris: “I am going to make sure that the richest among us who can afford it pay their fair share in taxes. It is not right that teachers, nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair.” “Fair” must be a poll-tested word, but it has no meaning unless it is defined. Democrats have been invoking it for years, but they never say what they mean. In some states the successful are paying more than half their income to federal, state and local governments. Is it fair when governments penalize success and subsidize its opposite? And who will define affordable? Whitaker should have asked Harris what she would do to cut spending, the main driver of debt, and how would she reform Social Security and Medicare, which will run out of money in the 2030s. Whitaker asked Harris how she would get her plan through Congress. Harris gave her usual nonsensical answer: “You know when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about ‘cause their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about. Those constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses…” I don’t know what she is talking about. In reporting on some of the same claims that President Joe Biden made in his last State of the Union address, Reuters reported: “The average American worker paid about a 25% tax rate in 2022, the OECD reported. White House research found the wealthiest individuals paid about 8% from 2010 to 2018.” White House “research”? According to The Cato Institute: “The 8 percent is a concoction by Biden political appointees at odds with data from the U.S. Treasury, Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Internal Revenue Service and Joint Committee on Taxation. All these official sources find that tax rates on high earners are much higher than tax rates on lower- and middle-income folks.” On another topic, Harris was asked about Israel and the attacks by Iran and its proxies. Harris defaulted to the familiar position that Israel “has a right to defend itself,” but seemed to separate the Jewish state from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Whitaker: “Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?” Harris: “With all due respect, I think the more important question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.” The Biden-Harris administration, like the Obama-Biden and Clinton-Gore administrations, have repeatedly tried to impose their will on Israel to get the Jewish state to act in ways that would put it in greater peril. For Harris to try and separate Israel from its duly elected leader is to give aid and comfort to Israel’s enemies, who are also our enemies. The question still waiting to be asked is why Harris and every Democrat who met with Biden engaged in what looks like a cover-up of his mental state that lead to his withdrawal from the race. After the “60 Minutes” interview, Harris decamped to more friendly territory, appearing on “The View” and Howard Stern’s radio program. It is unlikely any of these interviews will change the minds of entrenched voters.

At a recent rally, former President Trump criticized comedian and ABC moderator Whoopi Goldberg for how “filthy, dirty, [and] disgusting” her act was when he hired her to do a show at his casino many, many years ago. Despite being an EGOT winner, Goldberg’s apparently fragile ego needed to be avenged as she kicked off Thursday’s episode by having a meltdown and lashing out at her favorite hate object. Goldberg started the show by diving right into her personal grievance with the former President, playing this edited soundbite: Now, I've hired Whoopi to work for me as a comedian before this stuff and -- a long time ago. and I went, and, you know, I'm not particularly shy about what I hear. Her mouth was so foul. [Transition] She was so filthy, dirty, disgusting. Half the place left. I said I'd never hire her again. “As it turns out I was filthy. I was filthy, and stand on that fact,” she proudly proclaimed. “I have always been filthy. And you knew that when you hired me. A headline, babe, at your casino which I might have continued to play had you not run it into the ground,” she sneered. The snowflake really started to melt when she began to shriek about Trump being “dumb” for hiring her at all: But, you know, listen, how dumb are you? You hired me four times. You go to William Morris and get the things because I know y'all going to be looking for it, so talk to William Morris. You hired me four time and you didn't know what you were getting? How dumb are you?     Goldberg got backup from Sunny Hostin who had a “personal legal note” where she thanked Trump for being their hate object and being the crutch for their show: Donald Trump, I want to thank you for personally telling so many lies and committing so many alleged crimes and providing us with material on a daily basis. You help us do our jobs, and I'm so appreciative. Because of people like you, a former prosecutor and legal expert can become a fixture on a show like this. And again, I'm so grateful. Hostin went on to make jokes about the Department of Justice’s apparent vendetta against him, and seemingly admitted her former employer has had it out for him “for decades”: I admit I may not have spent as much time in a courtroom as you have. I was also recognized with a special achievement award by the Department of Justice. You remember the department of justice, right? It's the agency that's been pursuing you for decades. And like madam Vice President Kamala Harris, I've had a history of prosecuting sex offenders. Her comments concluded with an allusion to Trump being too scared to appear on The View. “And as for dumb questions, you're always welcome to come here and answer some. If sitting so close to a prosecutor won't make you nervous,” she chided. As NewsBusters previously reported back in April, the show’s executive producer made it clear they weren’t interest in having him on the show and essentially banned him. But why would Trump even want to appear on The View? They cared so little for his life that they refused to dial back their hate even after the second attempt on his life. The ABC cast has also made it no secret that they’re in the tank for the Harris given their recent gushfest interviews with her and President Biden. And let’s not forget their incendiary rhetoric and repeated dehumanization of him and his running mate Senator J.D. Vance. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View October 10, 2024 11:03:33 a.m. Eastern (…) DONALD TRUMP: Now, I've hired Whoopi to work for me as a comedian before this stuff and -- a long time ago. and I went, and, you know, I'm not particularly shy about what I hear. Her mouth was so foul [transition] She was so filthy, dirty, disgusting. Half the place left. I said I'd never hire her again. [Cuts back to live] [Audience groans] SARA HAINES: Well, thank you for watching. JOY BEHAR: Yeah. [Laughter] WHOOPI GOLDBERG: As it turns out I was filthy. I was filthy, and stand on that fact. [Cheers and applause] I have always been filthy. And you knew that when you hired me. A headline, babe, at your casino which I might have continued to play had you not run it into the ground. BEHAR: Exactly. Who does that? [Applause] GOLDBERG: But, you know, listen, how dumb are you? You hired me four times. You go to William Morris and get the things because I know y'all going to be looking for it, so talk to William Morris. You hired me four time and you didn't know what you were getting? How dumb are you? [Laughter and applause] Go ahead, Sunny. BEHAR: Go ahead, Sunny. Your turn. SUNNY HOSTIN: Well, I have a personal legal note. BEHAR: [Chackling] HAINES: Yes. HOSTIN: Donald Trump, I want to thank you for personally telling so many lies and committing so many alleged crimes and providing us with material on a daily basis. You help us do our jobs, and I'm so appreciative. BEHAR: [Chackling] [Applause] HOSTIN: Because of people like you, a former prosecutor and legal expert can become a fixture on a show like this. And again, I'm so grateful. I admit I may not have spent as much time in a courtroom as you have. [Laughter] BEHAR: That's a good one. [Applause] HOSTIN: I was also recognized with a special achievement award by the Department of Justice. You remember the department of justice, right? [Laughter] It's the agency that's been pursuing you for decades. And like madam Vice President Kamala Harris, I've had a history of prosecuting sex offenders. BEHAR: Uh-oh. HOSTIN: So, thank you for keeping people like us in business. And as for dumb questions, you're always welcome to come here and answer some. If sitting so close to a prosecutor won't make you nervous. I'll even give you a free View mug. Not to be confused, though, with a mug shot because that's your area. [Cheers and applause] BEHAR: Okay. Can I just say one thing? So, the lying, his lying is monumental as we all know… (…)

ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar didn’t get the memo on toning down the rhetoric. During Thursday’s interview with the former host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, Behar claimed Donald Trump is scapegoating immigrants and warned, “Don't forget Nazi Germany, the Jews were the scapegoat, and look what happened here.” Elsewhere, Noah claimed “some people might struggle” with a President Kamala Harris because she is a black woman. Behar asked Noah, who was on to promote his new book, “He's blaming them for violent crime, which the crime rate is down, housing costs, which Kamala has a program to fix that. He's saying that these immigrants are eating the cats and dogs. That is one of the dumbest things he's ever said, so as an immigrant from South Africa yourself, give me your reaction to being scapegoated?”     Omitting all the border crises and illegal immigration generally, Noah claimed that Trump and his supporters aren’t all that different from Americans of previous eras, “So, I think if you look at these issues in only an American context, they will seem unique. You know, I think the first thing to remember is this has always been a rite of passage in America. It’s a terrible rite of passage. It's almost like a form of political hazing, but that's what America does.” After Noah compared current immigration discourse to that over previous rounds of Irish, Polish, and Italian immigration, Behar took it a step further and implied death camps might be coming soon to America, “Don't forget Nazi Germany, the Jews were the scapegoat, and look what happened there.” Earlier in the segment, co-host Sunny Hostin recalled, “Well, I remember you famously ended your final episode of The Daily Show paying homage to black women, especially the ones who raised you. I think we have a clip.”     In the clip, Noah declared, “I'll tell you now, do yourself a favor. You truly want to know what to do or how to do it, or maybe the best way or the most equitable way, talk to black women. They are—they're a lot of the reason why I'm here, so I'm grateful to them, I'm grateful to every single one of you.” Back live, Behar added, “They always save the country with their votes, so we're grateful to them also.” At the same time, Hostin asked, “Well, we just had Madam Vice President Kamala Harris on the show this week. What do you think America could learn having a black female president?” Noah replied that, “I think black women as a collective have shown us many things, not just in America but all over the world.” In true “World to end tomorrow: Women, minorities hardest hit” fashion, Noah continued, “You know what I meant by that statement was, there is very seldom a political system that's running badly that doesn't impact black women the worst, and so if you ask black women as a collective, as voters, what do you think should be done, whatever they do, whatever they choose will inadvertently benefit everybody else, you know.” Noah also claimed, “I think black women see their country with a clarity that most people cannot afford to at times, and so that's what I mean by that. In a sense, I don't know what America would learn, per se, because this is one black woman, but I think we're already seeing America is going to learn a lot of its, you know, how it views a black woman in a position of power, which some people might struggle to deal with because it comes with certain connotations for them.” Ultimately, Noah tried to have it both ways. He knows Harris “is one black woman” who has ideas that people are allowed to disagree with, but he also wants to employ lazy attacks about people being afraid of “certain connotations.” Here is a transcript for the October 10 show: ABC The View 10/9/2024 11:36 PM ET SUNNY HOSTIN: Well, I remember you famously ended your final episode of The Daily Show paying homage to black women, especially the ones who raised you. I think we have a clip. TREVOR NOAH [12/8/2022]: I'll tell you now, do yourself a favor. You truly want to know what to do or how to do it, or maybe the best way or the most equitable way, talk to black women. They are—they're a lot of the reason why I'm here, so I'm grateful to them, I'm grateful to every single one of you. JOY BEHAR: They always save the country with their votes, so we're grateful to them also. HOSTIN: Well, we just had Madam Vice President Kamala Harris on the show this week. What do you think America could learn having a black female president? NOAH: Well, I'll be careful to prescribe certain, you know, learnings or ideas to one person. You know, I think it's always important to know that when I said that I said black women, and I think black women as a collective have shown us many things, not just in America but all over the world.  You know what I meant by that statement was, there is very seldom a political system that's running badly that doesn't impact black women the worst, and so if you ask black women as a collective, as voters, what do you think should be done, whatever they do, whatever they choose will inadvertently benefit everybody else, you know. And you can take this away from American politics. Like in Africa, we've seen it time and time again. Even when the charitable organizations, if they give a dollar to any one person, the person who stretches the dollar the most and the person where they find the dollar goes to the most people is when they give it to a black woman and so people need to understand there is a terrible, you know, it's a gift and a curse, the curse is that black women bear the brunt of all bad decisions, you know, black women, whether it's economical, whether it’s political, they don't have a chance to mess around with the vote. They don't have a chance to have a protest vote BEHAR: Exactly. NOAH: So, I think black women see their country with a clarity that most people cannot afford to at times, and so that's what I mean by that. In a sense, I don't know what America would learn, per se, because this is one black woman, but I think we're already seeing America is going to learn a lot of its, you know, how it views a black woman in a position of power, which some people might struggle to deal with because— WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yeah. NOAH: It comes with certain connotations for them. HOSTIN: Yeah. BEHAR: That's true. GOLDBERG: To you, Joy. BEHAR: So, Trump and the right have been ramping up their attacks on immigrants, which you are one, right? NOAH:  I like how you say that like you're putting a target on my back and "you are one, Trevor." BEHAR: I am once removed. That's all, once removed. He's blaming them for everything. NOAH: Yes. Yes. BEHAR: The scapegoating has begun. He's blaming them for violent, crime which the crime rate is down, housing costs, which Kamala has a program to fix that. He's saying that these immigrants are eating the cats and dogs. That is one of the dumbest things he's ever said, so as an immigrant from South Africa yourself, give me your reaction to being scapegoated? NOAH: So, I think if you look at these issues in only an American context, they will seem unique. You know, I think the first thing to remember is this has always been a rite of passage in America. It’s a terrible rite of passage. It's almost like a form of political hazing, but that's what America does.  HOSTIN: Yes. NOAH: When the Irish came they were those criminals and they were the people who were making the country worse. HOSTIN: The Italians. NOAH: When the Polish came and the Italians came, America’s constantly had this legacy of othering and pointing and then at some point the people blend in and then there's a new version of what the other is. GOLDBERG: Well, you would think so. NOAH: In many ways. BEHAR:  Don't forget Nazi Germany, the Jews were the scapegoat— NOAH: Exactly. Exactly BEHAR: -- and look what happened there.

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