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jiggitQUICK REVIEWS, because I have been reading a lot (yes, it has been awesome, I love my Kindle and my 20 minute train ride every morning):
1) PETER WIMSEY. Entertaining murder-mysteries set during the Interbellum years, for anyone who doesn't already know. I still have trouble getting all the interplay between Peter and Harriet in Gaudy Night, in part because it is the only book that deviates from the detective novel procedural so as to develop the everything between Peter and Harriet, but I understood more than I did when I first read it. One day, I think I shall read it standalone. The Nine Tailors is still my favourite of the non-Harriet books, because it reminds me a little of The Dark is Rising (not The Grey King or Greenwitch or any of the other books, but The Dark is Rising itself) by way of atmosphere. I want Hilary Thorpe to grow up into a sleuth. I also really enjoyed Murder Must Advertise!! Possibly because the more things change the more they stay the same, and I feel the most for the poor copywriters.
Busman's Honeymoon did things to me because even though I barely remembered what happened in it, I was hoping Terry Pratchett's Snuff would be patterned on it and it wasn't because Snuff is a great and terrible mess, and now that I know have been reminded that it is about how Harriet and Peter negotiate their marriage, I AM EVEN MORE UNHAPPY BECAUSE WE COULD HAVE HAD A BOOK THAT DEALS WITH HOW SYBIL FEELS ABOUT SAM'S JOB BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT HE WOULDN'T BE THE SAME PERSON IF HE WEREN'T A COPPER AND THE GUILT IS ALL HIS OWN and I am sad. Also, it ends on a note that is both sweet by implication and textually super-depressing, which made everything worse.
I still like the series a lot, though. Would read again.
2) Sword Art Online! MMO that will kill you if you die in-game + sequels! The translations were kind of choppy and there are intermittent tense inconsistencies which drove me up the wall, but overall, an entertaining read! This is not going to be one of my favourite franchises, not least because it turned into reverse harem bullshit from the SAO short stories on (WHY DOES EVERY GIRL NEED TO FALL IN LOVE WITH KIRITO askjbcjhvbnfdslvkjn), but I love Asuna!!! Also, uh, I keep wondering if the black sword/white sword thing is a reference to Return of the Condor Heroes. Also, that short story where Asuna becomes the main character and Kirito wanders into her story here and there only as a supportive SO is my favourite. I don't actively mind Kirito either, but the girls falling at his feet made me side-eye. Also, not happy with the incest thing. I do like him with Yui and Asuna.
(I hate reverse harem. Also, the anime has more butt shots than I was expecting. But I am enjoying the watch, for the most part.)
3) Warrior and Witch, Marie Brennan. Then I felt in the mood for more fantasy, so I tried reading these. They aren't bad reads, but a number of things made me go ehhh. First of all, after establishing Miryo and Mirage as distinct people, I am kind of uncomfortable with the idea of smushing them into one person! (Which I didn't mind in Discworld, but Lobsang is mostly not human.) Second, I am not okay with Eclipse as a love interest because he is described as Mirage's brother???? Like, she views him that way and is not okay with people thinking of them as lovers??? SO. I don't know why she would suddenly be okay with viewing him as a love interest once she is Mirei. Clearly her memories can't be 'like normal memories but twice as many as other people', even though that's how it's explained in-text. And that kind of makes things fall apart?
(Tangent, kind of: if you want your ships to be fucked up, let them be fucked up and stop trying to make it palatable to your reader. I ship a lot of questionable shit -- including incest -- but it doesn't appeal to me if there's a convenient way out of the societal taboo.)
The political stuff was awesome, but I wish there had been more of Eikyo. I dunno, there was an imbalance between Miryo's and Mirage's influence on Mirei -- in a lot of ways she felt more like Mirage + Miryo's memories than the other way around. I didn't hate the books, but I didn't really love them either. I probably wouldn't read them again, but they're not bad.
4) Finnikin of the Rock is Melina Marchetta's first fantasy YA, and actually I found her through Saving Francesca, which is why I put Finnikin of the Rock on my Kindle. I read Saving Francesca when I was in my 'eww girly books' phase and EVEN SO, it stuck with me. I purchased my own copy from Bookaburra later. After I discovered what depression was, I read it again and it is one of my comfort reads even though it is told in first-person-present-tense, even though the love interest cheats on his GF (because Francesca calls him out on it because fuck yeah Francesca Spinelli).
ANYWAY, HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. I AM DOWNLOADING THE THIRD BOOK OF THE TRILOGY AS WE SPEAK SO THAT I CAN READ FROI OF THE EXILES AND THEN MOVE ONTO QUINTANA OF CHARYN AT ONCE. That's my review. Would read again and again and again.
1) PETER WIMSEY. Entertaining murder-mysteries set during the Interbellum years, for anyone who doesn't already know. I still have trouble getting all the interplay between Peter and Harriet in Gaudy Night, in part because it is the only book that deviates from the detective novel procedural so as to develop the everything between Peter and Harriet, but I understood more than I did when I first read it. One day, I think I shall read it standalone. The Nine Tailors is still my favourite of the non-Harriet books, because it reminds me a little of The Dark is Rising (not The Grey King or Greenwitch or any of the other books, but The Dark is Rising itself) by way of atmosphere. I want Hilary Thorpe to grow up into a sleuth. I also really enjoyed Murder Must Advertise!! Possibly because the more things change the more they stay the same, and I feel the most for the poor copywriters.
Busman's Honeymoon did things to me because even though I barely remembered what happened in it, I was hoping Terry Pratchett's Snuff would be patterned on it and it wasn't because Snuff is a great and terrible mess, and now that I know have been reminded that it is about how Harriet and Peter negotiate their marriage, I AM EVEN MORE UNHAPPY BECAUSE WE COULD HAVE HAD A BOOK THAT DEALS WITH HOW SYBIL FEELS ABOUT SAM'S JOB BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT HE WOULDN'T BE THE SAME PERSON IF HE WEREN'T A COPPER AND THE GUILT IS ALL HIS OWN and I am sad. Also, it ends on a note that is both sweet by implication and textually super-depressing, which made everything worse.
I still like the series a lot, though. Would read again.
2) Sword Art Online! MMO that will kill you if you die in-game + sequels! The translations were kind of choppy and there are intermittent tense inconsistencies which drove me up the wall, but overall, an entertaining read! This is not going to be one of my favourite franchises, not least because it turned into reverse harem bullshit from the SAO short stories on (WHY DOES EVERY GIRL NEED TO FALL IN LOVE WITH KIRITO askjbcjhvbnfdslvkjn), but I love Asuna!!! Also, uh, I keep wondering if the black sword/white sword thing is a reference to Return of the Condor Heroes. Also, that short story where Asuna becomes the main character and Kirito wanders into her story here and there only as a supportive SO is my favourite. I don't actively mind Kirito either, but the girls falling at his feet made me side-eye. Also, not happy with the incest thing. I do like him with Yui and Asuna.
(I hate reverse harem. Also, the anime has more butt shots than I was expecting. But I am enjoying the watch, for the most part.)
3) Warrior and Witch, Marie Brennan. Then I felt in the mood for more fantasy, so I tried reading these. They aren't bad reads, but a number of things made me go ehhh. First of all, after establishing Miryo and Mirage as distinct people, I am kind of uncomfortable with the idea of smushing them into one person! (Which I didn't mind in Discworld, but Lobsang is mostly not human.) Second, I am not okay with Eclipse as a love interest because he is described as Mirage's brother???? Like, she views him that way and is not okay with people thinking of them as lovers??? SO. I don't know why she would suddenly be okay with viewing him as a love interest once she is Mirei. Clearly her memories can't be 'like normal memories but twice as many as other people', even though that's how it's explained in-text. And that kind of makes things fall apart?
(Tangent, kind of: if you want your ships to be fucked up, let them be fucked up and stop trying to make it palatable to your reader. I ship a lot of questionable shit -- including incest -- but it doesn't appeal to me if there's a convenient way out of the societal taboo.)
The political stuff was awesome, but I wish there had been more of Eikyo. I dunno, there was an imbalance between Miryo's and Mirage's influence on Mirei -- in a lot of ways she felt more like Mirage + Miryo's memories than the other way around. I didn't hate the books, but I didn't really love them either. I probably wouldn't read them again, but they're not bad.
4) Finnikin of the Rock is Melina Marchetta's first fantasy YA, and actually I found her through Saving Francesca, which is why I put Finnikin of the Rock on my Kindle. I read Saving Francesca when I was in my 'eww girly books' phase and EVEN SO, it stuck with me. I purchased my own copy from Bookaburra later. After I discovered what depression was, I read it again and it is one of my comfort reads even though it is told in first-person-present-tense, even though the love interest cheats on his GF (because Francesca calls him out on it because fuck yeah Francesca Spinelli).
ANYWAY, HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. I AM DOWNLOADING THE THIRD BOOK OF THE TRILOGY AS WE SPEAK SO THAT I CAN READ FROI OF THE EXILES AND THEN MOVE ONTO QUINTANA OF CHARYN AT ONCE. That's my review. Would read again and again and again.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-06 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-10 06:00 am (UTC)