Some informal book reviews
Feb. 20th, 2012 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaWow, a year since my last informal review post. My book-reading pace hasn't been keeping up :S
Anyway, in my last reading list, I had the following:
Samuel Delany's FLIGHT FROM NEVRYON
- ....... I honestly don't think I made it beyond page 5, and I cannot even for the life of me remember what went on there.
Amitav Ghosh's THE CALCUTTA SYNDROME
- I seem to recall having written a review of this, but I can't be arsed to find it. And it's been a while, so I will just tell you what I remember: protag embarks on an investigation to find some other protag who embarked on an investigation of a mysterious thing that enables some form of immortality? And it was reading fine as a mystery, which I actually am not a fan of, and there was definitely Some Weird Shit going down, but it all kind of fell to pieces towards the end with the whole COME JOIN US IN THE UNKNOWABLE REALM! twist and my eye got all twitchy from that.
N.K. Jemisin's THE BROKEN KINGDOMS
- So yeah, I agree with a lot of other reviews out there that says that Oree doesn't read like a blind person at all. Her disability isn't really quite a disability, since it's more just a magical vision. I still really liked it though, the same way I liked 100K KINGDOMS. The godlings are still incredibly interesting, since they ARE gods but they're also kind of mortal. And it's also Itempas' story too, and like the last book, the god sex was hot. I'm just giving an amen for the really good god sex in this okay. And the ending is heartwrenching and the hope really fucking hurts.
Other books I picked up in the meantime:
Gail Carriger's BLAMELESS
- Hilarious like the rest of 'em. Fun, flashy, exciting, and really sweet. I like how Alexia's feelings towards her pregnancy changes, and how she refers to it as an inconvenience. And I also like the further development of the world-building, and the Europe-wide political implication of soullessness and stuff.
Scott Westerfeld's GOLIATH
- I have some critique of some things Scott says in the afterword, but I thought this was a very satisfying end to the whole series. There's some meandering around in Japan and South America (can't remember exactly where) and the usual Easter eggs of historical characters appearing in it. Aleks' discovery of Deryn's real identity is hilarious and awkward, and their progression into romance comes very naturally. I think I'm more on the Barlow/Volger ship though.
Nnedi Okorafor's WHO FEARS DEATH
- I liked the first half of the book better, because the second half got a bit episodic? But the end really brought it home and was painful and sad and gripping. I really enjoyed the various characters, like, I could feel all that love between Onye and her girl friends, and her relationship with Mwita was really sweet. She really simplified some really complex issues without trivializing them, and it think it makes for a great book to get the intended audience, YA, thinking and reading more.
Nnedi Okorafor's ZAHRAH THE WINDSEEKER
- I actually liked this one a lot better! It felt a lot less disjointed, but it's also a lot more light-hearted. I love Zahrah; she's the kind of protagonist I would have liked to have modeled myself after as a kid. I love the world in this story, with the modern science in a distinctly fantasy world that is also very not-white. And again, there's a theme of female friendship, and this one friendship between women of different ages (okay, Zahrah may not be a woman, but eh, 'tis rare!), but like the female friendships in WHO FEARS DEATH, depicts female companionship as a positive thing, which again is a great message for little girls (especially those who may well grow up to absorb the "ALL WOMEN ARE CATTY BITCHES" message from society).
Phillip Reeve's MORTAL ENGINES
- I'm supposed to be writing a thing on Silver Goggles on this, because of how it deals with non-white peoples. Basically all the cities of Europe are now giant moving machines, and they go around eating each other to survive. It is actually a totally fucked up concept, and I have no clue why anybody would buy into such a life philosophy, much less collectively work together on it. There're two couple sets: Tom and Hester, and Katherine and Bevis. Technically Tom's the protagonist, being (lower-middle-class) white male and all, but I think they're all wonderful protagonists in their own way: Hester is pretty kick-ass, although I think the treatment of her PTSD and her revenge arc could have been better treated; Katherine is an affluent character who has integrity and confronts it, and she falls in love with working-class Bevis. And the ending for Katherine and Bevis comes so naturally, and so carelessly, in a you-gotta-keep-turning-the-age sort of way, it's actually quite gripping.
I'm interested in talking about how Reeve writes the Asian and African countries, which refused the Quirke philosophy of traction cities, and Anne Fang's character as a member of the Anti-Traction League. So there's a giant Shield-Wall protecting the city of Batmunkh Gompa. So a major plot point is the city of London getting hold of a weapon that could conceivably destroy this Wall, and thus stopping them. It's kind of monolithic to assume that ALL African/Asian countries would unilaterally reject Traction philosophy, when there is some variance in Europe. So.
Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN
- So this is.... okay? It's first-person from Matt Cruse's perspective, a cabin-boy who's been working as a cabin boy for ages and is waiting for a raise, but it's usurped by someone from the Academy, so there is some exploration of how affluence and money and industrialization creates these specialized schools which is now the legitimate way of getting the qualifications for a job, rather than through informal apprenticeships, so I thought that was interesting, but the book never really follows through with this, falling to the status quo instead.
The main plot is about the ship crashing into an island where there are pirates, and also, a little-seen creature that Matt's new lady-friend, Kate, is looking for. Matt's kind of dull, and Kate, while at first glance is kind of New Woman-ish, gets kind of annoying. (She's even more annoying in the second book, which I just started on the other day.) Anyway. It's am okay book. Some people will love it, though.
JMM McDermott's NEVER KNEW ANOTHER
- Ick, is what I have to say. It's one of those books where everybody is morally ambiguous so you never know exactly who you're supposed to sympathize with and most likely it's the supposed villain of the story. The story's told through the perspective of two hunters, who look for people that have demon blood in them. They purify a space where the demon-descended have been in, and stuff. Demon-descended people tend to have some form of physical deformity, AND their sneezes and coughs and sweat and saliva and blood are actually incredibly unhealthy, as in, they literally make human beings sick. Hence why they're being hunted down.
So the narrative jumps around as the hunters trace the love story of two demon-kind people finding each other eventually (the guy is dead at the beginning of the story, and the gal is gone, too, so the hunters have to track her down). I think a lot of people will read it as really sweet, but personally, I thought it had very uncomfortable parallels to how people treat drug users and HIV+ people, and since the story is told from the perspective of the hunters, there's no sympathy or respect for that aspect, which is kind of disturbing.
Ekaterina Sedia's HEART OF IRON
- This is another one I'm going to write about for Silver Goggles, because it's set in Russia! And it talks about Russo-Chinese politics! And it's a young adult-ish adventure which follows the female protagonist, Sasha, as she travels to China to head off British meddling. Florence Nightengale is a villain in this book, and one of Sasha's companions, and a love interest whom she doesn't reciprocate, is a reference to Spring-Heeled Jack. I'm not sure how I feel about white-boy Jack having received this training from a Portuguese who claimed to have learned it from Chinese martial artists (especially since he's the only person to demonstrate this nigh-supernatural power). There is some awkward since Sasha's preference for a lover is a Chinese classmate, and I'm not sure this works, because he's missing for most of the story, so we don't really see their chemistry develop to the extent that they're supposed to have. Either way, what with all that YA romance-y stuff (that doesn't actually get in the way) and the OMG GENDER POLITICS and actual history involved, I really liked it a lot!
On the non-fiction front, I read:
FEMINISM FOR REAL, edited by Jessica Yee
- Ya'll this book was awesome period. Totally get it! And there are e-versions available now too.
HOW TO WRITE A DIRTY STORY by Susie Bright
- OK I bought this book like a gajillion years ago in Halifax and just never got around to read it. And I wish I'd read it earlier! It's got a very easy, informal tone, and it has a lot of writing advice that doesn't only apply to erotica. Bright also talks about the hardships of the publishing industry as well, which isn't new to those of us who've been talking about publishing woes and shit. But it's certainly a book that would've been useful to me very much earlier on.
Gosh, it must look like I'm such a slow reader. I'm really not! I can finish a fiction book in like 3 days! But I'm also lazy so I have to have a book lying around before I get around to it (so it's not like I can randomly pick it out from the library) and I don't really like buying books unless I'm sure it's worthwhile. I really ought to read more books though.
I'll try to post reviews of some anthologies next time, particularly
- THE STEAMPOWERED GLOBE
- ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT
- THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD CABINET OF CURIOUSITIES
*wanders away*
ETA: *walks back* OH, before I forget!! Next month I'll probably have eARCs of my steampunk Shakespeare anthology!! (I did most of the legwork doing the final selection and editing the stories and working with the authors, so I think I get to say it's mine, even though I have a co-editor who's the publisher. Muahaha!) Sadly it is mostly white, but I do have one terrific black author with a Haiti story in there... hopefully the next time I do this again, I'll get more POC writers! Anyway, if you think this will be your thing and you want to review it, let me know.
Anyway, in my last reading list, I had the following:
Samuel Delany's FLIGHT FROM NEVRYON
- ....... I honestly don't think I made it beyond page 5, and I cannot even for the life of me remember what went on there.
Amitav Ghosh's THE CALCUTTA SYNDROME
- I seem to recall having written a review of this, but I can't be arsed to find it. And it's been a while, so I will just tell you what I remember: protag embarks on an investigation to find some other protag who embarked on an investigation of a mysterious thing that enables some form of immortality? And it was reading fine as a mystery, which I actually am not a fan of, and there was definitely Some Weird Shit going down, but it all kind of fell to pieces towards the end with the whole COME JOIN US IN THE UNKNOWABLE REALM! twist and my eye got all twitchy from that.
N.K. Jemisin's THE BROKEN KINGDOMS
- So yeah, I agree with a lot of other reviews out there that says that Oree doesn't read like a blind person at all. Her disability isn't really quite a disability, since it's more just a magical vision. I still really liked it though, the same way I liked 100K KINGDOMS. The godlings are still incredibly interesting, since they ARE gods but they're also kind of mortal. And it's also Itempas' story too, and like the last book, the god sex was hot. I'm just giving an amen for the really good god sex in this okay. And the ending is heartwrenching and the hope really fucking hurts.
Other books I picked up in the meantime:
Gail Carriger's BLAMELESS
- Hilarious like the rest of 'em. Fun, flashy, exciting, and really sweet. I like how Alexia's feelings towards her pregnancy changes, and how she refers to it as an inconvenience. And I also like the further development of the world-building, and the Europe-wide political implication of soullessness and stuff.
Scott Westerfeld's GOLIATH
- I have some critique of some things Scott says in the afterword, but I thought this was a very satisfying end to the whole series. There's some meandering around in Japan and South America (can't remember exactly where) and the usual Easter eggs of historical characters appearing in it. Aleks' discovery of Deryn's real identity is hilarious and awkward, and their progression into romance comes very naturally. I think I'm more on the Barlow/Volger ship though.
Nnedi Okorafor's WHO FEARS DEATH
- I liked the first half of the book better, because the second half got a bit episodic? But the end really brought it home and was painful and sad and gripping. I really enjoyed the various characters, like, I could feel all that love between Onye and her girl friends, and her relationship with Mwita was really sweet. She really simplified some really complex issues without trivializing them, and it think it makes for a great book to get the intended audience, YA, thinking and reading more.
Nnedi Okorafor's ZAHRAH THE WINDSEEKER
- I actually liked this one a lot better! It felt a lot less disjointed, but it's also a lot more light-hearted. I love Zahrah; she's the kind of protagonist I would have liked to have modeled myself after as a kid. I love the world in this story, with the modern science in a distinctly fantasy world that is also very not-white. And again, there's a theme of female friendship, and this one friendship between women of different ages (okay, Zahrah may not be a woman, but eh, 'tis rare!), but like the female friendships in WHO FEARS DEATH, depicts female companionship as a positive thing, which again is a great message for little girls (especially those who may well grow up to absorb the "ALL WOMEN ARE CATTY BITCHES" message from society).
Phillip Reeve's MORTAL ENGINES
- I'm supposed to be writing a thing on Silver Goggles on this, because of how it deals with non-white peoples. Basically all the cities of Europe are now giant moving machines, and they go around eating each other to survive. It is actually a totally fucked up concept, and I have no clue why anybody would buy into such a life philosophy, much less collectively work together on it. There're two couple sets: Tom and Hester, and Katherine and Bevis. Technically Tom's the protagonist, being (lower-middle-class) white male and all, but I think they're all wonderful protagonists in their own way: Hester is pretty kick-ass, although I think the treatment of her PTSD and her revenge arc could have been better treated; Katherine is an affluent character who has integrity and confronts it, and she falls in love with working-class Bevis. And the ending for Katherine and Bevis comes so naturally, and so carelessly, in a you-gotta-keep-turning-the-age sort of way, it's actually quite gripping.
I'm interested in talking about how Reeve writes the Asian and African countries, which refused the Quirke philosophy of traction cities, and Anne Fang's character as a member of the Anti-Traction League. So there's a giant Shield-Wall protecting the city of Batmunkh Gompa. So a major plot point is the city of London getting hold of a weapon that could conceivably destroy this Wall, and thus stopping them. It's kind of monolithic to assume that ALL African/Asian countries would unilaterally reject Traction philosophy, when there is some variance in Europe. So.
Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN
- So this is.... okay? It's first-person from Matt Cruse's perspective, a cabin-boy who's been working as a cabin boy for ages and is waiting for a raise, but it's usurped by someone from the Academy, so there is some exploration of how affluence and money and industrialization creates these specialized schools which is now the legitimate way of getting the qualifications for a job, rather than through informal apprenticeships, so I thought that was interesting, but the book never really follows through with this, falling to the status quo instead.
The main plot is about the ship crashing into an island where there are pirates, and also, a little-seen creature that Matt's new lady-friend, Kate, is looking for. Matt's kind of dull, and Kate, while at first glance is kind of New Woman-ish, gets kind of annoying. (She's even more annoying in the second book, which I just started on the other day.) Anyway. It's am okay book. Some people will love it, though.
JMM McDermott's NEVER KNEW ANOTHER
- Ick, is what I have to say. It's one of those books where everybody is morally ambiguous so you never know exactly who you're supposed to sympathize with and most likely it's the supposed villain of the story. The story's told through the perspective of two hunters, who look for people that have demon blood in them. They purify a space where the demon-descended have been in, and stuff. Demon-descended people tend to have some form of physical deformity, AND their sneezes and coughs and sweat and saliva and blood are actually incredibly unhealthy, as in, they literally make human beings sick. Hence why they're being hunted down.
So the narrative jumps around as the hunters trace the love story of two demon-kind people finding each other eventually (the guy is dead at the beginning of the story, and the gal is gone, too, so the hunters have to track her down). I think a lot of people will read it as really sweet, but personally, I thought it had very uncomfortable parallels to how people treat drug users and HIV+ people, and since the story is told from the perspective of the hunters, there's no sympathy or respect for that aspect, which is kind of disturbing.
Ekaterina Sedia's HEART OF IRON
- This is another one I'm going to write about for Silver Goggles, because it's set in Russia! And it talks about Russo-Chinese politics! And it's a young adult-ish adventure which follows the female protagonist, Sasha, as she travels to China to head off British meddling. Florence Nightengale is a villain in this book, and one of Sasha's companions, and a love interest whom she doesn't reciprocate, is a reference to Spring-Heeled Jack. I'm not sure how I feel about white-boy Jack having received this training from a Portuguese who claimed to have learned it from Chinese martial artists (especially since he's the only person to demonstrate this nigh-supernatural power). There is some awkward since Sasha's preference for a lover is a Chinese classmate, and I'm not sure this works, because he's missing for most of the story, so we don't really see their chemistry develop to the extent that they're supposed to have. Either way, what with all that YA romance-y stuff (that doesn't actually get in the way) and the OMG GENDER POLITICS and actual history involved, I really liked it a lot!
On the non-fiction front, I read:
FEMINISM FOR REAL, edited by Jessica Yee
- Ya'll this book was awesome period. Totally get it! And there are e-versions available now too.
HOW TO WRITE A DIRTY STORY by Susie Bright
- OK I bought this book like a gajillion years ago in Halifax and just never got around to read it. And I wish I'd read it earlier! It's got a very easy, informal tone, and it has a lot of writing advice that doesn't only apply to erotica. Bright also talks about the hardships of the publishing industry as well, which isn't new to those of us who've been talking about publishing woes and shit. But it's certainly a book that would've been useful to me very much earlier on.
Gosh, it must look like I'm such a slow reader. I'm really not! I can finish a fiction book in like 3 days! But I'm also lazy so I have to have a book lying around before I get around to it (so it's not like I can randomly pick it out from the library) and I don't really like buying books unless I'm sure it's worthwhile. I really ought to read more books though.
I'll try to post reviews of some anthologies next time, particularly
- THE STEAMPOWERED GLOBE
- ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT
- THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD CABINET OF CURIOUSITIES
*wanders away*
ETA: *walks back* OH, before I forget!! Next month I'll probably have eARCs of my steampunk Shakespeare anthology!! (I did most of the legwork doing the final selection and editing the stories and working with the authors, so I think I get to say it's mine, even though I have a co-editor who's the publisher. Muahaha!) Sadly it is mostly white, but I do have one terrific black author with a Haiti story in there... hopefully the next time I do this again, I'll get more POC writers! Anyway, if you think this will be your thing and you want to review it, let me know.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-21 08:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-21 05:15 pm (UTC)Haha, that's a slow reader? I almost never finish novels anymore. :x You seem pretty voracious as a reader, to me!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-21 05:51 pm (UTC)