book log, january-may
Ouran High School Host Club #15 & 16 - I don't have much to say about these other than yaaaaay and that I'd forgotten how much fun Ouran is. The manga is going pretty clearly in one direction and, while it makes sense, I sort of like how the anime leaves that unanswered? I don't know. We'll see.
On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
This was our book for book club this month. Apparently I am the odd man out in hating Tim Powers, but oh well. I think it mostly stems from my preference for elegant writing and character-driven stories, neither of which Tim Powers can do, rather than plot. The story was vaguely interesting; taking as its premise that magic was real but had mostly been driven out of the Old World by the prevalence of iron, but was still very much used in the New World. Thus a story of Blackbeard searching for (and finding) the Fountain of Youth, a mad sorcerer, and the people who get caught up in their plots. Fairly predictable, not much believable (in the sense that a puppeteer ends up as a pirate captain, not in the sense that there's magic). Apparently the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is loosely based on the book and I have the feeling that the story will be much better on screen. Also, voodoo is pretty gross.
Black Powder War & Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik
The Temeraire books continue to be delightful. These two don't quite have the magic that the first one did--I think it's often like that when you're introduced to a new fantasy world--and they're also dealing with much heavier issues. Interesting issues, in terms of dragon rights and colonialism and general ethics. The human/dragon society of Africa, where the dragons were viewed as the ancestors of the humans (i.e. they were reincarnations), was really interesting, and it was nice to see another type of human/dragon interaction. It's fascinating how one way of doing things is presented that seems perfectly normal and reasonable, and then it's exploded by looking at other, completely different ways of doing things. Solid books, looking forward to the next ones.
The Good, The Bad, and the Undead & Every Which Way but Dead - Kim Harrison
These books continue to surprise me. They often start out as cheesy, but by the end I'm totally wrapped up in the story. So, way to write plots, Kim Harrison. It's been too long to have too much to say about these, but they are great fun, urban fantasy about a near-future world where supernatural beings have made themselves known, and revolve around a witch bounty-hunter/PI with a vampire roommate and a knack for getting in trouble. I want to go and check them all out from the library, but I don't want the series to be over too quickly! Luckily I have about 50 other books on my shelves that I haven't read yet. Which is part of my summer project--read & figure out what I want and what I don't. Speaking of . . .
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits - Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson
This collection of short stories, alas, was a bit underwhelming. I liked the RM stories better than the PD stories, but even those felt like standard RM and not really anything new, save the last story in the collection. "A Pool in the Desert" is probably the only story that I would want to revisit, and is about a girl in a vaguely contemporary setting who has dreams of Damar--but they are real. There's a brief sequence of her traveling at the end, and I wouldn't at all mind a novel that expands on her adventures : ) The rest of the stories were nice, but not anything I really felt I could get lost in, or would need to read again. I felt like "Sea Serpent" (a PD story) was particularly frustrating; it was about men who can dream the waves and currents of a river, which was sort of interesting, but I really wanted more about the struggle between the sorcerer who was taking away the stones from one sacred site to build his own, and the sorceress? priestess? who was trying to protect her sacred site. It was an interesting opposition between male/air/fire and female/earth/water, old and new, different types of worship that was dealt with altogether too cavalierly. So I think I'm going to try and sell this one at the bookshop. I never used to be able to give books up. As much as I would like an enormous library, it's probably a good thing that I'm now at the point where I don't have to keep everything I've read.
Chalice - Robin McKinley
I really, really wanted to like this book, but I think it has to go into the tiny pile of things by RM I don't like, beside Outlaws of Sherwood. The world of the story, and the premise, were fascinating. It sort of takes feudal bonds literally and actually connects people to the land and the lord to his people. He is balanced by a feminine force, the Chalice, who works her magic through water or wine or, in this extraordinary circumstance, honey. It was really fun to read a story about a beekeeper right as we were starting our own bees. Where I think the book failed, though, was that its story wasn't linear. It started in the middle, and kept jumping back and forth, and I could never figure out a good narrative reason for why that structure was chosen. I was far more interested in the parts that were skipped over--the parts about how a plain-spoken beekeeper became one of the most important people of her land, how she struggled to learn her trade and deal with the other council members all on her own. The romance was nice, but predictable. Overall, the book felt a bit rough around the edges. I'll probably read it again and take more time with it and see if I can get a better feel for it, but as of now I'd call it only okay. I would totally love more stories set in this world, though.
And that's it for now. Current plan is to finish up the collection of Ursula K. LeGuin stories I'm reading and start on the second ASOIF book so I can read stuff online without getting too spoiled : P
On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
This was our book for book club this month. Apparently I am the odd man out in hating Tim Powers, but oh well. I think it mostly stems from my preference for elegant writing and character-driven stories, neither of which Tim Powers can do, rather than plot. The story was vaguely interesting; taking as its premise that magic was real but had mostly been driven out of the Old World by the prevalence of iron, but was still very much used in the New World. Thus a story of Blackbeard searching for (and finding) the Fountain of Youth, a mad sorcerer, and the people who get caught up in their plots. Fairly predictable, not much believable (in the sense that a puppeteer ends up as a pirate captain, not in the sense that there's magic). Apparently the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is loosely based on the book and I have the feeling that the story will be much better on screen. Also, voodoo is pretty gross.
Black Powder War & Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik
The Temeraire books continue to be delightful. These two don't quite have the magic that the first one did--I think it's often like that when you're introduced to a new fantasy world--and they're also dealing with much heavier issues. Interesting issues, in terms of dragon rights and colonialism and general ethics. The human/dragon society of Africa, where the dragons were viewed as the ancestors of the humans (i.e. they were reincarnations), was really interesting, and it was nice to see another type of human/dragon interaction. It's fascinating how one way of doing things is presented that seems perfectly normal and reasonable, and then it's exploded by looking at other, completely different ways of doing things. Solid books, looking forward to the next ones.
The Good, The Bad, and the Undead & Every Which Way but Dead - Kim Harrison
These books continue to surprise me. They often start out as cheesy, but by the end I'm totally wrapped up in the story. So, way to write plots, Kim Harrison. It's been too long to have too much to say about these, but they are great fun, urban fantasy about a near-future world where supernatural beings have made themselves known, and revolve around a witch bounty-hunter/PI with a vampire roommate and a knack for getting in trouble. I want to go and check them all out from the library, but I don't want the series to be over too quickly! Luckily I have about 50 other books on my shelves that I haven't read yet. Which is part of my summer project--read & figure out what I want and what I don't. Speaking of . . .
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits - Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson
This collection of short stories, alas, was a bit underwhelming. I liked the RM stories better than the PD stories, but even those felt like standard RM and not really anything new, save the last story in the collection. "A Pool in the Desert" is probably the only story that I would want to revisit, and is about a girl in a vaguely contemporary setting who has dreams of Damar--but they are real. There's a brief sequence of her traveling at the end, and I wouldn't at all mind a novel that expands on her adventures : ) The rest of the stories were nice, but not anything I really felt I could get lost in, or would need to read again. I felt like "Sea Serpent" (a PD story) was particularly frustrating; it was about men who can dream the waves and currents of a river, which was sort of interesting, but I really wanted more about the struggle between the sorcerer who was taking away the stones from one sacred site to build his own, and the sorceress? priestess? who was trying to protect her sacred site. It was an interesting opposition between male/air/fire and female/earth/water, old and new, different types of worship that was dealt with altogether too cavalierly. So I think I'm going to try and sell this one at the bookshop. I never used to be able to give books up. As much as I would like an enormous library, it's probably a good thing that I'm now at the point where I don't have to keep everything I've read.
Chalice - Robin McKinley
I really, really wanted to like this book, but I think it has to go into the tiny pile of things by RM I don't like, beside Outlaws of Sherwood. The world of the story, and the premise, were fascinating. It sort of takes feudal bonds literally and actually connects people to the land and the lord to his people. He is balanced by a feminine force, the Chalice, who works her magic through water or wine or, in this extraordinary circumstance, honey. It was really fun to read a story about a beekeeper right as we were starting our own bees. Where I think the book failed, though, was that its story wasn't linear. It started in the middle, and kept jumping back and forth, and I could never figure out a good narrative reason for why that structure was chosen. I was far more interested in the parts that were skipped over--the parts about how a plain-spoken beekeeper became one of the most important people of her land, how she struggled to learn her trade and deal with the other council members all on her own. The romance was nice, but predictable. Overall, the book felt a bit rough around the edges. I'll probably read it again and take more time with it and see if I can get a better feel for it, but as of now I'd call it only okay. I would totally love more stories set in this world, though.
And that's it for now. Current plan is to finish up the collection of Ursula K. LeGuin stories I'm reading and start on the second ASOIF book so I can read stuff online without getting too spoiled : P