(no subject)
Some quick booklogging catchup today:
The King's Shield, the third book in the Inda series that I have been reading, I actually finished a while ago but have not got around to logging until now! Anyways, the series continues to be awesome. This installment was mostly centered around The Big War that's been building for the last two; now that all the characters are grown up there is also some ridiculous love polygon-age, but this does not frustrate me as it might because a.) it is so hilariously convoluted and multi-angled it really just entertains me, b.) it continues to take a back seat to politics and fighting and cultural norms, just as it ought, and c.) all the characters involved are allowed to be competent and sympathetic and non-villainized. So really if you're going to do a love polygon involving at least seven people (who at one point get a hilariously awkward dinner party scene together, too) then this is the way to do it! The other thing that very much impressed me about the book was the Tragically Noble Last Stand of an all-female group of castle defenders, just for the welcome proof that yes, it is possible to write female character death in a way that is awesome and non-exploitative and not All About The Men. I kind of want to print out that bit and wave it in people's faces when they fail to understand this.
I also almost-finished Sharon Shinn's Reader and Raelynx a while ago and then had to give it back to the library, so I only read the last twenty pages yesterday. Shinn is a total guilty pleasure for me; the Twelve Houses series has a pretty shaky mythology but interesting politics, and also I kind of enjoy the love stories even when they're ridiculous. Unfortunately, I was completely not won over by the love interest in this particular book, and I spent the whole time rooting for the protagonist to get together with her scowly and mysterious stepmother instead. However, I continue to be terribly amused by Shinn's occasional tendency to have grown-ups find a ridiculously easy solution to the main couple's problems while they're busy angsting, which was especially notable in this one when they solve the problem of Cammon not being noble by asking Random Noblewoman A to pretend that he's her long-lost illegitimate baby. And she is like 'okay, I always wanted another kid!' PROBLEM SOLVED. I cracked up.
Last but not least, I continue in my quest to read everything Kage Baker ever wrote with her short-story-and-novella collection, Dark Mondays. I was not blown away by any of the stories in this collection (though I expect the Lovecraft fans on my flist would really enjoy the one about Great Ones rising from a fast-food restaurant), but I really enjoyed the novella, The Maid on the Shore, which was all about Henry Morgan and an awesomely bizarre Motley Crew of pirates including a berserker Protestant reverend and his 'cousins' 'Bob' and 'Dick' (HAHAHAHA), a pair of badass trappers who are also gay lovers, and a terribly sarcastic English lord involved in a conspiracy involving boots. What is not to love?
The King's Shield, the third book in the Inda series that I have been reading, I actually finished a while ago but have not got around to logging until now! Anyways, the series continues to be awesome. This installment was mostly centered around The Big War that's been building for the last two; now that all the characters are grown up there is also some ridiculous love polygon-age, but this does not frustrate me as it might because a.) it is so hilariously convoluted and multi-angled it really just entertains me, b.) it continues to take a back seat to politics and fighting and cultural norms, just as it ought, and c.) all the characters involved are allowed to be competent and sympathetic and non-villainized. So really if you're going to do a love polygon involving at least seven people (who at one point get a hilariously awkward dinner party scene together, too) then this is the way to do it! The other thing that very much impressed me about the book was the Tragically Noble Last Stand of an all-female group of castle defenders, just for the welcome proof that yes, it is possible to write female character death in a way that is awesome and non-exploitative and not All About The Men. I kind of want to print out that bit and wave it in people's faces when they fail to understand this.
I also almost-finished Sharon Shinn's Reader and Raelynx a while ago and then had to give it back to the library, so I only read the last twenty pages yesterday. Shinn is a total guilty pleasure for me; the Twelve Houses series has a pretty shaky mythology but interesting politics, and also I kind of enjoy the love stories even when they're ridiculous. Unfortunately, I was completely not won over by the love interest in this particular book, and I spent the whole time rooting for the protagonist to get together with her scowly and mysterious stepmother instead. However, I continue to be terribly amused by Shinn's occasional tendency to have grown-ups find a ridiculously easy solution to the main couple's problems while they're busy angsting, which was especially notable in this one when they solve the problem of Cammon not being noble by asking Random Noblewoman A to pretend that he's her long-lost illegitimate baby. And she is like 'okay, I always wanted another kid!' PROBLEM SOLVED. I cracked up.
Last but not least, I continue in my quest to read everything Kage Baker ever wrote with her short-story-and-novella collection, Dark Mondays. I was not blown away by any of the stories in this collection (though I expect the Lovecraft fans on my flist would really enjoy the one about Great Ones rising from a fast-food restaurant), but I really enjoyed the novella, The Maid on the Shore, which was all about Henry Morgan and an awesomely bizarre Motley Crew of pirates including a berserker Protestant reverend and his 'cousins' 'Bob' and 'Dick' (HAHAHAHA), a pair of badass trappers who are also gay lovers, and a terribly sarcastic English lord involved in a conspiracy involving boots. What is not to love?