Flash Reviews: Carriger, Bujold
Ideally, every time I post a flash review, it'll be three reviews per post. However, I also want to post once a week, and I'd like to make that the same DAY every week if possible, and Wednesday feels like a good day to me. So, I will post flash reviews every Wednesday, but there will be no more than three books per flash review. If, for example, I'm super-productive one week in terms of reading, that just means there's an extra flash review in your future! Sound good? I hope so! Your support of this new format has been awesome, so I continue to hope it pushes the right buttons.
This week, a new release (yay!) and your March 2013 dare to me (and also a Mount TBR selection):
Etiquette & Espionage (2013)
Written by: Gail Carriger
Genre: YA/Steampunk
Pages: 307 (Hardcover)
My Review: 9 - Couldn't Put It Down
What a fun, fast read. While the beginning took a little getting used to -- after all, I'm used to Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, which pretty much focused on Alexia Tarabotti -- but once I found my footing (and the timeline, as this is set prior to the events of the Parasol Protectorate series), I found myself having a blast reading this. For fans of Carriger, there's a lot of cameos from Parasol Protectorate to delight over, historical connections to be made. For readers not already familiar with Carriger's work, I'm not sure how this comes off: it's a standard YA trope in which a teenager gets picked to do something for an unknown gift of theirs and then develops said gift in a setting far away from home, a setting that lends itself to adventures. For this particular intro to a trilogy/series, the stakes aren't exactly high, but it is fun and entertaining to see our heroine, Sophronia, figure out what's going on, why it's going on, and how to stop it. Carriger's narrative can be rather delightful. Seriously. Some of her phrases make me cackle. And I think the best way to describe this book to readers unfamiliar with Carriger is that it's a hyrbid of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy (minus the war, of course). I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, Curtsies & Conspiracies, when it comes out in November. In fact, I've already pre-ordered it.
The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
Written by: Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 320 (Mass Market Paperback)
My Review: 7 - Good Read
Yes, you're welcome readers: I finally read the next installment of Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books. I'd already read Cordelia's Honor, an omnibus prequel made up of Shards of Honor and Barrayar, so reading the "first" of the official Miles books was something to look forward to. And it was a fun read: it's weird to pick this up and see recognize how many other authors I've read that have clearly been influenced, in some form or fashion, by Bujold's work. Hell, the start of this reminded me very much of Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger, in that the set-up for the hero/heroine is very similar, but the paths they end up taking, while still similar, end up being very different. Miles was a fun character to root for, a super-likable con-man of sorts, and I think the one thing that kept Miles from being a wish-fulfillment fantasy was his disability, which -- looking back at when this was published -- is kind of remarkable: I don't see a lot of disabled heroes and heroines in fantasy and science fiction these days, so to have Miles be one (and be such a hugely popular one at that) is kind of a revelation. Yet unsurprising: what SF and fantasy reader doesn't empathize with the underdog hero/heroine? I did get a teeny bit antsy with the story, because I knew a lot of background the characters didn't: background that would've made for a more powerful revelation later, despite the events that happened due to the revelation being surprising in and of themselves. Whew, that's a mouthful. My point is: one can easily read this book (or the omnibus it appears in, Young Miles) without having read Cordelia's Honor, and you may actually be better off for it. I think I'll continue with the stories collected in the Young Miles omnibus (there's "The Mountains of Mourning" and The Vor Game), but I'm in no hurry. I'm entertained, but I also have a lot on my TBR plate right now. :)
This week, a new release (yay!) and your March 2013 dare to me (and also a Mount TBR selection):
Etiquette & Espionage (2013)
Written by: Gail Carriger
Genre: YA/Steampunk
Pages: 307 (Hardcover)
My Review: 9 - Couldn't Put It Down
What a fun, fast read. While the beginning took a little getting used to -- after all, I'm used to Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, which pretty much focused on Alexia Tarabotti -- but once I found my footing (and the timeline, as this is set prior to the events of the Parasol Protectorate series), I found myself having a blast reading this. For fans of Carriger, there's a lot of cameos from Parasol Protectorate to delight over, historical connections to be made. For readers not already familiar with Carriger's work, I'm not sure how this comes off: it's a standard YA trope in which a teenager gets picked to do something for an unknown gift of theirs and then develops said gift in a setting far away from home, a setting that lends itself to adventures. For this particular intro to a trilogy/series, the stakes aren't exactly high, but it is fun and entertaining to see our heroine, Sophronia, figure out what's going on, why it's going on, and how to stop it. Carriger's narrative can be rather delightful. Seriously. Some of her phrases make me cackle. And I think the best way to describe this book to readers unfamiliar with Carriger is that it's a hyrbid of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy (minus the war, of course). I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, Curtsies & Conspiracies, when it comes out in November. In fact, I've already pre-ordered it.
The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
Written by: Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 320 (Mass Market Paperback)
My Review: 7 - Good Read
Yes, you're welcome readers: I finally read the next installment of Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books. I'd already read Cordelia's Honor, an omnibus prequel made up of Shards of Honor and Barrayar, so reading the "first" of the official Miles books was something to look forward to. And it was a fun read: it's weird to pick this up and see recognize how many other authors I've read that have clearly been influenced, in some form or fashion, by Bujold's work. Hell, the start of this reminded me very much of Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger, in that the set-up for the hero/heroine is very similar, but the paths they end up taking, while still similar, end up being very different. Miles was a fun character to root for, a super-likable con-man of sorts, and I think the one thing that kept Miles from being a wish-fulfillment fantasy was his disability, which -- looking back at when this was published -- is kind of remarkable: I don't see a lot of disabled heroes and heroines in fantasy and science fiction these days, so to have Miles be one (and be such a hugely popular one at that) is kind of a revelation. Yet unsurprising: what SF and fantasy reader doesn't empathize with the underdog hero/heroine? I did get a teeny bit antsy with the story, because I knew a lot of background the characters didn't: background that would've made for a more powerful revelation later, despite the events that happened due to the revelation being surprising in and of themselves. Whew, that's a mouthful. My point is: one can easily read this book (or the omnibus it appears in, Young Miles) without having read Cordelia's Honor, and you may actually be better off for it. I think I'll continue with the stories collected in the Young Miles omnibus (there's "The Mountains of Mourning" and The Vor Game), but I'm in no hurry. I'm entertained, but I also have a lot on my TBR plate right now. :)