Reading oh I am so behind
Short reviews because I am behind, though Imust write longer reviews of the Clarke &c. books for the Bookatorium...
* Catherynne Valente - Ventriloquism
Sometimes I find CV sometimes amazing and sometimes I bounce off her writing. This collection has some of both (though more of the good and less of the bouncing). Notably it contains the story that turned into _Radiance_, which is SO AMAZING and made me rush out and buy _Radiance_.
* Paul Weindling (Ed) - The Social History of Occupational Health
A collection of academic essays on verious aspects of occupational health and associated legislation. Often dry but largely interesting.
* Thimasine Kushner (Ed) - Surviving Health Care
A useful patients' guide to navigating healthcare, though too US-focused to be as useful as it might be.
* Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
A re-read in memoriam. Such a skilled writer...
* Nnedi Okorafor - Binti
A feel-good poor-girl-makes-good story, about staying in touch with your identity even when you go out to the stars.
* Paul Cornell - The Witches of Lychford
A very British story about the intersection town planning, local politics, and magic.
* assorted BSFA short fiction nominees which were all much shorter
* Aliette de Bodard - The House of Shattered Wings
My brief review says: I wanted to like this but I couldn't get into it.
To expand on that a bit, I'm not sure why this didn't grab me. It's got action and factions and interpersonal politics and lots of the concepts are quite cool. It just didn't gel together for me, and I didn't find myself feeling very invested in it.
This was quite disappointing, as by the point I read it, it had already won awards, and I've enjoyed other of AdB's work.
* Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
My favourite Eco, another re-read.
* Becky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
I originally wrote: A very cosy book about space travel adventures. Looking back on it I can remember very little about the over-arching plot and lots about the characters and their family/community/domestic life in space. A bit Mary Sue.
Looking back on it, that's not true; I *can* remember the over-arching plot, but it's not that important in the scheme of things. The things the book treats as important are the day-to-day crises/adventures, with the overall plot's there basically as a reason why they're going on a space journey. But in any case, I do very much recommend this; it's a comforting read and it focusses on relationships and day-to-day life in a way that's rare outside of fanfic.
* Cat Valente - Radiance
The story of a film-maker and her last film, set in an alt-history solar system where space travel is easy and Edison is a complete git (with the result that talkies are seen as populist pandering and real artists make silent films). Very atmospheric and not a little trippy in places. I'm glad I read the short version first (and think maybe I prefer it slightly?)
* Zen Cho - Sorceror to the Crown
Regency magic with a black protagonist, and thus also dealing with issues of inclusivity and discrimination as well as the ostensible theme of magic dealings with Fairy. Pretty good!
* Thomas Thurman - Gentle Readers, 2015
Marnie's musings, very diverting :-)
* Dave Hutchinson - Europe At Midnight
The next installment of DH's Europe series, whose theme is a spoiler for the first book, hm. I shall consider how spoily to be when I write the proper review. Anyway, it's really really well written and highly engaging.
* J P Smythe - Way Down Dark
The non-spoily summary is, generation ship gone bad, lots of things which irritate me to a greater or lesser degree about the set-up, some of which are probably absolved by the humongous plot twists, the writing's OK but not amazing, but I still want to read the sequel to find out WTF happens next so it's doing something right even though it makes me want to complain.
The spoily review is, I found this book pretty frustrating but it kept tripping me up by revealing that there was a good reason for some of the frustrating things. Phase 1, awful generation ship setup. Who on earth designed it like this? Or provisioned so awfully? Then it's revealed that it's not a generation ship, it's a prison. But why does it have so few guards? Then later it's revealed that it's not going anywhere, it's in orbit around Earth. But what kind of bastards would leave future generations to suffer for the crimes of their parents? Well, OK, it is called _Australia_, but when protagonist lands on Earth, it turns out that Earth is under some sort of awful dictatorship (...to be continued on the next book).
Let's be clear, it didn't answer all my questions. For instance, who filled a prison ship with a breeding population? How long have they been up there anyway? Long enough to develop entire religions and forget why they're there. But the handful of guards are still there, WTF. Why go to all that expense and then not be able to ship up extra prisoners because the place is full of offspring? Why guard it at all? How has this group of people managed to keep *any* skills alive? e.g. there are 3 people total who know how to make shoes. Within 5 minutes of the protagonist meeting them, 1 is dead and another is severely wounded. SO many things do not compute. But I still really want to read the next book, and OK partly that's because this one has left me with a giant stonking unfair cliffhanger, but it's also because it kept at least partially answering my objections and getting progressively more interesting.
* J A Muir Gray - The Resourceful Patient
More health-service navigation, this one less mired in details and more about doctor-patient interactions.
* Seanan McGuire - Midnight Blue-Light Special
As fun as the first; this is the one of SMcG's popcorn series that I think really works.
* Harald Hauswald & Lutz Rathenow - Ost-Berlin
Photo-essay and viginettes of life in East Berlin before the Wall fell.
* Iain Pears - Arcadia
Complex and well-executed time-travel story. I gather it's also released as an app which presumably lets you read it in varying orders, but I thought the book order was very well paced with some nice opportunities to twig for yourself what was going on before the book made it plain. Strong characters and a non-plot-breaking use of time travel.
comments at Dreamwidth
* Catherynne Valente - Ventriloquism
Sometimes I find CV sometimes amazing and sometimes I bounce off her writing. This collection has some of both (though more of the good and less of the bouncing). Notably it contains the story that turned into _Radiance_, which is SO AMAZING and made me rush out and buy _Radiance_.
* Paul Weindling (Ed) - The Social History of Occupational Health
A collection of academic essays on verious aspects of occupational health and associated legislation. Often dry but largely interesting.
* Thimasine Kushner (Ed) - Surviving Health Care
A useful patients' guide to navigating healthcare, though too US-focused to be as useful as it might be.
* Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
A re-read in memoriam. Such a skilled writer...
* Nnedi Okorafor - Binti
A feel-good poor-girl-makes-good story, about staying in touch with your identity even when you go out to the stars.
* Paul Cornell - The Witches of Lychford
A very British story about the intersection town planning, local politics, and magic.
* assorted BSFA short fiction nominees which were all much shorter
* Aliette de Bodard - The House of Shattered Wings
My brief review says: I wanted to like this but I couldn't get into it.
To expand on that a bit, I'm not sure why this didn't grab me. It's got action and factions and interpersonal politics and lots of the concepts are quite cool. It just didn't gel together for me, and I didn't find myself feeling very invested in it.
This was quite disappointing, as by the point I read it, it had already won awards, and I've enjoyed other of AdB's work.
* Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
My favourite Eco, another re-read.
* Becky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
I originally wrote: A very cosy book about space travel adventures. Looking back on it I can remember very little about the over-arching plot and lots about the characters and their family/community/domestic life in space. A bit Mary Sue.
Looking back on it, that's not true; I *can* remember the over-arching plot, but it's not that important in the scheme of things. The things the book treats as important are the day-to-day crises/adventures, with the overall plot's there basically as a reason why they're going on a space journey. But in any case, I do very much recommend this; it's a comforting read and it focusses on relationships and day-to-day life in a way that's rare outside of fanfic.
* Cat Valente - Radiance
The story of a film-maker and her last film, set in an alt-history solar system where space travel is easy and Edison is a complete git (with the result that talkies are seen as populist pandering and real artists make silent films). Very atmospheric and not a little trippy in places. I'm glad I read the short version first (and think maybe I prefer it slightly?)
* Zen Cho - Sorceror to the Crown
Regency magic with a black protagonist, and thus also dealing with issues of inclusivity and discrimination as well as the ostensible theme of magic dealings with Fairy. Pretty good!
* Thomas Thurman - Gentle Readers, 2015
Marnie's musings, very diverting :-)
* Dave Hutchinson - Europe At Midnight
The next installment of DH's Europe series, whose theme is a spoiler for the first book, hm. I shall consider how spoily to be when I write the proper review. Anyway, it's really really well written and highly engaging.
* J P Smythe - Way Down Dark
The non-spoily summary is, generation ship gone bad, lots of things which irritate me to a greater or lesser degree about the set-up, some of which are probably absolved by the humongous plot twists, the writing's OK but not amazing, but I still want to read the sequel to find out WTF happens next so it's doing something right even though it makes me want to complain.
The spoily review is, I found this book pretty frustrating but it kept tripping me up by revealing that there was a good reason for some of the frustrating things. Phase 1, awful generation ship setup. Who on earth designed it like this? Or provisioned so awfully? Then it's revealed that it's not a generation ship, it's a prison. But why does it have so few guards? Then later it's revealed that it's not going anywhere, it's in orbit around Earth. But what kind of bastards would leave future generations to suffer for the crimes of their parents? Well, OK, it is called _Australia_, but when protagonist lands on Earth, it turns out that Earth is under some sort of awful dictatorship (...to be continued on the next book).
Let's be clear, it didn't answer all my questions. For instance, who filled a prison ship with a breeding population? How long have they been up there anyway? Long enough to develop entire religions and forget why they're there. But the handful of guards are still there, WTF. Why go to all that expense and then not be able to ship up extra prisoners because the place is full of offspring? Why guard it at all? How has this group of people managed to keep *any* skills alive? e.g. there are 3 people total who know how to make shoes. Within 5 minutes of the protagonist meeting them, 1 is dead and another is severely wounded. SO many things do not compute. But I still really want to read the next book, and OK partly that's because this one has left me with a giant stonking unfair cliffhanger, but it's also because it kept at least partially answering my objections and getting progressively more interesting.
* J A Muir Gray - The Resourceful Patient
More health-service navigation, this one less mired in details and more about doctor-patient interactions.
* Seanan McGuire - Midnight Blue-Light Special
As fun as the first; this is the one of SMcG's popcorn series that I think really works.
* Harald Hauswald & Lutz Rathenow - Ost-Berlin
Photo-essay and viginettes of life in East Berlin before the Wall fell.
* Iain Pears - Arcadia
Complex and well-executed time-travel story. I gather it's also released as an app which presumably lets you read it in varying orders, but I thought the book order was very well paced with some nice opportunities to twig for yourself what was going on before the book made it plain. Strong characters and a non-plot-breaking use of time travel.
comments at Dreamwidth