book list, June 2019
It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in June 2019. Click on the cuts for summaries and reactions. I reserve the right to spoil all hell out of any book if spoilery bits are what I feel like talking about.
Proper English, by K. J. Charles
-----A lesbian romance set against the backdrop of a horrible house party and murder mystery in an Edwardian English country manor house. Wonderful fun, with an engaging cast of primary and secondary characters... though be warned that the murder victim is a thoroughly horrible person and says a lot of extremely offensive things to various other characters.
Summer in Orcus, by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon)
-----In which Summer, a girl who has learned far too young how to act as a reassuring parent to her own troubled mother, meets Baba Yaga and sets off on an accidental portal fantasy adventure in search of her heart's desire. Orcus is a fascinating world, which mostly seems to be stitched together out of random pieces of whatever struck Kingfisher as interesting -- actually, I believe that is an accurate description of her worldbuilding process in this particular instance -- and the story itself has some interesting commentary on child-centric portal fantasies, which I do not entirely agree with but think is important to have out there in the world.
The Door Into Fire, by Diane Duane
-----Book one of the Tale of the Five, which has the general structure of a return-of-the-rightful-king high fantasy epic, but set in a world whose backdrop includes casual polyamory, assumed bisexuality/pansexuality, and a Goddess as the central (and very tangible!) religious figure. It's also shot through with Duane's habitual focus on evil as death/decay/entropy and virtue as the struggle to combat that tendency and make the world a kinder and brighter place as long as possible, even if the fight is ultimately doomed.
Anyway, in this volume we meet four of our main characters: Herewiss, the heir to a noble holding in the country of Darthen and the first man to (potentially) wield the power of the Blue Flame for centuries; Freelorn, the exiled heir to Darthen's sister country of Arlen; Segnbora, another Darthen noble heir unable to use her own Blue Flame; and Sunspark, a fire elemental attempting to learn about other kinds of life. The plot here mainly revolves around Herewiss's efforts to harness his Flame before he loses it forever.
The Door Into Shadow, by Diane Duane
-----Book two of the Tale of the Five, in which the plot remembers that Lorn is the heir of Arlen in a world where that has magical implications, and if he doesn't go renew some important bindings the Shadow will get loose and make an impending invasion of southern raiders much, much worse. Also Segnbora moves to center stage and we meet the last of our main characters, the dragon Hasai. (Dragons, in this universe, are actually aliens from another star-system whose biology is based on direct solar energy conversion. They're pretty neat!)
The Door Into Sunset, by Diane Duane
-----Book three of the Tale of the Five, in which Our Heroes (plus their ally Eftgan, the Queen of Darthen) finally move to put Freelorn onto his throne, but of course things get a lot more complicated than expected. Lorn takes center stage here, though Herewiss and Segnbora remain prominent POV characters.
The Levin-Gad, by Diane Duane
-----First of a set of interstitial novellas set between The Door Into Sunset and its finally forthcoming sequel The Door Into Starlight. In this one, Herewiss spends an evening in a Darthene bar playing bait for the Shadow, to the annoyance of Iras, the bar's bouncer. Their interaction has effects neither expected.
The Landlady, by Diane Duane
-----Second of a set of interstitial novellas (though at ~80,000 words this one is technically a novel in its own right) in the Tale of the Five. In this one, Segnbora begins to take on her responsibilities as the current head of her noble House. The main plot focus is on one particular holding and the mysterious difficulty they've been having for a generation but didn't feel they could report to Segnbora's grandfather or father, but that has thematic ties to the whole mess of rebuilding ties and looking toward the future rather than repeating the past. Also, the food descriptions are to die for, ye gods and little fishes, I was so hungry after reading this!
Any Other Name, by Devan Johnson
-----A lesbian regency-ish romance, between a woman who's disguised herself as her dead twin to keep a horrible relative from inheriting her family's estate and therefore needs an heir, and a woman whose fiancé has died unexpectedly, leaving her pregnant and potentially disgraced. Of course, what begins as a marriage of convenience quickly develops actual emotions. :) This is very sweet, though the final complication comes a bit out of nowhere.
The Killing Moon, by N. K. Jemisin
-----A fascinating fantasy set in Gujaareh, an Egyptian-esque land (on the moon of a gas giant!!!) where magic is worked through and depends on dreams. Our focus characters are Ehiru, a Gatherer (a priest whose job is to usher people into the world of dreams, i.e. kill them and harvest the dreamblood that results from this transition); Nijiri, Ehiru's apprentice; Sunandi, the ambassador from Kisua (a vaguely Nubian-esque land to the south); and the Prince of Gujaareh, who has ominous plans of his own. Dream magic is full of dangers, which are only compounded when human ambitions enter the picture...
The Shadowed Sun, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Sequel to The Killing Moon, set about ten years later and dealing with the repercussions of the first book's ending. This time our focus characters are Hanani, the first female apprentice Sharer (a priest whose job is to use dream magic for healing); Wanahomen, the exiled heir to Gujaareh's throne; and Tiaanet, a noblewoman whose family holds dark secrets. Sunandi and Nijiri also play minor roles. This book continues the themes of cross-cultural conflicts and efforts at understanding, the dangers and uses of dream magic, and the inherent problems with systems that depend on human virtue to run properly when humans are so very messy and complicated. (Warning: there's some upsetting stuff here involving incest, intra-familial abuse, and mental illness. It's not graphic, but it's integral to the plot.)
Isabella: The Warrior Queen, by Kirstin Downey
-----A biography of Queen Isabella of Castille. Very informative, and fairly even-handed in describing Isabella's virtues and flaws as a ruler and a person, though Downey's overall attitude leans more toward admiration than condemnation. She also does a lot of work to paint the sociocultural milieu in which Isabella lived, and which shaped her as much as she shaped it. (Also she doesn't say it in quite these words, but her general conclusion about Ferdinand is that he was an arrogant, short-sighted jerk, whose marriage to Isabella was the best thing that ever happened to him. Which I happen to agree with, so.)
---------------
So that's that for June, and I am off to bed. :)
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
Proper English, by K. J. Charles
-----A lesbian romance set against the backdrop of a horrible house party and murder mystery in an Edwardian English country manor house. Wonderful fun, with an engaging cast of primary and secondary characters... though be warned that the murder victim is a thoroughly horrible person and says a lot of extremely offensive things to various other characters.
Summer in Orcus, by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon)
-----In which Summer, a girl who has learned far too young how to act as a reassuring parent to her own troubled mother, meets Baba Yaga and sets off on an accidental portal fantasy adventure in search of her heart's desire. Orcus is a fascinating world, which mostly seems to be stitched together out of random pieces of whatever struck Kingfisher as interesting -- actually, I believe that is an accurate description of her worldbuilding process in this particular instance -- and the story itself has some interesting commentary on child-centric portal fantasies, which I do not entirely agree with but think is important to have out there in the world.
The Door Into Fire, by Diane Duane
-----Book one of the Tale of the Five, which has the general structure of a return-of-the-rightful-king high fantasy epic, but set in a world whose backdrop includes casual polyamory, assumed bisexuality/pansexuality, and a Goddess as the central (and very tangible!) religious figure. It's also shot through with Duane's habitual focus on evil as death/decay/entropy and virtue as the struggle to combat that tendency and make the world a kinder and brighter place as long as possible, even if the fight is ultimately doomed.
Anyway, in this volume we meet four of our main characters: Herewiss, the heir to a noble holding in the country of Darthen and the first man to (potentially) wield the power of the Blue Flame for centuries; Freelorn, the exiled heir to Darthen's sister country of Arlen; Segnbora, another Darthen noble heir unable to use her own Blue Flame; and Sunspark, a fire elemental attempting to learn about other kinds of life. The plot here mainly revolves around Herewiss's efforts to harness his Flame before he loses it forever.
The Door Into Shadow, by Diane Duane
-----Book two of the Tale of the Five, in which the plot remembers that Lorn is the heir of Arlen in a world where that has magical implications, and if he doesn't go renew some important bindings the Shadow will get loose and make an impending invasion of southern raiders much, much worse. Also Segnbora moves to center stage and we meet the last of our main characters, the dragon Hasai. (Dragons, in this universe, are actually aliens from another star-system whose biology is based on direct solar energy conversion. They're pretty neat!)
The Door Into Sunset, by Diane Duane
-----Book three of the Tale of the Five, in which Our Heroes (plus their ally Eftgan, the Queen of Darthen) finally move to put Freelorn onto his throne, but of course things get a lot more complicated than expected. Lorn takes center stage here, though Herewiss and Segnbora remain prominent POV characters.
The Levin-Gad, by Diane Duane
-----First of a set of interstitial novellas set between The Door Into Sunset and its finally forthcoming sequel The Door Into Starlight. In this one, Herewiss spends an evening in a Darthene bar playing bait for the Shadow, to the annoyance of Iras, the bar's bouncer. Their interaction has effects neither expected.
The Landlady, by Diane Duane
-----Second of a set of interstitial novellas (though at ~80,000 words this one is technically a novel in its own right) in the Tale of the Five. In this one, Segnbora begins to take on her responsibilities as the current head of her noble House. The main plot focus is on one particular holding and the mysterious difficulty they've been having for a generation but didn't feel they could report to Segnbora's grandfather or father, but that has thematic ties to the whole mess of rebuilding ties and looking toward the future rather than repeating the past. Also, the food descriptions are to die for, ye gods and little fishes, I was so hungry after reading this!
Any Other Name, by Devan Johnson
-----A lesbian regency-ish romance, between a woman who's disguised herself as her dead twin to keep a horrible relative from inheriting her family's estate and therefore needs an heir, and a woman whose fiancé has died unexpectedly, leaving her pregnant and potentially disgraced. Of course, what begins as a marriage of convenience quickly develops actual emotions. :) This is very sweet, though the final complication comes a bit out of nowhere.
The Killing Moon, by N. K. Jemisin
-----A fascinating fantasy set in Gujaareh, an Egyptian-esque land (on the moon of a gas giant!!!) where magic is worked through and depends on dreams. Our focus characters are Ehiru, a Gatherer (a priest whose job is to usher people into the world of dreams, i.e. kill them and harvest the dreamblood that results from this transition); Nijiri, Ehiru's apprentice; Sunandi, the ambassador from Kisua (a vaguely Nubian-esque land to the south); and the Prince of Gujaareh, who has ominous plans of his own. Dream magic is full of dangers, which are only compounded when human ambitions enter the picture...
The Shadowed Sun, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Sequel to The Killing Moon, set about ten years later and dealing with the repercussions of the first book's ending. This time our focus characters are Hanani, the first female apprentice Sharer (a priest whose job is to use dream magic for healing); Wanahomen, the exiled heir to Gujaareh's throne; and Tiaanet, a noblewoman whose family holds dark secrets. Sunandi and Nijiri also play minor roles. This book continues the themes of cross-cultural conflicts and efforts at understanding, the dangers and uses of dream magic, and the inherent problems with systems that depend on human virtue to run properly when humans are so very messy and complicated. (Warning: there's some upsetting stuff here involving incest, intra-familial abuse, and mental illness. It's not graphic, but it's integral to the plot.)
Isabella: The Warrior Queen, by Kirstin Downey
-----A biography of Queen Isabella of Castille. Very informative, and fairly even-handed in describing Isabella's virtues and flaws as a ruler and a person, though Downey's overall attitude leans more toward admiration than condemnation. She also does a lot of work to paint the sociocultural milieu in which Isabella lived, and which shaped her as much as she shaped it. (Also she doesn't say it in quite these words, but her general conclusion about Ferdinand is that he was an arrogant, short-sighted jerk, whose marriage to Isabella was the best thing that ever happened to him. Which I happen to agree with, so.)
---------------
So that's that for June, and I am off to bed. :)
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)