bookish post to rule them all
I haven't done a proper book-post in too long, I have a huge list to catch. I'll try to see how much I remember :
Let's start with
Shaman's Crossing, Robin Hobb
I'm not quite sure how much I liked this book. On the one hand, there's a refreshing setting, I like the American colonized setting that's original and interesting. The plot revolving around the Academy was also something I liked as a setting. Some of her characters were interesting and often not cliché (except when they are). The Shamanic scenes were fantastic (she's always good with the magic stuff). On the other hand, Hobb has her flaws and she's not looking like she's improving them so it gets more grating all the time. There's the evil, cowardly bullies thing I hate so much (the bad thing is she knows how to do a good charismatic, dark character so she should be able to make a good villain, but nah... would be too easy). They are the times when she gets way too preachy, and in an unkind way.... but the serie could be surprising on the whole, we'll have to see. I don't rabidly love the main character, but I like him well enough.
A secret atlas, Michael A. Stackpole
I was recommended that book by being said it's like Guildes, a French RPG none of you guys know. And it's quite lovable in ways that RPG was. It's a strange mix of basic fantasy tropes and good original ideas. The magic system is nice. The characters are good. The setting that mixes Post-Apocalyptic, Colonial and Chinese inspirations is quite intriguing. The centralization on a family of map-makers and explorers and the looming figure of the stern and autocratic grandfather is also very good. In the middle of that, there's a lot of more clumsy writer, an abuse of exotic terms for the sake of it etc., but it's the kind of bad writing I can take for the sake of an original and fun fantasy serie.
Kushiel's Scion, Jacqueline Carey
I love Carey for the same reasons I used to love GGKay. It's well written in a lush, lyrical writing style. The characters are all pretty, clever, witty and very easy to love. There's bad BDSM softporn (more so with Carey of course ;)) The setting is based on historic times and countries with a healthy dose of exoticism added for spice (and when I like it when it's France that's made into the exotic seductive place you know it's well done ;)). All around it's fun and very easy to read.
However, I felt that Kushiel's Scion was her weakest book so far. I very much enjoyed getting back to her world and prose, it was full of characters I absolutely adored and wouldn't mind to see more of (Lucius, Mavros, Canis, Alais and Sidonie...) however it does feel extremely gratuitous. It reminds me of fanfic, not because it's written like it, but because it's got something of the comfy, pointless feeling that fanfic is about, where we read it just to revisit a hundred times over the world, characters, and plots we love so much. Most of the book's plot wandered a bit aimlessly. Imriel was likeable at times and annoying at others as he was attempting (and failing) to over-angst FitzChilvalry (I liked him much more in Kushiel's Avatar I think)
In the end I think Carey's other current serie, The Sundering, excites and interests me more than whatever following she might make for Kushiel's world, even though I'll read these with pleasure :)
The Oracle Queen, Lynn Flewelling
That was probably the weakest of the serie, so I'm a bit disappointed in Flewelling. It was still okay, but a lot of action was dragging around and unsurprising. Not much to say there. I think the bad quality of her setting is starting to weight badly on her talent, but I still look forward to a new Nightrunners book.
Temeraire, Naomi Novik
For magical poney fantasy, this is pretty good. Then again, it is magical poney fantasy.
This starts with the British Navy fighting Napoleon and catching a ship and I wonder if I grabbed the O'Brian book by mistake, but then they find out that there's a dragon egg in the prize. And because the person who harnesses the dragon has to become the dragon's ride (now, where might have read this before), Lawrence the captain of that ship has to sacrifice himself and quit the Navy for the Aviation. (Because dragons are a valuable resource that shall be used in war of course) But he comes to love his shiny, speshul magical poney dragon so much that he doesn't mind, really.
I'll admit it, Temeraire is a darling, even if I'm not sure about Lawrence. Actually most of the dragons have more personalities than the human characters. The plot doesn't weight much, as the writer obviously tries first to set up her very complicated and dense (I'm being sarcastic there) world. But it's fun. Between Bartimaeus and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel I've acquired quite a taste for magical, uchronic Great Brittain and this, at least, it delivers.
And there's the magical poneys! Who doesn't like magical poneys?
Talking of which
Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Much awaited sequel of that story at the end of Swordspoint where Alec was mocking his sister's love for poneys. Poneys, did he argue, hadn't saved his sister when she got married.
Many years later, Alec now officially Mad Duke of Tremontaine (instead of Mad Boyfriend of St Vier) has a masterplan to save his sister's daughter Katherine : he's going to give her a sword and get her to become a Swords(wo)man, whether she wants it, or not.
So we've got Kushner's usual gorgeous prose, spinning and intricate intrigues, and comedy of manner (with swords).
Katherine was a delightful narrator. She could be a bit silly at times, but, well, she's 15. And of course, there Alec who's still with as delightfully mad, cynical, intense and clever. And many other quite, quite lovable characters.
What else need I say but that I loved it? And now I've got to re-read Fall of the Kings.
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
The lone Science Fiction book of this post is a rather baroque, complex, dazzling, breath-stopping tapestry. Set in fragmented India in the near future, it weaves many elements as various as a soap opera acted by aeai (artificial intelligence), a genderless set designer, a Muslim politician, an Afghanistan-born Swedish journalist, a cop charged with hunting lawless aeai, his country wife, a girl looking for her parents who has powers of divination, an American scientist who chose to disappear, another American scientist charged with finding this guy back, and a third good-for-nothing playboy son suddenly inheriting his father's business empire along with his brothers... among other things.
The plot doesn't stop for one minute and is quite brilliant (if occasionally hard to follow). The characters are deep enough and likeable. The prose is beautiful. And the Sci-Fi ideas work and intermingle in a wonderful way. Though it did make good use of the richness of India's culture it didn't feel to me like it was making use of it for exoticism's sake. In a way it reminded me of Greg Egan :)
If I've got anything to criticize this it's that there's so many plot threads and characters (many of whom don't interact between each others until midway through the book) that it's a bit hard to get into. Otherwise, a brillant book.
Pfff, that's all I remember reading recently. Well, and Crown of Shadows but that was only the fourth time :) (Karril's still a darling, Damien's still awesome, Tarrant's still an ass, Narilka still kicks ass etc., etc.)
Let's start with
Shaman's Crossing, Robin Hobb
I'm not quite sure how much I liked this book. On the one hand, there's a refreshing setting, I like the American colonized setting that's original and interesting. The plot revolving around the Academy was also something I liked as a setting. Some of her characters were interesting and often not cliché (except when they are). The Shamanic scenes were fantastic (she's always good with the magic stuff). On the other hand, Hobb has her flaws and she's not looking like she's improving them so it gets more grating all the time. There's the evil, cowardly bullies thing I hate so much (the bad thing is she knows how to do a good charismatic, dark character so she should be able to make a good villain, but nah... would be too easy). They are the times when she gets way too preachy, and in an unkind way.... but the serie could be surprising on the whole, we'll have to see. I don't rabidly love the main character, but I like him well enough.
A secret atlas, Michael A. Stackpole
I was recommended that book by being said it's like Guildes, a French RPG none of you guys know. And it's quite lovable in ways that RPG was. It's a strange mix of basic fantasy tropes and good original ideas. The magic system is nice. The characters are good. The setting that mixes Post-Apocalyptic, Colonial and Chinese inspirations is quite intriguing. The centralization on a family of map-makers and explorers and the looming figure of the stern and autocratic grandfather is also very good. In the middle of that, there's a lot of more clumsy writer, an abuse of exotic terms for the sake of it etc., but it's the kind of bad writing I can take for the sake of an original and fun fantasy serie.
Kushiel's Scion, Jacqueline Carey
I love Carey for the same reasons I used to love GGKay. It's well written in a lush, lyrical writing style. The characters are all pretty, clever, witty and very easy to love. There's bad BDSM softporn (more so with Carey of course ;)) The setting is based on historic times and countries with a healthy dose of exoticism added for spice (and when I like it when it's France that's made into the exotic seductive place you know it's well done ;)). All around it's fun and very easy to read.
However, I felt that Kushiel's Scion was her weakest book so far. I very much enjoyed getting back to her world and prose, it was full of characters I absolutely adored and wouldn't mind to see more of (Lucius, Mavros, Canis, Alais and Sidonie...) however it does feel extremely gratuitous. It reminds me of fanfic, not because it's written like it, but because it's got something of the comfy, pointless feeling that fanfic is about, where we read it just to revisit a hundred times over the world, characters, and plots we love so much. Most of the book's plot wandered a bit aimlessly. Imriel was likeable at times and annoying at others as he was attempting (and failing) to over-angst FitzChilvalry (I liked him much more in Kushiel's Avatar I think)
In the end I think Carey's other current serie, The Sundering, excites and interests me more than whatever following she might make for Kushiel's world, even though I'll read these with pleasure :)
The Oracle Queen, Lynn Flewelling
That was probably the weakest of the serie, so I'm a bit disappointed in Flewelling. It was still okay, but a lot of action was dragging around and unsurprising. Not much to say there. I think the bad quality of her setting is starting to weight badly on her talent, but I still look forward to a new Nightrunners book.
Temeraire, Naomi Novik
For magical poney fantasy, this is pretty good. Then again, it is magical poney fantasy.
This starts with the British Navy fighting Napoleon and catching a ship and I wonder if I grabbed the O'Brian book by mistake, but then they find out that there's a dragon egg in the prize. And because the person who harnesses the dragon has to become the dragon's ride (now, where might have read this before), Lawrence the captain of that ship has to sacrifice himself and quit the Navy for the Aviation. (Because dragons are a valuable resource that shall be used in war of course) But he comes to love his shiny, speshul magical poney dragon so much that he doesn't mind, really.
I'll admit it, Temeraire is a darling, even if I'm not sure about Lawrence. Actually most of the dragons have more personalities than the human characters. The plot doesn't weight much, as the writer obviously tries first to set up her very complicated and dense (I'm being sarcastic there) world. But it's fun. Between Bartimaeus and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel I've acquired quite a taste for magical, uchronic Great Brittain and this, at least, it delivers.
And there's the magical poneys! Who doesn't like magical poneys?
Talking of which
Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Much awaited sequel of that story at the end of Swordspoint where Alec was mocking his sister's love for poneys. Poneys, did he argue, hadn't saved his sister when she got married.
Many years later, Alec now officially Mad Duke of Tremontaine (instead of Mad Boyfriend of St Vier) has a masterplan to save his sister's daughter Katherine : he's going to give her a sword and get her to become a Swords(wo)man, whether she wants it, or not.
So we've got Kushner's usual gorgeous prose, spinning and intricate intrigues, and comedy of manner (with swords).
Katherine was a delightful narrator. She could be a bit silly at times, but, well, she's 15. And of course, there Alec who's still with as delightfully mad, cynical, intense and clever. And many other quite, quite lovable characters.
What else need I say but that I loved it? And now I've got to re-read Fall of the Kings.
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
The lone Science Fiction book of this post is a rather baroque, complex, dazzling, breath-stopping tapestry. Set in fragmented India in the near future, it weaves many elements as various as a soap opera acted by aeai (artificial intelligence), a genderless set designer, a Muslim politician, an Afghanistan-born Swedish journalist, a cop charged with hunting lawless aeai, his country wife, a girl looking for her parents who has powers of divination, an American scientist who chose to disappear, another American scientist charged with finding this guy back, and a third good-for-nothing playboy son suddenly inheriting his father's business empire along with his brothers... among other things.
The plot doesn't stop for one minute and is quite brilliant (if occasionally hard to follow). The characters are deep enough and likeable. The prose is beautiful. And the Sci-Fi ideas work and intermingle in a wonderful way. Though it did make good use of the richness of India's culture it didn't feel to me like it was making use of it for exoticism's sake. In a way it reminded me of Greg Egan :)
If I've got anything to criticize this it's that there's so many plot threads and characters (many of whom don't interact between each others until midway through the book) that it's a bit hard to get into. Otherwise, a brillant book.
Pfff, that's all I remember reading recently. Well, and Crown of Shadows but that was only the fourth time :) (Karril's still a darling, Damien's still awesome, Tarrant's still an ass, Narilka still kicks ass etc., etc.)