books read recently
The Cloud Road & The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells, the two first volumes of a fantasy series about Moon, a guy shapeshifting in to a flying reptile finally finding out about who the people he's of are, and trying to integrate into their society, while they face great threat.
The setting and premise has a pretty refreshing atmosphere in world building : There's a very great diversity of people in the Three Worlds, whether they be Groundlings, Sealings or Skylings, and this is obviously a very vast world. Gives it a sort of Vancian pulpish vibe. The plot itself isn't great, but the core of the story about Moon - a rather reserved, prickly and laconic guy - trying to deal with suddenly having a family, who has all sorts of expectations of him, after having been used to always hiding who he was to people by fear of being cast of or attacked, is very engrossing. The society he finds itself in is very well depicted and explored - it reminds me a little bit of a the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness removed on the way it deals with the social structure and specific castes when dealing with marriage. In fact it's pretty good at being subversive gender wise in a rather deconstructive way. There's a couple of secondary characters I especially liked, especially old cheeky bastard Stone and the adorable Chime; and this was a very entertaining and delightful read. (also scratched my kink for people sleeping together in a very hurt/comfort way - i mean sleep, not sex :p not that there isn't any sex going on).
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elisabeth Bear, the first novel in a fantasy series about a group of warriors who are a mindlinked to magical wolves who war against trolls in a northern flavoured setting. If the books above reminded me a little bit of the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness removed; this one reminded me A LOT of the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness put front and center for an examination which tries to transcend it (I think), but fails and mostly manages to be very id ficcy. Not a bad id fic by any means, but you know, it's a social structure which relies on ritualistic gang rape and that's the way it is. If I compare it to Sarah Monette's Doctrine of the Labyrinth series which also seemed very id-ficcy at times, but managed to always use such scenes as plot relevant and important to the themes examined so they never really felt gratuitous, I think this one falls shorter. Although they do try to use in a gender thematic way - the protagonist does go from accepting without questions the baseline sexism and patriarchy of his culture to thinking ahead of how to try to improve things for his daughter, and this is, in part, related to the position he's placed as someone mindbound to a female wolf. But, since at the same time very few of the characters in the story are women (that is, there are a handful of important characters who are female - such as a wolves - but none of them are humans), I don't think this was put enough to the forefront to be thematically relevant enough. Enough for that part, plot wise, there isn't all that much going on, in fact one of the main flaw of the series is that the protagonist is a little bit too... flawless and good at the challenges he's set up with, but it's solid enough as a coming of age story.
The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly, an early fantasy novel of Hambly, with a modern earth woman being thrust into a medieval-but-on-the-verge-of-industrial-revolution world in a way related to a mysterious series of death involving magic and wizards. I had some trouble with this one. There are three main characters, two of which have point of views, and the third is an enigmatic is-he-the-villain-or-isn't-he? and it's a little bit too obvious that he isn't the villain because he's totally awesome and hot in a mild librarian who is also badass Remus Lupin way, and the others are, like, totally wrong to suspect him, and the earth woman who is also a total geek who makes D&D reference when talking about the fantasy world she finds herself in, falls in love with him, and at this point it just feels way too... pat and wish-fulfillment-y for me, I'm afraid. Although the enigmatic character was pretty cool until it was so obvious he was wrongfully suspected, and the second one - a young and rather earnest ninja warrior - was a very decent character as well. But I'm not sure I'll bother with the sequels.
The Irregulars by various authors, is an anthology of urban fantasy mystery M/M short stories by various authors all revolving about a secret state organisation having to deal with magical creatures related threats and crimes. It was pretty cool, most of the creatures had a faery vibe which was refreshing and well done, most of the characterizations is decent. Some of the plots were better than others, but overall it was an entertaining read.
Somebody Kill his Editor & All She Wrote by Josh Lanyon, amateur smartass sleuth M/M novels in which the protagonist is a mystery writers himself. Those were pretty cute, mostly light hearted, with decent enough plots and amusing characters.
Oucast Mine by Jamie Craig, a space opera prison M/M novel, which was crap with a barely coherent plot wise asides from having hot sex scenes.
Counterpoint & Crescendo by Rachel Haimowitz - a fantasy slave M/M story about an elve warrior and the human military leader who got him as a captive, the second book has a semi decent plot, and the main characters aren't half bad, although their romance does not convince and its all very cookie cutter. Also the writing overuse cutesy medieval speech patterns in a way that gets annoying very fast.
comments at the original post on Dreamwidth
The setting and premise has a pretty refreshing atmosphere in world building : There's a very great diversity of people in the Three Worlds, whether they be Groundlings, Sealings or Skylings, and this is obviously a very vast world. Gives it a sort of Vancian pulpish vibe. The plot itself isn't great, but the core of the story about Moon - a rather reserved, prickly and laconic guy - trying to deal with suddenly having a family, who has all sorts of expectations of him, after having been used to always hiding who he was to people by fear of being cast of or attacked, is very engrossing. The society he finds itself in is very well depicted and explored - it reminds me a little bit of a the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness removed on the way it deals with the social structure and specific castes when dealing with marriage. In fact it's pretty good at being subversive gender wise in a rather deconstructive way. There's a couple of secondary characters I especially liked, especially old cheeky bastard Stone and the adorable Chime; and this was a very entertaining and delightful read. (also scratched my kink for people sleeping together in a very hurt/comfort way - i mean sleep, not sex :p not that there isn't any sex going on).
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elisabeth Bear, the first novel in a fantasy series about a group of warriors who are a mindlinked to magical wolves who war against trolls in a northern flavoured setting. If the books above reminded me a little bit of the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness removed; this one reminded me A LOT of the Dragon Riders of Pern with most of the skeeviness put front and center for an examination which tries to transcend it (I think), but fails and mostly manages to be very id ficcy. Not a bad id fic by any means, but you know, it's a social structure which relies on ritualistic gang rape and that's the way it is. If I compare it to Sarah Monette's Doctrine of the Labyrinth series which also seemed very id-ficcy at times, but managed to always use such scenes as plot relevant and important to the themes examined so they never really felt gratuitous, I think this one falls shorter. Although they do try to use in a gender thematic way - the protagonist does go from accepting without questions the baseline sexism and patriarchy of his culture to thinking ahead of how to try to improve things for his daughter, and this is, in part, related to the position he's placed as someone mindbound to a female wolf. But, since at the same time very few of the characters in the story are women (that is, there are a handful of important characters who are female - such as a wolves - but none of them are humans), I don't think this was put enough to the forefront to be thematically relevant enough. Enough for that part, plot wise, there isn't all that much going on, in fact one of the main flaw of the series is that the protagonist is a little bit too... flawless and good at the challenges he's set up with, but it's solid enough as a coming of age story.
The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly, an early fantasy novel of Hambly, with a modern earth woman being thrust into a medieval-but-on-the-verge-of-industrial-revolution world in a way related to a mysterious series of death involving magic and wizards. I had some trouble with this one. There are three main characters, two of which have point of views, and the third is an enigmatic is-he-the-villain-or-isn't-he? and it's a little bit too obvious that he isn't the villain because he's totally awesome and hot in a mild librarian who is also badass Remus Lupin way, and the others are, like, totally wrong to suspect him, and the earth woman who is also a total geek who makes D&D reference when talking about the fantasy world she finds herself in, falls in love with him, and at this point it just feels way too... pat and wish-fulfillment-y for me, I'm afraid. Although the enigmatic character was pretty cool until it was so obvious he was wrongfully suspected, and the second one - a young and rather earnest ninja warrior - was a very decent character as well. But I'm not sure I'll bother with the sequels.
The Irregulars by various authors, is an anthology of urban fantasy mystery M/M short stories by various authors all revolving about a secret state organisation having to deal with magical creatures related threats and crimes. It was pretty cool, most of the creatures had a faery vibe which was refreshing and well done, most of the characterizations is decent. Some of the plots were better than others, but overall it was an entertaining read.
Somebody Kill his Editor & All She Wrote by Josh Lanyon, amateur smartass sleuth M/M novels in which the protagonist is a mystery writers himself. Those were pretty cute, mostly light hearted, with decent enough plots and amusing characters.
Oucast Mine by Jamie Craig, a space opera prison M/M novel, which was crap with a barely coherent plot wise asides from having hot sex scenes.
Counterpoint & Crescendo by Rachel Haimowitz - a fantasy slave M/M story about an elve warrior and the human military leader who got him as a captive, the second book has a semi decent plot, and the main characters aren't half bad, although their romance does not convince and its all very cookie cutter. Also the writing overuse cutesy medieval speech patterns in a way that gets annoying very fast.
comments at the original post on Dreamwidth