Books I read during the vacations
Hey, i've been meaning to make that post for a while, but been lazy. No more. So :
The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick : Nice conclusion of the pretty good serie started with In Legend Born and in Fire Forged. Resnick writes good, efficient fantasy, and some of my aprehensions in the beginning (the main character is a two swords wielder guy with a dark past (tm)) it's overall a serie I was very pleasantly surprised. Good characters, nice plotting, deadly intrigues, inspiration from Sicillian history which makes for a fresh outlook in a fantasy novel. The magic was a bit too flashy for my usual taste but the main point about the way the waterlord Society (read, mafia) controlled much of the island was an interesting take on it. And of course, there's one character I really, really loved in it. Baran's dry wit and self depreciative sarcasm made me fall in love with him right away. I wasn't disapointed by his role in this volume. I'll keep a look on that writer.
The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thorton : The conclusion of the Bitterbynde trillogy ends in its usual own peculiar style. Well, I think that's the book of the three I the least enjoyed. The main appeal of that serie - apart from the language itself - was the retelling of celtic fairy tales, but the ending just made me gag. It doesn't help that it's very difficult to like the main character who is o so pretty, so wise and so skillful while her friends are so often foolish. I was bored for a while by too long travels description, and then disapointed by the lack of surprised by the ending twists. The very end failed to deal with the one problem the story had put in the way of the main couple, whcih was gag-worthy. Besides Morrigan was way sexier.
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper : Tepper can write strong, intense book that cut sharp with tragedy. This was not one of them. there were some interesting tibits in the start, genuinely intriguing metaphysics and ideas, but then all got drowned into preachy prose. It didn't help most of the characters were boring as hell.
The Reindeer People and Wolf's Brother by Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) : fresh and interesting story. The setting is northern place and the story deal with an almost autistic child who might become a very good shaman... as well as his mother who wants to protect him and do not believe any of those thing, and the reindeer people they seek refuge with. The wonderful and very unique - very genuine - feel of the magic in this book makes the main appeal. Hobb's always good with magic, I say, but this one was even better. It really felt like shamanism... strange and disturbing and tying ties between things and that might be more tricks and shrewdness than magic - and yet. The plot itself wasn't quite so good and Hobb suffers from her usual annoying flaw of making the bad guy oh so evil and boring. However Carp made an interesting ambiguous character, part villain and part mentor.
Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint : though there were some interesting thematics and ideas in this book, it was ultimately very disapointing. The plot was rather badly told - and with lots of problems of pacing. There were too many characters - most of them not that interesting, or maybe that's because we never had quite the time to deepen them enough - and the fact some chapters were told in 1st person and present tense and others in 3rd person and past tense didn't help it. Too bad, the whole urban fantasy feeling of it at first was pretty nifty.
The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick : Nice conclusion of the pretty good serie started with In Legend Born and in Fire Forged. Resnick writes good, efficient fantasy, and some of my aprehensions in the beginning (the main character is a two swords wielder guy with a dark past (tm)) it's overall a serie I was very pleasantly surprised. Good characters, nice plotting, deadly intrigues, inspiration from Sicillian history which makes for a fresh outlook in a fantasy novel. The magic was a bit too flashy for my usual taste but the main point about the way the waterlord Society (read, mafia) controlled much of the island was an interesting take on it. And of course, there's one character I really, really loved in it. Baran's dry wit and self depreciative sarcasm made me fall in love with him right away. I wasn't disapointed by his role in this volume. I'll keep a look on that writer.
The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thorton : The conclusion of the Bitterbynde trillogy ends in its usual own peculiar style. Well, I think that's the book of the three I the least enjoyed. The main appeal of that serie - apart from the language itself - was the retelling of celtic fairy tales, but the ending just made me gag. It doesn't help that it's very difficult to like the main character who is o so pretty, so wise and so skillful while her friends are so often foolish. I was bored for a while by too long travels description, and then disapointed by the lack of surprised by the ending twists. The very end failed to deal with the one problem the story had put in the way of the main couple, whcih was gag-worthy. Besides Morrigan was way sexier.
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper : Tepper can write strong, intense book that cut sharp with tragedy. This was not one of them. there were some interesting tibits in the start, genuinely intriguing metaphysics and ideas, but then all got drowned into preachy prose. It didn't help most of the characters were boring as hell.
The Reindeer People and Wolf's Brother by Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) : fresh and interesting story. The setting is northern place and the story deal with an almost autistic child who might become a very good shaman... as well as his mother who wants to protect him and do not believe any of those thing, and the reindeer people they seek refuge with. The wonderful and very unique - very genuine - feel of the magic in this book makes the main appeal. Hobb's always good with magic, I say, but this one was even better. It really felt like shamanism... strange and disturbing and tying ties between things and that might be more tricks and shrewdness than magic - and yet. The plot itself wasn't quite so good and Hobb suffers from her usual annoying flaw of making the bad guy oh so evil and boring. However Carp made an interesting ambiguous character, part villain and part mentor.
Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint : though there were some interesting thematics and ideas in this book, it was ultimately very disapointing. The plot was rather badly told - and with lots of problems of pacing. There were too many characters - most of them not that interesting, or maybe that's because we never had quite the time to deepen them enough - and the fact some chapters were told in 1st person and present tense and others in 3rd person and past tense didn't help it. Too bad, the whole urban fantasy feeling of it at first was pretty nifty.