Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

53. The Way of the Wizard, edited by John Joseph Adams -- pretty good collection. One of the things I was impressed by is the mix of famous and new-to-me names, the number of female authors in the anthology (just a little less than half), and the number of non-Caucasian names (still a distinct minority, but more than one normally sees).

Comments

[ambyr]

Hah, everyone enjoys books more than me. I am a curmudgeon. At book club, the second question is always, "Did you like the book?" at which point there is generally a pregnant pause as everyone turns to look at me to see what my outburst of complaints will be this time around.

My Naamah's Blessing thoughts are on Goodreads, I think. I liked Temilotzin a lot and was sad he didn't get more of a role. Taking this in combination with my thoughts on the previous book, I'm. . .kind of shipping Temilotzin/Erdene. And by "kind of shipping" I mean, "dreamed up a whole elaborate AU so it will make sense." Oh poor, neglected favorite characters. You need someone who will appreciate you!

[hamsterwoman]

Haha, OK, I feel better then. (I do know that I tend to be relatively easy to please. I tend to quibble about stuff in series that I'm lukewarm on -- like the Chronicles of Elantra stuff -- and have my weird pet peeves, like English puns that are purported to work in languages other than English and books that mishandle Russian or Jewish characters (I did a lot of side-eyeing of Carey's Yeshuites, *sigh*), but mostly I'm happy just to be entertained and really easy when it comes to books in my favorite series.

I liked Temilotzin, too, even though there wasn't very much of him in the action (though more than I had anticipated, really). I tend to like competent warriors, and he had a sense of humour, too.

I'm. . .kind of shipping Temilotzin/Erdene. And by "kind of shipping" I mean, "dreamed up a whole elaborate AU so it will make sense."

Ooh! That could be rather cute, in a fierce way. And now I'm curious about your AU! Does he keep traveling East until he encounters the Tatars? Or does she venture into Terre D'Ange?

[ambyr]

Oh, I have those quibbles, too! I just finished reading an otherwise perfectly serviceable WWII historical fiction book in which one of the characters happened to be Jewish, and at one point was excited because she found someone from whom she could . . . "borrow a copy of the Torah" for a ceremony. I think I spent a good five minutes blinking over that.

It's the AU in which she leaves the Tartars with Moirin, because damn it she is married to Bao and since he's never formally divorced her or died or anything her position at home is quite awkward, and they sort of try poly but frankly it goes rather terribly, and Temilotzin is the first person she's met since leaving pseudo-Asia who actually understands some of what she's going through, because his culture has plural marriage, and. To write it I would feel like I actually needed to know something about Mesoamerican and Mongolian cultures, though, which I don't.

[hamsterwoman]

"borrow a copy of the Torah" for a ceremony

XD I get a great visual of this, someone walking around with the scrolls secreted under a voluminous trenchcoat...

I don't think I've run into anything quite so blink-worthy (well, mostly I read genre, and mostly Jews don't even show up), but even stuff that's not outright wrong. Like, reading Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, I spent entirely too much time trying to figure out how Kevin Laine's name went with him calling his father "abba". Well, that was probably a special case and I normally wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't found GGK's fantasy Jews to be so well done in Lions of Al-Rassan.

and Temilotzin is the first person she's met since leaving pseudo-Asia who actually understands some of what she's going through, because his culture has plural marriage

Oh, neat! I can definitely see that being a point of connection/sympathy between the two of them and an interesting dynamic!

[ambyr]

Hm, I think Laine is an Estonian name, and there was a pretty big Estonian Jewish community, so I guess that one doesn't bother me that much. (Plus non-Jewish last names can always be blamed on immigration officials, heh.) But I don't remember what precisely Kevin's ethnic background was supposed to be.

By the way, I'm going to be in the Bay Area in about two weeks for Thanksgiving, if you want to meet up for lunch or something.

[hamsterwoman]

I do believe Laine is Estonian, right (and I can't remember Kevin's ancestry being mentioned beyond him being Jewish). I don't know how different Jewish Estonian surnames tend to be from non-Jewish Estonian, but this settlement there began in the 19th century, which suggests to me people came with surnames already, and this register of names doesn't have any Laines and has mainly names that sound like regular Ashkenazi names.

So I think I concluded it was a changed-by-immigration-officials thing, and he could have a separate Jewish name (since Kevin isn't one), but there's still the question of "abba", since I would expect that to only be the case if his father were Israeli (since otherwise I would expect that to be something like "papa" or "tate" or however that goes in Yiddish).

It's not even necessarily that this sort of thing bothers me, I just end up thinking way too much about it (obviously XD), where I certainly wouldn't if his background were meant to be something else. See, also, my pondering way too deeply why Vralian