Reading roundup (including Cold Days)

[hamsterwoman]

Catching up on the last of 2012 and starting off 2013:

45. Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts -- The beginning of an epic fantasy trilogy set in Central Asia (in 12th-13th century, apparently;

Comments

[ikel89]

Kindrat roundup, yay! Indeed, you've already mentioned much of what made it to this post in our previous conversations, but was neat to see a more general review. I at least hope the series didn't seem like a total waste of time to you(despite its many flaws, which I see but am willing to gloss over). Even if for the sake of glorious ocd fest of cuteness that is M/K :3
And I'm almost finished with the Promise, btw! Agree with you on most of the points, even thought I have to finish it up to make any srs arguments;) Toph and Sokka are indeed the most vibrant thing out there! Also, Zuko's ability to generate UST with ALL the people is legendary, hehe;>>

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, they absolutely did not seem like any kind of waste of time! M/K OCD cuteness was totally worth it, and it was a fun world to read about because it was quite different from Western urban fantasy I'm familiar with. My reviews always tend to skew a bit negative, I find, unless it's just something I love to such an embarrassing degree that it transcends any rational thought, and I think in the case of Kindred I tended to share the yays in realtime, so it came out especially skewed. I definitely liked it on the whole -- would not have breezed through 4 books in an otherwise slow two months otherwise -- and looking forward to reading more of you Russian fantasy favorites :)

And looking forward to your full Promise impressions! (Hope you enjoyed them.)

Also, Zuko's ability to generate UST with ALL the people is legendary,

It's a gift, as you like to say ;)

[ikel89]

Heh, I see what you mean about sounding overall more negative. Tend to do that,too.;)
And OF COURSE I'd love to walk you through my other favourites, whenever you are in the mood.

My round-up is coming pretty soon, since there are those three books I'm just about to finish, and it will be Temeraire, Snuff, Promise and a random book on Japanese culture for Nov-Dec (or Jan) read. Pretty scarce for three month *scratches head*

ZUKO IS NOT PROUD LOOOOL XD

[hamsterwoman]

ZUKO IS NOT PROUD LOOOOL XD

XD

But it's 4 Temeraires and 3 Promises, so a total of 9 books for 2 months (and change) -- not bad, I think! (My own tally is similar -- it's something about holidays, especially holidays busy with travel and travel prep.)

Heh, I see what you mean about sounding overall more negative. Tend to do that,too.;)

I know for me in part it's that the bits that don't work for me or snag my attention in a negative way is something I tend to think about more after I close the book, while the happy squee stuff has a shorter half-life. That's one of the reasons I find the end-of-year reading memes useful, because they will often show that the book I complained about for pages in my original write-up was one of my favorites for the year. Very interesting phenomenon.

So, what are some of your other Russian fantasy favorites? We've talked through Lukyanenko a bit, and I've seen you discuss some of the other Pekhov stuff (with l_vestrit, I think), and there were the ones that came up on your ships posts, like "Танцующая с

[ikel89]

Holidays, travels, and pre-holidays gift spree definitely got in the way of reading;) in more reading-saturated months my count was 15 per month or so

[hamsterwoman]

The Japan-influenced Parfenova is probably not for me, but could you tell me a bit more about "Танцующая с Ауте" -- like, setting, what sort of plot/tropes, character archetypes

[ikel89]

Intro to Aute is no easy thing! For starters, the setting is sci-fi on technological level, but it's a fact easily overwhelmed by the multiverse of world. Planets/worlds come and go as the narration flows, from the magical fantasy realms to hi-tech genetically modified people to totally surreal places with very endemic realities (like, the main heroine comes from эль-онн, a place in the middle of stomy skies, which became home to a branch of people who fled the ancient Earth, faced the chaos and the crazy of this uninhabitable place face-on and evolved into a bunch of very...chaotic individuals with uncanny adapting skills). And the first book, apart from the said El Onn, features a realm of a priviledged race or Arrs, who maintain the most political leverage in the mutliverse because they alone know (and faithfully guard)the secret of travelling between the worlds. Aristocratic, posh, stuck-up arrs, psychotic power-hungry arrs, who are faced with a RIDICULOUS proposition from one crazy el-in lady. What follows is a LOT of politicking

[hamsterwoman]

Ah, thank you for the thorough introduction to "Aute"! It does sound very intriguing still, though I did not realize it was sci-fi-y -- that's good to know, as my sci-fi moods definitely come and go. The politics and family dysfunction are making it sound kind of Amber-y to me -- is that a useful impression? And I'd been wondering about the gentleman in A's icon, so thank you for clarifying that, too :)

I have to say "Профессия: ведьма" sounds right up my alley (magical academies are a weakness, as is hilarity ensuing and Bronn-style sellswords), so I suspect I'm going to try that next, unless the sci-fi bug mugs me and I go for "Aute".

Thank you very much!

[ikel89]

Sci-fi in Aute is also not the super-dominant thing, as you said about Vorkosigan. The books are character and intrigue centered, not the faux science explanations at all. The ideas lean quite heavily on psychology (the author is a graduate in that sphere, I think), mythology and study of human nature more than fancy-shmancy technology, but the latter provides for some cool worldbuilding. I especially love how advances magic and technology blur together:) Amber comparison... It's both right and wrong. Amberites are a bit larger-than-life and Roman-esque in their personalities and ways of plotting, and they are majorly one family. Characters in Aute have most different backgrounds which in turn determine their VASTLY different styles of politicking, which makes it all the more entertaining for me. Plus, they have to deal a lot with being of different races/cultures/worlds, so it's an interesting subject in itself, too

[hamsterwoman]

Sci-fi in Aute is also not the super-dominant thing, as you said about Vorkosigan.

I thought that might be the case, so thank you for confirming it! Advanced technology indistinguishable from magic or the blending of the two tend to be hit or miss for me, but I've found it really depends on the instance -- e.g. I love it in Ponedelnik and am very intrigued by it in Zelazny's Lord of Light (speaking of sci-fi/mythology, have you read it?), but it just annoys me in some other things (e.g. alien planet + dragons type of stories). But I'm getting the sense Aute is more like the former than the latter, which sounds encouraging. Sci-fi/fantasy culture clash/interaction is one of my favorite things in any SFF subgenre, though, so that's definitely good!

[ikel89]

Despite my fangirling about the series, somehow I'm fully prepared for people not liking it for reasons of writing style or something #worrywart Seeing how Dasha was meh about it too... but we often have polar opinions on books with her. IDEK T__T

No, I haven't read Lord of Light, and for a stupid reason too: somehow I was too slow, and totally missed the library's expiration date (deadline? whatever those give-all-the-books-back dates are called) and only remembered it in the last minute before we were leaving on some trip or something so I rushed back with the book to the library... And just never remembered to take it again:)

[hamsterwoman]

Lord of Light is a very odd book, if you ask me. I liked it a lot, but, like, 15% of that was due to the worldbuilding (Hindu pantheon [sorta] IN SPACE!), and 75% due to one particular character I totally adored. But it was certainly an interesting read, I thought, and interesting to compare to Amber, too.

[ikel89]

Ah right, Hindu pantheon. Not my strongest point at all, so that might have prevented me from coming back to the book. Lazyness takes over at times even the mythology love:)

[hamsterwoman]

I had a really good teacher for freshman history in high school who taught us all about the Hindu pantheon, and I've had a soft spot for it ever since (though not as much as the Greek and Norse ones, of course). So that was interesting, but the character I ended up flailing over was one I didn't know about until I read the book, so it wasn't as huge a contribution to my enjoyment as I was expecting.