Reading roundup
40. Olga Gromyko, Vernye Vragi (Faithful Enemies) -- I started reading my Gromyko backlog after finishing Kosmobioluhi, and this was very enjoyable, but not as much fun as KB, even though it's probably the better book. vague spoilers
Veres was easily my favorite thing about the book. He's got a great blend of stoicism and humour, and his more romantic impulses bit him in the butt, which also appeals. The handy way he is almost completely depowered during most of the book is oh-so-convenient but adequately justified, and worked really well for me. I liked the way his arc with Shelena unfolded (my favorite scene was the one where he comes to visit her in her cell, ostensibly to explain his betrayal but actually to free her; although I have to say that the scene where he hits her -- after a lot of effort on her part, admittedly -- still doesn't quite fit inside my head; I think maybe I've become too culturally assimilated, because that's the second time a man striking a woman comes up in a Gromyko book and makes me do a double-take -- the first was Ted clouting Polina upside the head in KB2, and I'm sure it's meant to be the sort of friendly tap that I'm fond of using with O, but it still gave me pause). But even more than with Shelena, I especially loved Veres's dynamic with Morriel (which even reminded me a bit of Vlad and Morrolan in the mutual teasing) -- I was sad when Our Heroes left the Elven city because it meant no more Veres and Morriel comedy hour.
The visit to the Elves was my favorite part of the book in general. The dryads were OK, the trolls were quite funny (especially dealing with very drunk Veres), and I liked the portrayal of the dwarves -- dwarves and trolls in this case sruck me as quite reminiscent of Thud! (and I think Gromyko is a Pratchett fan? this book appears to predate Thud!, but the dynamic was not new to Discworld), but the Elves were the funniest, and thus my favorite. Especially their ruler, sneaking salo and moonshine in his rooms.
Shelena is a fun narrator. I find that Gromyko works much better for me when she's writing humour than when she's writing drama, so the lyrical interludes didn't work for me as well, but fortunately there weren't that many of them (though I confess to skimming there). I liked her dynamic with Rest, and even though I thought Virra was pretty much unnecessary, I thought she and Shelena made a cute pair. Even though I can't say I ship Shelena and Veres, I was hoping for more of them after the battle -- the book ends too abruptly for my taste, although it does have a great last line.
Dragons in human form are kind of a kink of mine, so I was hoping for more from Mrak. He is fun and all, but didn't really grab me as either a full-fledged character or a source of humour. I did really like Maren and Liara, the mage couple, from their brief appearance, and Maren's grief over his wife (worse than the suicidal reaction Shelena expects to preempt by following him) was the one poignant/dramatic moment in the book that worked for me really well.
The world-building appeals to me, especially the magic, which feels well thought-through, and I liked all the footnotes. And, not only were the Elves the funniest, but I just generally liked their depiction best, too. Enough of a teasing echo of Tolkien's elves in the gate inscription and the decor, but also the comparison of Elven beauty to conifers -- "evergreen, but unlike leaves, hard and prickly"
The plot was standard quest fare, betrayals, reversals, exciting battles and crazy chases and all (this would make an excellent movie, too, it's possibly even more suited to that medium than a novel). But, you know, I found it kind of refreshing to read a straightforward lighthearted fantasy in a classical fantasy setting, where the good guys are mostly genuinely good and there are no particularly taxing moral quandries.
Currently working my way through the first Volha book, which I'm liking a bit less, probably due to lack of a solid ensemble -- Gromyko is really good at writing ensembles, but still definitely enjoying.
41. Bill Konigsberg, Openly Straight -- occasionally I really feel like picking up a non-genre YA, and this was one of those times. It is a really unusual idea. Rafe, an openly gay kid in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, decides he is sick of being the Gay Kid, transfers to an East Coast boarding school, and does not tell anyone he is gay. spoilers! His super-supportive parents and his best friend Claire Olivia think this is a really bad idea. Spoiler: they turn out to be right. I thought Rafe stayed sympathetic throughout, even when making really bad choices. I really liked his developing relationship with Ben, and Ben himself, who is the sort of character you don't see very often. I liked the fact that there were multiple non-straight characters, and not all of them were particularly likeable, and whether they were likable didn't have much to do with whether they were right, and Rafe himself understood that. I ended up liking Rafe's parents, even though they felt like comic relief at first. Claire Olivia never really gelled for me, but that was OK. I enjoyed the narration, except for the one quirk -- the notes from the teacher, which I dind't think added anything to the book in terms of profundity, strained my disbelief, and made me strongly dislike the teacher character. It was a very quick read, and the book was funny, too, and occasionally moving -- basically, everything I wanted from my non-genre YA.
42. Orson Scott Card, Shadows in Flight -- Are we finally done now? Please, let this be the last one. You see, I have this weird-ass thing with the Enderverse book, where I wish I had quit reading them, oh, probably after Speaker for the Dead, and definitely after Ender's Shadow, and yet, I keep reading the damn things. It's like a compulsion... This one was... short? I will say that for it. SPOILERS from here
Bean has completely stopped being a character to me -- like, I don't find him at all recognizable anymore, not even from the beginning of the Shadow books, let alone from Ender's Game. The children were not very interesting, because there are only so many versions of super-brilliant kid that you can have and they start running together after a while. Cincinnatus was marginally more interesting than the others, I guess, but nobody felt like a full-fledged character to me -- nobody has felt like a full-fledged character to me in these books for a very long time, probably since Ender's Shadow.
The worldbuilding revelations... I'm not sure how I feel about those. Like, on the one hand, I suppose it makes the Formics less innocent victims and the human-Formic wars less of a terrible mistake. But I think this revisionist view actually weakens Ender's Game. Ender's Hive Queen being a liar is interesting in a way, but undermines his life's work thematically (and implies more Bean hagiography -- of course, Bean the objective survivor was able to deduce the truth from the drones whereas Ender, blinded by his guilt as Xenocide, believed the Hive Queen without question. It's believable, but doesn't feel narratively satisfying...) I am not satisfied by the cure, either. Because the children never felt like characters to me, I'm not invested in whether they live full lives, and on a thematic level it's just kind of creepy to have them breeding super-smart humans in secret when there's no downside, no sacrifice that accompanies their post-human condition.
And then, of course, there are all the bits that are either overtly OSC-creepy, and the ones that may just be feeling creepy because they were written by OSC. The emphasis on Be Fruitful and Multiply -- which Bean espouses and tries to manipulate the children into even while he believes that there's no cure for Anton's Key -- is definitely overtly creepy, but I've sadly come to expect nothing less. (Also, clearly the only problem with incest is apparently that siblings won't breed if they grow up together as siblings. Once that little detail is taken care of, the rest is A-OK.) Then there's Carlotta taking on all the engineering and ship upkeep duties because the boys don't have the personality for it -- it's lampshaded and all ("The result, she noted with a mix of pride and bitterness, was that she was obliquely in the traditional role of women: cooking and housekeeping"), and in a different book that might actually be an interesting observation, but here it just makes me cringe. And the line about public objection to artificial wombs because "Artificial wombs suggest that women aren't necessary, and that really bothers a lot of women" (just, ugh. And, um, actually? I'm pretty sure lots of women would be all over this technology) . TBH, this whole digression, including women-free planets, felt like an authorial argument with Bujold (Ethan of Athos in particular, of course). And there's the throwaway "I wish your mother hadn't given you that special message about feminism" (because, haha, clearly there would be no sexism in a society of leguminote or whatever). So many lines in this rubbed me the wrong way, and I don't know if I would've given them a pass with a different writer, but they really bothered me here.
It was a relief to be done with the book and know that, for the time being, there was going to be no further tripe to mar my memory of enjoying Ender's Game some more. While I hope this is the end, I don't actually expect it to be, because it seems likely that Ender and Bean's children will have to meet some day. And I will almost certainly read it, god help me...
Now, I know I saw somebody's review / write-up / impressions of this book on my flist, but for the life of my can't remember who it was. If you've written about it on LJ, link me?
Veres was easily my favorite thing about the book. He's got a great blend of stoicism and humour, and his more romantic impulses bit him in the butt, which also appeals. The handy way he is almost completely depowered during most of the book is oh-so-convenient but adequately justified, and worked really well for me. I liked the way his arc with Shelena unfolded (my favorite scene was the one where he comes to visit her in her cell, ostensibly to explain his betrayal but actually to free her; although I have to say that the scene where he hits her -- after a lot of effort on her part, admittedly -- still doesn't quite fit inside my head; I think maybe I've become too culturally assimilated, because that's the second time a man striking a woman comes up in a Gromyko book and makes me do a double-take -- the first was Ted clouting Polina upside the head in KB2, and I'm sure it's meant to be the sort of friendly tap that I'm fond of using with O, but it still gave me pause). But even more than with Shelena, I especially loved Veres's dynamic with Morriel (which even reminded me a bit of Vlad and Morrolan in the mutual teasing) -- I was sad when Our Heroes left the Elven city because it meant no more Veres and Morriel comedy hour.
The visit to the Elves was my favorite part of the book in general. The dryads were OK, the trolls were quite funny (especially dealing with very drunk Veres), and I liked the portrayal of the dwarves -- dwarves and trolls in this case sruck me as quite reminiscent of Thud! (and I think Gromyko is a Pratchett fan? this book appears to predate Thud!, but the dynamic was not new to Discworld), but the Elves were the funniest, and thus my favorite. Especially their ruler, sneaking salo and moonshine in his rooms.
Shelena is a fun narrator. I find that Gromyko works much better for me when she's writing humour than when she's writing drama, so the lyrical interludes didn't work for me as well, but fortunately there weren't that many of them (though I confess to skimming there). I liked her dynamic with Rest, and even though I thought Virra was pretty much unnecessary, I thought she and Shelena made a cute pair. Even though I can't say I ship Shelena and Veres, I was hoping for more of them after the battle -- the book ends too abruptly for my taste, although it does have a great last line.
Dragons in human form are kind of a kink of mine, so I was hoping for more from Mrak. He is fun and all, but didn't really grab me as either a full-fledged character or a source of humour. I did really like Maren and Liara, the mage couple, from their brief appearance, and Maren's grief over his wife (worse than the suicidal reaction Shelena expects to preempt by following him) was the one poignant/dramatic moment in the book that worked for me really well.
The world-building appeals to me, especially the magic, which feels well thought-through, and I liked all the footnotes. And, not only were the Elves the funniest, but I just generally liked their depiction best, too. Enough of a teasing echo of Tolkien's elves in the gate inscription and the decor, but also the comparison of Elven beauty to conifers -- "evergreen, but unlike leaves, hard and prickly"
The plot was standard quest fare, betrayals, reversals, exciting battles and crazy chases and all (this would make an excellent movie, too, it's possibly even more suited to that medium than a novel). But, you know, I found it kind of refreshing to read a straightforward lighthearted fantasy in a classical fantasy setting, where the good guys are mostly genuinely good and there are no particularly taxing moral quandries.
Currently working my way through the first Volha book, which I'm liking a bit less, probably due to lack of a solid ensemble -- Gromyko is really good at writing ensembles, but still definitely enjoying.
41. Bill Konigsberg, Openly Straight -- occasionally I really feel like picking up a non-genre YA, and this was one of those times. It is a really unusual idea. Rafe, an openly gay kid in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, decides he is sick of being the Gay Kid, transfers to an East Coast boarding school, and does not tell anyone he is gay. spoilers! His super-supportive parents and his best friend Claire Olivia think this is a really bad idea. Spoiler: they turn out to be right. I thought Rafe stayed sympathetic throughout, even when making really bad choices. I really liked his developing relationship with Ben, and Ben himself, who is the sort of character you don't see very often. I liked the fact that there were multiple non-straight characters, and not all of them were particularly likeable, and whether they were likable didn't have much to do with whether they were right, and Rafe himself understood that. I ended up liking Rafe's parents, even though they felt like comic relief at first. Claire Olivia never really gelled for me, but that was OK. I enjoyed the narration, except for the one quirk -- the notes from the teacher, which I dind't think added anything to the book in terms of profundity, strained my disbelief, and made me strongly dislike the teacher character. It was a very quick read, and the book was funny, too, and occasionally moving -- basically, everything I wanted from my non-genre YA.
42. Orson Scott Card, Shadows in Flight -- Are we finally done now? Please, let this be the last one. You see, I have this weird-ass thing with the Enderverse book, where I wish I had quit reading them, oh, probably after Speaker for the Dead, and definitely after Ender's Shadow, and yet, I keep reading the damn things. It's like a compulsion... This one was... short? I will say that for it. SPOILERS from here
Bean has completely stopped being a character to me -- like, I don't find him at all recognizable anymore, not even from the beginning of the Shadow books, let alone from Ender's Game. The children were not very interesting, because there are only so many versions of super-brilliant kid that you can have and they start running together after a while. Cincinnatus was marginally more interesting than the others, I guess, but nobody felt like a full-fledged character to me -- nobody has felt like a full-fledged character to me in these books for a very long time, probably since Ender's Shadow.
The worldbuilding revelations... I'm not sure how I feel about those. Like, on the one hand, I suppose it makes the Formics less innocent victims and the human-Formic wars less of a terrible mistake. But I think this revisionist view actually weakens Ender's Game. Ender's Hive Queen being a liar is interesting in a way, but undermines his life's work thematically (and implies more Bean hagiography -- of course, Bean the objective survivor was able to deduce the truth from the drones whereas Ender, blinded by his guilt as Xenocide, believed the Hive Queen without question. It's believable, but doesn't feel narratively satisfying...) I am not satisfied by the cure, either. Because the children never felt like characters to me, I'm not invested in whether they live full lives, and on a thematic level it's just kind of creepy to have them breeding super-smart humans in secret when there's no downside, no sacrifice that accompanies their post-human condition.
And then, of course, there are all the bits that are either overtly OSC-creepy, and the ones that may just be feeling creepy because they were written by OSC. The emphasis on Be Fruitful and Multiply -- which Bean espouses and tries to manipulate the children into even while he believes that there's no cure for Anton's Key -- is definitely overtly creepy, but I've sadly come to expect nothing less. (Also, clearly the only problem with incest is apparently that siblings won't breed if they grow up together as siblings. Once that little detail is taken care of, the rest is A-OK.) Then there's Carlotta taking on all the engineering and ship upkeep duties because the boys don't have the personality for it -- it's lampshaded and all ("The result, she noted with a mix of pride and bitterness, was that she was obliquely in the traditional role of women: cooking and housekeeping"), and in a different book that might actually be an interesting observation, but here it just makes me cringe. And the line about public objection to artificial wombs because "Artificial wombs suggest that women aren't necessary, and that really bothers a lot of women" (just, ugh. And, um, actually? I'm pretty sure lots of women would be all over this technology) . TBH, this whole digression, including women-free planets, felt like an authorial argument with Bujold (Ethan of Athos in particular, of course). And there's the throwaway "I wish your mother hadn't given you that special message about feminism" (because, haha, clearly there would be no sexism in a society of leguminote or whatever). So many lines in this rubbed me the wrong way, and I don't know if I would've given them a pass with a different writer, but they really bothered me here.
It was a relief to be done with the book and know that, for the time being, there was going to be no further tripe to mar my memory of enjoying Ender's Game some more. While I hope this is the end, I don't actually expect it to be, because it seems likely that Ender and Bean's children will have to meet some day. And I will almost certainly read it, god help me...
Now, I know I saw somebody's review / write-up / impressions of this book on my flist, but for the life of my can't remember who it was. If you've written about it on LJ, link me?