Reading Roundup and December meme, day 27: Volha
For the December ramble meme, Day 27, egelantier asked me to ramble about Volha, but I first needed to get my book thoughts down in more usual manner, and as I try to go in chronological order with the books, I should also post my last Reading Roundup of the year. I made it to 50, just barely... but hey, for a while it looked like even that might not happen.
43. Jonathan Kellerman, Guilt -- It's a Kellerman book. Which means I don't have much to say about it, but it goes to the head of my reading queue immediately on appearance unless there's a been-waiting-for-this-release-since-I-finished-the-last-one sort of book in my view, because I've known these characters for like 20 years and I still like them and reading about them, and Kellerman is a master of the sucks-you-in and goes-down-easy story. This one doesn't stand out as especially good, but it's also not disappointing, like some in the middle there were. spoilers from here A thing that jumped out at me, though, was how many of the characters in this book were old. I mean, there's a reason for some of it, the kick-off/B plot mystery originates in the past, so only old people are useful witnesses, but still -- so many old people. I wonder if Kellerman (at 64) is dealing with aging parents or processing his own realization of mortality... It was a bit weird how the B/kick-off mystery was not tied in with the A plot, and, unlike most of the recent books, there was no dramatic moment of peril at the end, but, actually, I don't terribly like the dramatic moment of peril, so I was fine with that. No secondary characters particularly stand out, but I liked Salome, the old doctor lady and working great-grandmother, Kelly LeMasters the intrepid reporter, and Heather the college-aged witness. Oh, and totally randomly, the "don't scratch the Stradivarius" moment with the surgeon that had employed Adriana (and Rick's name for it, as quoted), because apparently I have a thing for surgeons who are careful of their hands, IDK. Prema comes across as all poor little rich girl, which surprised me, because in the past Kellerman had been pretty scathing about celebrities, but, OK. I'll keep reading these as long as ke keeps writing them, basically.
44. The Search, part 2 (AtLA) -- nothing continues to get resolved... spoilers! Ursa killing Azulon was clear from the beginning, I'm still pretty convinced that Zuko being Ikem's son is a red herring (and foreshadowing is foreshadowed). It was nice to see a little bit more interaction between Azula and Ursa, but still very little of it positive, except for the farewell kiss when Azula is asleep, which isn't really what I was hoping for. My favorite bits ended up being Aang being a friend to animals and Sokka making faces to match the leaves and the bats and so on. Oh, and the sibling motifs are being laid on way too think at this point, IMO.
47. The Search, part 3 (AtLA) -- OK, that wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but it was also very far from satisfying. spoilers from here I'm glad Zuko turned out to be Ozai's son after all (I didn't think it would be any different, but if it had been, that would've really sucked), but I have a really hard time believing Ursa would really lie about something of that magnitude just to see if Ozai was stealing her mail (when the answer was almost certain to be "yes", and could she be sure he would not believe it?). But, OK, that's resolved. I had an even harder time believing that Ursa would agree -- no, basically ask -- to forget her children -- we don't get a ton of characterization of her earlier, but what we get I feel is at odds with that. Soo, the logic behind the resolution of the main plot didn't make any sense to me. And Azula's arc, which is basically what I was reading for, was not resolved. That said, Aang interacting with the Mother of Faces was precious, Sokka making faces was hilarious, and so was Ikem falling all over himself to explain that there's no way he could be Zuko's father. The next comic series is going to be Toph-centric. Let's hope I like that one more.
45. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime -- this is a book that I've been curious (heh) about for years, but not to the point of actually tracking down, which meant that when I spotted it in the $1 bin at a garage sale, it came home with us. And I'm really glad it did, because I read it in basically two sittings, and am glad to have read it, finally. From what I've heard, the reaction to this book in autistic and caretakers of people with autism circles has been mixed, and I don't know enough to have an informed opinion in that regard, but as a novel I thought it was really well done. spoilers! Christopher is an interesting narrator, sufficiently sympathetic for all that his narration is very unusual. I liked best the earlier parts of the book, where he talks about his life and math and science, his interaction with the people he knows, and the unfolding of the context which Christopher does not understand but the reader does -- that was very deftly done, I thought. I was less interested in the journey to London, which felt rather repetitive to me -- Christopher ending up in an unfamiliar situation and having to be brave and Take Risks and trying not to talk to strangers. Also, Christopher endeared himself to me by having a pet rat (instant boost to how much I like a character, quite honestly). I like Mrs Alexander, the elderly neighbor, and the way both of Christopher's parents were presented as flawed but sympathetic, dealing with their own difficulties and vulnerabilities (the father's temper, the mother's depression and feelings of inadequacy) and making enormous mistakes -- although I must say that only the father's side of it touched me emotionally. (Also, I totally stopped to work out the A-level problem he talks about the one about the right triangle with sides (n^2-1), 2n, and (n^2+1).)
46. Jim C. Hines, Libriomancer -- I've wanted to read something by Hines for ages, because on his blog (jimhines) he seems like a pretty awesome person, but the couple of books I kept coming across weren't clicking for me, so I never got beyond a few blurbs. And then I spotted Libriomancer, which is exactly up my alley -- as the title suggests, it's an urban fantasy about a ~wizard who gets his powers from books. spoilers! The premise is pretty awesome: libriomancers' power is pulling objects out of books. There are all kinds of limitations -- it has to be a published book that enough readers have read, because there needs to be a threshold of belief; the object has to fit through the pages of the physical book (so, no spaceships); just because you can get it out doesn't mean you can use it (Harry Potter wands don't work); too much use of the same book makes the magic unstable and bad things can happen; particularly dangerous books are locked to magic (so, you can't pull out the One Ring). It's a really cool premise, and the thing I liked best about this book. (Also neat: the way it allows for references to favorite books and objects therein; for instance, at one point a character literally pulls out fast-penta -- it's not called that, but you get the great line "Bujold writes good truth drugs" -- which she does!) So, I loved the premise, and will keep reading the series (I have book 2 sitting around) just for that, because characters and plot worked for me significantly less well.
Our Protagonist is Isaac, who seems like a nice guy -- decent fellow, SFF nerd, wants to work in research -- but, really, by the end of the book I cared more about his fire-spider Smudge than about him (ditto for L, who also read the book). There is also Lena Greenwood, a dryad from a pulpy novel (normally you can't bring living creatures into the real world, because they go mad, but in this case a magic acorn made it through, and her oak and she herself grew from that). Lena is the love interest, and there are some nice things going on there -- she's a PoC, and heavyset, which are both unusual things for a fantasy PoC to be (book 2 has her on the cover, but somewhat "thinwashed"). But as a character I didn't find her that interesting either. And there's this weird thing where, in her pulpy novel, the dryads must have a master and then mold themselves to be their master's perfect lover, assuming all those traits which would most appeal. This is portrayed as creepy (I mean, duh), and part of Lena's arc is trying to find a way to cope with this as best she can (she ends up coping with it through polyamory, which is a pretty fresh solution, too), and Isaac is appropriately skeeved out by this revelation (and it's made clear he liked her long before he finds out about this). But I don't think it works especially well as a deconstruction or subversion or whatever it's meant to be -- and it made me feel uncomfortable in a different way than it's meant to, I think.
There are some secondary characters, but even the ones that seem like they should be interesting (Ponce de Leon! Who may have had an affair with Guttenberg) didn't grab me, and I barely remember anyone's names. There's the bard lady who breeds poodle/chupacabra crossbreeds (L and I decided to call them chupoodles), who is apparently also non-neurotypical -- but I don't remember her as a character at all; I mostly remember the collection of traits and the fact that one of her chupoodles is named Pacman, because as a puppy it tried to eat a ghost. (And I definitely felt like Hines was committed to including as much diversity of all kinds in his book -- Lena's lover, e.g. is Nidhi Shah, an Indian lady -- but it came across a bit like checking the boxes to me. Probably mostly because none of the characters grabbed me, again...
My problem with the plot is mostly that there's too much of it. Or, rather a lot of stuff in the second half of the book depends on brand new revelations, several waves of them, and each of them sort of shakes the foundations of Isaac's world, but to the reader, who just found out about libriomancy in the first place, I felt like the revelations both had less impact (because the foundations of the world were insufficiently firmly established, after only half a book, to be properly rocked) and felt deus-ex-machin-y. Basically, I wish everything from the wrecked automaton on -- or at least everything Isaac finds out from that automaton -- had been saved for a later book, or two, or three. As it was, it felt a bit like that Old Spice Man commercial ("The tickets are now diamonds!") in the rapidity and depth of development, *and* I felt like the basic premise of libriomancy was left underexplored.
So, the characters and the plot treatment get only a "meh" from me. But the magic premise is really cool, and the SFF geekery is very attractive, and the spider is very cute, so I'll read the second one. (L actually finished it already, and liked it less, so I'm not in a particular hurry, but it'll get read). P.S. lunasariel, this is the book I mentioned to you at dinner. Isaac's day job is as a librarian, for understandable reasons. I think it's worth giving a shot!
48. Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown -- I'm pretty sure Holly Black is my favorite YA writer. Because whenever I see a new book of hers and think that I might not like it because of the topic or setting or genre, I end up being proven wrong to my pleased surprise. I kind of thought that with Curseworkers (mafia, *sigh*), and loved them, of course. Coldtown is a vampire book, and I don't care for vampire books -- but I did really like this one. spoilers!
One of the things I liked about it was the worldbuilding. The idea is that when vampiric outbreaks started in several major cities, the army moved in and barricaded the vampires in the cities/areas where they were, to contain them. Humans who were trapped in there with them are trapped for good -- nobody leaves a Coldtown, except by paying a lot of money for a marker, or turning in an uncontained vampire for one. Anyone bitten and "cold" is sent to Coldtown as well; it's possible to survive the infection without becoming a vampire but very hard, and very rare. Of course, humans attracted by the vampire mythos head for Coldtowns voluntarily, and there are vampires who basically advertize the glamour of Coldtown life. It's very much "this is your vampires on capitalism", but in a way that is not anvilicious and doesn't present obvious solutions, and so it worked for me.
The other thing I liked about the book was Tana, the protagonist. She is brave and vulnerable and reckless and loyal and pragmatic, and felt like a very believable character to me, and also one that I wanted to root for. She's not a protagonist I emphathize with, but she is one I liked, and one I wanted things to work out for. The side characters are also well done, though we see everyone only through Tana's POV -- Aidan the goofy player who turns into a feckless sort of vampire but his heart is mostly in the right place, Tana's father (whose tragic stoicism really touched me), Winter, the twin who seems less sure about this whole vampire thing than his sister. There's a lot of diversity here, too, but it felt more natural than in Libriomancer -- Aidan is bi (as are a couple other background characters), there are a number of PoCs, and a new one for me in genre YA -- a trans* character who is treated very normally (there was the trans* character in the Beka Cooper books, but the treatment of said character was... not very well managed, let's say).
And, of course, there's the vampire love interest. As far as vampire love interests go, Gavriel is pretty interesting. Mad as a hatter, but in a sort of charming way. He defers to Tana in a way that implies she has more power over him than he does over her, and the infantilizing weirdness that turns me off in other vampire/human couples is absent here, even though he's an ancient vampire and all that. But even though I'm less skeeved out than I normally am, I'm still skeeved out by the whole vampire thing. Cool fingers and the taste of blood and whatnot -- whatever people like about this trope just plain doesn't do it for me. I'm also not really sure what I think of the revelation, at the end, that when Tana thinks she's rescuing him from other vampires he was actually in no danger at all and in fact had wanted to be captured. The book tries to make it clear that even though she didn't save him from physical peril, her decision not to leave him behind saved him emotionally by reminding him that there was something in him worth saving, yadda yadda, but... I still don't like it very much on balance.
So, long story short, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expect to enjoy a vampire book, and more than I expected to enjoy even a vampire book by Holly Black, but vampires are totally still not my thing.
49. Olga Gromyko, Professiya Ved'ma
50. Olga Gromyko, Ved'ma Hranitel'nitsa -- It took me a little while to get into the Volha books -- rather, the first part of V1 went pretty slowly, and then much faster from there. I think it's because Gromyko is really great at writing ensembles -- or at least I really like reading Gromyko's ensemble pieces, and the first part of book 1 Volha doesn't have an entourage. spoilers from here So, while her floundering about with the vampires while they calmly stroll in the sunlight and chop garlic for dinner was amusing, and occasionally made me laugh out loud (somethng else Gromyko is good at), it didn't grab me as much as her subsequent adventures did. I did really like the resolution of the central mystery she'd been sent to investigate, and Volha managing to take out her opponent even while mortally wounded -- her solution felt very real to me, and well set up. But still, V1 part 1 is my least favorite so far -- it didn't work especially well for me except for the big fight scene. Part 2, on the other hand, had her actually inside the Starmin school and interacting with students and teachers (have I mentioned I love magic school stories?), and then has her going off with a small but hilarious ensemble. I like her interaction with Len better here than in part 1, because they feel on more equal turf, and Val the troll is pretty hilarious, as is his relationship with Volha. (There's also plot, but it basically felt incidental to me, though it's clear it's setting up certain things for book 2 and even beyond.)
Book 2 has more magic schoolness (yay!), a hilarious interlude of Volha playing a witch to the hilt in order to be dismissed from the king's service, and then her going off alone some more, but for some reason I didn't mind it this time -- her itinerant sorcerer adventures along the way were actually quite entertaining. I guess I also really like the way Gromyko writes village life -- it feels very crunchy -- and that helped. But Volha does not remain ensemble-less for long, and I was greatly amused by the addition of Orsana (and her occasional code-switching into Ukrainian), and even more so by the addition of Rolar, whose bicker twins routine with Orsana is highly predictable, but who still make a very amusing B couple. There is a lot more plot in book 2, and it didn't particularly grab me here either. The revelation of Volha's "Keeper" (?) status and the way it came about went about as I expected it to, complete with the argument she made for Len's return and the fact that he heard it. There's the whole lozhnyaki plot, but really my favorite thing about that was that the Coven had been aware of the threat and thought they'd taken care of them but didn't want to risk bad PR by saying anything to anyone. The thing I didn't like about book 2 is the revelation of the female vampire form, the fact that it's outside of the vampire's control, and the way it's played for laughs -- that was one of those "Really? That's what we're going to do?" moments that made me do a double-take, the way I double-take ever time a male character slaps a female one in Gromyko's books -- it just goes really contrary to my expectations of what I might see.
I don't read these for the plot, but the way important plot points are seeded in earlier books is pretty neat -- the books do feel more like a single narrative than episodic adventures because of that. And I'm also impressed by the passage of time between each volume -- I feel like a lot of authors would've attempted to milk the status quo for all it was worth across multiple volumes, and I'm glad Gromyko has chosen not to.
I need to also mention critters, because Gromyko writes critters so wonderfully, be it demon horses or Manya the manticore, or random pigs encountered in puddles along the way and mice scrabbling in the hayloft -- I really derive a lot of fun from reading her descriptions of animals, so the critter-ier the better, as far as her books go. (Which probably means I should read God Krysy?)
*
December ramble meme, Day 27*: Volha (egelantier)
I started reading Professiya Ved'ma right on the heels of finishing Vernye Vragi, and my first thought was that I wasn't going to like Volha as much as Shelena because Volha seemed to be occupying the role of a talented ingenue, and one of the things I'd really liked about Shelena was that she had rather a lot of life behind her. But, actually, Volha ended up overtaking Shelena as a preferred narrator somewhere in part 2 of the first book -- I guess all I needed was for her to be somewhat in her element. She has that funny-cynical (or cynical-funny way of looking at everything that appeals to me very much, it turns out, and she doesn't take herself too seriously, which I think is the key to me really liking a narrator -- if I'm going to spend so much time in someone's head, they need to have a sense of humour about themselves.
But the other thing I ended up liking a whole lot about Volha is her confidence and her dedication to her profession. I think that's one of the reasons I liked the second book as much as I did, because Volha is confident in her knowledge that she's got her diplom otlitchnika, best student in her year, and is finding that she really has a taste for the work, too, as well as the skills for it. Sure, her magical reserves are being augmented by her Keeper status and she's become very hard to injure as a result, but I also had a lot more fun watching her masterfully practice her art rather than flounder for notes at key moments because she has forgotten the spell. And the fact that, even with the promise of Happily Ever After, Volha still wants to travel the tract and advance her magical level made me like and respect her more, too -- you don't see that very often.
Volha has the obligatory Tragic Past (TM), and in itself it doesn't do much for me -- I'm sick of heroes with tragic pasts, frankly, to the point where it just feels like an easy way to avoid writing more fleshed out relationships -- but I suppose it does a pretty good job of explaining her current worldview and that mix of cynicism and humour, where you might as well find life funny and ridiculous, 'cos it's better to laugh than to cry.
I also spent book 2 wondering why Volha's cluelessness about certain things (or "cluelessness", if we assume that she fully realizes everything the Travnik hints at) wasn't bothering me more, when it normally does, especially in characters that are supposed to be clever. I don't really have a conclusion, other than with Volha's non-transparent narration it's not always easy to see what she really knows or not, and I can also accept her being in denial about her encroaching Keeper nature. But it's probably just that I was having enough fun with the narrative not to mind what I would have minded in a book I was enjoying less.
I suppose I should talk about Volha and Len at some point... except I don't have a whole lot to say. I like Len, he's amusing, and I do find him charming and likeable rather than merely spoiled, which I think is an easy mark to miss with a character like that. I can see why his situation and upbringing would lead to him being the way he is. His friendship with Volha is very cute, but I don't feel that much chemistry between them, and, frankly, I find his fraught relationship with Ksandr, as the mage who saved his life in the course of war against his people, much more intriguing. But I like Volha and Len both, and if that's what they want, more power to them.
So, that's Volha the character, and as far as Volha the series, I've been really enjoying it. The story is a lot lighter than Vernye Vragi, and that actually appeals to me, because I prefer Gromyko when she's being funny (which really works for me) to when she's being pignant (which is when I'm really tempted to skim). I really like the magical worldbuilding, with magic being something you not only have to be born with but also study for 10 years, passing exams and doing anatomy classes and learning history and practice. I actually wish more time had been spent at the Starmin school, because some of my favorite elements are found there, long-suffering Almit and the student with the cheat-sheets he doesn't need and the rest of the cast of characters. The magic reminds me a lot of my beloved Ponedelnik in feel, and also in what I'm sure is somewhat deliberate homage (like the holiday night Volha is spent guarding the school. And the larger world feels Discworldian -- again, not in slavish immitation, because the flavor is so unmistakeably Slavic and the narrative is very different, too, but the mixture of magical, medieval, and modern, the rather scathing asides on Belorian politics.
It didn't grab me the way Kosmo~oluhi did -- I have no burning desire to read fic, or to have more canon (although I do still have a novel and a short story collection to go at this point), but it's definitely a series I'm glad to be following.
*Careful observers may note that I skipped day 26, which I did. It is coming shortly, but I wanted to combine topics I wanted to post under flock with entries I want to post under flock, and likewise for entries not requiring locking, so, little bit of swapping there, sorry!
43. Jonathan Kellerman, Guilt -- It's a Kellerman book. Which means I don't have much to say about it, but it goes to the head of my reading queue immediately on appearance unless there's a been-waiting-for-this-release-since-I-finished-the-last-one sort of book in my view, because I've known these characters for like 20 years and I still like them and reading about them, and Kellerman is a master of the sucks-you-in and goes-down-easy story. This one doesn't stand out as especially good, but it's also not disappointing, like some in the middle there were. spoilers from here A thing that jumped out at me, though, was how many of the characters in this book were old. I mean, there's a reason for some of it, the kick-off/B plot mystery originates in the past, so only old people are useful witnesses, but still -- so many old people. I wonder if Kellerman (at 64) is dealing with aging parents or processing his own realization of mortality... It was a bit weird how the B/kick-off mystery was not tied in with the A plot, and, unlike most of the recent books, there was no dramatic moment of peril at the end, but, actually, I don't terribly like the dramatic moment of peril, so I was fine with that. No secondary characters particularly stand out, but I liked Salome, the old doctor lady and working great-grandmother, Kelly LeMasters the intrepid reporter, and Heather the college-aged witness. Oh, and totally randomly, the "don't scratch the Stradivarius" moment with the surgeon that had employed Adriana (and Rick's name for it, as quoted), because apparently I have a thing for surgeons who are careful of their hands, IDK. Prema comes across as all poor little rich girl, which surprised me, because in the past Kellerman had been pretty scathing about celebrities, but, OK. I'll keep reading these as long as ke keeps writing them, basically.
44. The Search, part 2 (AtLA) -- nothing continues to get resolved... spoilers! Ursa killing Azulon was clear from the beginning, I'm still pretty convinced that Zuko being Ikem's son is a red herring (and foreshadowing is foreshadowed). It was nice to see a little bit more interaction between Azula and Ursa, but still very little of it positive, except for the farewell kiss when Azula is asleep, which isn't really what I was hoping for. My favorite bits ended up being Aang being a friend to animals and Sokka making faces to match the leaves and the bats and so on. Oh, and the sibling motifs are being laid on way too think at this point, IMO.
47. The Search, part 3 (AtLA) -- OK, that wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but it was also very far from satisfying. spoilers from here I'm glad Zuko turned out to be Ozai's son after all (I didn't think it would be any different, but if it had been, that would've really sucked), but I have a really hard time believing Ursa would really lie about something of that magnitude just to see if Ozai was stealing her mail (when the answer was almost certain to be "yes", and could she be sure he would not believe it?). But, OK, that's resolved. I had an even harder time believing that Ursa would agree -- no, basically ask -- to forget her children -- we don't get a ton of characterization of her earlier, but what we get I feel is at odds with that. Soo, the logic behind the resolution of the main plot didn't make any sense to me. And Azula's arc, which is basically what I was reading for, was not resolved. That said, Aang interacting with the Mother of Faces was precious, Sokka making faces was hilarious, and so was Ikem falling all over himself to explain that there's no way he could be Zuko's father. The next comic series is going to be Toph-centric. Let's hope I like that one more.
45. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime -- this is a book that I've been curious (heh) about for years, but not to the point of actually tracking down, which meant that when I spotted it in the $1 bin at a garage sale, it came home with us. And I'm really glad it did, because I read it in basically two sittings, and am glad to have read it, finally. From what I've heard, the reaction to this book in autistic and caretakers of people with autism circles has been mixed, and I don't know enough to have an informed opinion in that regard, but as a novel I thought it was really well done. spoilers! Christopher is an interesting narrator, sufficiently sympathetic for all that his narration is very unusual. I liked best the earlier parts of the book, where he talks about his life and math and science, his interaction with the people he knows, and the unfolding of the context which Christopher does not understand but the reader does -- that was very deftly done, I thought. I was less interested in the journey to London, which felt rather repetitive to me -- Christopher ending up in an unfamiliar situation and having to be brave and Take Risks and trying not to talk to strangers. Also, Christopher endeared himself to me by having a pet rat (instant boost to how much I like a character, quite honestly). I like Mrs Alexander, the elderly neighbor, and the way both of Christopher's parents were presented as flawed but sympathetic, dealing with their own difficulties and vulnerabilities (the father's temper, the mother's depression and feelings of inadequacy) and making enormous mistakes -- although I must say that only the father's side of it touched me emotionally. (Also, I totally stopped to work out the A-level problem he talks about the one about the right triangle with sides (n^2-1), 2n, and (n^2+1).)
46. Jim C. Hines, Libriomancer -- I've wanted to read something by Hines for ages, because on his blog (jimhines) he seems like a pretty awesome person, but the couple of books I kept coming across weren't clicking for me, so I never got beyond a few blurbs. And then I spotted Libriomancer, which is exactly up my alley -- as the title suggests, it's an urban fantasy about a ~wizard who gets his powers from books. spoilers! The premise is pretty awesome: libriomancers' power is pulling objects out of books. There are all kinds of limitations -- it has to be a published book that enough readers have read, because there needs to be a threshold of belief; the object has to fit through the pages of the physical book (so, no spaceships); just because you can get it out doesn't mean you can use it (Harry Potter wands don't work); too much use of the same book makes the magic unstable and bad things can happen; particularly dangerous books are locked to magic (so, you can't pull out the One Ring). It's a really cool premise, and the thing I liked best about this book. (Also neat: the way it allows for references to favorite books and objects therein; for instance, at one point a character literally pulls out fast-penta -- it's not called that, but you get the great line "Bujold writes good truth drugs" -- which she does!) So, I loved the premise, and will keep reading the series (I have book 2 sitting around) just for that, because characters and plot worked for me significantly less well.
Our Protagonist is Isaac, who seems like a nice guy -- decent fellow, SFF nerd, wants to work in research -- but, really, by the end of the book I cared more about his fire-spider Smudge than about him (ditto for L, who also read the book). There is also Lena Greenwood, a dryad from a pulpy novel (normally you can't bring living creatures into the real world, because they go mad, but in this case a magic acorn made it through, and her oak and she herself grew from that). Lena is the love interest, and there are some nice things going on there -- she's a PoC, and heavyset, which are both unusual things for a fantasy PoC to be (book 2 has her on the cover, but somewhat "thinwashed"). But as a character I didn't find her that interesting either. And there's this weird thing where, in her pulpy novel, the dryads must have a master and then mold themselves to be their master's perfect lover, assuming all those traits which would most appeal. This is portrayed as creepy (I mean, duh), and part of Lena's arc is trying to find a way to cope with this as best she can (she ends up coping with it through polyamory, which is a pretty fresh solution, too), and Isaac is appropriately skeeved out by this revelation (and it's made clear he liked her long before he finds out about this). But I don't think it works especially well as a deconstruction or subversion or whatever it's meant to be -- and it made me feel uncomfortable in a different way than it's meant to, I think.
There are some secondary characters, but even the ones that seem like they should be interesting (Ponce de Leon! Who may have had an affair with Guttenberg) didn't grab me, and I barely remember anyone's names. There's the bard lady who breeds poodle/chupacabra crossbreeds (L and I decided to call them chupoodles), who is apparently also non-neurotypical -- but I don't remember her as a character at all; I mostly remember the collection of traits and the fact that one of her chupoodles is named Pacman, because as a puppy it tried to eat a ghost. (And I definitely felt like Hines was committed to including as much diversity of all kinds in his book -- Lena's lover, e.g. is Nidhi Shah, an Indian lady -- but it came across a bit like checking the boxes to me. Probably mostly because none of the characters grabbed me, again...
My problem with the plot is mostly that there's too much of it. Or, rather a lot of stuff in the second half of the book depends on brand new revelations, several waves of them, and each of them sort of shakes the foundations of Isaac's world, but to the reader, who just found out about libriomancy in the first place, I felt like the revelations both had less impact (because the foundations of the world were insufficiently firmly established, after only half a book, to be properly rocked) and felt deus-ex-machin-y. Basically, I wish everything from the wrecked automaton on -- or at least everything Isaac finds out from that automaton -- had been saved for a later book, or two, or three. As it was, it felt a bit like that Old Spice Man commercial ("The tickets are now diamonds!") in the rapidity and depth of development, *and* I felt like the basic premise of libriomancy was left underexplored.
So, the characters and the plot treatment get only a "meh" from me. But the magic premise is really cool, and the SFF geekery is very attractive, and the spider is very cute, so I'll read the second one. (L actually finished it already, and liked it less, so I'm not in a particular hurry, but it'll get read). P.S. lunasariel, this is the book I mentioned to you at dinner. Isaac's day job is as a librarian, for understandable reasons. I think it's worth giving a shot!
48. Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown -- I'm pretty sure Holly Black is my favorite YA writer. Because whenever I see a new book of hers and think that I might not like it because of the topic or setting or genre, I end up being proven wrong to my pleased surprise. I kind of thought that with Curseworkers (mafia, *sigh*), and loved them, of course. Coldtown is a vampire book, and I don't care for vampire books -- but I did really like this one. spoilers!
One of the things I liked about it was the worldbuilding. The idea is that when vampiric outbreaks started in several major cities, the army moved in and barricaded the vampires in the cities/areas where they were, to contain them. Humans who were trapped in there with them are trapped for good -- nobody leaves a Coldtown, except by paying a lot of money for a marker, or turning in an uncontained vampire for one. Anyone bitten and "cold" is sent to Coldtown as well; it's possible to survive the infection without becoming a vampire but very hard, and very rare. Of course, humans attracted by the vampire mythos head for Coldtowns voluntarily, and there are vampires who basically advertize the glamour of Coldtown life. It's very much "this is your vampires on capitalism", but in a way that is not anvilicious and doesn't present obvious solutions, and so it worked for me.
The other thing I liked about the book was Tana, the protagonist. She is brave and vulnerable and reckless and loyal and pragmatic, and felt like a very believable character to me, and also one that I wanted to root for. She's not a protagonist I emphathize with, but she is one I liked, and one I wanted things to work out for. The side characters are also well done, though we see everyone only through Tana's POV -- Aidan the goofy player who turns into a feckless sort of vampire but his heart is mostly in the right place, Tana's father (whose tragic stoicism really touched me), Winter, the twin who seems less sure about this whole vampire thing than his sister. There's a lot of diversity here, too, but it felt more natural than in Libriomancer -- Aidan is bi (as are a couple other background characters), there are a number of PoCs, and a new one for me in genre YA -- a trans* character who is treated very normally (there was the trans* character in the Beka Cooper books, but the treatment of said character was... not very well managed, let's say).
And, of course, there's the vampire love interest. As far as vampire love interests go, Gavriel is pretty interesting. Mad as a hatter, but in a sort of charming way. He defers to Tana in a way that implies she has more power over him than he does over her, and the infantilizing weirdness that turns me off in other vampire/human couples is absent here, even though he's an ancient vampire and all that. But even though I'm less skeeved out than I normally am, I'm still skeeved out by the whole vampire thing. Cool fingers and the taste of blood and whatnot -- whatever people like about this trope just plain doesn't do it for me. I'm also not really sure what I think of the revelation, at the end, that when Tana thinks she's rescuing him from other vampires he was actually in no danger at all and in fact had wanted to be captured. The book tries to make it clear that even though she didn't save him from physical peril, her decision not to leave him behind saved him emotionally by reminding him that there was something in him worth saving, yadda yadda, but... I still don't like it very much on balance.
So, long story short, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expect to enjoy a vampire book, and more than I expected to enjoy even a vampire book by Holly Black, but vampires are totally still not my thing.
49. Olga Gromyko, Professiya Ved'ma
50. Olga Gromyko, Ved'ma Hranitel'nitsa -- It took me a little while to get into the Volha books -- rather, the first part of V1 went pretty slowly, and then much faster from there. I think it's because Gromyko is really great at writing ensembles -- or at least I really like reading Gromyko's ensemble pieces, and the first part of book 1 Volha doesn't have an entourage. spoilers from here So, while her floundering about with the vampires while they calmly stroll in the sunlight and chop garlic for dinner was amusing, and occasionally made me laugh out loud (somethng else Gromyko is good at), it didn't grab me as much as her subsequent adventures did. I did really like the resolution of the central mystery she'd been sent to investigate, and Volha managing to take out her opponent even while mortally wounded -- her solution felt very real to me, and well set up. But still, V1 part 1 is my least favorite so far -- it didn't work especially well for me except for the big fight scene. Part 2, on the other hand, had her actually inside the Starmin school and interacting with students and teachers (have I mentioned I love magic school stories?), and then has her going off with a small but hilarious ensemble. I like her interaction with Len better here than in part 1, because they feel on more equal turf, and Val the troll is pretty hilarious, as is his relationship with Volha. (There's also plot, but it basically felt incidental to me, though it's clear it's setting up certain things for book 2 and even beyond.)
Book 2 has more magic schoolness (yay!), a hilarious interlude of Volha playing a witch to the hilt in order to be dismissed from the king's service, and then her going off alone some more, but for some reason I didn't mind it this time -- her itinerant sorcerer adventures along the way were actually quite entertaining. I guess I also really like the way Gromyko writes village life -- it feels very crunchy -- and that helped. But Volha does not remain ensemble-less for long, and I was greatly amused by the addition of Orsana (and her occasional code-switching into Ukrainian), and even more so by the addition of Rolar, whose bicker twins routine with Orsana is highly predictable, but who still make a very amusing B couple. There is a lot more plot in book 2, and it didn't particularly grab me here either. The revelation of Volha's "Keeper" (?) status and the way it came about went about as I expected it to, complete with the argument she made for Len's return and the fact that he heard it. There's the whole lozhnyaki plot, but really my favorite thing about that was that the Coven had been aware of the threat and thought they'd taken care of them but didn't want to risk bad PR by saying anything to anyone. The thing I didn't like about book 2 is the revelation of the female vampire form, the fact that it's outside of the vampire's control, and the way it's played for laughs -- that was one of those "Really? That's what we're going to do?" moments that made me do a double-take, the way I double-take ever time a male character slaps a female one in Gromyko's books -- it just goes really contrary to my expectations of what I might see.
I don't read these for the plot, but the way important plot points are seeded in earlier books is pretty neat -- the books do feel more like a single narrative than episodic adventures because of that. And I'm also impressed by the passage of time between each volume -- I feel like a lot of authors would've attempted to milk the status quo for all it was worth across multiple volumes, and I'm glad Gromyko has chosen not to.
I need to also mention critters, because Gromyko writes critters so wonderfully, be it demon horses or Manya the manticore, or random pigs encountered in puddles along the way and mice scrabbling in the hayloft -- I really derive a lot of fun from reading her descriptions of animals, so the critter-ier the better, as far as her books go. (Which probably means I should read God Krysy?)
*
December ramble meme, Day 27*: Volha (egelantier)
I started reading Professiya Ved'ma right on the heels of finishing Vernye Vragi, and my first thought was that I wasn't going to like Volha as much as Shelena because Volha seemed to be occupying the role of a talented ingenue, and one of the things I'd really liked about Shelena was that she had rather a lot of life behind her. But, actually, Volha ended up overtaking Shelena as a preferred narrator somewhere in part 2 of the first book -- I guess all I needed was for her to be somewhat in her element. She has that funny-cynical (or cynical-funny way of looking at everything that appeals to me very much, it turns out, and she doesn't take herself too seriously, which I think is the key to me really liking a narrator -- if I'm going to spend so much time in someone's head, they need to have a sense of humour about themselves.
But the other thing I ended up liking a whole lot about Volha is her confidence and her dedication to her profession. I think that's one of the reasons I liked the second book as much as I did, because Volha is confident in her knowledge that she's got her diplom otlitchnika, best student in her year, and is finding that she really has a taste for the work, too, as well as the skills for it. Sure, her magical reserves are being augmented by her Keeper status and she's become very hard to injure as a result, but I also had a lot more fun watching her masterfully practice her art rather than flounder for notes at key moments because she has forgotten the spell. And the fact that, even with the promise of Happily Ever After, Volha still wants to travel the tract and advance her magical level made me like and respect her more, too -- you don't see that very often.
Volha has the obligatory Tragic Past (TM), and in itself it doesn't do much for me -- I'm sick of heroes with tragic pasts, frankly, to the point where it just feels like an easy way to avoid writing more fleshed out relationships -- but I suppose it does a pretty good job of explaining her current worldview and that mix of cynicism and humour, where you might as well find life funny and ridiculous, 'cos it's better to laugh than to cry.
I also spent book 2 wondering why Volha's cluelessness about certain things (or "cluelessness", if we assume that she fully realizes everything the Travnik hints at) wasn't bothering me more, when it normally does, especially in characters that are supposed to be clever. I don't really have a conclusion, other than with Volha's non-transparent narration it's not always easy to see what she really knows or not, and I can also accept her being in denial about her encroaching Keeper nature. But it's probably just that I was having enough fun with the narrative not to mind what I would have minded in a book I was enjoying less.
I suppose I should talk about Volha and Len at some point... except I don't have a whole lot to say. I like Len, he's amusing, and I do find him charming and likeable rather than merely spoiled, which I think is an easy mark to miss with a character like that. I can see why his situation and upbringing would lead to him being the way he is. His friendship with Volha is very cute, but I don't feel that much chemistry between them, and, frankly, I find his fraught relationship with Ksandr, as the mage who saved his life in the course of war against his people, much more intriguing. But I like Volha and Len both, and if that's what they want, more power to them.
So, that's Volha the character, and as far as Volha the series, I've been really enjoying it. The story is a lot lighter than Vernye Vragi, and that actually appeals to me, because I prefer Gromyko when she's being funny (which really works for me) to when she's being pignant (which is when I'm really tempted to skim). I really like the magical worldbuilding, with magic being something you not only have to be born with but also study for 10 years, passing exams and doing anatomy classes and learning history and practice. I actually wish more time had been spent at the Starmin school, because some of my favorite elements are found there, long-suffering Almit and the student with the cheat-sheets he doesn't need and the rest of the cast of characters. The magic reminds me a lot of my beloved Ponedelnik in feel, and also in what I'm sure is somewhat deliberate homage (like the holiday night Volha is spent guarding the school. And the larger world feels Discworldian -- again, not in slavish immitation, because the flavor is so unmistakeably Slavic and the narrative is very different, too, but the mixture of magical, medieval, and modern, the rather scathing asides on Belorian politics.
It didn't grab me the way Kosmo~oluhi did -- I have no burning desire to read fic, or to have more canon (although I do still have a novel and a short story collection to go at this point), but it's definitely a series I'm glad to be following.
*Careful observers may note that I skipped day 26, which I did. It is coming shortly, but I wanted to combine topics I wanted to post under flock with entries I want to post under flock, and likewise for entries not requiring locking, so, little bit of swapping there, sorry!