Reading roundup: Werewolf Marines and random romance, Ulysses Pact #2
Ulysses Pact: 22%, line marker: "Out. I hate dirty eaters."
Going pretty quickly still, faster than I'd expected. Still reading mostly like I would poetry, which is why I find myself surprised when I find myself having opinions about novel-like things, like characters, such as being really bugged by Lenehan and liking Bloom, his curiosity about nature, gentleness with animals (like the scene where he feeds the birds), and sympathy (pity for an orphan, or the thought that taxes should go towards supporting every child).
I hadn't expected to find the word "fruitarian" in a book aout 1904, but there it is, along with "nutarian", huh. I also hadn't expected to find mentions of Hagadah (fairly timely again) or "Shema Israel" or 'meshuggah'.
(I tried to refer to the notes on that website for stuff I marked this time, but it persists in explaining things I don't want explained and not having any notes for the bits I'd like some background on. Gah.)
Quotes:
"Poisons the only cures. Remedy where you least expect it. Clever of nature."
"Couldn't they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?"
"The coroner's sunlit ears, big and hairy"
"Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores."
"I could ask him perhaps about how to pronounce that voglio. But then if he didn't know only make it awkward for him. Better not."
"Almost human the way it sllt to call attention. Doing its level best to speak. That door too sllt creaking, asking to be shut. Everything speaks in its own way. Sllt."
"MacHugh murmured softly, biscuitfully to the dusty windowpane."
"The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot (on our shore he never set it) only his cloacal obsession. He gazed about him in his toga and he said: Is it meet to be here. Let us construct a watercloset."
"We were always loyal to lost causes, the professor said. Success for us is the death of the intellect and of the imagination."
"Perfume of embraces all him assailed. With hungered flesh obscurely, he mutely craved to adore."
18-19. The Rift, part 2-3, AtLA comics -- Non-spoilery version: Yay, Toph! Spoilers The cabbage merchant! And the beginnings of Cabbagecorp as an automotive firm, clearly. Also, Toph continues to be away awesome. I didn't expect her to reconcile with her father, but the way in which she did it ("That's your whole problem, dad. If you knew me, the real me, you wouldn't be wondering if we're gonna live or die... because you'd know... I can keep this up as long as I need to. I'm Toph Beifong, the greatest Earthbender of all time.") was so supremely Toph, it feels entirely believable to me. Also, I was expecting more of a clear romance with Satoru, but looks like it's still pretty open-ended (I still find it likely that he's Lin's father, and that at some point she just waltzed into his production plant and was like, hey, I wanna have a baby, let's go). The Spirit World stuff seems very much set up as another bridge to Korra, the later seasons, but that's about all I have to say about that. Except that we get a story-within-a-story-within-a-story at some point (General Old Iron telling his side of the story to Yangchen which she recounts to Aang), and that's a lot of nestedness!
bingo: graphic novel; protagonist with physical disability (sort of... since Toph has magic compensate for mos of the effects of her blindness), protagonists of color (sort of, since it's a secondary world thing)
20. Courtney Milan, The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister #1) -- this was cute and fluffy and selected as a substitute for interweaving with Ulysses once I started running out of Werewolf Marines on my Kindle. I'm not a romance reader -- I don't mean that as some kind of moral superiority thing or whatever, but even GOOD romance (unless something else is going on that I'm interested in -- fantasy worldbuilding or family dynamics, etc.) is... inoffensive but not actually interesting to me. But every once in a while I try, and generally walk away with a "yep, still don't really enjoy romance per se" impression. This book is no exception, although it has left me sufficiently entertained that I'm thinking of maybe reading another story or two. spoilers!
There was one thing about the book the genuinely appealed/involved me emotionally rather than just being a pleasant way to pass the time, and that was the character of Robert's mother, who starts out as an antagonist of sorts, but doesn't stay one for long. She proved to be unexpectedly sympathetic, and also an engaging character (though I don't think we ever actually learned her name? I certainly don't recall it), and I was pleased to see the glimpse of her with her grandson in the epilogue, getting to have a relationship with a child that she never had with Robert, and also the glimpse at the much closer relationship between Robert and her, with him addressing her as "Mama" rather than "Duchess" for the first time. And the scenes where Minnie and Robert's mother talk were some of my favorites in the book, also, especially the Duchess's cat-like philosophy.
Minnie was one of those characters that were more interesting to me in concept than execution -- in this case, not because the execution was lacking, but because it turned out to be one of those things where I was thinking "OK, that sounds awesome!" but actually didn't enjoy reading about her as much as I'd expected to. She's got a lot of very neat things going on -- she's a huge spoiler! childhood chess prodigy who was made to dress as a boy from age 5 to age 12 by her widowed conman father, she is afraid of crowds and public attention (for a very good reason) and has a scar on her cheek from a traumatic experience related to the secret above, she has to wear glasses, she is involved with a workers' hygiene charity, and ends up doing some Sherlock Holmesing on the side, investigating paper composition and printing press defects as a way of exonerating herself when she's accused of being the one distributing radical handbills urging said workers to organize. It's all really neat stuff, and, for a chance, it actually all makes sense given her very unusual background -- it just doesn't add up to a character I love or care about, for whatever reason.
The male lead appealed to me even less; whereas Minnie was an interesting character who did not really win me over, Robert was actually kind of annoying. His flaws and blindspots also made a lot of sense in light of the way in which he grew up, thinking himself unloveable and never good enough because he couldn't "keep" his mother with him as his father commanded, afraid of turning into a man like his father, growing up with immense privilege and feeling guilty for it. But he felt sort of... Tumblr-y as a result, which did not endear him to me (actually, a bit more on a related note later). I did like that, while he has a tendency to sort of get lost in his own head, in what he thinks is going on, he does, demonstratably, listen and try to do better next time, which is laudable and even endearing. I also found some scenes of his childhood (or related to it) poignant, such as the first meeting with Oliver's parents (and the scene much later when Oliver's mother is able to bring herself to comfort him, having learned to see past the resemblance to Robert's father, who'd raped her), and especially the scene where he recounts to Minnie the story of him pretending not to be able to read as a way to try to keep his mother from reading, and presents it as an amusing story while she is horrified by both his account and his acceptance of it. I like the times when other characters point out something Robert had been oblivious to, such as Oliver telling him he'd never have traded places with him (wealth for family) when Robert genuinely believes Oliver had gotten the worse deal out of the two of them, or when Minnie points out that his handbills are written from the point of view of the masters, not the workers.
But, really, Robert (and Minnie, to a lesser degree) feel really anachronistic in the way they think about things, and that sets up a weird cognitive dissonance with the 1860s setting (which is too late to be Regency, right? is it, like, Victorian romance, then?). As an interesting counterpoint, I'm currently reading Gaskell's North and South for the "antonyms in title" bingo square, which is set around the same timeframe but is contemporary to the time it's writing about. Let's just say it's got a *very* different feel... I mentioned above that Robert feels Tumblr-y to me, and it's not that I'm not willing to believe that there were members of nobility in the 1860s who were against the unfairness of contemporary class issues or who wanted to help the workers, but Robert sounds unusually enlightened for a modern, 21st century person, let alone somebody living a century and a half ago. And Minnie -- who, OK, I find it a bit easier to handwave, because she spent half of her childhood as a boy, but still -- at one point thinks she would like to go "somewhere where she wouldn't have to make herself small to try and please a man" -- and I think I remember reading a review somewhere on my flists/friendfriends which pointed to that line and was like, 'where would that be? 21st century?' And, yeah. They really do both feel like timetravelers, and ones not particularly concerned about keeping their cover... It certainly seems to be a very deliberate choice, which I can respect, but it does kind of make the historical setting feel like window-dressing even if the physical aspects are meticulously researched (as Milan claims they are).
As far as the romantic relationship relationship, mostly what I liked was the awkward first time wedding night -- the long-deferred first time (for both of them) which Minnie finds 'bearable', and Robert is disappointed and mortified by because he'd expected it to be transcendent with someone he loved, and then Minnie telling him she hasn't orgasmed and showing him what to do puts things on the right track. I thought the final complication, where Robert has convinced himself that he has to tell Minnie's secret from the stand, without any prior warning, in order to save Oliver, to be fairly contrived. I was glad he came to his senses about the worst of it and at least wrote her a letter warning her what he was about to do, and I can't say that it wasn't in character (since he would assume she was lost to him either way), but I found that final roadblock fairly annoying, especially considering how easily it is resolved by them actually talking, albeit after the fact.
But there were things besides the principals that appealed, in addition to Robert's mother. I liked Minnie's complicated relationship with her great-aunt(s, one of him is an actual aunt and one is presumably said aunt's lover), the way she feels loved and grateful but also stifled by their efforts to refashion her into a proper young lady and get her to settle for a small and safe lot in life. I liked Minnie's friend Lydia, determined to hold onto her hard-won frivolity and optimism, hurt by Minnie keeping the big secret from her but willing to help and forgive. I also liked the doctor character in the one scene, and was intrigued by the novella centered on him and Lydia, but reading the first chapter of that, I'm liking him less and less, and her in his company, so that's probably a pass. On a similar note, I liked the other Brothers Sinister -- Oliver, cheerful and kind even in his squalid imprisonment (and I was especially struck by Oliver's mother relating that when, as a child, Oliver had been told the story of his origin, "he said that the bad man had his brother, and we had to go get him"), and Sebastian, who was pretty funny (and I was amused by their plan for Robert's bachelor party XP) -- but I'm not sure if I like them enough to read the other books in the series. Any thoughts on that from the numerous folks on my flist who've read all the books?
Quotes:
"He leaned forward and whispered in conspiratorial fashion, 'It's your tits'" [OK, I actually didn't much care for the 'lust makes me stupid' quick or Robert's, but that line did make me laugh.]
"You probably think battles are won with cannons and brave speeches and fearless charges. [...] Wars are won by careful attendance to boring detail. If you wait to see the cavalry charge, Your Grace, you'll have already lost."
“Thereafter,” Violet continued equably, “it was agreed that it was patently unfair for me to play princess every time. So we tossed a coin for it. But Robert never would play princess-not even when it was his turn.” The countess frowned at Robert, and he looked about.
“A coin only has two sides,” he said. “There was no way to assign a side to me.”
“Except by-”
Robert raised a hand. “And now is not the time to get into methods for making coin tosses balance amongst three. Suffice to say, I would have made a very bad princess.”
“I see,” Minnie said slowly.
“You don’t,” Mr. Malheur threw in. “You’re thinking that Violet might make a reasonable princess. But she was exactly like this when she was a child-all prim and proper on the outside, but a hellion when no adults were looking. She only looks respectable. I don’t know how she did it, but Robert and I would return from our outings covered head to toe in mud, and Violet would look fresh as a spring day.”
“There is this lovely thing called water,” Violet put in. “Boys seem to be unaware of its existence.” She cast a look at Minnie over her knitting. “Hygiene is important.”
Miss Pursling smiled and looked down.
“Incidentally,” Mr. Malheur added, “for the sake of my dignity, Miss Pursling, I must inform you that when I played the role, it was called ‘prince.’ Not princess.”
“Called prince by you,” Robert put in. “The rest of us called you ‘princess.’ It doesn’t make sense otherwise. Dragons want to devour princesses. They don’t care about princes.”
“You have a great deal to learn about dragons. Think about it: We get more beef from steers than cows. It’s well known that the male of the species produces finer flesh.”
“I thought,” Miss Pursling said, “that we didn’t eat female cows because we preferred to save them for their milk.”
Not this argument. Down this road there could only lie doom. Robert hunkered back in his chair and waited for the inevitable time in which Sebastian would send Miss Pursling screaming.
Mr. Malheur winked at Miss Pursling. “Dragons like cheese.”
“But dragons cannot milk princesses,” Miss Pursling responded. “They do not have opposable thumbs.”
Mr. Malheur looked upward. “Very clever, and you’d almost be right. But dragons have minions. In any event, it’s quite clear that the female of the human species has inferior meat. They are saddled with those unfortunate fatty deposits round the front. Whereas flank of manflesh is lean, tender, and succulent.” He emphasized this by standing up and setting one hand against the seat of his trousers.
The countess rolled her eyes. “The least said about flank of manflesh, the happier we all will be. Besides, I thought you rather liked those unfortunate fatty deposits round the front. You spend enough time-”
Robert coughed loudly.
“My preferences are irrelevant,” Sebastian managed, with a great deal of haughty grandness. “I am not a dragon.”
“True,” Robert put in. “You’re a peacock-flaunting your feathers for the female of the species.”
“If it works…” Sebastian smiled, and then turned his head, peering at imaginary tail feathers on his behind. “And yes, that is one of my better features, thank you.”The countess let out a loud, defeated sigh. “Are we talking about Sebastian’s buttocks again? Has he no other body parts?”
"A paste emergency," she hugged. "A paste assault, that's what we had." [and all the paste puns]
"Thank you for taking time from your indifference to meddle in my marriage prospects."
[...]
"I approve of her. Find another girl just like her, but a marquess's daughter this time."
'"I earned this, fair and square." Well, maybe it hadn't been fair. And maybe it hadn't been precisely square. Still, she'd earned it legally. Legally and... rectangularly. That would have to do.'
I was also surprised to see a conversation about vaccinations -- although the afterword is very firm in pointing out that vaccination back then and now were very different things, and what the characters have to say about the former has nothing to do with the modern issue.
Looking up Courtney Milan in the Wikipedia, I came across the tidbit that she (as Heidi Bond) "went on to get a Masters' Degree in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2003". Heh. We wouldn't have intersected there, 'cos looks like she got her BS (math/chemistry) from FSU the same year I did, but I bet I know all the professors she studied and worked with, which is rather odd. Definitely was not expecting to find that in her background, LOL. (But that probably explains the setting of Trade Me, and makes me want to read it more.)
bingo: independently published book, book set before 1900 (1860s), author I haven't read before
21. Lia Silver, Partner (Werewolf Marines, book 2 of Echo's Wolf) -- still liked it a whole lot, though maybe not loved it quite as much as the first book (probably because the focus feels to be more on Echo than on DJ in this one, and, let's face it, I'm all about DJ in this universe, apparently). But I still had a blast with it. Spoilers!
I loved finally meeting DJ's family, and the way they accept Echo and feed her, and entertain her, and simultaneously comfort DJ and drive him nuts with contradictory advice. I love big crazy families, and was fully expecting DJ's to be a great example of one, and it was. I loved the little revelation that "her movies credit her as Danielle 5 Torres [...] so I'll know to cheer when her name comes up", and the awkward, confused first phone conversation between Five and Echo, where Five isn't sure whether it's Charlie or Echo she's speaking to, or how to refer to DJ with her, and DJ's family letting DJ and Echo share a room in deference to their mate status but not share a bed because they aren't married, and DJ trying to clean up his speech around his family ("Besides, it took a fu-- a revolution for us to get out of Wildfire"). I also liked getting DJ's backstory with his childhood speech issues, and the way that fear of suddenly losing the ability to talk keeps coming up again and again, when he's talking too fast or when he's speaking Tagalog in delirium. (I also found it neat that DJ's speech was finally 'unlocked' through music, having just read about some cases like that in Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia.) And I love the continued moments that show DJ at his core ("DJ thought of others first and himself second or not at all"), where even in the depth of personal misery he's always thinking about others, worried that Echo understands how he feels after the deprivation chamber because she's suffered through it too (while she was merely bored in there), feeling like nearly dying was "easier for me than for my buddies", etc.
I loved the reunion between Roy and DJ, the way Roy is very matter-of-fact and firm about absolving DJ of any guilt, the roughousing in wolf form turning into wrestling in human form, and DJ finally being able to use his superstrength against Roy (still shipping them like whoa, in case anyone is wondering). Also loved DJ constantly comparing Roy and Echo, on that note. And I loved that Roy escaped on his own (like Five predicted he would), but that DJ's actions (the destruction of Wildfire base) did help by making the black ops dudes scramble to move him to a different location, out of Alaska, where he would have frozen to death if he'd managed to escape. (Also, I had been wondering if the videos of Roy had been shot over a short time, which is what Five suggests as well.) DJ bonding with one of Roy's wolves over suckling pig and comics (and getting his brain twisted by the revelation that Mystique was originally intended to be Nightcrawler's father) was cute, too.
The DJ/Echo relationship is still not doing much for me, but it's interesting to see a romance novel (and this one was heavier on romance than the predecessor) with an established relationship, and one where people actually TALK to each other to the limits of what they're able to say in the environments and situations they find themselves in -- telling each other where they're coming from, and other things they need to know. I liked the continuation of the favorite-movie guessing (Blade Runner for her, Romeo + Juliet for him), and the platypus-shifter jokes, which Five gets in on as well. The various sex scenes are well done, but the most memorable one for me is actually the aborted one where, in the shower after his time in the sensory deprivation chamber, Echo starts giving DJ a blow job and he closes his eyes and freaks out. Oh, and I was totally expecting that at some point Echo would sing for DJ, and it was neat when she did, especially the kind of songs she sang (which seemed fitting somehow) and that "Tam Lin" featured among her playlist. Note to self: Peggy-O/Fennario is about a girl falling in love with a soldier.
Even though I still don't ship DJ/Echo, I appreciate Echo's arc a lot, even though I still don't really care about Echo for her own sake. I did like Echo's envisioning of her feelings as rioters who need to be brought under control, gassed or nuked from orbit (before eventually upgrading them to centipedes that don't even have to be stomped). I like that, in the immediate danger being removed, and in learning she isn't dying (I really liked the way the twist that she's the control group was both revealed and foreshadowed with her relating the struggle it was to learn biofeedback, and that enhancement wasn't necessary there, because normals can learn it too, just not as easily), and that Charlie isn't either, with her whole life in front of her... she basically doesn't know what to do, and goes on a quest where she sets out to do the opposite of what she would normally do (i.e. not care about people) -- and spies on Wildfire employees benevolently. Basically, I like the acknowledgement that, just because she is no longer being sent to kill people and is no longer thinking she's dying, it doesn't mean that Echo is OK, or ready for a healthy relationship or life outside the base (but I'm willing to root for her to get there). I also liked the reunion with Wendy the nurse, and the revelations from there -- about Mr. Dowling, and about why it was Della that Wendy had taken with her.
Speaking of Mr Dowling, I was happy to see that he got some more nuance, because the Wildfire people being Evil wasn't my favorite -- he is obviously still a pretty terrible person, but feels like a more fleshed out character, especially after Wendy's story, and with the context that the reader has and Echo (and Wendy) do not with Cole. And I like the way Echo feels conflicted about him in the wake of these revelations, because, as she says, doing two decent things in his life does not make up for everything else. Speaking of Cole, I was impressed with the whole subplot, the way that was handled, with his power continuing to affect everyone in the book, but the reader being able to spot him after the conversation with Echo. I kept waiting for him to show up while things seemed to be going well in the Wildfire takeover, and then he did, and I hadn't guessed his reveal (that he's the child of Mr Dowling and Dr Semple), even though his probably mixed-race background comes up both times Echo sees him, in the exact same words (which I thought was a very nice touch). I've never seen this particular writing trick -- a character other characters can't remember -- done before, and it's really pretty cool! :)
I'm fairly indifferent to the Charlie-becoming-a-werewolf subplot, but I feel like I care about Charlie less than maybe I'm expected to. It doesn't at all seem unnatural for her to be an alpha, but I'd also gotten the impression (obviously, a false one) that made wolves could not be alphas, so wasn't expecting that (but that's probably explained a bit more in the Roy and Laura book, since the same thing happens there?) In general, I felt there was more werewolf stuff in this book that I was meh about -- the mate bond, although interestingly and unusually described, especially the way Echo ascribes it to intuition before DJ tells her what it is -- but it just feels too... too much like the werewolf books I'm tired of, basically. And I expect the part where it can apparently be activated before the pair even meets will annoy me in Laura's Wolf.
On the whole, this felt like a less funny book than the first one, but I had great fun with the Russian ambassador's party, especially, as already mentioned, the holodets with the candied baby pincones (XD XD XD, never gonna get old).
Quotes:
"DJ's [mission file] came with a cassette player and a tape. He'd finally found a branch of the miliatry that was completely willing to accommodate his dyslexia. Just his luck that it was evil."
"DJ was still trying not to crack up over him and Echo pretending to be in a relationship when they actually were in a relationship that they were pretending not to be in."
"Two of the rabbit's feet are saved and dried, and the kid keeps one and the alpha kees the other. Don't make that face, it's a very special occasion."
"That must have been the only time anyone's ever cried for joy when they heard their ten-year-old perform 'Fuck tha Police.'"
Echo thinking of DJ as a "man who looked at prison walls and saw the tunnel he hadn't yet dug with the spoon he hadn't yet managed to steal."
'"I'm not having sex while you blast Serbian gangsta rap," Echo warned him.'
"What are you talking about? My food is completely normal. Though some of yours is a funny color." Echo spoke with such conviction that DJ started to doubt his color vision." -- re: Echo's breakfast of "green waffles topped with red whipped cream, poached eggs covered in green sauce, black croissants, and pink coffee", which turns out to be "green tea waffles with red bean whipped cream, eggs Benedict with Japanese basil Hollandaise, black sesame croissants, and a cherry blossom latte."
"You look like a mermaid," he gasped. "A gorgeous... cock-sucking mermaid."
"What I love about you the most," Echo began thoughtfully [...] "Is the classiness of your compliments."
"I tried to recall what it had felt like to be dying, but all I could remember was how everyone had looked at me. Sibrian had seemed angry and frustrated, like an athlete trying his best on a losing team."
'I said, "Eat the fucking Pop-Tarts, Roy. I'm not leaving till you do."'
DJ and Guadalupe:
"I was going to carve Matrch's name into your chest. I even memorized it in mirror writing, so you'd have to read it every time you shaved with your shirt off."
"Why'd you stop?"
"I felt like an asshole."
DJ laughed. "Well, the joke would've been on you if you'd finished it. I'm dyslexic."
"Seriously?" [...] He nodded. "And were you serious about taking down Wildfire Base?"
"Yes. Are you in?"
"Yeah. I'm in."
"She kissed the vulnerable hollow of his throat, giving him a pleasant thrill of danger, then bit it lightly. The resulting jolt of adrenaline was halfway between an orgasm and a heart attack."
"I'm only here becauase I had to pick a side, and my buddies are on yours."
DJ grinned. "That's probably why most people fight. I'm still proud."
(and I thought it was a poignant touch that the guy who was only fighting because his buddes were on that side was one of the casualties among the 'good guys')
She kissed his forehead, tasting the salt of his sweat. "I love you."
DJ sucked in his breath in audible panic. He grabbed her arm, using all his strength. "Echo, don't--Don't!"
"No, no, that's not a farewell! I wasn't going to try to kill myself! [...] I said what I was thinking, that's all."
The fear in his eyes faded. "Oh. Sorry. I love you too."
"When Roy had been in trouble in Afghanistan, DJ had tried to force him to get help. Result: Roy walked out on him. DJ had sworn that he wouldn't make the same mistake with Echo, so he hadn't tried to force her to stay. Result: Echo walked out on him. Clearly, he should have strong-armed Echo and left Roy alone. Or the problem wasn't his overall approach, but that he'd managed to say exactly the wrong thing to both of them. Or the universe was fucking with him."
"[H]unting with Roy was everything he'd loved about the Marines, minus the bad food, boredom, and getting shot at."
"Guinness, behold! I am Lechon, the bearer of ancient, traditional pack wisdom. Many wolves before you, throughout millennia or whatever, have gotten fucked up by bad shit happening. And their packs got them through it."
bingo: independently published book, POC protagonist, protagonist with mental disability; maybe second book in a series? hard to tell if it's second or third...
22. Love Is Hell anthology, with stories from Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, and Melissa Marr (who were the reasons I checked this out) and also Gabrielle Zevin and Laurie Faria Stolarzs, whom I haven't read before. Well, let's just say I won't be rushing out to read the new-to-me authors, but the stories by the authors I already like were pretty fun. (Actually, googling Zevin's oevure reminds me that I have checked out a book of hers and started it a while back, and had liked the writing there much better than in this short story, so maybe I won't write her off just yet, but it's definitely not helping sell me on her.) spoilers for individual stories
"Sleeping with the Spirit" by Stolarzs -- ugh. This is so shallow and afterschool special. The female protagonist is characterized by two things: dead little sister trauma (whose death she blames herself for, because she didn't let her borrow her rollerskates and the kid sister went bike riding instead and was struck by a car) and auburn hair/green eyes. It turns out she can see dead people is haunted by the ghost of a teenage boy who was murdered in the house where she now lives (and her parents are in total denial about everything), with whom she starts up the most improbable and BORING romance. Along the way he helps her move on from her sister's death, and she helps him reassure his mother (whom he died to protect) that she shouldn't blame herself either. The leads are completely flat, and the few other characters who show up, like the girl's pointless school friends, are, ridiculously, even flatter. It feels like a story somebody took pains to write in the least engaging way possible, almost parodic.
"Stupid Perfect World" by Westerfeld -- really cute and fun, set in a far future where teleportation is the norm, people don't require sleep and are never sick, and kids get to take classes in Antarctica. The premise is that the leads are taking a class in Scarcity, where they have to give up one feature of their times to feel what life was like in the olden days. Kieran gives up the ability to go without sleep, Maria gives up hormone blockers so she can feel like a heroine in the old books she likes to read. Hilarity ensues. No, really, this was genuinely fun, and I liked the voices of both characters (the story is told in alternating POV chapters).
"Thinner than Water" by Larbalestier -- at first I thought it was a story set in some sort of 'olden times', but it's actually a modern story, set in an isolated tourist-trap village where the villagers hold on to the Old Ways, some more willingly than others. I found the story pretty grim, but affecting, and fairly engaging reading once I figured out what was going on with the setting.
"Fan Fictions" by Zevin -- the other ugh. At least it's trying something less bland than the "Spirit" story, and reading it felt less like my braincells dying off in the process, but: Piage the protagonist was thoroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic, and the beginning, that tried to sell her as some kind of everyteenagegirl thus retroactively annoyed me. This is the only one that doesn't seem to be actually SFF -- I suppose the ending leaves it slightly open-ended, but if it's truly meant to leave the possibility open that what Paige believes is true, it doesn't do at all a good job of it. That's not the worst problem, though. The worst problem is Paige, whom I wanted to slap for much of the story, and also the weird trying-too-hard present-tense narration, which also irritated me throughout.
The last story is Melissa Marr's "Love Struck", which most of the reviews I've seen thought was the best in the bunch, but once I started it, I realized I'd already read it, in the Fairy Tales and Nightmares collection of her short work. I'd liked it, based on my vague recollection and the brief write-up, but not enough to reread it. So.
bingo: collection of stories
ETA: CSRB update -- too lazy to post the cards, but I'm now past the halfway point on all three cards (from 13 to 17 squares of 25 filled), and have a second bingo on Mix'n'match. [cut for list and details]
Random: (13/25, 2/7 challenges)
Book without magical creatures: The Duchess War
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book heavily featuring kids (CHALLENGE MODE: from a child's POV): Wonder
Book set on a continent you've never been to: Akata Witch (Africa)
Book from friends or media: Mistborn
Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time: Guardian of the Dead (New Zealand)
Book written by someone famous for things other than writing: Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks is a neurologist)
Book by an author who shares the first letter of your last name (challenge mode: author who shares your initials): Smek for President, by Adam Rex
Free Space: Red Seas Under Red Skies
Book where male and female protagonists don't fall in love: Three Parts Dead (counting Tara and Abelard as the mains)
Independently published book: Wool
Book by queer author: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones
Book with queer protagonist: Melissa Scott, Point of Knives
Serious: (14/25, 0/7 challenges)
Book by an author you've never read: The Duchess War (Courtney Milan)
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book with a protagonist with a physical disability: Wonder
Book by an author of color: Akata Witch
Book with a protagonist with a mental/social disability: Prisoner
Book with a female protagonist: Guardian of the Dead
Short story collection: A Blink of the Screen
Non-fiction book: Musicophilia
Books with a protagonist of color: Smek for President
Free Space: Point of Knives
Second book in a series: Red Seas Under Red Skies (Locke Lamora #2)
Book given to you as a gift: Wool (birthday present from my friend R)
Book with red cover: Benedict Jacka, Hidden
Author I've never read before: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones
Mix'n'match: (16/25, 0/6 challenges); 2 bingos
Collection of short stories: Love is Hell
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book with a protagonist with a disability: Wonder
Rec from friend or media: Mistborn
Book with a female protagonist: Akata Witch
Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time: Guardian of the Dead (New Zealand)
Book written by someone famous for things other than writing: Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks is a neurologist)
Funny book: A Blink of the Screen
Book with an author or protagonist of color: Smek for President
Book given to you as a gift: Republic of Thieves
Free Space: Hidden (Alex Verus #5)
Book where male and female protagonists don't fall in love: Three Parts Dead (counting Tara and Abelard as the mains)
Independently published book: Wool
Second book in a series: Red Seas Under Red Skies (Locke Lamora #2)
Book with queer author or protagonist: Melissa Scott, Point of Knives
Book by an author I've never read before: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones
Going pretty quickly still, faster than I'd expected. Still reading mostly like I would poetry, which is why I find myself surprised when I find myself having opinions about novel-like things, like characters, such as being really bugged by Lenehan and liking Bloom, his curiosity about nature, gentleness with animals (like the scene where he feeds the birds), and sympathy (pity for an orphan, or the thought that taxes should go towards supporting every child).
I hadn't expected to find the word "fruitarian" in a book aout 1904, but there it is, along with "nutarian", huh. I also hadn't expected to find mentions of Hagadah (fairly timely again) or "Shema Israel" or 'meshuggah'.
(I tried to refer to the notes on that website for stuff I marked this time, but it persists in explaining things I don't want explained and not having any notes for the bits I'd like some background on. Gah.)
Quotes:
"Poisons the only cures. Remedy where you least expect it. Clever of nature."
"Couldn't they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?"
"The coroner's sunlit ears, big and hairy"
"Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores."
"I could ask him perhaps about how to pronounce that voglio. But then if he didn't know only make it awkward for him. Better not."
"Almost human the way it sllt to call attention. Doing its level best to speak. That door too sllt creaking, asking to be shut. Everything speaks in its own way. Sllt."
"MacHugh murmured softly, biscuitfully to the dusty windowpane."
"The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot (on our shore he never set it) only his cloacal obsession. He gazed about him in his toga and he said: Is it meet to be here. Let us construct a watercloset."
"We were always loyal to lost causes, the professor said. Success for us is the death of the intellect and of the imagination."
"Perfume of embraces all him assailed. With hungered flesh obscurely, he mutely craved to adore."
18-19. The Rift, part 2-3, AtLA comics -- Non-spoilery version: Yay, Toph! Spoilers The cabbage merchant! And the beginnings of Cabbagecorp as an automotive firm, clearly. Also, Toph continues to be away awesome. I didn't expect her to reconcile with her father, but the way in which she did it ("That's your whole problem, dad. If you knew me, the real me, you wouldn't be wondering if we're gonna live or die... because you'd know... I can keep this up as long as I need to. I'm Toph Beifong, the greatest Earthbender of all time.") was so supremely Toph, it feels entirely believable to me. Also, I was expecting more of a clear romance with Satoru, but looks like it's still pretty open-ended (I still find it likely that he's Lin's father, and that at some point she just waltzed into his production plant and was like, hey, I wanna have a baby, let's go). The Spirit World stuff seems very much set up as another bridge to Korra, the later seasons, but that's about all I have to say about that. Except that we get a story-within-a-story-within-a-story at some point (General Old Iron telling his side of the story to Yangchen which she recounts to Aang), and that's a lot of nestedness!
bingo: graphic novel; protagonist with physical disability (sort of... since Toph has magic compensate for mos of the effects of her blindness), protagonists of color (sort of, since it's a secondary world thing)
20. Courtney Milan, The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister #1) -- this was cute and fluffy and selected as a substitute for interweaving with Ulysses once I started running out of Werewolf Marines on my Kindle. I'm not a romance reader -- I don't mean that as some kind of moral superiority thing or whatever, but even GOOD romance (unless something else is going on that I'm interested in -- fantasy worldbuilding or family dynamics, etc.) is... inoffensive but not actually interesting to me. But every once in a while I try, and generally walk away with a "yep, still don't really enjoy romance per se" impression. This book is no exception, although it has left me sufficiently entertained that I'm thinking of maybe reading another story or two. spoilers!
There was one thing about the book the genuinely appealed/involved me emotionally rather than just being a pleasant way to pass the time, and that was the character of Robert's mother, who starts out as an antagonist of sorts, but doesn't stay one for long. She proved to be unexpectedly sympathetic, and also an engaging character (though I don't think we ever actually learned her name? I certainly don't recall it), and I was pleased to see the glimpse of her with her grandson in the epilogue, getting to have a relationship with a child that she never had with Robert, and also the glimpse at the much closer relationship between Robert and her, with him addressing her as "Mama" rather than "Duchess" for the first time. And the scenes where Minnie and Robert's mother talk were some of my favorites in the book, also, especially the Duchess's cat-like philosophy.
Minnie was one of those characters that were more interesting to me in concept than execution -- in this case, not because the execution was lacking, but because it turned out to be one of those things where I was thinking "OK, that sounds awesome!" but actually didn't enjoy reading about her as much as I'd expected to. She's got a lot of very neat things going on -- she's a huge spoiler! childhood chess prodigy who was made to dress as a boy from age 5 to age 12 by her widowed conman father, she is afraid of crowds and public attention (for a very good reason) and has a scar on her cheek from a traumatic experience related to the secret above, she has to wear glasses, she is involved with a workers' hygiene charity, and ends up doing some Sherlock Holmesing on the side, investigating paper composition and printing press defects as a way of exonerating herself when she's accused of being the one distributing radical handbills urging said workers to organize. It's all really neat stuff, and, for a chance, it actually all makes sense given her very unusual background -- it just doesn't add up to a character I love or care about, for whatever reason.
The male lead appealed to me even less; whereas Minnie was an interesting character who did not really win me over, Robert was actually kind of annoying. His flaws and blindspots also made a lot of sense in light of the way in which he grew up, thinking himself unloveable and never good enough because he couldn't "keep" his mother with him as his father commanded, afraid of turning into a man like his father, growing up with immense privilege and feeling guilty for it. But he felt sort of... Tumblr-y as a result, which did not endear him to me (actually, a bit more on a related note later). I did like that, while he has a tendency to sort of get lost in his own head, in what he thinks is going on, he does, demonstratably, listen and try to do better next time, which is laudable and even endearing. I also found some scenes of his childhood (or related to it) poignant, such as the first meeting with Oliver's parents (and the scene much later when Oliver's mother is able to bring herself to comfort him, having learned to see past the resemblance to Robert's father, who'd raped her), and especially the scene where he recounts to Minnie the story of him pretending not to be able to read as a way to try to keep his mother from reading, and presents it as an amusing story while she is horrified by both his account and his acceptance of it. I like the times when other characters point out something Robert had been oblivious to, such as Oliver telling him he'd never have traded places with him (wealth for family) when Robert genuinely believes Oliver had gotten the worse deal out of the two of them, or when Minnie points out that his handbills are written from the point of view of the masters, not the workers.
But, really, Robert (and Minnie, to a lesser degree) feel really anachronistic in the way they think about things, and that sets up a weird cognitive dissonance with the 1860s setting (which is too late to be Regency, right? is it, like, Victorian romance, then?). As an interesting counterpoint, I'm currently reading Gaskell's North and South for the "antonyms in title" bingo square, which is set around the same timeframe but is contemporary to the time it's writing about. Let's just say it's got a *very* different feel... I mentioned above that Robert feels Tumblr-y to me, and it's not that I'm not willing to believe that there were members of nobility in the 1860s who were against the unfairness of contemporary class issues or who wanted to help the workers, but Robert sounds unusually enlightened for a modern, 21st century person, let alone somebody living a century and a half ago. And Minnie -- who, OK, I find it a bit easier to handwave, because she spent half of her childhood as a boy, but still -- at one point thinks she would like to go "somewhere where she wouldn't have to make herself small to try and please a man" -- and I think I remember reading a review somewhere on my flists/friendfriends which pointed to that line and was like, 'where would that be? 21st century?' And, yeah. They really do both feel like timetravelers, and ones not particularly concerned about keeping their cover... It certainly seems to be a very deliberate choice, which I can respect, but it does kind of make the historical setting feel like window-dressing even if the physical aspects are meticulously researched (as Milan claims they are).
As far as the romantic relationship relationship, mostly what I liked was the awkward first time wedding night -- the long-deferred first time (for both of them) which Minnie finds 'bearable', and Robert is disappointed and mortified by because he'd expected it to be transcendent with someone he loved, and then Minnie telling him she hasn't orgasmed and showing him what to do puts things on the right track. I thought the final complication, where Robert has convinced himself that he has to tell Minnie's secret from the stand, without any prior warning, in order to save Oliver, to be fairly contrived. I was glad he came to his senses about the worst of it and at least wrote her a letter warning her what he was about to do, and I can't say that it wasn't in character (since he would assume she was lost to him either way), but I found that final roadblock fairly annoying, especially considering how easily it is resolved by them actually talking, albeit after the fact.
But there were things besides the principals that appealed, in addition to Robert's mother. I liked Minnie's complicated relationship with her great-aunt(s, one of him is an actual aunt and one is presumably said aunt's lover), the way she feels loved and grateful but also stifled by their efforts to refashion her into a proper young lady and get her to settle for a small and safe lot in life. I liked Minnie's friend Lydia, determined to hold onto her hard-won frivolity and optimism, hurt by Minnie keeping the big secret from her but willing to help and forgive. I also liked the doctor character in the one scene, and was intrigued by the novella centered on him and Lydia, but reading the first chapter of that, I'm liking him less and less, and her in his company, so that's probably a pass. On a similar note, I liked the other Brothers Sinister -- Oliver, cheerful and kind even in his squalid imprisonment (and I was especially struck by Oliver's mother relating that when, as a child, Oliver had been told the story of his origin, "he said that the bad man had his brother, and we had to go get him"), and Sebastian, who was pretty funny (and I was amused by their plan for Robert's bachelor party XP) -- but I'm not sure if I like them enough to read the other books in the series. Any thoughts on that from the numerous folks on my flist who've read all the books?
Quotes:
"He leaned forward and whispered in conspiratorial fashion, 'It's your tits'" [OK, I actually didn't much care for the 'lust makes me stupid' quick or Robert's, but that line did make me laugh.]
"You probably think battles are won with cannons and brave speeches and fearless charges. [...] Wars are won by careful attendance to boring detail. If you wait to see the cavalry charge, Your Grace, you'll have already lost."
“Thereafter,” Violet continued equably, “it was agreed that it was patently unfair for me to play princess every time. So we tossed a coin for it. But Robert never would play princess-not even when it was his turn.” The countess frowned at Robert, and he looked about.
“A coin only has two sides,” he said. “There was no way to assign a side to me.”
“Except by-”
Robert raised a hand. “And now is not the time to get into methods for making coin tosses balance amongst three. Suffice to say, I would have made a very bad princess.”
“I see,” Minnie said slowly.
“You don’t,” Mr. Malheur threw in. “You’re thinking that Violet might make a reasonable princess. But she was exactly like this when she was a child-all prim and proper on the outside, but a hellion when no adults were looking. She only looks respectable. I don’t know how she did it, but Robert and I would return from our outings covered head to toe in mud, and Violet would look fresh as a spring day.”
“There is this lovely thing called water,” Violet put in. “Boys seem to be unaware of its existence.” She cast a look at Minnie over her knitting. “Hygiene is important.”
Miss Pursling smiled and looked down.
“Incidentally,” Mr. Malheur added, “for the sake of my dignity, Miss Pursling, I must inform you that when I played the role, it was called ‘prince.’ Not princess.”
“Called prince by you,” Robert put in. “The rest of us called you ‘princess.’ It doesn’t make sense otherwise. Dragons want to devour princesses. They don’t care about princes.”
“You have a great deal to learn about dragons. Think about it: We get more beef from steers than cows. It’s well known that the male of the species produces finer flesh.”
“I thought,” Miss Pursling said, “that we didn’t eat female cows because we preferred to save them for their milk.”
Not this argument. Down this road there could only lie doom. Robert hunkered back in his chair and waited for the inevitable time in which Sebastian would send Miss Pursling screaming.
Mr. Malheur winked at Miss Pursling. “Dragons like cheese.”
“But dragons cannot milk princesses,” Miss Pursling responded. “They do not have opposable thumbs.”
Mr. Malheur looked upward. “Very clever, and you’d almost be right. But dragons have minions. In any event, it’s quite clear that the female of the human species has inferior meat. They are saddled with those unfortunate fatty deposits round the front. Whereas flank of manflesh is lean, tender, and succulent.” He emphasized this by standing up and setting one hand against the seat of his trousers.
The countess rolled her eyes. “The least said about flank of manflesh, the happier we all will be. Besides, I thought you rather liked those unfortunate fatty deposits round the front. You spend enough time-”
Robert coughed loudly.
“My preferences are irrelevant,” Sebastian managed, with a great deal of haughty grandness. “I am not a dragon.”
“True,” Robert put in. “You’re a peacock-flaunting your feathers for the female of the species.”
“If it works…” Sebastian smiled, and then turned his head, peering at imaginary tail feathers on his behind. “And yes, that is one of my better features, thank you.”The countess let out a loud, defeated sigh. “Are we talking about Sebastian’s buttocks again? Has he no other body parts?”
"A paste emergency," she hugged. "A paste assault, that's what we had." [and all the paste puns]
"Thank you for taking time from your indifference to meddle in my marriage prospects."
[...]
"I approve of her. Find another girl just like her, but a marquess's daughter this time."
'"I earned this, fair and square." Well, maybe it hadn't been fair. And maybe it hadn't been precisely square. Still, she'd earned it legally. Legally and... rectangularly. That would have to do.'
I was also surprised to see a conversation about vaccinations -- although the afterword is very firm in pointing out that vaccination back then and now were very different things, and what the characters have to say about the former has nothing to do with the modern issue.
Looking up Courtney Milan in the Wikipedia, I came across the tidbit that she (as Heidi Bond) "went on to get a Masters' Degree in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2003". Heh. We wouldn't have intersected there, 'cos looks like she got her BS (math/chemistry) from FSU the same year I did, but I bet I know all the professors she studied and worked with, which is rather odd. Definitely was not expecting to find that in her background, LOL. (But that probably explains the setting of Trade Me, and makes me want to read it more.)
bingo: independently published book, book set before 1900 (1860s), author I haven't read before
21. Lia Silver, Partner (Werewolf Marines, book 2 of Echo's Wolf) -- still liked it a whole lot, though maybe not loved it quite as much as the first book (probably because the focus feels to be more on Echo than on DJ in this one, and, let's face it, I'm all about DJ in this universe, apparently). But I still had a blast with it. Spoilers!
I loved finally meeting DJ's family, and the way they accept Echo and feed her, and entertain her, and simultaneously comfort DJ and drive him nuts with contradictory advice. I love big crazy families, and was fully expecting DJ's to be a great example of one, and it was. I loved the little revelation that "her movies credit her as Danielle 5 Torres [...] so I'll know to cheer when her name comes up", and the awkward, confused first phone conversation between Five and Echo, where Five isn't sure whether it's Charlie or Echo she's speaking to, or how to refer to DJ with her, and DJ's family letting DJ and Echo share a room in deference to their mate status but not share a bed because they aren't married, and DJ trying to clean up his speech around his family ("Besides, it took a fu-- a revolution for us to get out of Wildfire"). I also liked getting DJ's backstory with his childhood speech issues, and the way that fear of suddenly losing the ability to talk keeps coming up again and again, when he's talking too fast or when he's speaking Tagalog in delirium. (I also found it neat that DJ's speech was finally 'unlocked' through music, having just read about some cases like that in Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia.) And I love the continued moments that show DJ at his core ("DJ thought of others first and himself second or not at all"), where even in the depth of personal misery he's always thinking about others, worried that Echo understands how he feels after the deprivation chamber because she's suffered through it too (while she was merely bored in there), feeling like nearly dying was "easier for me than for my buddies", etc.
I loved the reunion between Roy and DJ, the way Roy is very matter-of-fact and firm about absolving DJ of any guilt, the roughousing in wolf form turning into wrestling in human form, and DJ finally being able to use his superstrength against Roy (still shipping them like whoa, in case anyone is wondering). Also loved DJ constantly comparing Roy and Echo, on that note. And I loved that Roy escaped on his own (like Five predicted he would), but that DJ's actions (the destruction of Wildfire base) did help by making the black ops dudes scramble to move him to a different location, out of Alaska, where he would have frozen to death if he'd managed to escape. (Also, I had been wondering if the videos of Roy had been shot over a short time, which is what Five suggests as well.) DJ bonding with one of Roy's wolves over suckling pig and comics (and getting his brain twisted by the revelation that Mystique was originally intended to be Nightcrawler's father) was cute, too.
The DJ/Echo relationship is still not doing much for me, but it's interesting to see a romance novel (and this one was heavier on romance than the predecessor) with an established relationship, and one where people actually TALK to each other to the limits of what they're able to say in the environments and situations they find themselves in -- telling each other where they're coming from, and other things they need to know. I liked the continuation of the favorite-movie guessing (Blade Runner for her, Romeo + Juliet for him), and the platypus-shifter jokes, which Five gets in on as well. The various sex scenes are well done, but the most memorable one for me is actually the aborted one where, in the shower after his time in the sensory deprivation chamber, Echo starts giving DJ a blow job and he closes his eyes and freaks out. Oh, and I was totally expecting that at some point Echo would sing for DJ, and it was neat when she did, especially the kind of songs she sang (which seemed fitting somehow) and that "Tam Lin" featured among her playlist. Note to self: Peggy-O/Fennario is about a girl falling in love with a soldier.
Even though I still don't ship DJ/Echo, I appreciate Echo's arc a lot, even though I still don't really care about Echo for her own sake. I did like Echo's envisioning of her feelings as rioters who need to be brought under control, gassed or nuked from orbit (before eventually upgrading them to centipedes that don't even have to be stomped). I like that, in the immediate danger being removed, and in learning she isn't dying (I really liked the way the twist that she's the control group was both revealed and foreshadowed with her relating the struggle it was to learn biofeedback, and that enhancement wasn't necessary there, because normals can learn it too, just not as easily), and that Charlie isn't either, with her whole life in front of her... she basically doesn't know what to do, and goes on a quest where she sets out to do the opposite of what she would normally do (i.e. not care about people) -- and spies on Wildfire employees benevolently. Basically, I like the acknowledgement that, just because she is no longer being sent to kill people and is no longer thinking she's dying, it doesn't mean that Echo is OK, or ready for a healthy relationship or life outside the base (but I'm willing to root for her to get there). I also liked the reunion with Wendy the nurse, and the revelations from there -- about Mr. Dowling, and about why it was Della that Wendy had taken with her.
Speaking of Mr Dowling, I was happy to see that he got some more nuance, because the Wildfire people being Evil wasn't my favorite -- he is obviously still a pretty terrible person, but feels like a more fleshed out character, especially after Wendy's story, and with the context that the reader has and Echo (and Wendy) do not with Cole. And I like the way Echo feels conflicted about him in the wake of these revelations, because, as she says, doing two decent things in his life does not make up for everything else. Speaking of Cole, I was impressed with the whole subplot, the way that was handled, with his power continuing to affect everyone in the book, but the reader being able to spot him after the conversation with Echo. I kept waiting for him to show up while things seemed to be going well in the Wildfire takeover, and then he did, and I hadn't guessed his reveal (that he's the child of Mr Dowling and Dr Semple), even though his probably mixed-race background comes up both times Echo sees him, in the exact same words (which I thought was a very nice touch). I've never seen this particular writing trick -- a character other characters can't remember -- done before, and it's really pretty cool! :)
I'm fairly indifferent to the Charlie-becoming-a-werewolf subplot, but I feel like I care about Charlie less than maybe I'm expected to. It doesn't at all seem unnatural for her to be an alpha, but I'd also gotten the impression (obviously, a false one) that made wolves could not be alphas, so wasn't expecting that (but that's probably explained a bit more in the Roy and Laura book, since the same thing happens there?) In general, I felt there was more werewolf stuff in this book that I was meh about -- the mate bond, although interestingly and unusually described, especially the way Echo ascribes it to intuition before DJ tells her what it is -- but it just feels too... too much like the werewolf books I'm tired of, basically. And I expect the part where it can apparently be activated before the pair even meets will annoy me in Laura's Wolf.
On the whole, this felt like a less funny book than the first one, but I had great fun with the Russian ambassador's party, especially, as already mentioned, the holodets with the candied baby pincones (XD XD XD, never gonna get old).
Quotes:
"DJ's [mission file] came with a cassette player and a tape. He'd finally found a branch of the miliatry that was completely willing to accommodate his dyslexia. Just his luck that it was evil."
"DJ was still trying not to crack up over him and Echo pretending to be in a relationship when they actually were in a relationship that they were pretending not to be in."
"Two of the rabbit's feet are saved and dried, and the kid keeps one and the alpha kees the other. Don't make that face, it's a very special occasion."
"That must have been the only time anyone's ever cried for joy when they heard their ten-year-old perform 'Fuck tha Police.'"
Echo thinking of DJ as a "man who looked at prison walls and saw the tunnel he hadn't yet dug with the spoon he hadn't yet managed to steal."
'"I'm not having sex while you blast Serbian gangsta rap," Echo warned him.'
"What are you talking about? My food is completely normal. Though some of yours is a funny color." Echo spoke with such conviction that DJ started to doubt his color vision." -- re: Echo's breakfast of "green waffles topped with red whipped cream, poached eggs covered in green sauce, black croissants, and pink coffee", which turns out to be "green tea waffles with red bean whipped cream, eggs Benedict with Japanese basil Hollandaise, black sesame croissants, and a cherry blossom latte."
"You look like a mermaid," he gasped. "A gorgeous... cock-sucking mermaid."
"What I love about you the most," Echo began thoughtfully [...] "Is the classiness of your compliments."
"I tried to recall what it had felt like to be dying, but all I could remember was how everyone had looked at me. Sibrian had seemed angry and frustrated, like an athlete trying his best on a losing team."
'I said, "Eat the fucking Pop-Tarts, Roy. I'm not leaving till you do."'
DJ and Guadalupe:
"I was going to carve Matrch's name into your chest. I even memorized it in mirror writing, so you'd have to read it every time you shaved with your shirt off."
"Why'd you stop?"
"I felt like an asshole."
DJ laughed. "Well, the joke would've been on you if you'd finished it. I'm dyslexic."
"Seriously?" [...] He nodded. "And were you serious about taking down Wildfire Base?"
"Yes. Are you in?"
"Yeah. I'm in."
"She kissed the vulnerable hollow of his throat, giving him a pleasant thrill of danger, then bit it lightly. The resulting jolt of adrenaline was halfway between an orgasm and a heart attack."
"I'm only here becauase I had to pick a side, and my buddies are on yours."
DJ grinned. "That's probably why most people fight. I'm still proud."
(and I thought it was a poignant touch that the guy who was only fighting because his buddes were on that side was one of the casualties among the 'good guys')
She kissed his forehead, tasting the salt of his sweat. "I love you."
DJ sucked in his breath in audible panic. He grabbed her arm, using all his strength. "Echo, don't--Don't!"
"No, no, that's not a farewell! I wasn't going to try to kill myself! [...] I said what I was thinking, that's all."
The fear in his eyes faded. "Oh. Sorry. I love you too."
"When Roy had been in trouble in Afghanistan, DJ had tried to force him to get help. Result: Roy walked out on him. DJ had sworn that he wouldn't make the same mistake with Echo, so he hadn't tried to force her to stay. Result: Echo walked out on him. Clearly, he should have strong-armed Echo and left Roy alone. Or the problem wasn't his overall approach, but that he'd managed to say exactly the wrong thing to both of them. Or the universe was fucking with him."
"[H]unting with Roy was everything he'd loved about the Marines, minus the bad food, boredom, and getting shot at."
"Guinness, behold! I am Lechon, the bearer of ancient, traditional pack wisdom. Many wolves before you, throughout millennia or whatever, have gotten fucked up by bad shit happening. And their packs got them through it."
bingo: independently published book, POC protagonist, protagonist with mental disability; maybe second book in a series? hard to tell if it's second or third...
22. Love Is Hell anthology, with stories from Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, and Melissa Marr (who were the reasons I checked this out) and also Gabrielle Zevin and Laurie Faria Stolarzs, whom I haven't read before. Well, let's just say I won't be rushing out to read the new-to-me authors, but the stories by the authors I already like were pretty fun. (Actually, googling Zevin's oevure reminds me that I have checked out a book of hers and started it a while back, and had liked the writing there much better than in this short story, so maybe I won't write her off just yet, but it's definitely not helping sell me on her.) spoilers for individual stories
"Sleeping with the Spirit" by Stolarzs -- ugh. This is so shallow and afterschool special. The female protagonist is characterized by two things: dead little sister trauma (whose death she blames herself for, because she didn't let her borrow her rollerskates and the kid sister went bike riding instead and was struck by a car) and auburn hair/green eyes. It turns out she can see dead people is haunted by the ghost of a teenage boy who was murdered in the house where she now lives (and her parents are in total denial about everything), with whom she starts up the most improbable and BORING romance. Along the way he helps her move on from her sister's death, and she helps him reassure his mother (whom he died to protect) that she shouldn't blame herself either. The leads are completely flat, and the few other characters who show up, like the girl's pointless school friends, are, ridiculously, even flatter. It feels like a story somebody took pains to write in the least engaging way possible, almost parodic.
"Stupid Perfect World" by Westerfeld -- really cute and fun, set in a far future where teleportation is the norm, people don't require sleep and are never sick, and kids get to take classes in Antarctica. The premise is that the leads are taking a class in Scarcity, where they have to give up one feature of their times to feel what life was like in the olden days. Kieran gives up the ability to go without sleep, Maria gives up hormone blockers so she can feel like a heroine in the old books she likes to read. Hilarity ensues. No, really, this was genuinely fun, and I liked the voices of both characters (the story is told in alternating POV chapters).
"Thinner than Water" by Larbalestier -- at first I thought it was a story set in some sort of 'olden times', but it's actually a modern story, set in an isolated tourist-trap village where the villagers hold on to the Old Ways, some more willingly than others. I found the story pretty grim, but affecting, and fairly engaging reading once I figured out what was going on with the setting.
"Fan Fictions" by Zevin -- the other ugh. At least it's trying something less bland than the "Spirit" story, and reading it felt less like my braincells dying off in the process, but: Piage the protagonist was thoroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic, and the beginning, that tried to sell her as some kind of everyteenagegirl thus retroactively annoyed me. This is the only one that doesn't seem to be actually SFF -- I suppose the ending leaves it slightly open-ended, but if it's truly meant to leave the possibility open that what Paige believes is true, it doesn't do at all a good job of it. That's not the worst problem, though. The worst problem is Paige, whom I wanted to slap for much of the story, and also the weird trying-too-hard present-tense narration, which also irritated me throughout.
The last story is Melissa Marr's "Love Struck", which most of the reviews I've seen thought was the best in the bunch, but once I started it, I realized I'd already read it, in the Fairy Tales and Nightmares collection of her short work. I'd liked it, based on my vague recollection and the brief write-up, but not enough to reread it. So.
bingo: collection of stories
ETA: CSRB update -- too lazy to post the cards, but I'm now past the halfway point on all three cards (from 13 to 17 squares of 25 filled), and have a second bingo on Mix'n'match. [cut for list and details]
Random: (13/25, 2/7 challenges)
Book without magical creatures: The Duchess War
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book heavily featuring kids (CHALLENGE MODE: from a child's POV): Wonder
Book set on a continent you've never been to: Akata Witch (Africa)
Book from friends or media: Mistborn
Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time: Guardian of the Dead (New Zealand)
Book written by someone famous for things other than writing: Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks is a neurologist)
Book by an author who shares the first letter of your last name (challenge mode: author who shares your initials): Smek for President, by Adam Rex
Free Space: Red Seas Under Red Skies
Book where male and female protagonists don't fall in love: Three Parts Dead (counting Tara and Abelard as the mains)
Independently published book: Wool
Book by queer author: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones
Book with queer protagonist: Melissa Scott, Point of Knives
Serious: (14/25, 0/7 challenges)
Book by an author you've never read: The Duchess War (Courtney Milan)
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book with a protagonist with a physical disability: Wonder
Book by an author of color: Akata Witch
Book with a protagonist with a mental/social disability: Prisoner
Book with a female protagonist: Guardian of the Dead
Short story collection: A Blink of the Screen
Non-fiction book: Musicophilia
Books with a protagonist of color: Smek for President
Free Space: Point of Knives
Second book in a series: Red Seas Under Red Skies (Locke Lamora #2)
Book given to you as a gift: Wool (birthday present from my friend R)
Book with red cover: Benedict Jacka, Hidden
Author I've never read before: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones
Mix'n'match: (16/25, 0/6 challenges); 2 bingos
Collection of short stories: Love is Hell
Graphic Novel: The Rift
Book with a protagonist with a disability: Wonder
Rec from friend or media: Mistborn
Book with a female protagonist: Akata Witch
Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time: Guardian of the Dead (New Zealand)
Book written by someone famous for things other than writing: Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks is a neurologist)
Funny book: A Blink of the Screen
Book with an author or protagonist of color: Smek for President
Book given to you as a gift: Republic of Thieves
Free Space: Hidden (Alex Verus #5)
Book where male and female protagonists don't fall in love: Three Parts Dead (counting Tara and Abelard as the mains)
Independently published book: Wool
Second book in a series: Red Seas Under Red Skies (Locke Lamora #2)
Book with queer author or protagonist: Melissa Scott, Point of Knives
Book by an author I've never read before: Melissa Scott, The Kindly Ones