Ulysses pact, part 3, reading, and meme
I'm feeling oddly real-life-avoidant lately -- just want to hide out from any responsibilities, read and watch fluff, talk fandom, and eat chocolate. Usually this happens when something stressful is going on in real life, but work has been pretty quiet and high school application stress is behind us, so, dunno. Maybe it's just the effect of not having done anything vacationy since December (not even a long weekend's worth) while people are buggering off on sabbaticals right and left. Anyway, this is by way of explaining why I'm posting another book post instead of the real-life post I've had half-written since Sunday.
Talk to me about fictional characters and entertain me with memes, flist!
Ulysses pact: 33%, end of "Wandering Rocks" (I'm actually a couple of pages into "Sirens", but just a few). Oh, and somehow page numbers have suddenly materialized for me, so, also p.222.
So, apparently I'd rather read about Bloom using an outhouse than Stephen Dedalus talking about Shakespeare... (Buck Mulligan's contributions help only slightly). Anyway, this part of the book ("Scylla and Charybdis") has been the least interesting so far, and I was fighting the urge to skim. The only scene that felt memorable to me was Stephen meeting his sister with the French book. I do kind of admire what Joyce is doing with the "Wandering Rocks" episode, following one character for a while and seeing the others from his POV, then jumping POVs and following, this kaleidoscopic view. But the energy and effort required to keep track of who is where and in whose head we are at the moment isn't worth the pay-off for me. (Also, it feels weirdly like an arty film extended scene -- just, oddly cinematic rather than literary...) I am really enjoying every mention of H, E, L, Y, 'S popping up in various configurations and occuppations, though -- it just strikes me as endlessly amusing. And I continue to be won over by Bloom's down-to-earth, self-second-guessing decency, when he tries to help the blind man without being condescending (and wonders what his dreams are like, without sight)
Not that many quotes this time:
"The feety savour of green cheese."
"Stuck on the pane two flies buzzed, stuck."
"Hesouls, shesouls, shoals of souls. Engulfed with wailing creecries, whirled, whirling, they bewail."
"Eglintoneyes, quick with pleasure, looked up shybrightly. Gladly glancing, a merry puritan, through the twisted eglantine."
"Seabedabbled" as an adjective
"The boys sixeyed Father Conmee and laughed."
"watched a flock of muttoning clouds"
"She bestowed fat pears neatly, head by tail, and among them ripe shamefaced peaches."
From 'Sirens': "They threw young heads back, bronze gigglegold, to let freefly their laughter"
23. Lia Silver, Laura's Wolf (Werewolf Marines) -- It's funny, I find that this book works less well for me as a story (than the DJ books) but better as a romance. Still a lot of fun! (big spoilers!)
I don't know if it's because Roy (while plenty fucked up), is still less damaged than Echo -- at least he knows what 'normal' is, and she never experienced it, or just hides it better at first (including in his own POV, which I thought worked really well), or if it's as simple as being more OK with a relationship if it's the (a?) guy who is messed up (definitely still to a point, see Richard/Alec in Swordspoint, which in no way works for me) -- probably because I do need to identify with the woman in a het relationship, at least to some degree, and it doesn't work when it's someone who is profoundly Not Okay. Anyway, so, Roy and Laura were cute. The book was heavier on romance than the other two, but it bothered me less than I thought it would because it was a romance I was more on board with, so.
I do feel like this book is more... deliberate in choice of subject (and principals) than simply telling a good story with diverse characters. It's very easy to see why this ended up being referred to as the "PTSD werewolves" book, because that does seem more central to the book than anything else -- Roy's PTSD, of course, and him coming to terms with it and admitting he has a problem, Laura's experiences after the bank robbery, the pack dealing with their trauma. Roy (though I still love him as a character) definitely seems like his raison d'etre as a character is to show that heroes get PTSD too, and having it doesn't mean the end of the world -- the conversation between him and Miguel is rather on the nose. And Laura's issues with her body image, too, presently and dating back to her school years, were pretty prominent and seemed to want to very clearly underline the point that women who think they're fat can be beautiful to others and find hot boyfriends and stuff. I mean, Roy is definitely not *just* his PTSD -- I loved the glimpses of him as a kid we get here, and other insights DJ wasn't privy too, although I still think that the way we see him in DJ's flashback story, reading him Watership Down, is what shows him off to best advantage :P -- and Laura is not just her looks, of course, she is clever and brave and wants to turn her life around and do the right thing, and I like her a lot -- but the Issue-ness felt much more present than in the DJ books, where, while DJ's dyslexia and his background/appearance were always very much part of his character and the story, I never felt like the point was "people with dyslexia can be really smart" or "wiry Filipino guys can be badasses" or anything like that.
Anyway, it was great to learn more about Roy, his mother the cop, the crowd he ran with in high school (and what ended up sending his straight eventually), his girlfriends, etc. DJ's view of him is half hero-worship half feeling like it's his (DJ's) reponsibility to fix him because he's the one who 'broke' Roy, and there's a lot more nuance here (which makes sense, since Roy is an actual protagonist in this one) -- his decency and courage and romanticism (his first choice for a post-Marines job being a knight errant, as Laura notes), the way he is so very reluctant to show any weakness or ask for help until he collapses. And I was totally thinking of Captain America comparisons before Laura brought it up, so, heh. Laura's background was really interesting, and I hope we do see her eventually reconnect with and come clean (or at least clean-ish) with her grandparents. I wish we'd gotten to see more of the pack -- I like Nicolette, and am very intrigued by Russell (with his movie star looks ("he'd have been typecast as a decadent aristocrat or a villain who tortured the hero while making threats of an ambiguously sexual nature"), trust fund, pride in his chef skillz, and sense of humour), but Keisha and Miguel felt less real to me, not sure why. This is why I also had a hard time seeing Laura and Keisha as sudden!best!friends.
The romance is sweet, though not particularly fitted to my id, except for the bit with Roy taking orders from Laura. And it felt like the tropes were more overtly romance-y than in the DJ books (which play quite a bit with reversal of gender expectations, DJ being the Heart of the relationship and Echo being the scary-stoic one), and the romance misunderstandings (he could never really want me, I can't be with her because I'm not good enough), though I like the resolution of that, the realization that they don't need to be perfect to be together and make each other happy. And the way they talk about things, disagree without judging each other or it being a dealbreaker, respect and work around each other's boundaries and shore up each other, all of that is really great. Also, randomly, that's pretty much every sex scene where the guy does not have a condom but the woman does.
Oh, right, plot. This book is more heavy on the development of Roy and Laura's romance (and relationship in general) than on action, but when the action does hit, it worked for me very well. The takedown of Gregor is awesome -- nicely set up with the scene where Laura and Roy experiment with her powers to determine that she can't just use it to order someone to die -- and then that's basically what she does, in a really gruesome way. Such a memorable scene! And I was happy that Laura ended up being the one to kill Gregor -- both that it served as closure for the bank incident and the death she blames herself for, and that, however justified, it's something she still has to work through, because it's a big deal.
It felt like this was a book heavier on the supernatural than the DJ books (which makes sense -- Roy and Laura and the pack are all new to this werewolf thing, so they kind of dwell on it more, and have to have things explained to them, while DJ doesn't think about it, because fish, water). Still not a fan of the mate-bond, especially with the pre-meeting pull, but what can you do. Also, not sure how Roy being a were-DIREwolf makes any sense (though he totally has the Stark looks, heh), but that was pretty cool, so I don't mind/care. I also liked getting the explanation that made wolves generally have more unusual/stronger powers, and the (reasonable) explanation that those who are turned as they are dying have a worse chance of making it, and a higher chance of ending up with messed up powers.
Reading this book right after Partner, which covers the post-Gregor takedown bit from DJ's POV, as well as (over the two DJ books) flashbacks of DJ biting Roy and their fight over the Pop-Tarts, it was really interesting to compare the two. I thought this was done really well, with very little actual repetition (just dialogue), and DJ and Roy / DJ and Laura focusing on different things when recounting the same events. I loved that Roy's
account of his heroism in Afghanistan are way, WAY more low-key than DJ's, and his account of everybody ELSE's heroism a lot more (DJ is focused 100% on Roy in the helo crash; Roy tells Laura at length about the pilot who landed the helicopter as she was dying, and mentions the other causalties -- it's not really a fair comparison, because Roy is recollecting after the fact and DJ is experiencing it in the moment, so it's not that DJ ignores everyone else, but it was still interesting to read over a scene I'd already 'seen' and learn new things from it), and also (unsurprisingly) Roy downplays his PTSD symptoms a lot more. Reading their accounts of the fight (since they are both telling those to someone else after the fact) was especially interesting -- DJ is blaming himself for not being able to find the right thing to say to Roy to help him, Roy glosses over what DJ actually said and blames himself, etc. I will say, though, that the DJ/Roy vibes are much more pronounced in DJ's POV -- obviously, DJ is super-important to Roy, too, but the fond-semi-exasperated way Roy tends to think/talk about him made me think more of a younger brother one is very close to. But since I started with DJ's POV, I'm still shipping it :P (Speaking of which, the flashback scene with wounded Roy lying with his head in DJ's lap definitely stood out to me in light of the prominent Laura/Roy hair-stroking scene, not that DJ was (presumably) doing any of that -- which even occurs to Laura as a parallel.) And I was really hearthwarmed by the scene where Roy borrows DJ's Harley ("DJ, give me your keys." DJ tossed them to him. "If you trash my Harley, you're buying me a new one out of your disability checks.") I also appreciated that Laura's Wolf and the DJ books spoil each other as little as possible, though, of course, you know DJ/Roy are alive and free from the other.
Quotes:
"thickets of low shrubs with fantastically twisting brances as smooth and bright as copper" (I love manzanita, OK? and associate them with Yosemite to boot.)
"Semper fi?"
"Oorah," Roy said automatically.
"What was that?"
"It means 'yes, sir' or 'good job' or 'go for it.' Or 'someone just said our motto.'"
"She'd been trying to ensure that Gregor wouldn't expect Roy to come rescue her, not to
set Nicolette on him like an avenging angel of female solidarity."
"Nicolette only made it six weeks [before coming back to Gregor], and believe me, she is hardcore."
"Yeah, but she knew how to make it stop. I didn't. You can endure anything when you don't have any alternative."
"And I can turn into a fucking-- I'm sorry, Mrs Torres, Mr Torres -- I can turn into a dire wolf!" [I was glad to see it's not just DJ who tries to clean up his language around his parents :P)
"You took a bullet for me. You even cleaned my bathroom, and it's probably harder to find a man who'll do that."
Maribel the paramedic: "Me and the ambulance driver and the cops and the firefighters are having a great night. We're on an exciting call, the firefithters got to use the Jaws of Life, I got to crawl into a wrecked car, and it's all fun and games because you're going to be okay. So next time it occurs to you to do some stupid shit, think about where you'd rather be: in here, helpless, in excruciating pain, waiting for your mother to come rip you a new one, or with us, in uniform, rescuing the dumb-ass kid."
re: the pack sleeping in a pile, in human and wolf forms: "Roy was reminded first of puppies in a basket, then of Marines racked out on an airport floor. No wonder he'd slept so well."
Roy and Laura's conversation about first-time sex:
Laura: "I'd sum it up as Part I: Ouch. Part II: Is That It?"
Roy: "Yeah, I gather that's how it goes for a lot of women. The guy equivalent is Part I: Holy Shit, This Is Really Happening. Part II: That Was Fast."
Fic missing scene: First Hunt (where DJ, as per usual for me, steals all the scenes)
24. Olga Gromyko, Tsvetok Kamalejnika -- I was feeling like reading in Russian all of a sudden (after a long break; this is my first non-English book this year, and I think it was Kosmo~oluhi 3 before that, which I'd gotten for my birthday last year), and picked up this standalone instead of continuing on with Volha. Not sure what I expected; the beginning put me off a bit by virtue of not being the cozy Slavic-feeling one I'd gotten used to with Volha, but I ended up enjoying the book a lot... until spoilers! the ending, where I really wish we'd gotten an actual resolved ending rather than a strongly hopeful but still cliffhangery epilogue.
I really like ErTar, who actually reminded me a bit of Ted from Kosmo~oluhi by virtue of being an incorrigible huligan with a heart of gold, which is apparently a type I really like in Gromyko's execution. I even enjoyed the "gorsky" accent jokes, by virtue of ErTar faking the accent and thus being in on them/perpetrating them rather than being laughed at. Jai never really gelled for me as as his own character, but made an amusing observer for ErTar's fokusy. Brent, with his otherworldly and doomed stoicism, drawn into human connections despite himself, grew on me (heh). Radda was introduced way too late, I thought, and really needed some POV scenes to feel like a full-fledged member of the company, but at least I didn't mind her. And Tishsh the giant cat was great, as were the assorted critters with cameos, from the wild boar that ErTar gets to ride to the carnivorous egg thing having a bad day in the Borderlands.
The worldbuilding, as mentioned, started out by bugging me with too many made up words (I never used to be put off by this, but either Russian fantasy convention goes differently about introducing them, or I've gotten jaded by now, and all the "iyer"s, "irn"s, "dher"s, etc. in the first couple of pages made me scowl. I enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot more once its shape was more fully revealed, especially the magic of the Loza, which, plant and animal in nature, is exactly my cup of tea. And all the stuff with flying flowers was really cool!
Plot-wise, I guessed the kamaleynik arrow was pointing at someone among Brent's companions (because I watched that PotC movie), but I didn't guess it was *all* of them (including the cat, which is my favorite touch in this, especially as it's nicely foreshadowed by ErTar's question about why Brent is so sure they're looking for a human newborn). I liked Arhayn as a villain -- especially the bit where he surprises ErTar, Jai, et al by picking up the third stanza of the song they're singing before telling his men to grab them, and the bit where he kills off the iyer who'd been covering up his self-serving slaughter ("Chtozh... togda idi i skazhi") -- and I liked the ending he gets, transformed into a "hischnyj ptits" bird of prey. I also like the way it becomes increasingly clear that iyers and priests use the same magic (albeit in different ways), with Brent mastering the iyer's whip and using it (though, of course, it's later revealed he was one for real at some point) and Arhayn using the preistly call to try to find the Creature, etc.
Generally too lazy for quotes, but just one short one:
Обычно горцы поют превос ходно. Но ЭрТар очень старался.
Given ErTar's personality and colorful appearance, I'm a bit surprised there isn't more art for this book (though the fact that much of the art that exists is straight-up slashy for ErTar/Jai is not the least bit surprising -- that stuff basically writes itself, even if ErTar was (probably) trolling). There's this art of the meeting in Jai's apartment, for example. Also, nimue_18 has some Kamaleynik art (including a scene of closure for the book, sorta :P), and there's also this ErTar doll mod.
Given the ending of the book, I'm still in the mood for more Gromyko (but still not Volha, apparently), and have started "God Krysy". So far, level of krysiness is as advertized. :P
*
Spell your name with characters meme:
- Hector of Troy (The Iliad/Greek myths) -- the favorite character of my childhood and my first fictional crush (I was a weird kid, OK)
- Azula (Avatar: the Last Airbender) -- the answer to the question I'd head for a while, would I still love a ruthlessly competent character if said character was female rather than male, as is usual (answer: YES)
- Morrolan e'Drien (Dragaera/Vlad Taltos) -- yes, still obsessed, thanks. Now can we have some actual page-time for him please, SKZB?
- Saruman the White (LotR/Sil) -- I actually find him a really interesting character (pity about the ending), and sign myself (S.) in my missives to my friend Pippin as the result of a long-standing inside joke.
- Tip (Gratuity) Tucci (The True Meaning of Smekday) -- has been on my mind quite a bit lately because a couple of reviews of Home have come up on my flist, and we saw a trailer for it with Penguins of Madagascar. At least she seems pretty cool in the movie, even if her hair is wrong.
- Esme Weatherwax (Discworld) -- my favorite female character of all time. 'Nuf said.
- Ron Weasley (Harry Potter) -- I know this is an occasionally unpopular opinion, but Ron is one of my very favorite HP characters, and I think he and Hermione are cute together.
- Wendell the iguana (Dragonbreath) -- whatever, man, Wendell the nerdy iguana is awesome, and is the main reason (besides ursulav's adorable rat drawings) that I'm reading the Dragonbreath books at this point.
- Oberon (Chronicles of Amber) -- I invariably like the Zeus-y types, although I do prefer this one as *spoiler*
- Mark Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga) -- is so not my usual favorite character type, but I like him a whole lot (I mean, even relative to my "I love everyone in this bar" feelings about this canon) and really want to give him a hug.
- Astrid Llewelyn (Killer Unicorns) -- in Rampant, one of the very few protagonists I actually empathize with. I kind of wish I hadn't read the sequel, though. At least until there was a third book.
- Nightingale, Thomas (Rivers of London) -- I have a type, so sue me. At least fandom-at-large is in full agreement with me as to his awesomeness.
Talk to me about fictional characters and entertain me with memes, flist!
Ulysses pact: 33%, end of "Wandering Rocks" (I'm actually a couple of pages into "Sirens", but just a few). Oh, and somehow page numbers have suddenly materialized for me, so, also p.222.
So, apparently I'd rather read about Bloom using an outhouse than Stephen Dedalus talking about Shakespeare... (Buck Mulligan's contributions help only slightly). Anyway, this part of the book ("Scylla and Charybdis") has been the least interesting so far, and I was fighting the urge to skim. The only scene that felt memorable to me was Stephen meeting his sister with the French book. I do kind of admire what Joyce is doing with the "Wandering Rocks" episode, following one character for a while and seeing the others from his POV, then jumping POVs and following, this kaleidoscopic view. But the energy and effort required to keep track of who is where and in whose head we are at the moment isn't worth the pay-off for me. (Also, it feels weirdly like an arty film extended scene -- just, oddly cinematic rather than literary...) I am really enjoying every mention of H, E, L, Y, 'S popping up in various configurations and occuppations, though -- it just strikes me as endlessly amusing. And I continue to be won over by Bloom's down-to-earth, self-second-guessing decency, when he tries to help the blind man without being condescending (and wonders what his dreams are like, without sight)
Not that many quotes this time:
"The feety savour of green cheese."
"Stuck on the pane two flies buzzed, stuck."
"Hesouls, shesouls, shoals of souls. Engulfed with wailing creecries, whirled, whirling, they bewail."
"Eglintoneyes, quick with pleasure, looked up shybrightly. Gladly glancing, a merry puritan, through the twisted eglantine."
"Seabedabbled" as an adjective
"The boys sixeyed Father Conmee and laughed."
"watched a flock of muttoning clouds"
"She bestowed fat pears neatly, head by tail, and among them ripe shamefaced peaches."
From 'Sirens': "They threw young heads back, bronze gigglegold, to let freefly their laughter"
23. Lia Silver, Laura's Wolf (Werewolf Marines) -- It's funny, I find that this book works less well for me as a story (than the DJ books) but better as a romance. Still a lot of fun! (big spoilers!)
I don't know if it's because Roy (while plenty fucked up), is still less damaged than Echo -- at least he knows what 'normal' is, and she never experienced it, or just hides it better at first (including in his own POV, which I thought worked really well), or if it's as simple as being more OK with a relationship if it's the (a?) guy who is messed up (definitely still to a point, see Richard/Alec in Swordspoint, which in no way works for me) -- probably because I do need to identify with the woman in a het relationship, at least to some degree, and it doesn't work when it's someone who is profoundly Not Okay. Anyway, so, Roy and Laura were cute. The book was heavier on romance than the other two, but it bothered me less than I thought it would because it was a romance I was more on board with, so.
I do feel like this book is more... deliberate in choice of subject (and principals) than simply telling a good story with diverse characters. It's very easy to see why this ended up being referred to as the "PTSD werewolves" book, because that does seem more central to the book than anything else -- Roy's PTSD, of course, and him coming to terms with it and admitting he has a problem, Laura's experiences after the bank robbery, the pack dealing with their trauma. Roy (though I still love him as a character) definitely seems like his raison d'etre as a character is to show that heroes get PTSD too, and having it doesn't mean the end of the world -- the conversation between him and Miguel is rather on the nose. And Laura's issues with her body image, too, presently and dating back to her school years, were pretty prominent and seemed to want to very clearly underline the point that women who think they're fat can be beautiful to others and find hot boyfriends and stuff. I mean, Roy is definitely not *just* his PTSD -- I loved the glimpses of him as a kid we get here, and other insights DJ wasn't privy too, although I still think that the way we see him in DJ's flashback story, reading him Watership Down, is what shows him off to best advantage :P -- and Laura is not just her looks, of course, she is clever and brave and wants to turn her life around and do the right thing, and I like her a lot -- but the Issue-ness felt much more present than in the DJ books, where, while DJ's dyslexia and his background/appearance were always very much part of his character and the story, I never felt like the point was "people with dyslexia can be really smart" or "wiry Filipino guys can be badasses" or anything like that.
Anyway, it was great to learn more about Roy, his mother the cop, the crowd he ran with in high school (and what ended up sending his straight eventually), his girlfriends, etc. DJ's view of him is half hero-worship half feeling like it's his (DJ's) reponsibility to fix him because he's the one who 'broke' Roy, and there's a lot more nuance here (which makes sense, since Roy is an actual protagonist in this one) -- his decency and courage and romanticism (his first choice for a post-Marines job being a knight errant, as Laura notes), the way he is so very reluctant to show any weakness or ask for help until he collapses. And I was totally thinking of Captain America comparisons before Laura brought it up, so, heh. Laura's background was really interesting, and I hope we do see her eventually reconnect with and come clean (or at least clean-ish) with her grandparents. I wish we'd gotten to see more of the pack -- I like Nicolette, and am very intrigued by Russell (with his movie star looks ("he'd have been typecast as a decadent aristocrat or a villain who tortured the hero while making threats of an ambiguously sexual nature"), trust fund, pride in his chef skillz, and sense of humour), but Keisha and Miguel felt less real to me, not sure why. This is why I also had a hard time seeing Laura and Keisha as sudden!best!friends.
The romance is sweet, though not particularly fitted to my id, except for the bit with Roy taking orders from Laura. And it felt like the tropes were more overtly romance-y than in the DJ books (which play quite a bit with reversal of gender expectations, DJ being the Heart of the relationship and Echo being the scary-stoic one), and the romance misunderstandings (he could never really want me, I can't be with her because I'm not good enough), though I like the resolution of that, the realization that they don't need to be perfect to be together and make each other happy. And the way they talk about things, disagree without judging each other or it being a dealbreaker, respect and work around each other's boundaries and shore up each other, all of that is really great. Also, randomly, that's pretty much every sex scene where the guy does not have a condom but the woman does.
Oh, right, plot. This book is more heavy on the development of Roy and Laura's romance (and relationship in general) than on action, but when the action does hit, it worked for me very well. The takedown of Gregor is awesome -- nicely set up with the scene where Laura and Roy experiment with her powers to determine that she can't just use it to order someone to die -- and then that's basically what she does, in a really gruesome way. Such a memorable scene! And I was happy that Laura ended up being the one to kill Gregor -- both that it served as closure for the bank incident and the death she blames herself for, and that, however justified, it's something she still has to work through, because it's a big deal.
It felt like this was a book heavier on the supernatural than the DJ books (which makes sense -- Roy and Laura and the pack are all new to this werewolf thing, so they kind of dwell on it more, and have to have things explained to them, while DJ doesn't think about it, because fish, water). Still not a fan of the mate-bond, especially with the pre-meeting pull, but what can you do. Also, not sure how Roy being a were-DIREwolf makes any sense (though he totally has the Stark looks, heh), but that was pretty cool, so I don't mind/care. I also liked getting the explanation that made wolves generally have more unusual/stronger powers, and the (reasonable) explanation that those who are turned as they are dying have a worse chance of making it, and a higher chance of ending up with messed up powers.
Reading this book right after Partner, which covers the post-Gregor takedown bit from DJ's POV, as well as (over the two DJ books) flashbacks of DJ biting Roy and their fight over the Pop-Tarts, it was really interesting to compare the two. I thought this was done really well, with very little actual repetition (just dialogue), and DJ and Roy / DJ and Laura focusing on different things when recounting the same events. I loved that Roy's
account of his heroism in Afghanistan are way, WAY more low-key than DJ's, and his account of everybody ELSE's heroism a lot more (DJ is focused 100% on Roy in the helo crash; Roy tells Laura at length about the pilot who landed the helicopter as she was dying, and mentions the other causalties -- it's not really a fair comparison, because Roy is recollecting after the fact and DJ is experiencing it in the moment, so it's not that DJ ignores everyone else, but it was still interesting to read over a scene I'd already 'seen' and learn new things from it), and also (unsurprisingly) Roy downplays his PTSD symptoms a lot more. Reading their accounts of the fight (since they are both telling those to someone else after the fact) was especially interesting -- DJ is blaming himself for not being able to find the right thing to say to Roy to help him, Roy glosses over what DJ actually said and blames himself, etc. I will say, though, that the DJ/Roy vibes are much more pronounced in DJ's POV -- obviously, DJ is super-important to Roy, too, but the fond-semi-exasperated way Roy tends to think/talk about him made me think more of a younger brother one is very close to. But since I started with DJ's POV, I'm still shipping it :P (Speaking of which, the flashback scene with wounded Roy lying with his head in DJ's lap definitely stood out to me in light of the prominent Laura/Roy hair-stroking scene, not that DJ was (presumably) doing any of that -- which even occurs to Laura as a parallel.) And I was really hearthwarmed by the scene where Roy borrows DJ's Harley ("DJ, give me your keys." DJ tossed them to him. "If you trash my Harley, you're buying me a new one out of your disability checks.") I also appreciated that Laura's Wolf and the DJ books spoil each other as little as possible, though, of course, you know DJ/Roy are alive and free from the other.
Quotes:
"thickets of low shrubs with fantastically twisting brances as smooth and bright as copper" (I love manzanita, OK? and associate them with Yosemite to boot.)
"Semper fi?"
"Oorah," Roy said automatically.
"What was that?"
"It means 'yes, sir' or 'good job' or 'go for it.' Or 'someone just said our motto.'"
"She'd been trying to ensure that Gregor wouldn't expect Roy to come rescue her, not to
set Nicolette on him like an avenging angel of female solidarity."
"Nicolette only made it six weeks [before coming back to Gregor], and believe me, she is hardcore."
"Yeah, but she knew how to make it stop. I didn't. You can endure anything when you don't have any alternative."
"And I can turn into a fucking-- I'm sorry, Mrs Torres, Mr Torres -- I can turn into a dire wolf!" [I was glad to see it's not just DJ who tries to clean up his language around his parents :P)
"You took a bullet for me. You even cleaned my bathroom, and it's probably harder to find a man who'll do that."
Maribel the paramedic: "Me and the ambulance driver and the cops and the firefighters are having a great night. We're on an exciting call, the firefithters got to use the Jaws of Life, I got to crawl into a wrecked car, and it's all fun and games because you're going to be okay. So next time it occurs to you to do some stupid shit, think about where you'd rather be: in here, helpless, in excruciating pain, waiting for your mother to come rip you a new one, or with us, in uniform, rescuing the dumb-ass kid."
re: the pack sleeping in a pile, in human and wolf forms: "Roy was reminded first of puppies in a basket, then of Marines racked out on an airport floor. No wonder he'd slept so well."
Roy and Laura's conversation about first-time sex:
Laura: "I'd sum it up as Part I: Ouch. Part II: Is That It?"
Roy: "Yeah, I gather that's how it goes for a lot of women. The guy equivalent is Part I: Holy Shit, This Is Really Happening. Part II: That Was Fast."
Fic missing scene: First Hunt (where DJ, as per usual for me, steals all the scenes)
24. Olga Gromyko, Tsvetok Kamalejnika -- I was feeling like reading in Russian all of a sudden (after a long break; this is my first non-English book this year, and I think it was Kosmo~oluhi 3 before that, which I'd gotten for my birthday last year), and picked up this standalone instead of continuing on with Volha. Not sure what I expected; the beginning put me off a bit by virtue of not being the cozy Slavic-feeling one I'd gotten used to with Volha, but I ended up enjoying the book a lot... until spoilers! the ending, where I really wish we'd gotten an actual resolved ending rather than a strongly hopeful but still cliffhangery epilogue.
I really like ErTar, who actually reminded me a bit of Ted from Kosmo~oluhi by virtue of being an incorrigible huligan with a heart of gold, which is apparently a type I really like in Gromyko's execution. I even enjoyed the "gorsky" accent jokes, by virtue of ErTar faking the accent and thus being in on them/perpetrating them rather than being laughed at. Jai never really gelled for me as as his own character, but made an amusing observer for ErTar's fokusy. Brent, with his otherworldly and doomed stoicism, drawn into human connections despite himself, grew on me (heh). Radda was introduced way too late, I thought, and really needed some POV scenes to feel like a full-fledged member of the company, but at least I didn't mind her. And Tishsh the giant cat was great, as were the assorted critters with cameos, from the wild boar that ErTar gets to ride to the carnivorous egg thing having a bad day in the Borderlands.
The worldbuilding, as mentioned, started out by bugging me with too many made up words (I never used to be put off by this, but either Russian fantasy convention goes differently about introducing them, or I've gotten jaded by now, and all the "iyer"s, "irn"s, "dher"s, etc. in the first couple of pages made me scowl. I enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot more once its shape was more fully revealed, especially the magic of the Loza, which, plant and animal in nature, is exactly my cup of tea. And all the stuff with flying flowers was really cool!
Plot-wise, I guessed the kamaleynik arrow was pointing at someone among Brent's companions (because I watched that PotC movie), but I didn't guess it was *all* of them (including the cat, which is my favorite touch in this, especially as it's nicely foreshadowed by ErTar's question about why Brent is so sure they're looking for a human newborn). I liked Arhayn as a villain -- especially the bit where he surprises ErTar, Jai, et al by picking up the third stanza of the song they're singing before telling his men to grab them, and the bit where he kills off the iyer who'd been covering up his self-serving slaughter ("Chtozh... togda idi i skazhi") -- and I liked the ending he gets, transformed into a "hischnyj ptits" bird of prey. I also like the way it becomes increasingly clear that iyers and priests use the same magic (albeit in different ways), with Brent mastering the iyer's whip and using it (though, of course, it's later revealed he was one for real at some point) and Arhayn using the preistly call to try to find the Creature, etc.
Generally too lazy for quotes, but just one short one:
Обычно горцы поют превос ходно. Но ЭрТар очень старался.
Given ErTar's personality and colorful appearance, I'm a bit surprised there isn't more art for this book (though the fact that much of the art that exists is straight-up slashy for ErTar/Jai is not the least bit surprising -- that stuff basically writes itself, even if ErTar was (probably) trolling). There's this art of the meeting in Jai's apartment, for example. Also, nimue_18 has some Kamaleynik art (including a scene of closure for the book, sorta :P), and there's also this ErTar doll mod.
Given the ending of the book, I'm still in the mood for more Gromyko (but still not Volha, apparently), and have started "God Krysy". So far, level of krysiness is as advertized. :P
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Spell your name with characters meme:
- Hector of Troy (The Iliad/Greek myths) -- the favorite character of my childhood and my first fictional crush (I was a weird kid, OK)
- Azula (Avatar: the Last Airbender) -- the answer to the question I'd head for a while, would I still love a ruthlessly competent character if said character was female rather than male, as is usual (answer: YES)
- Morrolan e'Drien (Dragaera/Vlad Taltos) -- yes, still obsessed, thanks. Now can we have some actual page-time for him please, SKZB?
- Saruman the White (LotR/Sil) -- I actually find him a really interesting character (pity about the ending), and sign myself (S.) in my missives to my friend Pippin as the result of a long-standing inside joke.
- Tip (Gratuity) Tucci (The True Meaning of Smekday) -- has been on my mind quite a bit lately because a couple of reviews of Home have come up on my flist, and we saw a trailer for it with Penguins of Madagascar. At least she seems pretty cool in the movie, even if her hair is wrong.
- Esme Weatherwax (Discworld) -- my favorite female character of all time. 'Nuf said.
- Ron Weasley (Harry Potter) -- I know this is an occasionally unpopular opinion, but Ron is one of my very favorite HP characters, and I think he and Hermione are cute together.
- Wendell the iguana (Dragonbreath) -- whatever, man, Wendell the nerdy iguana is awesome, and is the main reason (besides ursulav's adorable rat drawings) that I'm reading the Dragonbreath books at this point.
- Oberon (Chronicles of Amber) -- I invariably like the Zeus-y types, although I do prefer this one as *spoiler*
- Mark Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga) -- is so not my usual favorite character type, but I like him a whole lot (I mean, even relative to my "I love everyone in this bar" feelings about this canon) and really want to give him a hug.
- Astrid Llewelyn (Killer Unicorns) -- in Rampant, one of the very few protagonists I actually empathize with. I kind of wish I hadn't read the sequel, though. At least until there was a third book.
- Nightingale, Thomas (Rivers of London) -- I have a type, so sue me. At least fandom-at-large is in full agreement with me as to his awesomeness.