Reading roundup
I'm way behind on RL posting (my past week and weekend have actually bee quite busy, in a mostly-good way), but I've hit another point where I just want to talk about books. So!
37. Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue -- This was a birthday present from aome, but actually even before I got the book as a gift I heard about it from ikel89 during the exceedingly scenic drive back from Kazbegi, and was intrigued to check it out for myself, so Debbie's gift was very timely :) Having read it, it wasn't quite as cool a book as the premise (and fabulous title) made it sound, sadly, but definitely still an entertaining and fast read.
Here's the very fun premise -- a Grand Tour by a young bisexual British nobleman, his best friend/(male) love interest, who is mixed race (and also *spoiler*), and his younger sister who isn't interested in finishing school but wants to go to med school instead. Along the way from Paris to Spain to Italy, there's political intrigue, highwaymen and pirates, and alchemical mysteries. That sounds pretty cool, right? And it is fairly fun, although a couple of things undermine the strengths of the book: spoilers!
1) Monty, the protagonist and narrator. He sounds at first like a lovable rogue, but in fact he's actually kind of a dolt. He does show some growth along the way, but it's growth from "pathetic impulse-driven idiot" to "passable human being", which isn't really that much to cheer for. His POV is full of fairly justified self-loathing through most of the book, when it isn't vapid prattling, which is not much fun to read. He does eventually shape up, like I said, but by that point it was too little, too late for me to like him.
2) The plot relies on everyone being a total idiot. I think the book was aiming for zany hijinks, but while that's possible to pull off (see those Patrick Weekes books from earlier in the year), this book... doesn't. Monty does monumentally idiotic things for no reason in-universe and actually to drive plot -- like randomly stealing an important-looking box from an important politician's chambers where he's making out with someone. And then runs naked through Versaille, because why not. People trip over things, make noise when trying to sneak around, fail to look in obvious places for hidden objects, fall for absolutely ludicrous cover stories, go out into the city with their faces uncovered when they're being searched for, etc. etc. The good guys, the bad guys, the shades-of-gray guys, everyone is a complete nincompoop. But I think the bit that annoyed me the most on this score is that the main antagonist chose to stay behind and DIE when all that had happened was that his hope for political advancement, in the form of the alchemical heart, had burned. He wasn't dying himself, he wasn't in any imminent danger without the heart, he just... decided to have a villainous breakdown, apparently, for no reason that's ever explained.
3) Speaking of people being idiots, two thirds of the book relies on romantic tension that has no reason to exist. Monty, who is happy to sleep with anything that moves, has recently realized he's in love with Percy, his best friend. He thinks it's unrequited, and there's some nice, legitimate pining for the duration of the journey from England to Paris. Then Percy kisses him, and this is where the UST should've ended, right? Except Monty comes away from the encounter (somehow) convinced that Percy could never be interested in him that way, and Percy, instead of finding out whether "yes" or "no" was the honest answer to his question as to whether the kiss meant anything to Monty, proceeds to pine in return. I'm not a big fan of romantic misunderstandings (although you'll note two other books in this roundup used it centrally, too), but there at least has to be SOME REASON for them. There really, really isn't any here. So the pining, which had been fun for a while -- bed sharing! changing in each other's presence! -- immediately started annoying me. It is eventually resolved at least not at the very end, and then circumstances prevent them from getting together, but by that point I was just really DONE with the whole trope.
4) I'm not a reader of historical fiction, so I generally don't notice anachronisms. But this book -- I don't even know if it gets specific things wrong, but everything about the way it's written -- Monty's narration, the dialogue, and especially the perspectives everyone is coming from, feels like modern American teenagers playing dress-up. I couldn't guess/remember whether the book was Regency or Victorian or what, but in fact it's mean to be set in the 1720s or so. It... does not feel like the 1720s. And one of the worst culprits is the way the prejudices the characters encounter very frequently feel like modern ones, and the arguments and affirmations feel very modern, too. Monty occasionally remembers homosexuality is actually a capital crime at this point, but the actual consequences are that his father beats him up and threatens to disown him, and has a very enlightened conversation with Felicity (the sister) about how he was born this way (why she should hold reactionary views on this thing all of a sudden is never explained). Percy is occasionally treated as slightly second-class, except for this one super-racist character, and encounters more 'microiniquities' than overt racism -- e.g. the lady in Paris who tells him she's "very committed to your cause" and asks him how long it's been since he came from Africa. Percy, who is also epileptic, has a conversation with Monty about how Monty needs to recognize that his life has value even though he's ill and not just try to fix him. A character (a runaway slave turned pirate captain) actually tells Monty that he has worth. It's all rather cringe-inducingly Tumblresque, tbh.
(Speaking of Tumblresque diversity -- in addition to POC (Percy), sexual diversity (Monty is bi, Percy appears to be, and Felicity may be ace, judging by her lack of interest in kissing as a thing), and physical disability representation (Percy's epilepsy and Monty's later injuries and hearing loss), I'm pretty sure Dante is meant to be non-neurotypical/have something like Asperger's. Which is nice and all, but it felt a bit odd that *he* didn't get any affirming accolades. Monty also seems to have some form of PTSD associated with his dad's abuse, I guess.)
Also, seriously, not only is Monty so oblivious to the Bible that he doesn't recognize 'Lazarus' as a Biblical reference, but neither Percy nor Felicity do either? I find that hard to believe...
So, that's a fairly long list of fairly serious complaints, but I nevertheless enjoyed the book, in a slightly exasperated way. The things I liked:
1) Felicity, the sister, who is no-nonsense and take-charge, and Monty is justifiably in awe of her a bit. At the end, the pirate captain brings her aboard as a doctor(-in-training), and I think I'd rather have read that book, fucking ships nonwithstanding. (Apparently such a book is actually in the works and will be released next year, titled "THE LADY'S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY". OK, yes, I will be reading that book. XD)
2) The potential of the Monty/Percy relationship. If Monty weren't such a useless twittering thing for most of the book, and if the stupid romantic misunderstanding didn't hover needlessly between them, this would've been really sweet. Their childhood friendship and the way they comfort each other were very sweet (the scene where Percy comes up with a list of reasons why Monty shouldn't want to be dead was especially nice), mixed with teasing affection, and the pining was pretty hot while I could suspend my disbelief for it. And there are glimmers of goodness here and there, little scenes, and Percy telling him, "I'm not going to be the most convenient mouth around when you're drunk and lonely and missing blue-eyed Sinjon" when they finally sort themselves out. This is a trope I like a whole lot, actually, when executed well -- childhood best friends realizing they have the hots for one another (there's a reason Harry/Ron is my last ship standing for HP :P) But given that I found it hard to like Monty and was frustrated by the artificiality of the UST, it was hard to like the relationship as actually written.
3) There's actually an interesting growth arc there for Monty IF it had been treated a bit more seriously. There are actually two things there -- Monty learning not to freeze up when threatened with a punch (as a child raised with abuse), and Monty learning to... well, listen to other people, basically, and face up to reality, and not be so utterly self-absorbed. He starts out wanting to "fix" Percy and feeling like if he does, everything will be alright -- and does not listen to Percy's actual wishes on this account at all, or the pragmatic objections that it may not be possible. Him letting go of that would've actually been a neat arc, except it's rather muddled by the alchemical whatsits. But I liked what I *think* it was trying to do? And Percy coming to terms with Percy's illness, overcoming his fears and feelings of uselessness, when he first learns about the epilepsy, that was nice. And I do think the book does a good job, even through the inanities, of painting Monty as someone who both has a lot of privilege as one of the nobility *and* has had to deal with his share of shitty things (abusive father first and foremost).
Quote (because the writing is often quite fun!)
'"Under my watch," Lockwood says, "there will be no gambling, limited tobacco, and absolutely no cigars. No visitations to any dens of iniquity [...] or sordid establishments of any kind. No caterwauling, no inappropriate relations with the opposite sex. No fornication. No slothfulness, or excessive sleeping late." It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favorites.'
I think, overall, this book falls into the category of things like Love Interest, where I wish a better author had taken a crack at the premise. But, fortunately, unlike Love Interest, the book as-is is at least competently if overly earnestly written, so I *could* enjoy it, rather than sputtering in ever-increasing bafflement as to what the hell the author thought they were doing. But for all its flaws, it was a fun read, and I do want to know more about Felicity, in the sequel! (Thank you again, aome! :)
38. Avoliot, The Course of Honor -- novel-length original sci-fi m/m with a whole bunch of tropes, starting with arranged marriage (posted on AO3) -- I picked this up courtesy of egelantier's rec. I actually don't like arranged marriage much as a trope, and not all of the other tropes invoked are necessarily favorites of mine, but the whole thing worked very nicely (to the point that I read it straight through in a couple of hours over the long weekend). I liked both protagonists a lot, introverted Jainan, trudging slowly back from years of abuse and clinging to his dignity and uber-extrovert Kiem, who is used to thinking of himself as a bumbling idiot but suddenly finds himself having to deal with darker things than elementary school charity events and shmoozing with journalists. The secondary characters are also quite nice, and even the cameos, like Kiem's general mother, are fun and intriguing. There's also some very nice and deftly interwoven worldbuilding about all manner of things, from sports to dress and gender expression, and trans and non-binary characters whose introduction is handled in an impressively non-issuefic-y way that I feel like some profic authors could learn from. Spoilers from here The worldbuilding included some interesting bits I'd like to know more about, like why does Iskan have both very gender-specific hair styles AND apparently only gender-neutral terms for political rank? I like both of those details, but am curious what sort of history led to the two coexisting. I also liked the way the main present-day antagonist, Aren, the way he is a dark mirror of Kiem, charming and let's-all-help-each-other-out-like-the-friends-we-are. The plot is fun and nicely tense, but with some nice quiet moments interspersed. I do agree with
egelantier site = "livejournal"> that the ending is a bit pat, and more, IDK, fic-like than novel-like somehow (except that the final chapter isn't "and then they bang" :P), but I did enjoy the whole thing.
This is a slow-burn "getting together" fic, albeit a plotty one, so the romance is a big part of it. There's a lot (I mean, A LOT) of mutual pining in the context of some massive misunderstandings, but this worked better for me than in 'Guide to Vice', because the misunderstandings actually mostly make sense -- Jainan's entire worldview is warped by abuse, Keim reasonably assumes he's grieving and doesn't want to be touched. The premise of the arranged marriage and the treaty is ridiculous, but beyond that the characters actually behave in fairly understandable ways, although the misunderstandings did drag on a bit long for my taste. There are a lot of interrupted conversations that could've gotten them on the same page sooner, but at least that's just the author drawing things out, not the characters being total idiots.
The author lists Captive Prince, Bujold (Bel's name is indeed a homage), and The Goblin Emperor as influences, and I can totally see all of them in the fic/book, but in a really good way, so! Kiem, in particular, struck me as a sort of cross between Ivan and Miles -- Ivan's levels of ambition (although for different reasons), combined with Miles's energy and people-person skills, and Jainan's slow thawing as he remembers/realizes what normal relationships are like reminded me quite a bit of Komarr. And Taam is even incompetent as well as abusive, like Tien, although Taam-and-Aren also gave me a sort of Serg-and-Ges dynamic. The similarity to Captive Prince is in the dynamic between the two principals, good-natured extrovert / intensely private person hiding past abuse, and the two of them coming from different cultures, although they don't have the hurdles of hating each other to overcome. (I'm also pleased to see that apparently I was not the only person who immediately thought of Malcolm Tucker upon meeting Hren the Press Office guy. Also, I find his name hilarious, because in Russian it's both the actual word for horseradish and slang for 'penis'.)
Bonus: authorially-approved fancast on Tumblr.
39. Black Mould (Rivers of London graphic novel #3) -- interesting story (and oddly, sadly timely, on the subject of London slums), but mostly I just have random observations, with spoilers:
- I like Beverley's "all shall love me and despair" shirt.
- Guleed preferring "horrifying sexual suggestion to the terrible pun".
- Peter's greatest fear is leaving London (in the context of his parents splitting up)
- Peter misreading Petal's name (apparently a hippie thing) as Patel, which she apparently gets a lot.
- The haunted ice cream truck was one of the view times where I felt being done in a graphic novel format definitely benefitted the story. That was pretty cute.
- I thought that the reference to Peter's father's operation was getting his mouth fixed... but it looks like Black Mould is set after The Hanging Tree (but before The Furthest Station
- Peter's knowledge of Russia is encompassed by dachas, troikas, and borscht. (An don't knock pickled mushrooms, Peter. They're awesome.)
- "Science will be our weapon." is now a thing that Peter has canonically said. I bet he's wanted to say that for a while.
- SWORDCANE! :D
- Nightingale has rules about screens at the table (which Peter does not always follow).
- Why did vodoun lady have Nightingale's service revolver? O.o
- Peter objecting to being called a pretty face (twice), rather than handsome.
- We got to see Peter's dad and Dominic (and it's nice to see that Peter and Dominic are still in touch)
- Nightingale giving up his jacket to a totally naked Petal seemed a fairly unnecessary scene. But he's learned to use a smartphone to record sound!
- And we see evidence of Peter not knowing anything about wine in the short. And nice to see Varvara doing well for herself in prison. And the foxes are now talking to Dom as well as Abigail! (I bet Dom is thrilled at being "the guy" XP)
40. Naomi Novik, Golden Age and Other Stories -- this is the art book where each piece of (loosely) Temeraire fanart (many of them pieces I've known/enjoyed for years) is accompanied by a new story or drabble. I read this in ebook, so didn't really get to enjoy the art (more than I've already enjoyed it on DeviantArt or Tumblr, I mean), but the stories of course were new. It was mostly entertaining fluff, although one book and less than a week after I'd finished it, I had pretty much forgotten its existence and skipped it in my numbering, oops. XD The stories don't really add that much to the universe, I feel, but there were a couple that do linger -- the story set in the Americas, with John Wampanoag as the POV character, which I would've liked to see more of; the present-day Temeraire drabble that was jsut the perfect length; and my favorite thing in the book, Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth is a Longwing captain :D
Individual stories, with spoilers:
"Volly's Cow" -- well, yay, Volly, Volly is always funny, as is Temeraire interacting with him. Mostly, though, I wanted to see more of Perscitia's politicking and trying to build a solid draconic voting block despite gerrymandering, which is alluded to here, and I wanted to see it in League of Dragons itself.
"Planting Season" -- the John Wampanoag story, which shows a very nice glimpse at both North American alternative history and at the relationship between the native tribes and their dragons. I liked John himself a lot in Blood of Tyrants (one of the few things in that book that I liked), so it was good to see him again, and I have a soft spot for clever trader stories, I guess, which this is. Anyway, this was lovely, and bittersweet, but, as with the previous one, I kind of wish we'd gotten to see North America in an actual full-length novel.
"Dawn of Battle" -- young Jane Roland POV, which has her in her first battle as captain of Excidium. Really interesting backstory here, not so much for Jane, but for her mother, Excidium's captain before her, which is an interesting facet to the seemingly more liberal view of women in the corps -- her mother wasn't the sort of woman suited to command but had been browbeaten into a figurehead position, and Jane is determined to not be like that at all. Other than the revelation of what her mother was like, the other thing I liked about the story was Jane's interaction of Excidium; we don't see it in the books, but it was nice to see their bond. But the story cuts out right before the battle actually starts, which felt a bit anti-climactic, although one of the drabbles picks up at a moment after the battle.
"Golden Age" -- this is a straight-up AU of the books, which had me side-eyeing it, because I think that strays too far into fanfic territory for an author. The premise is, Amite is shipwrecked instead of captured, but Temeraire's egg survives and he hatches on an island in the Caribbean and is somewhat reluctantly adopted by a band of ferals, and then turns them into a band of pirates over a misunderstanding. I wasn't finding the story interesting at all, and I was thinking it was because of the authorial AU, but then Laurence showed up, and all of a sudden I was invested, so I guess it's not that, and merely that Laurence is the key to the series for me, and Temeraire without him is boring (unless Perscitia is around). Anyway, it *was* interesting to watch them build rapport from a very different set of circumstances, and to see how quickly Temeraire had Laurence considering treason even here XD Oh, and Riley (naturally) and O'Dea make an appearance, which was neat.
"Succession" -- story set in China, from Temeraire's mother's POV, which reveals Temeraire is actually the older of the twin eggs. But I never cared about the China interludes or succession, and barely remembered who anyone was over there, so this story didn't do much for me.
"Dragons and Decorum" -- the P&P + dragons, which is DELIGHTFUL. Elizabeth is sent to the Covert as a way of lessening the burden on her parents, and becomes captain of a Longwing she names Wollstonecraft (heh), who, in this case, is the person most interested in match-making her, not Mrs Bennet. A number of touchstones from P&P show up -- the ball, Jane ill at Netherfeld, Elizabeth coming to Pemberley (although in this case it's with her wing, while they're retreating from the battle in which Napoleon crossed the Channel), Lady Catherine's visit -- while others are entirely absent (everything with Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Mr Collins), and yet others are totally changed (instead of the first, rejected proposal, Darcy writes her a letter which "contrived, while not soliciting her hand" -- because, as an officer in the middle of a war, it's not like she can just drop everything and wed him -- "to offer his own"). Jane Roland is briefly mentioned in the background, and anoter older Longwing captain, who sounds fun.
Drabbles:
- beach silliness
- space-dragon hatchling with robots? IDK...
- sad Lien
- Temeraire and Laurence moment between Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles
- Mulan drabble
- Temeraire critiquing Beowulf
- flying dragon city? Also DK...
- Elsie and Hollin planning adventures
- Jane getting her scar (presumably in the battle that was just about to start in the short story)
- Mayan dragon, I guess?
- Temeraire leaving China (during Throne of Jade?)
- Kulingile and Demane
- Tharkay pining over Laurence (as shippy as the books)
- Jane and Laurence first meeting/dinner
- Pregnant Iskierka being high maintenance
- Dragon natural history
- ???
- Wizard!Laurence and his dragon familiar
- Matteo Ricci on the dragons of China
- "Join or die" with a dragon logo and "history"
- more Kulingile and Demane
- Maximus POV drabble
- present-day Temeraire watching the Queen's Jubilee in an England transformed to accommodate dragons and missing Laurence
- Laurence walks in on Temeraire and Iskierka mating
- mermaid and sea-dragon?
- Emily annoyed that Demane is guarding her virtue ("It was not that she didn't like the captain, but he had much to answer for")
Of all the drabbles, only the bereft Temeraire one did anything for me, thought it was also interesting to get Emily's and Tharkay's POV, however briefly, and Jane's view of her first meeting with Laurence.
41. Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands -- this was another book I inhaled, pretty much over a busy weekend, and partly it was trying to keep up with ikel89 (reading in tandem is so much more fun when I'm actually enjoying the book. Imagine that! XD) but mostly it's because it's a really fun book. I've been disappointed and/or frustrated by SRB's latest offerings (the Lynburn trilogy steadily pleased me less and less with each book, with the conclusion being my biggest disappointment of the year, and one of those rare times where I felt downright betrayed by a book; good thing it wasn't a series I really cared about; Tell the Wind and Fire was not as disappointing, but it was frustrating anyway, in the way it was in dialogue with other books, but mostly I thought the other books more effective, even when one of them was Dickens :P So, it was lovely to have an SRB book I was actively and almost wholeheartedly enjoying (I do have some quibbles, but on the whole I liked it a lot, and immediately recommended to both L -- who is lapping it up with even greater glee than I -- and Awesome Friend Ali). I wish I could hail it as a return to form, but it just makes me worried that, because this book was written, what, in 2013-2015 (and published as a serial on SRB's blog), so, like, concurrently with the Lynburns? So it's not like SRB is back to writing books that I like and I can look forward to more -- it's that she used to. And even here, I liked the beginning (and the core of the story that was clearly set up by the beginning) more than the ending, so my enjoyment of the book is tinged with nostalgia, even though the book is brand spankin' new. Spoilers!
The first part is a riot. It reminded me of my favorite fanfic of SRB's/Maya's/Underwater Light's, "If You've a Ready Mind", from the POV of Ravenclaw!Draco, which is also why it reminded me (and < user name ="ikel89" site = "livejournal">) of Carry On, because Baz is rather Ravenclaw!Draco, too. Anyway, Elliot is hilariously over the top, and also rather a lot like some people in my household, which made him both funnier and easier to like despite him being a know-it-all overly dramatic asshole. He's an interesting protagonist: I can easily believe his peers would hate him and adults would want to get rid of him, but there's a core of intelligence and conviction that burns incandescent from the beginning and that he stays true to, and it made a compelling read to watch him find some people he liked and who liked him, and let go of some things while holding on to his ideals -- curiosity and abhorrence for war and the conviction that anything can be solved by talking rather than fighting. (And I like that his abhorrence of violence is total -- war as an institution, and violence even when it saves his life, and war games like the Sunborn contest), and not something he ever 'outgrows' or tempers, or ceases to mourn the effect of on his friends. He isn't always right, but he isn't wrong, either, and I think that's one thing the book keeps a good balance of. Also, it's interesting to have a hero who's a pacifist to this degree; I mean, you have Aang in AtLA, but even Aang fights, he just doesn't want to kill, and you have Harry Potter, who uses Expeliarmus! rather than more lethal spells, but they're not nearly as committed to not fighting at all, to nobody fighting, as Elliot is. And I can understand why he'd have this conviction, too, as a kid who grew up bullied and with no-one who loved him enough to protect him until he meets Serene and Luke in the Borderlands. And on a final random Elliot note that I liked, both L and I laughed in recognition when it turned out that Elliot was a (non-practicing) Jew, because boy do we know people like this, with both the positive and the negative traits; he rang very true as one. (A reader somewhere complained that he didn't feel like an *English* Jew, but, hell, it never says where his parents are from. Oh, no, actual final thing -- I also appreciated Elliot's genre savviness, not just of the fantasy genre but of literary tropez tropes -- where he is conscious of the way the kid who questions whether charging ahead is the right thing to do ends up being a coward and a traitor, that someone in his role ends up being an Iago figure -- but presses on anyway, because he knows what he thinks is right.
Anyway, I loved early Elliot, and the core of him that carries through to the end of the book, the kid who can't stop ordering people around, and who thinks 'subordination' is yammering at the commander until she gives in, and who never loses his sense of wonder about the various magical peoples, always chasing the next high (elves! mermaids! harpies! trolls!) or the determination to see them as people and talk to them, or the conviction that it is up to him to fix the world (in big ways and small, his friends' love lives and world peace and industrial revolution) before he graduates from training camp. I appreciated that there is no reconciliation between Elliot and the father who never loved him or saw him as a person, or between him and the mother who left him (though I would have really liked to learn her side of it; why did she get together with Elliot's father in the first place? why didn't she stay in the Otherlands after training? why didn't she just take Elliot with her when she realized she wanted to leave?). Other parts of his arc worked less well for me, considerably. Elliot's journey of sexual self-discovery felt kinda tedious, honestly. I think I understand why he had to have a muggle boyfriend -- it's commendable to have a bisexual character actually have a romance with a guy and a girl before the endgame ship, so it's clear he's choosing Luke and not a side of his sexuality, and there are some interesting contrasts between his relationship with Serene and with Jase. But the interlude with Jase seemed so random and pointless, and, like, why him? (And I had really liked the matter-of-fact way his bisexuality was mentioned in the first couple of pages, and didn't think we needed any of the later set pieces, but, eh, I don't begrudge their existence, since I know bi representation is quite rare.) And then all the stuff with Myra and Adara and Dale, it just got to be way too much for me when the endgame was perfectly clear at that point. There's only so much that can be justified by a running gag of Luke walking in on Elliot kissing people. And the thing is, I can kind of rationalize Elliot's kissing thing, if I try really hard -- as a kid who grew up with zero affection, with Serene being the first person to actually care about him, I can see him conflating romantic feelings and general affection. And from a stylistic (Doylist) perspective, there's I suppose the idea of Eliott trying to fix everything with his mouth -- symbolically, with his words, as a councilor-in-training, played seriously, and literally, with the kissing, played for laughs. But it's a weird sort of dissonance, and it strained my disbelief more than anything.
I do like both of Elliot's central relationships, and a lot of the minor ones. Luke/Elliot was pretty adorable, mostly by virtue of Luke being ridiculously adorable. He's a pretty unusual character, too, someone whom people flock to who is no good at people himself, an introverted leader. And I liked his mix of confidence and vulnerability/humility a lot, his badass rescues of Elliot and his ability to put up with Elliot's shit and only occasional plaintive requests for Elliot not to be a jerk to him right then/right about that specific thing -- and him learning from Elliot, starting to read and picking up big words (even though he doesn't know how to pronounce them and Elliot mocks him for it) and quoting back things that Elliot has said, which show how carefully he's been listening. I'm not sure, between Elliot and Luke, who's my favorite ultimately, but they play off each other quite nicely. (I'm not sure what it is with HP-riffing profic and random body-mod stuff, but at least Luke's wings were set up and foreshadowed and explained about a million times better than the stuff in Carry On.) I'm generally not a fan of romantic misunderstanding as a relationship driver, and definitely not at this length, but, ehhhh, it kind of sort of worked here? Elliot's conviction that he is not worthy of love makes for a believable blind spot given everything that's between him and Luke, and Luke's shyness papers over a lot of it. About the only thing I couldn't entirely buy is that Elliot, who never shuts up about ANYTHING, and had shared his pamphlets, would not have mentioned swinging that way in front of Luke or Serene sooner than that. But ah well. It doesn't actively bother me, I just found the prolonged mutual misunderstanding unnecessary. I did like that, romantic silliness aside, Elliot and Luke (and other people Elliot loves, Serene and Louise and Rachel Sunborn, e.g.) did frequently have opposite views on what was moral and right in a given situation, and argued about it. And I liked that in the big fight they had, they both said some very cruel things, not out of malice, of course, but out of hurt -- the book not pulling any punches.
Meanwhile, Elliot's crush on Serene was hilariously over-the-top and their relationship, I think, was nicely done as one where both people have each other's best interests at heart but just want incompatible things. I really liked that the two of them stayed just as important to each other after they broke up. And that Serene and Luke's relationship with each other was just as important as either of theirs with Elliot, while being 100% platonic from start to finish. The one disappointing thing is that I never felt like Serene developed as a character in the 4 years, while Elliot and Luke underwent significant arcs. I think there's some attempt to show that Serene, too, has changed through her association with the guys, but it doesn't feel very significant, and she seems more changed by her relationship with Golden than by anything else. (Which is... kind of unfortunately, even though the gender role-reversal gives that a different flavor, maybe.)
Speaking of the elven gender role-reversal, this was one thing that started out amusing me and then got kind of annoying in hammering the point home. I thing SRB is at her best when writing in "less is more" mode, and this is definitely the opposite of that. There were some bit about it I liked -- Serene's earnest explanations of stuff like why men are supposed to be the primary child-rearers, matrilinear descent, why male chests are more scandalous than female ones, being non-functional, and why women are naturally inclined towards sowing their wild oats, and Golden's reversal of the Sweet Polly Oliver trope, sneaking away with the army with a fake bosom made out of pudding. But there could stand to be 85% less of the elven gender flipping and implications of Elliot understanding the plight of women, and the book would've been a better book, IMO.
Among more minor characters, I liked Commander Woodsinger and her stoic and trying-her-best-not-to-tear-her-hair-out relationship with Elliot. I especially liked the scene where she tries to talk to Elliot about patriotism, and that's just not a concept he can grasp at all, but he can understand and embrace a challenge to his curiosity.
Quotes:
"Elliot objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle he would be violently sick. The other kids objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle they would be violently sick of Elliot."
"Are you telling me that I have magical powers? Because I can't walk through walls? That doesn't seem right."
"Yes, oh my God, I already understood the implications that I wasn't man enough to tough it out beyond the Border. Your attempt at an insult was extremely clear. You're just making the whole thing laboured and awkward now."
"The value of people does not rest on their ability to hurt others. Where's the honor in being better at hurting somebody? Telling me I have to do this is insulting, as if I can't win any other way. As if I can't win in a better way."
"He paid the cab driver, who looked dubious about leaving a child alone in a field, but Elliot had spun him what he felt was a very convincing story about rare rock formations and being a keen geologist. The cab driver certainly seemed convinced he did not want to hear any more about rare rock formations."
"It [hitting him] might stop him being such a brat," Adam suggested.
"Doesn't," Elliot contributed. [...] I have collected the data on this subject, and I am in the perfect position to tell you that it has no useful results whatsoever. It just means I'm
bleeding as well as annoying."
"Also, the value of someone does not rely on their ability to hurt others," said Luke.
"This world was stupid, and everyone in it was stupid. Elliot was stupid, too, for being happy in this house full of stupid people who were all going to get themselves killed."
"He was not a comforting type of person: it was stupid, like a hedgehog trying to be a hot-water bottle."
"He must have a really reat personality," she said at last.
"You know, I really don't," said Elliot, impatiently and in Elvish.
"Yep, turns out I still hate pain and think violence is pointles. Sorry, I think I was attempting emotional catharsis, but this is dumb and you people are stupid."
"He wasn't poisoning or drugging General Lakelost. Brandy was medicinal."
"Ha!" sai Elliot to Dale. "That was my girlfriend... killing a sentient creature. But for a good reason and showing very praiseworthy athletic skill."
re: the thing with the unicorn
"I didn't want it to come to this," [Elliot] informed the leaves. "But could somebody fetch Luke?"
"I'm fairly certain that's not going to help," said Commander Woodsinger. "I mean this in the most impresonal and professional way possible, but have you seen Luke Sunborn?"
"Elliot kept thinking that there must be a limit to how scandalized Luke could seem about this situation, on a scale from slight-social-faux-pas to nudist-at-the-vicar's-tea-party. Currently he was at Victorian-aunt-time-traveled-to-a-strip-club."
Luke on computers: "They're boxes... but you can write things in them. And read things in them. And there are cats in them who are funny for some reason. They're like--boxes of infinity. And! You keep the wikipedia in them!"
"Luke had to go to a disciplinary hearing because of killing a guy. Elliot suspected it was just going to be high fives about being a badass warrior all around."
Michael Sunborn: "This is blackmail. It means you should--"
"I know what blackmail is!" Elliot exclaimed. "I'm highly intelligent! I was just taking a small personal moment to feel betrayed by a trusted authority figure!"
"Dreadful," Luke's dad agreed.
"Except that Golden never wrote back, unless you counted the letter of Serene's Golden had returned with DRIVEL written over it in violet ink."
Luke: "I was talking about the fact that you date people called Jason as well as people called Serene and Myra and Adara."
Frankly elliot thought the most surprising thing about this was that Luke managed to remember all those names.
"I think you were going to talk about your feelings," Luke ontinued. [...] "Could you do that before you give me the lecture on linguistics?" Elliot was proud that Luke accepted the lecture was coming.
L read the book with great delight (I just heard her sporfling periodically), figured out the endgame pairing about 30 pages in, and guessed that the red-haired medic was Elliot's mother way before I (or he) did. And she's already recommended it to Awesome Friend Ali on the premise of "my mom likes this book" XD
There is a Luke-POV short story set in the same universe, which I've also read by now (part of the 2014 anthology I mention below) and also an Adara POV short story on SRB's LJ.
*
Currently reading (for some pretty loose values of 'currently', admittedly, and also 'reading' :P)
- Jo Walton's My Real Children from tabacoychanel's parcel. I like it, but it's slow going, what with the sad and also on account of being an actual paper book I have to carry around.
- The Obelisk Gate, which I went back to once The Stone Sky came out, but am having trouble making much progress in -- not because I don't like the book, but because whenever I get to Nessun's POV, I have to put it down, because ouch.
- Ruin of Angels (the new Max Gladstone), which I started despite the fact that I have not yet finished Last First Snow or started Four Roads Cross, despite having both in my possession. But I guess I've just missed Kai!
- Monstrous Affections, the YA anthology of genre stories about monsters which I got on account of the In Other Lands-verse Luke-POV story in there. I'm now a little over halfway through the collections, and the tally stands of one story (besides the Luke POV, which I'm just sort of attaching to the novel) that I really liked, two more that were fun, one that I could appreciate despite it being not my thing, one where I liked the idea but was meh on the execution, and two (by new-to-me authors) that just didn't do anything for me at all. So, not a stellar haul, but could be worse, too.
- Tiassa reread, because I've been working on my Iorich reread write-up, went to check something in Tiassa, and then it occurred to me that if I reread Tiassa, too, I will have led up to the timeframe of Vallista, and that might be a good thing before October.
*
And speaking of that:
From this pre-publication review of Vallista we learn that Vallista is a gothic. OF COURSE! (although I don't like gothics, so... IDK.) I'm intrigued by the promise that "many of the mysteries plaguing Vlad are solved here". Like, what mysteries? That don't appear to be overtly solved in Hawk, since Vallista takes place before it...
And from Brust's Patreon, which I check out periodically, the new-=to-me revelation that Tsalmoth (tentatively the after-Vallista book) is set between Yendi and Jhereg (!!!) -- i.e. [spoilers for Teckla]actual Vlad and Cawti marriage (/relationship), not during the honeymoon period, not when it's falling apart while Vlad is oblivious to it. That should be interesting!
And speaking of books that may or may not come out at some point: Scott Lynch interview from Worldcon has the following tidbits about Thorn of Emberlain:
"but we’re always going to be returning to Emberlain and the Kingdom of the Seven Marrows, as returning scene settings." (this was originally where the whole series was supposed to start)
"We’re also going to meet a new cast of recurring characters, who are going to be in total political opposition to everything Locke and Jean want to accomplish, and that is Anton Strata and his family. He’s a teenager who finds himself essentially fighting in a suddenly very vicious portion of the civil war to stay alive, let alone claim his eventual succession to the throne."
"those who have read [Republic of Thieves] will know what happens in the last scene and who returns from a previous novel. Originally that was not going to happen. Originally we were never going to see that person again. Once that scene sort of popped into my head, once I saw what they were doing, I couldn’t un-see it. I just had to." [Scott Lynch, no. That was a terrible idea. He was a terrible character and you should have let him go when you had the chance.]
This entry was originally posted at http://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1055137.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).
37. Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue -- This was a birthday present from aome, but actually even before I got the book as a gift I heard about it from ikel89 during the exceedingly scenic drive back from Kazbegi, and was intrigued to check it out for myself, so Debbie's gift was very timely :) Having read it, it wasn't quite as cool a book as the premise (and fabulous title) made it sound, sadly, but definitely still an entertaining and fast read.
Here's the very fun premise -- a Grand Tour by a young bisexual British nobleman, his best friend/(male) love interest, who is mixed race (and also *spoiler*), and his younger sister who isn't interested in finishing school but wants to go to med school instead. Along the way from Paris to Spain to Italy, there's political intrigue, highwaymen and pirates, and alchemical mysteries. That sounds pretty cool, right? And it is fairly fun, although a couple of things undermine the strengths of the book: spoilers!
1) Monty, the protagonist and narrator. He sounds at first like a lovable rogue, but in fact he's actually kind of a dolt. He does show some growth along the way, but it's growth from "pathetic impulse-driven idiot" to "passable human being", which isn't really that much to cheer for. His POV is full of fairly justified self-loathing through most of the book, when it isn't vapid prattling, which is not much fun to read. He does eventually shape up, like I said, but by that point it was too little, too late for me to like him.
2) The plot relies on everyone being a total idiot. I think the book was aiming for zany hijinks, but while that's possible to pull off (see those Patrick Weekes books from earlier in the year), this book... doesn't. Monty does monumentally idiotic things for no reason in-universe and actually to drive plot -- like randomly stealing an important-looking box from an important politician's chambers where he's making out with someone. And then runs naked through Versaille, because why not. People trip over things, make noise when trying to sneak around, fail to look in obvious places for hidden objects, fall for absolutely ludicrous cover stories, go out into the city with their faces uncovered when they're being searched for, etc. etc. The good guys, the bad guys, the shades-of-gray guys, everyone is a complete nincompoop. But I think the bit that annoyed me the most on this score is that the main antagonist chose to stay behind and DIE when all that had happened was that his hope for political advancement, in the form of the alchemical heart, had burned. He wasn't dying himself, he wasn't in any imminent danger without the heart, he just... decided to have a villainous breakdown, apparently, for no reason that's ever explained.
3) Speaking of people being idiots, two thirds of the book relies on romantic tension that has no reason to exist. Monty, who is happy to sleep with anything that moves, has recently realized he's in love with Percy, his best friend. He thinks it's unrequited, and there's some nice, legitimate pining for the duration of the journey from England to Paris. Then Percy kisses him, and this is where the UST should've ended, right? Except Monty comes away from the encounter (somehow) convinced that Percy could never be interested in him that way, and Percy, instead of finding out whether "yes" or "no" was the honest answer to his question as to whether the kiss meant anything to Monty, proceeds to pine in return. I'm not a big fan of romantic misunderstandings (although you'll note two other books in this roundup used it centrally, too), but there at least has to be SOME REASON for them. There really, really isn't any here. So the pining, which had been fun for a while -- bed sharing! changing in each other's presence! -- immediately started annoying me. It is eventually resolved at least not at the very end, and then circumstances prevent them from getting together, but by that point I was just really DONE with the whole trope.
4) I'm not a reader of historical fiction, so I generally don't notice anachronisms. But this book -- I don't even know if it gets specific things wrong, but everything about the way it's written -- Monty's narration, the dialogue, and especially the perspectives everyone is coming from, feels like modern American teenagers playing dress-up. I couldn't guess/remember whether the book was Regency or Victorian or what, but in fact it's mean to be set in the 1720s or so. It... does not feel like the 1720s. And one of the worst culprits is the way the prejudices the characters encounter very frequently feel like modern ones, and the arguments and affirmations feel very modern, too. Monty occasionally remembers homosexuality is actually a capital crime at this point, but the actual consequences are that his father beats him up and threatens to disown him, and has a very enlightened conversation with Felicity (the sister) about how he was born this way (why she should hold reactionary views on this thing all of a sudden is never explained). Percy is occasionally treated as slightly second-class, except for this one super-racist character, and encounters more 'microiniquities' than overt racism -- e.g. the lady in Paris who tells him she's "very committed to your cause" and asks him how long it's been since he came from Africa. Percy, who is also epileptic, has a conversation with Monty about how Monty needs to recognize that his life has value even though he's ill and not just try to fix him. A character (a runaway slave turned pirate captain) actually tells Monty that he has worth. It's all rather cringe-inducingly Tumblresque, tbh.
(Speaking of Tumblresque diversity -- in addition to POC (Percy), sexual diversity (Monty is bi, Percy appears to be, and Felicity may be ace, judging by her lack of interest in kissing as a thing), and physical disability representation (Percy's epilepsy and Monty's later injuries and hearing loss), I'm pretty sure Dante is meant to be non-neurotypical/have something like Asperger's. Which is nice and all, but it felt a bit odd that *he* didn't get any affirming accolades. Monty also seems to have some form of PTSD associated with his dad's abuse, I guess.)
Also, seriously, not only is Monty so oblivious to the Bible that he doesn't recognize 'Lazarus' as a Biblical reference, but neither Percy nor Felicity do either? I find that hard to believe...
So, that's a fairly long list of fairly serious complaints, but I nevertheless enjoyed the book, in a slightly exasperated way. The things I liked:
1) Felicity, the sister, who is no-nonsense and take-charge, and Monty is justifiably in awe of her a bit. At the end, the pirate captain brings her aboard as a doctor(-in-training), and I think I'd rather have read that book, fucking ships nonwithstanding. (Apparently such a book is actually in the works and will be released next year, titled "THE LADY'S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY". OK, yes, I will be reading that book. XD)
2) The potential of the Monty/Percy relationship. If Monty weren't such a useless twittering thing for most of the book, and if the stupid romantic misunderstanding didn't hover needlessly between them, this would've been really sweet. Their childhood friendship and the way they comfort each other were very sweet (the scene where Percy comes up with a list of reasons why Monty shouldn't want to be dead was especially nice), mixed with teasing affection, and the pining was pretty hot while I could suspend my disbelief for it. And there are glimmers of goodness here and there, little scenes, and Percy telling him, "I'm not going to be the most convenient mouth around when you're drunk and lonely and missing blue-eyed Sinjon" when they finally sort themselves out. This is a trope I like a whole lot, actually, when executed well -- childhood best friends realizing they have the hots for one another (there's a reason Harry/Ron is my last ship standing for HP :P) But given that I found it hard to like Monty and was frustrated by the artificiality of the UST, it was hard to like the relationship as actually written.
3) There's actually an interesting growth arc there for Monty IF it had been treated a bit more seriously. There are actually two things there -- Monty learning not to freeze up when threatened with a punch (as a child raised with abuse), and Monty learning to... well, listen to other people, basically, and face up to reality, and not be so utterly self-absorbed. He starts out wanting to "fix" Percy and feeling like if he does, everything will be alright -- and does not listen to Percy's actual wishes on this account at all, or the pragmatic objections that it may not be possible. Him letting go of that would've actually been a neat arc, except it's rather muddled by the alchemical whatsits. But I liked what I *think* it was trying to do? And Percy coming to terms with Percy's illness, overcoming his fears and feelings of uselessness, when he first learns about the epilepsy, that was nice. And I do think the book does a good job, even through the inanities, of painting Monty as someone who both has a lot of privilege as one of the nobility *and* has had to deal with his share of shitty things (abusive father first and foremost).
Quote (because the writing is often quite fun!)
'"Under my watch," Lockwood says, "there will be no gambling, limited tobacco, and absolutely no cigars. No visitations to any dens of iniquity [...] or sordid establishments of any kind. No caterwauling, no inappropriate relations with the opposite sex. No fornication. No slothfulness, or excessive sleeping late." It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favorites.'
I think, overall, this book falls into the category of things like Love Interest, where I wish a better author had taken a crack at the premise. But, fortunately, unlike Love Interest, the book as-is is at least competently if overly earnestly written, so I *could* enjoy it, rather than sputtering in ever-increasing bafflement as to what the hell the author thought they were doing. But for all its flaws, it was a fun read, and I do want to know more about Felicity, in the sequel! (Thank you again, aome! :)
38. Avoliot, The Course of Honor -- novel-length original sci-fi m/m with a whole bunch of tropes, starting with arranged marriage (posted on AO3) -- I picked this up courtesy of egelantier's rec. I actually don't like arranged marriage much as a trope, and not all of the other tropes invoked are necessarily favorites of mine, but the whole thing worked very nicely (to the point that I read it straight through in a couple of hours over the long weekend). I liked both protagonists a lot, introverted Jainan, trudging slowly back from years of abuse and clinging to his dignity and uber-extrovert Kiem, who is used to thinking of himself as a bumbling idiot but suddenly finds himself having to deal with darker things than elementary school charity events and shmoozing with journalists. The secondary characters are also quite nice, and even the cameos, like Kiem's general mother, are fun and intriguing. There's also some very nice and deftly interwoven worldbuilding about all manner of things, from sports to dress and gender expression, and trans and non-binary characters whose introduction is handled in an impressively non-issuefic-y way that I feel like some profic authors could learn from. Spoilers from here The worldbuilding included some interesting bits I'd like to know more about, like why does Iskan have both very gender-specific hair styles AND apparently only gender-neutral terms for political rank? I like both of those details, but am curious what sort of history led to the two coexisting. I also liked the way the main present-day antagonist, Aren, the way he is a dark mirror of Kiem, charming and let's-all-help-each-other-out-like-the-friends-we-are. The plot is fun and nicely tense, but with some nice quiet moments interspersed. I do agree with
egelantier site = "livejournal"> that the ending is a bit pat, and more, IDK, fic-like than novel-like somehow (except that the final chapter isn't "and then they bang" :P), but I did enjoy the whole thing.
This is a slow-burn "getting together" fic, albeit a plotty one, so the romance is a big part of it. There's a lot (I mean, A LOT) of mutual pining in the context of some massive misunderstandings, but this worked better for me than in 'Guide to Vice', because the misunderstandings actually mostly make sense -- Jainan's entire worldview is warped by abuse, Keim reasonably assumes he's grieving and doesn't want to be touched. The premise of the arranged marriage and the treaty is ridiculous, but beyond that the characters actually behave in fairly understandable ways, although the misunderstandings did drag on a bit long for my taste. There are a lot of interrupted conversations that could've gotten them on the same page sooner, but at least that's just the author drawing things out, not the characters being total idiots.
The author lists Captive Prince, Bujold (Bel's name is indeed a homage), and The Goblin Emperor as influences, and I can totally see all of them in the fic/book, but in a really good way, so! Kiem, in particular, struck me as a sort of cross between Ivan and Miles -- Ivan's levels of ambition (although for different reasons), combined with Miles's energy and people-person skills, and Jainan's slow thawing as he remembers/realizes what normal relationships are like reminded me quite a bit of Komarr. And Taam is even incompetent as well as abusive, like Tien, although Taam-and-Aren also gave me a sort of Serg-and-Ges dynamic. The similarity to Captive Prince is in the dynamic between the two principals, good-natured extrovert / intensely private person hiding past abuse, and the two of them coming from different cultures, although they don't have the hurdles of hating each other to overcome. (I'm also pleased to see that apparently I was not the only person who immediately thought of Malcolm Tucker upon meeting Hren the Press Office guy. Also, I find his name hilarious, because in Russian it's both the actual word for horseradish and slang for 'penis'.)
Bonus: authorially-approved fancast on Tumblr.
39. Black Mould (Rivers of London graphic novel #3) -- interesting story (and oddly, sadly timely, on the subject of London slums), but mostly I just have random observations, with spoilers:
- I like Beverley's "all shall love me and despair" shirt.
- Guleed preferring "horrifying sexual suggestion to the terrible pun".
- Peter's greatest fear is leaving London (in the context of his parents splitting up)
- Peter misreading Petal's name (apparently a hippie thing) as Patel, which she apparently gets a lot.
- The haunted ice cream truck was one of the view times where I felt being done in a graphic novel format definitely benefitted the story. That was pretty cute.
- I thought that the reference to Peter's father's operation was getting his mouth fixed... but it looks like Black Mould is set after The Hanging Tree (but before The Furthest Station
- Peter's knowledge of Russia is encompassed by dachas, troikas, and borscht. (An don't knock pickled mushrooms, Peter. They're awesome.)
- "Science will be our weapon." is now a thing that Peter has canonically said. I bet he's wanted to say that for a while.
- SWORDCANE! :D
- Nightingale has rules about screens at the table (which Peter does not always follow).
- Why did vodoun lady have Nightingale's service revolver? O.o
- Peter objecting to being called a pretty face (twice), rather than handsome.
- We got to see Peter's dad and Dominic (and it's nice to see that Peter and Dominic are still in touch)
- Nightingale giving up his jacket to a totally naked Petal seemed a fairly unnecessary scene. But he's learned to use a smartphone to record sound!
- And we see evidence of Peter not knowing anything about wine in the short. And nice to see Varvara doing well for herself in prison. And the foxes are now talking to Dom as well as Abigail! (I bet Dom is thrilled at being "the guy" XP)
40. Naomi Novik, Golden Age and Other Stories -- this is the art book where each piece of (loosely) Temeraire fanart (many of them pieces I've known/enjoyed for years) is accompanied by a new story or drabble. I read this in ebook, so didn't really get to enjoy the art (more than I've already enjoyed it on DeviantArt or Tumblr, I mean), but the stories of course were new. It was mostly entertaining fluff, although one book and less than a week after I'd finished it, I had pretty much forgotten its existence and skipped it in my numbering, oops. XD The stories don't really add that much to the universe, I feel, but there were a couple that do linger -- the story set in the Americas, with John Wampanoag as the POV character, which I would've liked to see more of; the present-day Temeraire drabble that was jsut the perfect length; and my favorite thing in the book, Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth is a Longwing captain :D
Individual stories, with spoilers:
"Volly's Cow" -- well, yay, Volly, Volly is always funny, as is Temeraire interacting with him. Mostly, though, I wanted to see more of Perscitia's politicking and trying to build a solid draconic voting block despite gerrymandering, which is alluded to here, and I wanted to see it in League of Dragons itself.
"Planting Season" -- the John Wampanoag story, which shows a very nice glimpse at both North American alternative history and at the relationship between the native tribes and their dragons. I liked John himself a lot in Blood of Tyrants (one of the few things in that book that I liked), so it was good to see him again, and I have a soft spot for clever trader stories, I guess, which this is. Anyway, this was lovely, and bittersweet, but, as with the previous one, I kind of wish we'd gotten to see North America in an actual full-length novel.
"Dawn of Battle" -- young Jane Roland POV, which has her in her first battle as captain of Excidium. Really interesting backstory here, not so much for Jane, but for her mother, Excidium's captain before her, which is an interesting facet to the seemingly more liberal view of women in the corps -- her mother wasn't the sort of woman suited to command but had been browbeaten into a figurehead position, and Jane is determined to not be like that at all. Other than the revelation of what her mother was like, the other thing I liked about the story was Jane's interaction of Excidium; we don't see it in the books, but it was nice to see their bond. But the story cuts out right before the battle actually starts, which felt a bit anti-climactic, although one of the drabbles picks up at a moment after the battle.
"Golden Age" -- this is a straight-up AU of the books, which had me side-eyeing it, because I think that strays too far into fanfic territory for an author. The premise is, Amite is shipwrecked instead of captured, but Temeraire's egg survives and he hatches on an island in the Caribbean and is somewhat reluctantly adopted by a band of ferals, and then turns them into a band of pirates over a misunderstanding. I wasn't finding the story interesting at all, and I was thinking it was because of the authorial AU, but then Laurence showed up, and all of a sudden I was invested, so I guess it's not that, and merely that Laurence is the key to the series for me, and Temeraire without him is boring (unless Perscitia is around). Anyway, it *was* interesting to watch them build rapport from a very different set of circumstances, and to see how quickly Temeraire had Laurence considering treason even here XD Oh, and Riley (naturally) and O'Dea make an appearance, which was neat.
"Succession" -- story set in China, from Temeraire's mother's POV, which reveals Temeraire is actually the older of the twin eggs. But I never cared about the China interludes or succession, and barely remembered who anyone was over there, so this story didn't do much for me.
"Dragons and Decorum" -- the P&P + dragons, which is DELIGHTFUL. Elizabeth is sent to the Covert as a way of lessening the burden on her parents, and becomes captain of a Longwing she names Wollstonecraft (heh), who, in this case, is the person most interested in match-making her, not Mrs Bennet. A number of touchstones from P&P show up -- the ball, Jane ill at Netherfeld, Elizabeth coming to Pemberley (although in this case it's with her wing, while they're retreating from the battle in which Napoleon crossed the Channel), Lady Catherine's visit -- while others are entirely absent (everything with Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Mr Collins), and yet others are totally changed (instead of the first, rejected proposal, Darcy writes her a letter which "contrived, while not soliciting her hand" -- because, as an officer in the middle of a war, it's not like she can just drop everything and wed him -- "to offer his own"). Jane Roland is briefly mentioned in the background, and anoter older Longwing captain, who sounds fun.
Drabbles:
- beach silliness
- space-dragon hatchling with robots? IDK...
- sad Lien
- Temeraire and Laurence moment between Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles
- Mulan drabble
- Temeraire critiquing Beowulf
- flying dragon city? Also DK...
- Elsie and Hollin planning adventures
- Jane getting her scar (presumably in the battle that was just about to start in the short story)
- Mayan dragon, I guess?
- Temeraire leaving China (during Throne of Jade?)
- Kulingile and Demane
- Tharkay pining over Laurence (as shippy as the books)
- Jane and Laurence first meeting/dinner
- Pregnant Iskierka being high maintenance
- Dragon natural history
- ???
- Wizard!Laurence and his dragon familiar
- Matteo Ricci on the dragons of China
- "Join or die" with a dragon logo and "history"
- more Kulingile and Demane
- Maximus POV drabble
- present-day Temeraire watching the Queen's Jubilee in an England transformed to accommodate dragons and missing Laurence
- Laurence walks in on Temeraire and Iskierka mating
- mermaid and sea-dragon?
- Emily annoyed that Demane is guarding her virtue ("It was not that she didn't like the captain, but he had much to answer for")
Of all the drabbles, only the bereft Temeraire one did anything for me, thought it was also interesting to get Emily's and Tharkay's POV, however briefly, and Jane's view of her first meeting with Laurence.
41. Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands -- this was another book I inhaled, pretty much over a busy weekend, and partly it was trying to keep up with ikel89 (reading in tandem is so much more fun when I'm actually enjoying the book. Imagine that! XD) but mostly it's because it's a really fun book. I've been disappointed and/or frustrated by SRB's latest offerings (the Lynburn trilogy steadily pleased me less and less with each book, with the conclusion being my biggest disappointment of the year, and one of those rare times where I felt downright betrayed by a book; good thing it wasn't a series I really cared about; Tell the Wind and Fire was not as disappointing, but it was frustrating anyway, in the way it was in dialogue with other books, but mostly I thought the other books more effective, even when one of them was Dickens :P So, it was lovely to have an SRB book I was actively and almost wholeheartedly enjoying (I do have some quibbles, but on the whole I liked it a lot, and immediately recommended to both L -- who is lapping it up with even greater glee than I -- and Awesome Friend Ali). I wish I could hail it as a return to form, but it just makes me worried that, because this book was written, what, in 2013-2015 (and published as a serial on SRB's blog), so, like, concurrently with the Lynburns? So it's not like SRB is back to writing books that I like and I can look forward to more -- it's that she used to. And even here, I liked the beginning (and the core of the story that was clearly set up by the beginning) more than the ending, so my enjoyment of the book is tinged with nostalgia, even though the book is brand spankin' new. Spoilers!
The first part is a riot. It reminded me of my favorite fanfic of SRB's/Maya's/Underwater Light's, "If You've a Ready Mind", from the POV of Ravenclaw!Draco, which is also why it reminded me (and < user name ="ikel89" site = "livejournal">) of Carry On, because Baz is rather Ravenclaw!Draco, too. Anyway, Elliot is hilariously over the top, and also rather a lot like some people in my household, which made him both funnier and easier to like despite him being a know-it-all overly dramatic asshole. He's an interesting protagonist: I can easily believe his peers would hate him and adults would want to get rid of him, but there's a core of intelligence and conviction that burns incandescent from the beginning and that he stays true to, and it made a compelling read to watch him find some people he liked and who liked him, and let go of some things while holding on to his ideals -- curiosity and abhorrence for war and the conviction that anything can be solved by talking rather than fighting. (And I like that his abhorrence of violence is total -- war as an institution, and violence even when it saves his life, and war games like the Sunborn contest), and not something he ever 'outgrows' or tempers, or ceases to mourn the effect of on his friends. He isn't always right, but he isn't wrong, either, and I think that's one thing the book keeps a good balance of. Also, it's interesting to have a hero who's a pacifist to this degree; I mean, you have Aang in AtLA, but even Aang fights, he just doesn't want to kill, and you have Harry Potter, who uses Expeliarmus! rather than more lethal spells, but they're not nearly as committed to not fighting at all, to nobody fighting, as Elliot is. And I can understand why he'd have this conviction, too, as a kid who grew up bullied and with no-one who loved him enough to protect him until he meets Serene and Luke in the Borderlands. And on a final random Elliot note that I liked, both L and I laughed in recognition when it turned out that Elliot was a (non-practicing) Jew, because boy do we know people like this, with both the positive and the negative traits; he rang very true as one. (A reader somewhere complained that he didn't feel like an *English* Jew, but, hell, it never says where his parents are from. Oh, no, actual final thing -- I also appreciated Elliot's genre savviness, not just of the fantasy genre but of literary tropez tropes -- where he is conscious of the way the kid who questions whether charging ahead is the right thing to do ends up being a coward and a traitor, that someone in his role ends up being an Iago figure -- but presses on anyway, because he knows what he thinks is right.
Anyway, I loved early Elliot, and the core of him that carries through to the end of the book, the kid who can't stop ordering people around, and who thinks 'subordination' is yammering at the commander until she gives in, and who never loses his sense of wonder about the various magical peoples, always chasing the next high (elves! mermaids! harpies! trolls!) or the determination to see them as people and talk to them, or the conviction that it is up to him to fix the world (in big ways and small, his friends' love lives and world peace and industrial revolution) before he graduates from training camp. I appreciated that there is no reconciliation between Elliot and the father who never loved him or saw him as a person, or between him and the mother who left him (though I would have really liked to learn her side of it; why did she get together with Elliot's father in the first place? why didn't she stay in the Otherlands after training? why didn't she just take Elliot with her when she realized she wanted to leave?). Other parts of his arc worked less well for me, considerably. Elliot's journey of sexual self-discovery felt kinda tedious, honestly. I think I understand why he had to have a muggle boyfriend -- it's commendable to have a bisexual character actually have a romance with a guy and a girl before the endgame ship, so it's clear he's choosing Luke and not a side of his sexuality, and there are some interesting contrasts between his relationship with Serene and with Jase. But the interlude with Jase seemed so random and pointless, and, like, why him? (And I had really liked the matter-of-fact way his bisexuality was mentioned in the first couple of pages, and didn't think we needed any of the later set pieces, but, eh, I don't begrudge their existence, since I know bi representation is quite rare.) And then all the stuff with Myra and Adara and Dale, it just got to be way too much for me when the endgame was perfectly clear at that point. There's only so much that can be justified by a running gag of Luke walking in on Elliot kissing people. And the thing is, I can kind of rationalize Elliot's kissing thing, if I try really hard -- as a kid who grew up with zero affection, with Serene being the first person to actually care about him, I can see him conflating romantic feelings and general affection. And from a stylistic (Doylist) perspective, there's I suppose the idea of Eliott trying to fix everything with his mouth -- symbolically, with his words, as a councilor-in-training, played seriously, and literally, with the kissing, played for laughs. But it's a weird sort of dissonance, and it strained my disbelief more than anything.
I do like both of Elliot's central relationships, and a lot of the minor ones. Luke/Elliot was pretty adorable, mostly by virtue of Luke being ridiculously adorable. He's a pretty unusual character, too, someone whom people flock to who is no good at people himself, an introverted leader. And I liked his mix of confidence and vulnerability/humility a lot, his badass rescues of Elliot and his ability to put up with Elliot's shit and only occasional plaintive requests for Elliot not to be a jerk to him right then/right about that specific thing -- and him learning from Elliot, starting to read and picking up big words (even though he doesn't know how to pronounce them and Elliot mocks him for it) and quoting back things that Elliot has said, which show how carefully he's been listening. I'm not sure, between Elliot and Luke, who's my favorite ultimately, but they play off each other quite nicely. (I'm not sure what it is with HP-riffing profic and random body-mod stuff, but at least Luke's wings were set up and foreshadowed and explained about a million times better than the stuff in Carry On.) I'm generally not a fan of romantic misunderstanding as a relationship driver, and definitely not at this length, but, ehhhh, it kind of sort of worked here? Elliot's conviction that he is not worthy of love makes for a believable blind spot given everything that's between him and Luke, and Luke's shyness papers over a lot of it. About the only thing I couldn't entirely buy is that Elliot, who never shuts up about ANYTHING, and had shared his pamphlets, would not have mentioned swinging that way in front of Luke or Serene sooner than that. But ah well. It doesn't actively bother me, I just found the prolonged mutual misunderstanding unnecessary. I did like that, romantic silliness aside, Elliot and Luke (and other people Elliot loves, Serene and Louise and Rachel Sunborn, e.g.) did frequently have opposite views on what was moral and right in a given situation, and argued about it. And I liked that in the big fight they had, they both said some very cruel things, not out of malice, of course, but out of hurt -- the book not pulling any punches.
Meanwhile, Elliot's crush on Serene was hilariously over-the-top and their relationship, I think, was nicely done as one where both people have each other's best interests at heart but just want incompatible things. I really liked that the two of them stayed just as important to each other after they broke up. And that Serene and Luke's relationship with each other was just as important as either of theirs with Elliot, while being 100% platonic from start to finish. The one disappointing thing is that I never felt like Serene developed as a character in the 4 years, while Elliot and Luke underwent significant arcs. I think there's some attempt to show that Serene, too, has changed through her association with the guys, but it doesn't feel very significant, and she seems more changed by her relationship with Golden than by anything else. (Which is... kind of unfortunately, even though the gender role-reversal gives that a different flavor, maybe.)
Speaking of the elven gender role-reversal, this was one thing that started out amusing me and then got kind of annoying in hammering the point home. I thing SRB is at her best when writing in "less is more" mode, and this is definitely the opposite of that. There were some bit about it I liked -- Serene's earnest explanations of stuff like why men are supposed to be the primary child-rearers, matrilinear descent, why male chests are more scandalous than female ones, being non-functional, and why women are naturally inclined towards sowing their wild oats, and Golden's reversal of the Sweet Polly Oliver trope, sneaking away with the army with a fake bosom made out of pudding. But there could stand to be 85% less of the elven gender flipping and implications of Elliot understanding the plight of women, and the book would've been a better book, IMO.
Among more minor characters, I liked Commander Woodsinger and her stoic and trying-her-best-not-to-tear-her-hair-out relationship with Elliot. I especially liked the scene where she tries to talk to Elliot about patriotism, and that's just not a concept he can grasp at all, but he can understand and embrace a challenge to his curiosity.
Quotes:
"Elliot objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle he would be violently sick. The other kids objected because after an hour in a moving vehicle they would be violently sick of Elliot."
"Are you telling me that I have magical powers? Because I can't walk through walls? That doesn't seem right."
"Yes, oh my God, I already understood the implications that I wasn't man enough to tough it out beyond the Border. Your attempt at an insult was extremely clear. You're just making the whole thing laboured and awkward now."
"The value of people does not rest on their ability to hurt others. Where's the honor in being better at hurting somebody? Telling me I have to do this is insulting, as if I can't win any other way. As if I can't win in a better way."
"He paid the cab driver, who looked dubious about leaving a child alone in a field, but Elliot had spun him what he felt was a very convincing story about rare rock formations and being a keen geologist. The cab driver certainly seemed convinced he did not want to hear any more about rare rock formations."
"It [hitting him] might stop him being such a brat," Adam suggested.
"Doesn't," Elliot contributed. [...] I have collected the data on this subject, and I am in the perfect position to tell you that it has no useful results whatsoever. It just means I'm
bleeding as well as annoying."
"Also, the value of someone does not rely on their ability to hurt others," said Luke.
"This world was stupid, and everyone in it was stupid. Elliot was stupid, too, for being happy in this house full of stupid people who were all going to get themselves killed."
"He was not a comforting type of person: it was stupid, like a hedgehog trying to be a hot-water bottle."
"He must have a really reat personality," she said at last.
"You know, I really don't," said Elliot, impatiently and in Elvish.
"Yep, turns out I still hate pain and think violence is pointles. Sorry, I think I was attempting emotional catharsis, but this is dumb and you people are stupid."
"He wasn't poisoning or drugging General Lakelost. Brandy was medicinal."
"Ha!" sai Elliot to Dale. "That was my girlfriend... killing a sentient creature. But for a good reason and showing very praiseworthy athletic skill."
re: the thing with the unicorn
"I didn't want it to come to this," [Elliot] informed the leaves. "But could somebody fetch Luke?"
"I'm fairly certain that's not going to help," said Commander Woodsinger. "I mean this in the most impresonal and professional way possible, but have you seen Luke Sunborn?"
"Elliot kept thinking that there must be a limit to how scandalized Luke could seem about this situation, on a scale from slight-social-faux-pas to nudist-at-the-vicar's-tea-party. Currently he was at Victorian-aunt-time-traveled-to-a-strip-club."
Luke on computers: "They're boxes... but you can write things in them. And read things in them. And there are cats in them who are funny for some reason. They're like--boxes of infinity. And! You keep the wikipedia in them!"
"Luke had to go to a disciplinary hearing because of killing a guy. Elliot suspected it was just going to be high fives about being a badass warrior all around."
Michael Sunborn: "This is blackmail. It means you should--"
"I know what blackmail is!" Elliot exclaimed. "I'm highly intelligent! I was just taking a small personal moment to feel betrayed by a trusted authority figure!"
"Dreadful," Luke's dad agreed.
"Except that Golden never wrote back, unless you counted the letter of Serene's Golden had returned with DRIVEL written over it in violet ink."
Luke: "I was talking about the fact that you date people called Jason as well as people called Serene and Myra and Adara."
Frankly elliot thought the most surprising thing about this was that Luke managed to remember all those names.
"I think you were going to talk about your feelings," Luke ontinued. [...] "Could you do that before you give me the lecture on linguistics?" Elliot was proud that Luke accepted the lecture was coming.
L read the book with great delight (I just heard her sporfling periodically), figured out the endgame pairing about 30 pages in, and guessed that the red-haired medic was Elliot's mother way before I (or he) did. And she's already recommended it to Awesome Friend Ali on the premise of "my mom likes this book" XD
There is a Luke-POV short story set in the same universe, which I've also read by now (part of the 2014 anthology I mention below) and also an Adara POV short story on SRB's LJ.
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Currently reading (for some pretty loose values of 'currently', admittedly, and also 'reading' :P)
- Jo Walton's My Real Children from tabacoychanel's parcel. I like it, but it's slow going, what with the sad and also on account of being an actual paper book I have to carry around.
- The Obelisk Gate, which I went back to once The Stone Sky came out, but am having trouble making much progress in -- not because I don't like the book, but because whenever I get to Nessun's POV, I have to put it down, because ouch.
- Ruin of Angels (the new Max Gladstone), which I started despite the fact that I have not yet finished Last First Snow or started Four Roads Cross, despite having both in my possession. But I guess I've just missed Kai!
- Monstrous Affections, the YA anthology of genre stories about monsters which I got on account of the In Other Lands-verse Luke-POV story in there. I'm now a little over halfway through the collections, and the tally stands of one story (besides the Luke POV, which I'm just sort of attaching to the novel) that I really liked, two more that were fun, one that I could appreciate despite it being not my thing, one where I liked the idea but was meh on the execution, and two (by new-to-me authors) that just didn't do anything for me at all. So, not a stellar haul, but could be worse, too.
- Tiassa reread, because I've been working on my Iorich reread write-up, went to check something in Tiassa, and then it occurred to me that if I reread Tiassa, too, I will have led up to the timeframe of Vallista, and that might be a good thing before October.
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And speaking of that:
From this pre-publication review of Vallista we learn that Vallista is a gothic. OF COURSE! (although I don't like gothics, so... IDK.) I'm intrigued by the promise that "many of the mysteries plaguing Vlad are solved here". Like, what mysteries? That don't appear to be overtly solved in Hawk, since Vallista takes place before it...
And from Brust's Patreon, which I check out periodically, the new-=to-me revelation that Tsalmoth (tentatively the after-Vallista book) is set between Yendi and Jhereg (!!!) -- i.e. [spoilers for Teckla]actual Vlad and Cawti marriage (/relationship), not during the honeymoon period, not when it's falling apart while Vlad is oblivious to it. That should be interesting!
And speaking of books that may or may not come out at some point: Scott Lynch interview from Worldcon has the following tidbits about Thorn of Emberlain:
"but we’re always going to be returning to Emberlain and the Kingdom of the Seven Marrows, as returning scene settings." (this was originally where the whole series was supposed to start)
"We’re also going to meet a new cast of recurring characters, who are going to be in total political opposition to everything Locke and Jean want to accomplish, and that is Anton Strata and his family. He’s a teenager who finds himself essentially fighting in a suddenly very vicious portion of the civil war to stay alive, let alone claim his eventual succession to the throne."
"those who have read [Republic of Thieves] will know what happens in the last scene and who returns from a previous novel. Originally that was not going to happen. Originally we were never going to see that person again. Once that scene sort of popped into my head, once I saw what they were doing, I couldn’t un-see it. I just had to." [Scott Lynch, no. That was a terrible idea. He was a terrible character and you should have let him go when you had the chance.]
This entry was originally posted at http://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1055137.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).