Reading roundup: RoL GN #4 + Philosopher's Flight
1. Ben Aaronovitch, Detective Stories (RoL comic #4) -- also the last currently-out thing in terms of in-universe chronology, the only one taking place after The Hanging Tree. Unlike the first three books, it's a collection of short stories (four individual ones) linked by the framing narrative of Peter's final interview in the process of getting
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... Speaking of ~magic schools, have I ever mentioned All Men of Genius (Lev A.C. Rosen) to you? IIRC it's more of a "steampunk school", but it's very handwavy, magic-y science. XD It was the book that taught me that I will not automatically like every "girl disguises herself as a boy" school novel -- I intellectually appreciated the fact that it's perhaps the first time I've ever seen an invocation of this trope with a girl who's got a very firmly feminine gender identity and actually kind of dislikes the disguise, but ... it made the book less fun for me. XD
Still, from what I recall the rest of the book wasn't bad, so it might be of interest to you, too? :D (Though maybe wait a while for the glow of this book to wear off -- I don't recall if it was otherwise good enough to do well in direct comparison to something you really liked. :'D)
And speaking of interesting book developments -- had you heard that Naomi Novik has a new book coming out in July? Spinning Silver -- I can't tell if it's in the same world as Uprooted, but from what little I've read about the premise, it sounds tentatively intriguing. :D
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(I'm also curious to know what The Discourse (tm) will make of it. I've already seen a review from the other side, as it were, that went like, "this is a great story but why all the social justice stuff", and now I'm curious if The Discourse will take issue with a male author writing a (cis white) male protagonist co-opting the struggle of minorities, or something like that.)
have I ever mentioned All Men of Genius (Lev A.C. Rosen) to you?
Not by name/author, I think, because they're distinctive enough I'd probably remember! But I think the feminine gender identity with a Polly Oliver trope came up when we were talking about Leviathan et al. That does sound interesting -- I'll have to keep an eye out!
Ooh, I had NOT seen Spinning Silver! I also can't tell if it's the same world as Uprooted (the cover's definitely styled the same, but maybe they're just doing that for any 'fairy tale' books she writes). I'm intrigued that it also sounds like the protagonist may be Jewish (the name and the moneylending) -- and apparently she is? AFAIK, Novik is Jewish herself, on her father's side, so hopefully this'll be good, like the nicely authentic Slavic flavor of Uprooted (and not the horribly botched everything of Blood of Tyrants :P)
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Me too, since it makes it a lot easier to avoid forgetting about something completely. :D
You can put a hold on something as soon as it's in the system, which I think they do as soon as they decide to order the book vs when it actually arrives; if it's not in the system yet, you can put in a request, and if they decide to get the book, everyone who requested it is automatically put on the hold list.
(I might have gone ahead and put in a request for Spinning Silver. :D)
And yeah, that summary was very intriguing! Rumplestiltskin has never been one of those fairy tales that had a particular draw for me, but this sounds like it might be a really interesting take (probably more interesting to me than the tale itself t b h) if it's done well. :D
(and not the horribly botched everything of Blood of Tyrants :P)
... Yeah let's hope for ... not that. XD
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(probably more interesting to me than the tale itself t b h)
Same! It's not one of my favorite fairy-tales either.
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