Books in 2011 : April
Neil Gaiman Anasi Boys (Anasi Boys)
Bought: November 2008.
Neil Gaiman American Gods (American Gods)
Bought: March 2007.
Tim Waggoner Stargate SG1: Valhalla
I can forgive a lot of bad writing if the story is compelling and the characters interesting. In fact, I tend not to pay attention to a lot of things that others consider like glaringly obvious mistakes, writing-wise.
So, when the first paragraph of a book makes me, of all people, say, "Well, this is just clumsy writing," you know there's a problem.
I think I decided to give up on the book at page 14, when I read: Men roared with fury as they struck and other men cried out in pain as metal violated their flesh.
I skimmed through the rest of the book, mostly so I could be sure I wasn't missing anything good later on.
From what little I saw, I didn't.
Bought: November 2009.
Steven Savile Stargate SG1: The Power Behind the Throne
Bought: October 2010.
Diana Dru Botsford Stargate SG1: Four Dragons
Bought: October 2010.
Elizabeth Christensen Stargate Atlantis: Casualties of War
Since I didn't like the previous Sonny Whitelaw-Elizabeth Christensen books much, I expected to dislike this one as well.
So, I was pretty surprised to enjoy it--at least, the characterization wasn't bad, even if the story was yet another variation on the theme of "two halves of a culture have grown wary of each other and things come to a head just as the team intrudes into their lives" that seems common to nearly all SGA books.
Definitely not the worst of the lot.
Bought: September 2007. (Re-read)
Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen Stargate Atlantis: Blood Ties
Yeah, unsurprisingly, didn't like it.
For starters, the A-story (Wraith on Earth!) and the B-story (Telepathic Dinosaurs!) didn't feel like they belonged in the same book.
And then, there were these allusions to the fact that Ronon is immune to Wraith feeding--I actually had to research that one on the Internet, and found out that there's been a bit of debate about why the Wraith stopped feeing on him when he was first taken prisoner, but I always just assumed that they started to feed and recognized then that he would make a good runner, and that's the reason they stopped.
I just feel that if there had been something in Ronon's physiology making him immune to the Wraith, Becket would have run some tests and it would have come up again in the show...
Bought: January 2008. (Re-read)
Sabine C. Bauer Stargate Atlantis: Mirror, Mirror
What's not to like here?
Angst and H/C aplenty.
Great characterization.
Great plot.
*hearts*
Bought: September 2008. (Re-read)
James Swallow Stargate Atlantis: Nightfall
I found the story itself enjoyable but the characterization struck me as odd--it didn't make me want to throw he book across the room the way some other SGA novels did, but it was a close thing.
And the writing wasn't very good--not to mention that if there was any proofreading done before publication, it wasn't very efficient. I could still find too many typos, and I wasn't paying such close attention...
Bought: April 2009. (Re-read)
Peter J. Evans Stargate Atlantis: Angelus
My opinion hasn't changed since the first time I've read it (at the time, I wrote "The writing in this one was just cringe-worthy. On top of the usual typos and language errors even I could spot (keeping in mind that English isn't my first language), the characters seemed off to me, and the writing was all over the place--was this book edited at all? It sure felt like you could have taken a third of the words away ; it would have saved some trees, and made the story at least readable.
I mean, seriously, "She fought the pressure, the crushing fatigue, convulsing sluggishly on the bed until, finally, some measure of control returned to her deadened body"? WTF?)
Bought: June 2009. (Re-read)
Chris Wraight Stargate Atlantis: Dead End
I thoroughly hated this one. The characterization felt completely off, the dialog didn't ring true to the characters I know and love and the story bored me to tears. I was actually relieved when it was over!
Bought: July 2010.
Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg L'enfant du temps (Child of Time)
Bought: February 2011.
Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg Le retour des ténèbres (Nightfall)
Bought: February 2011.
Aaron Rosenberg Stargate Atlantis: Hunt and Run
Probably my least favorite book so far. By page 13, I felt like throwing the book across the room and it's pretty rare for me. ("Rodney was a coward and a complainer but he wasn't stupid and he did occasionally have some valid concerns." Wow. Talk about insightful characterization.)
The characters didn't sound like themselves, and their characterization was so wildly off that I started skimming around page 20. What little caught my eye later on in the book convinced me that I was right not wasting time on it. (So, in the past, Ronon escapes and arrives on a planet where there's a spaceport, so he can steal a ship. 'Cause you know, there are just so many spaceports in the Pegasus galaxy...)
And don't even get me started on the dialog.
That hurt.
Bought: July 2010.
Isaac Asimov Le Club des Veufs Noirs (Tales of the Black Widowers)
Bought: February 2011. (Re-read)
Christopher Buckley Salles fumeurs (Thank You For Smoking)
Bought: August 2007.
David Sedaris Je parler français (Me Talk Pretty One Day)
It's not often that a book has me giggling out loud, but this one did--especially in this scene, in which the author tells about a time when he was taking French classes with other expatriates, as he lived in Paris, and they try to explain what Easter is to one of the students.
"Part of the problem had to do with vocabulary. Simple nouns such as cross and resurrection were beyond our grasp, let alone such complicated reflexive phrases as "to give of yourself your only begotten son." Faced with the challenge of explaining the cornerstone of Christianity, we did what any self-respecting group of people might do. We talked about food instead.
"Easter is a party for to eat of the lamb," the Italian nanny explained. "One too may eat of the chocolate."
"And who brings the chocolate?" the teacher asked.
I knew the word, so I raised my hand, saying, "The rabbit of Easter. He bring of the chocolate."
"A rabbit?" The teacher, assuming I’d used the wrong word, positioned her index fingers on top of her head, wriggling them as though they were ears. "You mean one of these? A rabbit rabbit?"
"Well, sure," I said. "He come in the night when one sleep on a bed. With a hand he have a basket and foods."
The teacher sighed and shook her head. As far as she was concerned, I had just explained everything that was wrong with my country. "No, no," she said. "Here in France the chocolate is brought by a big bell that flies in from Rome."
I called for a time-out. "But how do the bell know where you live?"
"Well," she said, "how does a rabbit?"
(...)
I told myself that despite her past behavior, my teacher was a kind and loving person who had only my best interests at heart. I accepted the idea that an omniscient God had cast me in his own image and that he watched over me and guided me from one place to the next. The Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and the countless miracles - my heart expanded to encompass all the wonders and possibilities of the universe.
A bell, though - that’s fucked up.
(Incidentally, the bell thing? Is the reason why I first questioned the existence of Santa. Because how the hell could a bell hold on to the chocolate it was delivering, exactly? The bells might fly from Rome, but wouldn't the chocolate have fallen off to the ground long before it reached Belgium? And if the bells didn't bring the chocolate, then, chances were there was something fishy about that Santa Claus business as well.
Sigh.)
Bought: February 2011.
Jonathan Franzen Les corrections (The Corrections)
Bought: February 2008.
Pénélope Bagieu Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante
Bought: April 2011.
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