wednesday reads 'n things
What I've recently finished reading:
Text: The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley, which I read in e-ARC from NetGalley. Natasha Pulley's second book has a lot in common with her first, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street: luminous, evocative writing that never obscures the narrative; a slow, gentle unfolding of story; two men with a significant age difference, from different cultures, carefully building a relationship; fantastical elements subtly woven into the fabric of the world. And Keita Mori makes an appearance in this book, which is awesome, though otherwise these books entirely stand alone.
The things it doesn't share are mostly improvements, at least to me. There are a few more female characters. The villains of this one are much more clearly driven, in this case by that age-old motive, greed; I was unhappy with Grace's actions in Watchmaker, as they completely failed to tally with her character as set up in the beginning. The setting in a remote mountain region of Peru is much more fascinating, to me, than England (and yes, parts of this book are set in England, but things don't really start moving until we get to Peru). The magical realism is complex and interesting: moving statues, glowing pollen, a fantastical city perched above a river on columns of rock and glass. And more that I'm not going to spoil.
I would have liked a bit more explicitness to the relationship - it's really only glbt if you squint - but it would be churlish to complain. Since I read an e-ARC, there were no maps (though it looks as though they will be in the final version), which made visualizing the geography rather hard, and sometimes the text is confusing. (I'm not quite sure how a few rock stacks in a small river can support a whole village!) The pacing is a little odd, and the conclusion a bit abrupt. But it's still a wonderful book, and I recommend it.
Audio: Freakling by Lana Krumwiede, which I got via the Sync summer series of audiobooks for teens. The story of a community of telekinetics whose telekinesis is so entrenched that they literally cannot feed or dress themselves without the use of their "psi" - and to whom people without this power are both figuratively and literally powerless. This is really not YA but middle-grade, and I found myself wishing it had been aimed at a more sophisticated audience if only for the possibility of deeper exploration of its important themes. That said, it's still a solid dystopian novel along the lines of The Giver, in which a character discovers the flawed foundations of his societal structures.
I enjoyed the theological world-building, and in particular the calendar song verses that began each chapter and the way they related to those chapters. I loved that Taemon is basically a budding engineer, taking joy in figuring out how things are put together and how they work. The psi worldbuilding is also well done, and the book is nicely structured.
That said, I felt that the characters were rather one-dimensional - the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Taemon also did some rather stupid things, it seemed, purely for plot purposes. There were a few spots where information given in a previous chapter was inexplicably repeated; also, the constant use of "X did Y using his psi" seemed a bit heavy-handed, considering the POV character would see that as the normal way, rather than something that needed qualification. There's a bit of a "knowledge is dangerous" thread that made me uncomfortable - I don't think the middle grade audience wouldn't be able to understand a more nuanced approach to the idea of knowledge being dangerous only without wisdom and morality. Finally, I was a little disappointed in the (apparent) ending, which seemed to be a little (literally) deus ex machina. But I'm intrigued enough to want to read the rest of the series.
What I'm reading now:
Text: Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb, the conclusion of the extremely long Realms of the Elderlings series. So far I'm enjoying it, though I've apparently forgotten a lot of what took place previously, oops. I'm particularly liking how the pronouns Fitz uses in his internal narrative for the Fool (who is currently presenting as female) change even within a paragraph, as he changes his focus from what others are seeing to what he personally feels and knows.
Audio: Beast by Donna Jo Napoli, another Sync audiobook. This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, from the male POV, set in medieval-ish Islamic Persia. (It's not clear exactly when - the blurb says 'ancient times' - but of course Islam didn't exist in what I consider to be ancient times, so I'm calling it medieval.) I'm not very far into it yet; it's okay, but I'm a little nervous about the treatment of women so far.
What I'm reading next:
I am going to have to pick something off my vast ebook collection, because we're going backpacking this weekend, and I'm NOT carrying that huge brick. Also, argh, my hold on Thick as Thieves came up, but I think I'll defer it for a while.
What I've recently finished watching:
Last night we saw the thrilling conclusion of S2 of The Man in the High Castle. Rock solid, I have to say. I'm really pleased that the alternate-worlds aspect is a strong part of the plot, because that's a trope I adore. Apparently there will be an S3, and I'm looking forward to it.
What I'm watching next:
Winter is coming! (Hey, it's the summer solstice, so by definition, it is!) Looking forward to it. I'd also like to watch S2 of The Expanse. And I need to see Wonder Woman before it vanishes!
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
Text: The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley, which I read in e-ARC from NetGalley. Natasha Pulley's second book has a lot in common with her first, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street: luminous, evocative writing that never obscures the narrative; a slow, gentle unfolding of story; two men with a significant age difference, from different cultures, carefully building a relationship; fantastical elements subtly woven into the fabric of the world. And Keita Mori makes an appearance in this book, which is awesome, though otherwise these books entirely stand alone.
The things it doesn't share are mostly improvements, at least to me. There are a few more female characters. The villains of this one are much more clearly driven, in this case by that age-old motive, greed; I was unhappy with Grace's actions in Watchmaker, as they completely failed to tally with her character as set up in the beginning. The setting in a remote mountain region of Peru is much more fascinating, to me, than England (and yes, parts of this book are set in England, but things don't really start moving until we get to Peru). The magical realism is complex and interesting: moving statues, glowing pollen, a fantastical city perched above a river on columns of rock and glass. And more that I'm not going to spoil.
I would have liked a bit more explicitness to the relationship - it's really only glbt if you squint - but it would be churlish to complain. Since I read an e-ARC, there were no maps (though it looks as though they will be in the final version), which made visualizing the geography rather hard, and sometimes the text is confusing. (I'm not quite sure how a few rock stacks in a small river can support a whole village!) The pacing is a little odd, and the conclusion a bit abrupt. But it's still a wonderful book, and I recommend it.
Audio: Freakling by Lana Krumwiede, which I got via the Sync summer series of audiobooks for teens. The story of a community of telekinetics whose telekinesis is so entrenched that they literally cannot feed or dress themselves without the use of their "psi" - and to whom people without this power are both figuratively and literally powerless. This is really not YA but middle-grade, and I found myself wishing it had been aimed at a more sophisticated audience if only for the possibility of deeper exploration of its important themes. That said, it's still a solid dystopian novel along the lines of The Giver, in which a character discovers the flawed foundations of his societal structures.
I enjoyed the theological world-building, and in particular the calendar song verses that began each chapter and the way they related to those chapters. I loved that Taemon is basically a budding engineer, taking joy in figuring out how things are put together and how they work. The psi worldbuilding is also well done, and the book is nicely structured.
That said, I felt that the characters were rather one-dimensional - the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Taemon also did some rather stupid things, it seemed, purely for plot purposes. There were a few spots where information given in a previous chapter was inexplicably repeated; also, the constant use of "X did Y using his psi" seemed a bit heavy-handed, considering the POV character would see that as the normal way, rather than something that needed qualification. There's a bit of a "knowledge is dangerous" thread that made me uncomfortable - I don't think the middle grade audience wouldn't be able to understand a more nuanced approach to the idea of knowledge being dangerous only without wisdom and morality. Finally, I was a little disappointed in the (apparent) ending, which seemed to be a little (literally) deus ex machina. But I'm intrigued enough to want to read the rest of the series.
What I'm reading now:
Text: Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb, the conclusion of the extremely long Realms of the Elderlings series. So far I'm enjoying it, though I've apparently forgotten a lot of what took place previously, oops. I'm particularly liking how the pronouns Fitz uses in his internal narrative for the Fool (who is currently presenting as female) change even within a paragraph, as he changes his focus from what others are seeing to what he personally feels and knows.
Audio: Beast by Donna Jo Napoli, another Sync audiobook. This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, from the male POV, set in medieval-ish Islamic Persia. (It's not clear exactly when - the blurb says 'ancient times' - but of course Islam didn't exist in what I consider to be ancient times, so I'm calling it medieval.) I'm not very far into it yet; it's okay, but I'm a little nervous about the treatment of women so far.
What I'm reading next:
I am going to have to pick something off my vast ebook collection, because we're going backpacking this weekend, and I'm NOT carrying that huge brick. Also, argh, my hold on Thick as Thieves came up, but I think I'll defer it for a while.
What I've recently finished watching:
Last night we saw the thrilling conclusion of S2 of The Man in the High Castle. Rock solid, I have to say. I'm really pleased that the alternate-worlds aspect is a strong part of the plot, because that's a trope I adore. Apparently there will be an S3, and I'm looking forward to it.
What I'm watching next:
Winter is coming! (Hey, it's the summer solstice, so by definition, it is!) Looking forward to it. I'd also like to watch S2 of The Expanse. And I need to see Wonder Woman before it vanishes!
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth