52 in 2009: Five More
I've been remiss. Not that there was much to be remiss about.
Ravens in the Library by Various: I like short stories, and short story collections by various authors are pretty much certain to make me happy, as I get to enjoy different styles on top of the different stories. Add to that my love of quirky fairy tales, and you'd expect this book to be an instant favourite.
And yet, Ravens in the Library didn't work for me at all.
Part of this may be my own fault. This anthology was put together to pay the medical bills of an uninsured artist I'd never even heard of, and perhaps foolishly, I expected the stories to be somewhat light-hearted and easy to read. Instead, I got a collection of dark tales that sometimes dripped with blood , and while I do enjoy that genre occasionally, it took my completely by surprise. You Go Where It Takes You in particular left me horrified, and it took me a week to pick up the book again. What really put me off, though, was that most of the stories seemed a bit too focussed on their own underlying message. I'm a shallow person. I want to be entertained, not spend fifteen minutes after reading each story wondering what the heck that was all about. I still have no idea what Kinderkochen was supposed to tell me.
So I'll recommend Ravens in the Library for everyone who likes a book full of thinky, dark, quirky (mostly modern) fairy tales. I'm a bit too stressed out for something like that right now.
~~~
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault: I won't claim to know the first thing about literature and literary periods, but there's a certain kind of historic novel I love for its intent, unemotional style of writing, where even the most dramatic scenes are told with a certain distance. It's what I liked about Otfried von Hanstein's Kleopatra, it's what made me love Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave, and it's what makes me love this book (which is about Alexander the Great from birth until the moment he became king).
Plus, Mary Renault didn't shy away from making the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion somewhat more carnal than most sources I'm familiar with. Kudos to her.
~~~
Heartbroken Angels 1&2 by Masahiko Kikuni: I'm going to count manga as, well, books for once, because these two are hardcover editions. ;)
Heartbroken Angels are collections of four-panel comic strips that are witty, observant, and yet so silly they hardly ever fail to make me laugh. The combination of Japanese day-to-day life and the way Kikuni pokes fun at it is just hilarious.
~~~
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman: I'm not sure I liked this, actually. I did like the character of Gerald Tarrant and the concept of the fae as a force that indiscriminately takes a person's fears and/or desires and makes them come true. I didn't like the way Ciani was established as a strong women only to be reduced to playing the role of damsel in distress who doesn't even get to narrate her own story, or the way the rakh were constantly described in animal metaphors. And I don't like stories that keep jumping from one POV character to the next, except Friedman's characters all have the same narrative voice, so it didn't really matter; not sure whether or not that's a plus.
I did buy the second book of the trilogy, though. We'll see how that one goes.
~~~
14 down, 38 to go.
Ravens in the Library by Various: I like short stories, and short story collections by various authors are pretty much certain to make me happy, as I get to enjoy different styles on top of the different stories. Add to that my love of quirky fairy tales, and you'd expect this book to be an instant favourite.
And yet, Ravens in the Library didn't work for me at all.
Part of this may be my own fault. This anthology was put together to pay the medical bills of an uninsured artist I'd never even heard of, and perhaps foolishly, I expected the stories to be somewhat light-hearted and easy to read. Instead, I got a collection of dark tales that sometimes dripped with blood , and while I do enjoy that genre occasionally, it took my completely by surprise. You Go Where It Takes You in particular left me horrified, and it took me a week to pick up the book again. What really put me off, though, was that most of the stories seemed a bit too focussed on their own underlying message. I'm a shallow person. I want to be entertained, not spend fifteen minutes after reading each story wondering what the heck that was all about. I still have no idea what Kinderkochen was supposed to tell me.
So I'll recommend Ravens in the Library for everyone who likes a book full of thinky, dark, quirky (mostly modern) fairy tales. I'm a bit too stressed out for something like that right now.
~~~
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault: I won't claim to know the first thing about literature and literary periods, but there's a certain kind of historic novel I love for its intent, unemotional style of writing, where even the most dramatic scenes are told with a certain distance. It's what I liked about Otfried von Hanstein's Kleopatra, it's what made me love Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave, and it's what makes me love this book (which is about Alexander the Great from birth until the moment he became king).
Plus, Mary Renault didn't shy away from making the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion somewhat more carnal than most sources I'm familiar with. Kudos to her.
~~~
Heartbroken Angels 1&2 by Masahiko Kikuni: I'm going to count manga as, well, books for once, because these two are hardcover editions. ;)
Heartbroken Angels are collections of four-panel comic strips that are witty, observant, and yet so silly they hardly ever fail to make me laugh. The combination of Japanese day-to-day life and the way Kikuni pokes fun at it is just hilarious.
~~~
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman: I'm not sure I liked this, actually. I did like the character of Gerald Tarrant and the concept of the fae as a force that indiscriminately takes a person's fears and/or desires and makes them come true. I didn't like the way Ciani was established as a strong women only to be reduced to playing the role of damsel in distress who doesn't even get to narrate her own story, or the way the rakh were constantly described in animal metaphors. And I don't like stories that keep jumping from one POV character to the next, except Friedman's characters all have the same narrative voice, so it didn't really matter; not sure whether or not that's a plus.
I did buy the second book of the trilogy, though. We'll see how that one goes.
~~~
14 down, 38 to go.