It's the end of February, so books I have read this year
The pace has been rather slower than last year. No surprise, since I've *never* read that many books; dunno what got into me. Possibly stupidity. But anyway, returning more or less to previous levels of reading, first, fiction, more or less in order of how much I liked them:
Inda, by Sherwood Smith. The first in yet another fantasy series, but I *seriously* recommend anyone interested in fantasy check this out.
Among the good things about this book: The author has clearly thought about the less savory implications of arranged marriages, and given us a society where magic works (admittedly, only the tiny, relatively subtle remnants of what used to be much more magic) where the magic users also thought about this and put their magic to good use.
Some of the people on my f-list have expressed a desire for more books with gay characters who just happen to be gay. This has several of those, of both genders, including the character I would call the second lead, if I had to call someone the second lead, and including bisexuals as well as hetero and straight people. While the society where most of the book takes place is highly militaristic, feudal and backwards in some ways that very important to the plot, the attitude towards sexuality and sex is, well, what I wish the attitude towards sex was in this world.
Can turn heartbreaking and make you cry in a shocking instant without making a part of your brain worry the author is taking a bit of sadistic glee in slaughtering/mutilating the likable characters . . . (I realize what that sounds like, but I'm still a fan of the other series, really) (like that other series, this has a whole bunch of characters, many very likable, many mixed, and some hatable, though I didn't think there were going to be any real fully hatable people at first--you can understand someone's motivations from their pov and still hate them)
In general, everything seems to be exceptionally well thought out, including the implications of all sorts of stuff I don't have time to go into, how people gradually become better or worse (this spans years so we get to see a lot of this) or just different. I especially liked some of the marginally unlikable people in the book went in vastly different directions as the story went on.
I suck at giving non-spoilery plot descriptions, but basically, second son of an important but non-royal family unexpectedly gets called to begin military drilling under the thumb of the royal types, more to serve as hostage to his families good behavior than anything else (along w/all the other second sons of important families). Various political manueverings and youthful hijinks ensue.
Smith has historically written juveniles and at the beginning I was somewhat wondering why this wasn't marketed as one, but unlike ASOIAF, the characters get older at a less than glacial pace, and while everything seems rather innocent and non-life threatening at the beginning, as far as political power games go, things change. Ended on a genuinely surprising cliffhanger, has me waiting eagerly to start the next one.
Dust by Elizabeth Bear, & Undertow, also by Elizabeth Bear.
Put these on the same line cause if I had to pick a favorite, it would be a toss-up. Really liked both of these as well, though Undertow is easier to write about. A very well-crafted thriller, you could call it an science fictional anthropological eco-thriller, I guess, which has all the good things I like about straight action oriented set-in-this-world-and-time thrillers, plus I loved all the extra goodies involving the planetary ecosystem and a system of probability manipulation involving a local mining ore and a whole bunch of stuff about class and xenophobia and exploitation and greed. Also, the lead is an assassin, and I find this line of work fascinating. A semi-sociopath, who has some feelings and empathy but isn't cuddly at all in his ability to just shut them off to get the job done, and all of the characters are quite interesting, again. I was reading this and thinking "this really is so much better than most best-selling thrillers, why isn't it one?" and wondered if the lack of cuddliness might be the explanation there.
Running out of time, here, so will finish later w/nonfiction and Dust & Simon R Green's The Unnatural Enquirer, tho not much to say about that last--if you liked the series thus far you will like it and it's better than Hell to Pay but not up to the best of the authors work.
Inda, by Sherwood Smith. The first in yet another fantasy series, but I *seriously* recommend anyone interested in fantasy check this out.
Among the good things about this book: The author has clearly thought about the less savory implications of arranged marriages, and given us a society where magic works (admittedly, only the tiny, relatively subtle remnants of what used to be much more magic) where the magic users also thought about this and put their magic to good use.
Some of the people on my f-list have expressed a desire for more books with gay characters who just happen to be gay. This has several of those, of both genders, including the character I would call the second lead, if I had to call someone the second lead, and including bisexuals as well as hetero and straight people. While the society where most of the book takes place is highly militaristic, feudal and backwards in some ways that very important to the plot, the attitude towards sexuality and sex is, well, what I wish the attitude towards sex was in this world.
Can turn heartbreaking and make you cry in a shocking instant without making a part of your brain worry the author is taking a bit of sadistic glee in slaughtering/mutilating the likable characters . . . (I realize what that sounds like, but I'm still a fan of the other series, really) (like that other series, this has a whole bunch of characters, many very likable, many mixed, and some hatable, though I didn't think there were going to be any real fully hatable people at first--you can understand someone's motivations from their pov and still hate them)
In general, everything seems to be exceptionally well thought out, including the implications of all sorts of stuff I don't have time to go into, how people gradually become better or worse (this spans years so we get to see a lot of this) or just different. I especially liked some of the marginally unlikable people in the book went in vastly different directions as the story went on.
I suck at giving non-spoilery plot descriptions, but basically, second son of an important but non-royal family unexpectedly gets called to begin military drilling under the thumb of the royal types, more to serve as hostage to his families good behavior than anything else (along w/all the other second sons of important families). Various political manueverings and youthful hijinks ensue.
Smith has historically written juveniles and at the beginning I was somewhat wondering why this wasn't marketed as one, but unlike ASOIAF, the characters get older at a less than glacial pace, and while everything seems rather innocent and non-life threatening at the beginning, as far as political power games go, things change. Ended on a genuinely surprising cliffhanger, has me waiting eagerly to start the next one.
Dust by Elizabeth Bear, & Undertow, also by Elizabeth Bear.
Put these on the same line cause if I had to pick a favorite, it would be a toss-up. Really liked both of these as well, though Undertow is easier to write about. A very well-crafted thriller, you could call it an science fictional anthropological eco-thriller, I guess, which has all the good things I like about straight action oriented set-in-this-world-and-time thrillers, plus I loved all the extra goodies involving the planetary ecosystem and a system of probability manipulation involving a local mining ore and a whole bunch of stuff about class and xenophobia and exploitation and greed. Also, the lead is an assassin, and I find this line of work fascinating. A semi-sociopath, who has some feelings and empathy but isn't cuddly at all in his ability to just shut them off to get the job done, and all of the characters are quite interesting, again. I was reading this and thinking "this really is so much better than most best-selling thrillers, why isn't it one?" and wondered if the lack of cuddliness might be the explanation there.
Running out of time, here, so will finish later w/nonfiction and Dust & Simon R Green's The Unnatural Enquirer, tho not much to say about that last--if you liked the series thus far you will like it and it's better than Hell to Pay but not up to the best of the authors work.