(no subject)
How is it August? That can't possibly be a real thing. I need a spare week between today and tomorrow please (or the sudden ability to be WAY more organised than I currently am!)
Anyway apparently despite my wishes it IS August so here are July's books- mostly Hugo & Retro Hugo Award books & technically I'm still reading one (Galactic Patrol) but I'm well over halfway through so I voted before the deadline hit. I think after ALL the cons this month I'm going to need a long break before I read any more science fiction or fantasy partly for my own sanity but mostly because I have SO MANY books on my to read pile.
♣ means I read it on the kindle (just for my own information) and ♦ means it was a shorter thing (so short stories & novelettes & comics *g*)
A Stranger in Olondria- Sofia Samatar This is fantasy on the mystical end of the spectrum and it's full of the most beautiful and lush paragraphs of description. Despite some of the more horrifying aspects of the plot and of the societies that are described I just really really want to be able to visit this world and Jevick is a great person to see it with. Mildly irritated by the main female character's sole purpose being to die but then it's not like she lets that stop her.
Two Serpents Rise- Max Gladstone Gods and worship and magic and power and I LOVED this universe that Max Gladstone has created. Plus there are multiple queer characters who are absolutely central to the plot and who are definitely more than their sexuality. The Red King is unbelievably creepy whilst also not having lost all of his humanity and whilst I did sort of work out what was happening it was in a creeping doubt sort of a way not because I was miles ahead of the plot.
Three Parts Dead- Max Gladstone So I think maybe this was meant to be read first *checks* Yep. Oh well. It's in the same universe but a completely different city and set of characters but again he's made them complex and recognisable and there are just enough shades of grey that I didn't always know who to trust. Plus this time we got Vampires and Gargoyles and even more religion and a monk called Abelard (I was very sad an Heloise never turned up). I'm definitely going to get hold of his third novel.
The Lives of Tao- Wesley Chu I'm a bit torn about this book. I have to admit to really wanting to read the next book because it ended in a properly "and here's the set up for book 2" way BUT I have a few real reservations about the way the book is formatted. It might seem mean to pick on an author for that but when you're main character is a parasite inside a human being it's REALLY important to keep dialogue clear and whilst it's always obvious when it's Tao that's talking I was consistenly confused about what was Roen speaking out loud and what was Roen inside his head to Tao. But again it's a great universe and set up and a great way to borrow and steal from history. So, yes, torn.
The Bees Her Heart, The Hive Her Belly- Benjanun Sriduangkaew If the description in A Stranger in Olondria made me want to visit that world the description here went the other way. Not just because it didn't sound like a great place to visit but also because there was too much of it, too much mood setting and feeling and not enough plot. Or rather not enough explanation? I don't know it didn't feel at all real to me even though the overarching theme of memory, shared and individual, is one I loved. Plus the idea of bees inside a human being just makes me think of Hannibal right now *shudders*
Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade- Benjanun Sriduangkaew This is in the same universe as the bee thing and suffers from similar issues although to a lesser extent so I guess she's getting better? There just didn't seem to be enough behind the main character's motivation. I don't know, I loved some of the gender stuff in this story and the idea of a marriage you have to renew every 5 years is interesting.
Fade to Gold- Benjanun Sriduangkaew The best of the three stories I think, very much an old fashioned fairytale in a lot of ways with a lover who doesn't trust her partner and so destroys her own happiness.
Lumberjanes #4- Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson & Brooke Allen I am increasingly in love with Jen and her ability to not notice what is going on (to be fair tea in a proper teapot IS fairly distracting). I'm also very much in love with the fact that the scouts like tidiness and baking <3
Carson of Venus- Edgar Rice Burroughs So now we're onto the Retro Hugos for 1939 and WOW. I've never actually read any Edgar Rice Burroughs before, Dad was horrified at the thought that I was voluntarily giving this a go (and in a way it's pointless- The Sword in the Stone is clearly what I'm voting for) but I wanted to be thorough and actually this wasn't as horrifying as I feared. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the leader of the rebels, Zerka, was a woman and that she didn't fall in love with anyone. I mean there's a whole lot of slightly dubious stuff going on re: native peoples being saved by Carson and it's VERY much of its time but it was kind of fun for all that.
Hyperpilosity- L. Sprague de Camp Short story time and this is my favourite kind of short story- sets up a tale, sees it through and because it's shrot doesn't overplay it. Also I quite like the idea of humanity deciding fur is easier to deal with than clothes :D
Hollerbochen’s Dilemma- Ray Bradbury I'd probably have enjoyed this more if it weren't for all the typos which clearly isn't the stories fault. Again it's a nice set up (person who can see his own future) and a good pay off (which I won't spoil). I wasn't enormously enamoured of the writing style though for some reason.
The Faithful- Lester del Rey Of all the animals why dogs? I guess man's best friend? But again I enjoyed this (enough that it distracted me from the stupid wait I had at the station because I missed a train by 30 seconds). Humanity wipes itself out also seems like quite a likely future for us right now.
Werewoman- C. L. Moore This was one of the novelettes, so slightly longer, and it was really creepy and atmospheric with a fantastic ending. Definitely a take on werewolves that I haven't seen (I was going to say new but then 1939 so just new to me *g*.
Pigeons From Hell- Robert E. Howard This title amuses me a LOT, not least because the titular pigeons basically appear ahead of the scary thing and then... nothing. I don't know why the poor pigeons are getting such a bad rap in what is, effectively, a rather spooky little zombie story. It would make a really unnerving short film I think with a few changes to remove the worst of the racism (it's set on a plantation in the south within a generation or so of slavery & the civil war so... some of it is pretty dodgy that way).
Helen O'Loy- Lester del Rey Well that was creepy and not in a good way. Android women created by strange and lonely men tends to be a thing that ends badly and I guess maybe this was meant to be a happy ending but *shudders* Too weird for me.
How We Went to Mars- Arthur C. Clarke The last of the Short Stories and I absolutely loved this once I'd found it (hurrah for googlebooks!) Fake history is a genre I very much enjoy and this so beautifully mirrored the terribly self-important way tiny societies can talk about themselves all the while talking a journey to MARS. Great fun.
Dead Knowledge- Don A. Stuart A nicely creepy but proper science fiction story this time (interesting how many of the retro Hugo entries are horror variants). Empty cities that are too quiet are always creepy and I absolutely didn't get the full horror of what was happening until the very end.
The Time Trap- Henry Kuttner Onto the novellas now and this was very old school scifi. Time Travel & if not an alien princess then she was at least from an alien time and we had an inhuman priestess too. Very B-Movie all round and a good romp but not a lot more behind it than that. I think the glimpses of different time periods were too short or not explained properly and the hero was kind of stupid in places.
Anthem- Ayn Rand All of the best stories are political in some way (with a small p) I'd say and it's doubly true of science fiction but this felt less like a story and more like a sermon and that's fairly dull. I guess it's a thought through world and I did like the way elements of what had gone before couldn't quite be erased but I don't much like feeling like I'm being lectured and it's hard to judge this as a story because I spent so much time bristling. I liked the way "Prometheus" started to interact with people in new ways. There you go. That's a thing I liked. *deletes story from kindle in case anyone finds it there*
Poems on the Underground- Judith Cherniak, Cicely Herbert & Gerard Benson (eds) Look! Something that isn't SFF! I've been reading this slowly for a couple of months as I've realised the best way to read poetry is a couple of poems a day and generally not more. This was a great collection too, as the title suggests it's a collection of the poems that you sometimes see on the underground in London and they cover all kinds of subjects, styles & periods. Plus a whole section of poems about London which made me very happy.
Who Goes There?- Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell] I got about three pages into this before realising I've actually read it before, not entirely sure when, possibly when Dad was having one of his "teach Sarah about classic scifi" phases. I didn't mind rereading it again though because whilst the science passages do tend to make me glaze over a bit (too much info dump) the actual story in nicely creepy and lingers in a slightly terrifying way after it's done. Did they really destroy ALL the monsters?
The Legion of Time- Jack Williamson This is fun, sci-fi pulp from the golden age of that kind of book. I'd never have read it normally and the whole "beautiful girl appears to a random stranger and he has to save her" thing ends in all the ways you expect with falling in love and ridiculous drama but it's written well and a very quick read. It's got a high body count but then death doesn't always stick in timetravelling universes *g* It's fun but never going to trouble The Sword in the Stone for my vote!
This year's total number of books is going to be an outlier from my normal numbers I suspect... well unless I just read nothing for the rest of the year *g*
Anyway apparently despite my wishes it IS August so here are July's books- mostly Hugo & Retro Hugo Award books & technically I'm still reading one (Galactic Patrol) but I'm well over halfway through so I voted before the deadline hit. I think after ALL the cons this month I'm going to need a long break before I read any more science fiction or fantasy partly for my own sanity but mostly because I have SO MANY books on my to read pile.
♣ means I read it on the kindle (just for my own information) and ♦ means it was a shorter thing (so short stories & novelettes & comics *g*)
- A Stranger in Olondria- Sofia Samatar♣
- Two Serpents Rise- Max Gladstone♣
- Three Parts Dead- Max Gladstone♣
- The Lives of Tao- Wesley Chu♣
- The Bees Her Heart, The Hive Her Belly- Benjanun Sriduangkaew♣♦
- Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade- Benjanun Sriduangkaew♣♦
- Fade to Gold- Benjanun Sriduangkaew♣♦
- Lumberjanes #4- Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson & Brooke Allen♦
- Carson of Venus- Edgar Rice Burroughs♣
- Hyperpilosity- L. Sprague de Camp♣♦
- Hollerbochen’s Dilemma- Ray Bradbury♣♦
- The Faithful- Lester del Rey♦
- Werewoman- C. L. Moore♣♦
- Pigeons From Hell- Robert E. Howard♣♦
- Helen O'Loy- Lester del Rey♦
- How We Went to Mars- Arthur C. Clarke♣♦
- Dead Knowledge- Don A. Stuart♦
- The Time Trap- Henry Kuttner♣
- Anthem- Ayn Rand♣
- Poems on the Underground- Judith Cherniak, Cicely Herbert & Gerard Benson (eds)
- Who Goes There?- Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell]♣
- The Legion of Time- Jack Williamson♣
A Stranger in Olondria- Sofia Samatar This is fantasy on the mystical end of the spectrum and it's full of the most beautiful and lush paragraphs of description. Despite some of the more horrifying aspects of the plot and of the societies that are described I just really really want to be able to visit this world and Jevick is a great person to see it with. Mildly irritated by the main female character's sole purpose being to die but then it's not like she lets that stop her.
Two Serpents Rise- Max Gladstone Gods and worship and magic and power and I LOVED this universe that Max Gladstone has created. Plus there are multiple queer characters who are absolutely central to the plot and who are definitely more than their sexuality. The Red King is unbelievably creepy whilst also not having lost all of his humanity and whilst I did sort of work out what was happening it was in a creeping doubt sort of a way not because I was miles ahead of the plot.
Three Parts Dead- Max Gladstone So I think maybe this was meant to be read first *checks* Yep. Oh well. It's in the same universe but a completely different city and set of characters but again he's made them complex and recognisable and there are just enough shades of grey that I didn't always know who to trust. Plus this time we got Vampires and Gargoyles and even more religion and a monk called Abelard (I was very sad an Heloise never turned up). I'm definitely going to get hold of his third novel.
The Lives of Tao- Wesley Chu I'm a bit torn about this book. I have to admit to really wanting to read the next book because it ended in a properly "and here's the set up for book 2" way BUT I have a few real reservations about the way the book is formatted. It might seem mean to pick on an author for that but when you're main character is a parasite inside a human being it's REALLY important to keep dialogue clear and whilst it's always obvious when it's Tao that's talking I was consistenly confused about what was Roen speaking out loud and what was Roen inside his head to Tao. But again it's a great universe and set up and a great way to borrow and steal from history. So, yes, torn.
The Bees Her Heart, The Hive Her Belly- Benjanun Sriduangkaew If the description in A Stranger in Olondria made me want to visit that world the description here went the other way. Not just because it didn't sound like a great place to visit but also because there was too much of it, too much mood setting and feeling and not enough plot. Or rather not enough explanation? I don't know it didn't feel at all real to me even though the overarching theme of memory, shared and individual, is one I loved. Plus the idea of bees inside a human being just makes me think of Hannibal right now *shudders*
Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade- Benjanun Sriduangkaew This is in the same universe as the bee thing and suffers from similar issues although to a lesser extent so I guess she's getting better? There just didn't seem to be enough behind the main character's motivation. I don't know, I loved some of the gender stuff in this story and the idea of a marriage you have to renew every 5 years is interesting.
Fade to Gold- Benjanun Sriduangkaew The best of the three stories I think, very much an old fashioned fairytale in a lot of ways with a lover who doesn't trust her partner and so destroys her own happiness.
Lumberjanes #4- Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson & Brooke Allen I am increasingly in love with Jen and her ability to not notice what is going on (to be fair tea in a proper teapot IS fairly distracting). I'm also very much in love with the fact that the scouts like tidiness and baking <3
Carson of Venus- Edgar Rice Burroughs So now we're onto the Retro Hugos for 1939 and WOW. I've never actually read any Edgar Rice Burroughs before, Dad was horrified at the thought that I was voluntarily giving this a go (and in a way it's pointless- The Sword in the Stone is clearly what I'm voting for) but I wanted to be thorough and actually this wasn't as horrifying as I feared. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the leader of the rebels, Zerka, was a woman and that she didn't fall in love with anyone. I mean there's a whole lot of slightly dubious stuff going on re: native peoples being saved by Carson and it's VERY much of its time but it was kind of fun for all that.
Hyperpilosity- L. Sprague de Camp Short story time and this is my favourite kind of short story- sets up a tale, sees it through and because it's shrot doesn't overplay it. Also I quite like the idea of humanity deciding fur is easier to deal with than clothes :D
Hollerbochen’s Dilemma- Ray Bradbury I'd probably have enjoyed this more if it weren't for all the typos which clearly isn't the stories fault. Again it's a nice set up (person who can see his own future) and a good pay off (which I won't spoil). I wasn't enormously enamoured of the writing style though for some reason.
The Faithful- Lester del Rey Of all the animals why dogs? I guess man's best friend? But again I enjoyed this (enough that it distracted me from the stupid wait I had at the station because I missed a train by 30 seconds). Humanity wipes itself out also seems like quite a likely future for us right now.
Werewoman- C. L. Moore This was one of the novelettes, so slightly longer, and it was really creepy and atmospheric with a fantastic ending. Definitely a take on werewolves that I haven't seen (I was going to say new but then 1939 so just new to me *g*.
Pigeons From Hell- Robert E. Howard This title amuses me a LOT, not least because the titular pigeons basically appear ahead of the scary thing and then... nothing. I don't know why the poor pigeons are getting such a bad rap in what is, effectively, a rather spooky little zombie story. It would make a really unnerving short film I think with a few changes to remove the worst of the racism (it's set on a plantation in the south within a generation or so of slavery & the civil war so... some of it is pretty dodgy that way).
Helen O'Loy- Lester del Rey Well that was creepy and not in a good way. Android women created by strange and lonely men tends to be a thing that ends badly and I guess maybe this was meant to be a happy ending but *shudders* Too weird for me.
How We Went to Mars- Arthur C. Clarke The last of the Short Stories and I absolutely loved this once I'd found it (hurrah for googlebooks!) Fake history is a genre I very much enjoy and this so beautifully mirrored the terribly self-important way tiny societies can talk about themselves all the while talking a journey to MARS. Great fun.
Dead Knowledge- Don A. Stuart A nicely creepy but proper science fiction story this time (interesting how many of the retro Hugo entries are horror variants). Empty cities that are too quiet are always creepy and I absolutely didn't get the full horror of what was happening until the very end.
The Time Trap- Henry Kuttner Onto the novellas now and this was very old school scifi. Time Travel & if not an alien princess then she was at least from an alien time and we had an inhuman priestess too. Very B-Movie all round and a good romp but not a lot more behind it than that. I think the glimpses of different time periods were too short or not explained properly and the hero was kind of stupid in places.
Anthem- Ayn Rand All of the best stories are political in some way (with a small p) I'd say and it's doubly true of science fiction but this felt less like a story and more like a sermon and that's fairly dull. I guess it's a thought through world and I did like the way elements of what had gone before couldn't quite be erased but I don't much like feeling like I'm being lectured and it's hard to judge this as a story because I spent so much time bristling. I liked the way "Prometheus" started to interact with people in new ways. There you go. That's a thing I liked. *deletes story from kindle in case anyone finds it there*
Poems on the Underground- Judith Cherniak, Cicely Herbert & Gerard Benson (eds) Look! Something that isn't SFF! I've been reading this slowly for a couple of months as I've realised the best way to read poetry is a couple of poems a day and generally not more. This was a great collection too, as the title suggests it's a collection of the poems that you sometimes see on the underground in London and they cover all kinds of subjects, styles & periods. Plus a whole section of poems about London which made me very happy.
Who Goes There?- Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell] I got about three pages into this before realising I've actually read it before, not entirely sure when, possibly when Dad was having one of his "teach Sarah about classic scifi" phases. I didn't mind rereading it again though because whilst the science passages do tend to make me glaze over a bit (too much info dump) the actual story in nicely creepy and lingers in a slightly terrifying way after it's done. Did they really destroy ALL the monsters?
The Legion of Time- Jack Williamson This is fun, sci-fi pulp from the golden age of that kind of book. I'd never have read it normally and the whole "beautiful girl appears to a random stranger and he has to save her" thing ends in all the ways you expect with falling in love and ridiculous drama but it's written well and a very quick read. It's got a high body count but then death doesn't always stick in timetravelling universes *g* It's fun but never going to trouble The Sword in the Stone for my vote!
This year's total number of books is going to be an outlier from my normal numbers I suspect... well unless I just read nothing for the rest of the year *g*