(no subject)
A day late but here are May's books. I've started reading Hugo nominees so there will be a lot of them for the next couple of months- I counted all the short stories as one book but the novelettes & novellas I'm counting one each and reading all of except I'm not touching Stix Hiscock :-/ I'm aiming to read short stories, novelettes, novellas and then probably the Campbell nominees and realted works. I think I'm avoiding novels mostly because at least two are not the first in a series and I don't want to have to go back and read all the extra.
Unless I change my mind :-P
So this month is a book I've been meaning to read for a long time, a book I HAVE been reading for a long time, the lovely Harriet Walter and then lots of SFF.
May reviews
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence This is one of those books I've always meant to get round to and now I finally have and... well yes. It's explicit (but years of reading R rate fanfiction have removed any element of shock) and it is a little hard not to laugh when they start referring to their respective parts as John Thomas and Lady Jane but mostly I got a little bored. After a little while I registered that all the praise for tenderness and real warm physical connection were mostly another anti-industrial and anti-intellectual argument and then everything felt a bit like a lecture? Still it's not very long and there are some nice passages in it. Also Dad told me today that apparently my Great Uncle (? his Great Uncle? a relation!) was on the jury in the trial which I didn't know!
The Endeavour Journals - Sir Joseph Banks This is a book I've been reading on and off for a while. It's the result of all the Alfred Russell Wallace research I did in my last job plus my fascination with 18th century scientists & discoverers. It#s hard reading a times, partly because it's repetitive (3 years at sea!) and partly because it is of course massively racist and it's endlessly horrifying & fascinating to me that someone who could describe cultures and plants and animals and all kinds of things so thoughtfully could also write off whole islands as being full of thieves or immoral people rather than registering how awful the Endeavour's appearences must have been to the communities they found (we saw two men waving spears at them so we fired over their heads and they didn't stop so we fired at them and then they ran away ?!!!) And yet it is fascinating to see the different cultures they interact with. The ones who trade and the ones who don't, the ones who hide their women away, the ones who travel & camp with no huts (visible to the westerners I should say) and the ones who have villages/towns. And I do love the sections leading up to the identification of a kangaroo. So a troubling read but one that was worth sitting through (for me.)
Hugo nominated Short Stories (counted as one book)
“The City Born Great”, by N. K. Jemisin Loved the concept of this one, cities personified in any way are one of my favourite things in or out of fiction and I loved the sense of history here.
“A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, by Alyssa Wong This is one of those stories where I loved the whole feel but if you asked me what actually happened I wouldn't have a clue. I mean it's deliberately jumping about in time & AUs but for me I felt a little too unattached.
“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, by Brooke Bolander A tiny but powerful story of revenge and hurt that made me want to know about the rest of the world of these sisters.
“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, by Amal El-Mohtar A fairy tale fusion with a new ending, another thing that might have been written for me. I liked the way Tabitha & Amira could see each other's situation more clearly than their own. The only problem was it got a little clunky where the message was being hammered home.
“That Game We Played During the War”, by Carrie Vaughn A fantastic little snippet from what felt like a well realised universe- a race of telepaths at war with non-telepaths but focussing on a character from either side playing a game of chess. I'm torn between wanting more and feeling this was just right.
“An Unimaginable Light”, by John C. Wright Robotics and what makes us human are an interesting topic and yet this somehow wasn't. Didn't help that I picked up the twist very early on either.
Other People's Shows: Thoughts on Acting - Harriet Walter A bit of something non-fiction amongst all the SFF and yet of course this is absolutely a book about make believe. It's all written in snippets and I suspect if you are an actor it might be an interesting how to? But for me it was fascinating to get a glimpse behind the curtain at how an actor I love prepares for roles. I just wish I had an updated version with some of the parts I've seen her play!
You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay - Alyssa Wong Desert and dry bones and magic in the Old West... Alyssa Wong certainly knows how to write an atmospheric story and the pictures in my mind as I read this were really vivid. Very tense and dark but beautiful all the same and with a satisfying ending.
The Jewel and Her Lapidary - Fran Wilde This novelette comes with little interludes from a guidebook about the valley the story is set in from the future? or from a real present where the story is an imagined past? Or however you want to read it but OH GOD I love stuff like that. A story we read that feels immediate and real and painful and then a totally different spin on it written as if it's history. I see some of the reviews think it was slow or nothing happened (wtf?) but I really loved this and again was torn between wanting more and thinking this was just right.
The Tomato Thief - Ursula Vernon I don't even like tomatoes but the descriptions of the flavours here kind of made me wish I did. I love the juxtaposition of something as ordinary as a tomato sandwich with shapeshifters and old gods and new gods and all the magic Ursula Vernon has crammed into this little tale.
The Art of Space Travel - Nina Allan This didn't really feel like SFF at all in a lot of ways. It's set in the future so of course it IS but it's a fairly near future. I did guess the twist here but then I think perhaps we were meant to figure it out before the central character did? It's a good story but it's taken me a couple of days to get round to writing this review and I had to remind myself what the plot was!
Touring with the Alien - Carolyn Ives Gilman Missing children return as "translators" for aliens is a nice concept and for once these were properly alien aliens. A nice little thought exercise about consciousness and a well written travel story and yet somehow i was left wanting at the end? I think perhaps the main characters choice at the end came too suddenly, we learned about some of her motivations too little too late? But I did enjoy it.
This entry was originally posted at http://morganmuffle.dreamwidth.org/1400374.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Unless I change my mind :-P
So this month is a book I've been meaning to read for a long time, a book I HAVE been reading for a long time, the lovely Harriet Walter and then lots of SFF.
- Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
- The Endeavour Journals - Sir Joseph Banks
- Hugo nominated Short Stories (counted as one book)
- Other People's Shows: Thoughts on Acting - Harriet Walter
- You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay - Alyssa Wong (novelette)
- The Jewel and Her Lapidary - Fran Wilde (novelette)
- The Tomato Thief - Ursula Vernon (novelette)
- The Art of Space Travel - Nina Allan (novelette)
- Touring with the Alien - Carolyn Ives Gilman (novelette)
May reviews
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence This is one of those books I've always meant to get round to and now I finally have and... well yes. It's explicit (but years of reading R rate fanfiction have removed any element of shock) and it is a little hard not to laugh when they start referring to their respective parts as John Thomas and Lady Jane but mostly I got a little bored. After a little while I registered that all the praise for tenderness and real warm physical connection were mostly another anti-industrial and anti-intellectual argument and then everything felt a bit like a lecture? Still it's not very long and there are some nice passages in it. Also Dad told me today that apparently my Great Uncle (? his Great Uncle? a relation!) was on the jury in the trial which I didn't know!
The Endeavour Journals - Sir Joseph Banks This is a book I've been reading on and off for a while. It's the result of all the Alfred Russell Wallace research I did in my last job plus my fascination with 18th century scientists & discoverers. It#s hard reading a times, partly because it's repetitive (3 years at sea!) and partly because it is of course massively racist and it's endlessly horrifying & fascinating to me that someone who could describe cultures and plants and animals and all kinds of things so thoughtfully could also write off whole islands as being full of thieves or immoral people rather than registering how awful the Endeavour's appearences must have been to the communities they found (we saw two men waving spears at them so we fired over their heads and they didn't stop so we fired at them and then they ran away ?!!!) And yet it is fascinating to see the different cultures they interact with. The ones who trade and the ones who don't, the ones who hide their women away, the ones who travel & camp with no huts (visible to the westerners I should say) and the ones who have villages/towns. And I do love the sections leading up to the identification of a kangaroo. So a troubling read but one that was worth sitting through (for me.)
Hugo nominated Short Stories (counted as one book)
“The City Born Great”, by N. K. Jemisin Loved the concept of this one, cities personified in any way are one of my favourite things in or out of fiction and I loved the sense of history here.
“A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, by Alyssa Wong This is one of those stories where I loved the whole feel but if you asked me what actually happened I wouldn't have a clue. I mean it's deliberately jumping about in time & AUs but for me I felt a little too unattached.
“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, by Brooke Bolander A tiny but powerful story of revenge and hurt that made me want to know about the rest of the world of these sisters.
“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, by Amal El-Mohtar A fairy tale fusion with a new ending, another thing that might have been written for me. I liked the way Tabitha & Amira could see each other's situation more clearly than their own. The only problem was it got a little clunky where the message was being hammered home.
“That Game We Played During the War”, by Carrie Vaughn A fantastic little snippet from what felt like a well realised universe- a race of telepaths at war with non-telepaths but focussing on a character from either side playing a game of chess. I'm torn between wanting more and feeling this was just right.
“An Unimaginable Light”, by John C. Wright Robotics and what makes us human are an interesting topic and yet this somehow wasn't. Didn't help that I picked up the twist very early on either.
Other People's Shows: Thoughts on Acting - Harriet Walter A bit of something non-fiction amongst all the SFF and yet of course this is absolutely a book about make believe. It's all written in snippets and I suspect if you are an actor it might be an interesting how to? But for me it was fascinating to get a glimpse behind the curtain at how an actor I love prepares for roles. I just wish I had an updated version with some of the parts I've seen her play!
You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay - Alyssa Wong Desert and dry bones and magic in the Old West... Alyssa Wong certainly knows how to write an atmospheric story and the pictures in my mind as I read this were really vivid. Very tense and dark but beautiful all the same and with a satisfying ending.
The Jewel and Her Lapidary - Fran Wilde This novelette comes with little interludes from a guidebook about the valley the story is set in from the future? or from a real present where the story is an imagined past? Or however you want to read it but OH GOD I love stuff like that. A story we read that feels immediate and real and painful and then a totally different spin on it written as if it's history. I see some of the reviews think it was slow or nothing happened (wtf?) but I really loved this and again was torn between wanting more and thinking this was just right.
The Tomato Thief - Ursula Vernon I don't even like tomatoes but the descriptions of the flavours here kind of made me wish I did. I love the juxtaposition of something as ordinary as a tomato sandwich with shapeshifters and old gods and new gods and all the magic Ursula Vernon has crammed into this little tale.
The Art of Space Travel - Nina Allan This didn't really feel like SFF at all in a lot of ways. It's set in the future so of course it IS but it's a fairly near future. I did guess the twist here but then I think perhaps we were meant to figure it out before the central character did? It's a good story but it's taken me a couple of days to get round to writing this review and I had to remind myself what the plot was!
Touring with the Alien - Carolyn Ives Gilman Missing children return as "translators" for aliens is a nice concept and for once these were properly alien aliens. A nice little thought exercise about consciousness and a well written travel story and yet somehow i was left wanting at the end? I think perhaps the main characters choice at the end came too suddenly, we learned about some of her motivations too little too late? But I did enjoy it.
This entry was originally posted at http://morganmuffle.dreamwidth.org/1400374.html. Please comment there using OpenID.