Booooooks: Jan. 2010
I always want to keep track of all the books I read in a year, but then it never happens. This year I'm gonna fucking do it. Probably-spoilery thoughts on each book behind the cut!
And Another Thing:
During the book, I thought it was pretty cool. A bit too heavy on the punny names, the Ford-Arthur and Arthur-Zaphod interactions seemed a bit off, but I feel like he understood women better than DNA, because this was the first book where Trillian felt like a real person.
Later on, the Trillian/Wowbagger plot started to bug me on account of it was stupid. Also... I think Colfer buys Zaphod's hype. He's like a rock star! He shouldn't actually be as dumb as he acts. (Yes, I know, it's because the other head was the smart one. That's stupid.)
At the end, I SCREAMED. Fuck no. Once was a cute gimmick, Colfer, but there's no way you're gonna get away with writing more.
Leviathan:
I HAVE NO WORDS, ONLY HEARTS. Missing Hapsburg heir and his steampunk mecha meet poor Scottish girl-disguised-as-boy-to-be-a-soldier and her living whale airship! *_* IT IS KIND OF AMAZING. I need the sequel in my hands right now, even though I wouldn't feasibly be able to read it for a while.
Frankenstein:
I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn I love this book. I was reading it for my Humanities class, where most people didn't bother to finish and there I was gushing about how great it is. Because it is. I just. She basically invented science fiction and science-horror with this book, and she was only eighteen when she did it! Victor is a self-absorbed asshole and not actually that good a scientist! The Monster is basically a small child in a giant scary monster body! At one point, the monster tells his story to Victor who tells his story to the Captain who tells it to his sister. SO MANY FRAMING DEVICES! *_* FRANKENSTEIN. READ IT.
Young Wizards, books 6 & 7
I've been rereading the whole series because A Wizard of Mars is fiiiinally coming out this spring. Look, I love HP, everybody knows I do, and I love Diana Wynne Jones and really, YA Fantasy in general, but if I had to pick only one series about teenage wizards, this would be the one. I think I'm gonna do a big post about this once I finish the reread and/or once the new one is out.
I love the worldbuilding to pieces- it's more science-fantasy than anything, there's a lot more space travel and physics and alien biology than in most common-or-garden fantasy. All the characters are real people, even ones that only show up for one book, even ones that are trees or stars or dogs or any number of things we don't usually think of as people.
I am a little bit frustrated by the end of A Wizard Alone, though. As someone with family members on the autism spectrum, the narrative of a cure is sometimes really annoying, especially a magical cure. I wanted to lend this series to one of my cousins (who has Asperger's) and I'm actually kind of glad I didn't, because I don't like the implication that the wish-fulfillment-fantasy isn't open to him, or isn't open to him unless he vastly change who he is and become someone else.
Wizard's Holiday is just that, though, a break between the really depressing books 5 and 6 and the huge leap in scale of the battle in book 8. It's a fun, mostly-lighthearted book. Carmela started to become interesting in books 4 and 5 but here she is awesome, as are all the new characters introduced. Roshaun! Skerr'et! Filif! I want to hug them all, even though Roshaun would not like that and Skerr' is a giant bug and Fil is a tree.
Also, there is Dairine POV, and I identify with Dairine an unhealthy amount! The whole "really smart/gifted little girl grows up and suddenly things get hard and she doesn't know how to deal" business is... Familiar, to say the least.
And Another Thing:
During the book, I thought it was pretty cool. A bit too heavy on the punny names, the Ford-Arthur and Arthur-Zaphod interactions seemed a bit off, but I feel like he understood women better than DNA, because this was the first book where Trillian felt like a real person.
Later on, the Trillian/Wowbagger plot started to bug me on account of it was stupid. Also... I think Colfer buys Zaphod's hype. He's like a rock star! He shouldn't actually be as dumb as he acts. (Yes, I know, it's because the other head was the smart one. That's stupid.)
At the end, I SCREAMED. Fuck no. Once was a cute gimmick, Colfer, but there's no way you're gonna get away with writing more.
Leviathan:
I HAVE NO WORDS, ONLY HEARTS. Missing Hapsburg heir and his steampunk mecha meet poor Scottish girl-disguised-as-boy-to-be-a-soldier and her living whale airship! *_* IT IS KIND OF AMAZING. I need the sequel in my hands right now, even though I wouldn't feasibly be able to read it for a while.
Frankenstein:
I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn I love this book. I was reading it for my Humanities class, where most people didn't bother to finish and there I was gushing about how great it is. Because it is. I just. She basically invented science fiction and science-horror with this book, and she was only eighteen when she did it! Victor is a self-absorbed asshole and not actually that good a scientist! The Monster is basically a small child in a giant scary monster body! At one point, the monster tells his story to Victor who tells his story to the Captain who tells it to his sister. SO MANY FRAMING DEVICES! *_* FRANKENSTEIN. READ IT.
Young Wizards, books 6 & 7
I've been rereading the whole series because A Wizard of Mars is fiiiinally coming out this spring. Look, I love HP, everybody knows I do, and I love Diana Wynne Jones and really, YA Fantasy in general, but if I had to pick only one series about teenage wizards, this would be the one. I think I'm gonna do a big post about this once I finish the reread and/or once the new one is out.
I love the worldbuilding to pieces- it's more science-fantasy than anything, there's a lot more space travel and physics and alien biology than in most common-or-garden fantasy. All the characters are real people, even ones that only show up for one book, even ones that are trees or stars or dogs or any number of things we don't usually think of as people.
I am a little bit frustrated by the end of A Wizard Alone, though. As someone with family members on the autism spectrum, the narrative of a cure is sometimes really annoying, especially a magical cure. I wanted to lend this series to one of my cousins (who has Asperger's) and I'm actually kind of glad I didn't, because I don't like the implication that the wish-fulfillment-fantasy isn't open to him, or isn't open to him unless he vastly change who he is and become someone else.
Wizard's Holiday is just that, though, a break between the really depressing books 5 and 6 and the huge leap in scale of the battle in book 8. It's a fun, mostly-lighthearted book. Carmela started to become interesting in books 4 and 5 but here she is awesome, as are all the new characters introduced. Roshaun! Skerr'et! Filif! I want to hug them all, even though Roshaun would not like that and Skerr' is a giant bug and Fil is a tree.
Also, there is Dairine POV, and I identify with Dairine an unhealthy amount! The whole "really smart/gifted little girl grows up and suddenly things get hard and she doesn't know how to deal" business is... Familiar, to say the least.