Recent Reading
I started reading The Stories Of Tobias Wolff the other week. They are very good, reminiscent of Richard Yates' masterful short stories, but I really wasn't in the mood. I needed something lighter. So I took a walk to the children's section of Waterstone's and risked accusations of paedophilia to return with:
Infernal Devices - Philip Reeve
This was just to complete my collection because I read it hardback last year courtesy of talvalin. One of the greatest series I've ever read. This is a slightly book because it is set more than ten years after the previous volume, breaking some of the sense of continuity, and it does suffer a bit from Middle Volume Syndrome but ultimately it takes both in it's stride. (I reviewed the first volume for The Alien Online and my review of the final volume is forthcoming in Strange Horizons.)
The City Of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
Contains a map which is always a bit of a warning. Lina and Doon live in the city of Ember, a city surrounded by a vast darkness. The city is failing, can they find the key to it's survival? Well, yes, obviously they can. DuPrau takes a broadbrush and hence implausible approach to everything. The mystery isn't very mysterious, the plot is rudimentary, the characterisation is prefunctionary. The whole book is thin, hasty and basic. Very little at all to recommend it.
CloudWorld - David Cunningham
A great step up from the DuPrau in that it is actually relatively exciting to read. It has a lot of familar elements - the feudal society, the young prince rejecting privilege, courtly machinations - and the exposition is a bit heavy handed but there are nice touches and Cunningham's prose is decent enough. This might be the book I was after.
Infernal Devices - Philip Reeve
This was just to complete my collection because I read it hardback last year courtesy of talvalin. One of the greatest series I've ever read. This is a slightly book because it is set more than ten years after the previous volume, breaking some of the sense of continuity, and it does suffer a bit from Middle Volume Syndrome but ultimately it takes both in it's stride. (I reviewed the first volume for The Alien Online and my review of the final volume is forthcoming in Strange Horizons.)
The City Of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
Contains a map which is always a bit of a warning. Lina and Doon live in the city of Ember, a city surrounded by a vast darkness. The city is failing, can they find the key to it's survival? Well, yes, obviously they can. DuPrau takes a broadbrush and hence implausible approach to everything. The mystery isn't very mysterious, the plot is rudimentary, the characterisation is prefunctionary. The whole book is thin, hasty and basic. Very little at all to recommend it.
CloudWorld - David Cunningham
A great step up from the DuPrau in that it is actually relatively exciting to read. It has a lot of familar elements - the feudal society, the young prince rejecting privilege, courtly machinations - and the exposition is a bit heavy handed but there are nice touches and Cunningham's prose is decent enough. This might be the book I was after.