Still need a books & dogs icon...
So, there's been lots of reading and very little reviewing. LiveJournal just sort of gets forgotten! Oh, bother. LOL!
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik, should have been in the category of "I LOVE THIS BOOK." Instead, it's just "meh." It's well-written, because Novik is an excellent writer, but the story felt more like a first book than something written/published after the writer became established with another series. It's disjointed, and doesn't flow particularly well, and it took much too long to feel as though any of the characters were much worth caring about. (At least, the primary characters; I found myself liking one of the secondary characters better.) And I do very much LOVE the Temeraire novels, so it was a bit of a letdown to simply not care all that much about the characters or the outcome of the story. It also felt a bit as though it just kept cycling through the same awful scenarios; "oh look they think they're fine now and something bad is about to happen."
So after the mild disappointment of that, and the complete slog that was Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, about which I all I have to say is I'm glad it's over, it was a delight to dive in to Emma: A modern retelling by Alexander McCall Smith. I'm actually not certain I've ever read the source material by Austen, and I feel now as though I need to. "Emma" is thoroughly an unlikeable brat through most of the book, and it's only at the end that I feel as though she'd grown up enough to be liked. Smith's writing wraps around me when I'm reading and draws me in, engaging me with the characters and making me feel as though I am there, in really good ways. Completely marvelous stuff! (And compared to Sanderson…much more concise and sharply drawn, without excruciating details. A definitely much-needed change from other recent reads!)
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik, should have been in the category of "I LOVE THIS BOOK." Instead, it's just "meh." It's well-written, because Novik is an excellent writer, but the story felt more like a first book than something written/published after the writer became established with another series. It's disjointed, and doesn't flow particularly well, and it took much too long to feel as though any of the characters were much worth caring about. (At least, the primary characters; I found myself liking one of the secondary characters better.) And I do very much LOVE the Temeraire novels, so it was a bit of a letdown to simply not care all that much about the characters or the outcome of the story. It also felt a bit as though it just kept cycling through the same awful scenarios; "oh look they think they're fine now and something bad is about to happen."
So after the mild disappointment of that, and the complete slog that was Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, about which I all I have to say is I'm glad it's over, it was a delight to dive in to Emma: A modern retelling by Alexander McCall Smith. I'm actually not certain I've ever read the source material by Austen, and I feel now as though I need to. "Emma" is thoroughly an unlikeable brat through most of the book, and it's only at the end that I feel as though she'd grown up enough to be liked. Smith's writing wraps around me when I'm reading and draws me in, engaging me with the characters and making me feel as though I am there, in really good ways. Completely marvelous stuff! (And compared to Sanderson…much more concise and sharply drawn, without excruciating details. A definitely much-needed change from other recent reads!)