Bookish.
What I've just finished: I finished Cold Magic by Kate Elliott and while I enjoyed the post-colonial, global history, the writing was huge letdown. Tons, tons and tons of clunky exposition, wall-of-text and at one point Cat, the protagonist kept on talking for more than three pages. I was surprised to see that this is not the author's first work, but, in fact, her tenth novel. I do recommend it for its setting and world building and for dealing with themes of (post-)colonisation, identity politics, tons of PoC in positions of agency, families and negotiating resistance in an oppressive system as well as its characters, you just need a strong stomach for the writing. (This is especially poignant because word-mages, magicians who work their magic through storytelling and story weaving play a central part in the books, so you have tons and tons and more tons of decontextualised exposition)
Cat and Bee are cousins, brought up like sisters and just as close, both of them heiresses of middling spy household Barahal. It all changes when Cold Mage Andrevai appears at the Barahal gates to collect a debt - the hand of the eldest Barahal daughter in marriage. Taking Bee's place, Cat is whisked away from her home and from her sister to follow her now-husband to his house. Adventure looms. Out of the bunch, Andrevai's story was my favourite, his struggle with his identity after being hand-picked by the Cold Mage masters and going from being a slave to one of the most powerful mages. I did not appreciate the surprise!romance "YOU ARE THE OTHER HALF OF MY SOUL I KNEW IT" tagged on at the end and I choose to ignore it, since Cat and Vai despise each other for the better part of the book (and for good reason!). I adore Cat's and Bee's relationship and the world as it is, though I wish we would actually see it, rather than being yanked from point A to point B. I did miss seeing all the things Elliott describes, actually see mage society and how it works, how they govern, etc., but then again, I also handwaved the surprise!roman commander who would risk everything to save Bee just because.
I picked up the sequel, Cold Fire, but didn't delve right into it the way I expected. I probably wait until the third part of the trilogy is out and will read them both in one go.
Behold, it is still high fantasy season chez
lab, and I picked up Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta after
oyceter talked about it, and bam, this is my kind of book. It deals with the aftermath and trauma of war and armed conflict in fantasy worlds, i.e. the parts of the story we usually don't get to see. Lumatere, a nation cursed and destroyed by war, its people exiled and scattered across its neighbours, only lives in stories of its rescue. Finnikin, apprentice to a scholar, has spent his life looking for survivors. Then he meets seer-dreamwalker Evanjalin and destiny beats everyone up. I do not want to spoil you for this one, I just very heartily recommend it, nothing is as it seems. The female characters have a key part and a lot of agency in the plot, even though it doesn't seem like it - Marchetta is just toying with you and your high fantasy expectations.
The Demon Queen and the Locksmith by Spencer Baum is one of the few indie/selfpubs I own and have on my kindle (upon
kannaophelia's recommendation, and it's not so much fantasy as it is fantastic, a quirky, shrewd story of a band of kids forming friendships, going on an adventure and saving the world. The characters are likeable and it is very well written and edited as well as solidly paced, and the sense of quirky fun, humour but mostly adventure always comes through. Kevin Brown lives in Turquoise, NM which attracts a lot of freaks and geeks because of the Hum, a humming noise emanating from its namesake mountain. Kevin doesn't think too much of them - his dad included - until he starts hearing it too …
The Devil's Mixtape is recommended up and down on tumblr and I do recommend it, too, with caveats. The novel spans three generations and half a dozen characters telling their stories of loss, friendship, hope, rage and survival which all merge into one narrative at the end. Ella Vrenna, serial killer and architect of the notorious high school shootings known as Cobweb, writes letters from hell to her baby sister. This is a book I would have needed when I was 16, a book about going on, having hope, a distinct feeling of you-are-not-alone combined with a fuck-you attitude. The characters are too self-aware, at times the writing feels more like a meta statement on popular culture than anything else, but it is very smoothly written. Also, inversion and subversion everywhere - of tropes, cliches, expectations and conventions. The happy trans* character. The female shooter. The friendly demons. The girl-devil Lucifer. Hell has books and Heaven is a utopia for conformists. We have to save ourselves. There is hope. I'd call this a courage-book (a book that gives you courage when you are in a bad place) and as said, I recognise the intention, but it's a bit too snarky-slick and pop-cultury for me to really fly.
What I'm reading: I've just started Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett, which I have really no idea about - I must have ordered it at some point and forgotten about it, as to stop myself from wolfing down the rest of the Thief of Eddis series in one evening. Enjoying it so far, but the polar opposite of Cold Magic - too much world building; almost feels like a scholarly analysis of this fictional world at some points (which is good, just dense). Nom nom. I've also started my reread of The Curse of Chalion because of reasons, most of them feels (and I now have the ebook version, and I want to read at least one ebook a week to make a dent in my collection).
What I plan on reading next: I have not the slightest idea. If somebody knows of a high fantasy novel with excellent world building where everybody is queer and turns into cats during full moon - that is the general mood I am in right now.
This entry was originally posted at http://lab.dreamwidth.org/63823.html. Feel free to comment in either of those places, but I mostly hang out on DW.
Cat and Bee are cousins, brought up like sisters and just as close, both of them heiresses of middling spy household Barahal. It all changes when Cold Mage Andrevai appears at the Barahal gates to collect a debt - the hand of the eldest Barahal daughter in marriage. Taking Bee's place, Cat is whisked away from her home and from her sister to follow her now-husband to his house. Adventure looms. Out of the bunch, Andrevai's story was my favourite, his struggle with his identity after being hand-picked by the Cold Mage masters and going from being a slave to one of the most powerful mages. I did not appreciate the surprise!romance "YOU ARE THE OTHER HALF OF MY SOUL I KNEW IT" tagged on at the end and I choose to ignore it, since Cat and Vai despise each other for the better part of the book (and for good reason!). I adore Cat's and Bee's relationship and the world as it is, though I wish we would actually see it, rather than being yanked from point A to point B. I did miss seeing all the things Elliott describes, actually see mage society and how it works, how they govern, etc., but then again, I also handwaved the surprise!roman commander who would risk everything to save Bee just because.
I picked up the sequel, Cold Fire, but didn't delve right into it the way I expected. I probably wait until the third part of the trilogy is out and will read them both in one go.
Behold, it is still high fantasy season chez
lab, and I picked up Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta after
oyceter talked about it, and bam, this is my kind of book. It deals with the aftermath and trauma of war and armed conflict in fantasy worlds, i.e. the parts of the story we usually don't get to see. Lumatere, a nation cursed and destroyed by war, its people exiled and scattered across its neighbours, only lives in stories of its rescue. Finnikin, apprentice to a scholar, has spent his life looking for survivors. Then he meets seer-dreamwalker Evanjalin and destiny beats everyone up. I do not want to spoil you for this one, I just very heartily recommend it, nothing is as it seems. The female characters have a key part and a lot of agency in the plot, even though it doesn't seem like it - Marchetta is just toying with you and your high fantasy expectations.
The Demon Queen and the Locksmith by Spencer Baum is one of the few indie/selfpubs I own and have on my kindle (upon
kannaophelia's recommendation, and it's not so much fantasy as it is fantastic, a quirky, shrewd story of a band of kids forming friendships, going on an adventure and saving the world. The characters are likeable and it is very well written and edited as well as solidly paced, and the sense of quirky fun, humour but mostly adventure always comes through. Kevin Brown lives in Turquoise, NM which attracts a lot of freaks and geeks because of the Hum, a humming noise emanating from its namesake mountain. Kevin doesn't think too much of them - his dad included - until he starts hearing it too …
The Devil's Mixtape is recommended up and down on tumblr and I do recommend it, too, with caveats. The novel spans three generations and half a dozen characters telling their stories of loss, friendship, hope, rage and survival which all merge into one narrative at the end. Ella Vrenna, serial killer and architect of the notorious high school shootings known as Cobweb, writes letters from hell to her baby sister. This is a book I would have needed when I was 16, a book about going on, having hope, a distinct feeling of you-are-not-alone combined with a fuck-you attitude. The characters are too self-aware, at times the writing feels more like a meta statement on popular culture than anything else, but it is very smoothly written. Also, inversion and subversion everywhere - of tropes, cliches, expectations and conventions. The happy trans* character. The female shooter. The friendly demons. The girl-devil Lucifer. Hell has books and Heaven is a utopia for conformists. We have to save ourselves. There is hope. I'd call this a courage-book (a book that gives you courage when you are in a bad place) and as said, I recognise the intention, but it's a bit too snarky-slick and pop-cultury for me to really fly.
What I'm reading: I've just started Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett, which I have really no idea about - I must have ordered it at some point and forgotten about it, as to stop myself from wolfing down the rest of the Thief of Eddis series in one evening. Enjoying it so far, but the polar opposite of Cold Magic - too much world building; almost feels like a scholarly analysis of this fictional world at some points (which is good, just dense). Nom nom. I've also started my reread of The Curse of Chalion because of reasons, most of them feels (and I now have the ebook version, and I want to read at least one ebook a week to make a dent in my collection).
What I plan on reading next: I have not the slightest idea. If somebody knows of a high fantasy novel with excellent world building where everybody is queer and turns into cats during full moon - that is the general mood I am in right now.
This entry was originally posted at http://lab.dreamwidth.org/63823.html. Feel free to comment in either of those places, but I mostly hang out on DW.