Comments | hamsterwoman: Reading roundup

hamsterwoman

Reading roundup

Apr 10, 2011 22:37

20. Lev Grossman, The Magicians -- very interesting book. I loved the first half of it, while Quentin and company were at Brakebills. I enjoyed the rest of it, too, but in a different way. I liked the way the plot unfolded, all the echoes and connections. I enjoyed a lot of the details, bits of dialogue and prose... but past the halfway mark, i.e. ( Read more... )

a: michelle sagara, a: dave barry, ya, dragaera, link, gemma doyle, taltos, a: libba bray, ponedelnik, dave barry, reading, a: lev grossman, a: steven brust

Comments 36

q99 April 11 2011, 13:33:16 UTC

There is one very weird bit in this book where Vlad thinks: "It suddenly flashed into my head to wonder if he [Morrolan] and Sethra were currently or ever had been lovers. Now that was an interesting thought, and one that would probably come back to me on many cold nights". So, uh... Vlad thinks about Morrolan's sex life now to keep himself warm at night? Is that what I just read? I kind of have no idea where Vlad is getting this speculation from, because it's plenty clear from Sethra's interaction with Morrolan, especially here, that she treats him the way one would a teenage nephew, who is pretty bright and almost an adult but still not nearly as grown-up as he thinks, and thus requires a lot of advice and occasional ribbing. Maybe Vlad's just thinking of the wrong Dragonlord? 'Cos I do continue to see possible chemistry between Sethra and Aliera, or at least can easily see them as two people who were once lovers but are now simply friends ( ... )

hamsterwoman April 12 2011, 02:37:43 UTC

I like to think Vlad's just a mental fanficcer like that ^^

Heh, Vlad ships Morrolan/Sethra, basically? :P I guess he's been spending a lot of time in the wilderness by himself and needs stuff to think about. He can get into ship wars with Loiosh.

There's a lot of people Morrolan'd carry, but that was downright thoughtful.

Yep! And given the point below about Morrolan being better with objects than people, it's especially impressive, heh. (Good point about that being why he was so quick to pick up on the window/portal, too!)

Yes, I really enjoyed Vlad's summary of Morrolan and Aliera's relationship, and their reactions to it. :)

I was actually planning to skip Teckla, but I have one of the omnibus editions, and it was there, in the same volume as Jhereg, so it pulled me in. Oops.

q99 April 12 2011, 03:47:23 UTC

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Heh, Vlad ships Morrolan/Sethra, basically? :P I guess he's been spending a lot of time in the wilderness by himself and needs stuff to think about. He can get into ship wars with Loiosh.
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Yep :) Hm, I wonder if he ships Kiera with anyone separate from Sethra shipping... then again, he likes Kiera in a more friendly way than any of the others, so he might keep her out of it.

hamsterwoman April 12 2011, 16:54:36 UTC

Hmmm... I would agree that he's likely to avoid shipping Kiera with anyone. I feel like (ironically!) shipping her would give him sort of an RPF squick, 'cos he's known her for so long.

Thread 29

ebonhost April 11 2011, 20:30:05 UTC

Heh, I'm reading The Magicians right now, actually. (It's one of several I picked up for 70% off when my local Borders was closing.) Still on Book I, though I do know where they end up in the following books. I agree that I really love the school narrative, and there's so much richness there and possible expansion. I guess whether or not I like the second half will determine if I buy the sequel, though.

Incidentally, Quentin has a few things in common with an RP character of mine, which amuses the hell out of me.

hamsterwoman April 12 2011, 02:33:20 UTC

Oh, neat! I will be most interested to see what you think of it once you're done. (And I'll save my comments for then, 'cos I don't want to spoil you.

Quentin has a few things in common with an RP character of mine, which amuses the hell out of me.

Oh, interesting! What features?

ebonhost April 19 2011, 01:45:09 UTC

Well, I'm done now, and while I can see how a book just based on the schooling would be good, I do like the thing as a whole. That said, I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel or not because I'm not sure how much story there is left since I felt it ended at an appropriate point - Quentin finally giving up running from himself.

As for my character, David. He's a Jewish mystic, and he's always looking for the next thing, much like Quentin. He's not happy. Nor is he satisfied with the mundane world, and he's always poking his nose into things better left alone. He grew up obsessed with Indiana Jones, and is a grad student in archaeology as a result. A lot of similar patterns, there. :)

hamsterwoman April 22 2011, 00:03:28 UTC

Yeah, I did like the whole thing... I just suspect I would have liked a book based just on the schooling even more. But hey! Gift horses and all that.

I'm also not really sure about where the sequel has left to go... but I'm curious to see, and I enjoy Grossman's writing enough that I'm pretty sure I will read it just for that. But i was a little surprised to learn that there was even a sequel -- it did seem like the story had been wrapped up.

Your character sounds very cool! I especially like the detail about majoring in archaeology because of Indiana Jones :)

aome April 12 2011, 00:59:39 UTC

The Twilight parody really only works if you've read at least the first book, which I have. (Haven't bothered to read the rest, although I do at least know the gist of the progression.) Anyway - glad you liked the book reasonably well. The "Father of the Groom" was somehow especially poignant to me because what I remember best about his son was from Dave Barry's Guide to Guys, possibly my most favorite EVER Barry book - Rob was about four then. ("Bee fut!") To realize he's a married adult now is just ... whoa.

hamsterwoman April 12 2011, 02:31:20 UTC

I haven't read Twilight, but I felt like I've read enough excerpts and parodies to get the jokes, basically -- but the writing was too painful for me to enjoy it even in parody. I've actually found that to be the case with a number of the Twilight parodies I read, including 1.5 booklength ones. If the parody emulated the style too closely, I couldn't stomach it :P

Yeah, I had the same WHOA! feeling when reading "Father of the Groom", because I "remember" Rob from when he was a baby -- maybe even from "Babies and Other Hazards of Sex"? -- and "watching" him grow up through some of the later books, like Guys and so on, so it really felt weird to see him getting married.

cyshobbitlass July 12 2011, 04:45:09 UTC

I felt pretty similarly to you about The Magicians (though it will be no shock to anyone that Elliot was my favorite character). I definitely found the Brakebills part more interesting than Fillory, though I think I figured out they were going to Fillory like, two pages in (the map on the inside cover kind of did it for me and I flipped to the back for a second and saw the name Martin) so I was used to the idea. I, like you, am more invested in Hogwarts than Narnia soooo ( ... )