Reading roundup (including Cold Days)

[hamsterwoman]

Catching up on the last of 2012 and starting off 2013:

45. Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts -- The beginning of an epic fantasy trilogy set in Central Asia (in 12th-13th century, apparently;

Comments

[lyssa027]

My friend Zak and I both think that Harry's brain parasite is Lash, and that she'll make a comeback, and I really hope she does cuz I loved me some Lash.

I HATE MURPHY, I hate what they've done to her character, ugh, she seems like a pathetic loser now and that's never who she was.

I enjoyed the Gatekeeper part :)

and I really loved the twist at the ending, and I can't wait to see how Molly's new role affects Harry

and MOAR ODIN PLEASE, and I have read that the books are slowly getting close to Ragnarok, and that's how the series is going to end, so I hope that's true cuz that would be kick-ass.

[hamsterwoman]

It definitely feels like Lash should be somehow involved in the brain parasite thing. I hope she returns -- I really liked her too! (My favorite Harry/female relationship in the series, tbh, sad as that may be.)

I have no idea what's going on with Murphy :/ I considered whether the way she was suddenly behaving could be evidence of Nemesis having gotten to her... which would be audacious, but I doubt Butcher would do that, to either Murphy or Harry, plus it would be kind of a retread of the Luccio thing. So, I don't know, I think it's more likely a flaw in the writing rather than a Clue, but we'll see, I guess... Definitely did not feel like the Murphy I grew to love over the course of the series, though :(

I can't wait to see how Molly's new role affects HarryMe too! Their relationship has been changing in interesting ways over the last several books, but this, of course, has potential for some very interesting upheaval! And Molly has been growing into one of my favorite characters in the series, so I'm very curious to see where

[q99]

On The Promise, I really liked Ozai's thing about the decision being the right one because he decides it. It really tells you a lot about his mindset.

[ikel89]

It was indeed a very telling momemt!

[hamsterwoman]

Ah, yes, that was a great moment -- especially for underlining the difference between Ozai, who thinks like that, and Zuko agonizing over the decision before, after, and during.

[mauvais_pli]

Your write-ups about Ponedelnik translations basically just convince me it's high time I reread it, since it's been an awfully long time since.

I wonder if Kindret's lack of decent structure, continuity and conclusion is due to multiple authors? I haven't paid any attentionto that at all when reading but they are printed on the cover, so, presumably, it was some sort of collaboration...

[hamsterwoman]

I hardly ever reread books, but Ponedelnik is one of those that I pick up every couple of years -- "otkroyu kodeks na lyuboj stranitse, i ne mogu, chitayu do knotsa" :P I was about due for a reread again, and the translations filled that need, especially as it turned out that, reading the English, I could pretty much recall the original Russian word for word in many passages, or anticipate it. XD Very odd sort of experience, but an interesting one.

I wonder if Kindret's lack of decent structure, continuity and conclusion is due to multiple authors?

Ah, I hadn't thought of that, but that's an interesting notion! I've not noticed that in co-authored books in general, but I also can't think of any with more than two co-authors, and there's probably some diminishing returns from the number of cooks in the kitchen, that sort of thing. It seems plausible, definitely.

[ikel89]

Kindrat roundup, yay! Indeed, you've already mentioned much of what made it to this post in our previous conversations, but was neat to see a more general review. I at least hope the series didn't seem like a total waste of time to you(despite its many flaws, which I see but am willing to gloss over). Even if for the sake of glorious ocd fest of cuteness that is M/K :3
And I'm almost finished with the Promise, btw! Agree with you on most of the points, even thought I have to finish it up to make any srs arguments;) Toph and Sokka are indeed the most vibrant thing out there! Also, Zuko's ability to generate UST with ALL the people is legendary, hehe;>>

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, they absolutely did not seem like any kind of waste of time! M/K OCD cuteness was totally worth it, and it was a fun world to read about because it was quite different from Western urban fantasy I'm familiar with. My reviews always tend to skew a bit negative, I find, unless it's just something I love to such an embarrassing degree that it transcends any rational thought, and I think in the case of Kindred I tended to share the yays in realtime, so it came out especially skewed. I definitely liked it on the whole -- would not have breezed through 4 books in an otherwise slow two months otherwise -- and looking forward to reading more of you Russian fantasy favorites :)

And looking forward to your full Promise impressions! (Hope you enjoyed them.)

Also, Zuko's ability to generate UST with ALL the people is legendary,

It's a gift, as you like to say ;)

[ikel89]

Heh, I see what you mean about sounding overall more negative. Tend to do that,too.;)
And OF COURSE I'd love to walk you through my other favourites, whenever you are in the mood.

My round-up is coming pretty soon, since there are those three books I'm just about to finish, and it will be Temeraire, Snuff, Promise and a random book on Japanese culture for Nov-Dec (or Jan) read. Pretty scarce for three month *scratches head*

ZUKO IS NOT PROUD LOOOOL XD

[hamsterwoman]

ZUKO IS NOT PROUD LOOOOL XD

XD

But it's 4 Temeraires and 3 Promises, so a total of 9 books for 2 months (and change) -- not bad, I think! (My own tally is similar -- it's something about holidays, especially holidays busy with travel and travel prep.)

Heh, I see what you mean about sounding overall more negative. Tend to do that,too.;)

I know for me in part it's that the bits that don't work for me or snag my attention in a negative way is something I tend to think about more after I close the book, while the happy squee stuff has a shorter half-life. That's one of the reasons I find the end-of-year reading memes useful, because they will often show that the book I complained about for pages in my original write-up was one of my favorites for the year. Very interesting phenomenon.

So, what are some of your other Russian fantasy favorites? We've talked through Lukyanenko a bit, and I've seen you discuss some of the other Pekhov stuff (with l_vestrit, I think), and there were the ones that came up on your ships posts, like "Танцующая с

[firebluespinel]

So...you are way more critical of books than I am. For serious, lol. Like, pretty much everything that bothered you in some way or other, I was like "oh, okay, that's how that is. good to know." and kept reading. *laughs* I'm not sure if this is because I'm male, or just easier to please than you, or something else. But really...Murphy didn't bother me at all, for instance. She was a badass before, she's a different kind of badass now. She stood up to Harry in ways she's never done before, did you notice? About the Swords. And I think the avenging angel is still there--it's been shaken pretty hard, but I think Murphy is rebuilding herself. Maybe she's not exactly what she used to be, but I don't think her core of holy iron is broken or anything. Molly's crush has gotten a bit old, but I think this book handled it really well--she and Harry had a mature, adult conversation about it, and he told her it's not going to happen for mature, adult reasons, not just because of the apprentice/master dynamic or the age difference. That was fine

[firebluespinel]

What seemed like more of a cop-out to me was the parasite. Lash aside, putting a character on a time-bomb is shallow and unjustified to me. Harry's ALWAYS on a limited schedule. It's a central feature of every book: he perpetually has to get things done unrealistically quickly before someone else dies or all hell breaks loose. Hell, this book itself took place within 24 hours, possibly less, because it had a deadline of dawn the freaking next day. The series does NOT need another aspect of time running out. I was also not too sure about the Outsiders...it made sense that they were more powerful than most of what Harry's ever seen or fought, but the whole outside army being fought off by Winter thing didn't sit as well with me. I think I just envisioned Outsiders as being a lot more alien, if that makes sense. Beings beyond mortal comprehension, things with too many dimensions for us to look at without going mad, that kind of thing. Not just more powerful versions of the kinds of things we've already seen. *shrug

[hamsterwoman]

Heh, I'm not sure I tend to be more critical about books or just bimodal, in that there's a squee threshold where, if a book falls beyond it, I tend to be totally forgiving of any flaws (this happens with Vorkosigan books, mostly, at least when Miles is driving the plot, and may even happen with Discworld, except, what flaws?), but if the book does not reach the squee threshold, then I notice I tend to focus mostly on things that didn't work as well for me in my write-ups, even if my overall impression of the book is positive (as it was with Cold Days, which might not have been clear from the write-up).

And I think the avenging angel is still there--it's been shaken pretty hard, but I think Murphy is rebuilding herself. Maybe she's not exactly what she used to be, but I don't think her core of holy iron is broken or anythingI'm definitely willing to wait and see if that's the case. So far, I don't think I like what Murphy has become as much as I liked what she was before (which was a whole lot), but I do think it's plausible that

part 2

[hamsterwoman]

they provide a reason that Harry has been moving on the path he's been on--both in terms of the ungodly amount of power he's amassed and in terms of what he's learned from each case. It's a fairly classic quest motif,I do think it works as a handy explanation in-universe for why Harry is at the center of all these things, has been the fulcrum so many times, but on a meta level I still find it kind of lame. Like, it explains/justifies something that I didn't feel required justification (of course Harry has had all this stuff happen to him and has been amassing power -- he's the hero :), but it ties everything up too neatly. I never thought the books needed a central villain -- in fact, I always liked the profusion of antagonists with different agendas who sometimes coul become temporary or more-than-temporary allies (Marcone, Lara, Winter Court fae). I guess that's being turned into "everyone against the outsiders" kind of deal, but that's less interesting to me. Or it's possible that I'm losing patience for classic quest motifs :P