Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

It's been a while since I've done a reading roundup, so here's the last three books of 2014, and the first two of 2015. But before we get to that, please VOTE if you're thinking of doing the Reading Bingo, and also help us brainstorm recs if you're so inclined even if you aren't planning to play along.

61. Michelle Sagara, Cast in Peril (Elantra

Comments

[egelantier]

hooray, you loved raksura book! i didn't really doubt it, but still :D

i think the three worlds might be this... like, magic-determined world, a bit a-la fae in coldfire, where the worldbuilding follows less evolution and more, like, rule of cool.

i'm also about 96% sure chime/moon is canon (in any case it's absolutely possible within canon), but i can't remember whether it was explicitly confirmed or not, need to reread again. the fandom goes with it unreservedly, in any case (and it has a very, very sweet fandom too, full of awesome fics and fanart).

"You're stupid about women." After a moment of thought, she added. "You're stupid about men, too."

that's moon alright :D

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, it was very, very much my thing! :D Thank you muchly for the rec! I hadn't even heard about it before, or if I did, did not realize it was about found-family dragon people and thus relevant to my interests. (Oddly, since then, I've been seeing it EVERYWHERE, in the way of such things :)

where the worldbuilding follows less evolution and more, like, rule of cool. I got that feel, but as the bits we saw in detail were so much less hand-wavy than Rule of Cool worldbuilding tends to be (I haven't read Coldfire, so maybe it's similarly solid), I kept looking for underlyiying logic :P Like, is this some kind of divine experiment where every ?deity cooked up a sentient race and just set them loose? Even thought the underlying logic is totally not the point and I enjoyed the book just fine without it

[meathiel]

I have to admit that's what I like about Alex ... unlike a lot of other protagonists he isn't all good ... but he isn't all bad either. It feels a bit more real life to me than your average hero. Go and read the 5th book - you won't regret it! :D

[hamsterwoman]

Definitely planning to read book 5, but I seem to be better with this series taking breaks between them, so will probably space it out a bit. Thank you for keeping me well supplied! :)

I do like/respect Alex's genuine grayness as a protagonist, especially as it stands out with the fairly lighthearted narration

[etrangere]

guh I love the Raksura book. They really hit on whatever hurt/comfort family building button I have (which is not something I usually cater to!!). Very much love Stone and Chime as well (and Moon's pov). What you say about a Vorkosigan attitude is interesting. I think that's Wells tone in general.

I agree with you oen of the main thing I didn't like about the books are the Chaotic Evilness of the Fell.

[hamsterwoman]

Yes, there's something very id-satisfying about them for me as well, in a very sweet way. I just kind of want to cuddle this book :D

This sort of fondly wry, self-aware narration seems to work for me really well, so if that's Wells in general, that should bode well for me branching out into the rest of her work once I'm done with Raksura.

So the Chaotic Evilness of the Fell doesn't really get addressed/deconstructed then? I was hoping Moon's realization about rulers having family feeling was the start of more interesting treatment of them...

[etrangere]

Yes! quite!

Love that tone as well :)

Sadly not. There's more nuances here and there, but the Fell remain very much a Chaotic Evil people overall.

[hamsterwoman]

Aww, that's too bad about the Fell. But I'm glad about the nuances, at least, and there's definitely plenty else in the series to keep me happy, clearly!

[postingwhore]

Chemical Cowboys sounds fun, but I don't think I'll be reading it...especially not with the fuck yeah america & squeaky clean heroes stuff, both of which I hate in general, both of which I loathe. :p

[hamsterwoman]

I don't think Chemical Cowboys is, like, investigative journalism at its finest, but it made for an interesting story. If it were a fictional story, the squeaky-clean-ness would bother me more; as it is, I assume there were probably conditions under which these people opened up to the author, so, fine. The America fuck yeah thing was not too frequent (or it would have bothered me more), but made me roll my eyes when it was there.

[a_phoenixdragon]

*HUGS*

[hamsterwoman]

<3