Reading roundup, including Mistborn (finally) and Werewolf Marines, Ulysses Pact #1

[hamsterwoman]

Happy Passover and happy Easter to all who celebrate! I need to make a real update (lots of things have been happening!) and answer comments and comment on people's entries, but for now, have a reading roundup, as I've been busy there, too:

Ulysses Pact: Commenced and currently at 10% (location 1092). It's actually not as hard going as I expected

Comments

[_grayswandir_]

Ulysses Pact: Commenced and currently at 10%

Yay! And also, wow, 10% already. *impressed* I do think the first few chapters are the most engaging ones (it also picks up again at the end), but it sounds like you're making good time.

the writing is really enjoyable, even if I have no idea why it's doing what it seems to be doing. The hyperdescription of every action takes getting used to, but also fills me with admiration for how sharply it draws the tiny details.

Yes, this is just how I felt about it, and why it reminds me of reading Nabokov. Not that Nabokov describes everything in quite such excessively loving detail, but there's a similar... I don't know, aesthetic indulgence in both of them. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

there's been rather more talk of "I don't want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews" (from multiple mouths) than I had expected

Yeah, that's going to be... not irrelevant. I mean, I would be overstating Ulysses' capacity for plot if I said it was going to be "relevant," exactly. But it's

[hamsterwoman]

I do think the first few chapters are the most engaging ones (it also picks up again at the end)

Hmm... I mean, it has been fairly engaging, but I'm not sure I'm prepared to be considerably less for the space of 500 pages or whatever...

and why it reminds me of reading Nabokov

Yeah, when I got to the hyperdescriptiveness, I figured that was the similarity with Nabokov you felt. It feels different to me, but something about the vividness of the everyday painted with language does feel similar. And it's aesthetic indulgence, probably, but very grounded in the physical world for both (I feel this more strongly with Nabokov in Russian than in English, though).

I remember reading the whole cat scene and thinking, "Yep, that is a cat. Cats were exactly the same a hundred years ago."It is a really great description of a cat -- I found it very striking for that reason. Like, there's nothing amazing about a great cat description per se, maybe, but it almost reads like somebody describing everyday earth things to an alien who has no

[a_phoenixdragon]

*Drive-by hugs*

[hamsterwoman]

Likewise! (And so lovely to see photos of your boys in the post the other day! What a pair of cuties! :)

[a_phoenixdragon]

*Smiles* Terribly enough, they know it. *Sigh* Imps, I tell you...IMPS.

[hamsterwoman]

Heh, they look like they know it, too, yes! ;D

[spaciireth]

Some of those Ulysses quotes are... unique.

I really need to try to get around to Mistborn. I have a friend who's a huge BS fan, and I just look at the size of some of his books and think, "... nope." But that is one series that does interest me.

[hamsterwoman]

Ulysses has a lot of descriptions I didn't expect to find in a Serious Novel, even though I've read some of Joyce's letter and I'm not that surprised. Like the rather detailed and apt description of a the main character taking a crap in an outhouse. It's a very vivid description! But not something I really was lacking in my life :P

nd I just look at the size of some of his books and think, "... nope."

Heh, totally. I checked out Warbreaker or The Way of Kings and just returned them to the library -- enormous hardcovers, I really couldn't bring myself to even start them, especially as most of my reading time is on my commute, and I didn't want to be dragging those things around with me on the train.

But Mistborn was actually not that long and a relatively quick read, so it's good in that regard!

[qwentoozla]

I haven't read Akata Witch, but I read another Nnedi Okorafor book called Lagoon for my black sci fi class, and I definitely noticed some of the same things, like the diversity of languages and religions, and the unfamiliarity of the tradition it works with. There was a priest who was a total scam artist, and the protagonist's husband was convinced she was a water witch... It was an interesting read, although I think I wasn't able to finish it because I had gotten behind on reading at that point.

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, interesting! How was the pacing in that one? I think that was the part that discomfited me the most in Akata Witch -- not that the pacing was "bad", but it seemed to follow some rhythm that felt totally unnatural to me -- almost like a piece of music that feels jarring because it hews to a different rhythm than you expect. But I enjoyed Akata Witch enough that I'm curious to read more Okorafor.

(Also, that's really cool that Cal has a black sci-fi class now. I'm assuming that was for the American Cultures requirement? Or do they still even have that one?)

[qwentoozla]

Yes, the pacing felt unusual to me too, in the one I read. I feel like it did unusual things with point of view, too, like switching from third person narration to multiple chapters of first person bystander accounts, and something where the narrator started talking about stories quite far into the book, when the narrator hadn't stepped out at all before that. I'd like to read the book properly sometime, or read more of her stuff--it's definitely intriguing!

We do still have an American Cultures requirement! This class wasn't for that though, it was a special topics class. It was really interesting! The prof was a woman called Namwali Serpell, who was very cool, and who writes fiction herself, I believe.

[hamsterwoman]

I'm very curious now to read another spec author writing in the African tradition to see if it feels the same or different from Okorafor.

Oh, that's neat that this was a special topics class, and the prof sounds interesting, too!

[mezzogiorno]

The ziggy zaggy parts of Mistborn were the most tedious for me, but I did really enjoy the story as a whole, probably also for the twists. I REALLY like the kandra, I think that's my favourite aspect to the whole story, and I'm keen to see what you think of the other two books if you do read them :)

[hamsterwoman]

The kandra was really neat -- the most creative aspect of worldbuilding, I think (unusual and interesting and creepy if you think about it for longer than a second), and I quite liked him (it?) as a character too. I do want to see where the story goes, so I plan to read on! (Did you have posts about Mistborn in your LJ? I'm curious to see what others thought/said about the first book now that it will make more sense to me.)

Also, HI KATE! Good to see you around here! :D

[mezzogiorno]

HELLO! I have missed being around :D

I did have a final post about Mistborn on mine, but it's very spoilery for the whole series so don't read it yet :D (http://mezzogiorno.livejournal.com/548864.html). I'll be keenly watching for your updates.

[hamsterwoman]

Heh, I tend to read all the spoilers, but in this case, since the twists are where it's at for me, I'm determined to stay spoiler-free, so I'll just bookmark this for when I'm done with the trilogy.