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I'm entering the fray! Name: Deathbot Number: 100. Booklord challenge: Not this time. What I've read in January so far.
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Jan 17, 2017 08:03
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Reviewing what I've read mostly in Feb! 1) A closed and common orbit - Becky Chambers  The sequel to 'The long way to a small, angry planet' is soft, slice-of-life sci-fi with a good mix of fun and intrigue, alongside the more philosophical explorations of what it is to be a person (even when you're an A.I.). It's carried by a strong heart and sense of characterisation, and the cast and the plot itself is much more contained than the first book's roaming space adventure, focusing on a small group of people getting to know each other, and the main character's struggles in getting to know herself. And I can't say a sci-fi book with a majority women cast isn't refreshing! By the way, if you're looking for LGBTQ+ characters? The first book has a cute pair that might scratch that itch. 2) Short Story Collection: Toast and other rusted futures - Charles Stross  I found this short story collection incredibly disappointing, given I'd enjoyed some of his longer works (namely The laundry files). I feel he lost his balance between writing a story and writing a textbook, and crash landed into writing stories where every single character is an identical mouthpiece that infodumps such ~scintillating dialog~ as this in casual conversation: "They should be working on uploading and solving the nano-assembly conformational problem instead. Then we could turn all the available dumb matter into computronium and use it for processing our thoughts." Not to mention the sexual assault in The Lobsters. The only short that avoids the pitfall is 'A colder war', with his take on the Cthulu mythos actually possessing something beyond thinly plotted scientific theories.. And that's fortunately online for free outside of this collection. 3) The Last Days of New Paris - China Miéville  I hope you know your art history! China continues to write some of the weirdest and in this case literally surreal fantasy stories, and he's certainly one of my favourite modern authors for his strange and expansive world-building. I enjoyed the adventures of surrealism artists punching nazis in The Last Days of New Paris, but I think that enjoyment in readers is heavily reliant on a knowledge of the artworks and artists used in the story. After all, this is a book that comes with an index at the end worthy of 101 college art history. 4 & 5: Fire From Heaven & Persian Boy - Mary Renault  Trotting back to the gay classics, Mary Renault's historical fiction about the life of Alexander the Great holds up well. It's a steady, well-paced adventure that manages to keep a consistent atmosphere and tone between the two books. The writing's not a big and flashy production that draws attention to itself, but it doesn't have to be for the story it tells. 6: Six Gun Snow White - Catherynne M. Valente  When it comes to flashy writing, Catherynne's the name I think of lately. Six Gun Snow White is a more mature remix of Snow White: Now in the wild west, full of historically accurate patriarchy, oppression, racism and every kind of abuse! Featuring a half-Native American, half-white Snow White. ... What I'm saying is it's not a particularly happy retelling, but it is an interesting and well-written take. However, I preferred her Russian folktale remix Deathless a lot more, and I'd recommend that or her YA series over this for anyone who wants to try her books out. 7: The Quantum thief - Hannu Rajaniemi Drawing on the past, genre-defining heist books featuring Arsène Lupin, The Quantum Thief is a worthy new competitor in the genre. This first book in the trilogy mixes a clever plot with creative world-building and interesting character development, demanding the audience's attention at every page. I got the recommendation from this forum so I'm just going to assume you goons have read it already. 8: She commands and I obey - Ann Leckie  Ann Leckie burst onto the scene with her pronoun challenging feminist sci-fi, and this short story is set in the same universe albeit a different society reminiscent of the Aztecs (in space). Mixing sports and political mystery sounds like an unlikely combination until you remember the sport ends with someone getting ritually sacrificed. Still, I feel this story would have been better as a longer novella as it's difficult to get attached to the characters in such a short span of pages and thus following the mystery through to its conclusion isn't as compelling as it could be. 9 & 10: An end to hunger & Covehithe - China Miéville I think, although it was well-written, the short story An end to hunger was a little too on the nose, predictable and blunt to work as horror or as suspense. His writing isn't as strong in a less surreal fantasy context, since his strengths in writing are imagination and weirdness... Of which plenty is found in the Covehithe short story, the contents of which I can't describe without ruining the enjoyment of reading it.
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Feb 27, 2017 11:26
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March summary! 15, 16, 17, 18. Katya and the Starbride series - Barbara Ann Wright. 19. Best served cold - Joe Abercrombie. 20, 21, 22. Shattered sea trilogy - Joe Abercrombie. 23. The golem and the jinni - Helene Wecker. 24. The house in Fata Morgana - Novectacle.
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Mar 30, 2017 03:46
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Haven't updated in a while... I think this is all of them from August/September. 25. Megan Whale Turner - Thick as thieves: Nothing particularly different in terms of tone from the previous books, which isn't a complaint: the familiar beats of a solid YA series that remains fun. 26. China Mieville - This Census Taker: Not my favourite book of his, really. I prefer his more imaginative fantasy works. 27. Gail Carriger - Soulless: Regency romance with manly bare-chested werewolves and camp gay vampires and don't loving judge me. 28. Hannu Rajaniemi - Collected fiction: High-brow sci-fi short stories. Most of them weren't as good as his full-length novels due to his world-building taking up too much of the actual story time, but a few gems. 29-30: Max Gladstone - Last first snow, Four roads cross: Disappointed with four roads because in the end, it was nearly identical in terms of plot beats to earlier works and read more like frakenstein of previous stories without heart. 31. Mira Grant - Newsflesh #1: It was... okay? A bit trite and predictable, and full of unnecessary and unexamined incest overtones that are apparently canonised later. Won't read the others. 32. N. K. Jemisin - Stone sky: i cried a lot. a lot. 33. Yoon Ha Lee - Raven Strategem: A big step up from the first novel, this book focused on the chemistry between the characters and their interaction with a broken, psychologically abusive system rather than the mysterious spacemagic world building, and benefited from it. 34. Yoon Ha Lee - Extracurricular Activities: Short story of undercover agents set centuries before the trilogy. 35. Kameron Hurley - The stars are legion: It's time for body horror. It's always body horror. 36. Jonathan L. Howard - Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: I enjoyed the adventures of amoral necromancer doing bad things, and doing bad things badly. Did not finish: Roshani Chokshi - The Star-Touched Queen: "I'm going to fall in love at first sight in a series of flowery metaphors and then take the advice of a woman who explictly loathes me against all common sense! I'm so lovable!" yeah, pass. made it to around the 35% mark before I realised it was only getting worse.
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Oct 4, 2017 14:03
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Made it over 50! 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 15) Read a play. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
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Oct 31, 2017 12:19
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