aelfgyfu_mead (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2012-05-26 02:20 pm
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2012-05-26 02:20 pm
My book post from December and January
I just remembered that I had a post that I didn't finish from the end of January. I've finished it now (I hope).
I have read five novels in the last two to three months [wrote that in late January or early Feb]—not bad, considering how busy I've been. I will try to avoid spoilers in the post, but warning: DO post spoilers for these books (and only these books) in the comments! I want to discuss them! Naturally, that means comments should be read with care.
Connie Willis: Blackout and All Clear
I loved Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. These books comes in the same universe but are much more closely bound. These two are a pair, one huge novel split into two; read them back-to-back.
I have already heard other people's reactions to them. Apparently some readers, particularly English ones, found historical errors and Americanisms. Some were frustrated in various ways. I didn't notice any historical errors, but WWII is not my area.
Briefly, these books are about time-traveling historians who go back to World War II England and become entangled in various situations there.
The negatives
I felt some frustration at the length and complications. Willis has apparently been waiting years to tell this story; she keeps hinting at it in the two previous books in the series. She waited too long. She has too much. She also doesn't play fair. The books are in third-person limited, alternating various points of view. When I'm in someone's point of view, I don't expect to find that that character has simply managed not to think major pieces of information in my presence. I get annoyed when I discover later that that has happened. It's even worse when it's clear that the character is trying not to give something away, thinking very hard about how to conceal it without ever thinking what "it" is. Perhaps very good liars can think this way, and I'm simply not a good enough liar to get it. I feel, however, that abusing third-person limited in this way is rather a cheap trick, and that a good writers should avoid it, not use it repeatedly. Willis does it repeatedly. I also felt frustration that too many plot lines meant I was forever suspended; the moment things got really exciting or dangerous in one, I knew that we'd soon move to another. Again, I felt the change of perspective became a cheap trick after a while.
The positives
It's a shame I found these frustrations, but I'm still glad I read these books. As I said, I can't vouch for the accuracy; others have found mistakes. (If you know any major ones, I'd be curious to read about them to correct my own sense of history.) I did feel as though I got a sense of the experiences, however, even if all the details weren't correct. I don't know what it's really like to live in an area constantly under threat of bombing. I have enough trouble caring for Small Child; I hate even to imagine living with a whole batch of children shipped to the countryside to escape bombing! The people and locations were vividly imagined, and I felt deep sympathy for several of the characters. I found it hard to put the books down, which I often don't find during term; I have my hands full with academic reading, and novels aren't as much of an escape as they were before grad school.
Despite the intricacy of the plots, I managed to keep reasonably good track of them (barring a couple of complications related to my complaints above), which is impressive because I didn't read them as quickly as I'd have liked. I sometimes put down the volume I was reading for days at a time, but I could pick it back up and sink back into it at once.
I find it hard to give details of what I liked without giving away too much about the plot, so I'll just reiterate that I became very attached to some of the characters. While I felt that Willis manipulated point of view, I found the characters otherwise believable and very human.
Terry Pratchett: Mort
Do I need to say much about anything Pratchett writes? Mort is one of the Death books.
Mort is an awkward teenager: "He was tall, red-haired, and freckled, with the sort of body that seems to be only marginally under its owner's control; it appeared to have been built out of knees" (3). [In other words, much as Steven Moffat describes Matt Smith?]
"His heart's in the right place, mind," said [his father] Lezek, carefully.
"Ah. 'Course, 'tis the rest of him that isn't." (3)
No one else will take on Mort as an apprentice, so Death does. We meet Death's daughter, Ysabell. It's a Discworld book: loads of fun!
N. K. Jemisin: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
I'm really hoping someone will comment who has also read this book, because I'd love to talk about it with someone! I'd have loved it better if I'd managed to post this four months ago, when the book was still fresh in my mind. . . .
Yeine Darr, daughter of Kinneth, was living in what was considered a backwater kingdom until her maternal family sent for her, and she could not refuse. So Yeine goes to live in Sky, a city that stretches up to the Sky, where her kin rules the world and keeps as slaves former gods. We know from early in the novel that Yeine's kin has some hidden agenda in bringing her to Sky, and indeed possibly more than one agenda. We also suspect that Yeine isn't making everything clear.
I can't tell much more without getting into spoilers. The novel really sucked me in, but I feel a bit ambivalent about it, and much of that has to do with the ending. So please, I'm warning for spoilers in the comments; if you've read, feel free to discuss!
I liked a lot of the world-building, but I had the nagging feeling that I was right on the edge of bloopholes, and that if I thought too hard, things would fall apart.
I liked the characterization for the most part, but I felt that Jemisin did a little of what I complain about Willis doing above: again, I was reading a book with a narrator to whom I felt close, this time because she was a first-person narrator, and I felt a little cheated when I got information late even though the character had been acting upon it for a good chunk of the novel. That's really my only complaint about characterization; I liked the complexity and psychological realism of the characters. In one sense, the problem was less than in Willis's book: the novel is very much a story that the character is telling, so as a reader, I always knew that I was getting not her unmediated thoughts but her memories and her manipulation.
One minor complaint: I wish there had been a guide to pronunciation! Oh, cow—scratch that. I'd just put down six or eight that I came up with, complete with International Phonetic Alphabet, and then I thought to Google it, and, lo and behold, the author posted a pronunciation guide here over two years ago. Wish I'd thought to Google while reading. I had nearly all the names right in my head except the protagonist's.
Charles Stross: The Jennifer Morgue
This book is a sequel to The Atrocity Archives, about which I commented here (you can also see there links to my thoughts on Stross's Merchant Princes series, which I didn't like, and how much better I like his Laundry series).
This is a good sequel. Of course, some of the surprise has been lost from the first, and one really needs to have read Atrocity Archives to understand who these people are and what they're doing. The horror was also even harder to take in this one, and parts were very difficult for me to read, but the rest made it worthwhile. I can't tell you my favorite bits without giving too much away! If you have any inclination towards horror, or possibly even if you don't (I don't), you might enjoy this book. There are threats to the earth, dashing spies, possible betrayals, an over-the-top supervillain. . . . That sounded better in my head. It sounds better in the novel, too.
I'll also note that though I disliked Book 1 of the Merchant Princes series because I felt it misogynistic and saw some of the same problems in Atrocity Archives, I felt Stross's female characters here were more varied, and there wasn't the same tendency towards misogyny.
Okay, that's my December-January post. Next time I post, I must remember at least these books:
Terry Pratchett, Guards, Guards!
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife (boy, do I have loads to say about that!)
Charles Stross, Singularity Sky (not in the Merchant Princes or Laundry series but a different series)
ETA: Catherynne M. Valente, The Habitation of the Blessed
That might be all I've read since late January/early February. I'm not sure. Oy.
I have read five novels in the last two to three months [wrote that in late January or early Feb]—not bad, considering how busy I've been. I will try to avoid spoilers in the post, but warning: DO post spoilers for these books (and only these books) in the comments! I want to discuss them! Naturally, that means comments should be read with care.
Connie Willis: Blackout and All Clear
I loved Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. These books comes in the same universe but are much more closely bound. These two are a pair, one huge novel split into two; read them back-to-back.
I have already heard other people's reactions to them. Apparently some readers, particularly English ones, found historical errors and Americanisms. Some were frustrated in various ways. I didn't notice any historical errors, but WWII is not my area.
Briefly, these books are about time-traveling historians who go back to World War II England and become entangled in various situations there.
The negatives
I felt some frustration at the length and complications. Willis has apparently been waiting years to tell this story; she keeps hinting at it in the two previous books in the series. She waited too long. She has too much. She also doesn't play fair. The books are in third-person limited, alternating various points of view. When I'm in someone's point of view, I don't expect to find that that character has simply managed not to think major pieces of information in my presence. I get annoyed when I discover later that that has happened. It's even worse when it's clear that the character is trying not to give something away, thinking very hard about how to conceal it without ever thinking what "it" is. Perhaps very good liars can think this way, and I'm simply not a good enough liar to get it. I feel, however, that abusing third-person limited in this way is rather a cheap trick, and that a good writers should avoid it, not use it repeatedly. Willis does it repeatedly. I also felt frustration that too many plot lines meant I was forever suspended; the moment things got really exciting or dangerous in one, I knew that we'd soon move to another. Again, I felt the change of perspective became a cheap trick after a while.
The positives
It's a shame I found these frustrations, but I'm still glad I read these books. As I said, I can't vouch for the accuracy; others have found mistakes. (If you know any major ones, I'd be curious to read about them to correct my own sense of history.) I did feel as though I got a sense of the experiences, however, even if all the details weren't correct. I don't know what it's really like to live in an area constantly under threat of bombing. I have enough trouble caring for Small Child; I hate even to imagine living with a whole batch of children shipped to the countryside to escape bombing! The people and locations were vividly imagined, and I felt deep sympathy for several of the characters. I found it hard to put the books down, which I often don't find during term; I have my hands full with academic reading, and novels aren't as much of an escape as they were before grad school.
Despite the intricacy of the plots, I managed to keep reasonably good track of them (barring a couple of complications related to my complaints above), which is impressive because I didn't read them as quickly as I'd have liked. I sometimes put down the volume I was reading for days at a time, but I could pick it back up and sink back into it at once.
I find it hard to give details of what I liked without giving away too much about the plot, so I'll just reiterate that I became very attached to some of the characters. While I felt that Willis manipulated point of view, I found the characters otherwise believable and very human.
Terry Pratchett: Mort
Do I need to say much about anything Pratchett writes? Mort is one of the Death books.
Mort is an awkward teenager: "He was tall, red-haired, and freckled, with the sort of body that seems to be only marginally under its owner's control; it appeared to have been built out of knees" (3). [In other words, much as Steven Moffat describes Matt Smith?]
"His heart's in the right place, mind," said [his father] Lezek, carefully.
"Ah. 'Course, 'tis the rest of him that isn't." (3)
No one else will take on Mort as an apprentice, so Death does. We meet Death's daughter, Ysabell. It's a Discworld book: loads of fun!
N. K. Jemisin: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
I'm really hoping someone will comment who has also read this book, because I'd love to talk about it with someone! I'd have loved it better if I'd managed to post this four months ago, when the book was still fresh in my mind. . . .
Yeine Darr, daughter of Kinneth, was living in what was considered a backwater kingdom until her maternal family sent for her, and she could not refuse. So Yeine goes to live in Sky, a city that stretches up to the Sky, where her kin rules the world and keeps as slaves former gods. We know from early in the novel that Yeine's kin has some hidden agenda in bringing her to Sky, and indeed possibly more than one agenda. We also suspect that Yeine isn't making everything clear.
I can't tell much more without getting into spoilers. The novel really sucked me in, but I feel a bit ambivalent about it, and much of that has to do with the ending. So please, I'm warning for spoilers in the comments; if you've read, feel free to discuss!
I liked a lot of the world-building, but I had the nagging feeling that I was right on the edge of bloopholes, and that if I thought too hard, things would fall apart.
I liked the characterization for the most part, but I felt that Jemisin did a little of what I complain about Willis doing above: again, I was reading a book with a narrator to whom I felt close, this time because she was a first-person narrator, and I felt a little cheated when I got information late even though the character had been acting upon it for a good chunk of the novel. That's really my only complaint about characterization; I liked the complexity and psychological realism of the characters. In one sense, the problem was less than in Willis's book: the novel is very much a story that the character is telling, so as a reader, I always knew that I was getting not her unmediated thoughts but her memories and her manipulation.
One minor complaint: I wish there had been a guide to pronunciation! Oh, cow—scratch that. I'd just put down six or eight that I came up with, complete with International Phonetic Alphabet, and then I thought to Google it, and, lo and behold, the author posted a pronunciation guide here over two years ago. Wish I'd thought to Google while reading. I had nearly all the names right in my head except the protagonist's.
Charles Stross: The Jennifer Morgue
This book is a sequel to The Atrocity Archives, about which I commented here (you can also see there links to my thoughts on Stross's Merchant Princes series, which I didn't like, and how much better I like his Laundry series).
This is a good sequel. Of course, some of the surprise has been lost from the first, and one really needs to have read Atrocity Archives to understand who these people are and what they're doing. The horror was also even harder to take in this one, and parts were very difficult for me to read, but the rest made it worthwhile. I can't tell you my favorite bits without giving too much away! If you have any inclination towards horror, or possibly even if you don't (I don't), you might enjoy this book. There are threats to the earth, dashing spies, possible betrayals, an over-the-top supervillain. . . . That sounded better in my head. It sounds better in the novel, too.
I'll also note that though I disliked Book 1 of the Merchant Princes series because I felt it misogynistic and saw some of the same problems in Atrocity Archives, I felt Stross's female characters here were more varied, and there wasn't the same tendency towards misogyny.
Okay, that's my December-January post. Next time I post, I must remember at least these books:
Terry Pratchett, Guards, Guards!
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife (boy, do I have loads to say about that!)
Charles Stross, Singularity Sky (not in the Merchant Princes or Laundry series but a different series)
ETA: Catherynne M. Valente, The Habitation of the Blessed
That might be all I've read since late January/early February. I'm not sure. Oy.