I don’t remember how I originally got a hold of a copy of Ender’s Game, but I do remember that it came into my possession when I was 13, in eighth grade. I read most of it during stolen moments on a team-building retreat for school, and I finished it on the bus-ride back to civilization after a few days in the woods.
It was the first book that I finished, turned over, and immediately restarted.
After my second read-through, I think I managed to go about a month Ender-free. Then I read it again. The cycle repeated over the next 5 years; I read that book 13 times between 8th grade and my freshman year of college. When Ender’s Shadow came out, I read Shadow and then sat the two books side by side and read them in tandem to see how the pieces fit together. At some point I tried to read the other sequels but never got into them; I just kept reading Ender’s Game over and over.
Being busy with class finally broke off my frequent re-reads, and then suddenly it was 10 years later. Saturday night I sat in my living room chatting with friends and out of the blue it came to me that I hadn’t read Ender’s Game in a full ten years.
Sunday morning I got up and immediately pulled my favorite old copy off the shelf. It is easily my most-loved book; the edges of the pages are soft as velvet, and the corners are completely worn away (making each page look like paper out of Battlestar Galactica). I curled up with coffee and brunch, and I didn’t look up until 2 hours later. As always, I made it to page 120 (Locke and Demosthenes) before I was jolted out of my reverie; that chapter has always broken up the flow of the narrative for me. I think on my first read-through it took me longer to get through that one chapter than it did the rest of the book combined. I picked the book back up Monday morning and finished the remaining 200-odd pages on the plane to Baton Rouge.
This is hardly a real review – surely the fact that I’ve read Ender’s Game 14 times, and the fact that it is one of the most renowned pieces of science fiction out there should stand as reason enough that I think it’s fantastic and worth reading. I did, however, want to get some thoughts about it written down now that I’ve read it with an adult perspective.
First and foremost – in 15 years, I have never before taken the time to read the introduction to Ender’s Game. I wasn’t interested the first time I read the book, and then every subsequent re-read I was too eager to get into the story to stop and read the introduction. This time I read it and was pretty entertained – I had no idea that Card was so inspired by Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. He comes across as a bit arrogant at times, but it was an intriguing glimpse into his mind and motives.
My second observation was how much more I was engaged by the adult-exchanges at the beginning of each chapter (between Graff, Anderson, and whomever else). When I was a kid the exchanges just seemed sinister; as an adult I found humor (and sometimes wistfulness) that I had never detected before. I was also much more attuned to Graff’s state of mind throughout the book – I had never before noticed his weigh/stress issues and never really understood the legal repercussions of his actions.
The last big difference between this read-through and when I was younger was how much more I questioned the skills, intelligence, and capability of the children in the book. When I was 13 I was very nearly of an age with them, so it did not seem at all out of the ordinary that they spoke and acted like adults (as I perceived myself to do at that age). The mindset stuck with me through all my subsequent re-reads. This time, looking on it with a critical eye, I found myself more doubtful and skeptical as I compared them to children in my life – my 6-year-old twin sisters, or JD’s 8-year-old nephew. In some ways I still found the childrens’ depictions realistic; especially their energy and sponge-like minds, and also their cruelty. But every time I tried to frame their focus and intellect in line with “would my very precocious sister ever manage that?” I found myself answering no. It was interesting what a difference 15 years can make in my mindset.
If you read and loved Ender’s Game as a kid, I definitely recommend giving it another read as an adult. Of course if you have never read it – shame on you; you need to remedy that right this minute.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
[JD's Take] Under Heaven (Guy Gavriel Kay)
Every time I read a new Guy Gavriel Kay novel, I become more solidly convinced that he is perhaps the most talented living author of fantasy that I have had the pleasure of reading. It is true, that I have in no way read the entirety of his oeuvre, and it is also likely that I have been cherry-picking his best works as I work my way through it. But the rest of the books are going to have to really suck to outweigh the brilliance of Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and Under Heaven.
Like his other works, Under Heaven takes place in a fictionalized version of a historical setting. This one is much more thinly disguised than the others I've read; it is impossible to mistake this setting for anything other than historical China (specifically, the Tang dynasty). In fact, I'd say that it's the least fantastic and most historically linked of his books that I've read. The story follows a man named Shen who... ah, I hate summarizing books when I review them, and I feel like any attempt would fall short. So I'm deleting what I had and skipping that part.
The book sparkles with Kay's usual adept characterizations and clever integration of fantastic elements with historical lands, customs, and cultures. The writing is generously sprinkled with poetry, and that helps lend the whole thing a sort of... thoughtful atmosphere. I became wholly absorbed with this book in a way that I haven't had happen in a very, very long time. I read all 600 pages of it over a single weekend (an unheard of feat for me) and was genuinely sad when I had to turn that last page. This was one of those books that had me reading the author's notes at the end just because I was loath to admit the story was over.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the story was the focus of it. Shen becomes involved with politics at the highest level, and tremendous, society-shaking events begin to happen around him. Despite the eventually revolution, the start of a decade-long war, and a fundamental shift in the country's society that happen during the book... they are never the focus of the story. This is the story of a man with a burden unasked for, a story about dealing with family and lovers and danger and your own smallness. It is not a story about war and revolution and blood and sacked cities and high politics, those are simply things that happen in the background of this one man's struggle and when that struggle finally ends... so too does the story. Long before the end of the war, without telling us much (if anything) about the large-scale events that we saw start. There are hints though, intriguing morsels narrated to let us know that his story isn't over... but THIS story is. It's a hard trick to pull off (and a hard effect to describe! Read it yourself and see what you think) but it is done masterfully here.
In short, this book is brilliant. I have nothing bad to say about it... at least not now, several weeks after putting it down. Instead, I find myself missing it like an old friend that I haven't talked to in too long.
Like his other works, Under Heaven takes place in a fictionalized version of a historical setting. This one is much more thinly disguised than the others I've read; it is impossible to mistake this setting for anything other than historical China (specifically, the Tang dynasty). In fact, I'd say that it's the least fantastic and most historically linked of his books that I've read. The story follows a man named Shen who... ah, I hate summarizing books when I review them, and I feel like any attempt would fall short. So I'm deleting what I had and skipping that part.
The book sparkles with Kay's usual adept characterizations and clever integration of fantastic elements with historical lands, customs, and cultures. The writing is generously sprinkled with poetry, and that helps lend the whole thing a sort of... thoughtful atmosphere. I became wholly absorbed with this book in a way that I haven't had happen in a very, very long time. I read all 600 pages of it over a single weekend (an unheard of feat for me) and was genuinely sad when I had to turn that last page. This was one of those books that had me reading the author's notes at the end just because I was loath to admit the story was over.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the story was the focus of it. Shen becomes involved with politics at the highest level, and tremendous, society-shaking events begin to happen around him. Despite the eventually revolution, the start of a decade-long war, and a fundamental shift in the country's society that happen during the book... they are never the focus of the story. This is the story of a man with a burden unasked for, a story about dealing with family and lovers and danger and your own smallness. It is not a story about war and revolution and blood and sacked cities and high politics, those are simply things that happen in the background of this one man's struggle and when that struggle finally ends... so too does the story. Long before the end of the war, without telling us much (if anything) about the large-scale events that we saw start. There are hints though, intriguing morsels narrated to let us know that his story isn't over... but THIS story is. It's a hard trick to pull off (and a hard effect to describe! Read it yourself and see what you think) but it is done masterfully here.
In short, this book is brilliant. I have nothing bad to say about it... at least not now, several weeks after putting it down. Instead, I find myself missing it like an old friend that I haven't talked to in too long.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
[Lisa’s Take] The Void Trilogy (Peter F. Hamilton)
I kick-started my book list for 2012 by shotgunning all three books in Peter F. Hamilton’s Void Trilogy: The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void, and The Evolutionary Void. This netted me a whopping 1973 pages in a little over 3 weeks. I’m pretty sure the last time I consumed that many pages from a single series back-to-back-to-back was either when I first got my hands on George R. R. Martin at Christmas 2003, or maybe the Kusheline Trilogy in 2006. Either way, it’s been a damn long time since I was compelled to read so much so quickly.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of literature that can be classified as “massively multi-genre.” Tad Williams and China Mieville are high of my list of favorite authors due to their ability to produce works that break out of the typical genre stereotypes. When I picked up The Dreaming Void, I was expecting good old-fashioned hard sci-fi, softened up with a bit of decent character development – you know, pretty much what I had come to expect when I read Hamilton’s Pandora Star and Judas Unchained.
My expectations were met for about a hundred pages. I was enjoying the story and the characters, and I was tickled pink to see a lot of familiar faces from his previous duology. I was finding the technology a little less accessible that that of Pandora’s Star; the story is sufficiently far in the future that technology has progressed to the point of “sufficiently advanced as to seem like magic.”
Then all of the sudden I started a new chapter and the book went from hard sci-fi to medieval fantasy.
I was… baffled, to say the least, but I greedily enjoyed the change of pace, expecting it to be a one-off occurrence. It wasn’t. With increasing frequency you start to get glimpses into the fantasy-esque world inside the void, and see how that ties in with the sci-fi world outside. I loved the juxtaposition, and honestly felt myself more attached to most of the void characters than anyone outside. At the end of the second book I was literally choking and crying on the plane. I’ve never read a sci-fi classified book that moved me so much.
I can’t recommend these books enough for fans of either sci-fi or fantasy. If you’ve never dabbled in sci-fi as a genre this might be an ambitious start, but anyone who enjoys the genre (or wants to be convinced that the genre can be enjoyable) would be well served by picking up the Void Trilogy. My books for the rest of the year are going to be hard-pressed to live up to such an excellent start.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of literature that can be classified as “massively multi-genre.” Tad Williams and China Mieville are high of my list of favorite authors due to their ability to produce works that break out of the typical genre stereotypes. When I picked up The Dreaming Void, I was expecting good old-fashioned hard sci-fi, softened up with a bit of decent character development – you know, pretty much what I had come to expect when I read Hamilton’s Pandora Star and Judas Unchained.
My expectations were met for about a hundred pages. I was enjoying the story and the characters, and I was tickled pink to see a lot of familiar faces from his previous duology. I was finding the technology a little less accessible that that of Pandora’s Star; the story is sufficiently far in the future that technology has progressed to the point of “sufficiently advanced as to seem like magic.”
Then all of the sudden I started a new chapter and the book went from hard sci-fi to medieval fantasy.
I was… baffled, to say the least, but I greedily enjoyed the change of pace, expecting it to be a one-off occurrence. It wasn’t. With increasing frequency you start to get glimpses into the fantasy-esque world inside the void, and see how that ties in with the sci-fi world outside. I loved the juxtaposition, and honestly felt myself more attached to most of the void characters than anyone outside. At the end of the second book I was literally choking and crying on the plane. I’ve never read a sci-fi classified book that moved me so much.
I can’t recommend these books enough for fans of either sci-fi or fantasy. If you’ve never dabbled in sci-fi as a genre this might be an ambitious start, but anyone who enjoys the genre (or wants to be convinced that the genre can be enjoyable) would be well served by picking up the Void Trilogy. My books for the rest of the year are going to be hard-pressed to live up to such an excellent start.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
[JD's Take] Year Review 2011
Another year, another even shorter book list. At least my trending is going down! 2009 I had 48 books, 2010 36, and this year... 36 again. Maybe I've stabilized? Still, my total pages dropped from 15,403 to 14,545 and my pages/day from 42.3 to 39.8.
My top 5 books for 2011 (drum roll please!), with the standard "order not relevant" disclaimer:
1. The Black Prism (Brent Weeks)
2. The Wise Man's Fear (Pat Rothfuss)
3. The Stranger's Woes (Max Frei)
4. Allow of law (Brandon Sanderson)
5. The Desert Spear (Peter V. Brett)
The other books I read in 2011 are a pretty big step down from those, actually. I was lucky to get 5 that really excelled. It's not that I didn't enjoy them (I did!) or that there weren't excellent and well written books in the remainder (there were!) but I just can't bring myself to set them next to those five, which were truly outstanding. Honorable mention definitely goes to Embassytown, which was excellent but wasn't "enjoyable" in the usual sense. Plus it killed my numbers for the year because it took me like 2 months to read those 300 odd pages!
Here's the full list:
The Child Thief (Brom)
Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
The Desert Spear (Peter V. Brett)
The Name of the Wind (Pat Rothfuss)
The Wise Man's Fear (Pat Rothfuss)
Machine Of Death (North, et al)
Tiassa (Brust)
Summer knight (Jim Butcher)
Death Masks (Jim Butcher)
Blood Rites (Jim Butcher)
Thunderball (Ian Flemming)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (ian flemming)
You only live twice (Ian flemming)
Empire in black and gold (Adrian)
The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks)
Chasing the moon (A. Lee Martinez)
Shadow's Edge (Brent Weeks)
Beyond the Shadows (Brent Weeks)
Embassytown (China Mieville)
The princess and mr whiffle (Pat Rothfuss)
The man with the golden gun (Ian Fleming)
Casino royale (Ian Fleming)
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Steve McConnel)
Tooth & Claw (Jo Walton)
Nobilis (Jenna Moran)
The Black Prism (Brent Weeks)
The Stranger's Woes (Max Frei)
Broken kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
Snuff (Terry Pratchett)
Stations of the tide (Michael Swanwick)
Live and Let Die (Ian Fleming)
Bitters (brad thomas parsons)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
The osiris ritual (George Mann)
Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson)
My top 5 books for 2011 (drum roll please!), with the standard "order not relevant" disclaimer:
1. The Black Prism (Brent Weeks)
2. The Wise Man's Fear (Pat Rothfuss)
3. The Stranger's Woes (Max Frei)
4. Allow of law (Brandon Sanderson)
5. The Desert Spear (Peter V. Brett)
The other books I read in 2011 are a pretty big step down from those, actually. I was lucky to get 5 that really excelled. It's not that I didn't enjoy them (I did!) or that there weren't excellent and well written books in the remainder (there were!) but I just can't bring myself to set them next to those five, which were truly outstanding. Honorable mention definitely goes to Embassytown, which was excellent but wasn't "enjoyable" in the usual sense. Plus it killed my numbers for the year because it took me like 2 months to read those 300 odd pages!
Here's the full list:
The Child Thief (Brom)
Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
The Desert Spear (Peter V. Brett)
The Name of the Wind (Pat Rothfuss)
The Wise Man's Fear (Pat Rothfuss)
Machine Of Death (North, et al)
Tiassa (Brust)
Summer knight (Jim Butcher)
Death Masks (Jim Butcher)
Blood Rites (Jim Butcher)
Thunderball (Ian Flemming)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (ian flemming)
You only live twice (Ian flemming)
Empire in black and gold (Adrian)
The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks)
Chasing the moon (A. Lee Martinez)
Shadow's Edge (Brent Weeks)
Beyond the Shadows (Brent Weeks)
Embassytown (China Mieville)
The princess and mr whiffle (Pat Rothfuss)
The man with the golden gun (Ian Fleming)
Casino royale (Ian Fleming)
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Steve McConnel)
Tooth & Claw (Jo Walton)
Nobilis (Jenna Moran)
The Black Prism (Brent Weeks)
The Stranger's Woes (Max Frei)
Broken kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
Snuff (Terry Pratchett)
Stations of the tide (Michael Swanwick)
Live and Let Die (Ian Fleming)
Bitters (brad thomas parsons)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
The osiris ritual (George Mann)
Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson)
[Lisa's Take] Year Review 2011
And this year, in 2012, I resolve to post reviews in a more timely fashion... hah. Yeah. That's off to a good start! Sorry for the delay - better late than never, right? Here's my 2011 roundup.
I only reached my yearly goal of 50 books this year by the broadest definition. If you include the 8 books that I didn't finish (many of which I didn't even give my usual "100 page test" before discarding) and if you include the two books I'm (er, I _was_ at the time of drafting this) only half way through as the new year begins, then you can VERY generously say that I read 51 books in 2011.
That said, my page count was slightly higher than the previous year, clocking in at 22149. I read an average of 62 pages a day, and my average book length was 434 pages. So I suppose that's not too horrible.
The best books of the year? Honestly for a good portion of the year I expected to not even be able to pick a full 5 books (see: How Pat Rothfuss Ruined my Life). When I went back through my list I found that such a thought was awfully pessimistic; though I discarded many mediocre books, there were still some gems mixed in. So, in no particular order (well, no particular order save for the first book) here are my top 5 for 2011:
1) The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss
3) Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
5) The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
2) The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
4) The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
The two big surprises on that list are Gilman and Valentine; both of them deserve far more publicity among fantasy readers than they are currently getting. I would happily turn around and re-read either of their books, and will be adding both of them to my "buy their new releases without question" list. As for the other 3 authors - well, I am nothing if not predictable. Brent Weeks was new to me this year, and I am jonesing badly for anything he writes now. Sanderson and Rothfuss - what is there to say? Two wonderful Old Reliables.
Now, without further ado - the full list!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemisin
The Broken Kingdom by N K Jemisin
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Never Knew Another by J M McDermott
The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss
Flirt by Laurel K Hamiliton
Liriel by Garth Nix
The Scar-Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Bullet by Laurel K Hamilton
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Bayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett
Tiassa by Steve Brust
The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
Farlander by Col Buchanan
Machine of Death by (Misc)
Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
Chasing the Moon by A Lee Martinez
Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks
Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks
Cowboy Feng's by Steve Brust
The Stranger's Woes by Max Frei
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
The Osiris Ritual by George Mann
Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
The Half-made World by Felix Gilman
The Winds of Khalakhovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu
Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Acacia by David Anthony Durham
Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Other Lands by David Anthony Durham
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Cold Fire by Kate Elliott
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones
The Paths of the Dead by Steve Brust
I feel I should say a word about the books I didn't finish, in hopes that someone can encourage me to give them another go (or learn from my mistakes)… but this post is already quite long and full of lists. I’ll save that for another time. Here’s to hoping I finish more books in 2012!
I only reached my yearly goal of 50 books this year by the broadest definition. If you include the 8 books that I didn't finish (many of which I didn't even give my usual "100 page test" before discarding) and if you include the two books I'm (er, I _was_ at the time of drafting this) only half way through as the new year begins, then you can VERY generously say that I read 51 books in 2011.
That said, my page count was slightly higher than the previous year, clocking in at 22149. I read an average of 62 pages a day, and my average book length was 434 pages. So I suppose that's not too horrible.
The best books of the year? Honestly for a good portion of the year I expected to not even be able to pick a full 5 books (see: How Pat Rothfuss Ruined my Life). When I went back through my list I found that such a thought was awfully pessimistic; though I discarded many mediocre books, there were still some gems mixed in. So, in no particular order (well, no particular order save for the first book) here are my top 5 for 2011:
1) The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss
3) Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
5) The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
2) The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
4) The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
The two big surprises on that list are Gilman and Valentine; both of them deserve far more publicity among fantasy readers than they are currently getting. I would happily turn around and re-read either of their books, and will be adding both of them to my "buy their new releases without question" list. As for the other 3 authors - well, I am nothing if not predictable. Brent Weeks was new to me this year, and I am jonesing badly for anything he writes now. Sanderson and Rothfuss - what is there to say? Two wonderful Old Reliables.
Now, without further ado - the full list!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemisin
The Broken Kingdom by N K Jemisin
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Never Knew Another by J M McDermott
The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss
Flirt by Laurel K Hamiliton
Liriel by Garth Nix
The Scar-Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Bullet by Laurel K Hamilton
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Bayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett
Tiassa by Steve Brust
The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
Farlander by Col Buchanan
Machine of Death by (Misc)
Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
Chasing the Moon by A Lee Martinez
Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks
Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks
Cowboy Feng's by Steve Brust
The Stranger's Woes by Max Frei
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
The Osiris Ritual by George Mann
Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
The Half-made World by Felix Gilman
The Winds of Khalakhovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu
Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Acacia by David Anthony Durham
Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Other Lands by David Anthony Durham
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Cold Fire by Kate Elliott
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones
The Paths of the Dead by Steve Brust
I feel I should say a word about the books I didn't finish, in hopes that someone can encourage me to give them another go (or learn from my mistakes)… but this post is already quite long and full of lists. I’ll save that for another time. Here’s to hoping I finish more books in 2012!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
[JD's Take] Unfinished books 2011
Well as the year comes to an end, I thought I'd do some very small reviews of the books that I didn't manage to finish this year. Hopefully there aren't so many that this goes long.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
I got about a third of the way into this before giving up on it. Lisabit liked it a lot, but I just couldn't get into it. While the idea for the world was original and well executed (it's a world where dragons are the primary and dominant species, and the details and implications of that are interestingly explored and well though out) the actual plot and characters just didn't draw me in. It's very much "Pride and Prejudice and Dragons" and the whole drama of manners things just didn't do it for me.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
I tried. I really, really tried. I read 393 pages of this and I can see why it's such a classic, but... ugh. This shares many of the flaws of Heinlein-esque hard science fiction that drive me so crazy. The engineering, physics, terraforming, and other science are extremely well though out, well presented, and fascinating. I loved those parts! However, so much of this book is taken up with the worst kind of interpersonal melodrama that I just couldn't bring myself to read another page. It's the worst kind of overwrought, badly charecterized, soap-opera style nonsense. There are also pretty serious pacing issues, if I recall, but the "science writer trying to be dramatic" is what killed it for me.
Well, that wasn't so many failures this year! Of course, that's likely because I didn't read so very much this year. I suppose my year-in-review post will tell.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
I got about a third of the way into this before giving up on it. Lisabit liked it a lot, but I just couldn't get into it. While the idea for the world was original and well executed (it's a world where dragons are the primary and dominant species, and the details and implications of that are interestingly explored and well though out) the actual plot and characters just didn't draw me in. It's very much "Pride and Prejudice and Dragons" and the whole drama of manners things just didn't do it for me.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
I tried. I really, really tried. I read 393 pages of this and I can see why it's such a classic, but... ugh. This shares many of the flaws of Heinlein-esque hard science fiction that drive me so crazy. The engineering, physics, terraforming, and other science are extremely well though out, well presented, and fascinating. I loved those parts! However, so much of this book is taken up with the worst kind of interpersonal melodrama that I just couldn't bring myself to read another page. It's the worst kind of overwrought, badly charecterized, soap-opera style nonsense. There are also pretty serious pacing issues, if I recall, but the "science writer trying to be dramatic" is what killed it for me.
Well, that wasn't so many failures this year! Of course, that's likely because I didn't read so very much this year. I suppose my year-in-review post will tell.
Monday, November 28, 2011
[Lisa’s Take] The Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson)
Candy candy candy! 100% self-indulgent, unabashed, delicious candy. This is the only way to describe The Alloy of Law; written during one of Sanderson’t “brain break” periods, it is clearly that – a vacation from the Deep an Serious, and an exploration of entertaining elements of the Mistborn world. I mean, c’mon, it’s a freaking steampunk-western with allomancy. How much more mindlessly amusing can you get?
There’s not a lot to say about Alloy of Law – I downed it in an afternoon and a half and I adored every minute of it. I enjoyed it so much that I turned around and re-read Mistborn in the following three days; amusingly enough, that re-read left me with more to mull than reading the new Allow of Law. I was highly entertained to pick up on all the little hints strewn throughout Mistborn that I missed on the first reading. I was also struck by just how much more immature Sanderson’s writing was then; he’s come a very long way in the last few years. I had to resist the urge to count the number of times he used the word “maladroitly” throughout the text.
Anyway, this isn’t much of a review, I know, but I feel the need to make a quick post highly recommending Allow of Law. It’s the perfect reading for the holiday season, when you can curl up in front of a fire for a long afternoon and consume it in one go.
There’s not a lot to say about Alloy of Law – I downed it in an afternoon and a half and I adored every minute of it. I enjoyed it so much that I turned around and re-read Mistborn in the following three days; amusingly enough, that re-read left me with more to mull than reading the new Allow of Law. I was highly entertained to pick up on all the little hints strewn throughout Mistborn that I missed on the first reading. I was also struck by just how much more immature Sanderson’s writing was then; he’s come a very long way in the last few years. I had to resist the urge to count the number of times he used the word “maladroitly” throughout the text.
Anyway, this isn’t much of a review, I know, but I feel the need to make a quick post highly recommending Allow of Law. It’s the perfect reading for the holiday season, when you can curl up in front of a fire for a long afternoon and consume it in one go.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
[Lisa’s Take] Acacia – David Anthony Durham
I do so love being proven wrong about a book. I recently posted in a comment over at The Tattered Scroll:
This first volume in the trilogy is broken up into 3 books, each in the 200-250ish page range. Book 1 was almost entirely setup and background, and didn’t grab me at all. The main POV characters seemed dull and one dimensional, with the exception of the relationship between Leodan and Thaddeus. It felt like the author was doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing; I discovered a new pet peeve in the form of:
This is an odd thing to get caught up on, but given how much I enjoy witty dialog it was extremely jarring any time a conversation progressed for 2 or 4 statements, then branched off into a long exposition that was supposed to be dialog, but not presented as dialog.
Then book 2 started and Acacia got GOOD. Suddenly the characters were no longer flat and uninteresting. The four main(ish) POV characters grew up, which helped a great deal (so often children in literature are one dimensional). Suddenly Acacia seemed less “remote historical drama” and more character-driven drama, with personal struggles and gains. From this point on I positively chewed through the book, delighting in each turn.
And then book 3 hit and we discover that David Anthony Durham has a little Joss Whedon in him – or perhaps George R. R. Martin, given that this is the book-realm, rather than the TV-realm. Durham becomes absolutely vicious and isn’t afraid to send heads flying. I don’t think I’ve felt so stabbed by in-book betrayals since reading The Lion of Senet 6 years ago. Book 3 ends in a tumult of action that surprises and horrifies, cuts, thrills, and induces shivers. The best part of all of that? The part where it Actually Ends. I get so sick of “trilogies” that are truly just a single book broken into 3 pieces with no distinct narrative arc in each book. Acacia defies that trend and leaves you with a entire story to mull (while still managing to leave you craving more).
So there you have it – I went from totally tepid to pretty pleased with Acacia. I'm going to write off the rocky start to "new trilogy growing pains." I’ll be bouncing my way over to the bookstore tonight to pick up the second and third books right away (though I may break them up with a couple of other recent releases I’m anticipating, such as The Broken Kingdom).
I’m about 200 pages into Acacia right now, and I’m finding it… ok. I’m not super caught up by the plot or massively engaged with the characters, and the writing style is only so-so. The world is interesting enough that I’ll keep reading, but I do hope it perks my interest a bit as it goes on,As promised, I stuck with Acacia… and I was richly rewarded. Eventually.
This first volume in the trilogy is broken up into 3 books, each in the 200-250ish page range. Book 1 was almost entirely setup and background, and didn’t grab me at all. The main POV characters seemed dull and one dimensional, with the exception of the relationship between Leodan and Thaddeus. It felt like the author was doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing; I discovered a new pet peeve in the form of:
“Let’s talk, Person A,” said person B.
“How do you feel about X,” Person A asked.
Person B began to speak about {insert long exposition here}
Then book 2 started and Acacia got GOOD. Suddenly the characters were no longer flat and uninteresting. The four main(ish) POV characters grew up, which helped a great deal (so often children in literature are one dimensional). Suddenly Acacia seemed less “remote historical drama” and more character-driven drama, with personal struggles and gains. From this point on I positively chewed through the book, delighting in each turn.
And then book 3 hit and we discover that David Anthony Durham has a little Joss Whedon in him – or perhaps George R. R. Martin, given that this is the book-realm, rather than the TV-realm. Durham becomes absolutely vicious and isn’t afraid to send heads flying. I don’t think I’ve felt so stabbed by in-book betrayals since reading The Lion of Senet 6 years ago. Book 3 ends in a tumult of action that surprises and horrifies, cuts, thrills, and induces shivers. The best part of all of that? The part where it Actually Ends. I get so sick of “trilogies” that are truly just a single book broken into 3 pieces with no distinct narrative arc in each book. Acacia defies that trend and leaves you with a entire story to mull (while still managing to leave you craving more).
So there you have it – I went from totally tepid to pretty pleased with Acacia. I'm going to write off the rocky start to "new trilogy growing pains." I’ll be bouncing my way over to the bookstore tonight to pick up the second and third books right away (though I may break them up with a couple of other recent releases I’m anticipating, such as The Broken Kingdom).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)