First, great story. Some mystery, some romance, some swashbuckling, some boarding-school story, but as if real sixteen -year-olds wer28 February, 2021
First, great story. Some mystery, some romance, some swashbuckling, some boarding-school story, but as if real sixteen -year-olds were in attendance, not the bizarre everyone -pair-off at eleven but no one actually has sex weirdness of Harry Potter, environmental concerns, and lots of other stuff, plus that's not all. There's a generous effort at modeling better options, whether it be recovering from trauma, or deciding what to be when you grow up, to not....
***
27 December 2022
Now that I start Seasparrow without re-reading them all again, I rather wish I had finished writing this up.
***
17 January 2023
Now I have come dull circle through the Graceling Realm. This is my favorite, not least of which, because it seems the ratio of female to male characters increases with each book. Also, foxen. Beautiful endpapers. My appreciation for art created by experienced artists has increased, so I would love for every book to have an exclusive piece of art on the cover, at least a few maps or something, AND original endpapers. It's the early Nancy Drew influence.
Anyway, I hope the dedicatee appreciates how special this book is, even if Seasparrow becomes my favorite when I read it next. The seriess'arc goes to a good (both interesting and thought provoking) place.
On a side note, Cashore comes up with fabulous plots, characters interactions, and I look forward to reading everything else she writes. This is the pinnacle of the series, at least until I re-read Seasparrow.
The prologue begins with an opening line reminiscent of A Christmas Carol: "First of all, it was October, a rare time for boys."
Forty or so years ago The prologue begins with an opening line reminiscent of A Christmas Carol: "First of all, it was October, a rare time for boys."
Forty or so years ago I read this and identified with the boys, of course I did. This time I couldn't. So it was just a bunch of wordplay and monologuing and there was no horror to it anywhere, just an ad for an imaginary place I wouldn't be welcome. He did say some nice things about libraries, though, so I'm giving it a couple of stars.
Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield for Deadlands [10/05/18 Edited to add: I managed to upload a bad picture of my bingo card.]
This is such a gooOnce Upon a River - Diane Setterfield for Deadlands [10/05/18 Edited to add: I managed to upload a bad picture of my bingo card.]
This is such a good book I want to be a better writer to do it justice in my review. Waiting longer for inspiration is just not on though: my memory will let the details blur and the experience fade.
Setterfield is a writer who's greatest flaw is not being prolific. Actually, that may be the only flaw. She has once again crafted a work of fiction that has a convincing Victorian setting with a modern sensibility directing the reader's attention to characters and incidents that a true Victorian wouldn't, but logic suggests that they are all valid. She manages to tell quite a few stories and examples of the craft of storytelling within a greater story of amazing events. While many writers succeed at making a house a character within their fiction, Setterfield has made part of the Thames a character, nor was she stinting in permitting this character moods. Okay, on the winter solstice the usual group are sitting around drinking in the Swan, an inn distinguished by the storytelling within. The door opens, a man, his face a bloody mess staggers in clutching a large doll in his hands.
Over the course of one year we watch the repercussions of that moment: how it affects characters major and minor and also, this is the tricksy bit, we watch how those events become stories. Yes, many stories dependent on point of view, and skill, stories becoming more stories as that one event is observed (or not), in light of new events, and then, still later developments. The metaphor is well served: there is an attempt to trace the roots of the story back to the beginning, which you can't do any more than you can trace a river back, fractally there are always more branches feeding in.
There is so much: there are clever half-starved orphans, prosperous farmers, the family of innkeepers, the town midwife, the minister, servants and animals, wealthy distillery owners, thieves and blackguards, despite the extensive cast one never feels that the author is coasting by with stereotypes or with every character having the same voice. There is plot and pathos enough for Dickens, and despite the 21st century sensibility there's none of that business of giving a character clearly modern ideas.
There is, of course, a supernatural element as well as a few mysteries, dreadful crimes and moments of grace. Everything is here, told my a humanist in the Pratchett vein, but without the jokes and footnotes. It is a lovely, suspenseful book that I couldn't bear to put down in order to post updates. Read it soon: give it to yourself or someone you really like as a gift for one of the several solstice-adjacent holidays. Just the thing for long winter nights by the fire.
Moriarty reminds me of Binchy and Pilcher and Susan Isaacs. It's got some drama, but there's more humor: the wry voice chuckling over family foibles, Moriarty reminds me of Binchy and Pilcher and Susan Isaacs. It's got some drama, but there's more humor: the wry voice chuckling over family foibles, meals, affairs, pregnancy, all over bottles of wine and good meals, and upper middle class luxury. Like Austen, there's a recognition that one person's drama is a spectator's comedy, a theme reinforced with interstitial vignettes as told by a spectator to some important moment.
I love a book that reminds me we all screw up, and we aren't bad people because we do.
First, I apologize for my absence. I have apparently reached the age when body parts begin to fail suddenly and inexplicably. Somehow what should haveFirst, I apologize for my absence. I have apparently reached the age when body parts begin to fail suddenly and inexplicably. Somehow what should have been an ...more
Four days ago I wrote a really touching and lengthy review of this book, all about how Willis makePassage - Connie Willis 1/1/1996 6/26/2000 09/26/2016
Four days ago I wrote a really touching and lengthy review of this book, all about how Willis makes me cry, but it feels earned, and how she is brilliant at portraying a busy work day, and the way some part of the hospital is always closed off, and some part is always being worked on, and how getting there from here is always impossible. And not one, but two different places failed to save it. So now I just can't even, I'm so vexed.
Library copy because I can't find my personal copy...more
Everfair - Nisi Shawl It's an alternate history in which a genocide doesn't happen. It's about a utopian society that isn't so cleverly set up as to avEverfair - Nisi Shawl It's an alternate history in which a genocide doesn't happen. It's about a utopian society that isn't so cleverly set up as to avoid all problems, but in which people work to find different, practical, solutions. It's steampunk that feels utterly plausible. It's a book that acknowledges the tremendous breadth and depth of people and cultures throughout Africa, although it focuses on one nation. It is a marvelous accomplishment in every sense of the word, and I'm sure it's going to be one of my top reads for the year, and probably every other reader's list, because it is a book that makes you go "ohhh" and "ahhh", that constantly delights and surprises, even though it is addressing many of the darkest aspects of colonialism. It's a book that reminded me of how new and appealing are the many voices in scifi these days, and actually makes me feel optimistic about humanity. Sweet, fancy Moses, it's just a great, sweeping Victorian "ills of society" novel, such as those of Charles Dickens, but with a light touch. It's just perfect.
Now goo, read it right away, unless you're devoting October to horror, in which case, okay, but then you have to start it on November first.
Just as Natasha did, I enjoyed the book enormously. I was totally enthralled and more than wiling to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy the stringJust as Natasha did, I enjoyed the book enormously. I was totally enthralled and more than wiling to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy the string of coincidences, good and bad, that were almost magical. It is a charming, humane, warm sort of book with the happy ending that implies.
But there was one flaw I couldn't overlook: Willow is a POC. She tells us, at least twice. And at least once she mentions her hair. And I never believed it for a moment because she never notices a single instance of racism. My sense of realism can't stretch that far into the magical.
While reading it I was impatient to find out how these different voices would fit together, and to have the horror unveiled. Once I'd finished it, I aWhile reading it I was impatient to find out how these different voices would fit together, and to have the horror unveiled. Once I'd finished it, I appreciated it more, because it does all fit together well, and the suspense was killing me. A good, creepy read for October. And I quite like the name Ferelith.
It's not a real addiction, like to heroin, but Very is a little too attached to her computer, her iPhone, her iPod, her fascinating online life that dIt's not a real addiction, like to heroin, but Very is a little too attached to her computer, her iPhone, her iPod, her fascinating online life that distracts her from what she should be doing: passing her classes in her first year at Columbia. During Spring semester her friends stage an intervention, and before long, there's an ultimatum. So Very goes off to try and learn how to be.
Strong book. the reader can both understand what's so appealing about Very, and what is driving her friends mad. Like an recovery story, her path has some reversals, but it is hopeful.
Suze can see ghosts, and for the most part, it's annoying as hell. Sometimes she can help them take care of their unfinished business and move on, butSuze can see ghosts, and for the most part, it's annoying as hell. Sometimes she can help them take care of their unfinished business and move on, but often they're not entirely cooperative. Then she gets to go into full-on Buffy mode.
There's some hotties, there's interesting-but-unpopular friends, and there's lots of knock-down, drag-out ghost-fighting. Sheer entertainment, and I really enjoyed the non-believing central character, particularly when she has to perform an exorcism. Ha! Exactly what I needed....more
Because I didn't read this when I was in the target age-range, it didn't make much of an impression on me.
***
18 May 2024
Weirdly I didn't remember 2005
Because I didn't read this when I was in the target age-range, it didn't make much of an impression on me.
***
18 May 2024
Weirdly I didn't remember how important religion was in the story. The stupid breast-enhancing goal and stupider "exercise" - those stuck with me. What struck me this time was the fleeing the city start, which exposed poor Margaret to unsavory influences.
And I really hated what she took away from her project.
Grace has grown up among the People, an indigenous group living in the mountains and fighting an endless guerrilla war against the man who rules theirGrace has grown up among the People, an indigenous group living in the mountains and fighting an endless guerrilla war against the man who rules their country. As the daughter of an outsider and a local man, the People have never had much use for her, so they give her to a man as his bride and train her to become a suicide bomber. The story takes place entirely within Grace's train trip across the desert to the border, beyond which lies freedom.
Scott is brilliant at getting inside the head of people who've been brain-washed into accepting their fate. During the course of this ride Grace re-examined everything she's every been told, taking truth apart to look for the flaws.
The only flaw in the story is that as tense as the trip is, nothing much happens except within Grace's head. We come to understand her very well, though. Sad and grim, the life of an oppressed people under a totalitarian dictator makes for insight, but not much fun in the reading.
Library copy.
A note on the cover: there's no reason to assume it has anything to do with her, but the unnamed model on the cover reminds me quite a bit of Meg Cabot (Author), which is wildly inappropriate....more
Whoa. It's staggering the amount of stuff that Pratchett manages to cover. The main plot follows the Inquisition's evil mastermind Vorbis, who wants tWhoa. It's staggering the amount of stuff that Pratchett manages to cover. The main plot follows the Inquisition's evil mastermind Vorbis, who wants to inflict his religion on various other nearby countries. He is aided in his schemes by the young man Brutha who cannot read or write or sing, but has an eidetic memory, and also a very personal relationship with their god, Om, currently embodied in a tortoise.
That's plenty to be getting on with and would suffice a number of writers. But that's not all: there's travel, and danger, and geometry, and natural history, and technology, and the business of waging war, and how gods come to be in the Discworld, and plenty of love for libraries, with time to point out some amusing aspects of religious art, and indigenous architecture, and the entrepreneurial spirit, and a penguin.
It's a marvelous book, very nearly perfect. But that title is going to have to go to one of Pratchett's later works, because this one is almost completely devoid of women. Of course, the hierarchy of most established human religions is entirely men, but Pratchett has time to spend on the lesser figures among the religious, and those, in our world anyway, are usually women. Ephebe is presented as an entirely different sort of country, but the only women even mentioned there are prostitutes and a single goddess. Brutha's grandmother is mentioned a fair amount, but she would seem to be dead. On the basis of this one book one might assume that the human population of Discworld would die out entirely within one generation. It's a weird lapse from an author who usually gives women and girls at least equal time.
While I was working on other books, Veronica read Divergent, and then borrowed my library copy of Insurgent and zipped through it, and has since been While I was working on other books, Veronica read Divergent, and then borrowed my library copy of Insurgent and zipped through it, and has since been standing over me saying "read it, read it NOW." I have finally succumbed.
No doubt there is much that would give me pause, possibly even bring my suspension of disbelief crashing down, if I stopped to think about it. But the whole thing zips along at a hasty pace, and it is so full of incident you can't pause for breath.
***
Now having finished it, I have to give Roth props. Aspects of the world-building which were problems to me in the first book are here shown to be problems in that world. There were a couple of things I really loved: Tris's skepticism, that causes her to question everything, and try to figure out what's going on and why; Dauntless cake (Veronica has decided it's Mad Hatter's black and white cake; the way Tris challenges her boyfriend. Zippy, lots of twists in the spaghetti, much swashbuckling, a leavening of grief and pain. I've suggested Veronica read Chaos Walking: A Trilogy next, to continue in the vein of strong female characters, and adventure.
Angels don't particularly interest me, but demons have dramatic potential. I love the whole opening section where we get to know Karou, and her blue hAngels don't particularly interest me, but demons have dramatic potential. I love the whole opening section where we get to know Karou, and her blue hair, and her strange family and history, and her tiny perfect friend, and Prague itself. It feels wonderfully modern and hip and funny as well as just a bit off. And then it seriously goes off, and I loved it even more. the twists were good, everything felt natural when it was revealed, but I didn't guess too soon. Mostly I loved how kick-ass cool Karou was. Excellent fantasy.
Mye and Clent are grifters, petty conmen, always working the angles. Now they're broke, made to leave Mandelion after fomenting revolution, and tryingMye and Clent are grifters, petty conmen, always working the angles. Now they're broke, made to leave Mandelion after fomenting revolution, and trying to stay away from the people who are trying to kill them. But they're the good guys, and something is seriously wrong in the town of Toll. There's a huge cast of characters, double crosses, triple crosses, twists, turns, confusion on every side. Can a clever twelve-year-old make everything come right when everyone is against her? Of course she can, with a murderous goose watching her back.
Joe Hill hasn't published a bad word so far. Of the top of my head, there isn't a plotline more likely to bug me than "they murdered his girlfriend anJoe Hill hasn't published a bad word so far. Of the top of my head, there isn't a plotline more likely to bug me than "they murdered his girlfriend and destroyed his life, now he's out for revenge." But that line doesn't do this story justice. Because Ig is a really good guy, first. And because Merrin exists as a real and rounded character, not just a plot device. A rich and rewarding novel....more
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