Novella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was grNovella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was great to see Bobbie again being her Martian Marine bad self.
Merged review:
Novella about Bobbie Draper's nephew. The story itself is not particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but the worldbuilding was fun, and it was great to see Bobbie again being her Martian Marine bad self....more
I read this because a Yuletide request for adventures of the semi-sentient inn at the crossroads of spacetime was very intriguing. And...the semi-sentI read this because a Yuletide request for adventures of the semi-sentient inn at the crossroads of spacetime was very intriguing. And...the semi-sentient inn at the crossroads of spacetime IS intriguing! Everything else is not.
The 'aliens' that visit the inn turn out to be werewolves and vampires, which makes me feel a bit cheated, it's like bog-standard urban fantasy masquerading as sf, and there's a love triangle setup which just made me roll my eyes. For the most part I don't care for romance novels, with or without supernatural elements. I think maybe I was expecting something more like Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, so I was disappointed. I did like the Star-Wars-ish bazaar world, but other than that I was fairly meh on the story, and don't plan to read the rest of the series (of which there are a lot). ...more
This was a Tor free e-book, first published in 2005, but it seems distressingly relevant today given that it's about literal aliens (or rather, dark-sThis was a Tor free e-book, first published in 2005, but it seems distressingly relevant today given that it's about literal aliens (or rather, dark-skinned humans from another dimension/reality/world) in a US refugee border camp. The best of science fiction (to my mind) comments on society by taking us outside of our known society and presenting it from the outside; this could have been over-the-top pointed, and maybe it is in a few places, but really, it's a solid and engaging story as well as an indictment of the way the United States dehumanizes immigrants, and the way that understanding and empathy and love are crucial for living in a society....more
I really loved it - so far it's my favorite of the series. The action is straightforward, Uhtred's journey for revenge on Kjartan and Sven - though thI really loved it - so far it's my favorite of the series. The action is straightforward, Uhtred's journey for revenge on Kjartan and Sven - though that journey itself is not straightforward. There's just so much (dark) humor in Uhtred's retelling of his misadventures, how he ruefully admits now, as he looks back on his life, that his plans were brought low by inexorable fate. And also, I love Sihtric and Finan from the TV series, and so seeing them on the page was really delightful. It was definitely interesting to note the differences between the book and the show....more
I liked this a lot. It is quite long, with four narrators (some of whom don't actually interact until well more than halfway through the book), and thI liked this a lot. It is quite long, with four narrators (some of whom don't actually interact until well more than halfway through the book), and there are a whole lot of preliminary events before the plot really gets underway, so some might think it a slow book. (I actually enjoyed much of the preliminaries, possibly even more than the 'main event'.) Going into it, I knew there was canon f/f, but I actually guessed wrong about the parties involved, and that is possibly why I didn't feel engaged by the actual relationship.
The narrators are Tané, a young woman in training (at the start of the book) for the High Sea Guard of Seiiki, a not-Japanese island that is rigorously xenophobic and protected by water dragons and their riders; Ead, a woman from a mysterious not-Arabian land who is presently an attendant to Queen Sabran of Inys, which is not-England, using her secret assassin and magical skills to protect her; Niclays Roos, an alchemist from not-Netherlands, who had been in the service of the not-English queen until he pissed her off and was banished to the single trading post of not-Japan where foreigners are permitted; and Arteloth Beck, a not-English lord and one of the not-English queen's closest friends. Uh, from this description you can probably tell that this fantasy world sort of maps onto our world, though the nations are really more distinct from their real counterparts than I make it sound. Oh, also there are evil fire-breathing wyrms that serve the Nameless One, who is apparently the daddy of all wyrms who wants to take over the world, so that's the ultimate conflict set up right there. (And yes, that makes me think of He Who Must Not Be Named...)
(Spoiler for the f/f relationship, no plot spoilers) (view spoiler)[Because of the varying POVs making me get to know certain characters more intimately, and because a large part of Tané's early narrative is driven by her close friendship with other women, I was thinking the book was headed toward Tané/Ead. But no! It's Ead/Sabran, which is basically lady knight/queen and so I should have eaten it up, but somehow I never warmed to Sabran, so the relationship didn't draw me in. (hide spoiler)] This world appears to have no strong feelings against same-sex relationships other than that they don't produce children, which is a necessity for the nobility, of course, which is certainly an issue that shows up in the book, though mostly in the context of a past relationship.
I liked the early chapters about Tané's trial competitions to earn her spot more than the ones about Queen Sabran's court. I also liked the Exciting Adventures of Arteloth, once he is sent on a diplomatic mission to a nation (in not-Europe; perhaps not-Spain?) that has already fallen to the Nameless One. I was less interested in Niclays Roos' narrative; mostly he's an unsympathetic character. Also, when things started definitely working toward the Good vs Evil conflict it felt a bit anticlimactic, because so many important turning points had already occurred by then. I think of narrative arcs (for the purpose of writing them) as a sawtooth of climaxes, each surpassing the one before, but this book felt to me as though the later climaxes didn't top the previous ones. The general stakes were higher, but the personal stakes were not....more
The setup intrigued me, but the execution bored me. The multiple first-person present tense style doesn't do much to distinguish one narrator from theThe setup intrigued me, but the execution bored me. The multiple first-person present tense style doesn't do much to distinguish one narrator from the other, and in particularly I could not tell without checking whether a POV was the magi girl or the princess. The events of the book seemed more like video game fetch quests than anything else, with things happening not because they followed logically from the previous events but because the author found it useful to put them there. Inan's story, the suppressed white streak and magic, is the most interesting to me, but the least attention is being given to it. The worldbuilding feels pasted-on rather than thought through (like, why are the animals and their names derived from but not precisely the same as the ones we know? Is this genetic manipulation from a root stock - is this actually science fiction? - or is it something totally different? Is there a wider world around this land? Is there magic there?), and the romance plots are giving me a very visceral DNW feeling. The ebook expires tomorrow and I'm not bothering to renew it.
A meandering quasi-medieval road-trip interspersed by partial updates on what's been happening with the other major characters since the coup at ThaneA meandering quasi-medieval road-trip interspersed by partial updates on what's been happening with the other major characters since the coup at Thanedd, which was actually much more enjoyable than this makes it sound. Part of my enjoyment came from meeting familiar characters: Zoltan Chivay's band of dwarves from the earlier books show up again, and yay for finally meeting Regis (who appears in the game DLC Blood and Wine). Part of it was that there is a delightful thread of humor weaving through all the conversations, as well as some entertaining philosophizing on human (and not-so-human) nature. Certainly I look forward to the next book in which I hope at least some of these plotlines get explored in more depth!...more
This near-future dystopia is a mashup of cli-fi and corporatocracy: The world has become a hellish hot desert in which the only employer (if you're luThis near-future dystopia is a mashup of cli-fi and corporatocracy: The world has become a hellish hot desert in which the only employer (if you're lucky enough to get a job) is the company store, a thinly-veiled Amazon called Cloud, where upbeat corporate messaging hides the fact that the workers are essentially slaves with high-tech shackles. Set against this backdrop is a story of three people: Paxton, whose small business was destroyed by Cloud and who applies for a job there as a last resort; Zinnia, a professional industrial spy, whose job is cover for ferreting out Cloud's secrets; and the Sam-Walton-esque Gibson Wells, the dying founder of Cloud, who is visiting all of his company's sites one last time.
It's a bit heavy on the author's message (that is: we did this to ourselves by purchasing the cheap things we could point and click and have delivered) but it's entertaining and easy to read. But the story falls apart a bit toward the end; Zinnia's first discovery is truly shocking, but the climactic revelation is...a bit of an anticlimax. It felt to me as though the various plot bits didn't really line up toward the end, that things happened because the author wanted them to happen rather than because they made sense. But it was a fun ride (and a cautionary tale) up to that point....more
I liked this a lot, and I think part of it is because this volume had a different (and better) translator. But also, this is where the political machiI liked this a lot, and I think part of it is because this volume had a different (and better) translator. But also, this is where the political machinations really come to the fore, and although it's a little hard to follow I do like politics. Also, Ciri's the main character here (Geralt hardly appears!) and, well, I ♥ Ciri.
The one thing that's kind of irritating, though, is that it doesn't really feel like a story with beginning, middle, and end - it's just a hunk taken out of a longer story, as was the previous book to some extent. There's no overarching narrative with a question raised and then resolved. It's just the Continuing Adventures....more
Oddly paced, with an abrupt ending, and if you haven't read the short story collections (and likely even if, like me, you have) some of the people, thOddly paced, with an abrupt ending, and if you haven't read the short story collections (and likely even if, like me, you have) some of the people, their backstories, and their relationships will confuse you. The translation does not do the prose any favors. On the other hand - this is solid backstory for Ciri, who I loved in the videogame Witcher 3 (and the tutorial/prologue of that game clearly comes straight from this book!), and the first part of the book has a lot of Triss, who I loved in the Witcher 2 game. Plus, there's more politics than hack-and-slash going on, and I admit I really like the fantasy politics, especially the background of prejudice and marginalization of the non-human races....more
A theme running through these books is that that humans are inherently tribal and fractious, and that disparate groups only ever unite to face a commoA theme running through these books is that that humans are inherently tribal and fractious, and that disparate groups only ever unite to face a common threat. In this installment, the Rocinante family face both human (the Laconian empire) and nonhuman (the thing that killed the protomolecule builders) threats, and honestly to me, the former is more interesting than the latter. After all, the struggle against a dictator's oppression is something anyone who reads the news is familiar with; casting it in SF terms puts a novel face on it, but it's still immediately and viscerally sympathetic. In this book the human threat that developed in the previous book (and was foreshadowed in the ones before that) is dealt with by the characters' innate moxie (especially Naomi and Bobbie), but it's not without great cost - which is also viscerally sympathetic.
As usual there are multiple narrators and multiple storylines. Perhaps my favorite was that of Teresa Duarte, the dictator's daughter-and-heir, who slowly realizes the nature of her gilded cage....more
Pretty much everything I said about the first book of short stories holds for this second one. Uneven, clunky (possibly due to translation), male-gazePretty much everything I said about the first book of short stories holds for this second one. Uneven, clunky (possibly due to translation), male-gazey, a lot of fairy tale elements, funny. Additional observations: Wow, I really dislike Yennefer. I didn't really like her in the game but was told that the books explained a lot of her character; yeah, they do, and I still don't like her. Part of this is because as a childless-by-choice woman I dislike her obsession with her inability to be a mother, part of this is because she just seems unpleasant.
Also I was confused a bit by Calanthe's test of Geralt, since he had rescued Ciri in the previous story - wouldn't she know that he knew who the child was? Also, for a monster-hunter, Geralt doesn't hunt many monsters. I did like the dryads, and the mermaids (the sea-story was probably my favorite). It was also fun to see some of the characters from the games, particularly in the first story, the one about the dragons....more
A collection of short stories, uneven and badly translated (I have been told the prose is not stilted and clunky in the original Polish; too bad the gA collection of short stories, uneven and badly translated (I have been told the prose is not stilted and clunky in the original Polish; too bad the genius who translated Lem's books didn't do these) but entertaining. I hadn't realized until I read these that many of these stories (maybe all of them?) are fairy tale retellings. There's a Beauty and the Beast, there's a Snow White, there's a reference to Cinderella. I'm not familiar with the tale behind the meatiest story, the one about Pavetta, but it's so much in the mold of fairy tales that it either is based on one, or was devised to be one.
Uh, fairy tales for the male gaze, admittedly, with more emphasis on the swords and sorcery; (view spoiler)[the Beast was cursed to his form by Beauty, who is actually a vampire, and Geralt turns the Beast back into a man by killing the vampire. (hide spoiler)] But! Still entertaining, with a surprising amount of humor....more
I liked the first book a whole lot. I loved the second. I was let down by this conclusion, which begins directly after the second book ends, though I'I liked the first book a whole lot. I loved the second. I was let down by this conclusion, which begins directly after the second book ends, though I'm not sure whether this is due to the book or to me. Certainly I feel that maybe if I had read this book in a few long sittings, rather than spread out over several weeks, I might have felt more invested in it - but maybe the reason I kept finding excuses to put it back down over only a few chapters is that I didn't feel invested in it.
Not that I didn't like The Winter of the Witch. It really cranks the old-Rus mythology up to 11, with upyr (Slavic vampires) and the demon-goddesses of both Midnight and Midday, which was very cool. But I felt very distant from Vasilisa, and not as invested in her trials and tribulations as I was in the previous book - and her trials and tribulations meander a lot, here, as Arden brings together the over-arching thread of the fate of old-religion spirits in a Christianizing world, along with the political fate of Moscow with the Tatars at the door. The personal fates of the individual characters were less compelling to me, but unfortunately that's typically what drives my engagement with a novel....more
Yes, it took me six months to read a collection of short stories. This is because these are all dense, layered stories, written in beautiful and evocaYes, it took me six months to read a collection of short stories. This is because these are all dense, layered stories, written in beautiful and evocative language that for me, at least, requires a slow read and time to sink in. I am not sure how to classify these stories, but most of them have elements of fantasy and a sharp edge of horror. Themes include queer relationships, Judaism, and people who are helplessly drawn to the sea, perhaps because they are part-sea-creature or in love with someone who is. Some stories didn't grab me; others I found myself thinking constantly about after I'd finished.
My favorites:
"Another Coming" - a woman in a triad relationship is pregnant, possibly by her partner who is an angel, and angels are forbidden to have children with humans. (And if by her other partner, he's not so keen on it, either.)
"The Dybbuk in Love" - a long-dead man from a past era in love with a modern woman, his spirit possessing others so they can talk.
"Like Milkweed" - creatures like giant silent butterflies, who may or may not be what missing-presumed-dead people have transformed into.
"The Salt House" - a man and his part-sea-creature daughter.
"The Face of the Waters" - a man saved from accidental drowning by a woman not quite human.
"The Creeping Influences" - one of my most favorites, more narrative than most. Irish turf-cutters, including a trans man who's the lover of a woman whose husband disappeared one day, find a centuries-old woman's body in a bog.
"When Can a Broken Glass Mend" - another one I really liked, about a woman who accidentally married a mirror-demon as a young girl playing in her grandparents' attic.
"The Trinitite Golem" - Oppenheimer and a personification of the atomic bomb, really fantastic.
"All our Salt-Bottled Hearts" - almost Lovecraftian fanfiction, about the part-sea-creature people who eventually change and go into the sea....more
This book makes me think of Welcome to Night Vale, played straight. (It also has elements of (view spoiler)[
Cuckoo Song(hide spoiler)],which is aThis book makes me think of Welcome to Night Vale, played straight. (It also has elements of (view spoiler)[
Cuckoo Song(hide spoiler)],which is a spoiler for something that is niftier to figure out on your own.) It's fantasy-horror about a former police officer, drifting rootless after a failed marriage and a miscarriage, who discovers her mother's left her a house in the small New Mexico town of Wink, which is mostly unknown but turns out to be the town associated with a mysterious now-closed national research laboratory, where her mother had apparently been one of the leading scientists. As you might expect, in Wink, Things are Not as They Seem. There are mysterious happenings and odd rules, and the moon is always pink.
It took me a while to get into, partly because it's in present tense. Which I dislike, but I have to admit that Bennett does clever things with present tense, here; I find that it feels explicitly narrated, and he does treat it that way, not quite on the "O Reader, this is what she found:" level, but with the effect of making you feel as though curtains are being pulled back to show you bits and pieces of the story. This also has the effect (to me) of making the central character feel somewhat distant from the narrative, as even in her POV I feel like I'm watching her rather than in her head, and that detracted from my involvement as well.
The story itself, well. I really liked aspects of it, and found others off-putting, and others baffling. Bennett's recent books are beautifully constructed, but here I think he was still finding his footing, and the pacing is slow and somewhat meandering, and overall the book is far longer than it should be. I liked it, and I recommend it if the WTNV comparison (and a fairly bad-ass female main) appeals, but ultimately I didn't love it, and was less and less interested in it toward the end....more
Loading...
