WWW Wednesday

Posted January 31, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalStill Ghost Talkers… I’m being terrible at getting round to finishing that, partly because I feel emotional about it and partly because of course I’ve been reading a lot of Ursula Le Guin’s work instead of whatever I planned to be reading.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of I Am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy SpringerBy the time this is up, I’ll have finished I Am Morgan Le Fay, by Nancy Springer. I’m not quite sure what I think of it yet… I don’t think I’m a fan, but it’s not like I hate it either? It’s nice to see someone trying to be nuanced about Morgan Le Fay.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le GuinSomething by Ursula Le Guin, almost certainly. Probably A Wizard of Earthsea, since that’s the book of hers I really love and want to celebrate most. But of course there’s a whole bunch of others on my list to revisit, including The Left Hand of DarknessThe DispossessedThe TellingLavinia

What are you reading right now?

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Review – The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Posted January 30, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan GarnerThe Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner

When I first read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, I found it horribly disappointing after all the hype. Even back then, I noted that the beginning was promising and that there are some wonderfully evocative scenes of claustrophobia and fear… but the mythology, and particularly the mash-up of different mythologies without apparent meaning — someone called Grimnir appears, but he’s the twin of a wizard and did not really strike me as being intended to evoke Odin, for example — bothered me.

I have to say that I’m pretty much of the same opinion now. There are some really great elements, but they don’t come together for me because they’re such a mash-up — and there’s no reason given for the mash-up, as in a story like Gaiman’s American Gods. I didn’t really get a sense of great history to some of the mythology, even though the names given are ancient. Worse, I found the last third of the book almost incoherent in its scrambling from plot point to plot point. Why is this happening? What? I don’t follow…

Maybe as a child I’d have accepted it more easily, with fewer preconceptions and less pre-existing knowledge about some of the mythology used. Alan Garner’s books always gave me the willies as a kid, though, so I didn’t read it back then.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – RUR

Posted January 29, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of R.U.R. by Karel CapekRUR, Karel Capek

When you read about robots, you have Capek to thank. He’s the one who first came up with that word for a separate group of manufactured people (automatons?) who carry out work around the house, in factories and in the fields, subservient to the needs of humans. He’s the first one who posited how they might rise up, and declare themselves as people too. It’s a shortish play, and one which I don’t always quite get — what’s with the men all falling in love with the one female character? Why do the characters act the way they do?

But it is fascinating to come back to one of the places where it all started, and it was worth the read to see where some of the themes and preoccupations of later science fiction originated.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – No Time to Spare

Posted January 28, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le GuinNo Time To Spare, Ursula Le Guin

Received to review via Netgalley

All the time while I read this, a few weeks ago, I found myself wondering how much longer we’d have Ursula Le Guin. I wonder if the title, No Time to Spare, was intended to be so on the nose. It’s a wonderful collection, full of Le Guin’s personality: her thoughts on ageing, on genre, on books in general, and on her own work. And also her thoughts on her cat, Pard, and one rather mindful piece on the correct way to eat a boiled egg.

It was a quiet moment when I needed one, and I hadn’t even known I needed it, and now there’s a finite amount of Le Guin’s work left in the world for me to find that feeling in again. Thank goodness for rereading and the fact that Le Guin’s work always merits it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Restless Creatures

Posted January 27, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Restless Creatures by WilkinsonRestless Creatures, Matt Wilkinson

The topic of this book — evolutionary biology from the point of view of the importance of locomotion — is fascinating, and I can’t actually point to anything about the writing or structure that bothers me. I just found that I didn’t enjoy it. Part of that is probably because I’m not interested in the physics, and though I think HOX genes are fascinating, I’m already aware of them and the homology in them between species.

I think some of the sections on the physics of motion genuinely dragged a little; if you’re into physics, it’s nothing new, and if you’re not, then it’s not exactly the most fascinating stuff. It’s an interesting topic, and Wilkinson writes pretty clearly, so that might be a personal thing.

Rating: 2/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted January 27, 2018 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

Good morning, folks! I’ve had a quiet week. Though quite a few books have somehoooow made their way in, I haven’t actually paid for any! They’ve all been review copies, or bought with gift vouchers. Hurrah!

Received to review

Cover of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyumi Cover of The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg Cover of The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

I’ve been interested in all these for a while.

Books bought

Cover of The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood Cover of Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

I’ve been curious about these, too. So hurrah!

Books finished this week:

Cover of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner Cover of R.U.R. by Karel Capek Cover of Words Are My Matter by Ursula Le Guin Cover of Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan Mcguire

Reviews posted:

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Not a favourite, but still — of course — clever. 4/5 stars
The Written World, by Martin Puchner. I’ve seen some concern about historical inaccuracies, but I really enjoyed reading it. 4/5 stars
Cro-Magnon, by Brian Fagan. I originally gave this four stars, but I think I’ll lower it to three. Some sexist assumptions, mostly the same info as found elsewhere. 3/5 stars
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan. I found this a delight. 4/5 stars
The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. So much information, tons of fascinating stuff. 5/5 stars
How the Zebra Got Its Stripes, by Léo Grasset. Fairly slim, but some fun facts. 3/5 stars
Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo. This one really worked for me — it was a quick read and I got into the characters. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

Turn Around: Ursula Le Guin’s Words of Wisdom. On Earthsea and anxiety and what Le Guin did for me.
WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly update.

How’s everyone doing?

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Review – Six of Crows

Posted January 26, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of Six of Crows by Leigh BardugoSix of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

It’s taken me far too long to get around to reading Six of Crows, but the bonus is that at least I have the next book ready to read. Like the Grisha trilogy, I absolutely sped through this. It’s an interesting crew of characters, with their own history and background that informs how they react and what they do. I was a little put off that the characters seemed to pair up so readily: I wouldn’t expect stable romantic relationships to come out of forming a team for a heist, so it feels like I’m being asked to invest in something fairly transient. Kaz and Inej, of course, make sense, and so do Matthias and Nina (in their conflicting way), but Jesper and Wylan… I have a feeling about where that’s going, and right now I’m not sure that it was narratively necessary or realistic.

On the other hand, it’s a fantasy novel, so realism can be somewhat overrated, and if my feeling is right about where they’re going, then yay for rep.

For a heist novel, it does spend a lot of time on the characterisation and how they interact: Nina and Matthias’ history, Kaz’s motivations and his feelings for Inej (and the complications in the way of them having a relationship)… I still want more of Wylan and Jesper before I really invest in either of them, though towards the end of Six of Crows they have a couple of good scenes.

In terms of the fantasy world, well, it helps to know the Grisha trilogy as well, to really understand what Nina and other Grisha can do. Ketterdam comes to life somewhat, particularly with the addition of Kaz’s memories from before he joined the Dregs, but it isn’t the richest world-building I’ve ever seen. Still, the characters are enough to keep me engaged, and of course, that cliffhanger…

Rating: 4/5

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Review – How The Zebra Got Its Stripes

Posted January 25, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of How The Zebra Got Its Stripes by Leo GrassetHow the Zebra Got Its Stripes, Léo Grasset, trans. Barbara Mellor

This book is admittedly slight: if you already know your evolutionary biology, then you’re not likely to learn anything from this in terms of the principles. However, if you’re not, these stories demonstrate the points well, and even if you do know the principles, you can learn some new facts. Which you may or may not find interesting, depending on how much you cringe at the description of how hyenas give birth!

It’s an entertaining read, and I was glad I picked it up, even though it didn’t exactly take me long to digest.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Emperor of All Maladies

Posted January 24, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha MukharjeeThe Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies used to scare me. Just the idea of a whole book about cancer kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies. Generalised anxiety disorder and three grandparents dead of cancer will do that, I guess. Luckily, I’ve turned a corner and reading this just fascinated me — my only regret being that it isn’t quite up to date on the latest in cancer treatments, stuff which I know about from my medical transcription work that isn’t always even past the phase II trial stage yet. The way the doctors I transcribe talk about that… well, I’d love to know more.

Still, there’s a lot here: a history of what we’ve known about cancer from ancient history to the time of publication, with meticulous footnotes. It’s illustrated with some case studies, patients of Mukherjee’s, which help to contextualise the treatments mentioned or the cancers being studied. His fascination with the disease is clear, but also his compassion for his patients, though I never found it sentimentalised.

It’s a little dense and probably slow going if you’re not used to reading non-fiction, or if the subject matter is unfamiliar. I was delighted that I could follow pretty much all of it, even when he discussed statistics (the bane of my biology degree); I found it pretty impossible to put down, because I had to keep finding out more. As the best non-fiction always does with me, I ended the book by wanting Mukherjee’s job.

Rating: 5/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 24, 2018 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalI’m most of the way through Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I might need to take a liiiiittle break, though, because it’s totally heartbreaking and I don’t quite need that right now. Given, you know, the news about Ursula Le Guin dying.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan GarnerThe last thing I finished was a reread of Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, I think. I’m still not a big fan, though it started off better than last time. I just don’t like the mashup of mythologies, though. They don’t fit together for me.

What will you be reading next?

Almost certainly something by Le Guin.

What are you reading?

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