Author: Nicky

Discussion: Book Fandom Friends

Posted July 16, 2018 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This week’s topic is about the friends we make through our blogs! Or really, the fact that we don’t know too much about each other sometimes — I feel like I know some of your tastes so well and know exactly where we dovetail in terms of what we each enjoy, but I don’t know where you’re from or whether you’re married or what you do for a living or… Sometimes, it feels like I know you so well on the level of how you respond to books, it’s a shock to realise I have no idea if you have siblings or whether you live in Montana or on the moon.

So! Here is a basic profile of some things that are important about me; does any of it surprise you? What would you like to share with me in return? (Don’t feel obligated to share the same stuff — whatever you want to reveal.)

Name: Nikki
Age: 28
Birthday: 20th August
Location: Leuven, Belgium, but only for another 15 days
Living with: Wife and six bookcases
Siblings: One sister, one dude I adopted as my brother because we needed to stick together
Marital status: Thank god she reads books too
Pets: Two rabbits, Breakfast and Hulk
Job: Freelance transcription and website support; just finishing up a full time degree (my third!) in biology
Ebook or dead tree: Both, either, depends on my mood
Night owl or morning lark: Night owl
Favourite bookshop: The American Book Center in Amsterdam
Favourite animals: Hippos, giraffes, and now rabbits
Other hobbies: Doing degrees, playing video games, crocheting, buying more books to read

That’s all a bit daft and probably doesn’t help, so hey, ask me anything you want to know! I might even answer. I love our community; let’s make it a little bit closer yet (even though I feel like I know enough about you to know we’ll get along if I know your taste in books). <3

And hey, how do you feel about the whole blog thing? Do you feel like you get to know people through their books? Do you sometimes wish you knew other folks better? Or are the books enough?

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Review – Scarweather

Posted July 16, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Scarweather by Anthony RollsScarweather, Anthony Rolls

There is something really sinister and dark about this book. It’s one of those where drug-taking/mental illness really pushes the plot, and it leads to some really gruesome moments. That atmosphere is the best thing about the book, I think: that sense that you don’t quite know what’s going to happen next, because it seems like it could be anything. It’s not very subtle, but it works pretty well.

Of course, I don’t love mysteries which rely on mental illness for their sense of danger and their motives, because the facts are that mentally ill people are more likely to be attacked than to be the attackers, by quite a margin. But it’s a classic trope and this is a classic book, from a less aware time, so while I wouldn’t recommend it if that kind of thing really gets to you, I don’t hold it against it too much in how I enjoyed it.

Mind you, considering I didn’t like the detective that much and found the Watson rather boring, I’m not sure how to rate it. The sense of atmosphere is definitely worth something, though, and it’s not as though I found it a hard read. Until I sat down to think about it, I’d have gone with three stars easily.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence

Posted July 14, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence, Michael Marshall Smith

This is perhaps a little less dark and twisty than one might expect from Michael Marshall Smith, and I felt at times that it wasn’t quite sure of its audience — at times the knowing narration seemed more appropriate for an adult audience (mostly the opening; the ending makes it obvious what’s going on there) and some of the book metaphors for relationships felt a little much for kids. It deals with divorce a fair bit, partially through the eyes/close POV of Hannah, who is eleven or so.

It was a fun read, and I did tear through it very fast. It’s not that it’s bad — there are some great observations of people, and I enjoyed the ambiguity of the Devil in some parts (at other times he was just straightforwardly evil in a kind of offhand “that’s the way it is” fashion). It ticks along at a great pace, and Vaneclaw is a fun character, etc, etc.

But. I don’t know. I finished it in record time, I did have fun, but I’m still left feeling lukewarm — like it could’ve been more. Maybe it’s the sense that the audience isn’t quite right, some of the relatively straightforward morality (in the end, after all, the fallen angels who oppose the Devil are the ones in the wrong and unequivocally evil), some of the simplicity in Hannah’s character… I don’t know. It didn’t quite come together for me, is all I can conclude.

Rating: 3/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 14, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 10 Comments

Time for the other half of my haul from the Hague! Shoutout again to the American Book Center and Stanza Bookshop for being amazing and friendly. This time it’s the SF/F books, so let’s have at it. Note: the bunnies bought me a couple of these.

Books acquired:

Cover of Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky Cover of The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn by Tyler Whitesides Cover of The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

Cover of The Genius Plague by David Walton Cover of Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport Cover of Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter

Cover of Circe by Madeline Miller Cover of The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood

Extra shoutout to the bookseller who made sure there was a copy of The Calculating Stars for me. <3

Books read this week:

Cover of Gorgon by Peter D Ward Cover of An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows Cover of The Planet Factory by Elizabeth Tasker Cover of Thirteen Guests by J. Jefferson Farjohn Cover of Children of Time by Adrian Tchiakovsky

Reviews posted this week:

–Death in the Tunnel, by Miles Burton. A fun and clever mystery; I can’t put my finger on quite why it worked so well for me, but it really did. 4/5 stars
–Amazons, by John Man. A bit of a broader book that it sounds just from the main title alone, I found this a fascinating and surprisingly quick read. 4/5 stars
–The Castlemaine Murders, by Kerry Greenwood. The usual sort of Phryne book, fun enough but not exceptional. 3/5 stars
–The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope. A good adventure story, not too hobbled by being a classic. 3/5 stars
–The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, and also which parts of the book I found more interesting. It reads like fiction at times, almost. 5/5 stars
–An Accident of Stars, by Foz Meadows. There’s a lot about this that I did enjoy, but… I don’t know. I might rate it higher once I’ve read the second book and I can see it as a whole. 3/5 stars
–Rubicon, by Tom Holland. Less about Caesar than you might expect, and more broadly about the end of the Republic. Pretty enjoyable overall. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–Discussion: Diversity. The perennial question in book fandom these days.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books So Far This Year. What it says on the tin!
–WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly update on what’s on my plate.

So what’s everyone been up to? Good hauls? Quiet week? Horrible warmth and drought like here?

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Review – Rubicon

Posted July 13, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Rubicon by Tom HollandRubicon, Tom Holland

With a title like Rubicon, if you know about the significance of that small river, you might expect the book to be mostly about Julius Caesar (if you didn’t notice the subtitle, which differs slightly between editions but always mentions the Republic). It isn’t: in fact, at times early on you might not be quite sure what Caesar has to do with it and what’s even happening to him at the time. Which is fine: there’s plenty going on that you don’t need the big name to make Roman history interesting, but I do think it makes the title a little bit misleading. It’s not really all about that decisive moment of Caesar’s: it’s more broadly about the Republic, and the sense I got was that even if Caesar hadn’t taken the action he did, the end of the Republic would still have come.

Holland’s writing is mostly breezy and easy to follow: sometimes he gets a little too flippant or broad in his translations for my liking (I wouldn’t put it past Romans to call someone a “cocktease”, definitely, but I’ve seen that line translated rather less explosively, too), and sometimes the sheer number of events and names starts to tangle a little. He’s covering quite a lot here, really putting the moment of crossing the Rubicon into context, and it can feel both a little jam-packed and a little dry as he crams everything in.

For the most part a good read, though a fairly traditional account of the doings of men in classical history. (Give me more about Clodia and her influence!)

Rating: 4/5

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Review – An Accident of Stars

Posted July 12, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of An Accident of Stars by Foz MeadowsAn Accident of Stars, Fox Meadows

This took me a long time to finish, and I’m not entirely sure why. There’s a lot I love about it — the diversity, the bonds between the characters, the fact that it’s so driven by female characters (in both positive and negative ways), the way things aren’t just simple right and wrong. I mean, Kadeja and Leoden are undeniably pretty evil, which does undermine me saying that somewhat, but Yasha raises doubts at times as well. She’s on the side of the “good” characters, but I’m not convinced she’s always acting for the good of everyone — for interesting character reasons. I love what the book says about grief and healing and love.

On the surface, the intrigue and adventure and the friendships and alliances between the characters should’ve been enough to keep me hooked, and the writing doesn’t throw up some huge barrier or anything. I can’t put my finger on what kept me equivocating about the book, or what kept me from loving it enough that I just consumed it in a rush as I’m completely capable of doing. Something just didn’t work for me.

Which leaves me somewhat surprised that the ending leaves me curious and interested enough that I might just have to pick up the next book right away. Partly that’s because I want a bad thing not to have happened (and it’s a world with magic, so surely there’s a chance), and partly it’s because that ending is pretty interesting in terms of what it sets up (though I find myself largely unsurprised by it).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Devil in the White City

Posted July 11, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Devil in the White City by Erik LarsonThe Devil in the White City, Erik Larson

I didn’t expect this one to have me hooked, and to the extent that I was interested, I’ll admit that it was initially mostly in the true crime aspect. I didn’t know much about H.H. Holmes’ actual crimes, just a vague sense of notoriety, so that was really what I was interested in — the design of the World’s Fair, with all the architecture and infrastructure decisions, sounded kind of boring to me. I wasn’t really sure about the juxtaposition of the two, either: it seemed like the story of the World’s Fair would be boring in comparison with the horrors of Holmes’ crimes.

In the end, I was more interested in the World’s Fair sections, and I don’t know why. Partly the people discussed, I guess: they had a powerful vision, they had determination, and they achieved a lot in a very short time. Regardless of the topic, that kind of drive can be fascinating. And Larson’s writing works for me — it feels crisp and to the point, and evokes feelings and motivations that the people involved may have felt without feeling like he was going out on any limbs or fantasizing too much.

I think in the end, despite my initial sense that H.H. Holmes would be more interesting, the thing is that psychopaths are psychopaths. I’ve read about psychopaths before, but the challenges of organising the Chicago World’s Fair were a one-off thing that nobody has or could repeat in quite the same way.

Rating: 5/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 11, 2018 by Nicky in General / 5 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.

Cover of The Planet Factory by Elizabeth TaskerWhat are you currently reading?

I’m working my way through The Planet Factory, by Elizabeth Tasker. It’s interesting stuff, of course — it’s about the formation of planets! how could that not be fascinating! — but I’m finding it a little slow going because it’s hard to grasp some of this stuff. There are some diagrams, but not enough to compensate for the fact I totally can’t visualise any of this stuff, and I think it does require visualising. Add the succession of hot Jupiters, super Earths and whatnot, and I’m a little bit at sea.

Cover of An Accident of Stars by Foz MeadowsWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last thing was An Accident of Stars, which took me far too long to read, and I don’t really know why that is. There’s lots that I enjoyed about it, but whenever I put it down, it didn’t scream out for me to pick it back up. Although I’m very curious about some aspects of the ending, so maybe I’ll pick up the second book in more of a hurry. We’ll see.

Cover of Children of Time by Adrian TchiakovskyWhat will you read next?

According to a Twitter poll, I’m pretty sure it’s Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m already a few hundred pages into it, if I recall correctly, so this will be an effort to finish it — there are some fascinating ideas, even if I don’t really have characters that I’m all that interested in (and that’s often what keeps me reading).

So what are you reading?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 10, 2018 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

This week’s theme is Top Ten Books of the Year So Far — so armed with my statistics spreadsheet, let’s jump into mine: books I’ve read this year for the first time and rated four or five stars! I’m going to skip the non-fiction books, as I think people are less interested in those. I’ve also stuck to the first book if it’s a series, because I think it’s hard to judge a second book on its own and I think this list kind of works as recommendations!

Cover of A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright  Cover of In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan Cover of Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

  1. A Matter of Oaths, by Helen C. Wright. I’m so glad I finally got round to reading this, because it really worked for me. If you’re a fan of Ann Leckie or Yoon Ha Lee’s work, I think this’d be right up your street. Becky Chambers, too.
  2. Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett. I got the ARC for this, and just can’t wait to talk about it with other people. Luckily, my wife’s now reading my copy and I get to watch her react to it.
  3. In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Okay, Elliot is a dick but he’s a dick who tries to do the right thing, and I love his relationships with his closest friends. I think it’s a good one if you’re a fan of Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On.
  4. Arabella of Mars, by David Levine. This isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it’s such a lot of fun. There’s a need for that when everything seems like crap around you, and I think a lot of people feel that way at the moment.
  5. Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Thank you for breaking my heart and expecting me to enjoy it, Kowal. …I did.
  6. Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero. I didn’t love one of his other books — and this one had its eyerolly moments in his chosen writing style, but I had a ton of fun and read it in an eyeblink.
  7. Semiosis, by Sue Burke. This has a dazzling central concept: sentient plants on a world humans are trying to colonise. I had some quibbles, but I loved exploring the minds of these plants.
  8. An Unseen Attraction, by K.J. Charles. Charles has a knack for characters and stories I can really get into, and this is a great gay romance/mystery.
  9. The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang. This is just adorable and fun. I mean, unless you have a problem with a prince who likes to wear dresses and for whom things turn out great. If you are, you might not enjoy this blog in general and you definitely won’t enjoy this graphic novel.
  10. War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull. A classic of fantasy literature, and one I found a heck of a lot of fun. Kinda like hanging out with the cool grandma of Kate Daniels and Toby Daye, this was an introduction to Where It All Began for urban fantasy.

Cover of Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero Cover of Semiosis by Sue Burke Cover of An Unseen Attraction by K.J. Charles Cover of The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang Cover of War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

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Review – The Prisoner of Zenda

Posted July 10, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony HopeThe Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope

This is one of those classics I always vaguely meant to read — I think my mother or aunt’s copy was hanging round in the room I always used at my grandparents’ house, so it was sort of in the back of my mind. I finally got round to it because of K.J. Charles’ queer retelling, which is apparently more fun if you know the original. So, in I plunged. And it is good fun — it speeds by, with the various implausibilities (the likeness between the two Rudolfs) being skated over, and any moral ambiguities too. There’s some intrigue and sneaking and adventure and fighting, there’s some doomed romance, etc, etc. It’s not the most substantial stunning piece of literature ever, but it does its job of being fun, and manages not to suffer too badly from being sexist or racist or any of those problems which can dog some classics.

So yeah, plenty of fun, and I can’t help but be somewhat charmed, or at least intrigued, by the villainous Rupert of Hentzau. I kinda want to know what’s going on in his head.

Rating: 3/5

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