Author: Nicky

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted September 28, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I did this feature round here! I’ve been meaning to resurrect it for a while. I think it started on Dreamwidth, but it seems worth having a weekly reflection on what I’m reading right now.

What have you recently finished reading?
I just finished In the Forests of Serre, last night. It’s not exactly a retelling of Russian fairytales like Baba Yaga and Ivan and the Firebird, but those character types are in the story. I think it might be one of my favourites of McKillip’s books so far; while the prose is lyrical as ever, the story is a little less dream-like and follows quite logically. At least, most of it — I wasn’t as sure about Unciel and Gyre’s part of the story.

What are you currently reading?
I just finally started on the next of Tanya Huff’s Blood Books, which is Blood Pact. So far it’s okay; I’m sick to death of Celluci and Henry bickering over Vicky, but I’m intrigued by the zombie plot. I think it’s a little too obvious where it’s all going, but it’s an interesting take on it — almost more Frankenstein than zombies, and with a scientific background.

What are you planning to read next?
I’m not sure. I’m still behind on my backlog reading goal, so it’ll be something from the backlog. I’ve been very tempted to reread The Lord of the Rings, but that’s definitely not from my backlog. That said, I’ve got some X-Men comics on the backlog, so I might read those for that and dig into LotR — it’ll save me from taking my boxset of the books back to my wife’s, because goodness knows I have enough I want to pack without those too.

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Review – Chalice

Posted September 28, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Chalice by Robin McKinleyChalice, Robin McKinley

I don’t know why I keep coming back to this book — one I originally gave just three stars — but I think this is probably the fourth time I’ve read it. This time, because I saw a copy for three euros in Dublin and just had to, had to, had to; up to now, I didn’t actually have my own copy, which you can imagine was annoying and of course I had to rectify it.

I think the thing is, it’s such a warm story. Mirasol and the Master’s relationship is so tentative, so careful; their attempts to reach out to the land they’re bound to and heal the things that have happened are so conscientious, untutored, sometimes even desperate, and yet they never give up. And I love all the domestic details: the honey, the woodrights, all the sensory stuff that comes with the honey… And the idea of the Chalice, both the office and the object, her duty to bind the Circle and all the little details of how to do that.

I also think it’s a very hopeful book, in the same sort of way as The Goblin Emperor or Uprooted, other books I’ve liked more recently. Okay, there is a conflict, but the outcome is almost totally positive, and the main characters seek as much as they can to avoid conflict. It’s gentle, calm, and thus calming.

I imagine I’ll reread it again sometime in the future.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – The Door into Sunset

Posted September 27, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Door into Sunset by Diane DuaneThe Door into Sunset, Diane Duane

I really like that this series is out there, full of characters outside the traditional fantasy mold, full of female characters, in a world created by a goddess. And it helps that there’s dragons and that the most important relationship through the books published is that of Freelorn and Herewiss. And again, that they have a realistic struggle to adjust to new things, to find their feet in their relationship and keep it ticking over without letting it stagnate, to find room for each other. There are some really great scenes, like the section in Lionhall or some of the battle scenes.

One thing I really, really liked was the characterisation of Cillmod, and even Rian. They’ve been boogeymen for so long, and this book finally expands them a little. Cillmod turned out to be especially interesting. It was great to see some ambiguity, some signs of another side of the story.

But. I don’t know. For me, it just doesn’t quite click. Sometimes I feel like the issue of the Goddess is hammered home too hard, too frequently; sometimes I want the characters to stop thinking so much about getting into bed with each other, because hey, there’s actually a war going on; sometimes the tone just feels pompous or… or something I can’t quite put my finger on, but in any case find offputting. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it — I wouldn’t have finished the three books which have been written if I didn’t — but I’m not sure it needs the fourth unwritten book, and I’m glad enough to leave it here.

Rating: 3/5

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted September 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, and this week the theme is our fall TBRs! I’m about to come up with my list for October, so hopefully this shouldn’t be too hard. On the other hand, I know that I’m a fickle creature, and I might well still be listing these same books when it comes round to January…

Cover of Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews Cover of The Family Plot by Cherie Priest Cover of Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey Cover of The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien

  1. Magic Binds, by Ilona Andrews. I had the ARC and I haven’t got round to it?! What is wrong with me?
  2. The Family Plot, by Cherie Priest. I haven’t loved any of Priest’s books as much as Bloodshot and Hellbent, but I’m totally ready to try. And this is kind of thematically appropriate for October, with Halloween coming up…
  3. Certain Dark Things, by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. Signal to Noise wasn’t 100% my thing, but imyril’s review sold me on this so much, if the vampires and that gorgeous cover hadn’t already.
  4. Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. This is a reread, but it’s been so long since I read it, I can’t wait to dive back in. Here’s hoping I still love it just as much.
  5. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. For some reason I’ve been craving a reread, and I’m not going to argue. I’m just vacillating between listening to the audiobook (well, the BBC radioplay adaptation) or reading it. Or both.
  6. The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. Again, a reread, but not the first book of the series, so if I want to read them as a series and keep them all fresh in my mind, I’d better get to it. I read Old Man’s War a while ago already.
  7. The Child Eater, by Rachel Pollack. I both own a copy (in the UK) and have a copy out of the library (in Belgium), so, you know, I should get round to it.
  8. The Impostor Queen, by Sarah Fine. I’ve had it a while and I’m still seeing good things about it, so why not?
  9. Deadline, by Mira Grant. I just got Blackout, so it’s definitely time to get on with this trilogy.
  10. Time and Again, by Jack Finney. I’m partway through it, so I need to pick it back up. It’s a bit slow, though.

Cover of The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi Cover of The Child Eater by Rachel Pollack Cover of The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine Cover of Deadline by Mira Grant Cover of Time and Again by Jack Finney

What about everyone else? Any big plans?

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Classics via daily serial

Posted September 26, 2016 by Nicky in General, Reviews / 0 Comments

Seeing Maximum Pop!‘s review of trying out the app Serial Reader gave me an idea for a discussion post, since it looks like that’s one of the things people are looking for around here! Serial Reader, if you hadn’t heard of it, is an app which breaks up various classic books into chunks of about 10-15 minutes reading time, and delivers them to your phone at a set time each day. I started using it a couple of weeks ago, and have already read Ayn Rand’s Anthem, and got almost halfway through Austen’s Emma.

Screencap of the Serial Reader app on Android

Do I like the experience? Yes, actually. My problem with some books has been that I don’t really want to sit down with them and spend any appreciable time with them. Like Anthem, for example. Whereas reading just an extract a day — which takes me rather less than 10-15 minutes, usually — is easy. The divisions usually come in reasonably sensible places, like the end of a chapter or poem, and because I get a notification every day, I find myself reading classics very coherently by installments. I don’t think it’d work for me if I just tried to read the book a chapter at a time or something: it’s the little nudge that makes it easier.

My best experience is perhaps with reading Emily Dickinson’s poetry; I’ve never particularly enjoyed it, but with a very short selection every day, there’s no harm in focusing on what you do get. And while I haven’t suddenly been converted, I’ve enjoyed it more than I expected.

There’s quite a good range of books available on the app, too. One of my next up is On the Origin of Species, because it’s really high time I read that. But there’s also Sherlock Holmes stories, Gothic novels, American classics, H.G. Wells…

I’m not so sure about paying the (admittedly small) onetime fee to get access to the ‘read later’ and ‘read ahead’ features — after all, most if not all of these books are public domain, and you can get them free and read ahead as much as you like — but they’re not really essential to the basic idea, which I plan to stick with. I just keep my list of books to try later in my BulletJournal!

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Review – Off The Map

Posted September 26, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Off the Map by Alastair BonnettOff The Map, Alastair Bonnett

This was something of an impulsive purchase, and it turned out to be lighter reading than I expected. Each section is very short, sometimes just three pages long, and it leaves you wondering why he included such-and-such a place if there was so little to say about it. After all, the point of this book is to highlight interesting stuff about places that don’t exist (that either never have, or no longer do, or can’t officially, or…), so surely it’s worth spending some time on each one. Instead, a lot of the sections come across as perfunctory, included more out of a sense that they fit the theme than because they’re interesting.

There are some interesting facts in here, and I do enjoy the way Bonnett cross-references with fiction — when he talks about St Petersburg/Leningrad, he mentions China Miéville’s The City & The City, for example. But it was too much of a grab bag of not-always-interesting facts, and sometimes it also came across as rather preachy. Not that I disagree with Bonnett on many of these things, but still, the tone is offputting.

Rating: 2/5

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Survey: What’re you here for?

Posted September 25, 2016 by Nicky in General, Giveaways / 6 Comments

All of a sudden, I have a sudden rush of morbid curiosity, so here’s a survey about the kind of content you enjoy on my blog and what you might like to see more of. And since I’m at it and I’d really like you to answer, people who do respond to the survey get the chance at winning a giveaway: the prize is your choice of one book I’ve reviewed on this blog, sent via The Book Depository.

Everyone who follows here or promotes the blog will get a couple of chances, but if you complete the survey, you can get a bunch of entries by giving me a keyword in both your survey response and the rafflecopter.

Thanks in advance!

Create your own user feedback survey
To participate without doing the survey, you can get a free entry or promote my blog on social media. If you do the survey, don’t forget to give me a keyword or phrase (“hotdog pants”, “chocolate bookcase”, I don’t know, use your imagination), so that I can confirm your participation.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The giveaway ends on the 1st November, but the survey doesn’t have a closing date.

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Review – Stories of Your Life and Others

Posted September 25, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted ChiangStories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang

I’ve been meaning to read Ted Chiang’s stories for ages, since his work is clearly adored by a lot of writers I admire and whose taste I trust. And I wasn’t disappointed at all: there’s a reasonably formal feel to the writing in these stories, something careful and precise, and for me that makes them particularly engaging. I guess other people might find that makes them fall rather flat, but to me it added to the poignancy.

My favourite stories of the bunch, by far, were ‘The Tower of Babylon’ and ‘Story of Your Life’. The others explore some interesting ideas, but those two interested me the most. ‘The Tower of Babylon’ is just a fun what-if — what if the Tower was real? What if the world was shaped differently to ours? And also, what kind of expertise and building would be needed to make this tower? How long would it take, and how would people cope? Examining all of this fascinated me, because Chiang obviously thought it through.

‘Story of Your Life’, well. I’m not sure how Adams and Renner’s film Arrival is going to deal with it, because for me the whole point is the narration, the calm regret and acceptance of the narrative voice. I’m not sure about the idea of language working that way (i.e. the different perspective to time being an aspect of the language, not of the structure of the aliens’ brains, and one which is transmittable to another species). But emotionally, the story really works, and of course it also leaves you wondering about the aliens, about what exactly they intended, what they wanted from humanity, and whether they got it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A History of Ancient Egypt

Posted September 24, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A History of Ancient Egypt by John RomerA History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, John Romer

I don’t know much about modern Egyptology; it’s been a long time since I read exhaustively about the subject, and the books I referred to then were either for children or very out of date, albeit fascinating in their own way. (Christine Desroches-Noblecourt’s description of the treasures and items found in King Tutakhamen’s tomb held me spellbound for days at a time, and I frequently returned to it, fascinated by what we could glean of the boy king, and of Ankhasamen, his sister-bride.) This book kept some of the fascination of those books for me, though it deals with early Egypt, the very first pharaohs. That does mean it covers up to the construction of Khufu’s Great Pyramid, so it does include some of the very classic Egyptian things people think of, though not the gold-encrusted tombs of later pharaohs.

Because I don’t know much about modern archaeology in Egypt, I can’t really speak to the accuracy of Romer’s interpretations. There is an extensive bibliography, of course, and he steers away from some of the romanticised, imperialist assumptions of earlier theories. Still, at times I had no idea how solid a base his theories stood on: he seemed to spend a lot of time telling the reader what can’t be gleaned from the remains, and then building up some kind of story — a court organised around early pharaohs, controlling the flow of goods along the Nile — anyway.

On a purely stylistic level, it has some of the grandeur and wonder of the books I used to read, and finds wonder in the simplest carvings and burials as well as the feats of engineering, but the sentence structure… needs work. I don’t usually nitpick grammar, but there were far too many long sentences where the subject wasn’t clear, or which lost focus halfway through, or were fragments. Quite offputting.

I’m definitely interested in reading the follow-up volume, once it’s out!

Rating: 4/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted September 24, 2016 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

Another week of modest shelf-stacking — I knew the Unstacking couldn’t last! And I know I’m going to a bookshop this afternoon, with my sister, who hasn’t yet bought me a birthday present…

Books acquired:

Cover of Blackout by Mira Grant Cover of The Graces by Laure Eve Cover of Winterwood by Jacey Bedford

Cover of The Deeper Genome by John Parrington Cover of Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas Cover of Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

A couple of these were waiting for me at my parents’ house, since I’ve been away — my preorder of Empire of Storms, and Nevernight and The Graces from the last Illumicrate. Hurrah!

Books read this week: 

Cover of The Borgias by Christopher Hibbert Cover of Dinosaurs Without Bones by Anthony Martin Cover of From Elvish to Klingon, by Michael Adams Cover of The Hollow Earth by Steven Sevile Cover of The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

Not much reading this week — I blame the fact that I actually had quite a bit of work. And that I kept starting books and not finishing them…

Reviews posted this week:
The Wolf in the Attic, by Paul Kearney. The underlying mythology felt pretty confused, or at least, not properly explained, and I felt like the appearances of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were just gimmicks. Still, I found it somewhat enjoyable. 3/5 stars
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. I agree with the theories, I think, and find it all very interesting, except when he starts talking about statistics. Then not only my eyes but the rest of my mind too glazes riiight over. 3/5 stars
Planetfall, by Emma Newman. I was pleasantly surprised with how quick a read I found this, after being warned that it might make me feel a little anxious, since it portrays anxiety-related disorders very prominently. I somewhat expected the resolution of the mystery plot, and even the ending reminded me of something, but overall I really enjoyed it. 4/5 stars
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. Still got hearts in my eyes over this book, always. 5/5 stars
Seafoam and Silence, by Lynn E. O’Connacht. The verse novel format isn’t quite my thing, but the storyline and retelling aspects are really interesting. 3/5 stars
A Winter Book, by Tove Jansson. The stories are well written, with a sort of quiet, clear prose, but I’m not a big fan of the collection as such. 3/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner. There are bits of this that I remember enjoying, but the overall impression wasn’t very cohesive. I did read the second book, and my review of that will be on the blog next Friday… I’m even sort of thinking about trying them again now. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

Top Ten Tuesday: Audiobooks. Want some recommendations? Come see me geek about the awesomeness of BBC radioplays…

How’s everyone else been doing? Anything exciting going on?

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