Author: Nicky

Review – Finn Fancy Necromancy

Posted June 4, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Finn Fancy Necromancy, Randy Henderson

The cover, with the classic gaming-like characters on it, suggests something… I don’t know, playful and referential. A fantasy equivalent to Ready Player One, perhaps. And a lot of people seem to have found that in it, calling it “dark and quirky”, noting the humour and the originality of it. I didn’t find it to be so; I could predict each turn of the story, and the characters didn’t endear themselves to me. The set-up is okay: guy has been imprisoned in an alternate realm for years for a crime he didn’t commit, while a changeling lived his body’s life for him. He gets out, he immediately gets set up again, what’s going on?

The story deals with the past framing at the same time as it goes into the current one, and this seems in many ways to be background for a bigger story to do with Finn’s changeling. That aspect of the plot was actually interesting; but the minutiae of Finn’s love life with women he hadn’t seen for years didn’t work for me, particularly not when he’d spent most of his life lying to one of them, and in the meantime they grew up and he didn’t really, and…

I don’t know, ultimately I just felt like it was completely typical, and I wasn’t drawn to keep reading it. I did, because I bought the paperback and darned if I’m going to waste my money, but if it was from the library I might’ve considered just returning it. There was some references to pop culture stuff — Doctor Who, Star Trek, etc — but it felt… incidental, not really integral to the story. A cute nod more than a necessity. Despite my interest in the changeling story, I doubt I’ll be picking up the second book. It just felt too… mediocre.

In fact, I feel obliged to quote: frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 4, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This has been a less busy week, thankfully, and I’ve got some work done on tackling my backlog — including an epic sweep removing about 70 books from the backlog that I’m no longer interested in, or where I didn’t enjoy the first book of a series, etc. I really should get back to work again, though, because my next deadline is approaching fast…

Oh well, books first!

Received to review:

I’ve been interested in this for a while, particularly since my mother actually writes to Yoon Ha Lee regularly, and I’ve read The Fox’s Tower and enjoyed the stories in it.

Books bought this week:

I wasn’t 100% in love with The Sin-Eater’s Daughter, but I love the covers of these books and I’m curious enough… Kameron Hurley’s The Geek Feminist Revolution is obviously going to be awesome, though I don’t know how much new content it contains (since I’ve read We Have Always Fought). Aaaand the Max Gladstone means I have all the books so far, until the next one is out.

Reading wise, it’s been a relatively light week. The M.C. Beaton books aren’t even that great, but they were just the right brain candy for me at the time.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean. It took me a long time to really get into this, and then suddenly at 85% it made things work. Also, love the setting. 4/5 stars
–Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse, by Dennis Hopeless and Greg Land. Fun enough, and if you didn’t bother with Spider-verse in general, this does give you some info. Involves a lot of the Spider-ladies! 3/5 stars
–The Sudden Appearance of Hope, by Claire North. A very interesting one-sentence idea (“what if nobody could ever remember you?”) combined with a technology thriller type plot. 4/5 stars
–The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner. More complex than the first book, The Thief, this pushes the characters we’ve already been introduced them and develops them beyond the thumbnail sketches we had before. It was a reread, so maybe no surprise I loved it. 5/5 stars
–Hawkeye: Rio Bravo, by Matt Fraction and David Aja. This run of Hawkeye has been fun, and I appreciate a lot about it, but I think the storytelling style wasn’t ideal for me. It relied a lot on the art, and I am not a visual person. 3/5 stars
–Tales from Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. My main comment on this one is that you really need to read ‘Dragonfly’ to understand The Other Wind. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Debatable Space, by Philip Palmer. Fun and compulsive read, even though it didn’t seem like it would be my thing at all. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Beach Reads. Except I was difficult about the theme, because I don’t do “beach reads”.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Debatable Space

Posted June 3, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Debatable Space, Philip Palmer

Originally reviewed July 5th, 2012

Randomly selected in the library. the narrative is annoying — very fragmentary, many different narrators and time periods, rapid POV switching — and the typography makes me roll my eyes (I don’t need a page of the letters d o o o o o w n dripping down the page to get that she’s falling). The characters are universally unlikeable; the main female character egotistical and self-justifying, the main male character smug and unprincipled. There’s a lot of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. None of this is my thing.

And yet. I loved it. I gulped it down practically whole. I was on the edge of my seat. The book has an undeniable energy and joy which swept me up despite myself. It made me root for the characters despite the fact that they are all incredibly flawed. There are sciency infodumps and I do not mind. There’s a deus ex machina and it just made me whoop.

I’m sure it has other flaws, but while reading it, I couldn’t care less. That, in my view, is a good book — and I’m very glad I picked up two more books by Philip Palmer on the same whim.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, SF/F

Review – Tales from Earthsea

Posted June 2, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Tales from Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin

If you read nothing else from this collection, you should grab this to read ‘Dragonfly’. The other stories fill in bits and pieces of the background, or use the world to tell a new story that is small in scope compared to Ged’s. ‘Dragonfly’, on the other hand, is necessary (to my mind) to really understanding The Other Wind, and should definitely be read first. It introduces a character who becomes important, and events which are referred to throughout the novel.

As for the writing of the stories themselves, well: Ursula Le Guin’s prose is as fine as you would expect, and the words are precise and crisp and each placed exactly right. The glimpses of history and other places which we get in these stories is worth the price of entry, too. I think ‘Darkrose and Diamond’, for instance, is incredibly slight compared to Ged’s story, but on the other hand it does reflect on some of the same themes as Tehanu. As does ‘Dragonfly’, in different ways.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, Ursula Le Guin

ShelfLove June Update

Posted June 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

ShelfLove Update!

And now it’s June… it’s been a busy month for me, with a big assignment to complete and wedding stuff to organise. Still, towards the end of the month I did start to catch up again, so I haven’t lost progress, and I’m hopeful for the month ahead. I’ve also read some books which have been on my TBR since 2010, and gone through my TBR piles to get rid of some books I’m no longer interested in. I still have 1,071 books on my owned-unread list, but it’s a start!

Last month I brought in more stats and colour coding, so here’s the rundown. The goals where I’m ahead are in blue; bang on are in green; behind by up to five books are in orange; anything else is in red. I now have a running total to show where I should be for the month (so for example, in books read overall, I should’ve read 121 by now, and I’m on 109).

Targets:
- 250 or less books bought;
- 366 books read overall;
- 200 books read which I owned prior to 2016;
- no more than 10% of income on books per month.
Books bought this year so far: 92/100.
May books bought: 25/20.
May budget: N/a; not calculated this month because it’s been in both euros and pounds. Pretty sure it’s in the red though.
Owned books read this month: 18/16.
Books read this month: 29/31.
Owned books read overall: 72/84 (12 books behind).
Books read overall: 139/152 (13 books behind).

As in past months, I’m going to include a TBR pile for the month here — especially since this update post more or less covers this month’s theme of a check-in. If you want to actually check out my progress, check out the Mount TBR menu on my blog; everything red and struck through has been removed from my list, either by reading it or by deciding it’s no longer interesting!

Aaaand the TBR for this month focuses on reading books I’ve owned since before the end of 2015, and finishing some of the series I’m reading.

Diane Duane, The Door into Shadow.
Diane Duane, The Door into Sunset.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, The Tempering of Men.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, An Apprentice to Elves.
M.C. Beaton, Sick of Shadows.
M.C. Beaton, Our Lady of Pain.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue.
John Crowley, Little, Big.
Kerry Greenwood, Murder & Mendelssohn.
Tanya Huff, Blood Lines.
Tanya Huff, Blood Pact.
Tanya Huff, Blood Debt.
Robin LaFevers, Mortal Heart.
Juliet Marillier, Tower of Thorns.

No doubt I’ll read lots more, but I really hope to finish this bunch! Not to mention my personal challenge of rereading The Hobbit, this time in a French translation.

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, TBR

Review – Hawkeye: Rio Bravo

Posted June 1, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Hawkeye: Rio Bravo, Matt Fraction, David Aja

I know that everyone thinks Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye run has been the best thing since sliced bread, and I wish I could feel it too. I can see objectively that it’s good — I like Aja’s art, I like the inclusion of Kate Bishop as Hawkeye, I like that Clint’s a doofus and I love the experimental storytelling like the issue from Pizza-Dog’s point of view and showing Clint’s sign language. Hell, I love the inclusion of Clint’s brother, the way Fraction re-introduces Clint’s deafness (which I think was originally a story in the 70s?).

But somehow it just doesn’t quite come together for me — possibly because there’s a lot of visual storytelling, and I am a dunce when it comes to visual skills. I can’t even imagine rotating a simple shape, or picture someone’s face in my non-existent mind’s eye, so even if I spoke American Sign Language (which I don’t and wouldn’t, since when I learn it I’ll learn British Sign Language) I wouldn’t be able to read Clint’s signs, and… the dialogue in a comic really helps to orientate me.

I still think this run on Hawkeye is fun, but I just don’t appreciate it in the way other people do, and I’m sure there are awesome parts I’m not even appreciating. I suppose that’s, in part, why I’m an unlikely comics fan. Still, I get some enjoyment out of it, and I do see why this run has been so popular!

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel, Matt Fraction

Review – The Queen of Attolia

Posted May 31, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner

It’s been ages since I reread The Thief, but fortunately the two books don’t rely on each other too much. The Thief introduces Eugenides and the pseudo-Greek world he lives in (along with its other, less congruous features, like pocket watches and the real and tangible presence of gods); The Queen of Attolia goes on to develop the character and his place in the world. It does a skillful job of developing a character who starts off completely unlikeable, slowly unpicking the difficulties of being a queen in a man’s world, of hardening your heart so that you can live to fight another day. And it touches on disability and recovery and betrayal and love, and of course there’s still some political maneuvering, because the characters just can’t resist.

There’s one aspect of the book that, both times, threw me somewhat and made me doubtful that it could pull it off. It does, albeit awkwardly: more with a sense of hope and promise than a sense of security or surety (though that comes later, in The King of Attolia). Eugenides’ relationship with Irene, the Queen of Attolia, is an interesting one, marred by their shared past and the terrible things Irene did in the effort to secure her throne, and yet… perhaps not beyond hope. There are aspects of it that feel a little sudden, like Irene suddenly realising that she actually likes Eugenides, but at the same time, you can look back through the book and see it happening.

It’s certainly not, at least, insta-love, or an easy romance. It always acknowledges that these two people are very different, that they hold power over each other, that they’re playing at politics as much as they’re reacting to each other as people.

Oh, and the Queen of Eddis continues to be awesome, of course.

This is a book that definitely hasn’t suffered from rereading; it was probably more satisfying than I remembered, I think, because reading it a second time just allows you to see the way all the threads come together, the way everything falls into place.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Megan Whalen Turner, SF/F

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted May 31, 2016 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

This week’s theme is “beach reads”. Now, I kind of… don’t do beach reads. I’ll read whatever books whether I’m on the beach or not, and I don’t really go with ‘themes’ for the time of year or anything… I know, I know, I’m boring.

And to top it off, I’m not likely to go to the beach. So I’m at a loss for how to handle this theme and will go for “books I am planning to read soon”, in that it is beach weather here.

Hex, Thomas Olde Heuvelt. I’ve heard conflicting stories on whether this is scary or not, but either way, I’m a wuss. So summer might be the best time to read it, when the days are long and bright…
A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas. Once I’ve reread A Court of Thorns and Roses, anyway. Just picked up my copy.
The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner. This is a reread, but it’s been aaaages. I just finished rereading Queen of Attolia, though. [And because I wrote this post a ways in advance, now I have read it!
A Local Habitation, Seanan McGuire. Before I end up forgetting details of Rosemary and Rue.
The Girl with All the Gifts, M.R. Carey. I really have to get round to reading this, don’t I?
Little, Big, John Crowley. Since I recently picked up a second copy…
Hammered, Elizabeth Bear. My partner’s been poking me to read these for, uh, a while.
Uprooted, Naomi Novik. It’s been waiting long enough for me to get round to it, and it sounds great. And it’s on the Hugo ballot.
The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers. I really really want to get round to this one, from all I’ve heard.
Midnight Never Come, Marie Brennan. I really love her Lady Trent books — it’s time I read this. [Read this one now, too!]

Somewhat random selection, I know…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Posted May 30, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North

Received to review via Netgalley

I’ve been interested in Claire North’s work for a long time, and her books under this penname are especially interesting because they take some really fascinating ideas and explore the heck out of them. First Harry August, living the same life over and over; then the protagonist of Touch, able to switch bodies with, well, a touch; and now Hope Arden, the woman no one can remember. North has a gift for teasing out the issues of these ideas — ethical and philosophical issues, the way her characters are going to relate to people given their unique differences.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is, like the other two, kind of a thriller, this time with plenty of tech involved. The ideas themselves aren’t so unusual, I suppose: the combination, however, is something I haven’t seen before. First you have Hope, who can’t be remembered, who carries out heists because she can; and then you have the second plot thread, the app, ‘Perfection’, which controls people’s lives. I’ve definitely seen this one before — most recently in All The Birds in the Sky — but here it’s sinister, and explores the problems of giving over your life to technology, to people looking to make a profit rather than better the world.

There are some real moments of pathos with the characters, even though it’s mainly an idea novel to my mind, and even though Hope isn’t always entirely sympathetic. Mostly, the sister of the entrepreneur who is Perfection’s figurehead: smart, imperfect, trapped. She rings more of a bell with me than Hope herself (though Hope has some interesting choices to make and things to figure out). Luca, the detective, also caught my imagination more than Hope: his determination, his goodness, his flawedness.

I feel like this is more smoothly executed that The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August; I felt less inclined to poke holes in the plot. My only issue was that it felt too long; at around 50% it felt like it was coming in for a denouement, and then it took right off again.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Claire North

Review – Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse

Posted May 29, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse, Dennis Hopeless, Greg Land

It might be because I don’t know any of Greg Land’s other work, but I don’t have the problem with his art in this book that other people identify. It sounds like he uses fairly formulaic compositions? But I’m not the greatest at visual-anything anyway, so it probably wouldn’t bother me. To me Jessica looks badass and capable, and uses her skillset well for fighting and spying.

The Spider-verse in general… Eh. I like the plethora of female stars that have come out of it, or had a part to play — Anya Corazon, Cindy Moon, Jessica Drew, Gwen Stacey… and the idea of all the alternate Peter Parkers was pretty cool. Silk acts pretty spoilt in some ways; haring off on her own and getting other people into trouble. Jessica shares some aspects of her background, a thing I mentioned in my review of Silk’s solo volume, but she’s much further along the road to finding her place in the world.

I love her friendship with Carol and the other Avengers, and so it’s nice that this volume finishes with her taking her leave of the Avengers, choosing to go and figure out who Jessica Drew is. It’s a fun enough volume, though perhaps not memorable.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel