Author: Nicky

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

Good morning! How’s everyone doing this week? I’ve read more than I thought I was going to, and even cleared some books that have been on my backlog for a long time. Of course, I’ve also been fretting wildly over our baby bunny, but she seems to be doing okay despite my panics.

New books

Necrotech is a review copy from Angry Robot (thanks again, guys!), and The Crown’s Game was a gift from my wife, A++ wife that she is.

Finished reading this week:

Mortal Engines, Predator’s Gold and Heresy are books I’ve had since 2011; Saga volume four and We Were Liars are from 2014. Take that, backlog! …Wait, now I’m caught up on Saga… oh no! Now another agonising wait for more volumes.

Reviews posted this week:
–The Jewel and Her Lapidary, by Fran Wilde. Intriguing world, but I felt like I needed more background to really understand what the characters were doing. 3/5 stars
–One Ostara Sunrise, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but I could wish for more plot. 3/5 stars
–The Devil You Know, by K.J. Parker. Not as great as Parker’s other Tor.com novella, but an intriguing story nonetheless. Might help if you read the other book including the main character… 3/5 stars
–Batgirl: Silent Running, by Kelley Puckett et al. Sadly not my thing, despite me being a fan of the idea of Cassandra Cain. 2/5 stars
–The Drowning Eyes, by Emily Foster. I felt like this really trailed off, but there is some really amazing imagery in this story. Stones for eyes… 3/5 stars
–The Celts: Search for a Civilisation, by Alice Roberts. A really interesting overview of Celtic history and identity — and yes, it does engage with that troubled question of whether Celtic identity is really a thing you can point to, as well. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen. This is a perfectly good crime novel, but it’s too explicit and nasty to be the sort I enjoy.

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Still Haven’t Read. This is a list of books I’ve been meaning to get to for, quite literally, years — since before I started this blog.

What’ve you been reading this week? Anything you’re dying to get your hands on? Let me know!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – The Surgeon

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

The Surgeon, Tess Gerritsen

Originally reviewed May 7th, 2012

Trigger warnings: rape, mutilation, medical details (both descriptions of stuff like cancer and descriptions of accidents/operations).

That had to come first, because I spent much of this book wishing I had something firm and indestructible to crawl into, to keep me safe. The details are just horrifying — it reminds me very much of my experience with Val McDermid’s work. And, as with that, I had to read to the end to find out who the killer/torturer was, before I could begin to feel okay again. (The part of me that’s done a course in Crime Fiction remembers that the end of a crime novel typically ends with the criminal being contained or killed, and therefore that provides a feeling of safety and the reassertion of the rules of society, for a reader.)

I wasn’t really a fan of the characters’ attitudes to rape. The idea that rape makes the victim belong to the attacker in some way is just repugnant, and the idea that what makes a woman a woman is their womb is just — ugh. It seemed to be an ongoing theme in the story, rather than an opinion expressed by just one or two of the characters.

Overall there was a lot that upset/troubled me, and despite Sasha Alexander being in it, I don’t think I’m going to watch the tv series. It’s not actually a bad crime/mystery book: it’s very good in that sense, and I’d recommend it to people who like, for example, Val McDermid. But it was just not the kind of thing I should be reading at all, and I’m going to steer clear.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Flashback Friday, mystery

Review – The Celts

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

The Celts: Search for a Civilisation, Alice Roberts

This book was written to accompany a BBC series that I haven’t seen, but that doesn’t seem to detract from it any. I seem to be seeing a lot of people lately considering the issues of Celtic identity: how do we pin it down? Is it based on language, material culture, genetics? Is it really a thing? I’ve been to the temporary Celtic exhibit in the British Museum, as well as read this and — for contrast — Graham Robb’s The Ancient Paths, which views Celtic identity as very contiguous across Europe. (It is reassuring that most of the facts here chimed with Robb’s claims, if you’d like to believe in his theories!)

This book surveys evidence from all over Europe, eventually coming to the conclusion that Celticness might have originated in the West and spread east, rather than the other way round. It also pours cold water on the idea of human sacrifices (though it doesn’t mention some of the archaeological evidence about Boudicca’s revolt and the claims of human sacrifice and barbaric practices around that), with what I think seems like justified scepticism. Roberts points out that we’ve got a fundamental problem where the literature is interpreted in ways which prop up the interpretation of archaeological finds, at the same time as those archaeological finds are held up as truth in interpreting the literature.

Overall, Roberts is relatively unconclusive, if conclusions are what you’re looking for. Celtic identity is a bit of a morass, and its modern importance to Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Cornish people may well be a very recent construct. That makes it no less powerful, and there’s something understandable and powerful in modern people looking back to our ancestors and trying to understand them, claiming to be a part of them. After all, we must be.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction

Review – The Drowning Eyes

Posted August 24, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Drowning Eyes, Emily Foster

There’s a lot about this novella that’s fascinating — the image of the Windspeakers having to sacrifice their eyes and receiving stones instead is just, wow; I’m pretty sure that’s going to stick with me. The crew are cool, too; crabby and sympathetic and brave and practical. A mixture, like real people, and able to really get on each other’s nerves like real people, too. There are some awesome descriptions of weather magic, too: of the way the protagonist feels it in her body.

The flipside of that is that that there feels like there’s too much going on. There’s the whole magic system, then there’s the pirate crew, and it doesn’t fit that well together, because all of a sudden the pirates are really invested in something that is, well, above their pay grade. From transporting a runaway to saving a group of people that they don’t even necessarily sympathise with… And the Dragon Ships; that whole plot thread isn’t really resolved, because it’s implied there’s a lot more going on with them and yet the story more or less ends with a minor confrontation.

It doesn’t feel complete, like there’s just too much still up in the air. It’s not bad as a story, but it feels rushed and inconclusive.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, fantasy, queer fic

Review – Batgirl: Silent Running

Posted August 23, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Batgirl: Silent Running, Kelley Puckett, Scott Peterson, Damion Scott, Robert Campanella

I’ve been intrigued by the idea of Cassandra Cain as Batgirl ever since I heard about this series; I love the idea of a girl trained so intensively to be an assassin that she knows no language, but can interpret vast amounts from movement, even from tiny cues in body language. It’s fascinating because it’s to some degree possible; “feral children” without language who weren’t exposed to language during their critical period for learning it have existed, and who knows? Maybe they do learn to pay attention to other cues, appropriate to the environment they live in, which would be missed by those who rely on words to communicate.

In practice, though, Silent Running is kind of an awkward place to jump in. It’s not so bad for me because I know Barbara Gordon’s story, why she became Oracle, who she is — and everyone knows at least a little about Batman. But it feels like jumping into the middle of a run, not the beginning of one. The art style doesn’t greatly appeal to me either, and the storytelling is appropriately visual, which is never going to work that well for me (I just don’t and can’t think visually).

It’s also a little awkward because that uniqueness about this Batgirl is wiped out almost immediately: a psychic man rearranges her thoughts and gives her language, taking away her preternatural combat abilities by changing the way she experiences the world. It makes sense, but it does lose the thing that intrigued me about the character.

Also, Batman being paternalistic and judgemental, all the time. Gah. He should have some idea of how Cassandra was raised, you’d think, but somehow he spends the book denying it, and having a really weird tension with Cassandra when they’re working together.

I’m going to read the second volume, since I have it, but at the moment I’m not greatly enthused about following this version of Batgirl, which is a shame. (But might save me some money, since wow the TPBs can get expensive!)

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, DC

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 23, 2016 by Nicky in General / 5 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is for books that have been on your TBR since before you started blogging… and you still haven’t read them. Well, I haven’t got anything (surprisingly) from before I started using Goodreads, but I sure as heck have a whole bunch from before I started this blog.

Emma, by Jane Austen. It doesn’t help that my mother haaaates Jane Austen. I kind of gained some appreciation while doing my degree, but I’m still not filled with enthusiasm.
Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. Everything about the idea of predatory cities chasing each other across the land appeals. I just fail at getting round to my backlist.
The Island of Apples, by Glyn Jones. This was even a set book during my BA module on Welsh Fiction in English and I still haven’t read it.
Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier. I really enjoy Marillier’s work, in general, and yet. And yet.
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, by James Tiptree Jr. I am a bad feminist SF fan, I know.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Everyone and their mother has read this. Except me. (Well, and my mother.)
Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany. I know, I can’t believe it either, this is a classic.
Scott of the Antarctic, by David Crane. I know this is a bit of an odd one out here, but I actually find myself reluctant to go ahead and read it, because it’s the last book my grandad ever bought me before he died. While it’s still waiting on the shelf, it feels like prolonging something. The other book bought at the same time is one on railways, which is even more connected with my grandad.
A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel Abraham. I think this was recommended by Jo Walton? Was that where I got this one from? Anyway, it’s been on my list since at least 2013.
Point of Hopes, by Melissa Scott. Queer fantasy! Yesplz.

What about you? Anything been kicking around your lists for years? And do you feel guilty, or just go with the flow?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – The Devil You Know

Posted August 22, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Devil You Know, K.J. Parker

On the strength of The Last Witness, I was ready to pick this up as soon as it came out; I really enjoyed pretty much every aspect of Parker’s other Tor.com novella, and definitely wanted to read more from him. The Devil You Know is significantly weaker, though; apparently, one of the main characters is from another book by Parker, Blue and Gold. I think knowing that, I’d have picked up Blue and Gold first, because while the background is easy enough to grasp in this book, it might’ve helped in understanding the character and what he wants.

The plot itself is basically Faustian, with one of the main characters (a philosopher) trying to trick the other (a devil, but in a bureaucratic delegation sort of way: he doesn’t have pointy horns and an evil nature) out of the whole selling-your-soul bargain. I thought the final solution to that was a bit obvious, both as a device in general and in the way it was executed here, and the devil surprisingly careless about that one aspect after reading and rereading all the rest. It felt a bit like convenient stupidity for plot reasons.

The writing is a bit difficult to follow; unfortunately, the two POVs switch frequently but not regularly, and you have to guess from context which character is speaking. There are a few points where it’s impossible for a paragraph or two to figure out who is even supposed to be speaking, making everything rather confusing — especially since I don’t think the devil character has a name, and is usually just referred to as ‘he’, ‘him’, etc.

That’s all pretty negative, though: I did enjoy the story, the careful set-up, the bureaucratic version of selling your soul and how all of that was handled. It just didn’t catch hold of me in the way that The Last Witness did.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – One Ostara Sunrise

Posted August 21, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

One Ostara Sunrise, Elora Bishop

This book features another holiday with Isabella and Emily, and another instance of the two of them being caught up in big events — in this case, mythical events involving nothing less important than the changing of seasons. The relationship between the two of them is sweet, as usual, but it doesn’t really expand on the world or even the backstories of the two girls.

The main attraction is the warmth of the two characters and their relationship, and their deepening harmony with the world around them. It feels less substantial than the second book, and it doesn’t further any of the plotlines, though, so it does fall a little flat for me. In the collected version, there is also a short story about Alice’s first meeting with Isabella and how they pair up, which at least answers some of my curiosity about Alice!

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Elora Bishop, queer fic, romance, SF/F

Review – The Jewel and Her Lapidary

Posted August 20, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Jewel and Her Lapidary, Fran Wilde

I was pretty excited to read this Tor.com novella, particularly because of all the good things I’ve heard about Wilde’s debut novel. I found it a little too compressed, though, and confusing because of it; there’s a lot going on, with a whole new fantasy world, a magic system without a proper tutorial so that you’re never quite sure of the rules and limits, and a lot of characters who are sometimes referred to in different ways depending on the POV characters’ relationships to them — and that’s not to even mention the clearly-much-later-than-the-story tour guide extracts, which add another layer.

It all makes for a pretty fascinating world; that’s not the problem. The problem is that it doesn’t feel novella-sized. I feel like we needed to know Lin before the disaster, know something of the magic, before we could really appreciate what happened and how Lin dealt with it. Her actions clearly have enormous meaning to her, but to us they’re confusing — is it symbolic, or is there something magic going on? Or both?

I would’ve enjoyed seeing this as a full-length novel, I think; it just felt too rushed as a novella. There’s some lovely imagery and fascinating ideas, but it’s so breathless. I’m still interested in reading Wilde’s debut novel, though: maybe with more space, her ideas will be expanded on. And the ideas definitely aren’t the problem.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 20, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Happy birthday to meeee! If you wish to join in the festivities, it seems that we’re planning to celebrate by eating cake for every meal. (Sometimes stretching the definition to pastry.) My wife is even going to make Welsh cakes for me, for the first time in a while.

Also, we have a new bunny. Her name is Cinnamon, and she fits in my hand. I hope so much she’s going to settle in and stay with us for a good long time. <3

Received to review:

Eeeh! All of these are awesome, and I’m very excited.

Bought:

Fiiiinally, Ghost Talkers is out. <3 I need to get reading it nooow. Mind you, I say that, but there’s so much else I want to read now, too…

Finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson. A satisfying story set in Lovecraft’s world, with a capable female character. It actually really charmed me. 4/5 stars
–One Imbolc Gloaming, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but the plot doesn’t go where I hoped it would, which is kind of sad. 3/5 stars
–Cold-Forged Flame, by Marie Brennan. I think this might be my favourite of the Tor.com novellas so far. It’s definitely up there. I find the setting fascinating, and Marie Brennan writes as well as ever. 4/5 stars
–The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Power, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. Fun, though not 100% my thing. You’ve got to love that Doreen solves several big issues with supervillains by talking to them. 4/5 stars
–Runtime, by S.B. Divya. A lot of interesting stuff here, though the core of the setting reminds me heavily of other dystopian stories. 3/5 stars
–Dancing With Bears, by Michael Swanwick. Not my thing at all, despite the heist part. That and the setting are about all that were my thing. So much sex stuff. 1/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Beowulf on the Beach, by Jack Murnighan. I don’t always agree with the author on what you should try and what you should skip in the Greatest Hits of Dead White Authors, but it was kind of entertaining anyway. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books in Post-Disaster Settings. What it says on the tin!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup