Author: Nicky

Stacking the Shelves

Posted March 12, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

You know how I said last week there was a bookalanche? Well, it seems to have… set off another? Plus I got some review copies. And I joined a new library. At least I read quite a lot too?!

Books to review:

Between being a fan of Ada Palmer’s work with Sassafrass and Jo’s praise, I couldn’t resist picking up the latter, and I’ve seen so much enthusiasm about Passenger, so I thought I’d give it a try. And Demon Road, well, the hardback from the library is a beast so glad to have the ebook. Thanks Tor, Hachette and HarperCollins!

Library books:

Grabbed the Stiefvater books since it’s the first time I’ve seen them both on the shelves, and I don’t know when I’ll next swing by that library. The Alastair Reynolds books are for my epic reread with my sister; we’re starting with Century Rain, which is the book we both started with way back when (and the book which got my sister to read again after years of refusing). A Natural History of Dragons is for a reread and Saturn’s Children because I don’t feel like reading in ebook lately. The other two I was just randomly curious about.

Books bought:

Um. My only excuse is that some of these were secondhand and thus very cheap or free, and then the novellas were from my partner via our Valentine’s Day agreement (for me: £10 ish for books, no questions asked, each month; for her: at least one nap, no pouting allowed, each month). You can see four distinctive sections — romance novels, fantasy novellas, Alastair Reynolds, and kickass ladies in comics. And then an Ilona Andrews one tacked on that I almost forgot to list.

Books read:

Reviews this week:

–Tolkien: An Illustrated Atlas, by David Day. Mostly worth it for the art included. 3/5 stars
–An Earthly Knight, by Janet McNoughton. A reread I appreciated more than I did the first time, based on the ballad of Tam Lin. Lots of historical detail. 4/5 stars
–The Last Enchantment, by Mary Stewart. It felt like Stewart tried to see the best in all the traditional characters, which didn’t always work. 3/5 stars
–The Paper Menagerie, by Ken Liu. Interesting collection of stories, and my only real problem was something about the tone. Probably very idiosyncratic! 3/5 stars
–Murder in the Dark, by Kerry Greenwood. One of the weaker entries in the series, I think, with a weird cult thing going on. 3/5 stars
–Vicious, by V.E. Schwab. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Morally dubious superpeople and a fun story structure. 5/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Before I Go To Sleep, by S.J. Watson. Fairly typical amnesiac thriller, and rather predictable too. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Spoilers! A post on why I like spoilers and why I might not be alone in that.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters Everyone Likes But I Just Don’t Get. Apparently it’s unpopular opinions time again?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Before I Go To Sleep

Posted March 11, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Before I Go To Sleep, S.J. Watson

Originally reviewed 19th January 2012

I picked this up somewhat on a whim. A couple of people had been talking about it, and I saw it in the Kindle store, and I just thought… fine, okay. I’ll go for it. I read it in about four chunks. It’s pretty riveting, actually. The unreliable narrator is reasonably well handled and as long as you’re prepared to go along for the ride, it works reasonably well. I guessed the big twist fairly swiftly, then thought I’d got it wrong, and then it turned out my first guess was right. That was pretty fun, I suppose: the guessing game.

One thing that annoyed me was a fairly big thing, though. The antagonist is a total cliché. The minute he starts talking about her being in a coffee shop, and how he scrutinised what she was eating and tried to figure out the “rules”, the ending was obvious. It’s every media stereotype. And seriously, I promise you. If you went out today, you passed a mentally ill person. Driving past you, walking along the pavement behind you, in front of you… And you were in no danger. They don’t care about whether you eat your snack before or after 2pm. They’re not going to rape you and try to kill you, then steal you from your care home and lie to you. They’re just going to buy some bread and milk, maybe some things for dinner. They’ve got a meeting later. Whatever. Most mentally ill people are perfectly normal people. And even the ones that you don’t understand, the ones that try to figure out weird “rules”, they’re probably harmless too. It’s not that there aren’t people who are dangerous and mentally ill, but mentally ill people are not automatically dangerous. In fact, mentally ill people are at a higher risk of being victims of violence, not perpetrators.

Still, clichés aside, if you’re interested in a mystery/thriller type thing that’s basically a sinister 50 First Dates (I can’t believe I’m admitting to ever having seen that), this might be up your street.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, mystery

Review – Vicious

Posted March 10, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Vicious, V.E. Schwab

I don’t know why it took me so long to get round to reading Vicious; I think it’s my favourite of Schwab’s books so far. I started with A Darker Shade of Magic, I think, which was very much hyped. With Vicious, I had heard some hype about it, but it’s been out a while, so I didn’t really feel a pressure to like it, and maybe that helped. Also, it’s a superhero novel — sort of. Maybe supervillains. But maybe it’s best to say it’s morally dubious superpeople, each of whom may have a point but none of whom are really doing the right thing, in a world where it’s difficult in the extreme to figure out the right thing.

Normally the multiple timelines in this story would annoy me, but it worked in Vicious, giving us glimpses of the past to fill in the story, while giving us bits of the ‘present’ to tantalise. Schwab handled it with assurance, and I was content to trust her that the things she was showing me were necessary for the story — it didn’t feel like an overfond author giving us unnecessary background. In fact, the narration feels very clean: every word necessary, every chapter honed to a sharp point.

The characters… well, you can’t quite like them, but I was intrigued by them. By their sharp edges and their inconsistencies, their beliefs. Both Vincent and Eli had reasons for their actions, and you can see exactly the point where they diverge — with the background story slowly being filled in, you actually get to see the difference it turns on, and catch it sneaking up on them. I found Sydney’s changes toward the end fascinating, and I think there’s a seed there for a potentially very interesting story about her and Victor, too. I wonder if that’s what the sequel will be about… either way, I’m very much looking forward to that.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, V.E. Schwab

Review – Murder in the Dark

Posted March 9, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Murder in the Dark, Kerry Greenwood

Wait, what? The thing that really threw me with this book is that this is Phryne’s first Christmas in Australia?! This is the sixteenth book or so, and eventful as Phryne’s life is, it seems a little bizarre that everything that’s happened so far has taken less than twelve months. Especially given the time passing during Lin Chung’s trips and such in Death Before Wicket. And this would mean Dot’s courtship with Hugh Collins isn’t that long after all — which seems odd, having got the feeling they were going at a glacial pace!

Still. This was pretty fun, although the setting was bizarre. Not because it was Christmas-in-July-weather, though that is a weird thought, but the whole house party and the sex parties and the general sea of implied queerness; at times, I wondered if it was just going to degenerate into a story all about sex, though it never quite went there. (No more than the other books, anyway.) This time, Phryne has to deal with a serial killer, but weirdly that didn’t change the tone much.

Overall, I’d have to say I found this instalment a little uneven — it’s fun to read, but I know some of the other books are better.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Kerry Greenwood, mystery

Review – The Paper Menagerie

Posted March 8, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Paper Menagerie, Ken Liu

Received to review via Netgalley

The Paper Menagerie is a collection of stories by Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner Ken Liu. Some of the stories deal with issues of Chinese-American heritage, and one in particular goes into a lot of detail, in a very interesting documentary format, about events in China during Japanese occupation, issues of experimentation, and then through the lens of spec-fic, history and who owns it, who controls it, how we can interact with it. Some of the stories are quite long, and come with footnotes about how they originated or further sources if you’re interested in the story.

There was nothing I specifically didn’t like about the stories, in general; one or two were weaker, others stronger. I was surprised that I felt ‘The Paper Menagerie’ to be a little… trite, given the awards and praise it has received, but it does evoke the feelings well. There are some moments where that comes out very strongly in Liu’s stories: there’s one story which uses a lot of descriptions of Chinese food and culture, and I could almost taste the dumplings, the rice, the vegetables, when reading that one. For the most part, though, I felt like Liu’s voice was very even in tone; I didn’t feel passionately one way or the other about quite a few of these stories. I felt like there were a few obviously great stories, and others that were entertaining enough but definitely not as strong.

I’m interested to read The Grace of Kings, Liu’s novel, and his translation of Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem; I’d like to see how Liu’s voice comes across there and how it flavours a work in translation. I’m not put off Liu’s work, just not quite enthused about it.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, short stories

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted March 8, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “Ten Characters Everyone Loves But I Just Don’t Get”. Hold on to your hats, let’s see if I can even make ten…

The Darkling, from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. All I hear is ‘wah, wah, wah, waaaaah’, sorry.
Mal, from Shadow and Bone. Wait, you only like Alina when she’s helpless and dependent on you? Really? Why am I the only one seeing this?
Dorian, from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I didn’t get the appeal of him in the first book, and I still don’t see him as a potential romantic match. Sorry not sorry!
Gale Hawthorne, from The Hunter Games by Suzanne Collins. At least not after the second book or so, when he started getting all militant. He was a fine character but Peeta won hands down, for me. (Though if I’m on a team, it’s just plain ol’ Team Katniss Can Kiss Who She Likes).
Draco Malfoy, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I never understand people shipping him with Harry or Hermione. Even if he’s not the worst, he’s a coward and a bully.
Severus Snape, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Okay, I never got to his redemption stuff, but really? Snape?
Simon, from The Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong. Okay, he wasn’t a bad character, but I hated the misdirected romance with him. Derek, darn it!
Lancelot, from Arthurian Legends. This one is cheating because there are so many versions, and the one that inevitably jumps to mind is one that nobody is meant to like — Bernard Cornwell’s version. I don’t care! Lancelot’s whole character just doesn’t appeal, though one or two authors — Steinbeck, Guy Gavriel Kay — have had a light enough touch to make me sympathise.
Lin Chung, from the Miss Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. No, not really, I still love him. I just wish Phryne would sleep with someone else for once, it’s getting really out of character. As I type this I’m reading Death By Water, and she’s had at least three opportunities to flirt and hasn’t really taken them. Whyyyy!?
Katsa, from Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I got it a bit more the second time I read it, but I still don’t adore the character.

Okay, so I did hit ten. But mostly I seem to follow the crowd…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Spoilers!

Posted March 7, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

I seem to be rather odd in fandom in general in that I don’t care about spoilers — in fact, I actually quite like them. That puts me in line with what studies suggest, though: the University of California, San Diego did a study a while ago which took stories and gave them to naive participants (i.e. participants who hadn’t read the stories before) in two categories. One lot of the participants got a spoiler paragraph first; the other lot didn’t. And with stories that have ironic twists, mystery stories and literary stories, every single one showed the same result.

People enjoyed the stories more when they knew what was coming.

Without looking at the studies, I have a couple of theories about that. One is simply anxiety. I am an anxiously inclined person and I can end up utterly stymied with a book, not wanting to read further because I know something bad is about to happen… and I don’t know if things turn out right, whether I should be hopeful or not. But when I know the outcome, I can read the story fine. Sometimes when I’m struggling to read something (or even watch something), I ask for spoilers, or flip to the back of the book.

But there’s a lot more people without that kind of anxiety, I would guess, and for them I have a theory too — connected to one reason I like to reread books: you know what’s going to happen, and you can see the skill of the author in shaping the outcome. If it’s a question of Chekhov’s gun, you can spot the gun and feel clever; you’re reading on a different level. You can still be surprised by how things turn out, but probably you already know whether it’s the kind of story you want to read or not.

The weird thing is that people pretty consistently think they don’t like spoilers, and I wonder if that’s a social thing — “you’ll never believe what’s going to happen!” The whole idea that anticipation is going to make it better.

How about you? Spoilers, no spoilers? Thinking about experimenting with this now?

And will someone please have pity and tell me whether The Winner’s Kiss ends well for Arin and Kestrel?

Tags: books, discussion

Review – The Last Enchantment

Posted March 7, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Last Enchantment, Mary Stewart

The Last Enchantment really suffers the most from the fact that it’s written from the point of view of a supporting character. Merlin’s an epic, iconic figure, but he’s not Arthur — and this version emphasises this even more, with Arthur’s seemingly endless heroism, patience, temperance and sensitivity. I love the Arthurian story too, but it feels like Stewart shielded almost all the characters from harm — even, in this case, some of the female characters, despite the misogynistic to ambiguous treatment in the rest of the series. She has surprising sympathy for Guinevere, particularly, considering she had no mercy for Morgause.

Stewart weaves in an astonishing number of the disparate stories — the two Guineveres, Nimue/Niniane/Vivien, Melwas, etc — but, almost because of that, it lacks richness to me. It feels like everything-and-the-kitchen-sink, especially with the way she shields her characters from the consequences; we’ve got Nimue and Merlin in a love story, and Nimue does indeed bury Merlin alive, and yet she didn’t mean to. And Merlin is buried alive and ‘dies’ there, but… he doesn’t die.

The writing is still good, and it was entertaining enough, but… this series falls short of excellence.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: Arthurian, book reviews, books, Mary Stewart, SF/F

Review – An Earthly Knight

Posted March 6, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

An Earthly Knight, Janet McNoughton

This was another reread, basically to match The Perilous Gard, since they’re both Tam Lin themed. This one is a mite more traditional, and sticks pretty close to the ballad, rather than being based on the situation the ballad lays out and then growing in other directions. The interesting thing is that it brings in another ballad, one I’m less familiar with: ‘Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight‘. That and the medieval, historical setting ground the fairytale elements very well and make the whole thing feel more solid.

Unlike with The Perilous Gard, I didn’t love it much more this time than last, but all the same I did appreciate the cleverness more, I think. Because I knew it was there, I was watching and waiting for it, picking up on every hint.

Altogether, it’s a very satisfying story, though it doesn’t take many liberties with the story of Tam Lin — it only embroiders it, bringing in historical figures and contemporary politics. If you know the ballad, you know more or less how the story goes; unlike with The Perilous Gard, there’s no real wondering about how exactly things will come out. Still, the historical details make it more emotional, and the payoff more satisfying, I think.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, fantasy, historical fiction

Review – Tolkien: An Illustrated Atlas

Posted March 5, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Tolkien: An Illustrated Atlas, David Day

This isn’t quite an atlas in the sense of containing maps, unless you take it a bit more metaphorically to be a sort of field guide to Middle-Earth. If you’re a big fan of Tolkien, you probably don’t need to read this for itself, as it just summarises and teases info from the books, but if The Silmarillion is too heavy for you, it might help you through. It’s also just a gorgeous book: lots of illustrations, lovely binding, etc, etc.

Less of a book to read and more for reference — and a good taster of various artists who’ve done work in Tolkien’s universe. I’m going to have to look some of these up, and maybe even try and get a couple of prints.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books