Author: Nicky

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 25, 2015 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme is all about what you’d put on a syllabus if you were teaching a 101 class. Being me, I’m going to pick fantasy work, because if I could get away with teaching a 101 class on this somewhere, I would.

  1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The quest adventure is a big staple of fantasy literature, and Sir Gawain is a good early example that demonstrates some of the later tropes. I’d possibly add Chrétien de Troyes, The Mabinogion, Malory, some other Arthurian stuff, because that was a huge influence on later fantasy fiction.
  2. A Norse saga. I’d have to do some thought on which one, but the Norse stories were such a big influence, it needs to be considered.
  3. William Morris. I haven’t read any of his books yet, which I know is a grave lapse, but I know that his work was important in the development of fantastical novels.
  4. Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword. This one is probably my favourite, and it would amply demonstrate the way fantasy pulls from Celtic and Nordic mythologies.
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. Of course. Hugely influential. The Hobbit was first, but it’s the scale of The Lord of the Rings that later fantasy has tended to emulate.
  6. C.S. Lewis. For a Christian-inspired fantasy, also common.
  7. Ursula Le Guin, all the Earthsea books. My students would cuss at me, but it’s for their own good. Here fantasy starts engaging with those older, sexist tropes. Less explicitly, also with racial tropes — and we’d have to discuss the cover issues, where many covers have portrayed Ged as white.
  8. N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. We’ve got the background. Now let’s start looking at stuff that’s by more diverse authors: we’ve had enough dudes on this syllabus, for sure, and Jemisin is also a person of colour.
  9. Patricia Briggs, Moon Called. It’s also worth getting a look at the urban fantasy that’s emerged in the last couple of decades. It’s often dismissed into the genre of paranormal romance; would we be doing that if the author was male? (Glance at Jim Butcher: no. No, we wouldn’t.)
  10. Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death. As I recall, this is post-apocalyptic and shows where fantasy and science can converge. It also discusses gender, sexuality and race issues, and it’s by a person of colour.

Oh, man, I would so like to teach this as a real curriculum. What’s everyone else been coming up with?

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ARC August Update

Posted August 24, 2015 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Sooo back in July, I said I was going to take part in ARC August again, and posted about it here. How am I doing? Well… not that well, honestly.

Completed:

  • One-Eyed Jack, Elizabeth Bear.
  • The Hollow Crown, Dan Jones.
  • Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho.
  • The Galaxy Game, Karen Lord.

So yeah, I have plenty left to read.

Hoping to read: 

  • Fair Game & Fair Play, Josh Lanyon. I didn’t have the first book as an ARC, but obviously I want to read it first.
  • The Philosopher Kings, Jo Walton.
  • Seven Forges, James A. Moore. No seriously, it’s about time.
  • California Bones & Pacific Fire, Greg Van Eekhout. Again, the first book wasn’t an ARC but I need to read it first.
  • Of Bone and Thunder, Chris Evans.

I think that’s quite ambitious enough, especially since I have a whole bunch of other books I want to finish by the end of August too. Crossing fingers!

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Review – Pretty Monsters

Posted August 24, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Pretty Monsters by Kelly LinkPretty Monsters, Kelly Link

Kelly Link’s writing is gorgeous. These stories don’t all have the same tone or theme or setting or anything like that, but they do have that writing style in common, and it’s great. I’m not actually very good at liking short stories — I like developed characters and longer plots — but these are, for the most part, pretty enjoyable. ‘The Surfer’ was, if anything, a little too long for me, because most of what happens is character development.

I was surprised to realise I’d read both ‘The Wizards of Perfil’ and ‘The Constable of Abal’ before; I’m not sure where I read them, but it must’ve been an anthology. They’re probably my favourite of the two for language, setting and worldbuilding — and unsurprisingly, they’re the most secondary-world-fantasy of the bunch.

I was less sure about the alternating stories of ‘Pretty Monsters’; I think I’d have to read them again to really get the whole plot. There’s a great atmosphere with all of these, though: creepy, subtly wrong, and sometimes wry and funny as well.

Great collection.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Abhorsen

Posted August 23, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of Abhorsen by Garth NixAbhorsen, Garth Nix

Finally finished my reread! I do like Garth Nix’s world, but I really didn’t get on with the characters, especially not second (or third) time around. Lirael is alright, but between her and Sameth, there’s too much self-pity. Mind you, that improves  a lot in this book as both of them accept their responsibilities and burdens… not the responsibilities and burdens they expected to have to bear, but important ones, and ones perhaps more suited to them.

The background to this is interesting, too: the Bright Shiners, the Wallmakers, the power that goes into each of the lines that keeps the Old Kingdom safe. As Nix says in one of the notes in my edition, to know more about this would be almost to spoil the allure. It’s more fun to guess. I do want to know, though, if he knew of this song when he came up with the Nine Bright Shiners… (I asked. He replied that yes, he did, and it was intentional. Hurrah!)

I still wish for more of Sabriel and Touchstone in this one, as in Lirael, because I find them more interesting than their kids. But I do enjoy their brief appearances, and their obvious love for their kids balanced with their responsibilities.

And now onto Clariel — finally!

Rating: 3/5

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No Book Buying Challenge: Best Bookish Gift

Posted August 22, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This month’s theme is about the best bookish gifts you’ve received, and aside from books themselves, I have the perfect example this month! LookHuman.com have some great bookish t-shirts, and I now own an obscene number of them because my family/partner are good to me and it was my birthday on the 20th. Here’s the list (with links, if you click):

I’m a bit addicted to the raglans, they’re cosy and perfect for curling up to read in! Now if they came in more colours, I’d be set for life.

As for a general update, here goes. Green is for good progress or sticking to a target; orange is for marginal or in progress things. Red is for an uh-oh.

  • 36/51+ already owned books read from prior to 2015 (last one recorded: The Magus, 22/08)
  • Spent: £21 out of ~£30 budget (budget is 10% of my income) for January
  • Spent: £20 out of ~£25 budget for February
  • Spent: £22 out of ~£25 budget for March
  • Spent: £15 out of ~£16 budget for April
  • Spent: £45 out of ~£30 budget for May
  • Spent: £18 out of ~£40 budget for June, plus stuck within holiday budget
  • Spent: £45 out of ~£50 budget for July
  • Spent £51 out of ~£60 for August

Yep, that is the sign of someone who got paid a lot this month. Too bad it doesn’t seem to be a repeat job.

Here’s my more general progress on resolutions:

  • No books impulse-bought (being maybe a bit fast-and-loose with my definition here)
  • Read every day 
  • Bed before midnight
  • Up before ten every day
  • Only bought one book from a series at a time (couple of lapses, but mostly for deals/sets)
  • Posted to the blog every day
  • Commented on at least one other blog every day
  • Tithed 10% in every month so far
  • Done 6o hours volunteering total
  • Reading/reviewing books from NG/etc (66% ratio; steady progress)

So that’s all pretty good, as long as I keep behaving myself. (Or, alternately, keep getting well paid jobs. Sadly, this is not likely.)

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Review – One-Eyed Jack

Posted August 22, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of One-Eyed Jack by Elizabeth BearOne-Eyed Jack, Elizabeth Bear
Received to review via Netgalley

Originally, when I got this, I intended to read the other books that are loosely in the same series first. I didn’t in the end, and I think that might have impacted my understanding of all the terms and the worldbuilding. It didn’t help that I also don’t know The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or I, Spy fandoms, given that this is very meta-fictional and several of the main characters are essentially based on those works. And then there’s also my lack of knowledge of US history and places; this was the easiest to catch up with, since everyone knows something about Las Vegas, but still.

All the same, it was a lot of fun. Queer all over the place, but not in a way that felt inorganic — actually, I loved Jackie and Stewart, and if you’re telling me we weren’t meant to see wells and wells of subtext between Nikita and Sebastian, I’ll wonder if we read the same book. I loved all the unspoken stuff between them; the way they could communicate with just a look. And despite not catching on very well to the worldbuilding, I did enjoy the setting and the plot. It’s not really a spoiler to tell you that it includes such gems as vampire!Elvis.

Judging from Karen Memory, it’s fairly obvious that this was an earlier work of Bear’s, and her writing isn’t as good. But it’s still plenty of fun.

Rating: 3/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 22, 2015 by Nicky in General / 34 Comments

It’s my birthday! Or, actually, it’s now two days after my birthday. I got some new bookish shirts (“high shelf esteem” being one of them; “I like to party and by party I mean read books” being another! They’re from LookHuman.com like the shirts I reviewed here) and a few new books. Hurrah.

Gifts

Cover of War with the Newts by Karel Capek Cover of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Cover of The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M Valente

Cover of The Girl who Soared Over Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente Cover of Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan Mcguire Cover of R.U.R. by Karel Capek

And there was a library trip, of course.

Library

Cover of Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss Cover of Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews Cover of Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Cover of A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick Cover of Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

I’m a little worried I’m going to blend the plots of the Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels books if I read them at the same time… still, the library in Cardiff doesn’t have them, and the library at my parents’ does, so!

Comics

Cover of Hawkeye: Rio Bravo by Matt Fraction Cover of Silk issue 6

I was supposed to get Hawkeye for Christmas. Seriously! And now I finally have it and… I haven’t read volume three and my copy of volume three is not here. Gaaah.

What’s everyone else been grabbing?

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Review – Palimpsest

Posted August 21, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Palimpsest by Catherynne M. ValentePalimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente
Originally reviewed 2nd May, 2010

This book is beautiful. The language of it is mesmerising and enticing and sometimes cloying, there’s so much of it, it’s so thick with description and invention and ideas. I remember commenting about China Miéville’s work, and how the cities of his work almost seem to be characters themselves — I can see why people compare Palimpsest to his work, although in Palimpsest it’s more true than ever.

Reading this book is like exploring the city in the same limited way as the characters. Sometimes frustratingly: there’s a bit you want to see or understand or get to, but you can’t, not yet. You have to give it time for it to unfold.

I can understand why it has quite a lot of love-or-hate reactions. If you give it time, it’s a beguiling, rewarding book, but if you don’t have the time or the patience or the inclination, it’s impenetrable.

I didn’t really feel like I got to know the characters or the city as well as I would want to. Ordinarily, that would be a major turn-off for me, but there was enough to keep me satisfied, and the writing, the richness of the detail, was enough to compensate for the lack of my usual favourites. If there’s any criticism, it’s that the characters didn’t feel as rich and as real to me as I wanted them to — there were enchanting details about them, but I didn’t get to know them as I would like to.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Art for Mindfulness: Geometrics

Posted August 20, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of Art for Mindfulness: Geometrics by Andy PaciorekArt for Mindfulness: Geometrics, Andy Paciorek

Yep, I’ve jumped onto this trend. Mostly for the mindfulness aspect, because I got a little book of mandalas to colour and found that it really did help with just staying in the moment and not worrying, because I’d be too busy concentrating on keeping inside the lines and deciding which colours to pick next. The designs in Geometrics are pretty good: obviously, they’re all geometric, and some of them are very complex. It’s not full of massive open spaces to colour, but detail instead. Sometimes I find that a little frustrating, in which case I switch to something else in the same book or in one of the others I have.

I’m using markers with it, and while they bleed through to the other side of the same page, they don’t mark the next page. The quality of the paper is good, and fortunately, the only thing on the back of each design is an inspirational quotation — most of which I like, too; they’re not too syrupy. I think this one will last quite a long time.

In the meantime, hey, it’s 20th August! That means it’s my birthday!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Sapiens

Posted August 19, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval HarariSapiens, Yuval Noah Harari

I actually originally encountered this because I wanted to do Harari’s course on the history of humankind on Coursera or one of the other MOOC sites, and I just didn’t have the time. I hoped the book would be a good substitute, picked it up, and was promptly daunted by the size of it. That’s unfair to the book, though: it’s actually immensely readable. It treats time as a progression from physics to chemistry to biology to history, through Agricultural and Cognitive Revolutions through to Industrial ones: the story of the universe is at first told in the terms of physics, and then eventually using human eye witness accounts and evidence. It’s a fairly anthropocentric view, narrowing it down to our perspective on the past, but Harari acknowledges that.

Harari manages to be fairly even handed in discussing capitalism, communism, ideology, religion, and all those difficult topics. While sometimes I thought I could tell what his opinion on each one was, he was generally fair about the appeal even of ideologies which have failed in practice. It’s a weird mix of pessimism and optimism, really, because Harari mentions the declining rates of violence, the increasing rates of health, but also the flat rate of happiness. The fact that, for all that we do, humans don’t seem to be any happier than they were eight to eight hundred years ago.

I enjoyed it, and thought it was a solid and interesting overview of human history, and the potentials for a human future. The readability and clarity of the prose is definitely in its favour.

Rating: 5/5

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