Author: Nicky

Review – Tigana

Posted December 25, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

This week’s Flashback Friday is a bit of a special one, because it turns out I’ve written a full review for Tigana every time I’ve read it, from my first encounter with it. All of these are here, dated, in chronological order. I hope you find it as interesting as I did!

August 2008.

The very last paragraph makes me want to kill Guy Gavriel Kay. The impact was somewhat spoilt by my mum spoilering me beforehand, but… on the other hand, knowing it was coming hurt more, too.

One thing I definitely have to say is that Guy Gavriel Kay’s romance was much better in this book. I never really saw Catriana and Alessan coming, but at the same time, it was understandable and it didn’t make me come over all “…no” like Paul and Jaelle in Fionavar did. Dianora and Brandin were delightfully star-crossed. I loved the little references to Fionavar, too. The characters I got to love very, very much. Maybe not quite as much as I grew to love the characters in Fionavar. He wasn’t quite as ruthless with his characters in Tigana, though, so I didn’t test my love of the characters in tears!

Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favourite authors right now. Really. I don’t see that changing any time soon, either.

Rating: 5/5

August 2009.

This is still such a beautiful, beautiful book. This is my first reread, but I can tell you already that it won’t be my last. The writing is gorgeous, and the imagery and the politics and the characters are all amazing. The careful laying of the plot, with the different subplots that weave in, like the Carlozzini and Dianora’s own plans, is amazing. There are so many points in the book where I found tears coming to my eyes that I don’t even know how many times it happened. It’s an amazing, amazing book.

One of the things I noticed most this time round is the backstory, the creation of a mythology that hangs around the edges of the story — provides sanctuary, or is important to one subplot or another, without taking centre stage. Backstory that both enriches the world, the worldbuilding, and serves a purpose, without being pointless or entirely utilitarian.

I also noticed the moral ambiguity that he builds up. Especially in the figure of Brandin, of course, who has done such cruel, terrible things, but has reasons and a kind of nobility of his own and can actually be liked, in some ways. But not just him. Alessan himself isn’t amazing either — although one difference between him and the tyrants is, of course, that though he does use his special power to bind someone to his cause, he does release them to their own free will and does feel a lot of remorse.

The last line of all means that Guy Gavriel Kay probably deserves to go and live in his own special circle of hell. It’s an amazing, beautiful ending, and it’s so, so cruel.

Rating: 5/5

February 2013.

I found Tigana annoying me so much this time around. Kay’s overly ornate way of writing, the way he makes even the simplest of events sound So Deeply Important by the formal way he’s writing… But it all came together for me again when I sat down and just read. I fell in awkward, torn love with Alessan, with Brandin, with Catriana, with Dianora, with Baerd. I loved the way people came together, willingly and unwillingly, against the other halves of their hearts. I love how people became whole again, or didn’t, and found healing and/or revenge, or…

It’s a complex plot, full of complex people, and I love it so much. I’m rereading all of GGK’s work in chronological order, to watch his development as a novelist (and for the sheer love of his work, of course), and up to now this has always been my favourite. Right now, I’m not sure where it ranks exactly — but oh, I do love it.

Reading Kay’s afterword and seeing what his influences were is also pretty fascinating. It doesn’t surprise me, in retrospect, that Brian Friel’s Translations influenced him, even though it seems like a leap from a literary play about language to a fantasy novel that is, on the surface, about the fight against tyranny (but then, those two don’t seem so very far apart if you think in Colonial terms).

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, Guy Gavriel Kay, SF/F

Review – Shadow Memories

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

Shadow Memories, Nicholas Erik
Received to review via Netgalley

Shadow Memories isn’t a chore to read, because it has very short chapters and constant action. Unfortunately, it has very short chapters and constant action… so it’s hard to connect to the characters, and the plot comes across as very confused. Some major stuff is just skimmed right past, while an undue amount of time is spent on a guy who thinks his wife is cheating on him.

It takes too long to get to the conspiracy/alien stuff — at least in any detail — and the main POV character is just infuriating in his complaints about sleeping on the couch like his partner owes him sex just because he exists and hasn’t actively done anything annoying that day.

So, not for me. It’s pacey enough though. Some people might enjoy it.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: book reviews, books, mystery, SF/F

Review – Unborn

Posted December 23, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Unborn, Amber Lynn Natusch
Received to review via Netgalley

Oh, dear. The best I can say about Unborn is that it’s really easy to read. The style, though, just drove me instantly to distraction. There’s something so lifeless about the narration, and the main character is just so completely detached — and it uses so much prior mythology, like Hades and Demeter and Ares, and then so much other stuff like Empties and Fallen and… it just felt like such a mash-up.

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t read very much of this. I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it, and the guy going on and on about wanting to sleep with his sister (and/or other people saying he did) was just weird.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense

Posted December 22, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

13 Things That Don’t Make Sense, Michael Brooks

Some of these things are sort of covered in Brooks’ other book, At the Edge of Uncertainty, while others weren’t. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff about extraterrestrial intelligence and the experiments looking for microbial life on Mars, for instance. As with the other book, Brooks gives clear explanations. In fact, reading both books illuminated more about the topics that were in both. Each topic leads to the next in a very logical way, too.

The topic selections are all interesting: life on Mars, the ‘wow’ signal, discrepancies about universal constants… It may not all be of interest to every reader, but it’s a good selection of scientific mysteries and frontiers. It explores them quite well, without going into too much detail.

Very much a pop science book, suitable for readers of New Scientist and similar publications. Which isn’t surprising, since he was an editor for that magazine!

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 22, 2015 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme is books I’d like to find under my Christmas tree. Well, I know what Santa is bringing me via my sister and my dad, so I’ll just pick stuff from my Amazon wishlist I’d like to get sometime soon!

If you’d like to help with that, well hey, my Amazon wishlist is here! (I can dream, right?)

Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’ve been curious about this one since I saw Tchaikovsky at a con.
Scarlet, A.C. Gaughen. I figure it’s about time I tried it.
Illuminae, Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman. I’ve been hearing so much about it.
Planetfall, Emma Newman. The anxiety stuff might be a bit much for me, but I am interested in it.
Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews. A spinoff series with Andrea? OKAY.
A Crown for Cold Silver, Alex Marshall. I kept meaning to pick this up, but haven’t yet.
Darkwalker, E.L. Tettensor. I’ve had this on my wishlist for aaaages.
Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Carooool.
Silk: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon, Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee. About time I read this…
Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. I was curious about this before I started reading the Grisha books, and now I’m sure I want it.

I’m pretty sure I won’t find these under my tree, but hey, I can dream, right?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – The Gate to Women’s Country

Posted December 21, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Gate to Women’s Country, Sheri S. Tepper

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one too much, honestly. I hadn’t heard 100% good things about Tepper’s work before, and some of the great feminist works of SF have been lost on me. (The Female Man, for example — The Gate to Women’s Country is from the same decade, so I wasn’t very hopeful.) And there were some cringe-worthy moments, to be honest; the whole bit about “gay syndrome” being cured now, for example.

Still, for the most part I really enjoyed this. It reminded me a little bit of Jo Walton’s The Just City, because it’s another attempt at building a perfect city and there’s a similar focus on the importance of art and learning. There’s a certain amount of Greco-Roman influence based on the play included in the text, Iphigenia at Ilium, too, and a rather Spartan set-up for the boys.

The relationships between the characters are interestingly done; the awkwardness of the relationship between Stavia and Chernon, particularly — his desire for real connection alongside his manipulative behaviour — but also family relationships, like those between Morgot and Myra, Myra and Stavia. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here: the ethical dilemmas about what the women do in the cause of ending violence, the unique empathy-related abilities which come out of it. In fact, the whole way the city is organised and ruled, the way violence is channelled and rebellion bled off. There’s some really brutal, horrible stuff here in the name of creating a better world. Tepper doesn’t shy away from showing us that, although sometimes I think she’s lacking in sympathy for the characters, judging them rather harshly and ascribing to a darker view of human nature than I’d like to accept.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Dark is Rising

Posted December 20, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

Slightly ahead of the ideal time to read this book — which would be veeery slowly, a chapter or two at a time, over the Twelve Days of Christmas. I never have the patience for that! As usual, I loved The Dark is Rising; the quiet moments of enchantment, the beautiful writing, the warmth of the family relationships and the reality of the bickering, protective group of siblings. There’s more adult, complicated stuff as well as simple squabbling among siblings: the whole relationship between Merriman and Hawkin is a difficult one, and foreshadows what John Rowlands says about the Light in a later book. The morality of the Light is a cold, clear justice.

One thing I noticed a lot this time, though, was how Britain-centric the sequence is. Every so often it’ll make a reference to other parts of the world — the Jamaican carnival head, the darker skinned Old Ones, etc — but it talks about the battle for “this land”. As though the struggle between Light and Dark throughout history is focused on Britain. I’m not sure that’s an attitude that can really fly anymore, however simple and obvious it may have seemed when the books were originally written. I love how rooted the books are in Britain, the landscape and the people and the different histories that intertwine, the Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic, the Roman. But the focus on Britain as the whole centre of the fight against the Dark seems short-sighted.

Still, that is the other thing to love: the glimpses of mythology surrounding the books. Not just the Arthurian mythology, but the mysterious king whose dead hands held the Sign of Water for Will; the lore of the smiths; the Old Ways; Herne the hunter… I wish I could read beyond the pages into all that richness.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, Susan Cooper

Review – Wolfhound Century

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

Wolfhound Century, Peter Higgins
Received to review via Netgalley

There’s something compelling about Wolfhound Century; when people talk about the beautiful style and language, they’re quite right. And the comparisons to Miéville are also, I think, fair. My issue was that it was all weirdly half-familiar — sort of Russian, sort of a mystery, sort of a thriller — and I couldn’t catch hold of any of it to really follow a thread through the story. Lom is okay as a character, but he feels empty, like a cipher. That doesn’t really get any better for me over the course of the book, and… generally everything else gave me that same impression.

For me, there were so many bits I wanted more of — the forest creature/s — and bits I just didn’t enjoy, like pretty much anything relating to the angels, because they seemed so devoid of explanation.

In the end, I have to confess I gave up and skimmed. Miéville has to catch me in the right mood, too, so I might be willing to try again some other time. But I really didn’t get into it, despite wanting to and finding the writing itself compelling.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 19, 2015 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

Just one library trip this week — partly because I have a book I really should return soon that I need to finish. So not many books picked up!

Since you probably know me at least a little, you know that I’ve started Beauty already, because I can never wait and just read books I already have… At least it finishes off that trilogy!?

Oh, and I did get one review copy this week, via Edelweiss. Exciting!

What’s everyone else been getting, reading, or coveting? Reading-wise, I’m partway through Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and The Cutting Room edited by Ellen Datlow, among others. I’m not sure a book of horror stories based around movies is really my thing, but at the same time I’m kind of mesmerised.

Also, yay! It seems I have reached my goal of getting 80% feedback submitted on Netgalley. Finally.

Tags: books, Cherie Priest, Sarah Pinborough, Stacking the Shelves

Review – True Grit

Posted December 18, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

True Grit, Charles Portis
Originally reviewed 15th February, 2011

Ended up going to see the new film version of this by my housemate last night (yes, on Valentine’s Day — she’s single and I’m in a long distance relationship). We weren’t planning to see this, but everything else we were interested in was sold out, bah, and I knew my brother loved the story. It turned out to be quite enjoyable and now I’ve read the book, I can see that it was quite a close adaptation of it, which is nice — mostly, the book just has more descriptions, although there are a few more characters in the book, and events are changed slightly for dramatic effect in the movie.

It’s the story of a fourteen year old girl, Mattie Ross, heading out into Indian Territory to pursue the killer of her father, in the company of a US Marshall and a Texas Ranger, who do their best to leave her behind. She’s smart and brave and resourceful, and quite capable of looking after herself, to their surprise. The book is narrated by her, and her no-nonsense attitude and her judgemental tendencies are quite revealing of her character. I found it a quick read, despite a couple of points where she tended to ramble, and despite Westerns not really being my genre.

I’m not wild with enthusiasm over it, but it did raise a smile and even a giggle or two, and was an enjoyable enough way to spend a rainy evening (just like the film).

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday