Author: Nicky

Review – Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences

Posted August 13, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences, Ursula Le Guin

I imagine most of these stories are collected somewhere else by now, but I was also interested in this book for the introductions to each story, which may not be collected elsewhere. It’s interesting to see what Le Guin feels the stories are about, what she thinks is important to know. For example, with ‘The Wife’s Tale’, she apparently warns audiences that it is not a werewolf story at the beginning. But I thought that mistake was kind of the point? That flip-flop moment of, oh. I got it wrong. I assumed.

I’d read most of the stories before, but the poems were new. Ursula Le Guin always has a beautiful clarity about her writing, capturing mannerisms and small moments, crystallising it… and sometimes her plots feel too clever for me, but most of these are pretty accessible, and the introductions helped.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Ursula Le Guin

Review – The Galaxy Game

Posted August 12, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Galaxy Game, Karen Lord
Received to review via Netgalley

100 pages into this, I ended up giving up, at least for now. I enjoyed The Best of All Possible Worlds, and thought I remembered it quite well, and yet all the interplay of characters and cultures felt confusing here. It features a minor character from The Best of All Possible Worlds as the main character, so you wouldn’t think it, but to be honest I am wondering if it’s best to read this straight after the first, so that all the societal details are at your fingertips. I just felt lost, unable to attach to characters or events, not quite sure why X was leading to Y, missing jumps of logic.

It’s entirely possible it’s also me being stupid, but I do think this lacked the structure and tightness of The Best of All Possible Worlds. The characters didn’t grab me, either; having Grace and her husband just in the background didn’t help, because they’re already strongly formed characters, and Rafi… you don’t know much about him in the first book, and he’s grown up a bit since then.

I might pick this up again if I ever give The Best of All Possible Worlds a reread, but I’m not that eager about it.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Karen Lord, SF/F

Review – Touch

Posted August 11, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Touch, Claire North

Hmm, I think I’ll be pondering on this one for a while now. Like The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, it takes a classic idea — in that case a kind of immortality, in this a body-hopping entity — and explores it almost to destruction. It doesn’t always work 100% for me, here, but it works better for me than Harry August, and the pace is a lot more thrilling. There is something about the narrator that seemed similar, though; I kinda hope I don’t find that same tone when I go back to Mirror Dreams, Claire North’s first book back when she was Catherine Webb. I remember loving the tone of those books, the personality of the narrator; it’d be a little sad to me if that’s more about the author’s style than about the specific character.

Nonetheless, this is fun, and the bit that works the best is the love Kepler has for the bodies he inhabits. The way you come to understand his absolutely genuine love, which at first seems impossible, then perhaps monstrous. It makes you care about him because, okay, going for the pun here — he gets into your skin. And it’d be a little intoxicating to be loved by Kepler, to have him make the best of you and give you a wonderful life because he loves you. That concept is scary and attractive at the same time, and that’s why it works.

It might be a 400 page book, but it didn’t feel like it. The short chapters help (and, don’t worry, are appropriate to the body-jumping nature of the main character — that slightly disjointed sense is perfect).

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Claire North, SF/F

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 11, 2015 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is Top Ten Authors we’ve read the most books from. It’s hard to tell on this one — Goodreads will only show me the authors I own the most books by, but let’s have a wild stab at it…

Jacqueline Carey. I own and have read almost all her books, which makes at least… 13 in total. That’s a good number!
Guy Gavriel Kay. I’ve only got one book by him I haven’t read yet, River of Stars.
Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm. I’ve read books by her under both identities, and there’s at least 13 on my shelves that I know I’ve read, so she’s probably high on the list.
J.R.R. Tolkien. I think I’ve read everything put out by either him or by his son after his death. I’m not sure how much that is, but I’ve read his academic work as well, so we’ll say he counts.
Jo Walton. I’ve read all but her most recent book, so she definitely counts.
Garth Nix. I haven’t even read all his books, but there were the seven Keys to the Kingdom books, the Old Kingdom series, another series… Yep, probably the most read author.
Tad Williams. I’ve read two quartets by this guy, he’s got to qualify.
Brian Michael Bendis. Ultimate Spider-man and some other comics.
Alistair Reynolds. Long due a reread, but yeaaaah, I read most of his books at one point.
Brian Jacques. I used to read the Redwall books exhaustively. I haven’t touched them in a long time, but there were at least a dozen. This one has to count! Tempted to do a nostalgia reread, too.

What about everyone else? This was surprisingly hard to think of…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Who Am I?

Posted August 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 14 Comments

It’s been a while since I did any kind of introduction post, and I have quite a lot more followers now, so I thought I’d introduce myself a little! I cobbled these questions together from interesting stuff I found in other introduction posts and memes. If there’s something you want to know, ask!

Name? Nikki.
Age? 26.
Gender? Irrelevant.
Partnered? Yes. Her name is Lisa. She does read books, I promise.
Family? Parents, sister, brother-by-mutual-agreement, grandmother. They also read books.
Background? Welsh, grew up in England.
Politics? Don’t get me started. (Small l liberal, small g green, disenchanted by all current political parties.)
Religion? Unitarian Universalism. Dad’s an atheist, Mum’s a Christian, I’m a melting pot of Christian-like and Buddhist-like beliefs.
Team? Wales (mostly in the rugby), followed by “anybody but the English”.
University? Yep, twice so far. English Literature BA and MA, and I’m a smartypants who got first class honours in the BA.
Job? A bit of everything, freelance. Mostly transcription, ghostwriting, copy. Also a volunteer for the RNIB and on the committee of a community library.
Hobby? Reading, mostly. Also sometimes running, crocheting, gaming, writing.
Earliest memory? Playing with Lego with my Grampy. He taught me how to overlap the bricks to create a stable Lego house. He liked books too.
Ebook or dead tree? Both.
Favourite book at the age of 5? There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, Hazel Edwards.
Favourite book at the age of 10? The Positronic Man, Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg.
Favourite book at the age of 15? The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Favourite book at the age of 20? The Grey King, Susan Cooper.
Favourite book at the age of 25? The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison.
Favourite book you still have to mention? Among Others, Jo Walton.
You’re going on holiday for a week, how many books do you take? At least five, plus my ereader.
What genres will you read? Fantasy, speculative fiction, mystery, historical, alternate history, space opera, steampunk… The list goes on.
What genre won’t you read? At this point, I’m not sure what’s left that I haven’t tried at least once. Family saga?
Do you read non-fiction? Yes, anything that catches my interest. This sometimes produces weird looks at the bookstore or library.
If you were a book, what genre would you like to be? Fantasy. Portal fantasy, probably; I can’t help it, I’d love to end up in a Fionavar or a Middle-earth. Though preferably not at a time of war and destruction. Oh, oh, can I go visit Maia from The Goblin Emperor? Mind you, my manners would probably appal.
What fantasy creature would you like to be? A book hoarding dragon? I’m Welsh, after all.
What book do you wish you had written? The Lord of the Rings. Oh to be as clever and meticulous in creating a world as J.R.R. Tolkien.
Do you have a favourite poem? ‘Sonnet XCIV‘, Pablo Neruda. “If I die, survive me with such sheer force / that you waken the furies of the pallid and the cold”.
What do people say to you in bookshops? “Awesome shirt.” (Truth.) Or “no, come on, put it back, you have enough books.” (Lies.)
Where are you going? Probably the library.
Do you do anything that is not books? No.

Any questions?

And hey, if you want to steal this and use it as a get-to-know-me-post, you’re welcome to.

Tags: book reviews, books, Elizabeth Bear, SF/F

Review – Persepolis

Posted August 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages; I first picked it up around when I got Fun Home (Alison Bechdel) and Maus (Art Spiegelman), but it takes time to get round to reading an autobiographical graphic novel, for me. It’s a different kind of reading, and for some reason it always takes way more of my attention than ordinary comics or ordinary non-fiction.

I think the first half, depicting Satrapi’s childhood, is actually the best part. The way the art compliments her childhood naivety, the particular view you get of the conflict coming from someone who was a child during it, all of this comes across really well. The latter half of the book is more about growing up in Iran, and less about just being in Iran, to me, and so it was less interesting, because a lot of the issues are shared between cultures. Although, for some people, that might be a revelatory thing to realise, so I’m not criticising the fact that Satrapi wrote about it — it just wasn’t as interesting for me.

I wanted to know more about Marjane’s mother, where she came from, how she formed her beliefs. Her father too, actually. Both of them sounded pretty wonderful, from Satrapi’s point of view, and that’s perhaps unexpected for the Western reader. I wish we’d got to know them a bit more through this, rather than as rather all-knowing, all-tolerating parental figures on a pedestal.

Rating: 4/5

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

Review – The Invisible Library

Posted August 9, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman

I’ve been meaning to get to this one for ages, and then Robert suggested I read it while I was feeling cranky and not like reading anything. I’m torn on the rating; I did enjoy reading it a lot, but I also felt like it was a bit scatterbrained, a bit… well, disorganised. Lawless. Chaotic. Which is part of the point of the story, I know, but I felt it also on a narrative level. Something just didn’t quite gel for me. Still, I thought it was a lot of fun and I’ll pick up future books. It’s just that this felt very much like a first book; it reminds me a little of Gail Carriger, in that it hits some of the same highpoints but doesn’t delve into the absurdity that turns me off in the Parasol Protectorate books.

And hey, this is a book about a secret organisation that collect books from alternate worlds and keep them in a timeless dimension where they’re safe. Of course I like that aspect. Even if the mechanical centipedes and armoured alligators gave me some pause, I can quite get behind a whole society dedicated to saving books, and of course books are ties to other worlds. I liked the background with Alberich; liked the slight mystery about Kai and where exactly he’s from, what he is; liked the weird mix of mythology that gives us mechanical centipedes and vampires in the same world. And I especially liked that Vale was an archetype of a great detective, that that appealed to Irene, that part of the background was that chaotic worlds like Vale’s cause people to begin to fall in with the story, and Irene does.

I also like that she’s a capable but not infallible person; skilled enough to use the Language (also a great concept), to think outside the box, but enough of a person to have conflicts with other people, to be not the best at what she does and able to admit that. Some of her interpersonal relationships were a bit too much: her tolerance for Kai, her easy decision not to push him for information; her decision at the end to ask Bradamant not to waste energy hating her. It didn’t ring true there.

Still, pretty fun. Honestly, though? I’d have liked to spend more time exploring the Library itself.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Hollow Crown

Posted August 8, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

The Hollow Crown, Dan Jones
Received to review via Netgalley

Raised in Yorkshire, I always feel like I should know more about the Wars of the Roses. I’m sure there were attempts to teach me, and I’ve even read Shakespeare’s history plays — and enjoyed them — and yet the information just doesn’t stick. Unfortunately for this book, it was much the same again. I can keep the basics in mind, even some anecdotes (especially if they were also referred to by Will), but the whole tangle of the family trees, the politics, the exact relation of this family to that… It just won’t stay clear in my head.

So I had the unfortunate experience with this book of reading it and taking time over it and nothing going in. And it’s not the author’s fault: the writing is clear, footnoted meticulously, follows a logical order, etc. It seems to be a perfectly fine book if you’re interested in the Wars of the Roses, and I even sort of enjoyed reading it. But alas, a casualty of my utter disinterest in most of the key players.

(An exception is Richard III. I don’t know why, but I’ve been able to assimilate more information about him that others. Which I suppose makes sense, since I grew up in Yorkshire, except that if you’d asked me the names of kings on either side before a few years ago, I’d have been blank.)

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 8, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 16 Comments

It’s been a bit of a spree week for me again, I’m afraid. I’m going to blame the heady feeling of getting paid for freelance work several times this week!

Bought

So excited to fiiiiinally have my hands on The Fifth Season. The Rights of the Reader was pretty interesting; I’ve been meaning to read it for a while. The Scott Lynch books were just because I didn’t have a physical copy of any of them, though I am intending a reread! The Lackey book is for a challenge to read a book published in the year I was born… The Kitty Norville books came as a bundle from The Works, always worth checking there for good deals like that.

Comics

Rat Queens… well, I wasn’t sure about the first volume, but I have been encouraged to try the second, so. I’ll try. The Wicked + The Divine was gorgeous in the first volume, so is probably just as stunning. And this issue of Ms Marvel is the one we’ve been waiting for, really: the team-up between Captain and Ms Marvel.

Library

A somewhat random grab bag of library stuff, really. I blame The Stainless Steel Rat on Ryan from SpecFic Junkie, of course, and Soul Music on Cardiff’s SF/F bookclub — I figured I’d read it even though I won’t make it to the meeting.

What’s everyone else been getting their hands on? Anything particularly exciting?

Tags: books, comics, N.K. Jemisin, Scott Lynch, Stacking the Shelves, Terry Pratchett

Review – The Wandering Fire

Posted August 7, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Wandering Fire, Guy Gavriel Kay
Put together from reviews written in 2010 and 2012

By this point in reading the trilogy, you’ve probably decided whether you can bear with Guy Gavriel Kay’s style or not — whether you can be invested in his characters or not. If the answer is yes, then carry on: he won’t disappoint you. If not, then… I don’t think he will get your attention at all.

The second book of the Fionavar Tapestry feels by far the shortest, to me. That isn’t to say not much happens — a lot does happen, so much that it makes my head spin a little but it mostly seems to happen at the end: for the characters and for the plot, this is a time of waiting, of things coming together. If you’re invested in the characters, though, there’s plenty to worry about: Kim’s dilemmas, whether she has a right to do what she’s doing; Paul’s separation from humanity; and Kevin’s initial helplessness, and then his journey to the Goddess… And there’s Arthur, of course, and the Wild Hunt, and Darien…

The Wandering Fire really introduces the Arthurian thread, which is the newest thing. It’s been hinted at and set up already in The Summer Tree, but it’s in The Wandering Fire that that’s finally articulated. I’m interested as to how much Guy Gavriel Kay has drawn on existing Arthurian legend and how much he has built himself. I haven’t read anything about Arthur being punished over and over again — he’s generally portrayed as fairly virtuous — and I’ve never read anything about Lancelot raising the dead. I do like the way the legend is constructed here — differences to the usual main themes and stories, but using them and showing that the stories we have are supposed to be reflections and echoes of this ‘reality’.

I love the fact that the gods aren’t supposed to act and there are penalties for this… and actually more of the lore about the gods in this world, like Dana working in threes and her gifts being two-edged swords.

The death in this book makes me cry… not the actual death, at least not until the very last line of that section, but the reactions, and particularly Paul’s. This isn’t really surprising, but it highlights once again how much these books make me care.

It’s amazing to me how much I can love almost every word of this book and yet find a small scene was horribly jarring — it’s the same in The Summer Tree, just one scene sticks in my throat and won’t go down. It’s the scene with Kim and Loren, at Maidaladan. It just doesn’t make sense. There’s no build to it. I always thought she should go to Aileron instead… now there’s a build-up that makes at least some sense.

Nonetheless, wow. This book breaks me more every time.

Rating: 5/5

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