Author: Nicky

Review – A Court of Thorns and Roses

Posted June 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

Cover of Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. MaasA Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas

I originally received this to review, but I bought a copy in the end anyway. I was actually a little bit nervous about doing so, as Throne of Glass didn’t wow me the way it did so many other people, but in fact I liked this even more. The writing style is slightly more mature — as is the romance content, actually, but that doesn’t matter much to me — and it engages with fairytales/folktales I love. There’s a bit of Beauty and the Beast (with some of the now-traditional elements like the library making an appearance in a slightly different way), a bit of Tam Lin, some fae lore in general, and something that’s just for this book. I enjoyed the way it pulled in those elements, made those references, but made its own story.

Every time I thought I’d figured out what I thought about a character, there’d be another aspect revealed: Alis’ forthrightness, Lucien’s slow coming to terms with Feyre’s presence, Rhysand’s character… it was very satisfying to have the characters developing/changing/growing all the way through.

Feyre herself is really cool. She’s capable, strong, but only because she has to be. She taught herself to hunt, to swim, to protect her family. She’s not Celaena 2.0; she has different interests, a whole different focus. I enjoyed that the book was pretty sex-positive and reasonable about that kind of thing: no random fits of horrible jealousy over things which don’t mean that much, no implication that all previous relationships were wrong…

I’m not sure what I hope for with other books. I’d like to see how Elain and Nesta are getting on; I’d like to see how Feyre goes forward from the end of this book; I’d be equally happy following Rhysand or Lucien… I’m looking forward to it, regardless — and that little bit more eager to get onto reading Crown of Midnight, too.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – Blameless

Posted June 9, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Blameless by Gail CarrigerBlameless, Gail Carriger

Hm. I wish Conall had been made to grovel rather more than this, after his reaction in the last book; I especially wish that his horrible comments to Alexia weren’t just stupidity and were actually driven by a real fear of betrayal. That would make me feel less annoyed if he had some foundation for the way he treated her. Gah. Still, this book does allow Genevieve, Floote and Professor Lyall to shine. And get up to hijinks.

The series continues to be absurd, fun, and relatively inconsequential, with some surprisingly sweet moments — Biffy and Lord Akeldama, ach, right in my feels; Vieve’s caring for Alexia — and some things that can’t help but make you laugh. I mean, for example, this bit:

Alexia found herself surrounded and embraced by a room of such unmitigated welcome and personality that it was akin to being yelled at by plum pudding.

Just. What? And yet it makes sense somehow, in the absurd and over the top context of the Parasol Protectorate (words which were finally used in this book).

Conall still needs to grovel.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted June 9, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

This week’s prompt is “Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015”. These ones are always difficult for me, because I don’t always have that clear a view on what’s due out. I’ve been keeping half an eye on it recently, so here’s a bash at it.

  1. Carry On, Rainbow Rowell. I can’t be the only one excited to see how Rowell will tackle a fantasy novel!
  2. Thorn of Emberlain, Scott Lynch. Naturally! I hope this is still due to come out later this year…
  3. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin. Aaaah so excited for this one.
  4. Half a War, Joe Abercrombie. I still need to read Half the World, but I did enjoy the first book!
  5. The Dinosaur Lords, Victor Milán. Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs!
  6. Radiance, Catherynne M. Valente. She writes such beautiful words.
  7. Manners & Mutiny, Gail Carriger. I still need to read the third book, but I waaant this.
  8. Our Lady of the Ice, Cassandra Rose Clarke. I don’t even know much about it, but I’ve enjoyed Clarke’s other books.
  9. Willful Machines, Tim Floreen. Just read about this one and I’m intrigued.
  10. Ash and Bramble, Sarah Prineas. Ditto!

Looking forward to seeing what other people have their eyes on. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten something…

Tags: ,

Divider

Review – The Deadly Sisterhood

Posted June 8, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Deadly Sisterhood by Leonie FriedaThe Deadly Sisterhood, Leonie Frieda

I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while, given how epic Caterina Sforza is in the Assassin’s Creed games. I have read a biography of Caterina herself (Tigress of Forli, by Elizabeth Lev), so I didn’t read this so much for her as for the other women in its pages. I found it a little disorganised, really; it isn’t neatly divided into eight sections, and it’s sometimes hard to see exactly which woman is the key player. And Frieda is claiming to deal with women as key players in Renaissance Italy, and yet Clarice Orsini is exactly what the back blurb says these women are not, a “passive bystander”.

In fact, there’s a whole section that’s primarily about Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Pazzi Conspiracy. Which, shrug. Not what I’m here for, actually.

It’s a readable enough book, but there’s oddly judgemental bits about the women’s weight or appearance, or indeed intelligence if they’re not one of the precious women we’re supposed to view as a sisterhood, and it’s not very well proofread at all. Without looking for it, I found four typos in casual reading. Gah.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – Lirael

Posted June 7, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Cover of Lirael by Garth NixLirael, Garth Nix

As much as I love Sabriel (both the book and the character!), I was reluctant to read this again. Lirael’s role in the library is awesome, but both she and Sameth are rather too prone to self-pity to stand up well beside Sabriel’s example. Which is part of the whole point, that Sameth’s grown up in his parents’ shadows, but still. While Sameth has serious problems to deal with, he’s also selfish, doesn’t think things through properly, and would do a lot better if he’d open his mouth and let words come out. Sabriel and Touchstone might have a firm idea of their duty is, but I’m pretty sure that they would also understand that Sameth’s sickened fear would actually make a very bad Abhorsen.

Communication, communication, communication. My pet peeve in real life and in fiction, alas.

Lirael is more engaging, despite her bouts of self-pity. They’re more understandable, and she has the Disreputable Dog to put a stop to it as well. Her life in the Clayr’s glacier, her work in the library, her abilities with Charter marks and her explorations, all of those things are fascinating. And the Dog herself, too.

It’s difficult, because I do love this world, but Nix seems to have created a uniquely frustrating character/situation, perfectly balanced to annoy the heck out of me. I think I liked Abhorsen better, so I’m hopeful about that and Clariel, but it was disappointing how much of a struggle this was to reread.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – Changeless

Posted June 6, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Changeless by Gail CarrigerChangeless, Gail Carriger

Well!

This series continues to be fun, rather absurd, sometimes witty. The pack dynamics are interesting, etc, and this book features characters I already met in the Finishing School series. It’s a little odd to see them as adults, but I rather like seeing Sidheag again, and especially Vieve. I loved the part she had to play and the way queerness is just a part of this world, sex is not dreadfully horrifying (because as most people know, the Victorians weren’t actually, well, Victorian about it), and the way roles in society change because of the supernatural set is quite interesting. (Also interesting where it does not change, but instead fashions and such of the period are explained by the supernatural set’s presence.)

On the other hand, the end of the book just irritates the living daylights out of me. Everyone is entirely unreasonable, nobody bothers to think oh hey, maybe things are different with a preternatural than a human, and any love or trust between Conall and Alexia is just chucked out the window. I hope to goodness that this doesn’t get smoothed over with some nibbling and bodice ripping; I care enough about the characters to be outraged, so I hope Carriger keeps faith with readers and deals with this plotline in a way that does them justice.

Like Soulless and the Finishing School books, it’s fun and easy to read, and while I’m not wildly in love or unable to do without the thought of these books in my life, they’re enjoyable and a little bit addictive for me. Blameless is within arm’s reach right now, and I might just go with that impulse.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Review – Only Forward

Posted June 5, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

Cover of Only Forward by Michael Marshall SmithOnly Forward, Michael Marshall Smith
Review from April 23rd, 2013

Oh — my — god. When I started reading this book I expected it to keep up the fairly light tone of the early chapters. Then it fucked with my heart bad. Don’t believe reviews saying it makes no sense: it makes perfect sense, in the end, as long as you stop holding onto normal logic and start applying some dream logic. The narrator is unreliable, yeah, and he has attitude, and he knows he’s telling a story, so there are bits that some people find irritating, like the way he keeps saying he’ll tell us more about [whatever] later, if it’s relevant. And I can understand that, but for me it’s all part of who the narrator is.

I love the world built up here. The different neighbourhoods, the cats, the whys and wherefores of The City. I love the writing, because so much of it is painfully on the nose about trauma, about the demons we’re capable of dreaming up. I love all of this more than I love the characters, really: I love it for what it has to say about trauma, about the way we think.

It’s hard to talk about it without any spoilers, really. All I can say is that it comes together in the end, and you understand things in a heartbreaking rush, and it really is good. Weird, yes. But very good.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – Valour & Vanity

Posted June 4, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Valour and Vanity, by Mary Robinette KowalValour & Vanity, Mary Robinette Kowal

These books seem to be just perfect for my brain at the moment. I read this on the train, more or less in one gulp. You’ve got to love that one of the most important threads of the story is the love between Vincent and Jane, and how it gets them through everything, no matter what. And despite how far their acts of derring-do have come from their Austen-esque beginnings in Shades of Milk and Honey, the development is clear. This time, the trouble they get into grows out of everything before (rather than being a whole new problem), which makes it tidier.

Likewise, their personal relationship grows out of everything that’s gone before; Jane’s miscarriage, Vincent’s time in captivity, the effects that had on them. They trust each other more now, and they’re readier to work through problems than despair. (Which is not to say Vincent doesn’t have some black moods in this novel. He does, in a way that very much reflects on the way some men even now feel less when their wives are the ones bringing in the money.)

I think really the blurb on the back gave a little too much away; knowing, for example, that they’re victims of ‘an elaborate heist’, I immediately began to suspect where the heist began and who was involved. But it doesn’t give away the motive, fortunately, nor what Vincent and Jane end up doing to fix the situation.

It’s a lot of fun, as I’d expected, and I enjoyed the inclusion of Lord Byron as well.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – The Mirror Empire

Posted June 3, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of The Mirror Empire by Kameron HurleyThe Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley
Received to review via Netgalley

It took me long enough to get round to this one, I know. Props to Ryan from SpecFic Junkie for poking and prodding me to finally get round to reading Kameron Hurley’s fiction. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it, because I had read the start of both this and God’s War before, and bounced off. That seems to have been a timing/mood thing, because I found a lot to fascinate me this time. Hurley can really do weird, in ways that come to feel more organic than, say, China Miéville’s brand of weird. I can never forget that’s weird. Reading The Mirror Empire, carnivorous plants and mirror worlds and all the other details quickly settled into feeling normal for the reality I inhabited while reading the book. It was never not fascinating, but I learnt the rules, and I didn’t feel like bizarre things were there just to be bizarre. It was part of building a whole world with a coherent mythology.

The contradictions that other reviews I’ve seen have mentioned… well, I didn’t notice them. To me, the whole concept of the mirror worlds came together well. Likewise, the stuff people accuse Hurley of putting in just to be shocking. Like, the ataisa, people who are neither male nor female but somewhere in a grey area. That’s not new in speculative fiction at all, and it’s baffling when people say it is. It isn’t even new in the real world for people to feel that way. What’s shocking and new is apparently just the fact that Hurley includes them, matter of factly, and it doesn’t have to be plot-relevant. I’d love to know more about Taigan and why she is the way she is (I use ‘she’ because that’s how she identifies at the end of the book), particularly the fact that unlike other ataisa, her transformation is physical. But it doesn’t have to be plot relevant: it’s character relevant, it adds another layer to the world. Why not?

There’s also polyamory, queer relationships, female-led societies and relationships. None of that is shocking — or rather, if it is, then you’re living your life with blinkers on.

I did struggle with the rape elements in this story. The degree to which particular characters consent or not, whether we’re meant to see one character in particular as heroic. In the end, I felt that Zezili — for example — was a character with nuance; her relationship with Anahva was unequal, and it didn’t seem to matter whether he gave consent or not, to her. But I didn’t see that as being excused by the story. It was a part of the character, like killing innocents, like opposing the Big Bad of the book. Good and bad in one person, and not always distinguishable.

As for the complaint about a lack of strong male characters… uh, Taigan? Roh? Ahkio? Oh, I see, your problem is that they aren’t all traditionally strong (or male all the time, in Taigan’s case). But it’s nothing like the straight flip that people are making out: the female characters aren’t all one brand of strong, either.

In the end, I enjoyed this a lot. It does feel a little too dark for me at times, but there’s a lot to enjoy too; loads of world-building, interesting characters and relationships, etc. I’m looking forward to the next book, and to going back to God’s War.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , , ,

Divider