Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 15, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

Saturday again already? Ugh. For some reason, it’s been a slow week for me, reading-wise. I’ve got behind on all my goals again, alas. But I did have work, and that means money, and that means being able to pay for books! And, you know, contribute to my wife’s rent, etc, etc. But still, I do hope I can read more next week.

Still, it was not a bad week in terms of my haul!

Books to review:

All of these are exciting — I need to read Lady of Magick so I can jump right into A Season of Spells. And I never finished James A. Moore’s previous trilogy, because I got distracted, but I remember the worldbuilding as being a lot of fun. So I’m looking forward to that. And Dreadnought just sounds awesome.

Books read this week:

Like I said, pretty disappointing week for reading! But here’s hoping next week will be better — and at least these books were all good.

Reviews posted this week:
–Owain Glyndŵr: The Story of the Last Prince of Wales, by Terry Breverton. Unfortunately rather dry, just a recitation of facts. Which is kind of sad. 2/5 stars
–Saga Volume Five, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. For me, this volume isn’t quite as awesome as the others, because Alana and Marko aren’t kicking ass together. But it’s still pretty darn awesome. 4/5 stars
–The Ides of March, by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Totally disappointing, which sucks. So much exposition, so much telling. 1/5 stars
–Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy L. Sayers. BBC audio version. Because this is a murder mystery written to a train timetable, it’s less fun on the second, third and fourth reading. But with the excellent voice cast, it’s still a good accompaniment to some crochet. 3/5 stars
–The Surgeon of Crowthorne, by Simon Winchester. Sometimes this isn’t sure whether it’s a biography of a man or a dictionary, but all the same, it’s pretty sympathetic to the people it discusses. 3/5 stars
–Death Claims, by Joseph Hansen. The series continues to be a great reread, and once again I’m caught up in the subplot of the relationship between Doug and Dave. Not to be missed if you’re a fan of classic crime fiction. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Decameron, by Giovanni Bocaccio. An old review of a classic which, in my opinion, you shouldn’t miss if you’re interested in other writers like Chaucer and Shakespeare — and it’s entertaining on its own account too. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–The Women Women Don’t See. A commentary on Kristine Katherine Rusch’s comments in the introduction to an anthology of work by “forgotten” female writers of sci-fi’s past. (With the unfortunate fact that most of them are not forgotten at all, like Le Guin and Cherryh.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Recommendations. Books I’ve been recommended that were definitely hits.
–What are you reading… Thursday? A slightly belated update on what I’ve been reading this week.

How’s your week been? Picked up anything interesting?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

What are you reading… Thursday?

Posted October 13, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Oops. That’s all I have to say. I blame the fact that I had a tutorial last night!

What have you recently finished reading?
The last things I finished were The Two Towers and Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. The former, well, it’s interesting how my ability to visualise Tolkien’s world ends with Frodo and Sam entering Mordor. For, of course, I haven’t gone to Mordor in LOTRO. Nothing changes about Tolkien’s writing, or even his ability to evoke atmosphere and mood for me… but the visual aspect is just gone.

As for Rare Earth, it’s very informative (although somewhat out of date now), but honestly, finishing it still hasn’t convinced me one way or another about the likelihood of intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. We just don’t know enough.

What are you currently reading?
Probably too many things that I’m not even thinking of right now, but I most recently picked up Dark Run, by Mike Brooks. It’s very, very Firefly-ish, except more diverse, so there’s a Mexican captain, Chinese and Maori crew members, etc. It’s fun, though I haven’t read that much of it yet.

What are you planning to read next?
Other than The Return of the King, I think I’ll get on with Deadline and Blackout, by Mira Grant. That way I can finish one of the series I’ve had floating around unfinished, heh. ARC-wise, I need to read Winter Tide, by Ruthanna Emrys. And for my next comic, I think it’ll be Dan Slott’s She-Hulk. For some reason, I’m in the mood for that right now.

Tags: books, reading memes

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 11, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about recommendations — to be more precise, books you’ve read because of recommendations. Here goes!

The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay. I am no longer in touch with the person who sent me this, which is saddening because I love this series and everything I’ve read by Kay, and the same person also fostered my love of Ursula Le Guin and introduced me to the tv series Firefly. Friendship aside, it’s a loss in terms of not getting awesome book recommendations alone.
Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire. This has been recommended to me by a lot of people, but I think my friend Tria was the first. I know she definitely loves McGuire’s work and has read some of the books several times!
Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. My mother gave me this one, and I think I’ve posted on numerous occasions about its importance to me.
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. I think the first time I saw this recommended was by my friend Rachel; it is now one of my favourite books in the world, in case you hadn’t figured that out yet.
Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. I actually don’t know who bought this for me; they never admitted to it. But it arrived in the post one day and I proceeded to devour everything by Carey. Feel free to reveal yourself, anonymous benefactor.
Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. First recommended by a friend I met while I was at university, Marc. I’m rereading the series now and it’s better than I remembered — and I’m about to get to the one that really pulls the heartstrings.
The Vintner’s Luck, by Elizabeth Knox. Recommended by my second-year flatmate, this is just a gorgeous book.
Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. A long-time favourite, this was recommended by my friend Sev. And I need to reread it soon. And oh look, my wife has a copy right there.
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. I feel like this counts because I read it via a book club. I almost don’t dare revisit it, because it tore my heart into bits.
Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner. Way back when I was on Livejournal I was recommended this one. I still reread it occasionally, and I really should get round to reading Tremontaine…

And, you know, I’m always looking for more recommendations…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

The Women Women Don’t See

Posted October 10, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has apparently brought out a new SF/F anthology of women writers, focusing on older and classic SF, called Women of Futures Past. Apart from the idea that Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis count as past writers, this is pretty laudable: most people in science fiction fandom are aware of the pushback against female writers which resulted in anthologies like Women Destroy Science Fiction. Witness Christie Yant’s editorial for that book:

The summer of 2013 was a rough one for women in science fiction. Every few weeks there was a new reminder that to a certain subset of the field, we’re not welcome here. There were multiple articles returning to the tired accusation that women (still) aren’t writing “real” SF; disputes about the way the field is represented by vintage cheesecake art on the cover of a professional trade publication; the glib admonition that if we are to succeed, we should be more like Barbie, in her “quiet dignity.”

Gah. But reading the introduction of Rusch’s anthology, written by Rusch herself, there’s a rather odd assertion. Ready?

The idea that women are discriminated against in science fiction is ludicrous to me.

There’s a special sense of cognitive dissonance arising from the fact that the very same introduction goes on to give example after example of discrimination, minimisation and ignorance. As discussed in this thread starting with Rachel Swirsky’s tweet, it seems in a way that there’s a sense of grievance about modern women in SF/F fandom not knowing about the women who came before them. Never mind “The Women Men Don’t See” or the “Women Fen Don’t See”; the complaint seems to be about the women women do not see.

I think it probably is true that women in SF/F fandom today don’t know about all the women who came before them, and those women deserve to be celebrated — though there’s not a single name in the TOC of Rusch’s book I don’t recognise. Her introduction does add somewhat to that, speaking about female editors, which is great.

But if there’s an issue that women now aren’t aware of women who wrote before them, it’s not that they’re not interested, it’s not that they’re not looking for it — and it’s not that the writers Rusch is including have actually been forgotten, because they were definitely the safe picks. Ursula Le Guin, really? She’s amazing, but hardly invisible.

Talking about the struggle for female writers to be taken seriously in SF/F fandom now is not to say that there weren’t women before now, and I think plenty of the current crop of female writers and editors would agree that a light needs to be shone on the invisible female writers who came before. I’m not convinced Rusch’s book is doing it, and I’m not convinced by her assertion that she has seen little discrimination in science fiction fandom. It seems to me that it’s a bit like the Dark Ages: things happened (women wrote books), but we don’t know what they were (who they were), because the records are sparse. And that definitely is due to discrimination, like it or not.

We can but work on it. Personally, I’d love to check out some of these forgotten award winners Rusch mentions — any recommendations on where and how to start for a broke, freelance keyboard monkey?

Tags: books, discussion

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 8, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

How is it Saturday again already? It’s been a busy week for me, with work and travelling and my classes starting. How is everyone?

Books acquired:

Wow. Thanks, Tor.com, for all the review copies! The only thing I bought this week is Crooked Kingdom. I haven’t read Six of Crows yet, but I did enjoy the Grisha series…

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Heresy, by S.J. Parris. The setting works well, though I didn’t really enjoy the portrayal of Giordano Bruno — it was hard to sympathise with him, considering he was pretty much betraying people who showed him trust. I’m not continuing with the series. 3/5 stars
–Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, by Kelly Sue DeConnick. Oh, dear. I love DeConnick’s Captain Marvel, but this volume is just so pointless that it takes away from that. 1/5 stars
–Predator’s Gold, by Philip Reeve. This continues the theme of the first book of being surprisingly complex in terms of character motivations. I enjoyed it as well, but I wish the female characters had been a bit less reprehensible in their behaviour. 3/5 stars
–Strong Poison, by Dorothy L. Sayers. BBC Radioplay Version. I love it, of course. Ian Carmichael is just the perfect Peter. 5/5 stars
–We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart. I’m not quite down with the hype, but I did enjoy reading it — “and if anyone asks you how it ends, lie.” 3/5 stars
–Fadeout, by Joseph Hansen. Embarking upon a reread of these books, I fell in love with the characters and the prose all over again. If you’re lacking a gay detective in your hardboiled detective fiction, Dave Brandstetter might fix you up. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, by John Steinbeck. One of the few Arthurian stories that have ever made me feel Lancelot and Guinevere’s love in my gut. The retelling gets off to a shaky start but there’s so much beauty in it. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–Author opinions. Aka, do they get to have them? Answer: obviously yes, now stop telling them to stfu about politics, especially if you’re following them on Twitter.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Villains. I went for a list about the things I need in a good villain. Uh. If that’s not an oxymoron.
–What are you reading Wednesday? An update on what I’m reading this week!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 5, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Wait, it’s Wednesday again already? Ack!

What have you recently finished reading?
I finished my reread of The Fellowship of the Ring! I’ve already written a long and rambling review, but suffice it to say, trekking across Middle-earth in Lord of the Rings Online has really enhanced my appreciation of the books and the work Tolkien put in. This time, I could see everything so much more clearly. It’s not Tolkien’s fault I couldn’t before; that’s all down to my lack of visual imagination. But with LOTRO to base it on, wow, suddenly there’s a whole new layer of complexity.

I’ve also been reading Ultimate X-Men, the first four volumes, and I’m… not greatly impressed. I guess the Avengers are more my team?

What are you currently reading?
I’m technically still reading Blood Pact, which I was reading last week. I haven’t really got any further with it, to be perfectly honest. I generally enjoy Tanya Huff’s work, but this series just doesn’t seem to work for me. It’s a shame, because Vicky Nelson in herself is an awesome character, but something about the rivalry between Celluci and Henry just makes my eyes roll.

I’m also reading Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. I have the same problem with it I always do with books about life in the universe: we have a sample size of one. They have compelling arguments, and yet even when you expand it to what we know about the potential for life just in our solar system, that’s still only a sample size of one. We only have intimate detail on one way a solar system is formed. Even then, there’s plenty we don’t know. So I’m enjoying the science, but still unconvinced by the premise.

I’m still reading Emma, via Serial Reader. That’s okay, but I’m glad I’m reading it in small chunks. I keep getting terribly embarrassed for Emma when she misinterprets things and thinks herself so… superior. I know how it ends, but I can’t quite see what the gentleman in question sees in her given his general practicality.

What are you planning to read next?
The Two Towers, definitely. I’m not going to let this reread be derailed! But tomorrow I’m travelling all day, and I think I might beguile the time with some of Tor.com’s upcoming novellas: I’ve been approved for Winter Tide (Ruthanna Emrys), A Taste of Honey (Kai Ashante Wilson), Everything Belongs to the Future (Laurie Penny), The Lost Child of Lychford (Paul Cornell) and Hammers on Bone (Cassandra Khaw).

Tags: books, reading memes

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 4, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week’s theme is villains! Instead of picking out favourite specific villains, I’m going for lists of things that make good villains (you know what I mean)! Or, if not good villains, then villains that I find interesting.

They don’t just hate everyone. There are people and causes they care about; there are reasons for why they do what they do. Especially good is if they have people that care about them, who might not deserve the pain of losing them. Tasty conflict for all!
They’re not just mentally ill. Half of the time it’s just a lazy way out anyway, and it’s also an excuse to stereotype mental illness, etc.
They have a sense of humour. I’m sorry, I’m a sucker for a snarky bad guy.
They have a cause, and it may even be a good one. Bring on the moral complexity! Someone going about something that’s worth doing, but doing it in the wrong way? Yeaaah, works for me.
You can understand them. If they have a stupid grudge from a minor accident they had as a child, you can’t sympathise with that. The most powerful villains — to my mind, anyway — are the ones you can understand.
You can’t understand them at all. On the flipside, a completely enigmatic villain can be amazing too. Especially in something with horror elements. It makes things more unpredictable.
They have a sense of honour. They won’t strike a man while he’s down, etc. This goes hand in hand with a lot of the other stuff; they’re on the wrong side of the conflict, but you can’t help but wish they weren’t.
They are redeemable. If they’re not, then you don’t have to worry if they’ll do the awful thing — you know they can and will. But if there’s hope of redemption, you can hope they won’t do the awful thing.
They don’t reveal their own plans. I mean, really. If it needs saying…
They do not have an evil laugh. That’d be a dead giveaway, right?

Okay, so tongue in cheek for some of those. I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone’s reccing some good villains!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Author opinions

Posted October 3, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This discussion post was somewhat inspired by Chuck Wendig’s rant about the idea that writers and creative types should keep their political opinions to themselves. It’s Chuck Wendig, so, uh, expect profanity. I know that from the reader side of things, people often don’t want to know what the opinions of authors they like are — who wants to think about the fact that the man who wrote Ender’s Game is a homophobic, racist asshat?

But the thing is, we can’t have it both ways. We can’t interact with authors on twitter, get excited about them interacting with us and RTing silly pictures of cats, and then get annoyed because they’ve expressed an opinion on Brexit or the US elections. If we want them to be humans we can interact with, then we’ve gotta accept that they have opinions too — and also, of course, that they will make mistakes, say the wrong thing, and otherwise be flawed humans like the rest of us. We’ve got to accept that they live in the same world as us, and that by giving them an audience we’re also giving them a voice. It’s not a voice we have to listen to, but it is a voice they can use, if they so choose.

As for where I stand on whether I’ll read books by people I disagree with, it’s complex. I don’t want Orson Scott Card to profit by me, for example. But I do accept that authors are going to make mistakes and say things I find less than palatable — I’m thinking, for example, of Elizabeth Bear’s involvement in the fandom discussions called Racefail ’09, or Robin Hobb’s rant about the medicating of mental illnesses. In the end, for me, it’s a matter of degree, and also heavily ruled by gut feeling, and tempered by whether the person seems to have learned from or changed since a given meltdown or argument or horribly expressed opinion. I’ve bought Bear’s books, and I will probably buy more of Hobb’s in future (though goodness knows I’m behind on reading her series). I can’t foresee myself buying Card’s books, though. And I’m on the fence about Benjanun Sriduangkaew.

This is getting away from the point, and I’ve covered it before in my post about Liking Problematic Things. The thing is, I would never contest that people have the right to decide that someone’s politics preclude supporting them financially (by buying their books or tie-in merchandise, or whatever). Likewise, I wouldn’t contest that you have the right to say you like something anyway, and you’re not going to make your escapism a political act by buying or not buying particular books based on the authors’ views. Or any part of the spectrum between those two.

The thing now is that people are saying authors shouldn’t express their opinions. They’re interested only in their art and they don’t want to know what they think of feminism or gay marriage. Well, okay, that’s totally fine — so just read their work, and don’t follow them on social media. If someone turns out to be unpleasant as a person on social media, unfollow them and keep reading their books, or never pick up another again, it’s up to you. (Me? I don’t follow Nnedi Okorafor or Ekaterina Sedia anymore, for various reasons; I still read their books.)

But it’s surely not revolutionary to point out that authors are people, who have to live in the same world as us. If they have any influence, any platform, it’s what we give them by being interested in their lives outside the pages of their books. Of course they’re going to use that to get across their opinions — and it’s our responsibility to opt out if we’re not interested.

Tags: books, discussion

ShelfLove October Update

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

ShelfLove Update!

The goals where I’m ahead are in blue; bang on are in green; behind by up to five books are in orange; anything else is in red. I now have a running total to show where I should be for the month too (e.g. by June I needed to read 182 books overall).

Targets:
- 250 or fewer books bought;
- 366 books read overall;
- 200 books read which I owned prior to 2016;
- no more than 10% of income on books per month.
Books bought this year so far: 171/180.
September books bought: 16/20.
September budget: £26/£30.
Owned books read this month: 18/16.
Books read this month: 34/30.
Owned books read overall: 145/150 (5 books behind).
Books read overall: 269/274 (5 books behind).

So as you can see, it’s been a really productive month: for September, I was ahead on all my goals, and I caught up with the deficit from previous months. Let’s hope I can keep that up as I plunge into the second year of my BSc, taking double the amount of credits I was before…

This month’s theme for the challenge is to talk about books and bookish gifts I’m hoping for in my Christmas pile. Well, Genevieve Cogman’s The Burning Page is due on the 15th December, so I’ll probably ask for that, and Dennis Hopeless’ Spider-Women has a pretty big price tag so that’s probably going to be saved for then.

Other than that, I don’t know yet. Probably some comics-related stuff — there’s a Winter Soldier hoodie I want, and a Spider-Gwen one. But my partner is making me a Captain Marvel hoodie, so there’s that. We’ll see, I guess! Normally I wait a little longer to make my wishlists.

As for a TBR for the month, here’s a bunch of books that I either need to review or are part of series I’m trying to finish!

Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Mira Grant, Deadline.
Mira Grant, Blackout.
Joseph Hansen, The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of.
Joseph Hansen, Skinflick.
Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things.
Emma Newman, After Atlas.
Cherie Priest, The Family Plot.
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades.

I’m gonna keep it to those ten, this month, and see if having a short list encourages me to get round to all of them.

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, challenge, TBR

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Another week gone! And this one brought me plenty of books. I’d say oops, but we all know I love it.

Books acquired:

All pretty impulsive purchases; my sister bought me the one on HIV for my birthday. (I promise, I find it an interesting topic.) Behind the Throne sounds like a lot of fun.

Books to review:

Thank you, Open Road Media and Dover Publications!

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–A History of Ancient Egypt, by John Romer. When I think back to the stuff I knew about Egyptology as a kid, it was mostly about the later Pharaohs, despite the compellingness of the Great Pyramid. This book covers the early part of Egypt’s history, up to the end of the period where the pyramids were built. Very worth it, even though it might not be what people expect from a history of Egypt. 4/5 stars
–Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. I’ve found myself wanting to suggest this collection to several friends since I finished it, and I’m very interested to see what the movie version of the title story does with a very linguistically based plot. The writing impressed me, even when I wasn’t a huge fan of the stories themselves (and mostly I did enjoy them). 4/5 stars
–Off the Map, by Alastair Bonnett. I enjoyed that he referenced fiction, including China Miéville’s work, but in the end this was just too light and not what I wanted from the subject. 2/5 stars
–The Door into Sunset, by Diane Duane. It probably doesn’t say anything positive that I was glad to get to the end of the series, but really, it just kind of… wore out its welcome with me. I still love the casual queerness, and in this book, the shades of grey that were introduced. 3/5 stars
–Chalice, by Robin McKinley. I realised, rereading this again, that this is one of those warm and mostly positive fantasies which I feel so badly in need of sometimes. And if you end it without craving honey, I don’t know what you are. 5/5 stars
–Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. If you can read the first line and not be hooked, this might not be your thing. “It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.” 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Moon of Gomrath, by Alan Garner. I apparently enjoyed this more than the first book; I’m kind of curious to reread it now for the mythology. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
–Survey: What’re you here for? For regular readers, a survey on the content you’re interested in around here.
–Classics via daily serial. I’ve started using the app Serial Reader to explore some classics I hadn’t got round to. How am I finding it? [Cheesy promotions voice] You’ll have to click to find out.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR. What’s coming up for me? WELL.
–What are you reading Wednesday. Resurrecting a feature I used to do every week, which covers what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now, and what I might read next.
–Totally Should’ve… A meme I picked up all about things some books/series should (or should not have done). Unfortunately, I am mostly predictable and occasionally obscure.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup