Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted March 12, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

You know how I said last week there was a bookalanche? Well, it seems to have… set off another? Plus I got some review copies. And I joined a new library. At least I read quite a lot too?!

Books to review:

Between being a fan of Ada Palmer’s work with Sassafrass and Jo’s praise, I couldn’t resist picking up the latter, and I’ve seen so much enthusiasm about Passenger, so I thought I’d give it a try. And Demon Road, well, the hardback from the library is a beast so glad to have the ebook. Thanks Tor, Hachette and HarperCollins!

Library books:

Grabbed the Stiefvater books since it’s the first time I’ve seen them both on the shelves, and I don’t know when I’ll next swing by that library. The Alastair Reynolds books are for my epic reread with my sister; we’re starting with Century Rain, which is the book we both started with way back when (and the book which got my sister to read again after years of refusing). A Natural History of Dragons is for a reread and Saturn’s Children because I don’t feel like reading in ebook lately. The other two I was just randomly curious about.

Books bought:

Um. My only excuse is that some of these were secondhand and thus very cheap or free, and then the novellas were from my partner via our Valentine’s Day agreement (for me: £10 ish for books, no questions asked, each month; for her: at least one nap, no pouting allowed, each month). You can see four distinctive sections — romance novels, fantasy novellas, Alastair Reynolds, and kickass ladies in comics. And then an Ilona Andrews one tacked on that I almost forgot to list.

Books read:

Reviews this week:

–Tolkien: An Illustrated Atlas, by David Day. Mostly worth it for the art included. 3/5 stars
–An Earthly Knight, by Janet McNoughton. A reread I appreciated more than I did the first time, based on the ballad of Tam Lin. Lots of historical detail. 4/5 stars
–The Last Enchantment, by Mary Stewart. It felt like Stewart tried to see the best in all the traditional characters, which didn’t always work. 3/5 stars
–The Paper Menagerie, by Ken Liu. Interesting collection of stories, and my only real problem was something about the tone. Probably very idiosyncratic! 3/5 stars
–Murder in the Dark, by Kerry Greenwood. One of the weaker entries in the series, I think, with a weird cult thing going on. 3/5 stars
–Vicious, by V.E. Schwab. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Morally dubious superpeople and a fun story structure. 5/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Before I Go To Sleep, by S.J. Watson. Fairly typical amnesiac thriller, and rather predictable too. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Spoilers! A post on why I like spoilers and why I might not be alone in that.
–Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters Everyone Likes But I Just Don’t Get. Apparently it’s unpopular opinions time again?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

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

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “Ten Characters Everyone Loves But I Just Don’t Get”. Hold on to your hats, let’s see if I can even make ten…

The Darkling, from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. All I hear is ‘wah, wah, wah, waaaaah’, sorry.
Mal, from Shadow and Bone. Wait, you only like Alina when she’s helpless and dependent on you? Really? Why am I the only one seeing this?
Dorian, from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I didn’t get the appeal of him in the first book, and I still don’t see him as a potential romantic match. Sorry not sorry!
Gale Hawthorne, from The Hunter Games by Suzanne Collins. At least not after the second book or so, when he started getting all militant. He was a fine character but Peeta won hands down, for me. (Though if I’m on a team, it’s just plain ol’ Team Katniss Can Kiss Who She Likes).
Draco Malfoy, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I never understand people shipping him with Harry or Hermione. Even if he’s not the worst, he’s a coward and a bully.
Severus Snape, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Okay, I never got to his redemption stuff, but really? Snape?
Simon, from The Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong. Okay, he wasn’t a bad character, but I hated the misdirected romance with him. Derek, darn it!
Lancelot, from Arthurian Legends. This one is cheating because there are so many versions, and the one that inevitably jumps to mind is one that nobody is meant to like — Bernard Cornwell’s version. I don’t care! Lancelot’s whole character just doesn’t appeal, though one or two authors — Steinbeck, Guy Gavriel Kay — have had a light enough touch to make me sympathise.
Lin Chung, from the Miss Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. No, not really, I still love him. I just wish Phryne would sleep with someone else for once, it’s getting really out of character. As I type this I’m reading Death By Water, and she’s had at least three opportunities to flirt and hasn’t really taken them. Whyyyy!?
Katsa, from Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I got it a bit more the second time I read it, but I still don’t adore the character.

Okay, so I did hit ten. But mostly I seem to follow the crowd…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Spoilers!

Posted March 7, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

I seem to be rather odd in fandom in general in that I don’t care about spoilers — in fact, I actually quite like them. That puts me in line with what studies suggest, though: the University of California, San Diego did a study a while ago which took stories and gave them to naive participants (i.e. participants who hadn’t read the stories before) in two categories. One lot of the participants got a spoiler paragraph first; the other lot didn’t. And with stories that have ironic twists, mystery stories and literary stories, every single one showed the same result.

People enjoyed the stories more when they knew what was coming.

Without looking at the studies, I have a couple of theories about that. One is simply anxiety. I am an anxiously inclined person and I can end up utterly stymied with a book, not wanting to read further because I know something bad is about to happen… and I don’t know if things turn out right, whether I should be hopeful or not. But when I know the outcome, I can read the story fine. Sometimes when I’m struggling to read something (or even watch something), I ask for spoilers, or flip to the back of the book.

But there’s a lot more people without that kind of anxiety, I would guess, and for them I have a theory too — connected to one reason I like to reread books: you know what’s going to happen, and you can see the skill of the author in shaping the outcome. If it’s a question of Chekhov’s gun, you can spot the gun and feel clever; you’re reading on a different level. You can still be surprised by how things turn out, but probably you already know whether it’s the kind of story you want to read or not.

The weird thing is that people pretty consistently think they don’t like spoilers, and I wonder if that’s a social thing — “you’ll never believe what’s going to happen!” The whole idea that anticipation is going to make it better.

How about you? Spoilers, no spoilers? Thinking about experimenting with this now?

And will someone please have pity and tell me whether The Winner’s Kiss ends well for Arin and Kestrel?

Tags: books, discussion

Stacking the Shelves

Posted March 5, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

This week there has been a, uh, bookalanche. Between preorders and filling my stamp card for vouchers at Waterstones (and finding a pre-filled one in my purse too!) and Bookmooch, I’m set for life, I think.

Library books:

I’ve been warned that The Selection is probably not my thing, but I promised to try it all the same, in a bit of boundary-pushing. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, well, the summary I’ve read doesn’t interest me? But I know people have loved it, so I’m giving it a try. And I’ve heard good things about Alex + Ada, and I’ve loved android stories since The Positronic Man, so bring it on.

Books bought:

All of these have been on my wishlist for a while, or are new copies of books I’ve lost or only had as ebooks. It’s quite the haul, I know. There’s actually a few more, thanks to my sister finding some of Alastair Reynolds’ books for me in a second hand bookshop, but I’ll feature those next week!

Books read:

Reviews this week:
–Courage is the Price, by Lynn O’Connacht. Great depiction of anxiety, and also being brave and growing up and facing things. 4/5 stars
–The Winner’s Curse, by Marie Rutkoski. Liked this so much more than I expected. Interesting world, and an awesome female lead. 4/5 stars
–Sunset Mantle, by Alter S. Reiss. Epic fantasy, itty bitty living space. 4/5 stars
–The Story of Kullervo, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Disappointing, even for a fan as academically minded as I am. 2/5 stars
–The Wicked + The Divine: Commercial Suicide, by Kieron Gillen. Lacking Jamie McKelvie’s art, I found this kind of unappealing, and the story didn’t progress. 2/5 stars
–The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. A book I appreciated much more on a second read, with a perfect love story. 5/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Railsea, by China Miéville. Apparently, I found this one unputdownable! 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–Meeting Will Stanton. A post about my first experiences with one of my favourite series of books!
–Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books To Read If You’re In the Mood For Complex Fantasy Worlds. Wow, now that’s a long post title… At least it’s descriptive!
–ShelfLove March Update. My progress on the Shelf Love 2016 challenge, plus a bit about this month’s discussion topic — tropes you hate.
–March TBR. Ten books I have to read this month.
–The lesbian dies (again). After waking up to find my sister upset over developments in a TV show, I had a rant about the tragic queer narrative.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

The lesbian dies (again)

Posted March 4, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This morning, I woke up at five AM because I needed a drink. I found a note on the floor from my sister, telling me how heartbroken she was about recent developments in The 100, which she’d excitedly stayed up to watch via a stream. For weeks she’s been telling me about this show: Clarke and Lexa this, Clarke and Lexa that, the team promise good queer representation, etc, etc. She was happy and hopeful and it was nice.

In last night’s show, they killed the lesbian. (And as I said on Twitter the first time, if you’re annoyed about the spoiler, cry yourself a river and use it to get in the sea.)

Me and my sister are both queer. We both attended a conservative little private school where we were, as far as I can tell, the first kids to be openly gay while at school since it was founded in the 17th century. You better believe we received threats and constant harassment, from the moment we got onto the school bus in the morning to the moment we got off it at night — and sometimes longer, since people realised it’d be fun to start calling my sister up to continue with it.

In case you hadn’t noticed, homophobia is definitely not dead. I’m 26 and my sister is 21, and mostly things have got better for us. But you can bet we haven’t forgotten it, and that every time I think I see someone from my old school, I still feel a frisson of fear.

But we’re talking about fiction, right? Doesn’t harm anything.

It used to be a rule: if you have a lesbian character, they have to either go straight or come to a tragic end. Queer Tragedy. It had to be there: queer people don’t get to be happy (because they’re deviant). The Well of Loneliness counts as great queer literature — you can tell from the title it’s not going to be happy, and I can assure you it isn’t. It ends with the queer couple breaking up, and one partner going off to be part of a straight relationship, because that’s “safer”.

So no, your decision is not “bold“, Jason Rothenberg. It’s not narratively necessary, because you write the fucking narrative. You can choose. And you chose to look at the excitement around the queer representation on your show, the whole fandom climate with people shouting that a queer character should die so they could have their straight ship, the sheer bubbling hope that maybe this time, maybe this time, people would finally have a lesbian heroine who can kick ass and save everyone and be with the person she loves.

And you chose to say no.

Let me emphasise this: it was not forced upon you. You could’ve made a whole new narrative.

Instead, you killed the lesbian and my sister cried for over an hour. Not just because it was sad, not just because she’d got invested, but because she’d hoped that this time it’d be different and she’d get a love story written for her.

Now I’ve already seen the excuses.

It was necessary for the narrative. Covered this one. Next?
Lots of characters die. And? It still means something each time. And this time it filled a shitty, shitty trope.
The actor had to leave anyway. And character death is the only way to leave the show?
It was heroic. Heroic don’t keep anyone warm at night.
The show never mentions discrimination by sexuality. It doesn’t have to. We live in a world where that exists, and we experience the story framed by our world.
You should be grateful for what you’ve got. When what we’ve got is a reaffirmation of a shitty outdated narrative, why should we be?

When you kill a queer character, you’re killing a disproportionate amount of our on-screen representation. Sure, the diversity was there for a moment, but now the list of queer characters on TV is shorter by one. And it wasn’t that long to begin with. And these are people who need to see themselves in the world, who need to be treated as if they matter. Queer youth have ridiculously high suicide rates compared to their straight peers. You’re much, much more likely to get kicked out by your parents for being gay than for being straight. Schools turn a blind eye. People actively try and tell you that you’re evil and you’ll come to a bad end.

The 100 chose the easy option. The well-trodden path. It doesn’t matter if the lesbian had a heroic end. It doesn’t matter if her death furthers the plot, or even if her partner goes on to do great things without her. The key thing is: without her. The key thing is: queer people die.

We do. Every day. And it’s high time that stopped being our only story.

Tags: discussion, queer fic

March TBR

Posted March 3, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

I don’t seem to have been doing very well at keeping up with my TBR lists. On the one hand, I like having a fair number of books on them, because I need to be reading at least a book a day to meet my reading goals. On the other hand, it more or less guarantees that as soon as I get distracted by other shiny books, I end up neglecting the list — especially when I go down the rabbit hole of a series or a particular theme.

Sooo, here’s a compromise: here’s ten books I really must read this month. And to make sure I stick to it, I’ve actually set it up with Beeminder, so that money comes directly out of my book budget if I don’t read these books (which are mostly ARCs and library books). You can follow my goal here… and here’s my ten:

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne Valente. Just out, and I’ve been so impatient about this, I have to read it this month or look silly.
The Winner’s Crime, by Marie Rutkoski. I need to read my ARC of the third and final book by the release date this month…
The Winner’s Kiss, by Marie Rutkoski. I have until the 23rd. Ish.
The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories, by Ken Liu. Out on the 8th, so I need to read it noooow.
Different Class, by Joanne Harris. Due out in April, and I’ve had it, uh… a while now.
Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean. Because it’s high time I got round to it.
Solstice Wood, by Patricia McKillip. Which also entails reading Winter Rose too, probably, but the main thing is reading this, from my backlog.
Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell. I bought it on release day and still haven’t read it. I definitely look silly.
The Wicked Day, by Mary Stewart. It’s been on the backlog ages and it’s part of a series I’m already reading. Awesome.
A Stranger in Olondria, by Sofia Samatar. A random choice from the backlog!

(And now excuse me as I go down a rabbit hole of setting up Beeminder for my Fitbit goals and backlog tackling, too.)

Tags: books, TBR

ShelfLove March Update

Posted March 2, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

ShelfLove Update!

Welcome to March! Since I already had two posts scheduled for yesterday, I delayed this till the second of the month, buuut it contains the stats for up to the end of 29th February, not for 1st March (when I, hahaha, got more books).

Books bought this year so far: 32 (out of 250 max).
February budget: £50/£50.
Owned books read: 24/200 (10 books behind).
Books read overall: 48/366 (11 books behind).

So I’m not doing too badly, but I am behind, and I’ve been a bit liberal about book buying. My goal was mostly just to buy less than last year, so 250 is the max; that means 20 per month, so although 32 is too many for February, it’s balanced by the fact that I bought no books in January. Now I just have to behave myself (and read books I already have).

Aaand the theme for this month is: that one book trope that gets on your nerves. And oh, boy, do I ever have it. I’m reading The Winner’s Crime right now, and though I enjoy the world and the characters, there is one thing driving me totally bananas: lack of communication. I hate it when relationships are totally fucked up by a lack of honesty; it’s this visceral dislike that is making The Winner’s Crime very difficult to read (and has annoyed me before in countless other books, e.g. Fitz’s relationship with Molly in Assassin’s Apprentice et al).

I get it! Talking is difficult! But constant miscommunication, especially when you should know better, and extra specially when the plot hinges on you simply not communicating… gah! Get thee hence!

This may be linked to the fact that I find it super embarrassing when people do stupid things, even in fiction…

Tags: #ShelfLove, books

Top Ten Tuesday

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

This week’s theme is Top Ten Books for if you’re in the mood for [x]. I’m gonna go with complex fantasy worlds!

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay. All kinds of stuff here — politics, magic, storytelling, music, love…
The Bards of Bone Plain, Patricia A. McKillip. Gorgeous, and lots to bite into.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth J. Dickinson. If you’re sick of fantasy stories in which queer people suffer, maybe not, but I love the fact that this makes being an accountant seem exciting.
A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan. Dragons! In a semi-historical-ish setting. Just read it; I love it.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I know it’s a hell of a read, but there’s a lot of rich detail, careful characterisation, as well as throwbacks to Victorian fiction.
California Bones, Greg van Eekhout. Unusual magic system? Got it right here!
Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson. I’d say Elantris, but I’ve somehow started and not finished reading that twice now. Either of these books seems to have very intriguing settings, though.
Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Want vampires, only actually weird? Magic? Alternate world post-apocalyptic stuff? Go!
Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb. Okay, it’s the start of an epic series which shows no sign of closing, but come on. Here Fitz is endearingly young and things are not, yet, quite as dark as they will get…
Magician, Raymond E. Feist. Makes this list from pure nostalgia, really — Arutha searching for the cure for Anita in Silverthorn was just, oh, the most romantic thing when I was a teen. Also a major major epic world, with a lot going on.

What would you add to my list? Gonna try anything I’ve included?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Meeting Will Stanton

Posted February 29, 2016 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

I wrote this post for the TDIR Readathon, but it never got posted. I thought my bit of nostalgia worth sharing anyway — with some additional details I thought of later…

The first time I met Will Stanton was via the BBC’s adaptation for Children’s Radio, written by David Calcutt. They aren’t yet available for the public as far as I know, though I keep checking back, because once upon a time I lent my old tapes to my sister… and somewhere between me and her, or somewhere in the clutter of our respective bedrooms, episode three was lost. You can find the audio via torrents and such, lurking in the dark and dubiously legal parts of the internet, but I’m holding out for being able to legally obtain them.

The thing is, David Calcutt’s adaptation was really good. It captured the spirit of the books and did a spectacular job with some of the creepier aspects. The voices of the Dark chanting “the Dark, the Dark is rising” terrified me as a kid, and the memory is one of those slightly chilly ones. (I know exactly what I was doing, and how reassuring the noise of my dad doing the dishes in the kitchen was.) It was a simplified version of the books, sure – Will had fewer siblings, for example – but faithful in tone and intent (much more so that the movie adaptation which I pretend doesn’t exist). The voice actors were good; I remember Ronald Pickup in particular voicing Merriman Lyon. Brilliant.

I didn’t meet Will Stanton again until I was fifteen or so. Maybe even sixteen. Somewhere in between, I saw The Dark is Rising at the library, but it never got hooks into me. It was when I finally read Over Sea, Under Stone that I was hooked, and promptly devoured the rest. The clinching point was probably when I finally, finally met Bran Davies, though. He was Welsh and proud of it, the landscape was one which called to me, the myths were those of my home. Arthur was rooted in a Welsh landscape, a Welsh context; noble and familiar from English retellings and not the wilder Welsh version, but closer to his roots than usual. Closer to me.

I’ve read it over and over since then, and I’m not really sorry I didn’t read it as a child, or that my introduction was through an adaptation. Now there’s the perfect voice for Merriman and the Rider, recorded faithfully in my head, and I was old enough when I came to the later books to appreciate some of the subtleties which I know I would have missed as a child – like the tender, painful relationship between Bran and his adoptive father, for one.

At the same time, I’m glad I did encounter the Rider for the first time as a child. Now he properly frightens me – as he should.

Tags: audiobooks, SF/F, Susan Cooper

Stacking the Shelves

Posted February 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Yay, Saturday! I should probably be doing my assignment, so you can probably expect tons of comments today from me.

Books bought

I picked up Helen Wright’s book after a chat/recommendations thread on Twitter, and of course I had to grab The Winner’s Crime before I could read The Winner’s Kiss. I did pick up a couple of other books for my permanent collection, too, but all ones I’ve already read and often even had as ebooks. And, hurrah! My Phryne Fisher collection is complete, as I have quietly amassed the other books I originally borrowed, too.

Received to review:

Read this week:

Reviews this week:
–Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. I wasn’t as impressed as I hoped, but I did enjoy it, and Stiefvater definitely has a great touch with atmosphere. 3/5 stars
–Dead Man’s Embers, by Mari Strachan. Set in Wales in the aftermath of the Great War, this isn’t exactly the most cheerful read, but very well written. 4/5 stars
–Ms Marvel: Last Days, by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona. The Amazing Spider-man stuff included is pure filler, but there’s good development of Kamala and her close friends/family in the main part. 4/5 stars
–City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett. No surprise here that I was bowled over. Just as good as the first book. 5/5 stars
–Rebel of the Sands, by Alwyn Hamilton. I wasn’t as wowed as everyone else seems to be, but it’s definitely enjoyable and I love the setting. 3/5 stars
–Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi. A very fun reread, gotta love the main character’s snarky voice. Light, but satisfying. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr. A classic by now, I called this book a ‘wry smile at humanity’s expense’. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Giveaway: A Gathering of Shadows. Slide in under the wire and get a chance to win one of two copies of V.E. Schwab’s new book.
–The Comfort Zone. A discussion about what might constitute my comfort zone (and a resolution to, perhaps, push out of it).
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed That I Didn’t Expect To. Kind of ties in with the comfort zone discussion, since I had trouble identifying what mine is, and that was the original prompt.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup