Category: Reviews

Review – Summerlong

Posted November 28, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Summerlong, Peter S. Beagle

I fell right in love with this book straight away, for the unconventional romance between Abe and Joanna. I loved that they didn’t seem to be possessive, that they didn’t live together 100% of the time, that they had differing interests. I loved the way Abe knew Joanna. I really wanted the story to be about the strength of their bond, unshaken because deep-rooted. I really did.

Spoiler: it’s not. It’s about the two of them being changed, deeply and irrevocably, by a man and a woman who might just be Hades and Persephone. (It’s not much of a mystery, really, given how quickly the clues are given. I mean, as the reader you work it out quickly because you know Beagle’s a fantasy writer; it wouldn’t be obvious to the characters, by any means.) And that change includes their separation, seemingly also irrevocable. And I hated it. I’ve read that story with the young pretty girl who turns an old guy’s head time and time again, and I didn’t want to read it again. I wanted to read about two people who wouldn’t let life shake them apart — even when life or even a goddess tries to come between them.

So it’s not really the book; it’s definitely a matter of preference. And the strength of my reaction to the bond between Abe and Joanna shows how beautifully Beagle can write and observe his characters. It’s all wonderfully written, I just wanted a different story.

Rating: 3/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Silver Wind

Posted November 27, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Silver Wind, Nina Allan

I didn’t enjoy The Silver Wind as much as the other novella by Allan that I’ve read, Spin, but then I kind of expected that — Spin is a take on the story of Arachne, after all, and I really enjoy well-done retellings. The Silver Wind is a bit more of a mystery; sort of a time travel/alternate realities story, I guess. It’s perhaps best experienced for yourself, to see what you make of the plot; it’s well-written, though, and despite the similarities between the stories that make up the narrative, each brings something different as well.

I didn’t love it, and I don’t think it was as finely done as Spin, but it was enjoyable and I’m definitely still curious to read more of Allan’s work.

Rating: 3/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Great Influenza

Posted November 26, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Great Influenza, John M. Barry

Whew. The Great Influenza is a heck of a read: there’s a lot of information, and it takes quite a while to get to the actual point of the epidemic, because first it covers certain aspects of medical history. As with so many books like this, in places it becomes a sort of biography of the greats who were involved — it’s going to be interesting to see pop-science deal with the increasingly team-based approach to science, without central characters to pin the narrative on. In many ways, this is more history than science, though it does go into the discovery of the actual cause of influenza, the (lack of) treatments available then and now, the effects it has on the human body, etc. Still, it’s also very much about public health policy and medical practice: it is not just “oooh cool a deadly pathogen”.

Which, if you’re scoffing and thinking that flu isn’t a deadly pathogen, do think again. Even seasonal flu can kill those who are weakened in some way, or unlucky, and the 1918 flu killed from 50 to 100 million people in the years the pandemic ran through (about 1918-1920, to the best of my understanding). It’s difficult to predict how flu will mutate, because it does so all the time, and there are various different strains active in the population at different times. It’s also present in other host species, meaning we can cross-infect our livestock and pick up infections from them.

Flu is a problem, and it was a huge problem back in 1918 without so much commercial flight and recreational travel. The way it swept the globe then is nothing to what it could do now if we’re complacent. If you’re blasé about the potential of a flu pandemic like H1N1, I recommend this to change your mind.

There’s a lot of gory detail here about how the 1918 flu killed, alongside the more sterile descriptions of lab experiments and the dry series of events, and the nitty-gritty of how the influenza virus invades a host cell. It’s not exactly a thrilling read unless you find the topic truly fascinating (I do), but there is a lot here of interest.

Rating: 5/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, science

Review – Provenance

Posted November 25, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Provenance, Ann Leckie

Provenance is not Ancillary Provenance, for sure. The main character is very different from Breq — human, for one thing, and rather less capable, for another. She’s immature and she doesn’t yet know herself, her own capabilities or her own strength. I can sort of understand some reviews who found her a bit of a wet blanket, especially if you know Breq already. But I enjoyed the, well, more human character, in this context. Admittedly, though, Ingray is not my favourite thing about this novel. That would be Garal, by far, and Tic in second place.

But really, what I enjoyed was the societies built up for the story to take place in: the fact that children aren’t gendered, but choose their permanent name and declare their gender as young adults, once they feel comfortable and sure. I enjoyed the handling of that, the care people gave to getting the right pronouns and respecting people’s choice — and the odd moment where someone changes their name as an adult and most people ignore eir preference, which gets called out by the narrative because the people who matter do respect it and just… As a queer person, all this acceptance just goes straight to my heart, and makes me feel like Leckie knows she’s writing for an audience that includes me and the people I know.

For that reason, I feel really weird about the reviews which complain about the “made-up” pronouns (they’re not made-up, they’re in use in the queer community already) or the lesbian relationship and say there’s no “point” in the relationship between Ingray and Teucris, or in Garal being a neman (gender neutral). I think the point is just that these are relationships that happen, identities people already claim, and the way we do things now in the mainstream isn’t the only way to do things. The point is, there are and can be worlds where everyone belongs.

But I don’t think it’s Leckie’s intention to use the story to make a point: the characters’ identities aren’t important to the overall shape of the plot. Perhaps part of the point is just you’re not in Kansas anymore.

The story itself was fun, though not as strong as the Ancillary books. To me this was more about the characters and the world, and I enjoyed it that way. If you want to see the Radch toppling, though, you’ll be disappointed. Though set in the same world, it has little to do with the Radch and is not directly related to the events set off by Breq. Still, Ancillary Sword should probably have clued you into that aspect of Leckie’s interests, focused mostly on the local events and how they affect characters we’ve come to know and love.

I can see why people won’t love this, especially if they’re looking for hard SF.

Rating: 4/5

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Tags: Ann Leckie, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Friday’s Child

Posted November 24, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Friday’s Child, Georgette Heyer

If you’ve read a couple of Heyer’s books, you know what to expect. You recognise the character types as they appear — the charmingly innocent heroine, the dishonourable but charming villain, the various prototypes for her heroes… Friday’s Child is of the “marriage of convenience” school, in which Lord Sheringham marries a childhood friend, Hero, more or less on a whim to spite his family. She’s loved him all along, of course, while he is monumentally unaware of having any feelings towards any woman, and certainly doesn’t expect to love his wife (though being a noble Heyer male, he will of course do his duty toward her).

As ever, it’s the detail and Heyer’s wit that carry a story that could be formulaic. I both laughed and cried at Friday’s Child, I’ll confess, sometimes at more or less the same scene. Sherry’s friends and their loyalty to him and to Hero are both funny and endearing, pretty much all the time; there’s something very pathetic about Hero’s adoration of Sherry, and the way he treats her (being angry with her for behaving exactly as he’s told her is right), which is funny in some scenes and just terribly sad in others. I forget which friend of mine has noted that Heyer is one of the few writers who can make a rather silly character one you sympathise with and root for, when you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to stand them at all. This is definitely true with pretty much all the characters here.

Ultimately, it’s not a deep novel of great philosophical worth, and it’s not the best of Heyer’s work in terms of originality or flair either. But it’s fun and it made me happy.

Rating: 4/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, Georgette Heyer, romance

Review – The Uses of Enchantment

Posted November 23, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim

In terms of the psychoanalysis here, which is heavily based on Freud’s work, it sounds like a lot of rubbish to me. And if you know Bettelheim’s work from his work on autism, you’re not entirely safe from that here — he only mentions it once or twice, but it’s still jarringly wrong. Still, some of his analyses of the texts on a literary level do make sense, and his suggestions of how some people might apply their own lives in understanding and interpreting them are fascinating. As a literary work, The Uses of Enchantment is a bit of a classic, and if you’re a first year English Lit student wondering why Red Riding Hood’s signature colour signifies her coming to sexual maturity, well, it’s got you covered.

Reading it now, eh. I can appreciate some of the stories he tells about the way people relate to stories, even if the psychoanalysis behind it is laughable at times. (Warning: I was raised by a psychiatrist. I haven’t read Freud for myself, just absorbed a healthy disdain through my mother and what I encountered as a lit student.) Some of his comments on why fairytales endure while modern morality stories don’t work, too. But overall… shrug?

Rating: 2/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Review – The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

Posted November 22, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, Philip Jose Farmer

Another book I got from Bastian’s Book Reviews! Yep, there really was a whole suitcase full.

So I think this is the first time I’ve actually read Philip Jose Farmer’s work, despite being generally aware of it, particularly the Riverworld books. This is perhaps not the best introduction, because it’s Farmer playing with someone else’s toys, and he’s somewhat reliant on the source material: in this case, Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. It takes that story and then ‘reveals’ an underlying story, in which Fogg is part of a long-running struggle between two alien races who are hiding among humans.

It’s a fun idea, and perhaps more fun when you’ve read Verne’s work and can see all the little tweaks and the uses Farmer makes of the source material. I have read Verne, but not that recently; I’m not sure if reading it more recently might’ve helped in appreciating some of the fun Farmer got up to.

At any rate, I found by the end that it’s mostly fun as an idea, and the actual execution is better the further Farmer strays from the frame narrative of Verne’s book. I enjoyed this version of the detective, Fix, for example — his internal thoughts and his ultimately divided loyalties. But parts which just reprise Verne are not exactly gripping.

Rating: 3/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Rabbit Back Literature Society

Posted November 21, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Rabbit Back Literature Society, Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, trans. Lola Rogers

There’s some interesting elements to this book: the mysterious book viruses, which changes the plots and corrupts the narratives of various books in the Rabbit Back library; the disappearance of Laura White; the mystery of the original tenth member of the society. But mostly it felt unfocused, because there’s a lot going on: the society, the game they play, their pasts, the disappearance, the main character’s experiences with her family…

And honestly, the more I read, the more I felt like I was reading the fantasies of your stereotypical dirty old man. I felt like he undressed all the characters in his mind, in more ways than one, and took delight in displaying that to the reader. It felt prurient, and I was grossed out by some of the revelations. Also, I don’t think people honestly walk around being so conscious of their own nicely shaped lips in the way that his main character does.

The resolutions to the mysteries — the ones we actually get, since there isn’t a resolution to Laura White’s disappearance, for instance — are kind of anti-climatic. I did keep reading, because I wanted to know how it would all come together, but… I kind of regret bothering. It just never comes to anything. There’s some clever writing and some intriguing ideas, but it’s all surface.

Rating: 2/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, mystery

Review – Spin

Posted November 20, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Spin, Nina Allan

I just got Spin as part of a suitcase full of books kindly given me by my friend from Bastian’s Book Reviews. I picked it up right away, because 1) it’s short and 2) I’ve always loved the story of Arachne, which it retells. It took me a little while to find my feet with it — one minute it seems mythical, and the next someone had an iPad, but there were also clairvoyants and some kind of law against them… This isn’t a complaint, because I love when a book makes me pick up on clues to piece things together for myself, rather than narrating, “Ten years ago the law against [x] had come into force, and since that day [y] had feared”…

Of course, other aspects aren’t subtle at all — there are actual spiders in the story, and a mysterious old woman who once briefly maybe looks a little like an actress who once played Athena… But in such a short space, it does a remarkably good job of bringing the scents and sounds and colours of the setting to life, the sticky heat of the Greek summer, the absorption of Layla with her work. It comes together beautifully, and I’m convinced that I should look for more of Nina Allan’s work. Fortunately, one of the other books in the suitcase was also by Nina Allan, so I anticipate a good time when I pick that up.

Rating: 4/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Trouble and Her Friends

Posted November 19, 2017 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Trouble and Her Friends, Melissa Scott

Trouble and Her Friends is old school queer cyberpunk — enough said? It is a little on the slow side, but I found that the pacing worked for me: I needed to get to know Trouble (and, well, her friends), and get settled in the world and the old school view of the internet and how it works. I enjoyed the sheer number of queer characters a lot, although it was a little jarring to have a world where they’re clearly somewhat looked down on. From my comfortable position here, it feels like most things are pretty okay on that front.

Once you get a handle on the lingo, it’s a pretty easy read. It’s not hard to guess where certain plot threads are going — surprise! Cerise and Trouble reunite; they keep talking about Seahaven and its Mayor for a reason! — but it takes its sweet time in unwinding all of that. There’s no sudden jumps ahead without pausing to consider, and the characters typically do not do stupid unhelpful things that cause them more trouble. Each step is a step forward, more or less.

I really enjoyed visiting this world, even though it’s one that took its time. The details of the net, the brainworm, the way the characters could hack in a sort of virtual reality, were all fascinating — and so were their relationships and goals. Honestly, I was going to compare it to a sort of cowboy story for the internet before they wore white hats in the final section.

Rating: 4/5

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Tags: book reviews, books, queer fic, SF/F