Category: Reviews

Review – A Portrait of the Brain

Posted January 17, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

A Portrait of the Brain, Adam Zeman

I picked this one up after hearing Adam Zeman do a section in the New Scientist Live consciousness workshop. Like that event, I found it surprisingly simple. The information was mostly stuff I’d read elsewhere; even on neurology and the biology of the brain, it didn’t really touch on anything I wasn’t already aware of. Definitely a good introduction to some neurological issues and the interrelated nature of body and brain; less so if you’ve already read stuff like Sam Kean’s The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons, or even taken a basic course on neurobiology (e.g. Peggy Mason’s ‘The Neurobiology of Everyday Life’ on Coursera).

I was especially puzzled, though, by the choice Zeman made to refer to psychosomatic/conversion disorders as ‘hysteria’. I checked with a psychiatrist of my acquaintance (hi Mum)… As I suspected, it’s not a word that is really used anymore by anyone credible. I think that’s pretty much because it just has all the wrong connotations, and such a bad history of dismissing mental illness — particularly, dismissing female (mental) illness. We have modern terms for it, Zeman seems tolerably aware that even when a disease has no detectable physical cause, it can be serious and in need of treatment… So this just seems like a really weird choice.

I’m well aware of the brain’s power to create symptoms out of harmless bodily sensations. There’s no doubt that that happens, to greater and lesser extents. But to call it hysteria leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because it has such a history of being linked with dismissing women, seeing women as weak and disturbed, etc, etc.

Overall, way too simplistic a book for me, alas, even though I’m still a layperson. Perhaps a good primer for people new to neurology.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Review – Unnatural Creatures

Posted January 16, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Unnatural Creatures, Neil Gaiman

Unnatural Creatures is a fun collection with a rather diverse set of authors, including Gaiman himself, Peter S. Beagle, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, Diana Wynne Jones… it includes some stories published before which fit with the theme, and a couple which seem to be published for the first time here. Most of them weren’t stories I knew already, and I thought overall it was a good selection; there were none which really didn’t work for me, though I wasn’t so interested in ‘The Compleat Werewolf’, particularly given how long it was.

Some of the creatures are more traditional than others: werewolves and ancient animal gods and the spirits of trees juxtaposed against a predatory bicycle, the story by Gahan Wilson, etc. Which is always good, to my mind, because werewolves and unicorns and such have been done, and a bit of new blood is always interesting.

My favourites of the collection? Hmm. ‘The Griffin and the Minor Canon’, by Frank R. Stockton; ‘The Sage of Theare’, by Diana Wynne Jones; ‘The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees’, by E. Lily Yu; ‘Prismatica’, by Samuel R. Delaney… Stockton’s story, for example, is fairly traditional in the sort of structure and moral, but then there’s that odd sad note of pity for the Griffin, despite — well, you should probably read it for yourself. ‘The Cartographer Wasps’ is a fable, too, with a different sort of feel. And then ‘The Sage of Theare’ has a figure familiar from Jones’ other books — Chrestomanci!

Yes, it’s definitely an interesting combination, and a collection worth spending some time with, I think.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, SF/F, short stories

Review – Young Avengers: Family Matters

Posted January 15, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Young Avengers: Family Matters, Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung
Originally reviewed 25th August, 2013

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first TPB somehow, but it is a lot of fun. I want more of Billy and Teddy, as a couple, at the same time as I want more of the team as a whole. I think I came out of this with half a dozen new ships. These novels make me fannish more than pretty much anything else I read, just as the Marvel movies make me ridiculously excited. I love the female characters, and I want more of them — heck, I want more of all of it. I’m enjoying the various revelations of how each Young Avenger came to have powers (or not, in Kate’s case).

In fact, now I’m envisioning a Young Avengers movie. It’d be too obvious to have Jennifer Lawrence for Kate, right?

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Flashback Friday, Marvel, queer fic

Review – The Mistletoe Bride

Posted January 14, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Mistletoe Bride, Kate Mosse

The Mistletoe Bride is a good collection of stories for those who already like Kate Mosse’s work, I think. It’s fairly standard fare for her: timeslips, connections across time, history in the landscape, etc. If you’re big on the folklore of Brittany and that sort of area, it might also interest you: there are a few tales in this collection drawn from that. The writing is usually good, though occasionally somewhat stilted or just… too familiar. As if the same phrases are being used in different stories, the same images recurring.

The stories aren’t creepy-creepy, but they are in that mysterious gothic-ish style which reminds me a little of Daphne du Maurier’s short stories. It’s not an immensely special collection, and the tone is mostly the same, but for fans of the genre and of Kate Mosse in particular, it should be reasonably satisfying. One or two of the stories just made me cringe with their triteness, though — ‘In the Theatre at Night’ is something I would’ve written as a child, and I couldn’t take it seriously.

I think my favourite aspect was actually reading about the origin of each story, getting at the folklore behind it. ‘The Drowned Village’ and ‘The Ship of the Dead’ were probably my favourites, and the title story is better than the other version of the same story, ‘The Yellow Scarf’, which again struck me as just… too convenient. Overall, the collection lacks a spark, I think.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, short stories

Review – Lagoon

Posted January 13, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor

Received to review via Bookbridgr

I’ve been meaning to pick Lagoon up ‘next’ for far too long, so hurrah, finally I have done so! I picked it up partway through New Year’s Eve, in fact, and finished it in one go: it’s a very lively, dynamic book, with various different points of view — including a swordfish who turns herself into a monster, the better to sabotage oil pipes on the sea bed. (It makes sense in context, I promise.) There’s a whole bunch of different people, people speaking Pidgin, LGBT people, a woman who is a marine biologist, people of all kinds of beliefs and none… and aliens, making first contact, for the first time, in Nigeria.

It’s an almost unique setting for a fairly common SF trope, in my experience: normally, like the big blockbuster movies, the aliens go to the President of the US, and don’t stop to wonder about the leader of Nigeria. And it brings in all kinds of elements that would be out of place in a USian setting: folklore and legends, witchy powers, superstitions about those (which aren’t gone in the “Western world”, but are different). All of this make it something fresh and different.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work for me — a bit too jumpy, a bit too chaotic, and perhaps I missed some key transitions or something, because I wasn’t always sure why one thing led to another — I described the narrative as ‘hopping’ when trying to talk about it to a friend. A slightly different storytelling style than I’m used to, perhaps. And I felt that some threads were just dropped: Ijele, for example, and the LGBT+ group who had a couple of chapters but then fizzled into nothing. (Which is especially bothersome to me when they’re used to ratchet up tension, and they’re actually in danger, and then the narration just… loses interest? Not cool.)

Lagoon is an interesting one, anyway, even though it’s not quite my thing.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Murder in Montparnasse

Posted January 13, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Murder in Montparnasse, Kerry Greenwood

I might need to take a break from Phryne for a while — just to make sure I don’t run out of her brilliance too soon, of course. Murder in Montparnasse shows us a younger Phryne, as well as the capable detective we’re used to: a Phryne who hasn’t yet learned to read men and situations and take care of herself. It is good to see her unsure of herself, and it’s also good to follow along with the mature Phryne as she negotiates Lin getting married, and becomes friends with his wife-to-be.

It’s also nice to get both Bert and Cec and Phryne’s adopted daughters playing a part in the mystery. Pretty much the whole team is involved here, including Hugh Collins, which is fun.

I think the only drawback is that maybe I’ve been eating up these books too fast, and they’re losing some of their freshness. I think if I spaced them out more, it’d be okay; as it is, I found it a little too routine. Which isn’t bad, since this is the twelfth book and I’ve read all the eleven previous ones in quite a hurry.

In case it bothered anyone else, spoiler: the Butlers don’t leave in the end. I was very worried they wouldn’t and that the lovely found-family feel was going to be lost a little — but nope, Mrs Butler sorted things out.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Kerry Greenwood, mystery, romance

Review – Ruin and Rising

Posted January 11, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo

As I’d hoped, Ruin and Rising is better paced than Siege and Storm, to my mind. Although some notable folks thought the opposite, so I suppose it really does depend on what you’re most interested in. I did enjoy the twist with the third amplifier, and the fact that finally they really got on track to deal with that plotline — so much of book two was spent wanting to deal with it and going back and forth on whether it was a good idea, etc, etc.

I did like the continued development of Alina’s character, and the way things worked out with that — the way she had to learn to deal with the things she had to do, and how ruthless she tried to be. How power had a hold on her as surely as it did on the Darkling, and on the pity she felt for the Darkling even despite his behaviour. I think you can judge a person (or character) by how they treat vanquished enemies, and Alina was generous about it: she remembered the Darkling’s name, made sure his wishes were honoured, etc. And I enjoyed Nikolai’s development, too, though I think a lot of the drama and interest with what happened to him was elided for the sake of Alina and Mal’s story. Which makes sense, since Alina is the narrator, but… I’d still like to have seen more of Nikolai. He is the sassiest, and also the most capable character.

All in all, I think it was a good conclusion to the trilogy, and I’m looking forward to seeing this world from a different angle in Six of Crows. Here’s hoping it’s as good as everyone says!

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Leigh Bardugo, SF/F

Review – The Parthenon

Posted January 11, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Parthenon, Mary Beard

I enjoyed Mary Beard’s book on Pompeii, so when I spotted The Parthenon in a deal, I figured it’d be an interesting one. I actually expected it to be a bit more about the Greek context of the Parthenon, rather than going into the afterlife of the building — the use as a church and a mosque, the archaeology and tourism, even the literary responses to it, which is what it actually did. It seemed quite inconclusive about what the Parthenon actually was, though the evidence that might tell us about that is more scarce than you would think. It’s unsatisfying — it doesn’t have an altar, so it’s not a temple? But maybe it is? But?

Still, it is interesting to read about the history of the building as a church and a mosque, as well as a temple. I wasn’t even really aware of how much destruction the Parthenon went through: the iconic modern look is actually due to a lot of restoration.

It was very interesting to read the part about Lord Elgin and the issue of the British Museum’s possession of the marbles he took from Athens. On the one hand, it manifestly helped preserve the sculpture: that which remained in situ is in much worse state. But it’s also so… ugh, so imperial and condescending, to assume that Britain is the best guardian. Paternalistic. And while I like Neil MacGregor’s outlook on the British Museum (at least as expressed in A History of the World in 100 Objects), I’m still torn on the subject of the Elgin Marbles. I love the idea of a world museum, and I like the idea of it being in London — because I can conceivably take a weekend off and go there. That doesn’t mean it’s actually the best location, obviously. Just convenient to me. Not that I can think of anywhere notably better, either; I can’t think of a genuinely neutral, international space.

This book really emphasised that the problem of the Parthenon for us is one of cultural ownership, just as Pompeii can be seen as one of preservation. I wanted more about the Acropolis and the original purpose/usage of the Parthenon, but it seems we just don’t know. Which is kind of fascinating in itself…

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Review – The Grey King

Posted January 9, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Grey King, Susan Cooper

I somewhat put off reviewing The Grey King after finishing reading it, because I’m not sure what there is to say about it anymore. I’ve rhapsodised about it at length: the use of mythology, the casual use of the Welsh language, the home-ness of the landscape and the people… The shades of grey and the adult touches when it comes to Owen Davies and John Rowlands, and Will Stanton’s interactions with them. There’s some beautiful passages, especially the section spent in Craig yr Aderyn, and some genuine moments of horror, loss, anger, fear…

And there’s Bran Davies. One of the first Welsh heroes I came across in fiction — at the age of sixteen or so. And he really is Welsh; Welsh-speaking, Welsh-thinking, a part of the Welsh landscape and mythology. But he’s also very human — vulnerable. Angry. Resentful, even. Strange and unhappy and alone. And then his friendship with Will is just lovely, the immediate rapport between them, the ways Will being an Old One damages it, the ways Bran adapts.

And there’s Cafall. All too briefly, but so key to the plot, to Bran.

There’s quite a lot of more adult themes here — quite far from the world of Over Sea, Under Stone, which is almost entirely concerned with Barney, Jane and Simon. There’s Owen’s grief for Gwen; Gwen’s grief at betraying her husband; the jealousy and rivalry between Owen Davies and Caradog Prichard; Arthur’s yearning for connection with his son… And of course, those shades of grey I mentioned. The conversation between John and Will about how the Light will ignore the good of a single person to pursue the greater good, and John’s reaction, really highlights to me that the humans are the real heroes of this series. And the villains, too, because Lords of the Dark choose to become what they are — they aren’t born, like Old Ones.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: Arthurian, book reviews, books, SF/F, Susan Cooper

Review – Young Avengers: Sidekicks

Posted January 8, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 10 Comments

Young Avengers: Sidekicks, Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung
Originally reviewed 25th August, 2013

This series promises to be a lot of fun. You don’t need to know a lot about the main Marvel canon to understand this one: it’s mostly new characters, with some cameos from classics like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers (being very much ‘Superhusbands’: I mean, really, they swoop in with iron Man holding Steve by the waist, it’s practically Superman and Lois Lane). I liked the emotions flying around here: they’re teenagers dealing with superpowers, not superheroes who happen to be teenagers. They mess up and fight and they need to get to school in the morning.

I actually forgot about the gay couple in this series, but that’s one more reason to love it. You can talk all you like about the Cap/Iron Man subtext, but this is the real thing.

The adult Avengers’ roles here make sense, too. I like that they’re an obstacle to the Young Avengers that no one could call evil, in addition to the issue of super villains. I think having read some other Marvel comics would help here to understand just why the Avengers are no more, but a general knowledge is enough.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Flashback Friday, Marvel, queer fic