Review – The Heart of Aces

Posted September 7, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Heart of Aces by various authorsThe Heart of Aces, various

The Heart of Aces is a collection that’s almost more interesting/important to me because of the theme than because of anything about the actual stories within. Asexual representation is a big thing to me, because for a long time I was all kinds of confused about why I wasn’t interested in other people the way my peers were, why I didn’t want the same things in a relationship, etc. The only times I did come across it were in stories about trauma, and then it was something to be got over; not something that you can just accept. And that’s the nice things about the stories here. Each one of them accepts asexuality as a valid way of living a life that can still be whole and fulfilling, and even shared with a romantic partner. Sometimes you have to compromise or go out on a limb, sometimes things don’t match up quite as well as you’d hope, but all the same, these stories say it’s possible.

(And oh, my relief that I don’t think a single character in these stories calls not wanting sex “unnatural”, or anything like that. Look, I don’t feel naturally feel physical attraction — if anything, if I did, that would be unnatural for me, even if it might maybe be achievable with drugs or something. It’s just not the way I’m built, and that’s okay.)

The stories in the collection are a little shaky; one of them I just found plain unreadable, while others were very basic. There are a couple of sweet ones in there, though. I do wish that there was a bit more representation across the board — a cisgendered, straight, asexual couple would be great to see, or stretching the definition of ace a bit, an aromantic character — but there is one story with a trans character (albeit the POV character takes a while to switch pronouns correctly), and a realistic range of what the characters in the stories are interested in. I wouldn’t really recommend the stories, except that there’s so little out there that’s tailored for asexual people. If you feel like you really need to see something that does touch on that, you might enjoy picking up The Heart of Aces.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Feed

Posted September 6, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Cover of Feed by Mira GrantFeed, Mira Grant

I read Feed for the first time a few summers ago, and enjoyed it enough that it stuck in my head. At the time, I think I found the contagion aspect of it pretty horrible; I was very much more anxious then, and the idea of a cold curing virus combining with a cancer killing microbe to cause a zombie rising — ugh, it just gave me chills. This time, though, it wasn’t as much of a focus for me: it was just part of the story, and not even necessarily the major part. There’s still something profoundly horrible about the idea of carrying the sleeping contagion in your body all your life, constantly needing to be tested in case the virus levels are shooting up, constantly needing to be afraid of your own body and the people around you; I’m not saying that aspect isn’t well done, because it definitely is and that discomfort colours the whole book.

But I was also able to enjoy the humour, the banter, and the thriller aspect: the political race which Georgia and her team get themselves involved in, the bonds between the characters and the way they bend and break under pressure, the whole world built after the zombie apocalypse has failed to wipe out humanity. I really appreciated the way it dealt with issues like people avoiding physical contact, side effects of the virus like George’s eye dilation, the effect on policy and public life in the US. And I appreciated the presidential race, much as I don’t feel like it could be written right now.

It’s not so much the bad guy; you can see him in current American politics, larger than life and twice as scary. But the sympathetic, tolerant, relatable family man Republican… none of the Republican candidates felt anything like that. It feels like a kind of politics that’s out of reach right now, because the bad guy is all we’ve got, and we can see that more moderate politics isn’t winning people over. It was so weird reading about this fictional presidential race, with plenty of high stakes in its own way, but comparing it to the current presidential race and its demagogues… I kept thinking that Senator Ryman couldn’t be Republican, because he couldn’t stand with the things the Republican party is saying and condoning right now.

Which is probably an odd perspective to have on a zombie book from a few years ago, but that’s the joy of rereading or reading older books; you get whole new perspectives.

Lest I sound like the politics is the only interesting aspect, I was also immensely caught up in the relationship between Shaun and Georgia. Their co-dependence, their ability to cover for each other’s weak points, the way they worked together — and especially the last few pages of the penultimate section of the book. Gah. I forgot that this book actually really gripped my heart strings, and it did so doubly this time.

In a way, I like Feed as a standalone novel. The emotional arc of the characters is devastating, but where the story ends leaves you some room to wonder without being agonising; the political situation was never really the key thing for me; the zombie situation is at a fairly steady-state, or so it feels.

But then, I also want to know what happens next.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Magic Rises

Posted September 5, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Magic Rises by Ilona AndrewsMagic Rises, Ilona Andrews

Magic Rises really ups the stakes. It opens with a serious dilemma for the Pack being made really crystal clear to Kate: the likelihood of the Pack’s children to ‘go loup’, at which point the pack have to kill them. To make sure we really notice, one of the children affected is a friend of Kate’s adopted daughter, and then the Pack receive an offer: go and mediate issues with a woman who is pregnant by two different men, whose father uses her as a way to control and divide territory. In return, you’ll get a load of the stuff you need to drastically reduce the odds of loupism.

It’s a trap, of course, and the trap is really well baited. The only question is really who it’s set for, and of course, it turns out that this advances the overarching plot as well: Kate’s heritage comes more and more to the fore, and her relationship with Curran has to weather that. At the same time, there’s a price paid within the story for every advance they gain, and lots of impossible choices to make.

My main frustration is that Kate and Curran start being idiots again. Communication, people. It’s not a myth. Use your mouths and talk to each other. Argh! Even if they don’t agree on tactics and so on, I wish their personal relationship felt less shaky and superficial at moments like this. I believe that Kate needs Curran, loves him. Now make the two of ’em act like it!

Also, the whole Andrea-and-Raphael issue is just all of a sudden solved. I’m guessing this is the point where it’d have helped to read Gunmetal Magic.

It’s a really fun read, though: it just races along at breakneck pace, and you never know exactly what’s going to happen next. The writing team that is Ilona Andrews don’t pull their punches.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Saga volume 4

Posted September 4, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Saga vol 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona StaplesSaga volume 4, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples

Volume Four takes a little timeskip to move the story on, and it’s a wise decision. It drops us right in the middle of Alana and Marko’s difficulties with Hazel as a toddler, and with balancing their lives between caring for her and working, and scraping some time for each other. And it’s kind of awesome how not fantastical those aspects of Saga are — the way Marko and Alana mess up and hurt each other, and don’t manage to do the right or best thing, despite their love for each other and for Hazel.

The other storylines of Prince Robot, Gwendolyn and even the gay reporters are also touched on, but they felt more throwaway when compared to the messing up of Marko and Alana. And, to be fair, the way other people participate in messing them up — looking at you, dancing teacher lady and high-as-a-kite tree lady.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Home

Posted September 4, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Home by Francis PryorHome: A Time Traveller’s Tales from Britain’s Prehistory, Francis Pryor

Unlike the more focused Seahenge, Francis Pryor’s Home tries to cover a lot of ground — no less than looking at the roots of family life in the Neolithic world, and its development through to recorded history. There’s a lot of evidence to look at, but a lot of it doesn’t deal directly with the home: in fact, Pryor discusses Seahenge and Stonehenge at reasonable length, as well as other potentially sacred places and practices that we don’t now fully understand (or in some cases, understand at all). It somewhat ties in with what I’ve been reading recently about Celtic culture, and the development of infrastructure in Britain, though it covers a lot more centuries, so it was interesting to see where it dovetailed.

Unfortunately, I think the fact that there’s sections about burial practices and the like detracts from the central theme, even though it does relate to how a home life might have been seen and how individuals were treated. Pryor’s willingness to speculate about all these things makes the book seem a little overstuffed at times — reiterating ideas from Seahenge and from Mike Parker Pearson’s Stonehengethen discussing Pryor’s own digging experiences, and then talking about a hoard found somewhere else… It lacks focus, I think, which is a shame.

It’s still a fascinating book, and Pryor writes well and interestingly, but it feels like the material could equally constitute most of Britain BC, which I haven’t yet read but intend to. It isn’t just about the home; we don’t have enough evidence for that, as much as we would wish it. Instead, questions about ritual and beliefs about death intrude at all times, partly because these are things we are more fascinated to know, and only partly for the way it reflects on the living of life.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Gillespie and I

Posted September 3, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Gillespie & I by Jane HarrisGillespie and I, Jane Harris

This book had a really weird effect on me: after I finished, I sat there wondering if I was like the narrator — self-deluding, manipulative, not able to see what I’m doing or worse, knowing and yet somehow still managing to tell the story as if I’m the victim. There was something just so well done and so unpleasant about the way the narrator tells her profoundly skewed version of events, and the slow way the hints pile up about that. The little details you need to keep in mind, because they suddenly reveal something huge.

The main character is not likeable, though she is at times pathetic in a way that makes you pity her; the others around her are much more alive and genuine, though you only see them through the biased eyes of Harriet. Again, you have to watch for the gaps to see why she’s so fascinated, how these characters really feel about her, what is really going on. It’s not a mystery novel, not really, and yet in some ways you need to read it like one, watching out for the gun in the first act that must go off by the fifth.

The narration and set-up is really clever; I enjoyed the book a lot, though I wouldn’t recommend it for people who like a quick payoff. It takes a while to really see where the novel is going and what it’s doing. Worth it, but not everyone’s cup of tea.

Rating: 4/5

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Unstacking the Shelves

Posted September 3, 2016 by Nicky in General / 19 Comments

Tah-daahhh! The world didn’t think I could do it, but lo and behold, I have actually gone a week without buying, borrowing or requesting any new books. Thus, unStacking the Shelves: displaying the books I managed to finish this week.

Eveeery week, people seem to get confused and tell me to enjoy books which I’ve actually finished reading, and I sense that’s gonna happen a ton this week. So please! I have no new books to enjoy! I sort of wish I did, but nope. I love getting comments, but if you’re not going to bother reading the post — and I do clearly mark the sections in these posts — please don’t bother commenting…

Books read this week:

Cover of Epigenetics audiobook by Richard Francis Cover of Strong Poison by BBC audio Cover of Five Red Herrings by BBC audio Cover of Have His Carcase by BBC Audio

Cover of Fadeout by Joseph Hansen Cover of Death Claims by Joseph Hansen Cover of Troublemaker by Joseph Hansen

Cover of The Ides of March by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Cover of Owain Glyndŵr by Terry Breverton Cover of The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester

A busy week, as you see — I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting, so I’ve been listening to a bunch of audiobooks, and I’ve also done a fair bit of other reading. Though a lot of it has been rereading, since I found the Joseph Hansen books available for Kindle, to my glee.

Reviews posted this week:
Spider-Gwen: Greater Power, by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez and Chris Visions. With great power comes great responsibility, whether you’re Peter Parker or Gwen Stacy. And sometimes you get blamed for things you couldn’t have helped. Greater Power follows Gwen as she struggles with her reputation for trouble… and also includes a visit from an awesome version of Captain America. 4/5 stars
Batgirl: A Knight Alone, by Kelley Puckett et al. I love the idea of Cassandra Cain, but unfortunately the execution hasn’t worked for me at all in these comics. 3/5 stars
The Undivided Past, by David Cannadine. Do you wanna build a strawman? 2/5 stars
Magic Slays, by Ilona Andrews. Chaos continues in Atlanta, and no one is surprised. 4/5 stars
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. It can be a bit too slow in places, but for the most part I loved Uprooted; it grows out of fairytales, but with a very serious slant. 4/5 stars
Reading in the Brain, by Stanislaw Dehaene. Distractingly, the model of reading posited here doesn’t fit me very well. Nonetheless, I found it an interesting read and well backed up by the evidence. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Alison Bartlett. I had serious questions about the ethics of the writer, and I don’t think this book is actually about a love of books — certainly not as I would understand it. Rather, it’s a love of objects, which happen to be books. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Back to School. A bunch of non-fiction recommendations for you all!
The Princess Who Didn’t Eat Cake, by Lynn O’Connacht. A promo post for a friend’s book.
ShelfLove Update and TBR. An update on my reading goals, and some goals for the next month.

How’s everyone’s week been? Anything exciting going on?

ETA: May be slow to reply to comments and visit you back today; my baby bunny just died. Sorry.

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Review – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

Posted September 2, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Man Who Loved Books Too MuchThe Man Who Loved Books Too Much, Allison Hoover Bartlett

Originally reviewed March 11th, 2011

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is definitely the wrong title for this book, because that’s really not what this book is about. The love of stories is something I can relate to, easily — or even the love of beautiful first editions. The amoral antics of a thief who wants to have books as a status symbol, and the wishy-washy morals of the story-hungry writer, are not something I can sympathise with as much. And I increasingly worried about the latter. She could have reported thefts of books worth thousands and thousands of dollars; she could have reported credit card fraud; she could have helped to discover where Gilkey hid the books.

By the end of the book, I wasn’t sure that she would do that last — and I knew she didn’t report the thefts or the fraud. She becomes an unreliable narrator, I think. I mean, humans already tend to be, because even the most honest of us have fallible memories. I was almost more interested in that increasing swing to being on Gilkey’s side.

In any case, as a book, it’s easy to read, though not exactly glittering prose. It’s a collection of recollections and personal musings, none of which I found particularly interesting. The more interesting figure of Ken Sanders, the “bibliodick”, was rapidly written out as he began to notice the author’s growing bias and unethical practices.

Rating: 2/5

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ShelfLove Update September

Posted September 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

ShelfLove Challenge 2016

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 should’ve read 182 books overall).

  • Targets: 
    • 250 or less 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: 152/160.
  • August books bought: 21/20.
  • August budget: Goodness knows.
  • Owned books read this month: 12/16.
  • Books read this month: 28/31.
  • Owned books read overall: 126/134 (8 books behind).
  • Books read overall: 235/244 (9 books behind).

This month’s theme for the Shelf Love challenge is to write a thank you post to your favourite person or people in the publishing industry.

So! Dear publicists and anyone who works on making books a success, thank you! Without you, I wouldn’t hear about half the amazing books out there. I’m very grateful for the work you do in arranging blog tours and sending out ARCs: I don’t know how you keep it all ticking over, some of you. Thank you for your passion and diligence, and well, thanks for the free books, too…

Aaaand here’s a quick list of books I’m aiming to read this month.

  • Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
  • Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, The Tempering of Men.
  • Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, An Apprentice to Elves.
  • Peter S. Beagle, Summerlong.
  • Aliette de Bodard, The House of Shattered Wings.
  • Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
  • Marie Brennan, A Star Shall Fall.
  • Susan Dennard, Truthwitch.
  • Chris Holm, Red Right Hand.
  • Tanya Huff, Blood Pact.
  • Tanya Huff, Blood Debt.
  • Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers.
  • Juliet Marillier, Tower of Thorns.
  • Juliet Marillier, Den of Wolves.
  • Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things.
  • Emma Newman, After Atlas.
  • Cherie Priest, The Family Plot.
  • V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows.
  • Jen Williams, The Iron Ghost.
  • Jen Williams, The Silver Tide.

It’s a good mix of ARCs and series I’m partway through, mostly. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other books here and there, but these I really want to (and in some cases, really should) read soon. Wish me luck, I guess!

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The Princess Who Didn’t Eat Cake

Posted September 1, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Princess Who Didn't Eat Cake by Lynn O' ConnachtThe Princess Who Didn’t Eat Cake, Lynn E. O’Connacht

Once upon a time, people who weren’t interested in sex (or who weren’t interested in sex to the expected level, or people who were only interested in sex with very particular people) found each other and realised it was a thing, and started to support each other and make a space to talk about how it affected them. And it was great, because it made people a little less alone.

But it’s not always obvious to everyone that this describes them, that this is a useful community to have, etc. So if you’d like to understand a little more about it via the medium of a fairytale, Lynn O’Connacht has got you covered — and the booklet also includes an essay explaining things a little further, and a list of fiction which contains characters who share this experience. The focus in this case is specifically demisexuality, but honestly I think it’s something relevant to anyone on the asexual spectrum, or anyone curious about it.

Disclaimer: I helped to edit the non-fiction essay, and Lynn is a friend of mine.

You can find the ebook here! You’ll be pleased to know that it’s “pay what you want”, so if things are tight, you can still pick it up.

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