Review – 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense

Posted December 22, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks13 Things That Don’t Make Sense, Michael Brooks

Some of these things are sort of covered in Brooks’ other book, At the Edge of Uncertainty, while others weren’t. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff about extraterrestrial intelligence and the experiments looking for microbial life on Mars, for instance. As with the other book, Brooks gives clear explanations. In fact, reading both books illuminated more about the topics that were in both. Each topic leads to the next in a very logical way, too.

The topic selections are all interesting: life on Mars, the ‘wow’ signal, discrepancies about universal constants…  It may not all be of interest to every reader, but it’s a good selection of scientific mysteries and frontiers. It explores them quite well, without going into too much detail.

Very much a pop science book, suitable for readers of New Scientist and similar publications. Which isn’t surprising, since he was an editor for that magazine!

Rating: 3/5

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 22, 2015 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme is books I’d like to find under my Christmas tree. Well, I know what Santa is bringing me via my sister and my dad, so I’ll just pick stuff from my Amazon wishlist I’d like to get sometime soon!

If you’d like to help with that, well hey, my Amazon wishlist is here! (I can dream, right?)

  1. Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’ve been curious about this one since I saw Tchaikovsky at a con.
  2. Scarlet, A.C. Gaughen. I figure it’s about time I tried it.
  3. Illuminae, Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman. I’ve been hearing so much about it.
  4. Planetfall, Emma Newman. The anxiety stuff might be a bit much for me, but I am interested in it.
  5. Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews. A spinoff series with Andrea? OKAY.
  6. A Crown for Cold Silver, Alex Marshall. I kept meaning to pick this up, but haven’t yet.
  7. Darkwalker, E.L. Tettensor. I’ve had this on my wishlist for aaaages.
  8. Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Carooool.
  9. Silk: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon, Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee. About time I read this…
  10. Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. I was curious about this before I started reading the Grisha books, and now I’m sure I want it.

I’m pretty sure I won’t find these under my tree, but hey, I can dream, right?

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Review – The Gate to Women’s Country

Posted December 21, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. TepperThe Gate to Women’s Country, Sheri S. Tepper

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one too much, honestly. I hadn’t heard 100% good things about Tepper’s work before, and some of the great feminist works of SF have been lost on me. (The Female Man, for example — The Gate to Women’s Country is from the same decade, so I wasn’t very hopeful.) And there were some cringe-worthy moments, to be honest; the whole bit about “gay syndrome” being cured now, for example.

Still, for the most part I really enjoyed this. It reminded me a little bit of Jo Walton’s The Just Citybecause it’s another attempt at building a perfect city and there’s a similar focus on the importance of art and learning. There’s a certain amount of Greco-Roman influence based on the play included in the text, Iphigenia at Ilium, too, and a rather Spartan set-up for the boys.

The relationships between the characters are interestingly done; the awkwardness of the relationship between Stavia and Chernon, particularly — his desire for real connection alongside his manipulative behaviour — but also family relationships, like those between Morgot and Myra, Myra and Stavia. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here: the ethical dilemmas about what the women do in the cause of ending violence, the unique empathy-related abilities which come out of it. In fact, the whole way the city is organised and ruled, the way violence is channelled and rebellion bled off. There’s some really brutal, horrible stuff here in the name of creating a better world. Tepper doesn’t shy away from showing us that, although sometimes I think she’s lacking in sympathy for the characters, judging them rather harshly and ascribing to a darker view of human nature than I’d like to accept.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Dark is Rising

Posted December 20, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

The Dark is Rising by Susan CooperThe Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

Slightly ahead of the ideal time to read this book — which would be veeery slowly, a chapter or two at a time, over the Twelve Days of Christmas. I never have the patience for that! As usual, I loved The Dark is Rising; the quiet moments of enchantment, the beautiful writing, the warmth of the family relationships and the reality of the bickering, protective group of siblings. There’s more adult, complicated stuff as well as simple squabbling among siblings: the whole relationship between Merriman and Hawkin is a difficult one, and foreshadows what John Rowlands says about the Light in a later book. The morality of the Light is a cold, clear justice.

One thing I noticed a lot this time, though, was how Britain-centric the sequence is. Every so often it’ll make a reference to other parts of the world — the Jamaican carnival head, the darker skinned Old Ones, etc — but it talks about the battle for “this land”. As though the struggle between Light and Dark throughout history is focused on Britain. I’m not sure that’s an attitude that can really fly anymore, however simple and obvious it may have seemed when the books were originally written. I love how rooted the books are in Britain, the landscape and the people and the different histories that intertwine, the Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic, the Roman. But the focus on Britain as the whole centre of the fight against the Dark seems short-sighted.

Still, that is the other thing to love: the glimpses of mythology surrounding the books. Not just the Arthurian mythology, but the mysterious king whose dead hands held the Sign of Water for Will; the lore of the smiths; the Old Ways; Herne the hunter… I wish I could read beyond the pages into all that richness.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Wolfhound Century

Posted December 19, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Wolfhound Century by Peter HigginsWolfhound Century, Peter Higgins
Received to review via Netgalley

There’s something compelling about Wolfhound Century; when people talk about the beautiful style and language, they’re quite right. And the comparisons to Miéville are also, I think, fair. My issue was that it was all weirdly half-familiar — sort of Russian, sort of a mystery, sort of a thriller — and I couldn’t catch hold of any of it to really follow a thread through the story. Lom is okay as a character, but he feels empty, like a cipher. That doesn’t really get any better for me over the course of the book, and… generally everything else gave me that same impression.

For me, there were so many bits I wanted more of — the forest creature/s — and bits I just didn’t enjoy, like pretty much anything relating to the angels, because they seemed so devoid of explanation.

In the end, I have to confess I gave up and skimmed. Miéville has to catch me in the right mood, too, so I might be willing to try again some other time. But I really didn’t get into it, despite wanting to and finding the writing itself compelling.

Rating: 2/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 19, 2015 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

Just one library trip this week — partly because I have a book I really should return soon that I need to finish. So not many books picked up!

Cover of Beauty by Sarah Pinborough Cover of Fathom by Cherie Priest

Since you probably know me at least a little, you know that I’ve started Beauty already, because I can never wait and just read books I already have… At least it finishes off that trilogy!?

Oh, and I did get one review copy this week, via Edelweiss. Exciting!

Cover of This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

What’s everyone else been getting, reading, or coveting? Reading-wise, I’m partway through Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and The Cutting Room edited by Ellen Datlow, among others. I’m not sure a book of horror stories based around movies is really my thing, but at the same time I’m kind of mesmerised.

Also, yay! It seems I have reached my goal of getting 80% feedback submitted on Netgalley. Finally.

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Review – True Grit

Posted December 18, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of True Grit by Charles PortisTrue Grit, Charles Portis
Originally reviewed 15th February, 2011

Ended up going to see the new film version of this by my housemate last night (yes, on Valentine’s Day — she’s single and I’m in a long distance relationship). We weren’t planning to see this, but everything else we were interested in was sold out, bah, and I knew my brother loved the story. It turned out to be quite enjoyable and now I’ve read the book, I can see that it was quite a close adaptation of it, which is nice — mostly, the book just has more descriptions, although there are a few more characters in the book, and events are changed slightly for dramatic effect in the movie.

It’s the story of a fourteen year old girl, Mattie Ross, heading out into Indian Territory to pursue the killer of her father, in the company of a US Marshall and a Texas Ranger, who do their best to leave her behind. She’s smart and brave and resourceful, and quite capable of looking after herself, to their surprise. The book is narrated by her, and her no-nonsense attitude and her judgemental tendencies are quite revealing of her character. I found it a quick read, despite a couple of points where she tended to ramble, and despite Westerns not really being my genre.

I’m not wild with enthusiasm over it, but it did raise a smile and even a giggle or two, and was an enjoyable enough way to spend a rainy evening (just like the film).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – A Legend of the Future

Posted December 17, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A Legend of the Future by Agustin de RojasA Legend of the Future, Agustín de Rojas

I originally received this to review via Netgalley, but took so long about it, I ended up picking it up in a shop. I’m actually not really sure what to make of it: on the one hand I found it engaging, but on the other I found the way it was set out maddening. I don’t know if this issue was deliberate, present in the original, introduced in translation, or a result of some typesetting issue, but scene breaks were several times completely elided so that one scene slid into the next and you only realised because one character was saying something that didn’t make sense in the context of the previous conversation. This happened enough to be completely confusing, rather than just happening once or twice. The other thing is that thoughts are denoted in the exact same way as speech, so you never know if a character is saying something aloud or just thinking it.

Awkwardness of language I’m quite prepared to put down to the issue of translation, and also the fact that the original was written in a wholly different context to modern SF. But combined with the layout issues, I found it frustrating.

On the other hand, the story is interesting, featuring the slow psychological breakdown of a crew as they must adjust to the fact that they won’t make it home, that one of them has to be hooked up to a computer and another is turned into a human calculating machine. The beginning doesn’t work as well as I’d like, because you don’t already have the emotional connection to give it impact, but I can’t see how else the book could sensibly be structured. There is quite a bit of exposition delivered by dialogue, which can be annoying — but I do wonder if part of that is different literary conventions.

The final chapters, the resolution of the story, also tell us why the title is A Legend of the Future. It’s an excellent ending, to my mind; wrapping things up with just enough uncertainty left that you’re not sure exactly what happened, what is real and what is hallucinated and suggested…

When I read the first few sections, I wasn’t much impressed, but my interest grew as I kept on — I think it rewards the effort.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Away With the Fairies

Posted December 16, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Away With the Fairies by Kerry GreenwoodAway with the Fairies, Kerry Greenwood

For all that this one is set in a women’s magazine and so obviously brings up echoes of Peter Wimsey’s time in advertising (Murder Must Advertise), it’s still very much its own story. I still don’t really read these for the mystery, just as I don’t really read Sayers for the mystery, but for Phryne/Peter being their amazing selves. There’s also plenty of Dot in this one, and Lin Chung and Li Pen reappear as well.

There’s actually two stories running in parallel here. Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve discovered a bunch of other readers who hate Lin Chung and his relationship with Phryne — I don’t get that, because I love the connection between the two, and the fact that despite that, Greenwood doesn’t force Phryne to change the way she lives. They find their own ways around it. I might be more bothered if Lin Chung starts feeling possessive about Phryne, or Phryne just stops appreciating pretty young men, but for right now, I can’t see a problem.

The two plots do contrast quite a lot — one is relatively safe, while the other is very high stakes, but I didn’t mind. It’s nice to see Phryne dealing with a case that doesn’t result in her being personally attacked, on the one hand, while the other plot ups the danger and means everyone is actually in danger and bad things can actually happen to the characters — and do — which is necessary to avoid the stories just going dead. If it was all high-risk but no actual feeling of danger, it’d quickly go flat.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Color Purple

Posted December 15, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of The Color Purple by Alice WalkerThe Color Purple, Alice Walker

What’s there to say about The Color Purple? It’s so deservedly famous that it’s difficult for me to think of anything that might be interesting to say. I can understand the more negative reviews for it — the epistolary format, the colloquial language and often phonetic spelling, the unrelenting awfulness of the main character’s life. Even some of the plot twists. And of course the more conservative among us aren’t going to be pleased by the female sexuality on display, and particularly not the relationship between Shug and Celie.

And yet. It ends up being quite uplifting, because here are these people who are discovering how to stand on their own two feet, how to live, and how to be their own selves and not what their parents made, and not what society wants them to be either. It seems like there’s no one in the book immune from the possibility of self-discovery and redemption. And despite the fact that Shug has no faith in the typical version of God, and Celie loses it too, there’s something profoundly spiritual about Celie’s journey.

I’m glad I finally got round to reading this.

Rating: 5/5

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