Review – The Raven’s Head

Posted July 25, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Raven’s Head, Karen Maitland
Received to review via Netgalley & Bookbridgr

I forgot I’d requested this on Netgalley, and ended up getting it via Bookbridgr as well. Oops! Especially oops considering I wasn’t a big fan of Maitland’s last book, and I was starting to think her recipe was getting a little past its sell-by date. There were ways in which this book was just as predictable for Maitland if you’ve read her other books, but something about the writing/tone kept me going, and I did enjoy it.

It’s full of dastardly characters, of course, and if there’s a sordid torturous thing you can think of, one of the characters has probably done it. Even one of the most innocent characters has a downright chilling moment. But there are things which got my attention and evoked some pathos, too: the friendship of Felix and Regulus, Gisa’s care over Peter, Gaspard’s fear for Vincent.

I think Vincent’s voice was really well done — as long as Maitland was intending him to sound like a sociopath, anyway. The way he manipulated people, only saw his own gain, twisted every situation to be about himself… Well, there are people like that.

Overall, more enjoyable than I found the last couple of Maitland’s books, but the medieval historical fiction with touches of paranormal that might just barely be explained away, plus awful characters doing awful things, and dire secrets, etc, etc… It’s getting a little old.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Karen Maitland, mystery

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 25, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Sooo, it’s been a nice week for books for me. I did buy a few more that aren’t here just to have physical copies, but I’ve featured them here before.

Bookshop haul

Dark Run basically sounds like Firefly. Colour me hopeful. The Godless, I, uh, had to review. Long ago. The Child Eater just caught my attention.

My copy of Half a War is actually signed, too! It’s not as special to me when I don’t actually meet the author/get a personal inscription, but it’s still kind of cool. And hurrah, I can take Half the World back to the library for whatever poor person wanted it after me… Speaking of!

Library

I don’t think I ever owned these Harry Potter books, though I might’ve had Order of the Phoenix. So, raided the community library for them. Order of the Phoenix, though, the size of the thing! Did Rowling’s editor quit? Heh. I haven’t got the third of Freda Warrington’s books — The Dark Blood of Poppies — so I’m really hoping the library gets it in before I go away… Other than that, a round up of stuff I’ve been recommended.

Comics

Just one comic this week; most of the comics on my pull list seem to be on hiatus or something? Probably a good thing, I’m spending enough money… Thinking I’ll pick up Bitch Planet soon, though.

What’s everyone else been getting? C’mon, show off your hauls.

Tags: books, comics, Joe Abercrombie, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves

Review – The Dark Wife

Posted July 24, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Dark Wife, Sarah Diemer
Originally reviewed 19th June, 2011

I don’t exactly remember how I came upon The Dark Wife the first time. I don’t think it was in the usual way — I seem to remember that someone posted a to do list, and they were going to buy this book if they completed it. Something like that. Anyway, I was enchanted by the whole idea: a lesbian retelling of the Rape of Persephone, consensual and with a genderflipped Hades. A reclamation of a horrible story, in both a feminist sense and an LGBT sense. Apparently, it’s based on older versions of the myth, where Persephone chooses to go down into the Underworld.

Sarah Diemer’s blog has several interesting links about it: These Are Not Your Stories impressed me when I found it, in particular. It reminded me of a conversation in reviews here on GR, about how horrible it was for Malinda Lo to ‘steal’ Cinderella and write an LGBT version. I argued then as now: that it’s a powerful thing for LGBT people to take these stories and write ourselves into them, make a place for ourselves. Straight people can look to these stories as a dream of theirs: while fairytales remain exclusively heterosexual, gay people are shut out of ‘happily ever after’ dreams. It’s no use to tell us to go and make up our own, because going to make up our own shuts us out of the tradition that we may well have adored and loved as children, the old familiar stories that we never get tired of.

Sarah Diemer recognises the power of the old familiar stories. She even offers The Dark Wife free, as a PDF, here, for anyone who needs it — which is exactly why I bought her book, personally, because I can afford to and I want her to write more. At fourteen, fifteen, I needed it, and it wasn’t there yet.

I enjoyed the story itself a lot. I read it in about an hour, just a bit more than that, and in one go (aside from when I had to stop a moment to look up concert times — ugh, how dare people interrupt my reading?). I’m a little unsure whether I think it deserves three or four stars: I love the idea, and it was a good read, but I didn’t sink as deeply into it as I’d have liked to. It was, well, fairytale like, which meant I already believed it would turn out okay in the end, and which kept me from really feeling the tension.

I thought it was clever, though, the use of the pomegranate, the parts about the Elysian Fields… And I thought Cerberus was cute.

I was a less wowed by the ‘After’ section, which didn’t quite seem to fit.

Definitely not worth a five star “it was amazing”, but it’s enjoyable, fun to read, and necessary.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, queer fic, Sarah Diemer, SF/F

Review – Sex Criminals: Two Worlds, One Cop

Posted July 23, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Sex Criminals: Two Worlds, One Cop, Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky

No, really, what the hell am I reading?

I like that this discusses depression. I like that Suzie and Jon aren’t automatically super happy forever just because they can both stop time with their orgasms. I like that Jon goes to therapy, and the first therapist doesn’t do him much good, and that the one who does begin to help (and it is only beginning) is idiosyncratically suited to him. That’s the way it works. (I’m not as keen on the exhortation to get out there and exercise ’cause that’ll fix it. It’s true for some people. It’s not always true, and it’s not always possible.) I like the portrayal of Jon’s depression where he goes all grey and there’s a bad Jon-voice telling him everything’s terrible, and the meds level him out and take the edge off everything. That, too, rings true.

It’s also cool that the porn star from the first book is fleshed out a bit, and has a whole backstory of her own and a relevance to the plot. Also cool that female sexual health is a key thing, and that it acknowledges that not all women like the same stuff, just as they don’t think or act the same way. Whether they’re porn stars or not.

The plot, though? The timeline is all over the place, Jon is kinda creepy sometimes, and I just do not care about all this sex. And it’s difficult to root for people who’re using secret powers to rob banks, however noble the cause — or at least, it’s difficult to find someone trying to stop them totally evil.

I think there’s two strikes against me and this comic here: one, I don’t have that kind of sense of humour. We’re pretty sure I have one, but you need a microscope. This is not the kind of humour that works for me, nor the kind of weird that I find interesting. And two, I’m ace, and I just do not understand the appeal of all this sex. I don’t know if that’s playing into my lack of shits about this series, but probably.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Matt Fraction

Review – The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

Posted July 22, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches, Alan Bradley
Received to review via Netgalley

Very late, I know; I have to be in the right mood to read this series, which is the only excuse I can think to offer. Unfortunately, with this book, I couldn’t even get into it when I was in the mood, because it feels like it’s well and truly jumped the shark. It’s always been a bit of a ridiculous series, and I accept that, but this one was just too much. The whole idea Flavia had about resurrecting her mother was just… Flavia is a precocious little thing with some very odd ideas, but it’s beyond believable even for this series that she would think she could bring back someone who was, what, ten years dead? With ATP and thiamine.

Add to that the whole pomposity of the de Luce family spy ring, and the sheer casual callousness of the murder in this book — a plot device, one which wasn’t even really investigated — and the fun has gone out of this for me. I’m not going to read the next book.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: Alan Bradley, book reviews, books, mystery

Review – A Suitable Replacement

Posted July 21, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

A Suitable Replacement, Megan Derr
Received to review via Netgalley

Wow, this was really clumsily written. I don’t mind the dramatic plotline — I have an embarrassing enjoyment of silly tropes like compulsory marriage and the way it can throw characters together. But the characters didn’t feel real, the writing was a mess, and the plot just bounced around rather randomly. I notice from Goodreads that it is listed as part of a series: I have no idea if that has anything to do with it.

But really, I couldn’t get past the infodumps, bad dialogue, etc. I’ve enjoyed other books from Less Than Three press, but this one, wow. Nope.

Rating: 1/5

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

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 21, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday celebrates diversity! So I’m gonna pick out some of my favourite diverse characters of all kinds.

Yeine, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. She’s a minority (or at least lower-class) character in her own world and she’s from a matriarchy.
Bran Davies, The Dark is Rising. An albino and a Welshman, how could I ignore him?
Dave Brandstetter, Fadeout (and others). A gay detective — sorry, insurance claims investigator — in 1970s California.
Alana Quick, Ascension. She’s a badass female mechanic (sky surgeon). And she’s got a chronic illness, and she’s queer. Wooo.
Billy Kaplan (Wiccan), Young Avengers. Gay, Jewish, total geek. What’s not to love about this wiseass?
Roshanna Chatterji (Tremor), The Movement. Asexual character!
Peter Carmichael, Farthing. A gay detective in a Nazi society.
Reese Holloway, Adaptation. A bisexual teenage girl, who also happens to have alien DNA!
Savedra Sevaros, The Bone Palace. A trans* character, who is portrayed in a loving sexual and romantic relationship.
Priya Darshini, Karen Memory. And Karen herself, of course. Lesbian heroes of a steampunk world!

Looking forward to seeing other people’s posts this week!

Tags: books, comics, Top Ten Tuesday

No Book Buying Challenge: Best So Far (Part 2)

Posted July 20, 2015 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

I already did this month’s prompt for the #ShelfLove challenge last month, but what the hey — I’ll do it again. My favourite book since I picked Tropic of Serpents last month has to be Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. It swept the awards when it came off, and swept a lot of my friends off their feet. I bounced off the first time I tried to read it, but once I got into it, I gobbled it up and immediately read the sequel, Ancillary Sword. You can find my review here!

As for a general update, here goes. Green is for good progress or sticking to a target; orange is for marginal or in progress things. Red is for an uh-oh.

32/51+ already owned books read (last one recorded: Fire, 20/07)
Spent: £21 out of ~£30 budget (budget is 10% of my income) for January
Spent: £20 out of ~£25 budget for February
Spent: £22 out of ~£25 budget for March
Spent: £15 out of ~£16 budget for April
Spent: £45 out of ~£30 budget for May
Spent: £18 out of ~£40 budget for June, plus stuck within holiday budget
Spent: £45 out of ~£50 budget for July

Here’s my more general progress on resolutions:

No books impulse-bought (despite a recent spree, that was still books I considered for at least a day first!)
Read every day
Bed before midnight (couple of issues lately with work)
Up before ten every day
Only bought one book from a series at a time
Posted to the blog every day
Commented on at least one other blog every day (back on the wagon with this now)
Tithed 10% in January, February, March, April, May & June; not picked a charity for July
Done 55 hours volunteering total
Reading/reviewing books from NG/etc (63% ratio; still making steady progress)

So that’s pretty good progress, as long as I behave myself for the last eleven days of July! Yay me.

Tags: books, challenge, Shelf Love

Review – Heartless

Posted July 20, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Heartless, Gail Carriger

Heartless is still pretty fun, but the humour of these books is getting a little tired. For one thing, it relies on apocryphal stuff about the period (no, table legs were not considered indecent) and silly humour. And a lot of the humour in this book is basically “haha, Alexia is pregnant and huge, hahahaha”. I get that it’s a bit difficult to have Alexia up to her usual tricks without some glossing over of the fact that she’s eight months pregnant here, but yeesh, stop hanging lampshades on it, we get it.

I didn’t think much of the mystery plot, either. Mostly because I didn’t believe that particular character would be so rash and stupid, when we know they’re fearsomely intelligent. It’s like spectacle took second place to believability — which isn’t surprising for the Parasol Protectorate books, since they’re knowingly absurd, but there’s a point where it becomes too much.

What did I like about this book? Well, Genevieve’s love for her son; Akeldama’s relationship with Alexia continuing to be special; Biffy and Lord Akeldama’s doomed love; Alexia’s grit; Professor Lyall. I remain fond of the characters here, primarily, while aspects of the world/writing are really beginning to drive me round the bend — and I wasn’t 100% on board to begin with. Probably not even 60% on board. I’m not fond of absurdity, really.

I am going to read Timeless, because there are some character developments I look forward to, and at least Alexia won’t be pregnant anymore.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Gail Carriger, SF/F

Review – ODY-C

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

ODY-C, Matt Fraction, Christian Ward

Wha… what did I just read? I’d vaguely heard of ODY-C before I picked it up for my partner in Chapters, and I thought it sounded pretty cool: genderflipped space-faring retelling of The Odyssey, done by Matt Fraction who is at least consistently entertaining, even if his humour isn’t always my thing and I’d rather worship at his wife’s altar, comic-wise.

The description on the front pretty much nails it: “A trippy, gender-flipped version of Homer’s Odyssey hurtling through space on psychedelic, science fiction wings.” Thanks, Wired. You said it so I don’t have to. And I guess there are people who love that kind of thing, but I don’t. The correspondences to The Odyssey weren’t actually close enough, for me; there’s this whole new backstory that changes everything. The backstory is cool, but… there’s so much going on here, I kind of wanted the familiarity of the original story to keep me with it.

The art is not a style I love, though it definitely fits the psychedelic nature of the comic, and some of it is pretty striking. Not a comic I’m going to keep up with, though — it’s just so completely not my thing in execution.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Matt Fraction