Review – Redemption in Indigo

Posted May 8, 2015 by in Reviews / 9 Comments

Cover of Redemption in Indigo by Karen LordRedemption in Indigo, Karen Lord
Review from September 27th, 2013

I’ve been meaning to read something by Karen Lord for a while. For some reason, the fact that a group I participate in a lot on GR is reading one of her other books (which I also own) next month made me read this one. I won’t question it too much, because I enjoyed this a lot. It’s a short/quick read, and it’s different: it isn’t at all your run of the mill fantasy. I read it without knowing any of the background stuff about it being based on a Senegalese story, and I don’t regret that — instead of looking for the joining places between Lord’s story and the original story, I enjoyed the whole thing.

It’s told fairly simply, in the style of a more or less oral narrative — there’s a conversational narrator, and the basic ideas are easy to lay hold of. I really enjoyed that it was in many ways a domestic story, with cooking and family at its heart. I also enjoyed that I didn’t guess every twist exactly right.

Because of the fable/fairytale-like tone, I wasn’t looking for too much from the characters: the execution matches the form, while still providing likeable/pitiable who you can, to some extent, get to know. Still, if characters, setting, etc, really matter to you, then this might not be for you. I’m normally all about the characters, but this so perfectly hit my soft spots for a) something new and different and b) something that emulates another form well that I couldn’t resist it.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – The Spark of Life

Posted May 7, 2015 by in Reviews / 1 Comment

Cover of The Spark of Life by Frances AshcroftThe Spark of Life, Frances Ashcroft

Since I’m in the middle of my female authors only month, I thought now would be a good time to get round to some of the non-fiction books I have by women, especially in the STEM field. I’d forgotten I had this one, which is a shame: it fits into my general theme of reading about neurology, and builds on a lot of the stuff about ion channels that I learnt in an introductory biology class on Coursera. I understood pretty much all the science without wanting or needing to look anything up, or letting anything wash over my head: in part, that’s because Ashcroft writes very accessibly, but I think it is also because this is stuff I know and love.

Some of it is a little too much towards the neurology end of things for me. I wanted more about electricity in the human body — more of the sparks — and less of the chemical messages (the soups, in that old scientific debate); this veered towards talking much more about the chemical parts of the process, especially toward the end. On the other hand, it’s the chemical processes that create the electrical potentials and make all of the electricity in the human body (and other animals too) possible, so it’s quite inextricable. It just felt like it wandered.

Calling the book The Spark of Life is a little misleading, perhaps. It talks about electricity in the body, yeah, but that’s too small a part of the process to be considered alone, and a lot of other factors have to be discussed at quite some length. Ashcroft uses good examples, and explains things clearly; there’s a section of notes in the back for those who want to get a little deeper into it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Throne of Glass

Posted May 6, 2015 by in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. MaasThrone of Glass, Sarah J. Maas

I’m a little bit disappointed about this one, I’m afraid. I’ve been hearing so much hype about Sarah J. Maas’ work. And it was fun, but it felt thin. There is clearly a world built up behind this, but we see so little of it, and so much of it is introduced according to convenience. Suddenly a Wyrdmark! Suddenly magic powers! Suddenly that’s why that character did X! Lots of jumping! to! conclusions!

Given the hype, I guess I was expecting more of this. It is great that there’s a female main character who is very capable, who is a good assassin, and yet who has morals and a softer side. It’s nice that she’s both kickass and in love with gorgeous dresses: it’s counter to something that always rubs me wrong, for example like Katsa in Graceling, where she totally rejects femininity (if I remember rightly; must reread that soon and get onto the other books). And I liked the tension between her and Chaol, her and Dorian, up to the point where things started happening and then I just… didn’t get it. If you have feelings for either or both, treat them with a little more care! It’s like she expected them not to mind that they both had feelings for her, were both close to her?

I mean, if it’s going to end up as a polyamorous relationship then that’s fine, but it’d surprise me greatly from a YA book.

I’m intrigued enough that I’ve reserved Crown of Midnight from the library; ambivalent enough that I’m not going to buy it.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – A Taste of Blood Wine

Posted May 5, 2015 by in Reviews / 5 Comments

Cover of A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda WarringtonA Taste of Blood Wine, Freda Warrington

The copy on the front definitely captures a lot about this book. ‘Throbs with lush romanticism,’ says The Times. That’s a perfect description right there. It’s lush, gothic, romantic, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I found it a compulsive read, and I found the way it treats the morality of vampirism very interesting. It doesn’t shy away from the implications of evil, parasitism, etc, but it doesn’t wholly embrace them, either: Warrington’s vampires have feelings, doubts, difficulties, according to the kind of people they are. The female lead worries about her amorality, and the book doesn’t disguise that there’s something monstrous about a love which demands this kind of sacrifice.

I found the relationships between the characters very well done: Charlotte’s relationships with her family, Karl’s with Ilona and Kristian, the ambivalent side-switching of the others. Kristian’s power over them all feels real, as does their equal and opposite desire to be free of him that locks them in a holding pattern around him. Warrington resists the urge to make things too easy: Charlotte’s family can’t cope with her eventual transformation, with the way her true self is revealed to them through what she chooses.

I liked the background of science, too: the search for understanding of what Karl and the other vampires are, of how it relates to what we know of matter, how they might relate to a GUT (grand unified theory of everything). I liked that Charlotte is a part of that search, with a scientific drive and understanding, and that it’s not just to please her father or anyone else that she thinks that way, despite the fact that her entire life is bounded by what she thinks others want of her.

And yet. I’m not sure what, at the end, makes me ambivalent. In part, it’s the amorality of it all, I think: I can appreciate the exploration of it, even the impulses behind it, but I can’t view it as a triumph of love over all. Or, I suppose it is — a triumph of love over morality, over humanity. I can’t sympathise with that central choice to become immortal and immortalise love at the price that has to be paid here — a price that’s not even paid by Karl and Charlotte, but by the people they will drive mad or kill to sustain their lives. It makes that price so very clear, makes Charlotte’s choice so clear-eyed and knowing, that it’s both better and worse than other Vampire-For-Love transformations. Better, because it acknowledges it; worst, because we’re still meant to sympathise with that destructive love.

I’m not sure if I want to read A Dance in Blood Velvet, etc. I did find this very compelling to read, and yet.

Rating: 4/5

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted May 5, 2015 by in General / 14 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “ten books I will probably never read”. That’s going to be an interesting one, because as a rule I usually try anything once…

  1. Anything by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I’ve read The Mists of Avalon because I had to, but especially given the abuse claims made against her, I don’t intend to read The Firebrand anymore — even though it’s about Cassandra of Troy, and I love her story. I didn’t like her Arthuriana, so I don’t think Bradley has a chance in general, even without having abused children.
  2. Fifty Shades Darker, E.L. James. 900% not interesting to me. I have read 50 Shades of Grey, cringingly, and I have so many problems with the whole thing I can’t even begin to express them.
  3. All Clear, Connie Willis. I just don’t get on with this author, sorry. I tried Blackout because of a book club read, but that’s as far as I go.
  4. Anything else by Chuck Palahniuk. I’ve read Fight Club, but the rest of his work really doesn’t appeal.
  5. Anything by Niall Griffiths. Sheepshagger was disgusting but also powerful, while Dreams of Max and Ronnie was gross in a way I just couldn’t abide.
  6. Anything by Phillipa Gregory. I’m sorry, I’ve tried.
  7. The Echo, by James Smythe. Read The Explorer recently and just… nah.
  8. Anything by Rosalind Miles. I think I struggled through all her Guinevere books, but abandoned the Isolde books. Definitely not my thing.
  9. The Prodigal Mage, by Karen Miller. There were things I loved about The Innocent Mage, but ultimately the cartoon villain and predictable plotline killed this world for me. I am going to try some of her other books.
  10. Anything by Virginia Woolf. Dooo noooottt get on with her stuff, I’m afraid.

Anything here you particularly want to kick me for? Anything you agree with? Share away!

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May TBR

Posted May 4, 2015 by in General / 4 Comments

I have a problem with TBR lists. I love making them. They even help, as long as I walk a very fine line between giving myself some room to manoeuvre and some freedom to have a crappy day and read Mary Stewart’s work again (or whatever it happens to be I feel most like reading). If I put something on some kind of must-read list, I quite often end up not reading it in anything like good time (sorry, Jo Walton, V.E. Schwab, Elizabeth Bear, Garth Nix… the list goes on). But if I don’t, the same might occur.

I’m contrary, I know. So this is an experiment in how flexible I’m going to need to be. For this month, since I read probably about 25 books a month at the moment, I’m going with four categories and a wildcard set. All the books will be numbered so if I’m being indecisive, I can use a random number generator and solve it.

ARCs (or Ryan will stare at me reproachfully or something; this list includes stuff I was approved for and didn’t review in time, as I actually guarantee I will read stuff anyway given enough time and a source like the library)

  1. The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge.
  2. Peacemaker, Marianne de Pierres. (Yes, I know, this one has been out for ages. Shush.)
  3. Cities and Thrones, Carrie Patel. (I might make it on time for this one!)
  4. Dark Triumph, Robin LaFevers.
  5. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas.

Library

  1. The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley.
  2. Ringworld, Larry Niven. (I will read this in time for the bookclub. I will!) I did!
  3. Curtsies & Conspiracies, Gail Carriger.
  4. Crown of Midnight, Sarah J. Maas.
  5. The Deadly Sisterhood, Leonie Frieda.

Owned

  1. A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab.
  2. Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear.
  3. Valour & Vanity, Mary Robinette Kowal.
  4. Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal.
  5. The Hemlock Cup, Bettany Hughes.

Rereads (including books counting as owned-unread because of ebook duplicates)

  1. Lirael, Garth Nix.
  2. Gifts, Ursula Le Guin.
  3. Graceling, Kristin Cashore.
  4. Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor.
  5. Days of Blood and Starlight, Laini Taylor.

Wildcards

  1. The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley. (ARC.)
  2. Darwin’s Lost World, Martin Brasier. (Library.)
  3. Changeless, Gail Carriger. (Owned.)
  4. Blameless, Gail Carriger. (Owned.)
  5. The Supernatural Enhancements, Edgar Cantero. (ARC.)

Graphic novels don’t count in here, because I tend to read them in one sitting anyway. If I finish fifteen of the non-wildcard books and I’ve run out of wildcards, I’ll probably let myself have some more. I think it’s unlikely, but who knows? My brain might decide to cooperate.

Anyone else have an, um, complex relationship with reading lists, haha?

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Review – The Man in the Queue

Posted May 4, 2015 by in Reviews / 9 Comments

Cover of The Man in the Queue by Josephine TeyThe Man in the Queue, Josephine Tey

I expected to like this a lot. Golden Age crime fiction, I’m pretty sure my mother mentioned liking it, etc, etc. But I couldn’t get past the endless racism, and the general feeling that Josephine Tey would be a men’s rights activist now. I mean, a woman on the stage overshadows her male co-stars, and yet the whole tone is not, wow, her skill and grace and so on, but that she is secretly a conniving bitch. The whole story serves to hammer home that she’s a woman who only cares about herself — with very little actual evidence, which is funny coming from a detective story. Someone else summarised it really well, and I can only quote (warning, spoilers):

So, someone who wants to kill a woman because he can’t have her is sane. Someone who wants to kill a man to save her daughter’s life is crazy. Very, very interesting, Tey. And at the end we’re asked teasingly whether there’s a villain in the story. I strongly suspect the villain we’re meant to think of is the woman the murder victim was going to kill. If she’d been nicer, she’d have appreciated that nice young man, you see, and none of this trouble would have happened.
(From Leonie’s review on Goodreads)

The description and so on can be as clever as it likes, but I couldn’t stand one more slighting reference to “the Dago”, or commentary about the “un-English crime”, or any of that. And the mystery itself… it’s obvious from the length of the book that the inspector is after the wrong man. It’s obvious from the way the man and the people around him act, too. The only excuse for going along with the thin, motiveless explanation Grant dredges up is if you’ve got a prejudice to begin with and you’re going to stick to your theory no matter what — no matter how Tey makes a song and dance about Grant being bothered by the case.

The reason Grant is wrong, well, at least you can’t blame him there. There’s virtually no clue, and nothing tied specifically to any suspect other than the red herring one. You can’t guess it directly from the information given — not a hope.

I sound really scathing, but that’s in part because I hoped I’d really enjoy this. I read it pretty much in one go: the narration is pretty compulsive, and the narrative voice is an interesting choice too. But the pretty sentences didn’t save it from how bothered I was with the outdated stuff (reliance on reading people’s faces, reliance on “national characters”, etc). Now I’ve gone looking at reviews, I can see other people who didn’t think much of this one did like her later work, so I might still be along for the ride there if I can get it from the library.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Tropic of Serpents

Posted May 3, 2015 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Tropic of Serpents by Marie BrennanTropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan

It’s been ages since I read A Natural History of Dragons, which meant I was playing catch-up a little with the characters and the situation. I wouldn’t suggest reading it without reading the first book, since it’s an almost continuous narrative — but if it’s just been a while, well, you’ll probably be okay. I got there pretty quickly, once I remembered who all the characters were and how they all related to each other.

As with the first book, it’s fascinating to read this version of our own history, with a female natural historian front and centre. Given the trouble the likes of Mary Anning had, I understand the context a lot better now, though I do find myself thinking that, if anything, it’s a little too easy for Isabella to get where she wants to go. Still, I already criticised the first book for being a little slow, and there are plenty such drawbacks here as well. There’s another interesting meeting with different cultures, and some of the ways that that limits Isabella — but also one surprising way it gives her more opportunities.

I read this much quicker than I read the first book. It’s not exactly “unputdownable”, because you know that Isabella must survive to be writing the memoir, but it is compelling. I especially enjoyed the strengthening of Isabella’s relationship with Tom Wilker, and the way their characters clashed and meshed through the book. Natalie is a fun addition, too: a woman who, like Isabella, wants more than society (and her family) want to give, a woman who is in fact an engineer of some skill.

I’m having a hard time picturing Isabella’s adventures coming to an end after Voyage of the Basilisk, so I’m hoping that I’m misremembering that this is a trilogy… All in all, I’ve gotta say that these books have definitely won my heart now. I might have been doubtful about the first one, but I thoroughly enjoyed the second.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Ms Marvel: Generation Why

Posted May 2, 2015 by in Reviews / 8 Comments

Cover of Ms Marvel: Generation Why by G. Willow WilsonMs Marvel: Generation Why, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Jake Wyatt

I liked this more than the first volume. It felt less like it was setting the scene, and it got down to the important stuff: superhero team-ups, more self-discovery, bigger plots, etc, etc. Kamala teams up with Wolverine and (separately) Lockjaw, sent by Queen Medusa of the Inhumans to guide her somewhat. I loved the interactions with Wolverine — fangirly, cute, funny, but also serious. He’s her mentor, teaches her some important things about her powers and how to live with them, and he relies on her to help him, even to do the bulk of the fighting.

There’s still some background with Kamala’s family, but less so. It’s reduced from being the main issue to being part of the flavour of it, so that her family saying (for example) that Lockjaw is a dog and therefore impure is just… part of who Kamala is. I liked her interactions with the leader from the mosque, too: he’s a mentor figure as well, in a way.

The art is all great. I especially liked the first few issues collected here — you’ve gotta love the scene where she jumps down into the water flailing her arms and trying to shrink as fast as possible — but all of it is awesome. And there’s no gratuitous anything, either: this ain’t the black leotarded Ms Marvel, for sure.

Rating: 5/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted May 2, 2015 by in General / 26 Comments

Is it Saturday again already? Whoa. I’ve been catching up on blog stuff all this week, thanks to the readathon — which is not a complaint.

Review copies

Cover of The Eye of Strife by Dave Duncan Cover of Cities and Thrones by Carrie Patel

I have finally got round to writing a review of The Buried Life, which will be up soon; Cities and Thrones is the sequel. You can still check out Carrie’s post here from her blog tour for The Buried Life, too! I got The Eye of Strife via LibraryThing; I’ve been meaning to read Dave Duncan for ages, so this should be interesting.

Won

Cover of Sword by Amy Bai Cover of Dreams of the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn

I’ve been interested in Sword for a while, so I picked it as my win in one of the readathon giveaways. <3 Dreams of the Golden Age was my pick for another win; that hasn’t arrived yet, which is probably good, because I need to reread After the Golden Age, and I think my partner has my copy.

Library

Cover of The Drowning City by Amanda Downum Cover of Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas Cover of The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley

Cover of The Deadly Sisterhood by Leonie Frieda Cover of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone and The Drowning City are both rereads, to get me back up to speed for the next book in the series/trilogy. Crown of Midnight is obvious, since I just read Throne of Glass (but I’m sorry, I just don’t love it as much as some of you guys seem to). I have The Deadly Sisterhood somewhere, but goodness knows where. And I just like Susanna Kearsley.

Bought

Cover of Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of Silk, Marvel comic

Quite a contrast there between the covers, heh. I reaaally need to actually read the issues of Silk I have… I’ve been tearing through Kowal’s series lately, just in time for this last book. I’m excited!

Audiobooks

Cover of Among Others audiobook Cover of Rivers of London audiobook

Cover of Epigenetics audiobook by Richard Francis

I usually prefer to listen to audiobooks I’ve already read for myself, hence Among Others and Rivers of London (the latter of which I’d like to refresh my memory on anyway); Epigenetics: How Environment Shapes Our Genes is a new one for me, which I couldn’t really resist because epigenetics! Non-fiction! Science!

How’s everyone else been doing? Behaving yourselves?

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