Review – Eating the Sun

Posted September 8, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Eating the Sun, Oliver Morton

I really wanted to like this and get on with the science in it. It is, after all, supposed to be popular science, and the biology of plants is something I’m really not well versed in at all. I did manage to understand some of the concepts — the flow of electrons and how that drives energy production — but overall, I found that it was a bit too high level for me. Although, it’s odd, because parts of it were very pop-sciency in the way they focused on the careers of scientists and how they untangled the mysteries of plant respiration. The first few were fascinating, but then it got bogged down in the detail.

Overall, I think someone with more of the basics than me might get on with this a lot better, but I didn’t have the focus for it — and Oliver Morton’s writing wasn’t as strong for me as, say, Richard Fortey’s. I’d read Fortey writing about paint drying and still be interested, while Morton’s writing was about on the level of watching paint dry.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Review – Black Unicorn

Posted September 7, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Black Unicorn, Tanith Lee

This is my first book by Tanith Lee, I’m pretty sure, which surprised me. I’ve always known the name, always known that people thought I’d be interested, and I’m sure I have actually bought some Tanith Lee books before, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first I’ve read. I was interested, but not really absorbed — Tanaquil is okay, but the relationship with her mother, even the stranding in the desert, felt fairly average. There’s not much explanation of the world — which in some ways, I prefer: at least Tanith Lee didn’t give me a massive spiel about the world, cramming it too full with information. It’s a slim book, reads fast, but it wasn’t tipping above ‘okay’ for me.

What changed my mind and earned it four stars was the ending — not so much anything Tanaquil did, or the major events of the plot, but the fact that in the perfect world, Tanaquil and the peeve corrupt everything. And not just that on its own, but the way that Tanaquil reacts: the betrayed feeling, the anger. Some writers might have made her grateful just to have witnessed it or whatever, but Lee imagines what it would be like to be denied that, and I like the way Tanaquil deals with it.

Plot-wise, it wasn’t that special, and I’m not sure I want to read the other books in the series. But those scenes, those moments, did speak to me.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, Tanith Lee

Stacking the Shelves

Posted September 6, 2014 by in General / 34 Comments

Stacking the Shelves time! I know I keep saying each week is going to be more conservative, etc, etc, and I guess I’m not doing too badly on that. I only bought three books…

Yessss finally got Maplecroft. And then a book linked to one of my Coursera courses arrived too — I pre-ordered it somewhere back in August…

…Which should be very interesting. And then I happened to drop by the charity shop to see if they’re looking for anything in particular to sell at the moment. They’re not, but they were looking to unload some of their books that people weren’t buying…

Yep, those first three are ones people have been nagging me to read for ages. Technically I already had The Eye of the World in my Hugo Voters’ Packet, but this was free, so, eh.

And finally, of course, I got some review copies.

Non-fiction, mostly! Or it was until I got approved for Willful Child. I’m gonna probably flick through Rewire Your Anxious Brain and review it briefly: I want to know if it’s something genuinely useful or something fluffy and unscientific. I’m guessing it will be pretty scientific given the authors’ qualifications, but you can have a PhD in a lot of things, so it’s not sure and certain.

What’s everyone else been getting? And here’s a goal for next week: no more than three books in my post. That might get spoilt if people suddenly decide to grant old Netgalley requests, but we’ll see!

Tags: books, Coursera, Stacking the Shelves

Review – The Sorcerer's House

Posted September 5, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Sorcerer’s House,Gene Wolfe

I picked this up to read a couple of chapters, and ended up staying up to finish it. It’s deceptively simple to read, to just race through: epistolary novel, check; unreliable narrator, check; creepy twins and doors to Faerie, check. It’s Gene Wolfe, though, so you can bet it’s not as simple as that, and reading other reviews — particularly Neil Gaiman’s, to whom the book is dedicated — showed me I missed a few tricks. Which is fine: I like books with rereadability, even if I’m not really inclined to reread this one in particular. If you can craft a book so it reveals more of itself over time, that’s good going, in my books.

Obviously, everything I said about the narration is true. It is an epistolary novel, with a central character who has a very distinct character-set. He can turn his life story around so that you pity him or hate him, cast him as the villain or pity him as one who has been cast in that role, and I think that’s entirely intentional. It’s not that he’s unintentionally creepy. I actually found the character to be more so than the supernatural events around him — a certain lack of affect, the feeling that something’s come loose inside this guy.

I’m not overwhelmed with the treatment of women in this book — every woman wants to sleep with Our Hero, for example, and quickly opens up to him, and I don’t see why. He’s not charming, he’s unsettling. But maybe that’s because we see him through his own report of himself to his brother… I don’t know. I’m not a fan, anyway. Even if it works for the character, I could have done with a female character who really stood out.

I do think the narration is very clever, the way Wolfe makes the epistolary novel work for him, and works around situations where there might be some difficulty with the form in a way that… well, it seems contrived, but it also fits the world and characters.

Worth a try, I think, though I probably agree with other reviewers that it’s not Gene Wolfe’s best.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, SF/F

Thursday Thoughts: Audiobooks

Posted September 4, 2014 by in General / 15 Comments

Aaaaand this week’s theme from Ok, Let’s Read:

Do you listen to audiobooks/Have you listened to an audiobook in the past? What books? Do you enjoy audiobooks? Why or why not? Are there certain genres that you feel might lend themselves better to being read in audiobook form?

Audiobooks! I love listening to audiobooks, particularly while I’m crocheting or doing something else that similarly occupies my hands but not (too much of) my mind. For a long time I was just listening to the BBC adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers’ work, and the mammoth set that is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: I’m now supplementing that with a bit of Ngaio Marsh read by Benedict Cumberbatch, and I have some other books on the queue: some Iain (M.) Banks, one of Chris Holm’s, Trudi Canavan… I love the BBC audioplays of most things best: they do great casting, and they have a great range of stuff. My favourite was probably the adaptation of The Dark is Rising. It’s different, but I can accept that, because that’s what adaptations have to do. (Same reason as I reluctantly accept Faramir being less noble in The Lord of the Rings movie, because the reasoning makes sense. Also why I accept that some people will enjoy The Hobbit film, but I don’t: it’s an adaptation, and I can accept why they’ve done it that way, it just doesn’t work for me.)

So yeah, right now I’m listening to Artists in Crime (Ngaio Marsh) and Dead Harvest (Chris F. Holm). I’m struggling a little bit with Dead Harvest, even though I love the novel itself: it’s not abridged, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the narrator at first, though by now I’ve decided he sounds perfect. Just a pity he doesn’t change his voice a little when Sam changes bodies…

The downsides to audiobooks for me, really, are when I disagree with the adaptation, the choice of narrator, the abridgement, etc. Also the pace: I’m a fast reader, and in the time it took the narrator to get to chapter three in Dead Harvest, I could’ve been on chapter ten by myself. Still, it’s a different medium and I try to enjoy it for what it is.

In terms of genres, no, I don’t think there’s a particular genre that lends itself to the form. I do think there’re styles that do, though: something with a lot of dialogue, and less by way of visual description, or with a good first person narrator, for example. So much depends on how the adaptation is done.

Tags: audiobooks, books, Chris F. Holm, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Thursday Thoughts, Trudi Canavan

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted September 3, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
The Hidden Landscape (Richard Fortey), which is gorgeous even though it’s about geology, a subject I care very little about. I think he could actually make me interested in gardening, a subject which I often point out to Grandma I know less than nothing about except I guess I know plant biology.

What are you currently reading?
I’m in a bit of a slump, actually, which makes all my ARCs and review copies a little awkward. Still, I’ve got Dead Harvest (Chris F. Holm) on the go as an audiobook, and Manon Lescaut (Abbé Prévost) has been loaded onto my ereader ready for a class. I think I’m 10% of the way through that? So yeah, not too bad, though I know the plot basically because of the reference in Clouds of Witness (Dorothy L. Sayers).

Oh, there is also We Are Here (Michael Marshall), which I’m enjoying in a slowly-unravelling sort of way. I like Michael Marshall (Smith)’s writing in general, so. There’s also Black Unicorn and Book of Skulls, still, which I probably mentioned last week, and The Toll-Gate (Georgette Heyer). As you can see, I’m not taking the reading slump lying down…

What will you read next?
For one of my Coursera classes, I need to reread Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), so that’s most likely what I’ll do. I also have a biography of the Brontes out of the library, so maybe I’ll read that too.

Tags: books, Chris F. Holm, Coursera, Dorothy L. Sayers, Michael Marshall (Smith), reading meme, Richard Fortey

Review – The Hidden Landscape

Posted September 3, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Hidden Landscape, Richard Fortey

Geology is not my thing, generally — in fact, aside from one other book, which was by Richard Fortey as well, I’ve generally found it quite boring. The attraction here is Fortey’s writing, which is clear and passionate. Beautiful, even. Most of that is the sheer enthusiasm and inventiveness with which he treats his subject: metaphors and vivid descriptions abound, even as he’s being very clear about the geological forces at work and what the features of the landscape mean.

Unlike Earth: An Intimate History, this book discusses solely the geology of the British Isles. It touches on most areas as it does so, going through Scotland and Wales, Cornwall, East Anglia, some of the small islands offshore… It’s not an exhaustive list, of course, but it goes from the oldest rocks of our islands to the newest, discussing their formation and weathering, and what that means for the landscape and the future. It might be surprising that even in a book originally published twenty years ago, there’s a lot of discussion of the potential of climate change to completely alter our landscape, but I think that’s because it takes a long view (necessarily so!). Whether climate change is man-made or not isn’t important: it happens, either way, and part of the story of geology is climate change.

Honestly, I take away as little understanding of schists, gneisses and nappes as I started with; it’s the kind of information that won’t stick in my head. But I enjoy the way Fortey presents it, and so thoroughly enjoyed it even knowing I’m not going to retain the information.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, Richard Fortey

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted September 2, 2014 by in General / 4 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is apparently the back to school edition: top ten characters I’d have sitting at my lunch table. Given I was the deeply unpopular kid in a tiny school, I rarely ended up sitting with anybody except the other deeply unpopular kid, so I’ll choose to believe that I get to pick who is at my table and they can’t say no, even if they’re way cooler than me.

Mori, from Among Others. Because she actually is one of the less popular ones, and we have a lot in common.
Bran, from The Dark is Rising. Because being Welsh and an outcast, he has plenty in common with me and Mori.
Cath, from Fangirl. I haven’t actually read all of this yet, but Cath’s anxiety issues and fangirlishness mean we have plenty in common too.
Harriet Vane, from Dorothy L. Sayers’ Peter Wimsey Mysteries. Because omg, Harriet.
Peter Wimsey, from Dorothy L. Sayers’ Peter Wimsey Mysteries. Because he’d be hilarious and wouldn’t give a fig about me being unpopular.
Steve Rogers, from Captain America. In skinny!Steve mode, he fits in with this group pretty well. Post-serum, he’d sit with us anyway because arbitrary stuff about cool/uncool people is not fun.
Bucky Barnes, from Captain America. Because how exactly you’d have Steve without Bucky following somewhere behind, I don’t know.
Peeta Mellark, from The Hunger Games. Because he seems pretty nice.
Katniss Everdeen, from The Hunger Games. Silent, glaring, and sticking close to Peeta.
Susan Pevensie, from The Chronicles of Narnia. Because she gets a raw deal from her family in the end, who dismiss her for not fitting in with the rest of them. God knows I don’t have much in common with Susan, but she went to Narnia once. She must be a good person.

Okay, what’s everyone else thought of that will undoubtedly make my list look uncool?

Tags: books, Dorothy L. Sayers, Jo Walton, Rainbow Rowell, Susan Cooper, Top Ten Tuesday

Ice Bucket Challenge

Posted August 30, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

If you’d like to see a bibliophibian getting drenched in water rather than books, follow this link!

In summary: I did the Ice Bucket Challenge. I nominate my mother, Amy and Rachel, and I will be donating anyway. If it so happens that you’re against animal testing, you may not want to donate to the ALSA: they do testing on C. elegans worms and on engineered mice with the faulty gene, as well as a kind of fish. If you oppose that, you might want to donate to the British MNDA instead: I’m not positive there’s no animal testing, but it funds all kinds of research, much of it not involving animals.

Funding is important, but so is awareness and understanding. Do consider reading up on what ALS is and how it affects people, and reach out in whatever way you can.

Note: I do not support unnecessary animal research. However, I’m aware of many cases where essential and important medications, vaccines, etc, have been tested on animals. I do recommend this comment I found online without attribution:

“People who protest animal testing in the search for a cure to a disease should be asked to wear a bracelet that states that they refuse any treatment, remedy, or drug that was developed using animal testing. By doing so they would demonstrate that their ethical position against animal testing is so sincere that they would condemn themselves to the same fate to which they are willing to condemn others.”

That’s just food for thought: it certainly made me think. Whatever ethical decisions you make, thinking it through instead of knee-jerking is crucial, or it isn’t an ethical decision at all.

Tags: charity

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 30, 2014 by in General / 44 Comments

I’m trying not to buy too many books, still, despite my book ban being over. That did not stop me from going to the library and picking up a new book/one with a voucher… Time for Stacking the Shelves a la Tynga’s Reviews!

Fiction (bought)

I didn’t intend to pounce on Lock In when it came out, but I spotted it in the shop today, so I thought I might as well pick it up. As for Dreamwalker, it involves dragons, so, hey! Plus, free voucher because I filled my stamp card, so.

Fiction (library)

Various things for various challenges, here, plus some I’ve been meaning to read for a while — I like Michael Marshall’s SF, and I love Gene Wolfe in general. Simon Armitage’s work is generally awesome, too. All in all, pleased with this library haul.

Library (non-fiction)

While Dawkins has more business commenting about biology and genetics than he does about babies with Down’s syndrome or religion, it’s interesting to see someone challenge some of his ideas. I already reviewed that one here. And of course, I just really enjoy the way Fortey writes.

Review copies

I’ve been hoping for Unspeakable for a while, so thanks to Little, Brown for that! Poisoned Pearls came via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, which is always awesome. Thank you to them and to Book View Cafe! I think I’ve read something else by Leah Cutter and quite enjoyed it…

What’s anyone else been getting their hands on?

Tags: books, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock, Richard Fortey, Stacking the Shelves