Tag: books

Review – Silver on the Tree

Posted May 11, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Silver on the Tree, by Susan CooperSilver on the Tree, Susan Cooper

Finally finished my yearly(ish) reread with this book. The conclusion to the sequence is full of its own magic and beauty, but because of the ending, it just can’t be my favourite. (Perhaps in a similar way that The Farthest Shore doesn’t work for me; I don’t like it when the magic comes to an end!)

The whole sequence in the Lost Land is gorgeous, and probably my favourite thing about this book. Then, of course, there’s the interactions between the group – such disparate kids, and brought together for a quest beyond their understanding. As always, Cooper’s handling of the children and the way they react to each other, particularly the Drews, feels spot on and realistic. Of course they’re going to bicker. And of course the Welsh/English divide feeds into it, setting Bran apart. The whole sequence has had history intruding on the present and the present intruding into history; it’s appropriate that that fraught history also touches the story.

Reading it this time, I wasn’t sure about the pacing. It might just be that I want more, more adventures, more of the Six together, but everyone spent so much time in ones or twos rather than together. There’s so much hinted at – Bran’s relationship to Herne the hunter, for just one – that I would love to explore. That’s why I come back to the book, I suppose, and yet…

Rating: 4/5

 

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Review – The Farthest Shore

Posted May 10, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le GuinThe Farthest Shore, Ursula Le Guin

This has always been my least favourite of the Earthsea books, and I think that’s sort of inevitable given the central conflict, the issue that the whole book centres around. It’s about magic dying out, about death and fighting death and being afraid of death, where few people are whole and entire and able to see the world as it is rather than wishing it was something else. Ged is one of those people, of course: he’s the Archmage for a reason, and more importantly, he’s faced the dark part of himself and accepted it.

But it’s not primarily about Ged: it’s primarily about Arren and his journey to kingship. We saw Ged from an outside POV in The Tombs of Atuan, and it’s not as though Tenar completely trusted or respected him instantly… but Arren’s distrust and indifference at times grate, especially set against his hero worship at first.

I can see the beauty of the story, of what Ged does, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s a shadow of a story, a feeling of foreboding – the shadow at the door. It’s, in part, an ending to an adventure that I wanted more of. It makes sense that Earthsea has to change, but that doesn’t reconcile me to the fact.

Needless to say, Ursula Le Guin’s writing is great and that’s not the problem.

Rating: 3/5

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted May 10, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

I missed last week’s post because of travelling and busy, and neither last week’s theme or this week’s theme is really speaking to me. So! Instead, just have “Ten Bookish Things I Have Had Feelings About Recently”.

  1. That moment when you realise you want to read a book that you’ve left behind somewhere else. Accio my copy of Heyer’s The Talisman Ring?
  2. Trying to figure out if I liked Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin. So much going on, complex structure. I got to 85% and wasn’t sure what I thought, and then it went and dealt with most of my concerns in the last 15%. What’s with that, book?
  3. When I need all of Seanan McGuire’s books, stat. I just finally read Rosemary and Rue and yep, I need the rest. Everyone who recced me these books totally owes me Amazon vouchers so I can get some… Whaddya mean, no?
  4. When the paperback is really pretty and handier but you have the hardback and the ebook already. Lookin’ at you, Uprooted by Naomi Novik! It’s there and it’s taunting me, in all the shops. But I own it so…
  5. Dinner is ready and you just want to read. I’m getting better at this; I’ve even been stopping mid-page when my partner has dinner ready. But.
  6. Gotta love a comfort read. Contemplating digging into some of my old favourites while I struggle through the hell known as my final math assignment.
  7. But gotta love the new ones too. I’m finally reading Juliet Marillier’s Dreamer’s Pool, for example, and I really want to know what happens and if everything turns out okay in the end for Flidais.
  8. When you can’t find a comfortable position to read. At this rate, I’m thinking upside down in some kind of harness might be what my body is looking for, because all the usual ways of getting comfy are noooot working.
  9. The joy of giving people books. Okay, so my partner already had China Miéville’s latest as an ebook, but the print version is pretty.
  10. The joy of bookshops. I went to my favourite bookshop in Brussels last week (Sterling Books, Wolvengracht 23). It’s moved locations and downsized a bit since I was last year, but I still got a really good haul. And I have five euro off my next purchase…

And now to get on with queueing up some more posts so last week’s standstill doesn’t repeat the next time I’m stressed!

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Review – All the Birds in the Sky

Posted May 9, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane AndersAll the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders

Oh, dear, I still don’t know what to say about this one, having put off reviewing it to let me think it over. I know that other people found it weird, and even decided not to finish it; I was never tempted to put it down and not finish it, but at the same time, I’m not sure how to talk about it or identify what I liked.

At heart, it’s a dialogue between fantasy and sci-fi; the power of nature and the power of technology; playing out the story where natural powers have to save the world from technology, but also vice versa, and a-slant. In the end, the story comes together as a symbiosis of both, equally flawed and equally powerful. If you’re exclusively a reader of one or the other genre, you’ll probably find this profoundly unsatisfying, because as far as I can tell, it never picks a side, never decides to be one or the other. It’s both.

That aspect was probably more interesting to me than the characters, through whom it was played out. I didn’t dislike them, but I wasn’t a huge fan either, and though there was a sort of inevitability to how they came together and apart and together again, it’s not something I had any strong feelings about.

It was interesting, and definitely an absorbing read, but not one I had strong feelings about in general.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Lady of Mallow

Posted May 8, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Lady of Mallow by Dorothy EdenLady of Mallow, Dorothy Eden

In my quest for books like Mary Stewart’s, I think I’ve found another winner. The tone is much the same, and the set-up: there’s inevitably a touch of Nine Coaches Waiting (for me) when the protagonist becomes a governness – but this time, she’s deliberately there as a spy and she has her own motivations. I actually really liked following the twists of this and trying to make my own judgements, and I like that the conclusion wasn’t simple, wasn’t black and white.

I don’t know what it is about this sort of book I find so comforting and satisfying: the smart, proactive heroine, sometimes in a time/situation where she’s meant to follow a particular role; the fact that a happy ever after is more or less assured; perhaps the safe unsafeness of the male characters who seem a little wild but are, in the end, justified and acting for the best? Regardless, I found Lady of Mallow a fun entry in the more-or-less cosy mystery genre, and I’ll look for other books by Dorothy Eden.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Bryony and Roses

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

Cover of Bryony and Roses by T. KingfisherBryony and Roses, T. Kingfisher

It didn’t surprise me when I finished reading this and read T. Kingfisher’s note that it was inspired originally by Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter. It’s definitely not the same story, but something of the same atmosphere came across, and of course there’s the gardening aspect which is important in both. This explores the force that punishes the Beast rather more, I think: rather than a long-standing curse which fades into a known factor in the background, the Beast’s curse is very much an active thing which can be affected by things that Bryony and the Beast do.

There’s a rather darker background to this story, too, with the ivy spirit wound throughout the story, the dead girl and the bloodstained room, the cruelties of the ivy spirit. There’s also more sense in why the curse came to be, explaining both the cruelty of it and the helping magic of the house.

I thought it was a very good interpretation, and it’s amazing how authors can make the Beast loveable, every time. He’s kind and a bit snarky and he’s a craftsman, and he’s also willing to muck in and work with Bryony in her garden.

And Bryony’s family is pretty satisfying too, the support of her sister and the fact that she’s basically the support for her family, with her father long out of the picture. It’s got all the elements of the traditional fairytale, but gives them more depth and takes it in surprising directions.

Rating: 4/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted May 7, 2016 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

Hello, everyone! It’s been both a busy and a quiet week, in weird ways. But hey, now I’m with my partner in Belgium, I have a document that affirms I’ve never been married, and okay, I should be doing my final assignment for my course, but other than that, I can spend a good amount of time just reading and recharging for the next week!

And I have books (new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books).

New books

Cover of More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon Cover of Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson Cover of The Deep by John Crowley Cover of Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser

Cover of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande Cover of Lucky Planet by David Waltham Cover of To Explain the World by Steven Weinberg Cover of The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Cover of Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Cover of Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

I’m a wuss, so Hex might be a bad choice, but I’m intrigued with the buzz about it and the translation stuff. A lot of the other stuff was fairly random, just picked up because it interested me in Brussels’ Sterling Books. I came to Belgium with only 22 books… this makes a start at making up for it!

Books finished this week:

Cover of Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs Silk #1 Cover of Spider-Gwen Cover of Hawkeye: Rio Bravo by Matt Fraction Cover of Spider-woman: Vol 0

Cover of Spider-woman: New Duds Cover of Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin Cover of Tales from Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin Cover of Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodges Cover of Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean

Reviews this week: 
–Rat Queens: Demons, by Kurtis J. Wiebe et al. I think this is my last volume of Rat Queens; it just didn’t come together for me. 2/5 stars
–Murder on a Midsummer Night, by Kerry Greenwood. Fun, though typical of the Phryne books. 3/5 stars
–Bone and Jewel Creatures, by Elizabeth Bear. An interesting novella, with an aged protagonist and some neat magic. 4/5 stars
–The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter, by Rod Duncan. Fun set-up, and I’m intrigued enough to read the other books. 3/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor. A lovely book which made me really eager to go back to the British Museum. Which I did, not too long ago. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–ShelfLove Update and May TBR: what it says on the tin, with lots of statistics!

How’s everyone else been? Any exciting news?

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Review – A History of the World in 100 Objects

Posted May 6, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A History of the World in 100 ObjectsA History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor

Originally reviewed 10th October 2012

The people who give this book low ratings and complain of being bored, and of now knowing tons of useless facts, just stagger me. I almost wish I’d caught the original radio program — I must look for similar things to listen to while I’m crocheting — because I find all the information intriguing and worth keeping in my head (if not exactly useful in the sense of practical). To me museums have always been magical places, and though the provenance of all the items in the British Museum troubles me, the range of them and the accessibility of them makes me very happy. I did go to the British Museum once, and was only allowed to stay there a few hours — this reaaaally makes me want to go back.

It’s inevitably framed by a fairly Western way of looking at the world, because though the objects in the museum which are used to make this history are from all over the world, they were obtained — bought, stolen, traded, permanently borrowed, and basically not always freely given — by British people and for a British audience. The book does acknowledge that, though, and the series did its best to celebrate all sorts of cultures, including those long-eclipsed by colonialism. It discusses the damage done by colonialism to now vanished cultures as part of the history some of these objects embody.

It’s a lovely book, well laid out in chapters and sections, with black and white photographs of each object to open the chapter about it, and colour inserts of selected objects. Honestly, I wish there were full colour photos of all the objects, but that would have been prohibitively expensive to print, I imagine. I doubt everyone, or even most people, would want to read this book the way I did, cover to cover in one go, but I actually found that I couldn’t put it down.

[Note in 2016: I went back, with my partner, in November 2015. It was as wonderful as expected.]

Rating: 5/5

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Review – The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter

Posted May 5, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

Cover of The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod DuncanThe Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter, Rod Duncan

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, and seeing that there are now three books in the series (which I think I read is complete as a trilogy?), I thought it was about time I got round to it. I’m not necessarily a reader of steampunk for steampunk’s sake, but the set-up intrigued me, and especially the double life lived by the protagonist.

I have to say that I missed some things which other reviewers spotted, like the date this is set, but I enjoyed it all the same. It does feel a bit gimmicky and faux-Victorian, and I’d like to see more of the whys and wherefores of the level of technology maintained, but overall it works quite well.

I’m not majorly entranced by the story, but I’m curious enough to read on. Elizabeth is a fun character – capable, determined, intelligent – and the fact that the title defines her as someone’s daughter feels all the weirder because that person never appears and doesn’t really define her as a person at all. She’s independent and, in fact, so much of the novel is driven by her determination to be her own person and keep her own freedom.

The supporting characters are okay; it’s great that Elizabeth has a female friend who, though different from her, ends up drawn into her adventures and helping her. There’s also a good range of characters helping and hindering her, for many reasons, and sometimes the hindering is well-meaning. That makes it feel all the more real; things don’t go smoothly for Elizabeth, and sometimes that is due to well-intentioned people.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Bone and Jewel Creatures

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

Cover of Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth BearBone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear

Bone and Jewel Creatures has an interesting setting, which I’d love to explore more – it barely scratches the surface of the potential magic, and the political situation seems fairly sketched in – and an interesting character. How often do you get a 96 year old protagonist with arthritis? Although being a stubborn old lady isn’t unique, the fact that the effects on her work are touched on and the concern other characters have for her is quite cool.

Because it’s a novella, there’s a lot of stuff that would be fun to explore and go further into, and there’s a lot of suggestion and doing your own legwork, but it has a satisfying story arc of its own, and works well as a standalone piece. I didn’t actually know of, or feel the lack of, anything else set in the same universe. You have all the details you need.

The writing is good too, with some lovely moments of description – the wariness of the child, the glitter of the titular bone and jewel creatures. Overall, I found it pretty satisfying, which is rare in a novella; normally I just want more of it.

Rating: 4/5

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