Tag: books

Shelfie Hop!

Posted November 16, 2015 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

Hello everyone! Today I’m participating in the Shelfie Hop organised by Bookiemoji and My Friends Are Fiction. Turns out there’s quite a lot of us and you can visit everyone using this list!

 

At the moment, my shelves are woefully unorganised/separated, so I can’t really proudly share a photo of all of them. But I do have a photo of my current library “shelf” and, well, it… might amuse.

Photo of my library shelf/stack/avalanche

That’s not even all of them. /covers self in shame

Tags:

Divider

Review – Ghost Hawk

Posted November 16, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Ghost Hawk by Susan CooperGhost Hawk, Susan Cooper

It’s a shame that I didn’t enjoy this book more, given how much I adore The Dark is Rising and Seaward. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to venture into spoiler territory to explain why, so here’s the non-spoilerish thoughts: the writing is still good, and I actually found the first section of the book pretty absorbing, despite criticisms I have seen about the portrayal of the Native American culture.

Given that it’s written in the voice of a Native American character, it has a certain authority about that, but apparently it’s not very accurate, taking elements from different tribal cultures and mixing them up. The end result is a pretty generically Native American setting, with the characters behaving and believing in a general Native-American-ish way to the casual reader… but despite all the details and the sense of authority, this doesn’t fit the tribe Little Hawk is supposed to be a part of. It fits with what I sort of expected, but I’d have liked something more accurate — even with fiction, I don’t read just to get a general stereotype reflected back to me.

And now for the spoilery part.

Just under halfway through the book, the point of view character is murdered, and thus we pass from the Native American experience to a Native American hanging around relatively unable to act, like white people become the focus. I’m not a big fan of the narrative trick Cooper pulls to begin with, and it makes it worse that it takes a character who was active, engaging and unique and makes the story all about the experiences of a young white boy, just arrived to colonise North America, while the Native character hangs around being sympathetic and trapped. And dead.

So much no. That set up just… no. And then, surprise! We get some white saviour stuff.

I still enjoyed the general quality of Cooper’s writing, but in terms of plotting, the book was rather slow, and that ‘gotcha’ in the middle just annoyed me. Bah.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – Death at Victoria Dock

Posted November 15, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Death at Victoria Dock by Kerry GreenwoodDeath at Victoria Dock, Kerry Greenwood

If you were under the impression that Phryne is unfeeling, that her lovers mean nothing to her, this one should thoroughly disabuse you of that notion. I don’t know how you could be under that illusion after the anger she feels about the people hurting Sasha in Cocaine Blues, or the way she protects Jane and Ruth, but still. The story opens with a young man dying in her arms and that injustice drives the story, through Phryne’s anger.

The story itself is a whole world away from what I’m used to/know about, in terms of date, setting and politics, so I mostly just let it carry me. I love, though, that Phryne has loyal friends in the chance-met Bert and Cec, in Dot and in her adopted daughters. It’s a found family thing, which I always love.

In a way, the books don’t really bring anything new. There doesn’t seem to be an overarching plot, and Phryne isn’t changing, really. But it’s still so refreshing to have her so capable, so independent (but not infallible, not invulnerable, as this book particularly shows us) that I can’t stop reading them.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Review – The Hollow Hills

Posted November 14, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Hollow Hills by Mary StewartThe Hollow Hills, Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart’s Arthurian books are certainly very different to her romance/mystery ones. It’s much more the world of Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset than the sort of world her heroines inhabit in the modern stories: one of uncertain magic and prophecy, of blood and hatred and death. And it comes out much less positive about female characters. There are few prominent ones, and even mentions of women tend to be dark portents and shadows on the future Merlin foresees. But I do love the Welsh background, the Welsh names, the way that the different races of Britain are all represented here and are all Arthur’s subjects.

It’s doubly difficult to read this with any sense of suspense, though. First, Merlin knows what’s going to happen, at least broadly, and secondly, it’s the Arthurian legend. You can do surprising things with it, but Stewart sticks fairly close to the sources, which leaves very little room for surprising anyone who knows the source texts well. She plays the tropes relatively straight, too, and telegraphs all the usual causes of strife in Camelot well in advance. Arthur isn’t even acclaimed as king yet until the very end of the book, and already there’s foreshadowing for various betrayals. I really must look up Bedwyr’s involvement with Gwenhwyfar more — several modern tellings align him with her, and I can’t remember what might spark that.

Still, Stewart’s writing is good, and the sense of atmosphere she brings to the more far-flung settings for her romance/mystery stories is equally strong here, in the cold and damp corners of Britain. Her writing in this book reminds me a lot of Sutcliff, which can only be a compliment.

I do hope she’s more subtle with Morgause, Morgian and Gwenhwyfar, when they appear properly, though.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves

Posted November 14, 2015 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

I’ve been pretty stressed out this week keeping up with work stuff, but fortunately I had a library trip last weekend! This was a library I’ve only just joined, where I found they let me have 20 books at once! So naturally, that’s what I did — though many of the books I borrowed are ones I technically own but can’t access right now. These are the new ones!

Fiction

Cover of Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs Cover of Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs Cover of Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

Cover of River Marked by Patricia Briggs Cover of Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs Cover of I Am J by Cris Beam

Cover of Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan Cover of Wolves by Simon Ings Cover of Wolfsbane Winter by Jane Fletcher

Yep, so glad they have the Patricia Briggs books so I can catch up a bit! The others are mostly stuff I’ve been interested in for a while.

Non-fiction

Cover of Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs Cover of The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

I liked Sam Kean’s book about neurology, so I’m planning to read The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb, the latter whenever my reservation comes in. And the other book? Well, dinosaurs!

Hope everyone’s well, getting good books, and that any followers in France are safe and secure after the attacks of Friday night.

Tags: ,

Divider

Review – Six-Gun Snow White

Posted November 13, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. ValenteSix-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente
Originally reviewed 29th July, 2013

This is quite different to Valente’s other work in some ways, and very much of a piece with it in others. All good ways, I think. Her talent with words is very much apparent, but in some ways this is moderated a bit from the super-rich, super-intense poetic language in her other work. Every bit of it feels targeted: bang, bang, bang. The narrative voice is, to me, similar to that in Charles Portis’ True Grit: how well it compares in general with the rest of that genre, I wouldn’t know.

For me, this version of the story works surprisingly well. I’m not especially precious about retellings (aside from King Arthur retellings, and only then when I think someone is completely ignoring the cultural background), so I wasn’t bothered by the changes, and I loved what Valente did with this. It’s both something new and something truer to the “original” story than a lot of other versions I’ve seen.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – The Dark Blood of Poppies

Posted November 12, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Dark Blood of Poppies by Freda WarringtonThe Dark Blood of Poppies, Freda Warrington

However sceptical I am about the whole lush dark vampires thing, these books do captivate me. I love the way the mythology works: the way different people believe different things, and ultimately the way those beliefs shape the whole world. It’s not even really allegory — we really do that, in a way. I wasn’t so sure about her foray into Lilith and Samael and that sort of mythology, but actually, she handles that pretty well too, without forcing religiosity on the books. (In fact, that’s often a danger with her characters, something which blinds them to truth.)

And Warrington still does really well with these amoral, dreadful, detached and yet deeply emotional vampires. She does so well at making me see the monstrous in even the characters we sympathise with, and the human even in characters you want to despise. You get captivated by the power of the vampires and forget their atrocities, even without their magnetic presence to enforce it the way it is within the book. It takes skill.

I really enjoy Warrington’s writing, and really must look into her other series. But first: The Dark Arts of Blood! I’m so glad Titan reissued this series and brought out the next.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – The Great Zoo of China

Posted November 11, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Great Zoo of China by Matthew ReillyThe Great Zoo of China, Matthew Reilly

Jurassic Park, but Chinese, there are journalists mostly rather than scientists, and the creatures are dragons. And it’s really not a cutting edge idea: even without Jurassic Park, there’s stuff like Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons and plenty of other things which have dragons being real and in a real-world setting. The writing wasn’t good enough to sell this idea to me again: I’d rather get round to finishing Jurassic Park, or reread Brennan’s books.

It’s not bad as a light thriller, but it feels definitely gimmicky, like a cash-in. Particularly since I started hearing buzz about it when Jurassic World came out.

One thing in its favour, though: a strong central female character. It’s not so great that apart from her scars she’s conventionally attractive — like the author thought oh, she still has to be pretty — but it is great that she has them, and that they’re a legacy of her actual work with actually relevant creatures.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – India Black

Posted November 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of India Black by Carol K. CarrIndia Black, Carol K. Carr

Picked this one up for a bit of light fun, which it provided. I’m not sure about the comparisons to Gail Carriger’s books — sure, the period is roughly the same and the covers have some commonalities, but Alexia is a lady and India is a mercenary whore (and I mean that literally, not pejoratively). The kind of humour is different — sharper, less light, often relying on India’s bitter attitude toward, well, almost everyone. Carriger does have Alexia being more intelligent than a lot of people, but she also has more interaction with other intelligent characters (including other women). The emphasis on romance is entirely lacking in India Black, too.

Still, as a quick romp with a bit of spy/thriller/mystery stuff going on, it’s quite fun. It’s in first person from the point of view of India herself, and she’s pretty sharp and cutting about the world, and knowing about the way things are. That gives her a pretty fun voice.

In terms of the plot… it’s not too tight, with a fair amount of coincidence and people just being stupid. It’s not bad for a light bit of fun, though.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted November 10, 2015 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

This week’s theme is about book to movie adaptations, and I’m not that interested in cinema. So instead I’m going to talk about what I’d like to see adapted into audiobook format, with a full cast!

  1. The later Dark is Rising sequence books, Susan Cooper. Preferably with the original cast from the BBC adaptation of the first two, but the kids will all have grown up and some of the actors might even be retired or dead, so I’m aware this is totally mad.
  2. Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Come on, it’d be amazing. And they could have the sound effects of the kitchen work and make everyone hungry.
  3. Chalice, Robin McKinley. I love this even more than Sunshine. You could do this really well as something short and atmospheric, I think…
  4. Ben Aaronovitch’s books. I have no idea if a full casGt audio adaptation exists, but it would be awesome if it did.
  5. Seaward, Susan Cooper. It’d be beautiful, I think. You wouldn’t need a big cast — keep it minimal. Five or six actors.
  6. Anything by Patricia McKillip. It might make them more accessible to an audience who don’t so much like her prose style!
  7. Gifts, Ursula Le Guin. With the oral storytelling stuff in this trilogy, surely this’d make a good one.

And existing ones which I need to listen to include the BBC’s versions of Neverwhere and Good Omens, and Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint. If they’re not perfect, they can go down as numbers 8-10!

Tags: ,

Divider