Tag: books

Review – The Compatibility Gene

Posted July 11, 2015 by Nicky in General / 15 Comments

The Compatibility Gene, Daniel M. Davis

I read this in a bit of a piecemeal fashion, due to holidays, so my impressions of it are probably a little more scattered than usual. It’s basically a book which combines immunology and genetics, and even some neurology, to discuss the way certain genes work in humans. Since that’s right up my street, I found this fascinating, although I found some chapters really slow going.

One thing I’m not 100% a fan of is the personal details about some of the scientists, because it’s not really relevant. Whether a female scientist prioritises children or her career doesn’t have any effect on the importance of her findings, and as a way of identifying motives for studying stuff, it’s pretty weak. Not everything has a personal connection.

The main thing I’m taking away from this book is that we still don’t know half there is to know about the immune system, about genetics, about our own bodies. If that doesn’t speak to the importance of such research, I don’t know what does.

Did you know that dogs have a sexually transmitted cancer? Not just an oncovirus like HPV, but a contagious cancer.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 11, 2015 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

A smallish haul this week — my last hurrah in Canada, at West Edmonton Mall. Boooooks!

I had Adaptation and City of Stairs as eARCs once upon a time, but I’m still in a phase of wanting to read all my books in dead tree. So, tahdah.

I’m travelling back to Wales today, so I might be slow to comment, but I’m excited to see everyone’s hauls. What’ve you been getting? Tell me, link me, tweet me — whatever you like! I wanna know.

Tags: books, Malinda Lo, Stacking the Shelves

Review – Ash

Posted July 10, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Ash, Malinda Lo
Review from 8th June, 2010

This is a lovely retelling of the Cinderella fairytale. It keeps a very fairytale-like tone, so at times it doesn’t go as deeply into what happens or people’s feelings as I would like, but there are beautiful descriptions and it’s very easy to read. It’s exciting to read a version of the story in which part of the love story is between two women.

I liked the changes to the story as I knew it — Sidhean as the fairy godmother, and the element of actually having to pay for what you get from the fairies. I loved that the prince wasn’t all that important. I liked that the young stepsister, Clara, is kind of likeable.

I wish the story spent more time on the love story, on really making the reader feel it — both the strange attraction between Aisling and Sidhean, and the relationship between Aisling and Kaisa. I think this book would have really bowled me over if it had been like that.

As it is, it’s fun, and often lovely.

Later edit: So, the homophobic reviews of this book irritate the hell out of me, and upset me, too. I think it’s important that people write books like this, taking back traditionally heterosexual stories and finding places for ourselves within them.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, Malinda Lo, queer fic, SF/F

Review – Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick

Posted July 9, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick, Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky

And now for something completely different to Nimona! Obviously, Sex Criminals is a pretty adult comic, though it’s not actually an “adult comic” in the sense of being porn. It just has a lot of sex-related humour and, of course, a completely bizarre sex-related premise: what if your orgasms could stop time?

It’s very ridiculous, with some fun art and quirky narration. It gets a bit confusing timeline-wise between what’s happening when and in what sequence, how people know other stuff. It’s also strangely cute, the relationship between Suzie and Jon: “this guy. This fucking guy.” And the holding hands, the immediate obsession, the way they talk about what happened to them and the coming-of-age aspects of it… Yeah, surprisingly cute.

It basically is one big bizarre idea carried to extremes, and I probably wouldn’t have picked it up myself — I just borrowed it after my partner grabbed it. It is funny, and weird, and perhaps worth a try if you don’t mind a lot of sex-based humour and some grossness.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Matt Fraction

Review – Nimona

Posted July 8, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson

Oh, man, I loved Nimona. I sort of expected I would: I love Noelle’s art, and of course now I realise she did the art for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl cover, too. It just seems so cute and lively, and it perfectly fits the tone of the story. From the first few pages, you’d expect it to be silly all the way through (“I’m a shaaark!”), but it actually delivers a meaningful and touching storyline. And yeah, it’s a bit tropey, but I’m pretty sure that’s intentional; playing with the roles of hero and villain, their relationship with each other (I’ve been shipping rivals since Seifer and Squall, so… yeah), playing with issues of right and wrong and government and so on.

Ballister and Ambrosius: so married.

Despite the silliness, the serious parts also worked, and I think they were hinted at from very early in the comic. And despite and because of the silliness, I really got to love the characters: Blackheart’s surprising tenderness towards Nimona; Nimona’s protectiveness of him; Goldenloin’s refusal to actually hurt Ballister or, really, Nimona.

It’s goofy and fun and you should totally pick it up, especially if you’re a fan of Lumberjanes.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Noelle Stevenson

Review – A Darker Shade of Magic

Posted July 7, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab

I’ve been meaning to read this book since it first came out — I even had a preview a while before it came out, and was really excited. And then I got distracted and didn’t get round to it for ages and ages. Still, I took it on my flights from Belgium to Canada, and I’d finished it before long at all; it was a quicker read than I was even expecting.

It was less serious/epic than I was expecting, actually. There’s an element of just swash-buckling fun about it — Lila Bard wants to be a pirate captain, Kell’s a prince, etc. I was surprised by how simple it was, in a way; I’d been expecting something on a grander scale. Which… is there, but it’s resolved in a single book, so it doesn’t seem that serious. I’m wondering what the next book is actually going to bring.

In terms of world-building, it’s pretty cool; I guess more is going to come of Black London, and we haven’t seen the last of that issue just because Kell managed to get rid of the artefact from it. And Lila and Kell aren’t done, and I hope Rhy isn’t done either — I wanted to know more about him. (Though the name throws me; Rhys would be the Welsh name, which I kept expecting when I saw it.) I’m looking forward to the next book, but maybe this was a bit too hyped up.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 7, 2015 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “top ten hyped books I’ve never read”. Hmmm, let’s think…

Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer. I read Twilight, because I thought I ought to give it a chance, but it’s really not for me and I have a whole lot of objections to it.
Divergent, Veronica Roth. I think it’s technically on my TBR somewhere.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling. Though I am planning to read this soon, ’cause I’m doing a readalong with some other folks.
City of Bones, Cassandra Clare. Doesn’t really appeal, especially since I know about the author’s history of plagiarising.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. I have this to read, but I’m pretty uninspired about getting round to it.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky. It’s never appealed at aaaall.
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. It really doesn’t sound like my thing, even if cancer didn’t freak me out unbearably.
A Game of Thrones, G.R.R. Martin. I am actually going to read this. Eventually.
On the Road, Jack Kerouac. I’m sorry, I hated it.
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Not my thing at aaaaall.

What about you guys? And are you listing books you intend to read someday, or books you never read?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Ancillary Sword

Posted July 6, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie

I didn’t like this as much as the first book, I think. It has a completely different focus to the first book, a much more domestic one, and I was expecting something different the whole time. The focus is much more on society in the Radch, rather than the issues of identity that were at work in the first book with Breq’s separation from the Justice of Toren, and the Anaander Mianaai issue. It’s an exploration of more of the world than we saw in the first book, and I really liked that once I got into it.

It’s great seeing Breq back in the world of the Radch, a world that she is perfectly suited for, a world she knows exactly how to operate in. And it’s great seeing her begin to work against Anaander Mianaai and the way the Radch works, in a way that’s still consistent with the values of that world.

I really want Ancillary Mercy now. I’m not sure how I see the whole thing wrapping up, given the fact that this book didn’t really advance the larger plot much. I suppose the books can’t wrap up the civil war Breq’s stirring up, not so simply. We’ve got a small scale going on, especially with this book, and the civil war is going to be on a massive scale.

I guess we’ll have to see!

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Ann Leckie, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Ancillary Justice

Posted July 4, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one. It swept the awards for the year it came out, and many of my friends adored it, but the first time I tried to read it I bounced off, and my partner wasn’t a huge fan. Fortunately, I did really like it; enough that I’m in a hurry to read Ancillary Sword, at least. I’m not sure if it’s a five star read — that might have to await a reread — but it is definitely a solid four star.

It did take me at least 50 pages to really get into it, maybe even more like 100. There’s a lot to take in, with the language stuff and the world-building. The world-building is awesome, and I’d be a hypocrite to dislike the language stuff here when it’s as consistent as Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, and less obtrusive/central — so that’s not a complaint, just an observation: it took some getting used to. It also took some time for me to get to grips with the characters, particularly the main character. Breq isn’t, in her own eyes, a person, merely a fragment of an AI, so she minimises her own account of her personality, and that makes it awkward.

Still, the details of the world and Breq’s place within it build up, and the plot comes together really well. Unexpectedly, I found myself interested in Seivarden, really really hoping that Lieutenant Awn made it okay, feeling weird about the Lord of the Radch, etc. The feelings part, the emotional engagement, snuck up on me. But it came, and left me hungry for more of the world, to know what happens to Breq, to Seivarden, to the Radch.

Good thing I have Ancillary Sword right here.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Ann Leckie, book reviews, books, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 4, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Yet more shenanigans in Canadian bookshops! Why do I gotta go home?

And yes, I already had The Goblin Emperor, but as an ebook, which isn’t ideal for flipping to the back and checking the extra stuff. Plus, excuse to reread!

Also, a ton of comics between me and my partner…

I think that’s the end of my Canadian book spree, particularly since I’m no longer sure this lot will fit back into my suitcase to go home… What’s everyone else been grabbing?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves