Tag: books

Review – Prickle Moon

Posted January 29, 2015 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Prickle Moon, Juliet Marillier

Prickle Moon is a collection of short stories, most of them previously published but five of them new, and I knew I’d have to pick the book up someday because of that hedgehog on the cover. I love hedgehogs; just yesterday we rescued one from our garden which seemed too small to be out, and sent her off to a carer to spend the winter. Last winter we did that with a couple of hedgehogs; one of them died, but the second lived and was even strong enough to make a break for it. He tunnelled out with some friends and is now living under someone’s decking!

So mostly I got this for the title story, Prickle Moon, because I love my hedgehogs. Like most of the stories in this collection, it’s bittersweet; woven with loss and hope, awful tasks and finding your way through them. Some of the stories are fairytale retellings — Rapunzel, Baba Yaga — and some are new stories very much styled as fairytales, with very familiar motifs. Some of the stories are oddly modern, which jars against the more traditional and more fantastical ones. Marillier’s good at putting her characters into awful situations which require compromise with their morality, and then making it work out so that it isn’t so bad after all. She’s good at grief, and especially healed grief — the kind of grief you learn to live with and live in.

The collection also includes a Sevenwaters story. I haven’t read that series, so it took me a little while to get into it and pick up everything that was going on, but the joy in the ending, the hope, is not something you need to have read Daughter of the Forest and the other books to understand. Though, right now, I’m definitely in the mood to read more of Marillier’s work.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Juliet Marillier, SF/F, short stories

Get To Know Me

Posted January 28, 2015 by in General / 13 Comments

Since Paper Fury posted 21 things you probably don’t know about her, I ended up doing a response. With 25 items because I’m 25.

I’m Welsh. It actively pains me when people go “oh cool, you’re English!” when they find out I live in the UK. No.
I have a sister. She’s a brat.
I have five library cards. Two from the same library. I’m sneaky, me.
I’m on a library committee. I’m in charge of book acquisitions!
I haven’t read all the Harry Potter books. Sorry?
My favourite animals are hedgehogs, hippos and giraffes. Don’t make me choose.
I barely speak any of my partner’s native language. I can say thank you in a shop. That’s about it.
I didn’t learn to read until I was nearly seven. Everyone assumes otherwise, but nope. I just wasn’t interested.
I love King Arthur. See also #1. I wrote three of four of my MA essays on Arthurian texts, plus my dissertation.
I have a BA and MA in English Literature… And I did very well in them, thank you.
…But now I’m doing a course in Natural Sciences to prepare for medschool. Neurology, maybe? Genetics?
I can sleep on a motorbike. Not as the rider, obviously; as the pillion passenger. I have a rally medal, and all I did was hold onto my dad and snooze for 36 hours.
I’m a transcriptionist and copy writer. Neither of these things pay very well.
I’m a volunteer at an eye clinic, a library, a forum, Lightspeed’s slush pile, and an occasional volunteer for Cancer Research UK and Tenovus. None of these things pay at all.
I like chicken on my pizza. My partner thinks this makes me practically heathen.
I like cold pizza the next morning. My sister is positive this makes me a heathen.
I read in the bath. And I’ve only ever dropped one book in.
I don’t get the ereaders vs. dead tree books debate. Both! Why not both?
I know the stock at my local bookshops better than they do. And yet they won’t employ me. Sigh.
When I really love a character, it sometimes means I can never consume more of their canon because I get too anxious. Castiel, bb. Why. And I worry this is going to happen with Steve Rogers/Captain America, because his next film is Civil War. Gaaah.
I have no gallbladder. Had it out two years ago because it was full of stones.
I once read The Lord of the Rings in 24 hours. That included sleep.
I averaged buying more than a book a day in 2013. And I wasn’t far off in 2014. Oops.
I had to pry open the back of my ereader to swap in a bigger SD card. I wrote a guide about it. Then they promptly stopped selling that type of ereader. Huff.
I can’t back down from a dare. Like, my dad dared me to read War and Peace in a week. So I did it in five days. Or my sister said I wouldn’t dare suck spilt vodka out of the carpet. So I did. But I blame that on the previously imbibed vodka, too. Regardless, no one ever lets me forget it, so I’m trying to be proud of it. Or something.

You probably know most of these things about me, actually.

Tags: about me, books

Review – Pieces of Light

Posted January 27, 2015 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Pieces of Light, Charles Fernyhough

This is rather more anecdotal than I’d hoped, often exploring memories through Fernyhough’s relationship with his own memories: memories of his father, teaching his children about his father, comparing his memories of a place to re-experiencing the place later on, etc, etc. Some of this is fascinating — especially his interviews with his grandmother, recording all the stories she had to tell. It’s a very personal thing, not scientific, but it’s interesting all the same; I sometimes get the same urge with my grandmother, just to capture the weird things she says sometimes that she trots out like proverbs and yet no one has ever heard before!

There are some discussions of more scientific stuff, and most of it seemed perfectly solid from what I know from other authors; it’s just, under the sea of anecdotal data, I don’t feel like I learned much. There’s nothing wrong with the writing style or the content, but it’s more H is for Hawk than scientific.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted January 27, 2015 by in Reviews / 20 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is ‘ten books I’d love to read with my book club’. I am a member of an awesome group for SF/F, so that’s easy — except that we’re quite particular about the sorts of books we end up reading for discussion. So hmmmm.

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. This is kind of cheating, because we are discussing it. And actually, I’m supposed to be leading it.
Mélusine, Sarah Monette. Because it’s so different to The Goblin Emperor! (It’s the same author under a pen name.) And it’s a bit more dark than I’d normally go for; I need some impetus to get on and read it.
Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds. Or really anything by Reynolds; I used to like his work a lot, though I haven’t read any in a long time, and Century Rain was my favourite.
Lock In, John Scalzi. We’re planning to read this anyway, but it does sound fascinating. We normally enjoy Scalzi, and this sounds like there’s a fair amount to chew over here.
Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Because hey, I love this series and I want to share it. And talk about how it could be even better and all the places we wanna see Carol go.
Just about anything by Octavia Butler. I think we’ve probably already discussed some of Butler’s work, but it’s all great to talk about (and sometimes problematic, too, in ways that would make it even more interesting to bat it back and forth).
The Unreal and the Real: Collected Stories, Ursula Le Guin. It’s most often Le Guin’s short stories that I find I want to discuss and pick apart to make sure I really understand them.
The Just City, Jo Walton. And we probably will, since we’re big fans of Jo.
Under the Skin, Michael Faber. I’ve been convinced to buy it, so let’s discuss it. I think someone in the group actually suggested this one, too.
Anything by Ian McDonald. I think they might’ve discussed one of his books without me at some point, but I’ve read a couple of his older ones that’re really interesting too.

What about you guys? Any reading groups online to recommend?

Tags: Alastair Reynolds, books, Ian McDonald, Jo Walton, John Scalzi, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Octavia Butler, Top Ten Tuesday, Ursula Le Guin

Review – The Goblin Emperor

Posted January 26, 2015 by in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

Yes, again already. I can’t really justify doing a whole new review for this, but I felt the need to at least record that I read it again and loved it just as much — loved the characters, giggled, got embarrassed for them, wanted to just high five someone when they did awesome things. This book is up there among my discoveries of Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch, N.K. Jemisin, Guy Gavriel Kay… I believe it’s Hugo eligible, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to vote again this year for the sake of this book.

Why do I like it so much? Well, here’s my original review; reading the book again, I was excited about the characters (as you can tell from my first paragraph), but also by the world Addison’s created. There’s stuff that’s like the Tudor court or Regency Britain; there’s a more Eastern influence on the religion; there’s steampunk; there’s all the politics, the elf families, the history with other peoples that is only touched on. There’s so much going on with the place of women, the place of queer people in the court, racial difference… and it’s not as if this is a utopia where everything is just as we would wish it, but it’s a world undergoing change with some people meeting it, some people trying to hold it back, some people quietly unaware…

I like a lot of the things it doesn’t show us face-on, too. The complexities of Setheris’ character, his relationship with his wife; Maia’s father, and the fact that despite his neglect of Maia, his court love and respect him; the lot of the more common people which we only glimpse by hear-say; the Great Avar’s court and his relationships with his family. While it’s a rich world, it goes much more for immersion than for infodumping. And if you begin it confused, well, so does Maia; he’s been kept away from most of this society for most of his life, so he’s in the same boat.

I can understand, objectively, that this book is not for everyone. Even some people whose tastes I share quite closely. Subjectively, though, if you don’t like Maia and his struggles, I don’t know if we can be friends.

(I’m joking. I think. Mostly.)

Rating: 5/5 with bells on

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome

Posted January 25, 2015 by in Reviews / 1 Comment

Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome, John Scalzi

This novella gives a lot of the background for Scalzi’s latest novel, Lock In. I was in kind of a reading funk, so I thought I’d try reading something short to whet my appetite for Lock In — or just fiction in general, really. It worked for me: I know what effect Scalzi is going for, and he manages to hit the sweet spot between being too technical and too much like a documentary, and offering glimpses of character (like the President) and an idea of the kinds of things in play when you get to Lock In.

He gets the form pretty well, and while I don’t know much about the technology he suggests, I didn’t see anything completely impossible about the biological aspects of Haden’s syndrome. It pretty obviously draws on the Spanish flu of 1918 and the roughly concurrent encephalitis lethargica epidemic. There are separate diseases which produce the effects Scalzi posits for Haden’s syndrome, he just has them combined — with a suggestion that they have been deliberately combined.

Overall, it can be quite a dry read if you’re not interested in that kind of background, but I am. Still, it’s lacking in real narrative and urgency because of the post-facto documentary nature of it.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, John Scalzi, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves

Posted January 24, 2015 by in General / 14 Comments

Haven’t bought any books this week! I know, it’s shocking. I do actually owe myself a book from finishing my second OU textbook, and I think I know what I’m going to get, but I seem to be holding out on myself. (I’m probably going to get Owl and the Japanese Circus, by Kristi Charish. They actually approved me for an ARC of that on NG and immediately, literally seconds after, archived it so I could never have downloaded it anyway, though, so I’m a liiiittle bit cranky about that. No fair teasing like that!) Anyway, I have got some library books and it’s starting to get to the point where my pull list means I get at least one comic every week, woo.

Library books

Yep, that ol’ nature reading interest again.

Comics

Eee!

So how’s everyone else been doing? Still sticking to your resolutions? (I posted a bit about mine here just this week, if you’re interested!)

Tags: books, comics, Marvel, non-fiction, Stacking the Shelves

Review – Knowledge of Angels

Posted January 23, 2015 by in General / 2 Comments

Knowledge of Angels, Jill Paton Walsh
Reviewed 2nd July, 2012

Ursula Le Guin reportedly described this book as “beautiful and disturbing”, and I can go with that. I didn’t expect to like this; Jill Paton Walsh has left me cold on several previous occasions. But slowly, slowly, I was drawn in by the (alternate?) world presented. The proofs of God’s existence parts were tiresome to me, since I’ve done Religious Studies to A Level and the first year of a philosophy degree, but the story formed around the idea of proving the existence of God is beautiful.

There’s a sort of distance from the characters — I’m not sure I liked any of them, that is — but somehow I became deeply involved in the story anyway, and I think I’d even say I loved the characters despite not liking them. And oh, I was so sure everything would turn out alright, I wanted that ending so badly.

I may well read other historical novels by Jill Paton Walsh: this, I think, is something she’s better at than thinly veiled mimicry of Dorothy L. Sayers.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books

Tough Travels – Pets

Posted January 22, 2015 by in General / 14 Comments

Here’s a new, but very appropriate, meme for this blog! From here.

Each Thursday, our copy of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland in hand, we shall tour the mystical countryside looking for adventure and fun (and tropes) from all over fantasy.

The topic this week is PETS:

Everybody needs somebody to love. And the best companionship doesn’t always come from the same sentient group, does it? Be it furry or scaled, large or small, sometimes an animal companion is the best thing a person can have.

The otak, from A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin: We don’t see much of the little creature, but without him and his fierce shy loyalty, Ged wouldn’t survive past half the book. And we know how special he is because most otaks are shy.
Nighteyes, from the Farseer trilogy, by Robin Hobb: Okay, not quite a pet, but an animal companion nonetheless. You’ve got to love this guy.
The Disreputable Dog, from Lirael, by Garth Nix: Another sentient one, really. I’m doing bad at this, aren’t I? But you gotta love her.

You can probably think of some obvious ones I forgot…

Tags: books, Garth Nix, Robin Hobb, Tough Travels, Ursula Le Guin

No Book Buying: January

Posted January 21, 2015 by in General / 26 Comments

Since I’ve run out of reviews to post right now — I know, I don’t know how that happened, I had one day off reading and suddenly it’s a week later and I’m still playing catch up — I’m going to post my #ShelfLove January update today. The January post encourages us to share our TBRs, lists or pictures, whatever works. Well, I already have my TBR shamefully displayed on my site: hit Mount TBR and it’ll show you my acquired/unread lists for the last five years. Gulp.

But here, also have a picture of the new set of shelves my dad hacked together for me. It’s on wheels, the top serves as a desk (with my standing desk on top), and there’s two sides. I got just about all my books out of boxes and onto the shelves with this baby!

It doesn’t look like much extra space, but it’s something. And yes, you can see another set of shelves immediately behind it, the side of a large bookcase to the right of it, and there’s another set out of sight. And that box you can see is full of books. Almost all of those are books I haven’t read yet.

And then… at my parents’ house, I have a set of shelves that double as a coffee table, a shelf above my mirror, five shelves around my desk which is currently also piled with books, a small set of shelves by the door and a set of shelves up to the ceiling directly as you enter the room. And boxes. Lots of. Fortunately, most of the books here are books I’ve read, though I think there’s another box worth of Christmas books going back to where I normally live when I go…

From this you can tell that A) I have a lot of books and B) my father is wildly indulgent, though he pretends not to be, and continues pulling ideas for more bookshelves out of his hat.

In terms of sticking to my goals, by the way, I’m doing well: